SANTA MARIA DELLE GRAZIE.—This Church has a dome in its centre, the base of which expands into a square, on the east side of which, right and left of the choir, two similar organs stand in galleries, having much gilding. The cases, which are of dark wood, have flat tops, bearing two angels with trumpets, and raised carved work in the centre. The pipes were covered with a curtain, and the ornaments in the front and sides of the cases were gilt. 1869.
SANTA MARIA PODONE.—This little old Church has in a painted gallery at its west end, an organ in a square case, with a curtain, as usual, drawn over the pipes. 1869.
SAN ——, (in the Via di Giadini), has at its west end, standing in a rococo gallery, an organ of the same style, in a polished, and much gilded brown case, which is either new, or else lately done up. The pipes are covered with curtains, and the design of the case consists of three compartments, the outer ones having round arches. The central compartment is surmounted by a confusion of curved lines, having the appearance of a drawing-room looking-glass, slightly overdone with ornament. 1869.
CONCLUSION.
I have now given to my readers the full substance of all the notes I have made on the various organs I have seen, and regret that they were not all taken so systematically as I could have wished, for when I began them, they were simply memoranda, to assist my own recollection, and I had no intention of ever publishing them. But as my note book kept filling with accounts of organs, and my portfolio with sketches, I could but feel that I should like others to have the use of the information I had accumulated. My descriptions are simply taken from what I saw, and not extracts from books, or the accounts of friends, and the sketches have all been made on the spot, no doubt with some errors, but still the evidence of an eye-witness is better than second-hand information, gathered from sources that may be sometimes inaccurate, and, being copied over and over again, come to be handed down as facts. Should this little work in any way tend towards the improvement of THE ORGAN, I shall be amply repaid for the time and trouble spent upon it.
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.
The [Frontispiece] is in its original position. The other illustrations have been moved to immediately follow their descriptive notes.