[125] The Duomo is almost perfect still, and dates from the thirteenth century. A beautiful basilica, with unspoiled columns, a fine pulpit, and one or two good pictures.
[126] The cathedral was begun at the end of the thirteenth century. Nicholas IV. laid the first stone in 1290. It was built to commemorate a miracle which happened to a priest at Bolsena (near Orvieto), who, disbelieving in the sacraments, beheld them turned to actual flesh and blood. The napkin with the blood stains is kept in a marvellously beautiful shrine in the Duomo—a thing of rare and exquisite workmanship in silver and enamels.
[127] The popes were always flying from Rome to Orvieto for safety. Thirty-two of them are recorded to have stayed in the town.
[128] The road from Chiusi to Città della Pieve is marvellously beautiful, winding up through one of those virgin forests of oaks which still are scattered through various tracts of central Italy.
[129] It must be remembered that the only wealth of these hill-set Umbrian cities, or rather the only source of life, comes from the fields outside them. There is no commerce or manufacturing of any sort in a town like Città della Pieve.
[130] Descent from the Cross by Perugino. A door was at one time driven through the fresco, thus exactly cutting away the principal figure—that of our Saviour. The picture has been spoilt in other ways; but it is full of Pietro’s graceful sentiment, and the group of the Marys at the foot of the cross is one of the most touching things that we remember of the Master.
[131] See Pélérinages Ombriens, p. 265. M. Broussole had been staying at Città della Pieve, and, carried away by the excessive charm of the place, he revolted a little from the learned dissertations of a local historian, and broke into the sentiments which we quote above.
| Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber: |
|---|
| John Addington Symond’s “Sketches in Italy,”=> John Addington Symonds’ “Sketches in Italy,” {pg 68 fn 36} |
| Pietro Vanucci=> Pietro Vannucci {pg x 4} |
| d’ou toute la vallée se découvre=> d’où toute la vallée se découvre {pg 82} |
| the tops of their sarcophag=> the tops of their sarcophagi {pg 274} |
| C’est l’Appenin, avec ses bandes de contre-forts=> C’est l’Apennin, avec ses bandes de contre-forts {pg 290} |
| Convent of S. Guiliana, 100.=> Convent of S. Giuliana, 100. {pg 320} |
