| 1. | Albani: Hercules wounding the Centaur Nessus. |
| 2. | Domenichino: Apollo in his car, Time discovering truth, &c., much injured. |
| 3. | Guercino: Rinaldo and Armida in a chariot drawn by dragons. |
| 4. | Cav. d'Arpino: Juno nursing Hercules, Venus and Cupids. |
| 5. | Lanfranco: Justice and Peace. |
| 6. | Romanelli: Arion saved by the dolphin. |
In a corner of the piazza, is a well-known Lace-Shop, much frequented by English ladies, but great powers of bargaining are called for. Almost immediately behind this is one of the most picturesque mediæval courtyards in the city.
On the same line, at the end of the street, is the Palazzo Mattei, built by Carlo Maderno (1615) for Duke Asdrubal Mattei, on the site of the Circus of Flaminius. The small courtyard of this palace is well worth examining, and is one of the handsomest in Rome, being quite encrusted, as well as the staircase, with ancient bas-reliefs, busts, and other sculptures. It contained a gallery of pictures, the greater part of which have been dispersed. The rooms have frescoes by Pomerancio, Lanfranco, Pietro da Cortona, Domenichino, and Albani.
Behind this, facing the Via delle Botteghe Oscure, is the vast Palazzo Caëtani, now inhabited by the learned Don Michael-Angelo Caëtani (Duke of Sermoneta and Prince of Teano), whose family is one of the most distinguished in the mediæval history of Rome, and which gave Boniface VIII. to the church:
"Lo principe de' nuovi farisei."
Dante, Inferno, xxvii.
It claims descent from Anatolius, created Count of Gaieta by Pope Gregory II. in 730.
Close to the Palazzo Mattei is the Church of Sta. Caterina de' Funari, built by Giacomo della Porta, in 1563, adjoining a convent of Augustinian nuns. The streets in this quarter are interesting as bearing witness in their names to the existence of the Circus Flaminius, the especial circus of the plebs, which once occupied all the ground near this. The Via delle Botteghe Oscure, commemorates the dark shops which in mediæval times occupied the lower part of the circus, as they do now that of the Theatre of Marcellus. The Via dei Funari, the ropemakers who took advantage for their work of the light and open space which the interior of the deserted circus afforded. The remains of the circus existed to the sixteenth century.
Near this, turning right, is the Piazza di Campitelli, which contains the Church of S. Maria in Campitelli, built by Rinaldi for Alexander VII. in 1659, upon the site of an oratory erected by Sta. Galla in the time of John I. (523-6), in honour of an image of the Virgin, which one day miraculously appeared imploring her charity, in company with the twelve poor women to whom she was daily in the habit of giving alms. The oratory of Sta. Galla was called Sta. Maria in Portico, from the neighbouring portico of Octavia, a name which is sometimes applied to the present church. The miraculous mendicant image is now enshrined in gold and lapis-lazuli over the high altar. Other relics supposed to be preserved here are the bodies of Sta. Cyrica, Sta. Victoria, and Sta. Vincenza, and half that of Sta. Barbara! The second chapel on the right has a picture of the Descent of the Holy Ghost by Luca Giordano; in the first chapel on the left is the tomb of Prince Altieri, inscribed "Umbra," and that of his wife, Donna Laura di Carpegna, inscribed "Nihil;" they rest on lions of rosso-antico. In the right transept is the tomb, by Pettrich, of Cardinal Pacca, who lived in the Palazzo Pacca, on the opposite side of the square, and was the faithful friend of Pius VII. in his exile. The bas-relief on the tomb, of St. Peter delivered by the angel, is in allusion to the deliverance from the French captivity.
The name Campitelli is probably derived from Campusteli, because in this neighbourhood (see Ch. XIV.) was the Columna Bellica, from which when war was declared a dart was thrown into a plot of ground, representing the hostile territory,—perhaps the very site of this church.
In the street behind this, leading into the Via di Ara Cœli, are the remains of the ancient Palazzo Margana, with a very richly-sculptured gateway of c. 1350.