THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 Through the Caseniino
 
 ST FRANCIS BY DELLA ROBBIA (la VERNa)
 
 7 hroucrh the Cascntino 
 
 with Hmts for the T^raveller by 
 
 L in a E c k c n s t c i ri 
 
 Illustrated by Lucy Du Bo'u-Reyjnoiul 
 
 London: /. M. Pcnl (JJ" Co. 
 Aldine House ^ 29 and ^^o Bedford Street 
 Covent Garden, fV.C. <> ♦ 1902
 
 All Rights Reserved
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 'j _ PACE 
 
 " The Casentino ...... I 
 
 \l CHAPTER II 
 
 B'ibbiena and Cardinal B'llh'iena . . . 1 3 
 
 o 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 ^ /^a taenia and St Francis . 
 
 jif CHAPTER IV 
 
 Camaldoli and St Romuald . 
 
 Judex 
 
 7^^2-1 fi7 
 
 33 
 
 51 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 /// the yipennines . . . . yj 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 Poppl and Counts Guidi .... 90 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 Capo d' Arno . . . .11^ 
 
 /fints for the Traveller . . . . 1 ^ ^ 
 
 '43
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 St Francis 6y della Rohbia (La P'^errtd) 
 
 Ch'tesa Mtiggtore, La Verna 
 
 Btbb'una Market-place . 
 
 Situation of La Verna 
 
 Vine Cultivation [Casentino) 
 
 Entrance to La Verna 
 
 CamahloU ( Casentino ) . 
 
 Courtyard oj Camaldoli 
 
 Landmark of Camaldoli 
 
 Castle of Poppi (^Casentino) 
 
 Courtyard of Castle, Poppi . 
 
 Statue of Count Guido, Castle of Poppi 
 
 Arms of the Guidi 
 
 Church of Romena {^Casentino^ 
 
 Castel San Niccolo 
 
 Map ... at the end 
 
 frontispiece 
 3 
 14 
 34 
 36 
 43 
 53 
 73 
 76 
 
 91 
 
 99 
 
 109 
 
 1 1 2 
 
 !I + 
 123 
 of the Volume
 
 THROUGH THE CASENTINO 
 "col cavallo di San Francesco" 
 
 I 
 
 The Casentino 
 
 " Li niscelletti, che ilc' vcnii colli 
 
 Del Casentin discenilon giuso in Arno, 
 Facendi i lor canali e freddi e molli 
 Sempre mi stanno innanzi. . . . ' 
 
 {Inf. 30, 65 ff.) 
 
 The Casentino is the name given to the upper 
 valley of the Arno, where the river, rising in 
 numerous streams on the slopes of the Falterona, 
 flovi'S southwards for about forty miles before 
 it swings round in its course and runs north- 
 westwards in the direction of Florence. The 
 district, to use the words of a modern Italian 
 writer, is " formed by nature in the shape of a 
 basket " — those oval flower-baskets we see carried 
 about the streets of Florence — " with its lowest 
 part green with meadows, fields and vineyards, 
 and encircled and, so to say, closed in by loftv 
 mountains." It is a district rich in memories of 
 
 A
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 Dante and other associations. The halo of early 
 Christian life, the gloom and splendour of feudal 
 times, and the glow of the Renaissance, all linger 
 here. And many beauties of nature, many 
 feasts of the imagination here await the traveller 
 who foregoes for a time the hasty temper of the 
 tourist. 
 
 It was late one afternoon in April when we 
 left the train at Bibbiena, and, shouldering our 
 knapsacks, wended our way up from the station 
 to the town. We were well in the land of the 
 ancient Etruscans, that mysterious and visionary 
 people whose fleet swept the Tyrrhenian Sea at 
 a time when the greatness of Rome was not. 
 Like other Etruscan cities, Bibbiena lies on the 
 summit of a hill, and many examples of Etruscan 
 art industry have been discovered in its neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
 It had been cold and cheerless in the noisy 
 Italian train rattling up from Arezzo. A dull, 
 stormy sky gave a desolate aspect to the 
 irregular country and cast a shadow over the 
 rug-ged mountains. But as we climbed the hill 
 of Bibbiena our spirits rose. Side valleys opening 
 up in different directions revealed winding roads 
 and castle-crowned elevations ; Poppi, with its 
 soaring tower, stood up in bold outline ; the 
 higher mountains, many of them snow-capped, 
 seemed to unite in one bold, forcible sweep. 
 Which of these heights sheltered Camaldoli,
 
 
 ■"'•»A|fVl;...v 
 
 
 
 CHIESA MAGGIORE, LA VERSA
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 with its reminiscences of St Romuald ? — which 
 the retreat of La Verna, with its thoughts of St 
 Francis ? Our anticipations were in no way 
 Ramped when we found ourselves half an hour 
 later sitting in the little dining-room of the 
 Albergo Amorosi. Certainly the chief merit of 
 the broth was its warmth, — the pigeon was not 
 drawn, though it was tender, — and the cheese 
 could never have suggested the difference 
 between this commodity and cliallc. But the 
 delicious fried artichokes, and the assurance of 
 mine host that to-morrow he could procure 
 anything we pleased, went far to restoring our 
 confidence. It was Easter Sunday, visitors could 
 hardly have been expected at this late hour. 
 Besides, the bedrooms and general appurtenances 
 of the place were unexceptionable. So we made 
 the best of our meal, examined the visitors' book 
 with deliberate curiosity, and then we sat down 
 bv the window and watched the fading light of 
 day across a bit of old-fashioned garden, with its 
 blossoming almond tree, the tender green of the 
 budding fig, and the rusty black of a row of 
 cypresses between us and the distant mountains. 
 Looking back to the time when the Casentino 
 as such emerges from the dimness of the un- 
 recorded past, we find obscurity hanging over 
 this district longer than over adjacent parts of 
 Tuscany. The circle of its enclosing mountain 
 gave the Casentino a remoteness, which qualified 
 5
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 its fate in the past as it adds a special colour to 
 its life of to-day. The period of Etruscan 
 independence and the period of Roman rule 
 have left few obvious traces ; it is of the times 
 following the barbarian invasion that the district 
 chiefly speaks. When men are thrown into new 
 surroundings, new qualities come into play. 
 There is something fascinating in analysing the 
 influence which race has had upon race, and the 
 results of bringing peoples of different degrees 
 of culture into juxtaposition. All that survived 
 of Roman culture and learning after the advent 
 of the barbarians was to be found in the towns. 
 The German invaders on the banks of the Arno, 
 as on those of the Rhine, were impatient of the 
 restraints of mutual dependence — they avoided 
 life in cities. Once in possession of new lands, 
 the leaders of the conquering host divided, each 
 leader sought a centre of authority for himself, 
 and the lesser military chiefs strove to equal the 
 autonomy of the greater. Solitary and as 
 reserved towards compeers as the eagle, these 
 men made their homes by preference on rocky 
 heights, which nature protected against surprise, 
 and which the art of defence succeeded in 
 rendering almost impregnable. 
 
 History chronicled at least four distinct 
 
 barbarian descents into Northern Italy in the 
 
 fifth and sixth centuries. Different races and 
 
 different branches of the same race ousted one 
 
 6
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 another from possession of the land. VVlien the 
 tumult of contrary tides subsided, the Langobards 
 held the sway, which they retained for over two 
 hundred years. The Langobard's spirit is that 
 of the hunter — it lives to this day in the 
 architectural decorations of North Italian 
 churches, where the bristling boar and the 
 leashed hound, the fierce wolf and the rampant 
 lion, the flying deer and the hungry bird, with 
 nondescript monsters of various kinds, do service 
 in ornamenting facades, supporting columns and 
 relieving capitals. 
 
 We know little concerning the settling of 
 Langobard chiefs in the Casentino, but the 
 district, with its fruitful upland tracts, its rocky 
 elevations and wooded side valleys, had great 
 attractions for the invaders, since it favoured the 
 mode of life they held dear. When authentic 
 records begin, many strongholds of the district 
 were in the hands of men who were Langobards 
 by descent, and who became progenitors of 
 some of the most distinguished families of 
 Tuscany. Among these the Guidi claim 
 special attention. For the history of this family 
 decided for the history of the Casentino for 
 over four hundred years. No family attained 
 a power at all equalled by theirs, no family so 
 deeply impressed the mind of Dante, and none 
 is so frequently mentioned in the Divine 
 Comedy. 
 
 7
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 It was against the further advance of the 
 Langobards that the Pope in the eighth century- 
 called upon the loyal Franks to interfere in 
 behalf of the temporal estates of the Church. 
 Once again the fertile plains of Italy were over- 
 run by Germans, but in this case by Germans 
 who had grasped the idea of a centralised system 
 of government. Before the unity of the Franks 
 the scattered and divided nobles of Italy were 
 as chaff before the wind. The greater number 
 of her dukes, counts and barons recognised 
 Frankish over-lordship, and in due course be- 
 came feudatories to the Empire. This relation 
 eventually secured to the Emperor his staunchest 
 allies against the growing Italian communes — 
 it in no way debarred the Italian nobles from 
 living as independent chiefs, warring against one 
 another as personal hatred, jealousy and private 
 revenge prompted. The distinguishing qualities 
 of these men — they may well be called virtues 
 — were audacity, enterprise and a boundless self- 
 reliance. But they were qualities unseparated 
 as yet from the revolting contempt for life and 
 limb of a rough barbarian age, a contempt that 
 found expression in wanton stabbing, poisoning 
 and mutilation as a convenient mode of re- 
 taliation on enemies. 
 
 But a safeguard necessary to the very exist- 
 ence of these men now lay in their recognition 
 of the claims of the Church. The Pope, as a 
 8
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 temporal ruler, might be defied ; as a spiritual 
 ruler, who had hosts untold at his command, he 
 was a power and a strength to be respected. 
 Turbulent barons, whose play often ended in 
 bloodshed, began to defer to the priest and to 
 patronise the monk. The ascent to the strong- 
 hold was flanked by a chapel, and monastic 
 colonies were invited to settle in the most 
 fruitful districts. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the men who, 
 thus prompted, accepted Mother Church, 
 accepted her from purely utilitarian motives. 
 But Mother Church was apparently content to 
 dwell with them on the terms proposed, for she 
 blessed them with many blessings. Exactly 
 those dynasties prospered whose piety is borne 
 out by the numerous endowments which they 
 made. Certainly these were made on con- 
 ditions which left a loophole for interference 
 on the part of those who made them. But the 
 greater prevails over the lesser, whatever terms 
 the lesser may make. The Church entered 
 into the alliance in obedience to a call from the 
 barons, but in course of time she shook herself 
 free from their control. 
 
 The history of the Casentino illustrates the 
 sequence of these changes. Few rocky heights 
 but are crowned by the ruins of a stronghold, 
 few upland expanses but preserve the remem- 
 brance of an ancient monastery. The word 
 9
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 badiay the ancient term for monastery, survives 
 in a number of local names, such as Badia a 
 Tega, Badia a Prataglia. These monasteries 
 w^ent through stoniiy experiences towards the 
 close of the tenth century, and all owing to the 
 high-handed manner in which their patrons 
 dealt with them. The Church was defiled by 
 iniquity of traffic. On the one side laymen sold 
 Church property and privileges, simony in the 
 wider sense of the word. On the other, 
 ecclesiastics themselves traded in benefices, 
 simony in its narrower sense. 
 
 One of the important movements set on foot 
 to oppose this evil is associated with the name 
 of St Romuald, and through him with the 
 Casentino, where the monastery of Camaldoli 
 most directly embodied and most religiously 
 preserved the spirit of one of Christianity's most 
 zealous champions. Camaldoli in the course 
 of centuries has attracted visitors of many 
 tempers from many countries. In Dante's 
 estimation Romuald was so important a person 
 that he pictured him in Paradise as one of the 
 chosen two whom St Benedict pointed out to 
 him by name. 
 
 Amt)ng those whom the fame of Romuald 
 brought to the Casentino was St Francis of 
 Assisi. On his journey he passed La Verna, 
 that solitary mountain height in the Apennines 
 which appeared to him as a chosen spot for 
 
 lO
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 meditation. Many visitors come * to sec La 
 Verna in the Casentino who come there to see 
 nothing else, especially of late years, since a less 
 prejudiced view of the saints has helped to restore 
 the importance of St Francis on a wider basis 
 than that of a purely devotional interest. 
 
 But not only the votaries of St Francis find 
 a shrine at which to pay homage in the 
 Casentino. Since the publication of the 
 Voyages Dantesqtu's by Ampere, every student 
 of Dante longs to wander among these hills, 
 for here the poet stayed at different periods of 
 his life, and here his admirers are especially able 
 to appreciate those occasional references to the 
 beauties of nature, which are as manna in the 
 wilderness among the terrible descriptions of 
 Hell and Purgatory. In the Casentino Dante 
 fought in his youth, hither he came in his 
 manhood to stay with the Counts Guidi 
 when Florence had closed her gates to him. 
 And again the revived study of Dante's works 
 during the Renaissance was directlv associated 
 with the Casentino. Cristofero Landini, who 
 first published a commentary on Dante, was 
 from there ; and Bandini, who wrote a famous 
 work on the revival of learning in Italy, 
 describes this revival in connection with Landini, 
 and prefaces his work by an account of the 
 numerous distinguished men to whom the 
 Casentino gave birth.
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 Thus on the very point of entering the 
 Casentino were we made to pause and call to 
 remembrance some of those periods which 
 associated the district with so much that is 
 worthy of recollection. If knowledge be the 
 wing wherewith we fly to heaven, it is also 
 the key wherev/ith to unlock the treasures of 
 this earth. And it seemed the more needful 
 to recall the distinguishing features of the 
 past as the different periods gained in import- 
 ance when seen on a wider historical background. 
 But discursiveness too has its limits. Wisely 
 were the words spoken, "a time to break 
 down and a time to build up." It so happened 
 that we had each brought a copy of Dante, 
 though books are not a pleasant burden on a 
 walking tour. But the trouble of carrying 
 them was well repaid by the enjoyment we 
 derived from studying them during the even- 
 ing hours while in the land in which we were 
 so frequently reminded of the poet.
 
 II 
 
 Bibbiena and Cardinal Bibbiena 
 
 " Bibbiena ' che una terra c sopr ' Arno molto amena.'* 
 
 (Berni : Orlando Innamoraro, 3, 7. I.) 
 
 The town of Bibbiena boasts of no special 
 architecture and of no great works of art, but 
 it has all the characteristic charm of a Tuscan 
 hill city. Looked at from without, the remains 
 of its great walls and the substructure of its 
 buildings suggest line upon line of successive 
 ages of builders ; within, there are the usual 
 open spaces and narrow streets, with sudden 
 changes from dazzling sunlight to dim coolness. 
 Apparently the town has not spread since it 
 was dismantled at the beginning of the sixteenth 
 century ; its limits are still marked by the 
 remains of its walls. And, as in all walled 
 cities, its buildings, churches, palaces, dwelling- 
 houses and store -houses stand shoulder to 
 shoulder, the more important buildings stretch- 
 ing to greater height and overlooking the less 
 important ones. 
 
 On ordinary days the town was cjuiet enough. 
 Few people were seen abroad and the noise of 
 a vehicle was an event. But inside the houses 
 1 ^1
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 various trades were plied. The main streets 
 of the place were lined with vaulted cavernous 
 shops, the doors of which were thrown open, 
 
 BIEBIENA MARKET-PLACE 
 
 and in the deep, shadv recesses men were busy 
 at work. As usual in hill cities, blacksmiths' 
 shops were numerous, and the owners of all 
 seemed well employed. And as one passed 
 along the street — those narrow, stony Italian 
 14
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 streets — one's attention was arrested bv the 
 sound of hammering. Presently the hammer- 
 ing ceased, the bellows stirred up a rush of 
 sparks, and for a moment a ruddy light fell 
 on the bending cyclopean figures at work, or 
 perhaps on the bellows themselves, a panting 
 monster couchant on the hearth. From the 
 braziers' shops sounded the din of the strokes 
 falling on the metal. These shops too were 
 numerous, and their roofs could hardly be seen 
 for the number of large- bellied copper water pots 
 hanging there. The roof too of the shop of 
 smoked wares was almost invisible from rows 
 upon rows of suspended sausages and hams, each 
 tightly confined in a close network of string. 
 There was the v/eaver's workshop, from which 
 sounded the regular thud of the beam thrown 
 back on the woof, and there was the wheel- 
 wright's, with its smell of stored timber and its 
 floor strewn with crisp shavings as they were 
 taken off by the plane. The greengrocer's store 
 was but a poor one as yet ; there were lumps 
 of boiled spinage and bunches of young 
 artichokes, no other green-meats, but there 
 were lemons, oranges, nuts and dried figs in 
 plenty. There was the drug store too, with its 
 clean, cool, deserted look. The apothecary and 
 a friend were sitting down to a game of cards 
 one day when we passed, and looked up in 
 surprise as we entered in the hope of coming upon 
 '5
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 some pots of Savona ware — a desire for which 
 was strong in the new-fledged M.D. Then 
 there was the barber's shop, with its nimble 
 master, who could be seen operating on a 
 customer, and the small window with panes of 
 glass behind which the watchmaker sat bending 
 over his work. 
 
 On market-days the town assumed a look of 
 greater liveliness. Two-wheeled country carts 
 came toiling up the hill. They were left on the 
 terrace below or on one side of the market-place, 
 and their inmates stood about in groups with the 
 men of the town who had stopped work for the 
 day. A number of stalls were set up on the 
 market-place and wares of many kinds were dis- 
 played. There were stalls of butchers' meat, 
 loaded with the tiniest of lambkins, a sorry sight ; 
 there were stalls with a show of ribbons and 
 laces, all of the cheapest ; stalls with bales of 
 homespun ; stalls with hats and caps of felt. 
 And on the ground brown and yellow and red 
 earthenware was heaped up or spread about, jars 
 and platters, and pots and pans, in the plainest 
 of forms but most decorative in colour. 
 
 On such a day selling extended down the 
 side streets. And the vendor of cheap literature 
 was seen suspending tracts and booklets in rows 
 by means of bits of string, while the hawker of 
 cheap jewellery took advantage of a projecting 
 window-ledge to set out his little trays. The 
 i6
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 display of outlandish wares invariably causes one's 
 money to burn, and one of us was tempted to 
 buy a silver hnger-ring with a crucified Christ 
 — a pattern peculiar to Tuscanv, I believe- while 
 the other, from a mass of twopenny romances 
 and stories of the saints, picked out the romance 
 ofPia dei Tolomei, the story of a faithful wife's 
 cruel treatment and violent death. This was 
 she, unforgotten in popular literature as it 
 seemed, who started up before Dante in Purga- 
 tory and prayed him to recall her memory on 
 earth. 
 
 But it was at night, when the dark of the 
 evening filled the streets with gloom, when the 
 last carts had rattled down the steep streets and 
 were speeding away along the white country 
 roads in the darkness, when men passed along 
 the walls like shadows, and silence had laid her 
 hold on the concerns of this world, that fancy 
 began to stir and breathe more freely, and 
 stepped forth to take her pleasure with the figures 
 of the past. 
 
 One evening I had stayed in the Franciscan 
 church looking at the altar-pieces of the Delia 
 Robbias, the Nativitv and the Deposition — the 
 latter a gift to the church from Cardinal Bib- 
 biena — till the twilight drove me out and I went 
 to walk on the terrace of the town, which com- 
 manded a view of the panorama of the hills. 
 There had been a thunderstorm, and heavy 
 
 n 17
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 rain-clouds hungover the Apennines. Their lower 
 slopes were shrouded in mist, but spanned from 
 side to side by a rainbow. Towards the south 
 the skyline above the valley of the Arno was 
 piled with masses upon masses of clouds, further 
 yet, towards the west, the sun had just set 
 behind a rocky height, but its reflection was 
 caught by the white vapour that filled the 
 undulating plain and extended upwards into the 
 numerous branching valleys beneath the snow- 
 capped heights of the Pratomagno, revealing 
 line upon line of rocky crag and sloping hillside 
 It was a sight that stirred emotion and roused 
 the imagination. And wandering back through 
 the dark, solitary streets, I seemed to see some of 
 the figures of the shadowy past, whose mortal 
 remains long ago had fallen to dust and decay, 
 nay, for aught we knew, had gone to build up 
 new forms of life again and asiain under the 
 transforming agency of time. 
 
 Had they not all walked and talked here, the 
 Etruscan potter, cunning of hand, worthy fore- 
 runner of the Tuscan painter of the Quat- 
 trocento ? — The Roman centurion, proud of a 
 system of government which embraced the known 
 world, never equalled before, never since ? — The 
 Langobard hunter — the soft-treading monk — the 
 sister of charity — had they not all walked and 
 talked in sight of the surrounding hills? And 
 had not these streets seen some of those feuds 
 i8
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 between commune and commune, very thorns 
 in the eyes of Italian liberty in the fourteenth 
 and fifteenth centuries, when the hope of 
 national unification was shattered, and that for 
 centuries to come, by the rise of the condott'uri^ 
 those upstart rulers, spoilt children of fortune, to 
 whom Italian history owes some of its most 
 sombre and also some of its brightest pages ? 
 There is no English equivalent for the word 
 condottlere^ the thing and the term for it are 
 unknown outside Italy. For in Italy alone a 
 combination of peculiar circumstances made it 
 possible for men, who were gifted with unlimited 
 determination, to watch their opportunity inside 
 the separate townships and to snatch at the 
 reins of independent government by the help of 
 mercenary troops, a tool, dangerous in itself, 
 which they handled with consummate ability. 
 
 The development of communal life in the 
 cities of northern Italy had been earlv. But 
 placed between Emperor and Pope the citizens 
 of different towns split into factions; some pre- 
 ferred allegiance to an Emperor who was on the 
 other side of the Alps, others, more national in 
 feeling, sided with the Pope. But when the 
 respective authority of Pope and Emperor be- 
 came a matter of dispute, and each sought to 
 support his claims by introducing foreign armies 
 into Italy, all alike were thrown off their 
 balance. 
 
 '9
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 Under these circumstances the joint action of 
 citizens was inconceivable, much more the joint 
 action of different cities, to the common end of 
 national consolidation. Worn out by party con- 
 flicts, townships at last succumbed to the high- 
 handed government of a military leader who 
 brought security if nothing else, and the Re- 
 publican Government of citv after city fell a prey 
 to men whose attitude recalled that of the tyrants 
 of classical antiquity. For among the condottieri 
 also there were men famous for their misdeeds, 
 yet whose despotism was relieved by a trait of 
 grandeur. Among them also there were men 
 who held the prosperity of their subjects dear at 
 heart and who made their courts into centres of 
 learning and polite intercourse. A stormy 
 period was followed by comparative quiet, and 
 the arts of peace found their best patrons among 
 parvenu princes. 
 
 The town of Bibbiena had experienced her 
 share of these vicissitudes. Subject at one time 
 to the Prince Bishop of Arezzo, the town was 
 besieged and appropriated by the Republic of 
 Florence, snatched back by members of the 
 powerful Tarlati family, and reconquered bv 
 Florence thirty years later. For its vicinity to 
 Florence, combined with its comparative re- 
 moteness, made Bibbiena a dangerous neighbour 
 in times of warfare. This was especially the 
 case after the expulsion from Florence of the 
 20
 
 ThrouQ-h the Casentino 
 
 Medici in 1494, when Piero, the eldest son 
 and successor of Lorenzo the Magnificent, with 
 his brothers and others, sought the help of 
 Venice. An army of Venetians invaded the 
 Casentino, and made Bibbiena its headquarters. 
 The Florentines, having secured the help of the 
 Sforza of Milan, in their turn invaded the 
 Casentino, laying siege to Bibbiena, and the 
 Venetian army was caught as in a trap. 
 Bibbiena fell, and all possibility of her harbour- 
 ing the enemies of Florence in the future was 
 removed bv the entire demolition of her town 
 walls. 
 
 The Medici escaped. Piero, whom his 
 father designated as the " fool," threw himself 
 into the arms of the Borgia and perished a few 
 years later; Giovanni, Lorenzo's " clever " son, 
 who was a cardinal at the age of thirteen, and 
 afterwards Pope Leo X., left Italy to seek solace 
 by travelling in Germany, Flanders and France ; 
 and the third brother, the spirited and gifted 
 Giuliano, called by his father the "good," a few 
 years later was slaying at the Court of Urbino, 
 together with the devoted friend of the familv, 
 Bernardo Divizio, afterwards Cardinal Bibbiena. 
 
 And these streets had seen him often, in 
 obscure youth and again in the pride of success- 
 ful manhood, Bernardo Divizio, surnamed 
 Bibbiena, true representative of the spirit of 
 the late Italian Renaissance, with its bound- 
 21
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 less faith in its own wisdom. Author of that 
 most spirited and most licentious comedy, the 
 Calnndra^ maitre-de-plaisir at the court of 
 Leo X., patron of Rafael, self-conscious, 
 versatile, handsome, with glowing eye and 
 scornful lip, he lives in the portrait which 
 Rafael painted of him. Count Baldassare 
 Castiglione, in his famous analysis of the 
 Perfect Courtier^ introduced Bibbiena as the 
 man of mirth and wit. Paolo Giovio, the his- 
 torian, to whose facile pen posterity owes so 
 many biographies, says much in praise of him. 
 Bembo addressed to him some of his most 
 pleasing letters, and all accounts corroborate the 
 impression produced by Bibbiena's writings as 
 they lie before us, and by the man's portrait as 
 it hangs in the Pitti, painted by one of the 
 greatest artists the world has known. 
 
 Bernardo Divizio was of an obscure family 
 of Bibbiena. The story that the Divizi had 
 changed their name from Tarlati is an obvious 
 invention, and the boy, at the age of nine, was 
 sent to Florence, where his brother was secretary 
 to Lorenzo the Magnificent. He was an able 
 letter-writer at seventeen, and was the constant 
 companion of Lorenzo's son Giovanni, his junior 
 by five years. The two young men rivalled 
 each other in studying literature and the classics, 
 but apparentlv there was never a cloud between 
 them. Before the Medici went into exile
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 Bibbiena acted as their envoy, and a letter of his 
 addressed to Piero throws a curious side-light 
 on the kind of love-adventure in which these 
 young men found diversion. At a later period 
 Bibbiena acted as secretarv to Giovanni, 
 advocating his cause at the Papal Court with 
 Julius II. Later still he joined Giuliano at the 
 Court of Urbino, which had become the rallying- 
 place of manv men of distinction. 
 
 For the Montefeltre of Urbino, comlott'teri 
 bv origin, belonged to those princes who set 
 before them a high degree of excellence. 
 Duke Federigo, whose boast it was never to have 
 lost a battle, acted as patron to the translators 
 and commentators on the Greek classics ; he 
 collected a library at Urbino and built a 
 magnificent palace there. There is something 
 pathetic in the fact that Federigo's son 
 Guidobaldo, himself a confirmed invalid, pre- 
 sided in person over the games by which the 
 young men perfected their physical training. 
 For athletic exercises, no less than culture and 
 good breeding, were the object of attention at 
 Urbino, where the best aspirations of the age, 
 intellectual, artistic and social, found protection. 
 Bramante, who designed St Peter's at Rome, 
 was from Urbino. Rafael was born here, and he 
 always retained an affection for the home of 
 his childhood, which he frequently visited. 
 Several of his earlier pictures, including
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 Christ on the Mount of Olives, were painted 
 for Duke Guidobaldo. Guidobaldo's wife, 
 Elisabetta, was a Gonzaga of Mantua, a family 
 of origin and ambitions similar to those of 
 the Montefeltre at Urbino, And when her 
 delicate husband had retired to rest, the Duchess, 
 with the witty Lady Emilia Pia, entertained 
 the company in her apartments, where social 
 accomplishments and literary talents were fully 
 displayed. 
 
 It was at these reunions that the discussions 
 took place which Count Castiglione has im- 
 mortalised in the Corteglano^ a book famous 
 in its time, which has been translated into 
 English more than once under the title, The 
 Courtier, or the Perfect Getitleman and Gentle- 
 nvofnati. A number of distinguished visitors 
 are represented as being assembled in the rooms 
 of the Duchess, and among them are the names 
 of several whose fame has descended through 
 other channels. Here Count Lodovico Canossa 
 spoke of the courtier's outward bearing and 
 behaviour, pursuing the questions into such bye- 
 ways as, How far self-praise was commendable, 
 and, How negligence could be affected without 
 becoming unpleasant. When he had spoken 
 Bibbiena was called upon to analvse how far 
 facetiousness was compatible with good breeding, 
 and he illustrated his argument bv witticisms, 
 hon-mots^ and accounts of practical jokes in 
 24
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 endless variety, a collection which forms a 
 valuable addition to our knowledge of the 
 facetia of the Renaissance. Bibbiena's plea for 
 fun was founded on the observation, I do not 
 know if originally due to him, to Castiglione, 
 or to some older writer, that man is the only 
 living being capable of laughter. The company 
 fully appreciated his jokes and the way he told 
 them. To us, many of them seem rather out of 
 date. One wonders that men of culture should 
 have, cared for humour that was so broad, and 
 especially, that they should have thought fit 
 to enlarge on it in the presence of ladies. Not 
 that the stories in themselves have any of 
 the offensiveness of those tales with which 
 Boccaccio's company amused themselves a 
 century and a half earlier. On the contrary, 
 Bibbiena maintained that in good society no 
 pleasantry was acceptable, which detracted from 
 a woman's honour, a remark which led up 
 to the discussion of the perfect ladv and of the 
 nature of love. Giuliano de' Medici, a known 
 champion of women, espoused their cause in a 
 spirit which cannot fail to delight all women 
 who read the work. In the animated discussion 
 which followed, Octaviano Fregoso, afterwards 
 doge of Genoa, Bembo, Aretino and the Lady 
 Emilia Pia all took part. 
 
 To judge from the Cortegiano, Bibbiena was 
 not only handsome, but he was renowned for 
 25
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 talcing pride in his good looks, and in an age 
 of self-consciousness he appeared as most self- 
 conscious. The sentiments which he aroused 
 and the impression which he made were ever 
 present to his mind. And his self-consciousness 
 was matched by his self-assurance. He appar- 
 ently loved to give the conversation a personal 
 turn, and to carry off feigned criticism of him- 
 self in a spirit of banter. When Count 
 Lodovico insisted on beauty of feature as 
 necessary to the perfect courtier, the conversa- 
 tion took an undesired turn. But Bibbiena re- 
 called it and restored good-humour by drawing 
 attention to himself. " As for grace and beauty 
 of feature," he said, appealing to Lodovico, " I 
 know I have my share, the reason, as you know, 
 why so many ladies fall in love with me, but as 
 for beauty of person I am somewhat in doubt, 
 especially regarding my legs, which are not as 
 well shaped as I would have them. . . . Ex- 
 plain more particularly what you mean by beautv 
 of person that I may be freed from suspense and 
 my mind set at rest." 
 
 Bibbiena not only entertained the company at 
 Urbino with talk. His great triumph there was 
 the performance, in 1508, of the Ca/aridra^ one 
 of the earliest comedies in Italian prose. It 
 called forth acclamations of delight among con- 
 temporaries ; two generations later its flagrant 
 indecencies had relegated it to oblivion. A full 
 26
 
 Thr()ug"h the Casentino 
 
 description of the performance was forwarded to 
 Count Lodovico Canossa by Count Castiglione, 
 who, judging from the tone of his letter, had a 
 hand in the tnise-cn-sccne. The curious part 
 about this is its striving for realism. There is 
 the downright realism of a street with palaces 
 and an octagonal church, a town-wall and forti- 
 fications, partly decorated in stucco, for the 
 comedy, and the affected realism of would-be 
 classical figures and accessories for the interludes. 
 And this a hundred years before improvised 
 hoardings did service at the first representations 
 of Shakespeare, or a hundred and fifty years 
 before Inigo Jones designed elaborate sceneries 
 for the representation of masques in England. 
 
 The Cnlamlra itself was composed on the 
 model of the Mcncchim of Plautus, and is not 
 without likeness to the Comedy of Errors. But 
 in this case the two persons whose likeness gives 
 rise to laughable mistakes are twins, brother and 
 sister, neither of whom is aware of the other's 
 presence in the same town. The brother some- 
 times dresses up as a woman to gain access to 
 his mistress, the sister sometimes wears men's 
 clothes to avoid detection. In the prologue 
 the spectators are called upon to decide for 
 themselves who is on the stage, brother or sister, 
 a mystifying quid pro quo which apparently was 
 a source of endless discussion and amusement 
 to the perplexed audience. A vulgar luisbaml, 
 27
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 who is said to be drawn from life, and a wittv 
 go-between, are the most individual characters. 
 A necromancer is introduced and is credited 
 with transforming men into women, and this 
 gives an opportunity for ridiculing the current 
 belief in magic. 
 
 The play was in five acts. At the close of 
 each act came an interlude, bv which the classical 
 taste of the age was gratified. There was Jason 
 ploughing the field with imitation bulls which 
 snorted real fire ; he sowed dragons' teeth, which 
 presently started up into men who fell to per- 
 forming a morisc or morris-dance. At the close 
 of the second act Venus appeared in a chariot 
 drawn by cupids, who bore flaming torches ; they 
 set free a number of gallants, who likewise per- 
 formed a dance. Then came Neptune seated 
 on a car, surrounded by sea monsters, the account 
 of whose dance recalls the displays of a modern 
 Christmas pantomime. Later on Juno appeared 
 surrounded by a bevy of birds — peacocks, 
 eagles, ostriches, parrots — all so entertaining 
 in their antics that Castiglione knows no limit 
 to his praise of them. The entire interludes 
 were acted bv children, whose freshness and 
 want of affectation were felt a welcome change 
 from the conventionality of the professional 
 actors. The performance closed with an 
 epilogue, in which Cupid spoke of love as the 
 guiding power of life, and enlarged on the 
 28
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 blessings of peace as opposed to the terrors of 
 war. 
 
 The success of the performance was such that 
 six years later (15 14), when Giovanni de' Medici 
 had become Pope Leo X., and Bibbiena had 
 been made cardinal by him, the play was re- 
 peated at Rome in the Papal Court for the 
 entertainment of Isabella d'Este, Countess of 
 Mantua. The Pope was persuaded by his 
 ■ cardinal to be present, and again no trouble 
 was spared to secure a look of reality to the 
 stage. Its decoration was entrusted to Perruzzi, 
 who was studying architecture at Rome under 
 Bramante, and whose marvellous talent for per- 
 spective equalled his fame as an architect. It 
 was he who designed and built the Farnesina, 
 the ccilins; of which Rafael decorated with the 
 history of Cupid and Psyche. 
 
 The name of Cardinal Bibbiena is indissolubly 
 connected with the pontificate of Leo X., a 
 period of which contemporaries spoke as the 
 Golden Age restored. Giovio has left a most 
 enthusiastic description of the life at Rome at 
 the time. Art and learning, which had received 
 new impulses, thanks to the determined policy 
 of Julius II., found as liberal a patron in Leo. 
 Bramante was at work raising the walls of St 
 Peter's, Michael Angelo was painting the 
 Sistine Chapel, Rafael was devoting his energies 
 to the Stanze and the Loggic of the Vatican. 
 29
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 And at the same time Sadoleto, the famous 
 Latinist, and his friend Bembo, distinguished 
 alike as historian and art-connoisseur, were 
 attached to the Papal Court in the capacity of 
 secretaries. Pope Leo was surrounded by a 
 circle of men of merit, and in this circle Cardinal 
 Bibbiena played no subordinate part. His advice, 
 we are told, was worth having in serious and in 
 frivolous matters ; and, judging from letters 
 extant, he inspired Bembo with warm feelings 
 of affection. We are told that his ready wit 
 made it easy for him at any time to divert Leo, 
 and in the matter of art his tastes fell in with 
 those of his patron. It was for Cardinal 
 Bibbiena that Rafael painted a small chamber 
 in the Vatican Palace which is still known as 
 the Cardinal's bathroom. It was designed in 
 the style of the antique wall-paintings which 
 had been discovered in the therma at Rome. 
 Small scenes were introduced among arabesques 
 on the walls, and the subjects of these scenes 
 were chosen by the Cardinal and recall the 
 interludes of the Calandra. On each picture 
 Cupid was depicted, driving sometimes birds, 
 sometimes butterflies or other insects, to show 
 the power of love over the animal world. 
 Cardinal Bibbiena had taken a great fancy to 
 Rafael ; he persuaded him to become engaged 
 to his niece Maria Antonia. The painter 
 found he could not refuse though his affections 
 30
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 were elsewhere. But he deferred the marriage 
 from year to year, and his premature death cut 
 off the possibility of the alliance. 
 
 Thanks to the efforts of the men whom Leo 
 assembled about him, Rome enjoyed a time of 
 undisturbed prosperity — a time of which all 
 who care for buildings and books think with 
 admiration and approval — a time when, once 
 again in the history of mankind, all the elements 
 of culture of which the age seemed capable were 
 developed to their fullest and completest extent. 
 And this while northern Europe, full of anger 
 and discontent, was preparing to meet the 
 coming storm, while travellers returned from 
 Italy chiefly impressed by her vices, while 
 England was waxing wroth at the thought of 
 Papal extravagance, and Germany welcomed 
 the charge that the Pope was a monstrosity 
 with acclamation. 
 
 But, nevertheless, none but a northern 
 European, sick at heart at the losses inflicted 
 on his country by the Reformation, could look 
 upon the men who made the greatness of this 
 period at Rome as whited sepulchres. For 
 they have all come down to us, drawn from life 
 by Rafael — Pope Julius and Pope Leo, Count 
 Castiglionc and Cardinal Bibbiena, and 
 Inghiranii, the secretary of Julius, who likened 
 his patron to the Neptune of Virgil, who rose 
 above the waves and the storm was hushed.
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 Excepting the portrait of Count Castiglione, 
 which is at Paris, all these portraits are at 
 present in the Pitti. And were it not that 
 famous pictures disappear in an unaccountable 
 manner, we should be in possession also of that 
 of the spirited Giuliano de' Medici, for there 
 seems no reason to doubt the information that 
 Rafael painted it. 
 
 It is said that Pope Leo owed his election 
 greatly to the able policy of Cardinal Bibbiena ; 
 it is said also that, as Leo was troubled with an 
 internal complaint, the cardinal laid his plans 
 for becoming Pope in his turn. If this plan 
 ever existed it was cut short by death. Cardinal 
 Bibbiena died suddenly towards the close of 
 1520, a few months after Rafael and a few 
 months before Leo. 
 
 The palace of the Divizi still stands at 
 Bibbiena adjoining the Franciscan church. 
 The abilities which secured the Cardinal and 
 his brother the goodwill of the Medici, re- 
 appeared in the next generation in Angelo 
 Divizio Bibbiena, who became secretary to 
 Cosimo I., first Duke of Florence. After him 
 the Divizi seem to have fallen back into 
 obscurity. Their palace at Bibbiena is now 
 owned bv members of a different familv. 
 
 32
 
 Ill 
 
 La Verna and S>t Francis 
 
 " Nel crudo sassa infra Tevere ed Arno 
 Da Cristo prese 1' ultimo sigillo 
 Che le sue membra Hu' anni portarno." 
 
 (Par. II, io6 ff.) 
 
 Our first expedition from Bibbieiia was to La 
 Verna, ever memorable through its associations 
 with St Francis of Assisi. Here in the depth 
 of mountain solitude, when the thought of 
 regenerating mankind was strong within him, 
 St Francis found the spot of his heart's desire. 
 Hither he came some ten vears later, broken 
 bv disappointment and broken in health, but 
 strong in the jov that comes from bearing all 
 things patiently in the consciousness of a pure 
 heart. And here, as the legend tells us, he was 
 quite transformed into Jesus bv love and compas- 
 sion and received the impress of the most holv 
 stigmata. 
 
 The retreat of La Verna lies at a distance of 
 about eight miles from Bibbiena, 3720 feet 
 above sea-level, on a plateau that forms a ledge, 
 as it were, on the southern slope of the pre- 
 cipitous Penna. The road from Bibbiena
 
 Throug"h the Casentino 
 
 across the mountains into the valley of the 
 Tiber skirts the Penna, which stands isolated, 
 massive, and beetle-browed, among the loftier 
 but less commanding heights of the Apennines. 
 
 
 
 
 SITUATION OF LA VERNA 
 
 It is the " rough rock between the Tiber and the 
 Arno," as Dante has called it, a rock which 
 commands a prospect without bounds. For the 
 mountains of Tuscany, the plains of Romagna, 
 and the rugged uplands of Umbria are all 
 34
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 within sight, fading away in the blue distance 
 that embraces the Tyrrhenian sea on one side 
 and the Adriatic on the other. Quite apart 
 from its historical associations, the spot, with its 
 lofty beeches and pines, has many attractions ; 
 the near distance and the far outlook are both 
 equally beautiful. 
 
 It was on a warm, sunny morning that we 
 descended the hill of Bibbiena. Beyond the 
 church of the Madonna del Sasso, the road 
 mounted a ridge, and then descended and crossed 
 the river Corsalone. Then began the steep, 
 steady ascent of the Apennines. It was a 
 beautiful day. The heights were lost in the 
 morning haze, the air was laden with the vaijue 
 perfume of spring growth. There is an Italian 
 proverb which says that April calls up the 
 flowers and May rejoices in their colours. As 
 it was, the sun all around was at work softening 
 sheath and leaf and bud. The hedge-rows were 
 veiled in tenderest green, while here and 
 there they were white with the flaky blossoms 
 of the blackthorn. Violets, primroses, celandine 
 and dark blue bell-hyacinths shone among 
 the verdure of the roadside. Down bv the 
 river the fields were green with corn and waving 
 herbage ; further up the brown earth sloping 
 awav from the road was planted with trees, 
 their trunks wedded to the stems of the vine. 
 In these parts the vines are trained up pollard 
 35
 
 Throucrh the Casentino 
 
 trees, over the stunted tops of which their 
 branches are spread. These branches are then 
 tightly wound round each other, two and two, 
 tied together and their ends turned downwards. 
 As we passed along, 
 men were training and 
 bindino- the vine, sino;- 
 ing snatches of a song 
 that ended with a minor 
 cadence. From the 
 hanging ends of the 
 vine the shining sap 
 was dropping, recalling 
 the Italian simile of 
 piangere a vite tagliata. 
 In our progress we 
 passed several roadside 
 shrines, but we found 
 them despoiled of their 
 original contents. We 
 afterwards found that 
 all the open-air shrines 
 of the Casentino have 
 been dealt with in the 
 same manner. In some a rude print or a small 
 china figure has been substituted for the older 
 object of reverence ; oftener the niche is emptv 
 and the structure is falling to ruin. 
 
 For several miles our road was through land 
 that had been brought under cultivation. Then 
 36 
 
 VINE CULTIVATION (cASF.NTINo)
 
 Through ihc Cascntino 
 
 it ascended through a wood, and beyond this we 
 reached the uneven grassland of the mountains. 
 The genial warmth of the lowland and the 
 unchecked influence of spring were left behind. 
 The grass on the hillocks was green, but in the 
 hollows it was brown and sodden, as though the 
 numerous patches of snow had only just shrunk 
 away from it. Onlv here and there, close to 
 the edge of the snow, purple crocuses we're 
 bursting through the soft mould of the rifts 
 in the greensward. The silence of mountain 
 solitude reigned undisturbed except for the 
 sound of trickling, dripping water. 
 
 The plateau, at the end of which the convent 
 of La Verna stands, is visible from afar. It 
 was between one and two in the afternoon when 
 wc left the main road and soon afterwards 
 reached the little inn that stands on the con- 
 fines of the monastic property. Within its 
 walls, at the foot of the rock, which is here 
 almost perpendicular, a small chapel com- 
 memorates the spot where St P'rancis and his 
 companions paused to rest before scaling the 
 height. " And immediately flocks of birds came 
 from all parts," the legend tells us, "and with 
 singing and beating of their wings they showed 
 the greatest joy and gladness, and surrounded 
 St Francis in such a manner that some perched 
 on his head, some on his shoulders, some on his 
 arms and some on his legs, and some around his 
 37
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 feet. His companions marvelled, but St Francis, 
 all joyful in his spirit, said to them — I see that 
 it is pleasing to our Lord that we live in this 
 solitary mountain, since so much joy is shown at 
 our arrival by our little sisters and brothers, the 
 birds." 
 
 This incident in the legend of the saint 
 illustrates one of the most lovable traits in his 
 character — the sense of religious fellowship which 
 united him to whatever claimed his attention in 
 nature. The beasts of the earth, and the birds 
 of the air, fire and water, the wind, the sun, 
 the moon and the clouds — he felt the impress 
 of the divine spirit in every one of them. 
 In the happiest and in the most trying hours 
 of his life he was ever ready to recognise the 
 beneficence of the divine purpose in everything 
 around him. It was this attitude of mind 
 which enabled him not to shrink when the 
 red-hot iron was drawn across his temple in the 
 hope of saving his eye-sight. It was this 
 attitude of mind which inspired him to compose 
 the Canticle of the Siin^ a hymn which in its 
 simple framing and passionate utterances bears 
 the stamp of the religious fervour of a new 
 era. 
 
 The personality and influence of St Francis 
 
 have great attractions under whatever aspect 
 
 they be viewed. He is the representative of a 
 
 new development of Christianity — of the period 
 
 3S
 
 Throug^h the Casentino 
 
 when tlie bearings of Christian teachin"; on the 
 concerns of daily aud domestic life were first 
 realised, and when the masses of the laitv ceased 
 to look upon Christianity as a cult, and began to 
 feel it as a living faith by which conduct could 
 be regulated. It is in this sense that Ruskin, 
 speaking of St Francis, savs that it was he who 
 taught men how to behave. By example chiefly. 
 For the bearing of the man who would be guided 
 solelv by Christian love and charity had an 
 irresistible charm for those who saw him, and 
 the tidings of his influence, carried beyond the 
 confines of his district by enthusiastic followers, 
 acted as the breath by which latent emotional 
 cravings were everywhere fanned into ardent 
 devotion to the needs of suffering mankind. 
 
 To his companions the Poverello of Assisi 
 appeared as the true representative of the Lord's 
 anointed, and it was owing to this that the 
 movement which he inaugurated had so great an 
 influence on life, on literature and on art. The 
 measure of the man is not easy to recover. His 
 companions never tired of drawing parallels 
 between him and Jesus of Nazareth, and, as in 
 the case of Jesus, a number of miracles wrought 
 bv iiim were introduced into the descriptions 
 of his life, which throw darkness rather than light 
 on his personality. But the influence of the 
 man may well appear miraculous, considering 
 how instantaneous and far-reaching was the im- 
 39
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 pression which he produced — an impression to 
 which history offers few parallels. This influence 
 is so marvellous that the historian who would show 
 it in the light of cause and effect must needs have 
 a firm hold on the sequence of events that led 
 up to it, and on the prevalent attitude of mind in 
 the different strata of society that prepared it. 
 
 The influence of the Franciscan movement 
 on literature and art has been made the subject 
 of a number of interesting inquiries. Ozanam 
 was the first to analyse it in its bearings on 
 Italian poetry. The Canticle of the Sun {Laudes 
 Creaturarum) by St Francis, is among the 
 earliest poems in the vernacular, and it led to the 
 composition of numerous poems and hymns. 
 Apparently St Francis in early days himself 
 sang the songs of the troubadours, and among 
 his first converts was a troubadour who was 
 afterwards known as Fra Pacifico. Hence 
 an element in the religious poems of the Fran- 
 ciscans which reflects the poet's delight in 
 nature and the beggar's freedom from care. 
 Many celebrated hymns were written by 
 Franciscans, among them the Dies Irae^ first sung 
 by Thomas of Celano, and the Stabat Mater 
 Dolorosa written bv Jacopone of Todi, a famous 
 and prolific poet. As a companion to the Stabat 
 Mater Dolorosa^ the Hymn of the Virgin at the 
 Cross, Jacopone afterwards wrote the Stabat 
 Mater Speciosa^ the Hymn of the Virgin at the 
 40
 
 Throug-h the Casentino 
 
 cradle ; the keynote of the one is sorrow, the 
 keynote of the other is jov. 
 
 The study of Ozanam on the influence of the 
 Franciscans on Italian literature miijht be ex- 
 tended to other countries. Some of the earliest 
 and most beautiful writings in Middle English 
 were the outcome of Franciscan influence. 
 Wherever the friars gained a foothold they 
 succeeded in identifying themselves with popular 
 and national interests, and the Christianitv which 
 they preached was as a light by which the 
 common realities of life appeared more beautiful 
 and more worthy of praise in sermon and song. 
 
 In regard to art, Ruskin long ago drew 
 attention to the spirit which the friars infused 
 into painting ; his keen sense of beauty and his 
 desire for religious exaltation were soothed bv 
 no art so well as bv that of the Quattrocento. 
 In Italian painting the friars inaugurated a new 
 era. Since the days when Byzantine artists had 
 decorated churches and chapels with mosaics, 
 practically no attempt had been made to re- 
 present incidents of Biblical history and saint 
 legend in church. The friars were the first to 
 favour the idea of having the stories of religion set 
 forth on a large scale in effective and inexpensive 
 frescoes. And compared to the artists of the 
 Byzantine School, these painters were animated 
 bv the health-o-ivino; breath of a new kind of 
 realism. To the Byzantine, as interpreted by his 
 41
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 work, dispassionateness appeared as an adjunct of 
 holiness in the saint. The fresco painter, on the 
 contrary, did not hesitate in animating the saints 
 with passion, which appears as additional strength, 
 since it is passion brought well under control. 
 
 The Franciscan churches of Italy have 
 recently been made the subject of an inquiry 
 by Thode, who enters also into the incidents 
 of the saint's life which were there represented. 
 In the choice of these incidents the painters 
 were apparently guided by the early accounts of 
 the saint's life, but there is considerable diversity 
 in the scenes which they chose for representation 
 and combined together into a series. The early 
 accounts of St Francis include a life written by 
 Thomas of Celano between 1228 and 1229, 
 which was afterwards re-written ; a life written 
 by three of the companions of St Francis, which 
 was finished in 1246 ; and a life in which St 
 Francis's o-reat follower, Bonaventura, combined 
 all that had previously been written of the saint. 
 It was completed in the year 1260. 
 
 But the development of the legend of St 
 Francis did not stop here. The Little 
 Flowers of St Francis^ which were put into 
 writing in the course of the fourteenth century, 
 describe such incidents in the life of the saint 
 as appealed to popular fancy, set down in a 
 popular form. The thread of historical truth 
 in this book is of the slenderest, and the incidents 
 4-
 
 Throui^h the Casentino 
 
 as thev stand cannot claim to have happened. 
 And yet the Little F/oiuers^ in their bluntness 
 and simplicity, have all the charm of an un- 
 rcflcctive and uncritical belief in the beauty 
 
 ENTRANCE TO LA VERNA 
 
 of the new teaching. Thev give a true picture 
 of humble life in mediaeval Italy, and show us 
 the early Franciscans in the light in which 
 they saw themselves. The book was widely 
 read, and the first part, which dealt with St 
 Francis among his followers, was amplified by 
 accounts of the mad and saintly freaks of Fra 
 43
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 Ginepro, and of the steadfastness witli which 
 Fra Egidio kept to his resolve of living by the 
 labour of his hands. The influence of the 
 Poverello of Assisi was, in fact, felt by the 
 highest and the lowest alike. While current 
 fables made popular heroes of him and his 
 followers, Giotto at Assisi represented the de- 
 cisive incidents of his life in a series of paint- 
 ings, which have been likened to an epic, and 
 Dante devoted an entire canto of the Paradiso 
 to his praise. In the Paradiso the praise of St 
 Francis is sung by St Thomas Aquinas, the 
 greatest of the followers of St Dominic, while the 
 praise of St Dominic is sung bv St Bonaventura, 
 the most influential of Franciscans, a proof of 
 the bond which united the two orders in Dante's 
 mind. The jealousy which afterwards estranged 
 them was never as pronounced in Italy as north 
 of the Alps. In manv churches the figures of 
 St Francis and St Dominic still stand side by 
 side. And Andrea della Robbia, in a most 
 charming relief in the Piazza Santa Maria 
 Novella at Florence, gave expression to the 
 affection of the two orders by representing 
 their founders embracing as thev meet. 
 
 And how shall we picture him in the flesh, 
 the man who was so close to the best side of the 
 religion and the morality of his age ? In the 
 year 1222 St Francis, attracted bv the thought 
 of St Benedict, went to stav at the ancient 
 44
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 monastery at Subiaco, and here, in memorv ot' 
 his visit, his portrait was painted on tlie wall 
 of a chapel which was completed before 1228. 
 On this picture St Francis is represented with- 
 out the stigmata and without a halo. He wears 
 the penitent's rough garb with a cord round 
 his waist, and he is designated simply as Frater 
 Franciscus. The Poverello is seen full face. 
 His figure is slim, his hair and beard are crisp 
 and fair, his face is long and thin. In spite of 
 a certain awkwardness, due no doubt to the 
 painter, he has an appearance of refinement and 
 delicacy well in keeping with the stock from 
 which he had sprung. His large eyes and parted 
 lips suggest the enthusiast ; his thin neck and 
 slender hands belong to a physique which might 
 well contract phthisis. There are other earlv 
 pictures of St Francis. But the great painters 
 who set forth his life's history do not appear to 
 have been directly influenced by them. Thode 
 has shown how, in some parts of Italy, a bearded 
 type of the saint is traditional, in others a beard- 
 less type. Sometimes he was painted dark, some- 
 times fair, sometimes comely in figure, sometimes 
 emaciated. Even Giotto, judging by the two 
 series of pictures he painted, the one at Assisi, 
 the other in the church of Santa Croce in 
 Florence, had before him different ideal types 
 of the saint. 
 
 Were it not for the ravages of time, the convent 
 45
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 at La Verna would possess one of the early cycles 
 of pictures representing the story of St Francis. 
 A chapel was erected in 1264 on the spot where 
 St Francis received the most holy stigmata, and 
 Taddeo Gaddi, the godson and pupil of Giotto, 
 was summoned to decorate it. No trace of the 
 work remains. Taddeo's stay at La Verna was 
 however productive of other results. A vouth 
 from the neighbouring Pratovecchio, Jacopo 
 Landini, was sent to work under him, and he 
 afterwards went to Florence and gained con- 
 siderable renown as Jacopo del Casentino. In 
 later life he returned to his native district, where 
 some paintings of his are extant. Vasari includes 
 an account of him in his Lives of the Painters^ 
 and he tells us that it was due to Jacopo that 
 the painters of Florence first combined together 
 in a guild {companin e f rat em it a) in 135O. 
 
 As it stands at present the retreat of La Verna 
 is distinguished chiefly by the large number of 
 its altar-pieces in glazed terra cotta by the della 
 Robbias. Except in the museum at Florence 
 there are nowhere so many fine examples of 
 their work to be found together. Thev are 
 gifts for the most part from distinguished 
 Florentine families. They include a large 
 altar-piece, on which the Virgin is seen hand- 
 ing her girdle to St Thomas ; a Transfigura- 
 tion, on a large scale, with the figures of the 
 twelve Apostles standing below in beautiful 
 Ji6
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 grouping and the most varied expression. 
 There is a Nativity with the figures of St 
 Francis and St Anthony of Padua behind the 
 Virgin and St Joseph, and an Annunciation ; 
 both of these are of exquisite grace. All these 
 altar-pieces and other single figures, such as St 
 Francis, are in the usual style of blue and white. 
 I find them variously attributed to Luca and to 
 Andrea della Robbia. In the gallery on the 
 way to the chapel there is a large Pieta in 
 polychrome. The most beautiful, however, of 
 all is a large altar-piece of the Crucifixion, 
 the sole decoration of the Chapel of the 
 Stigmata. 
 
 Slowly we ascended the steep path which 
 led up to the convent. We passed under an 
 archway and found ourselves before the entrance 
 to the main church. The site of La Verna 
 was granted to St Francis by Count Orlando 
 of Chiusi in the year 1213; it was the only 
 gift of a site ever accepted by the saint, who 
 held himself betrothed to poverty. Probably a 
 small church was erected under his direction ; 
 but when the fame spread of his having here 
 received the impress of the stigmata, a special 
 interest attached to the site. Pope Alexander 
 IV. took the "Mons Alvernus" under his pro- 
 tection ; in 1260 a church was consecrated in 
 the presence of Bonaventura and six bishops ; 
 and a few years later the Chapel of the Stigmata 
 47
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 was built through the munificence of Count 
 Simone of BattifoUe. The chief church is now 
 a large one; it was begun in 1348, but it was 
 not completed till some time in the fifteenth 
 century, when the whole settlement of La 
 Verna, the "Seraphicus Mons," as it was 
 called, had passed under the protectorate of 
 the Signory of Plorence. 
 
 The churches at La Verna form part of a 
 vast mass of buildings. We were told that the 
 convent affords accommodation for five hundred 
 friars. As we were about to enter the main 
 church we met some of them walking in a pro- 
 cession, two and two. They had been celebrat- 
 ing service in church, and now thev walked 
 down the gallerv to conclude it in the chapel, 
 chanting as they went along. We afterwards 
 met them again coming out. There were 
 fortv of them, vigorous men for the most part, 
 wearing the rough brown frock and cord, with 
 sandals on their bare feet. It was difficult to 
 tell at a glance from what class they were 
 drawn ; certainly not from the higher and more 
 refined. Thev greatlv differed as to age, and 
 the older men had the better appearance. On 
 the whole they were not dignified in bearing, 
 and in person did not look as clean as thev 
 might have done. 
 
 We spent a long time in church, looking at 
 the altar-piece and reading what the guide-book
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 to the Casentino of Beni had to sav of 
 La Verna. This is the only guide - book 
 to the district as far as I know. It was our 
 constant companion, but we found that it 
 required close and repeated reading, for it is a 
 queer jumble of all kinds of information. We 
 then wandered along the gallery which bridges 
 the abyss between the settlement and the isolated 
 bit of rock on which stands the Chapel of the 
 Stigmata. With its dark panelling and its one 
 large altar-piece this chapel is a true place of 
 rest. Its large della Robbia represents the 
 Crucifixion, with the figures of the Virgin, St 
 John the Baptist, St Jerome and St Francis 
 standing and kneeling below. This association 
 of saints of later date with the characters of 
 Scripture comes at first as a shock to the 
 historical mind ; to the Middle Ages it appeared 
 natural. St Anthony of Padua, in a vision, saw 
 the child Christ sitting on his prayer-book. St 
 Bernard, in a vision, saw the Virgin standing 
 before him. When these scenes came to be 
 represented in art they assumed the form of real 
 incidents. And by a further development, St 
 Francis and other holy men and women of the 
 Middle Ages were pictured in contemplation of 
 the Nativity, the Crucifixion and other decisive 
 moments in Biblical history as though they had 
 been present at them in the flesh. 
 
 There were other sights to be seen at La 
 D 49
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 Verna : the rocky chasm where St Francis 
 hurled aside the devil, and the Luoghi Santi, 
 a number of grottoes and rock-hewn chambers 
 where the saint once lived. Visitors from all 
 parts of the world come to La Verna, and on 
 Sundays they say there are crowds of country 
 people all eager for the sights. For myself, I 
 was content with what I had seen and glad to 
 rest in the convent, where an old friar gave us 
 wine and water to drink. He chatted about 
 the convent and about himself. How long had 
 he stayed there — forty years ? Yes, quite that. 
 Fifty ? Quite likely, it came to much the same 
 thing. I had recently been reading the Life of 
 St Francis by Sabatier, a charming writer, who 
 makes the joyful side of the saint's nature very 
 real. The old friar remembered his stay at La 
 Verna, but he would not say much about him. 
 Then we sat outside under the huge beeches, 
 as yet bare of foliage, listening to the birds, 
 which seemed as numerous and as tuneful as 
 they were seven hundred years ago. With the 
 sun shining brilliantly we started homewards to 
 Bibbiena. The ascent of the Penna,and a walk 
 over to Chiusi, which lay below in a streak of 
 blue mist, are expeditions I should wish to make 
 if I ever again visit the district.
 
 IV 
 Camaldoli and Si Romuald 
 
 " Qui c Roniualdo 
 Qui son' li frati iniei che dentro il chiostro 
 Fermar li piedi e tennero il cuor sahlo." 
 
 (Pur. 22, 49 rt.) 
 
 A day's walking and we were removed to a very 
 different atmosphere, and to associations widely 
 separated from those connected with the high 
 retreat of La Verna. A wide gulf divides the 
 temper of a man like St Francis from that of 
 a St Romuald. Both are accepted saints of the 
 Church, but while the one taught men how to 
 be guided by love through the example of his 
 own gentleness and forbearance, the other 
 emphatically denounced those who interpreted 
 the religious life differently from himself. St 
 Francis is the gentle soul of the thirteenth 
 century, that yields that it may conquer ; St 
 Romuald is the rough-and-ready champion of 
 the tenth century, ever ready to start up in 
 defence of Mother Church. 
 
 Camaldoli is a pearl among the manv pearls 
 
 of the Casentino. I have seen it in spring-time 
 
 only ; the Italians tell you that it is even more 
 
 beautiful in summer, when its shady chestnut 
 
 51
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 groves and dark pine forest give a sense of 
 restored energy and renewed vigour to those 
 who come here from the arid plains of Tuscany 
 and the blinding heat of the streets of Florence. 
 Camaldoli may be conveniently reached by a 
 good driving road or by paths from the east or 
 the west. We decided on striking into the 
 former of these two paths, and on a genial day 
 we bid adieu to Bibbiena, descending first and 
 then mounting with the driving road which 
 afterwards followed an even ridge for several 
 miles. 
 
 The views from this ridge were extensive and 
 varied. In the distance the panorama of the 
 hills was slowly unfolding. Nearer at hand 
 our attention was caught now by a peach-tree 
 with its purple blossoms, then by a cherry-tree, 
 its downy white branches swaying with the 
 breeze. We passed several countrv-houses, 
 always somewhat removed from the road and 
 always flanked by a group of dark cvpresses, 
 which sometimes extended into an avenue 
 down the slope of the hill. These old country- 
 houses of Tuscany consist of a dwelling-house 
 and a farm, which sometimes stand a little way 
 apart, the dwelling-house marked by a look of 
 greater trimness and reserve ; sometimes thev 
 are brought closer together with an increased 
 look of orderliness to the one and of homeliness 
 to the other. Both houses are built of stone, 
 52
 
 
 %^B»feJtJ 
 
 =di 
 
 Wr 
 
 'iftft'" 
 
 t'r<K*7 
 
 :t«^- 
 
 
 
 •'i^c- •::*, ', 
 
 ^"'^^'^'•M;::;''' ''^'^Iv^^^ 
 
 I 
 
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 *^ 
 
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 ■-^$4;-^ 
 
 Mr^;■)^: 
 
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 ->v^,''' 111, iiirwaH^"'' 
 
 ,:Si lit::l,l|,i;i 
 
 CAMALDOLI (CASENTINo)
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 usually two storeys high. And both are 
 covered with red rough-tiled roofs that lie flat 
 and broad over the entire dwelling and project 
 on all sides into wide eaves. 
 
 We passed through Camprena, a posto which 
 also had its peculiarity. The houses neither 
 fronted the street nor stood at right angles to 
 it, a want of arrangement not accounted for 
 by any apparent irregularity of the ground. 
 Such an Italian village has none of the neat 
 clustering of its English or German namesake. 
 There is no village church standing aloof to 
 watch over the entrance and exit from life of 
 suffering humanity ; no village green with 
 ancient oak suggesting a living protection to 
 rights and liberties ; no well-appointed inn 
 betokening the love of an evening's good cheer. 
 The houses have come together anvhow, and 
 few are the attempts made to brighten a portico 
 or a window with a row of flower-pots. Some- 
 times the house itself is washed over with pink 
 or yellow, but there is never a scrap of flower- 
 garden to add a bright spot of colour to its 
 surroundings. 
 
 Further along the road lav Soci, a place which 
 went through stormy experiences in the early 
 Middle Ages. Remains of its own castle walls 
 and remains of the castles of Gressa and 
 Marciano, which frown from heights above and 
 beyond it, recall the times when might made 
 55
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 havoc with right. At one time the Prince Bishop 
 of Arezzo owned the place and made it over to 
 the monks of Camaldoli. But, apparently on 
 account of its insecurity, they parted with it 
 to one of the Counts Guidi in exchange for 
 rights of ownership at Bagno on the further 
 side of the Apennines. However, the Guidi 
 did not long remain in possession of the castle ; 
 they lost it to their enemies, the Tarlati of 
 Pietramala. 
 
 Soci is now a growing centre of industry, and 
 boasts of several factories. The high chimney 
 of one of these figures is the attractive feature 
 on the local picture post card. The thought 
 often arises in these days at what a terrible cost 
 to itself mankind is securing greater cheapness 
 in goods — raising the standard of comfort, as 
 economists put it ; the thought was brought 
 home in this outlying district. For the men 
 and women we met in other parts of the district 
 were robust in health and decently, if poorly, 
 clad ; the children were chubby, well-fed and 
 full of buoyancy. But in places like Soci a 
 blight seemed to have fallen on mankind. Men 
 and women, girls and boys, all had the same 
 look of mixed listlessness and craving, and the 
 children were pale and neglected. No doubt 
 here, as elsewhere, the people who flocked to the 
 factories were impatient of the restraints and 
 the penury of home ; they escaped from the toil 
 56
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 of home, but they did so at the cost of the 
 home's regularity of habit. Stranded in a 
 strange place, bound by no responsibilities but 
 those they chose to recognise, these men and 
 women soon fell into irregular wavs and formed 
 illicit connections, with a consequent loss oi 
 physique to themselves and a deterioration oi 
 the race in a couple of generations. 
 
 Beyond Soci the mountains began to draw 
 closer together. The road followed the river 
 Archiano, which flowed in a narrower bed and 
 assumed the character of a torrent. Only the 
 land that was near the river was brought under 
 cultivation. The slopes above were covered 
 with a thin scrub of stunted oaks bearing only 
 the sere foliage of last vear's growth. These 
 mountains were chiefly of a brown mud-rock 
 that had crumbled away along the water- 
 courses, or else, undermined by them, had fallen 
 in masses of soft earth, forming the gentler 
 slopes. Side-valleys opened and closed as we 
 passed onwards. The characteristics of the 
 plain were disappearing more and more. We 
 were entering the region of the Apennines. 
 
 At one point of the road we were doubtful if 
 we should leave the valley, and seeing a man 
 under a hay-stack munching bread and cheese 
 we consulted him. But his look was interested, 
 and he was so positive that the diverging path 
 not being ours, we should never reach Camaldoli 
 57
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 unless we consented to his guidance, that we 
 became equally positive the map should be our 
 only guide. We cut short further parleying bv 
 saying that we could but return if we missed the 
 way altogether. Of this there was no chance. 
 A short distance further and we sighted Serra- 
 valle, towering high on a steep eminence that 
 fronted all quarters. On one side it commanded 
 the bend in the road that led onwards across the 
 Apennines into Romagna ; on the other it 
 stood well above a dip in the hills, and over- 
 looked the side-valley down which the Fosso of 
 Camaldoli flowed to join the Archiano. The 
 mountain streams throughout the Casentino are 
 spoken of as fossi^ though not generally so 
 designated on the map — a peculiar use of the 
 word which suggests affinity to the northern y^j- 
 rather than to the Latin fossa. In sight of 
 Serravalle we sat for a while and feasted on our 
 usual lunch of bread, eggs and wine. After that 
 we followed the stream for a time, and then, 
 parting company with it, we began the ascent 
 up the steep winding slope. 
 
 On a clear day such as this, the steeper the 
 ascent the more striking the observation how 
 the nearer mountains sink into insignificance 
 before the higher ranges that rise on the sky- 
 line beyond. Under the dome of blue, with its 
 few sailing clouds, the air was of absolute 
 transparency, and every detail of the level we 
 58
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 had left, every detail of the level to which wc 
 were attaining, stood out in shining clearness. 
 Each special portion of the world above, below, 
 around had its distino-uishin^ feature, from the 
 flock of sheep grazing by the stream below to 
 the man carrying stakes up the opposite slope, 
 and to the dark birds hanging over Serravalle. 
 But the observing faculty soon wearied with 
 watching for new impressions. With the 
 brighter sunshine, the keener air and the more 
 fragrant vegetation of the height, a dreamy 
 consciousness took possession of tfie mind — a 
 consciousness of being nearer heaven — heaven, 
 a fictitious limitation of space indeed, but a 
 limitation the thought of which brought one's 
 own concerns into an amended relation to those 
 of the world generally. After all, it is by 
 drawing imaginary circles that the mind 
 attains to a conception of relative size. The 
 greater the height, the wider the outlook ; 
 the stronger the consciousness of the world 
 we possess not, the clearer the conception of 
 that part of the world which we have made 
 our own. 
 
 Higher up patches of snow lay here and there 
 on the shady side of the path. The shrubs and 
 plants became stunted and nipped, with the ex- 
 ception of the flowering giant spurge that stood 
 up from the stony ground vigorous and brilliantly 
 decorative. Wc passed a cluster of dwellings, 
 59
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 built of rock and founded on rock, grev and 
 weather-worn, quite Alpine in character, where 
 the necessities of life are wrung from nature in 
 a close hand-to-hand fight. For a long time 
 our path was rocky and uneven and lay between 
 thorny undergrowth. Then it led down at a 
 gentle gradient and drew nearer to the bed of 
 the Fosso. Within a few minutes' walk the 
 character of the surroundings entirely changed. 
 From a stony wilderness we had passed into an 
 enchanted grove. The slopes lost their steep- 
 ness, and the ground lost its bareness. We 
 walked under high chestnuts along a moss-grown 
 path that was soft to the tread, and then over a 
 carpet of verdure bright with spring flowers, 
 which recalled the emerald meadow dotted with 
 shining flowers over which angels lead mortals to 
 heaven in the painting of Fra Angelico. It was 
 late in the afternoon, and the slanting sun-rays 
 made golden lights on the trunks of the trees and 
 set aglow the patches of primroses. The call of 
 the cuckoo sounded at intervals, and there was the 
 distant warbling of many woodland birds. One 
 wished for the path to lengthen out indefinitely ; 
 all too soon the massive settlement of Camaldoli, 
 set against a forest of pines, closed in the head 
 of the valley. 
 
 There is a graceful legend concerning a monk 
 (I forget his name) who was one day tempted to 
 stray from the path of life ; he was sore perplexed 
 60
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 ill his mind by the words of the Psalmist, " A 
 thousand years in God's sight are but as 
 yesterday." How could time, that uniform 
 flow " unaffected by the speed or the motion 
 of material things," be robbed of the con- 
 ception of its length ? How could time ever 
 cease to exist to one who was endowed with 
 consciousness ? 
 
 To the monk, as to many another, failing to 
 see was failing to believe. With a heavy heart 
 he wandered forth into the convent garden 
 carrying his problem with him. Qjiod ernt 
 demonstrandum: would a greater intercede in 
 liis behalf? Time slipped by unawares. It was 
 late at night when he regained the convent gate, 
 but those who opened in answer to his call knew 
 him not. His talk, his appearance, his manner 
 were strange to them, and yet there was that in 
 him which commanded attention — he was like as 
 well as unlike. They admitted him, and after a 
 while the memory of an old, old story came to 
 one of the monks who listened to him — how 
 long ago a member of the fraternity had been 
 troubled in his mind and had wandered forth 
 and never returned, but it had always been 
 believed by some that he was still among the 
 living. After much seeking his name was 
 found in an old convent register. It was the 
 name of the monk who had returned after a 
 thousand years. Then thcv saw him as one of 
 61
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 themselves. The miracle was accomplished. 
 And the monk understood that eternities which 
 are the products of human conception hold good 
 for man only. God's eternities may be different. 
 It is said that a short time afterwards he passed 
 away from life in peace. 
 
 And would it be very different if that monk 
 had been one of the companions of St Romuald 
 here at Camaldoli, nay not quite a thousand, 
 just nine hundred years ago ? If he came back 
 now would he know these surroundings for those 
 he had left ? Would he feel it the same world 
 as it was then, ruled by the same ideas — that a 
 simple life is conducive to elevation of mind, 
 and that the air of the heights and the pure water 
 of undefiled springs make the bodv strong to 
 withstand evil ? And would they too know him 
 as one of themselves, those venerable monks, 
 bent with age and dignified in bearing, who 
 were approaching the monastery along the upper 
 road as we neared it along the lower ? Their 
 woollen robes of many folds were white, such as 
 Romuald in his dream beheld his companions 
 wearing, when, like Jacob, he saw a ladder set up 
 on the earth and reaching up to heaven, and his 
 monks were the angels ascending and descending 
 on it. These men had drawn their hoods over 
 their heads, and over them they wore large, 
 wide-brimmed Tuscan straw hats. Thev were 
 neatly stockinged and shoed, and most of them 
 62
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 had flowing beards and a complexion that re- 
 minded one of the delicate tints of crumpled 
 rose-leaves. To us thev were figures of a 
 distant past, and it was wonderful to think that 
 if one of the old monks of Romuald's time 
 were to come among them, the great differ- 
 ence in them would be the first thing to strike 
 him. 
 
 The monastic settlement of Camaldoli con- 
 sisted of a monastery placed near a famous 
 spring, Fonte Buona, and of a hermitage, the 
 Eremo, which was situated further up among 
 the mountains. One of the reasons of Romuald's 
 success lay in his refounding hermit life on a new 
 basis — it is one mark of a genius to turn exist- 
 ing tendencies to new and profitable account. 
 In the monastery all were made welcome ; to the 
 hermitage those were promoted whose temper 
 proved their fitness for a solitary life. At the 
 present time only a small wing of the monastery 
 was inhabited by the monks, who rented it from 
 the Government, the vast conglomerate of 
 buildings having been turned into a hotel. But 
 the hermitage up among the mountains was still 
 entirely occupied by them. Up there lived 
 those who were able to endure the privations 
 of hermit life ; up there they remained till, 
 weakened by old age, they came down to the 
 monastery to be tended in sickness, and after 
 death their mortal remains were carried back 
 63
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 to the Eremo to be buried in the ancient 
 burial-ground. 
 
 The account of the life of St Romuald, 
 which was written by St Peter Damian, who 
 belonged to the following generation, gives 
 curious glimpses of the attitude of men's minds 
 in a far-distant past. It is never easv to 
 transport one's self to the moral and ethical 
 standard of another age, for the actions of the 
 men who then stirred up the emotions and 
 aroused enthusiasm can be very differently 
 interpreted ; in one aspect they are heroes, in 
 another they are faddists. It is in this respect 
 with Romuald as with the holy man of another 
 age, Diogenes the Cynic. Looked at from one 
 point of view, the courage with which Diogenes 
 acted up to his convictions, the cheerfulness 
 with which he bore the hardships of slavery, 
 and the simplicity of life which he affected, 
 bear the stamp of grandeur. Looked at from 
 another side, he is a man of oddities and eccen- 
 tricities. Prompted in a like direction, Romuald 
 launched forth against misdeeds, discarded every 
 comfort, and commanded respect from the most 
 powerful. But his behaviour also appears 
 absurd if we fix our minds on the way he 
 courted dirt, weakened himself by fasting, and 
 wore himself out by imaginary conflicts with 
 the devil. And there are other points of 
 similarity between the cynic of classical antiquity 
 64
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 and the saint of early Christianity. The cynic 
 called himself a citizen of the world, and the word 
 cosmopolitan is held to be his invention ; while 
 the saint exaggerated the power of his efforts so 
 vastly that " he looked forward to the time when 
 the whole world would be transformed into a 
 hermitage, and the mass of the nations united in 
 one monastic order." Both men were praised 
 for their undisturbed serenity under tribulation, 
 and both in unabated vigour reached the extreme 
 limits of old age. 
 
 Let us look more closely into the account of 
 Romuald's life, an account written by a great man 
 and telling of a great man is surely worth analysis, 
 Romuald was a native of Ravenna, and was born 
 early in the tenth century of a noble family. As 
 a youth he was witness how his father killed a 
 relative ; and he went to St Apollinare in Classe, 
 to expiate the crime by fortv days' penance. The 
 church of St Apollinare is little changed from 
 what it was then, and visitors to Ravenna will 
 recall with delight the simple proportions of the 
 roomy basilica, and its brilliant mosaics, with St 
 Apollinare preaching with his flock of sheep 
 around him. A monk of the church proposed 
 that Romuald should join the fraternity, and the 
 young man agreed to do so, after spending a 
 night in church, when St Apollinare himself 
 appeared as the monk had foretold — a proof, as 
 Romuald declared and as Peter Damian believed, 
 K 65
 
 Throug'h the Casentino 
 
 that the saint really lay buried here. But 
 Romuald's innate spirit of restlessness and want 
 of consideration for the shortcomings of others 
 cut short his stay after three years' noviciate. 
 The monks would lie in bed when it was time 
 to be in church singing, and Romuald, finding the 
 church closed, sang in the dormitory. The monks 
 decided to rid themselves of the inconvenient 
 enthusiast by throwing him out of the window. 
 Romuald, however, escaped to the woods, 
 and there he found a companion to his heart's 
 desire in the unlearned but ardent Marinus. This 
 holy hermit chanted through the entire psalter 
 every day ; he would repeat twenty verses under 
 one tree, twenty under the next, and so on till his 
 task was accomplished. Romuald joined him in 
 his exercises, and mistakes in his performance were 
 punished bv a blow on the ear from the hermit's 
 staff. When his hearing became impaired in 
 consequence, he turned his other ear for castiga- 
 tion, and his stern master was touched. On 
 three days of the week the two hermits lived on 
 a bit of bread and a handful of beans ; on the 
 other four, crushed corn, puinwnti/m^ constituted 
 their food. Their conduct was evidently con- 
 sidered unexceptionable, and in 978 when, in 
 consequence of an insurrection in Venice, Count 
 Petro Orseolo, who had headed it, was advised 
 to seek refuge in a convent, Romuald and 
 Marinus were among those chosen to escort him 
 66
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 to a monastery near Pcrpignan in the south of 
 France. There thcv resumed the old life, and 
 were credited with great holiness. Romuald's 
 fame increased owing to incidents such as this. 
 A lord of the neighbourhood, impeto barbnrico^ stole 
 a cow from a peasant. The peasant begged 
 Romuald to ask for the cow, but the lord laughed 
 his request to scorn ; the cow was roasted for 
 the feast. However, the holy man's interference 
 was not wasted. When the lord came to eat of 
 the cow, a bit of meat stuck in his throat and he 
 died a wretched death. No wonder that the 
 people of the neighbourhood, when they heard 
 that Romuald was about to leave for Italy, as 
 they could not retain him, decided to kill him so 
 as at least to secure his corpse. It was a time 
 when relics, especially on the further side of the 
 Alps, commanded a high price in the market. 
 Kings and emperors gave gold and jewels in 
 exchange for them, ecclesiastics of the higher 
 grades did not hesitate from stealing where 
 they could not procure them otherwise. And 
 the relics did not lose by being transferred ; on 
 the contrary, their wonder-working properties if 
 anything increased. Romuald, however, was 
 apprised of the country folk's intention, and 
 knew how to meet it. He rapidly shaved his 
 head, and when they came, intending to kill 
 him, they found liim eating immoderately. 
 This was contrary to all accepted ideas of 
 67
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 saintliness ; they thought he had gone mad 
 and went away. The holy man was left to 
 depart in peace for Italy, where he found a 
 new work awaiting him. His father was about 
 to leave the convent he had entered. This had 
 to be prevented. Romuald fastened his father's 
 feet in stocks, loaded him with chains and 
 whipped him till the old man's senses returned. 
 Romuald's career as a reformer now began, 
 but, as his biographer says, " the zeal was 
 so great that glowed in this man's breast 
 that he was never satisfied with what he had 
 accomplished, and ever turned to new under- 
 takings." 
 
 Thus we find him at one time dwelling in a 
 solitary cell in the marshes, where, like St 
 Guthlac in the fens of Lincolnshire, he was 
 endlessly worried through the lawless agencv of 
 bad spirits. After that, thanks to the protection 
 of Ugo, margrave of Tuscany, he collected 
 about him a number of monks at Bagno, in 
 Romagna. But he so incensed them by sending 
 money to the relief of a distant monastery which 
 had been consumed by fire that he had to flee 
 before their rage. Some years later, Romuald 
 became for a time abbot at St Apollinare in 
 Classe, where he had staved in his youth. The 
 Emperor Otto III., when he crossed the Alps 
 in 996, heard that this monastery was going to 
 ruin, and he persuaded Romuald to reform the 
 68
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 monks. The influence which Romuald exerted 
 on the melancholy young emperor is full of 
 interesting particulars. Otto went a pilgrimage 
 on foot from Monte Gargano to Rome, and he 
 spent some time with the hermit Nilus, who 
 was working for the reform of religious life in 
 southern Italy along lines similar to those 
 Romuald was following in the north. Finally, 
 Otto spent forty days as a penitent in the con- 
 vent at Ravenna, and was almost persuaded by 
 Romuald to become a monk. Romuald's stay 
 as abbot at Classe was not, however, of long 
 duration. He soon came and laid his crozier at 
 the emperor's feet ; an abbot's life was not what 
 he desired. His zeal had taken another direc- 
 tion. He was fired by the thought of restoring 
 hermit life on the model of what had existed in 
 Egypt, and he travelled about from place to 
 place collecting together wandering monks, the 
 gyrovagiy whom St Benedict had denounced as 
 evil. He arranged that they should dwell 
 together, and join in the observance of certain 
 rules. 
 
 This restoration of monastic life was part of a 
 wider scheme. Reference has been made to the 
 growth of simony, both among laymen and 
 ecclesiastics. The evil had assumed such pro- 
 portions towards the close of the tenth century 
 that the prestige of the Church was seriously 
 jeopardised. It was a critical epoch, and all 
 69
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 depended on exposing the cause of the evil and 
 on stirring men's consciences with regard to it. 
 Romuald came forward and openly declared 
 that simony was the most damnable heresy, and 
 that no one who had entered the Church for 
 money could hope for salvation unless he gave 
 up his benefice and became a layman. Peter 
 Damian was of opinion that, while no one acted 
 directly in compliance with this request, the stir 
 which Romuald made was great. More than once 
 he was in danger of his life, and the experiences 
 through which he went are full of interesting 
 particulars. At one time he lived for seven 
 years as a hermit, and came back, his body 
 shrivelled, weather-stained and of the colour of 
 a newt. But his cutting himself ofF from the 
 society of his fellows apparently led to many 
 conversions. At another time he was fired by 
 the wish to take a part in evangelising Hungary. 
 Among the monks he had come across was a 
 son of the Prince of Hungary. But it was not 
 to be. When Romuald and his companions had 
 gone some way on their journey, sickness over- 
 took them, and sickness returned to the party 
 whenever it attempted to proceed. There was 
 nothing left to do but give up the undertaking 
 and return to Italy. 
 
 Romuald's fame was at its height when the 
 Emperor Heinrich II. crossed the Alps in 
 1022. So much was he moved by Romuald 
 70
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 that he expressed the wish tliat his soul were 
 in the saint's body. Romuald's appearance at 
 the time was peculiar. Hoary, unkempt and 
 unwashed, he came to court wearing a dirty, 
 shaggy skin. The Germans crowded round in 
 the hope of snatching a few hairs from it, which 
 they wished to preserve as relics. 
 
 Romuald first came to Camaldoli about the 
 year 1018. It has been affirmed and denied 
 that the site of the monastery was a gift to him 
 from a certain Count Maldolo, and that the 
 name Camaldoli represents tiie words Casa 
 AlalduU. The saint never staved here long, 
 and he died away from here in his hermit's cell 
 at Val de Castro in 1027. But the routine 
 of life at Camaldoli was held to represent his 
 aspirations, and Camaldoli gave its name to all 
 the monasteries which Romuald had founded. 
 These were never numerous. The order did 
 not spread much beyond Italy and the south of 
 France. But within these limits it exerted 
 considerable influence. 
 
 And thus attended by thoughts of the 
 enthusiast who laid the foundations of this vast 
 establishment so many hundreds of years ago, 
 we entered the building by a long arched stone 
 passage, which led up from the garden without 
 to the courtyard within. This courtyard is said 
 to date from the tenth century ; I have rarely 
 seen one more impressive through the stern 
 71
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 simplicity and perfect balance of its proportions. 
 It is built throughout of the same grey stone, and 
 there is little attempt at ornamentation. Pillars 
 with slightly swelled shafts and simple capitals 
 support round arches which extend round the four 
 sides of a paved court. In the centre of this 
 court stands a fountain with an unceasing flow of 
 water. Passages, staircases and narrow corridors 
 lead off in different directions. Surely there 
 could be nothing more suited to the solitary side 
 of one's nature than to sit on one of the huge 
 logs of wood that lay on one side of the court, 
 listening to the flow of the water and watching 
 the clouds that floated across the opening above. 
 Now and again there was the sound of voices and 
 of footsteps coming and going in the far distance. 
 A man carried faggots across the court, a woman 
 came to wash lettuces at the fountain — living 
 figures that moved in the round of duty and 
 seemed to emphasise the old-world solitude of 
 the place. There is no greater solitude than an 
 open-air solitude from which the life of nature 
 is excluded. And within these walls there was 
 no sign of animal or vegetable life — nothing to 
 remind one of the stirring of the sap or the 
 beating of a pulse, except that of which one was 
 conscious of in one's self. 
 
 That night we had the vast hotel of Camaldoli 
 to ourselves. In the springtime there are few 
 visitors. We ate and slept in some rooms oflF the 
 72
 
 COURTVARD OF CAM\LDJLI
 
 Through tlic Casentino 
 
 ancient courtyard. We wandered into the 
 roomv church. One of the old monks had died 
 that afternoon, and pravers were being offered for 
 his salvation. We met the bier as it was carried 
 out from the church. 
 
 Like other monasteries, Camaldoli has ex- 
 perienced many vicissitudes in times of war and 
 in times of peace. Throughout the Middle 
 Ages it remained a famous goal for pilgrimages, 
 and its woodland air and mountain freshness 
 made it a favourite health resort. The converts 
 to the order were at first devoted to outdoor pur- 
 suits — the hermits in their little gardens tended 
 plants that were used for making drugs, and 
 the monks were devoted to the culture of the 
 forests. Later, they contracted a taste for learn- 
 ing, and a famous librarv was collected, chiefly 
 bv Ambrogio Traversari, who took an important 
 place in the early Italian Renaissance. Of this 
 intellectual life no trace remains. The books 
 were scattered at the beginning of this century. 
 Some are at Poppi, others are at P'lorcncc, and 
 the love of letters is dead. But with the older 
 achievements time has dealt more sparingly. A 
 pharmacv still makes part of the settlement, 
 and the surrounding forest retains the fame of 
 being one of the finest in Europe. When the 
 Government appropriated Camaldoli, the tradi- 
 tions of the monks regarding the cultivation of 
 the trees were carried on, and Vallombrosa, the 
 73
 
 Throug'h the Casentino 
 
 monastery on the further side of the Pratomagno, 
 was turned into a school of forestry. All the 
 forests throughout the district were placed 
 under its care, and thus the great fir trees, 
 the abete of Camaldoli, its chestnut groves, and 
 its beech and oak forests have preserved some of 
 their old grandeur. 
 
 ..,. » .M* 
 
 LANDMARK OF CAMALDOLI 
 
 76
 
 V 
 
 In the Apennines 
 
 ..." appic del Cascntino 
 Traversa un' actjua c'ha nome I'Archiano 
 Che sovra I'Ermo nasce in Appennino." 
 
 {P„rg. 5, 96 ff.) 
 
 Early on the following morning we left the 
 monastery of Camaldoli for the hermitage. It 
 was a beautiful walk of about three miles, along 
 a steep, paved path through the ancient pine 
 forest. The air was cold but the sun was bright, 
 and the trees emitted a strong resinous frag- 
 rance. I have never walked under trees more 
 stalwart in stature, the stem of each straight, 
 smooth and rounded as a shaft, with branches 
 loaded with hanging verdure jutting out in 
 grander sweeps. 
 
 At one point of the road three large wooden 
 crosses marked the limit which the hermi-ts 
 formerly from their side were not allowed to 
 cross ; from this side no woman was allowed to 
 penetrate beyond them. But the story goes 
 that a princess of the house of Medici, dressed in 
 man's clothing, once braved the restriction. 
 She visited the hermitage, with no further 
 consequences, however, but that, having satisfied 
 11
 
 Throug-h the Casentino 
 
 her curiosity, she went and confessed to the 
 Pope, and he bid her give money to build an 
 additional cell in expiation of her crime, which, 
 to this day, is designated by the armorial balls, 
 the palle^ of the Medici family. 
 
 The paved path mostly followed the course of 
 the Fosso of Camaldoli which rises above the 
 Eremo. Dante apparently looked upon this 
 stream not as a tributary of the Archiano, but as 
 the Archiano itself, for he lets Buonconte in 
 Purgatory speak of the Archiano as " taking its 
 rise above the hermitage." The river came 
 down between moss-grown rocks, carrying with 
 it a stream of mountain fragrance, and the path 
 which followed it ended on a wide grass-grown 
 space, at one end of which stood the hermitage. 
 And up here, in the midst of the forest, at an eleva- 
 tion of 3700 feet above sea level, and in a climate 
 which these thin-skinned southerners talked of 
 as cold and rough in the extreme, stood the 
 twenty-four little stone cells of the hermitage, 
 each inside the walled enclosure of its garden. 
 Here in the depth of mountain solitude, cut 
 ofF from intercourse with the world, and 
 restricted in their intercourse with each other, 
 the hermits of Camaldoli lived the same life of 
 seclusion and solitude which St Romuald 
 considered the surest way of attaining to 
 happiness and heaven. Here they lived, dwelling 
 alone, eating alone and working- alone, with the 
 
 78
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 conceptions of time and space obliterated as far 
 as disregard of the ordinary interests of life will 
 obliterate them, with no hope or expectation of 
 change, a life in which time can mend and mar 
 nothing. 
 
 We were told that all the cells were tenanted 
 except the original cell of St Romuald, which is 
 always kept standing empty. All the cells are 
 constructed on the same plan. Each consists of a 
 small house divided into two rooms opening out 
 of each other, with an additional recess in which 
 stands the bed. The windows and the door 
 open on a small garden, which is surrounded bv 
 walls so as to close in the view. Each hermit 
 attends to his own garden, in which he grows 
 herbs and vegetables. The cooking for the 
 whole settlement is done in an outhouse, and 
 the food is brought round and handed in to each 
 of the cells. Seven times in the twenty-four 
 hours the hermits wander forth and assemble in 
 church to pray together ; otherwise they are 
 alone. 
 
 We were shown over the church by a white- 
 robed monk, who readily talked of the smaller 
 interests of life — of the severity of the winter, 
 the dailv routine, and the relics and pictures of 
 the different chapels. But he did not respond 
 when I expressed regret at the severance of 
 intercourse between the different existing settle- 
 ments of the Order of Camaldoli, a severance 
 79
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 which is inevitably leading to the collapse of the 
 whole organisation. It may be part of these 
 men's attitude of mind, or it may be a self- 
 imposed limitation, that any allusion to change 
 is met by cheerful and unquestioning acceptance 
 of things as they are. Is it that the future of 
 their order has become a matter of indifference 
 to them, or is it that a tacit agreement among 
 them prevents them from discussing their own 
 affairs with outsiders ? The monk also showed 
 us over the cell of St Romuald, which is un- 
 changed, they say, except that the piety of a 
 later age has covered the inside of its rough walls 
 with panelling. On occasions this cell has been 
 offered to distinguished visitors. It was so 
 offered to St Francis, but he felt the honour too 
 great to accept. 
 
 Many visitors in the course of centuries have 
 visited this hermitage. Popes, emperors, men 
 of piety and men of learning have prayed in its 
 chapel. And up here in the shade of these huge 
 pines those conversations took place which the 
 learned Cristofero Landini has described, when 
 some of the ablest scholars of the Earlv Italian 
 Renaissance stayed here together in the summer 
 of 1468, and whiled away several days in learned 
 philosophical discussion. 
 
 The Conversations of Camaldoli are remark- 
 able chiefly for their learned interest, but 
 their setting is attractive, as thev enable us to 
 80
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 realise the friendly relations of some of the most 
 distinguished men of the Medicean circle — men 
 to whom the revival of learning and modern 
 scholarship owes a debt of gratitude. For these 
 conversations take us back to the time when the 
 Republic of Florence, following the example of 
 the Republic of Venice, had become the home 
 of several learned Greeks. The spirit of a new 
 era was stirring in every department of human 
 knowledge, and those who studied the works of 
 Plato and of his expositors at first hand and with 
 some thoroughness, showed a renewed interest 
 in Virgil and Horace, Dante and Petrarch. 
 The Greek writers were translated into Latin, 
 and many of them in a Latin garb first saw the 
 daylight of print. But the works of Latin and 
 Italian authors likewise engrossed attention, and 
 Italian itself once more was looked upon as a 
 language capable of expressing the great thoughts 
 of great men. 
 
 Among those who, according to Landini, met 
 together at Camaldoli on a summer day of 
 1468, were several whose life-work was bound 
 up in revising, editing and translating the 
 great works of antiquity. The first to arrive 
 were the two young Medici, Lorenzo, after- 
 wards surnamcd the Magnificent, and his 
 brother Giuliano, who was afterwards stabbed 
 in the rising organised by the Pazzi. They 
 were accompanied by Alcmanno Rinuccini, 
 
 F 81
 
 Through the Cascntino 
 
 who is known for his translation of some of 
 Plutarch's Lives ; by Donato Acciajuoli, the 
 author of a commentary on Aristotle ; by 
 Donato's brother Piero ; by Marco Parenti, and 
 by Antonio Canegiano, " most learned men," 
 Landini calls them, " who had studied eloquence 
 for years and who had gained proficiency in 
 philosophical discussion by means of arduous 
 study." They were resting at the hermitage 
 when Landini describes himself as arriving. He 
 brought his brother with him. Landini is chiefly 
 remembered among us for his commentary on 
 Dante, but he also wrote commentaries on 
 Horace and Virgil. He taught Latin at 
 the newly-founded Academy of Florence, and 
 in later days he became Chancellor of the 
 Republic. 
 
 The party had barely exchanged greetings 
 when the news was brought that two other 
 friends had arrived at the monastery, where they 
 were leaving their horses to come up to the 
 Eremo on foot, led by the prior Mariotto. 
 The order of Camaldoli had recently lost a 
 shining light in its general, Ambrogio 
 Traversari, known as il famoso Greco^ who 
 not only read Greek but spoke it with 
 fluency. Mariotto was his pupil. The men 
 he was conducting were Leone Battista Alberti, 
 and Marsilio Ficino — men as different as possible 
 in appearance and bearing, but who stand as 
 82
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 representative figures of the Italian Renaissance, 
 each in a special direction. 
 
 Whoever came into contact with Leone 
 Battista felt that the gods had bestowed on him 
 the fulness of their gifts, for he set the mark of 
 originality on whatever he handled. His many- 
 sidedness in after days was only excelled by that 
 of Lionardo da Vinci. As a mere youth, Leon 
 Battista wrote a comedy which passed for a re- 
 discovered classic ; and he is the author of the 
 first treatises on painting, sculpture and archi- 
 tecture that can lay claim to a scientific basis. 
 He worked as an architect, and the front of Santa 
 Maria Novella at Florence was his design. He 
 was a famous talker, a man of clever savings, and 
 eloquent in praise of beauty wherever he found 
 it — in art, in nature and in man. From youth 
 upwards he was renowned for his agility, and 
 increasing years dealt kindly with his good 
 looks. At the time of his coming to Camaldoli 
 he was in the sixties. 
 
 Marsilio Ficino, whom he is here described 
 as having met on his way from Rome, was 
 the greatest Hellenist of his age and the 
 keenest intellect among the older Florentine 
 humanists. Small, frail and visionary, he com- 
 bined in himself the qualities that distinguish 
 and endear the typical scholar — patience, 
 sagacity, preciseness, extreme modesty and 
 a high tone of mental elevation. His fame 
 83
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 rests on his translation into Latin of the vvorlcs 
 of Plato, and he was the colleague of Landini 
 at the Florentine Academy, where he taught 
 Greek. In the large fresco of Domenico 
 Ghirlandajo in Santa Maria Novella at Flor- 
 ence, Marsilio Ficino and Landini are both 
 represented among the painter's distinguished 
 contemporaries. 
 
 Such were the men who met together at 
 the hermitage of Camaldoli, upwards of four 
 hundred years ago, rejoicing in the thought of 
 spending a few days together. On the first day 
 they rested. On the next they attended mass, 
 and then they sallied forth into the forest, and 
 there, under a spreading beech, they sat down 
 and Leone Battista opened the discussion. 
 Starting from the fact that the responsibilities of 
 public life were about to devolve on the two 
 young Medici owing to the ill-health of their 
 father, he spoke of the duties of a citizen, and 
 passed on to compare the respective merits of a 
 life of activity and of a life of contemplation. 
 This was a favourite subject of discussion at the 
 time, and Leone Battista ended by pronouncing 
 in favour of contemplation, a view which was 
 in accordance with Plato's ideality and with the 
 Christian exaltation of Mary above Martha. 
 On the following day the same subject was 
 discussed in the same company, and on the days 
 after they spoke of the greatest good and of 
 S4 ^
 
 Throup^h the Casentino 
 
 the true aim of human existence. No doubt 
 these Conversntiotis are largely of Landini's 
 making, but thcv were much appreciated by his 
 contemporaries, and Marsilio Ficino is known to 
 have admired them greatly. Thev were often 
 reprinted at that period ; now they have fallen 
 into oblivion, and only the student now and 
 again disturbs the dust which accumulates round 
 them on the bookshelf. 
 
 On leaving the hermitage we had intended 
 ascending to the Prato al Soglio, from where 
 there is a splendid view, and from there 
 crossing the mountains by a path which led to 
 Badia a Prataglia. But owing to the snow that 
 lay behind the Eremo this was impossible, and wc 
 found ourselves instead on a grassy road skirting 
 the mountain always at about the same level. 
 fVom one point of this road we looked down on 
 the huge monastery of Camaldoli ; further along 
 and the outlook was over apparently limitless 
 masses of pine forest ; further again and the 
 slopes below us were clothed with beeches, their 
 leafless branches just touched by the first tinge 
 of red. Finally we were out again on the bare 
 mountain, with the panorama of the Apennines 
 about us, and Serravalle with its tower hanging 
 far below in the blue mist like a bird. The 
 road now became a rough path over uneven, 
 mountainous ground, such as we had crossed on 
 the previous day, but we were at a higher eleva- 
 «5
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 tion, and the surroundings of sky and scenery 
 were proportionately grander. 
 
 I have often thought that the sky of different 
 mountainous regions is different, just as the sea 
 along different lines of the coast varies. 
 Whether we have seen the Mediterranean in 
 sunny weather or in rough, we carry away with 
 us the impression of its restless readiness to run 
 to froth be it counter to a breeze or against a 
 jutting headland. Similarly the North Sea 
 stays with us in its glassy reluctance to break, 
 and the Atlantic in the mighty inherent roll of 
 its waves. As great a difference in character 
 belongs to the sky of different mountainous 
 regions, though it is less easily fixed in word 
 and thouffht. To me heaviness and sullenness 
 seemed to characterise the sky of the Apennines ; 
 once it sank into the mountains, there it stayed. 
 The obvious reason was the poor clothing of 
 the soil and the want of running water ; there 
 were none of those surface currents which carry 
 down and dissolve the mists of thick weather 
 elsewhere. For once outside the forest region 
 of Camaldoli, there was a marked want of trees 
 and a marked want of water. The denudation 
 of the soil is something terrible, and already in 
 April many streams were running drv. 
 
 The path we followed had many beautiful 
 outlooks, but there was a good deal of snow, and 
 we had come far out of our way. We were 
 86
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 glad at last to catch sight of the white line of 
 the driving road into Romagna winding in and 
 out among the mountains below, for the days in 
 April are short. In this case a shower of rain 
 caused us to put on additional speed ; we were 
 down in the road before dark, and soon after- 
 wards established in comfortable quarters at the 
 Casa Rossi. This is no inn, in the ordinary 
 sense of the word — the family let the upper 
 part of their house in summer — but they 
 took us in for a couple of nights and made 
 us welcome. 
 
 Badia a Prataglia lies at about an hour's 
 distance below the pass of the driving road from 
 the Casentino into Romagna. The place 
 boasted of one of the oldest abbacies in the 
 Apennines, which dated its foundation further 
 back than St Romuald and Camaldoli. But in 
 course of time the abbacy of Prataglia lost its 
 standing, while that of the monastery of 
 Camaldoli increased, with the result that the 
 older abbey became a dependency of the newer 
 monastery. At present nothing remains of the 
 old settlement but the convent church. But 
 Prataglia itself is a growing place. Its 
 numerous houses lie scattered in groups up and 
 down the valley, and there are several new villa 
 residences belonging to families who come up 
 from Romagna and Tuscany to escape the heat 
 of the summer. A pension situated some distance 
 87
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 above the place on the hills is fast becoming a 
 favourite summer resort. 
 
 The Rossi at whose house we stayed are the 
 originators and the owners of a home industry 
 which has considerably raised the standard of 
 comfort throughout the district. The firm 
 exports simple wooden furniture, the different 
 parts of which are cut and carved to certain 
 patterns in the various homes and fitted together 
 on the premises. That evening being Saturday, 
 men were coming to the house bringing their 
 week's work, in exchange for which they carried 
 away payment in money or payment in kind 
 from the store kept by the Rossi. We were 
 shown examples of the articles manufactured — 
 chairs, stools, cradles and such like, all of the 
 simplest shape. Among other things, we were 
 shown a spinning-wheel, but we were told that 
 the attempt to introduce it has failed. The 
 Italian women prefer spinning from the distaff, 
 and it seems obvious that thev will continue to 
 do so till the use of machines supersedes hand- 
 labour. 
 
 Rain, wind, hail, a thunderstorm and a snow- 
 storm, we experienced them all in the one day 
 which we spent exploring the heights of the 
 neighbouring pass. But with a good road 
 within reach and food awaiting one under co\ er, 
 battling with the elements for a time adds to 
 one's enjoyment. Then the reflection came
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 that the snow prevented progress along the 
 mountain paths, and we determined to return 
 into the valley. We left Prataglia white in 
 its wintry garb, and in the short space of an 
 afternoon w^e passed from the nipping blasts of 
 winter into the bright geniality of spring. 
 Below Serravalle the falling snowflalces changed 
 into driving mists. As the mountains receded, 
 the valley of the Arno lay before us, its vineyards 
 and cornfields brown and golden in the light of 
 the afternoon sun. We were bound for Poppi, 
 which lies at about an hour's distance up the 
 valley from Bibbiena — " Poppi, the capital of the 
 Casentino," as Vasari called it. 
 
 89
 
 VI 
 
 Poppi and Counts Guidi 
 
 " Pupium agri Clusentini caput." 
 
 {Vasar'i. ) 
 
 Poppi lies on a steep hill which rises abruptly 
 from the valley of the Arno, forming a vantage 
 ground, as it v^^ere, in regard to the upper part of 
 the Casentino. The castle, its most notable 
 feature, occupies the highest part of this 
 hill looking south. This is the ancient strong- 
 hold, as it vi^as rebuilt in the thirteenth century, 
 curiously like the Palazzo Vecchio at Florence, 
 but more commanding in appearance owing to 
 the height on w^hich it stands. 
 
 Poppi already in the tenth century was a 
 centre of influence of the Guidi, one of the most 
 powerful families of Tuscany during the Middle 
 Ages. The property they owned extended far 
 north and south of the Apennines, and the 
 Casentino bristled with their strongholds. 
 Romena, Porciano, Battifolle, Soci, all recall 
 episodes in their history. With the exception 
 of Poppi, all these castles lie in ruins ; their 
 walls stand desolate and their towers are open to 
 wind and rain. Alone at Poppi the palace with 
 90
 
 CASTLE or POPPI
 
 Throucrh the Casentino 
 
 its soaring tower stands unbroken, a lasting 
 monument of the power to which the Guidi 
 attained. 
 
 The annals of this family have engrossed the 
 attention of historians partly because the 
 Guidi to some extent influenced the course of 
 Florentine history, partly because Dante re- 
 peatedly referred to them in the Divine Comedy 
 and was in personal relation to several members 
 of the family. Their history goes back to the 
 ninth century ; in the thirteenth the climax 
 of their influence was reached. But in Dante's 
 time the members of the family were still 
 numerous, and in the remoteness of the 
 Casentino their power continued unimpaired. 
 
 Poppi nowadays is a town of some importance. 
 A steep, paved path and a driving road in wide 
 zig-zags lead up into the town from Ponte di 
 Poppi, a suburb which has grown up on the 
 Arno at the foot of the hill. The paved path 
 enters the town near the church, which lies on 
 the point of the ridge farthest away from the 
 castle, and from the church one walks up the 
 main street with arcades and shops on either 
 hand. And on either hand, whenever a gap 
 occurs between the houses, or a shop is thrown 
 open and a window appears in its depth, one looks 
 right away across the dip of the hill and the plains 
 below into the green distance of the mountains. 
 
 The place is first mentioned in the tenth 
 93
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 century in connection with Count Fegrimo 
 Bevisangue, who, with his wife Gisla, founded 
 the abbey of Strumi in close proximity to the 
 stronghold. The Guidi were of Langobard 
 descent. They were one of the noble families 
 who had come into Italy as part of a barbarian 
 invasion, and who, in the course of time, came to 
 rank among the great feudatories of the Empire. 
 A legendary colouring is given to the opening 
 chapter of their history, but its essentials are 
 corroborated by contemporary references. Count 
 Tegrimo is the first member of the family who 
 figures in the annals of the Casentino. At the 
 time he was the sole surviving member of the 
 family. His father, Count Guido, married 
 Engelrada, the daughter of Duke Martino of 
 Ravenna. This gave him a place of authority 
 at Ravenna. But a dispute arose between him 
 and the archbishop ; he caused the archbishop 
 to be imprisoned. There was a popular rising, 
 and Count Guido and all his family were put 
 to death — all excepting Tegrimo, who was 
 saved bv his nurse. The name Bevisangue 
 afterwards attached to him either because of 
 the revenge he took on his father's murderers, 
 or else because he had contracted a habit of 
 licking his sword after he had spilt blood. 
 
 At the time when Tegrimo founded Strumi 
 — the original site of which is said to be marked 
 by a church which is seen from Poppi lying 
 94
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 in the midst of dark cypresses — the family 
 already owned strongholds near Pistoja and 
 Florence and the stronghold of Modigliana 
 above Faenza, which is identical with the 
 Castrum Mutilum mentioned by Livy. One 
 by one the strongholds with which the counts 
 fortified their possessions, or which they 
 snatched from their neighbours, appear in the 
 annals of the family. Tegrimo's son Guido 
 dated a charter from Porciano, which is situated 
 at the uppermost end of the Casentino, a proof 
 that here also a stronghold on a commanding 
 site was in their possession. 
 
 Historians of a later date — Malespini and 
 Villani, the contemporary of Dante — state that 
 the ancestor of the Guidi came into Italy with 
 the Saxon Emperor Otto I. and from him re- 
 ceived the castle of Modigliana. Also that 
 Otto IV. on his passage through Florence saw 
 Gualdrada, the daughter of the rich citizen 
 Berti, and that his follower, one of the Guidi, 
 married her and received the Casentino in dower. 
 As the Guidi owned Modigliana before Otto I. 
 came to Italy, and held extensive property in the 
 Casentino long before the days of Gualdrada, 
 these stories in themselves arc untrue, but a true 
 estimation of facts underlies them. The Saxon 
 emperors, in order to strengthen their authority 
 over the greater barons of Italv, favoured the lesser, 
 and among them they favoured the Guidi. The 
 95
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 Count Guido who married Gualdrada was on good 
 terms both with Florence and Otto IV. 
 
 After the time of Bevisangue we find the 
 Guidi steadily increasing in power, fighting 
 against other lords and against rising communes, 
 sometimes on their own account, sometimes in 
 support of the Imperial policy. True repre- 
 sentatives of the rural nobility, they were at 
 once turbulent and prosperous, and they made 
 their influence felt in ecclesiastical as well as 
 in other matters. It was owing to protection 
 given him by a lady member of the Guidi 
 family that Giovanni Gualberto became the 
 founder of Vallombrosa, and in three different 
 generations a member of the family was bishop 
 of Pistoja. At the close of the eleventh century 
 a father and a son Guido were in frequent 
 attendance on Countess Matilda, the daughter 
 and heir of the last margrave of Tuscany, 
 whose strenuous opposition to the Imperial 
 policy and support of the claims of Tuscany 
 secured her lasting popularity. Probably to 
 secure the father's interest she adopted the son, 
 to whom the surname // Marchese attached 
 in consequence. This Count Guido in his 
 youth joined the first crusade, and was im- 
 prisoned by Saladin. Property was mortgaged 
 with the canons of Pistoja to pay for his ransom. 
 After his father's death he bestowed land on the 
 faithful follower who had shared his hardships. 
 96
 
 Throuo^h the Casentino 
 
 Count Guido // Marchese favoured various 
 schemes conducive to his vassals' welfare. He 
 helped to carry out the plan of building the aque- 
 duct by which Pistoja is provided with water from 
 the hills ; he became the founder of the city of 
 Empoli ; he built a leprosy near Poppi. About 
 the year 1106 the "Great" Countess Matilda 
 gave up the plan of constituting him her heir 
 and bestowed her extensive property on the 
 Church. Matilda enjoyed such popularity 
 throughout Tuscany, that songs in praise of 
 her were long sung in the churches of Florence 
 according to Boccaccio. In the Divine Comedy 
 she is described as guardian of the earthly 
 Paradise, in which she led the way to the 
 triumph of the Church. In remembrance of 
 her the name Contessa or Tessa continues fre- 
 quent to this day. The reader will recall the 
 sweet contadina of Romola. In the Casentino 
 Matilda is popularly credited with building a 
 number of churches which are remarkable for 
 the sculpture which adorns them. 
 
 One of these churches, that of San Martino di 
 Vado, is about an hour's walk from Poppi up the 
 valley of the Solano ; another flanks the hill of 
 Romena ; a third is at Stia, and another is at 
 Montemignajo,high up a side valley. The column 
 capitals inside these churches deserve attention 
 for the place they claim in the history of early 
 Tuscan sculpture. Not two of them are alike, 
 G 97
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 and the way the foliage and figures on them is 
 treated is always quaint and often beautiful. I 
 have sometimes thought what a gain it would 
 be if some of the numerous amateur photographers 
 one meets would combine and systematically go 
 over separate districts, issuing a list of the views 
 taken by them. In the Casentino only a few 
 general views were obtainable, and we in vain 
 sought to procure photographs of interesting re- 
 mains ; I ignore if any have been taken. In this 
 case one longed for photographs of these capitals 
 to compare them with the early sculptures of 
 Pistoja and Arezzo. One of the columns in 
 the church of Romena bore the date 1 1 52 — 
 the earliest sculptures at Pistoja are dated 1166 
 — and the erection of the parish church at 
 Arezzo belongs to the same period. As a 
 direct connection existed between these places 
 at the time owing to the rights of overlordship 
 held by the Guidi, it may be owing to their in- 
 fluence that a style of sculpture which has so 
 much of the Langobard spirit came to be intro- 
 duced into the different parts of Tuscany. 
 
 The Count Guido, to whose lifetime the 
 erection of these churches belongs, was the son 
 of Guido // Marchsee^ and was known himself as 
 Guidoguerra. In him the influence of the 
 family reached its climax. The vastness of his 
 possessions was such that Sanzanome, the earliest 
 historian of Florence, spoke of them as con- 
 98
 
 COURTYARD OF CASTI.K, POPPI (cASKNTlNo)
 
 Throug-h the Casentino 
 
 stituting a state or province in themselves. 
 Moreover, he was a shining representative of 
 knighthood. His contemporary, the Bishop 
 Otto of Frevsing, described him as the 
 most powerful lord of Tuscany, and Tolosanus, 
 the chronicler of Faenza, who knew him, 
 spoke of him as holding the foremost place 
 in honour and courtesy. "All Italy wept 
 at his death and especially Faenza," he tells 
 us, for the city of Faenza had appealed to 
 him for help on account of the encroach- 
 ments made on its territory by the city of 
 Forli, and had found in him a powerful 
 protector. The acts of Count Guidoguerra 
 argue in favour of his mental horizon being 
 wide. He joined the crusade of 1147, he 
 stood in high esteem with the Emperor 
 Frederick Barbarossa, and the enterprises he 
 led in Italy were invariably successful. It was 
 only by taking advantage of his temporary 
 absence that the citizens of Florence suc- 
 ceeded in destroying Montedicroce, a most 
 important stronghold of his which had there- 
 fore become an object of hatred to Florence. 
 
 For the city of Florence, as it increased in im- 
 portance, was bent on improving the conditions 
 of its trade. Florence is surrounded by hills, and 
 these hills in the twelfth century bristled with the 
 strongholds of nobles, who were ready to swoop 
 down and plunder the trains of passing traders 
 101
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 on the slightest provocation. In the interest of 
 its further development the city was prompted 
 to make war on the surrounding nobility, 
 attacks which went hand-in-hand with a policy 
 that was productive of important and unexpected 
 changes. 
 
 The first attempts of the Florentines to 
 subdue their troublesome neighbours belonged 
 to the lifetime of Guido il Marchese. Em- 
 boldened by success, and encouraged by the 
 inactivity of the margraves, they attacked 
 Fiesole, the ancient Etruscan city which 
 towered high above Florentine territory, 
 for here, as Villani related, the rural nobles, 
 whom he designated as cattani^ collected and 
 harboured outlaws who did damage to the 
 trade and the territory of Plorence. The 
 undertaking proved successful in the campaigns 
 of 1 1 23- 1 1 25, and large parts of Fiesole were 
 razed to the ground. Its "destruction" was 
 followed by attacks on Montegrifone, which 
 belonged to the Ormanni, and on Monteboni, 
 which belonged to the Buondelmonti. A 
 special significance attached to the latter event. 
 For the Florentines, intent on securing 
 friendly relations with their neighbours, made it 
 a condition of peace that the nobles thev defeated 
 should reside inside Florence during a stated part 
 of the year. The first to agree to the arrange- 
 ment were the Buondelmonti ; they were 
 102
 
 Throuo^h the Casentino 
 
 followed by a number of others, including the 
 Guidi, who were nothing loth to gain a foothold 
 inside the city. To the older inhabitants of 
 Florence, which included the greater citizens — 
 the illiistri cittttdiiii of Dante — and the lesser 
 citizens, a third element was now added in the 
 form of the rural nobles, who soon contracted a 
 taste for city life while they remained indifferent 
 to its responsibilities. They came into Florence 
 with crowds of retainers ; they built themselves 
 houses which were strongholds to all intents and 
 purposes ; they fought out their private feuds 
 inside the city walls, and as soon as occasion 
 offered they turned the balance of the constitu- 
 tion in their favour. And more than this. They 
 brought with them a taste for display and spendour 
 which subverted all accepted standards, and which 
 put an end to the simplicity and soberness of the 
 older Florentines. 
 
 In the eye of Dante the influx of these rural 
 nobles was a reason of the city's misfortune. 
 " Ever was the confusion of persons the origin 
 of the city's ills," are the words which he put 
 into the mouth of his ancestor Cacciaguida. 
 Cacciaguida in the Co?nedy compares the state 
 of Florence as it was in Dante's time with what 
 it had been a century and a half before, and he 
 deplores the increased luxuriousness of the 
 Florentines. In those simpler days " Bellincion 
 Berti went about in leathern belt with bone
 
 Throui^h the Casentino 
 
 clasp, and his dame came from the mirror 
 unpainted." 
 
 This Bellincion Berti and his wife were the 
 parents of the lady Gualdrada, through whom 
 not the Casentino, as Villani recorded, but the 
 valuable Ravignani property in Florence near 
 the Porta San Piero came into the possession 
 of the Guidi. Gualdrada was the second wife 
 of Count Guido, surnamed il Vecchio, and 
 the epithet biiona which Dante bestowed on 
 her she doubtless owed to her attempts to 
 soften her husband's fierceness. For Guido 
 Vecchio in the eyes of the chronicler of 
 Faenza was the direct opposite of his father ; 
 knightly dignity and pride with him took the 
 form of wilfulness and overbearing. 
 
 The incidents which led up to the marriage 
 and its outcome are worth recording. Guido 
 Vecchio began as the loyal supporter of the 
 Imperial cause ; he entertained Frederick Bar- 
 barossa in his castle at Modigliana, in 1167, and 
 with the Imperial troops he marched on Rome, 
 where Frederick succeeded in establishing the 
 anti-pope. But the desire for municipal freedom 
 was awakening in the smaller cities of Italy, 
 and in order to frustrate the Emperor's 
 influence they began to form alliances among 
 themselves and supported Pope Alexander. A 
 struggle ensued which lasted seventeen years 
 and in which Guido sided with the Emperor, 
 104
 
 Throui^h the Casentino 
 
 thereby finding himself rcpeatedlv pluniied into 
 war with Florence, and into supporting her 
 rival Siena. When the Emperor and the 
 Pope finally made peace at Venice, the rela- 
 tions between the cities of Tuscany were 
 readjusted. Among the representatives ot 
 Florence who arranged the peace between 
 this city and Siena was Bellincion Berti, the 
 father of Gualdrada. In what year Guido 
 married her is unknown, but he divorced his first 
 wife Agnes in order to do so. His attitude 
 towards Florence underwent a complete change 
 in consequence. Henceforth there was friend- 
 ship between them. 
 
 In other respects Guido lost ground. In 
 opposing the growing municipalities he was 
 tempted to strain his authority, with the result 
 that he was defied more than once. Thus on 
 one occasion he ordered his vassals at Modigliana 
 to pull down their houses and rebuild them on 
 the hill for greater safety. For five weeks they 
 resisted, then they destroyed their houses and 
 went to Faenza, which was outside their lord's 
 jurisdiction. This led to a war between the 
 Count and the city of Faenza which extended 
 over years. On another occasion he went to 
 Camaldoli and carried off all the weapons which 
 he found there to Poppi. He restored them 
 afterwards, but only in return for an enormous 
 amount of grain. Again he disputed with the 
 105
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 nunnery of Rosano and won his suit, but in this 
 case Countess Gualdrada carried the decision in 
 person to Rosano, and declaring it annulled she 
 tore it up. The acts of Guido Vecchio were 
 such that the Pope wrote to him in his old age 
 urging him to reform his ways, but even the 
 warnings of a Pope were defied with impunity 
 by these barons. 
 
 When Count Guido Vecchio died in the year 
 1213, the family split into five branches, each 
 of his sons talcing the name of count of the chief 
 stronghold which fell to his share. Poppi in 
 the first instance fell to Count Guido Magnifico 
 of Bagno, then to his sons Guido Novello and 
 Simone. The acts of these brothers, and the 
 enmity which arose between them, take us into 
 the very thick of the contentions which agitated 
 Florence in the thirteenth century. 
 
 The terms Guelf and Ghibelline were used 
 in Florence since 12 15, marking the different 
 tendencies of the citizens. The Guidi, like 
 most other rural nobles, were Ghibellines ; they 
 wished to see the power of the city kept within 
 certain limits, and in this they were opposed to 
 the Guelf or patriotic party. Guido Novello 
 and Simone, with other Ghibellines, left Florence 
 for a time in 1248 ; ten years later they were 
 altogether banished from the city. Shortly 
 afterwards they fought at the battle of 
 Montaperti, when the Florentines were beaten 
 106
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 and the river Arbia, as Dante has it, ran red 
 with blood. It was then that Count Guido 
 Novello made the proposal that the city of 
 Florence should be razed from the face of the 
 earth, an insult which the Florentine patriotic 
 party never forgave him. Farinate degli 
 Uberti, also a Ghibelline, but one who felt some 
 affection for the city, successfully opposed him ; 
 he is represented by Dante in Hell recalling 
 this fact to the poet's mind. Florence remained 
 standing, but for the next six years it was at 
 the mercy of the Ghibellines. Guido Novello, 
 supported by the troops of King Manfred, ruled in 
 a spirit which was little calculated to soften the 
 acrimony of the Florentines against him. He 
 caused Poppi to be fortified by a new wall in 
 1260 ; he then built the Porta Ghibellina at 
 Florence, and constructed a new road out of it 
 so as to be in direct communication with the 
 Casentino. This road (the paved path which 
 leads over the Consuma and along the valley of 
 the Solano) he used to convey to Poppi cross- 
 bows, bucklers and armour which he abstracted 
 from the arsenal at Florence. Villani tells how 
 he showed his castle and these weapons to his 
 uncle Tegrimo, Count of Modigliana and 
 Porciano, asking him what he thought of 
 them. Tegrimo replied that he liked them 
 well enough, but that he knew the Florentines 
 only "lent at a high rate of usurv." Sub- 
 107
 
 Throu^i^h the Casentino 
 
 sequent events proved the truth of the remark. 
 When King Manfred was overthrown, Guido 
 Novello lost his support and was obliged to 
 leave Florence. He did so without much 
 dignity, and stones were thrown at him as he 
 left the city. Twenty years later, at the 
 instigation of the Bishop of Arezzo, he and 
 other Ghibellines collected an army in the 
 Casentino to march upon Florence. The 
 Florentines came over the mountains and de- 
 feated them and ravaged the territory which 
 belonged to the Guidi. And in the following 
 year they came back and made an assault on 
 Poppi, and finding the arms there which the 
 Count had abstracted, they carried them back 
 to Florence in triumph. 
 
 The battle in which the Florentines fought 
 the Ghibellines in the plain of Campaldino below 
 Poppi on June ii, 1289, is memorable since 
 Dante, at the time a youth of twenty-four, 
 fought in the ranks of the victorious Guelfs. 
 He referred to the fact himself in a letter, in 
 which he said how he found himself "no mere 
 child in the practice of arms, and was in great 
 fear, and in the end rejoiced greatlv through 
 the varying fortunes of the battle." For luck 
 at first went against the Florentines ; the 
 Ghibellines gained an advantage, but they did 
 not follow it up. Guido Novello, who was 
 now an old man, backed upon Poppi, the Bishop 
 108
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 of Arezzo fell fighting, 
 and Buonconte, another 
 Ghibelline leader, was 
 wounded and fled. In 
 the Divine Coruedy 
 Buonconte is represented 
 giving an account of his 
 flight to Dante — how 
 with pierced and bleed- 
 ing throat he reached the 
 point where the Archiano 
 falls into the Arno, and 
 how the waters carried 
 him awav and his final 
 resting-place was never 
 known. 
 
 Guido Novello, who 
 backed upon Poppi, can- 
 not have stayed there, as 
 the place was no longer 
 his and no longer a 
 stronghold of the Ghibel- 
 lines. It had passed to 
 his brother Simone and ^J^ 
 his son Guido of Batti- ~ '^ 
 folle, and Simone and his 
 son, according to Vil- 
 lani, went over to the 
 Guelfs because of Guido 
 Novello's cruelty. When therefore the Floren 
 109 
 
 STATUE or COUNT GUIDO, 
 CASTLE OF PCPPI
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 tines made an assault on Poppi, they were 
 damaging the property of a Guelf and an ally. 
 Guido of Battifolle, sometimes also called Guido 
 Novello, the son of Simone, pleaded in Florence 
 for damage done to his property, and he received 
 the sum of twelve hundred lire, which he spent 
 in re-building his castle. 
 
 It is owing to this sequence of events that 
 the remote little town of Poppi came to boast 
 of its remarkable castle. Vasari in his Lives of 
 the Painters and Architects tells us that Jacopo 
 Lapo, called il Tedesco, " built many buildings 
 in the Gothic style in Tuscany, among them 
 the palace at Poppi in the Casentino." And 
 in the life of Arnolfo, whom Vasari wrongly 
 called the son of Jacopo (he was his pupil), 
 he adds that Arnolfo built the palace of the 
 Signory at Florence on the plan of what his 
 father had constructed at Poppi. 
 
 As one emerged from the streets and entered 
 the open space before the castle the contrast 
 was striking between our peace-loving, law- 
 abiding age and that period when life was 
 bound up with warfare. Trees veiled in spring 
 foliage cast a fitful shadow over what was 
 formerly an open ground for free fighting ; near 
 the ruined castle walls children played and old 
 people loitered in the sun. We entered the 
 courtyard without let or hindrance, and then 
 the sound of a tinkling bell brought out a
 
 Through the Cnsentino 
 
 Government custode. With him we ascended 
 to the first floor by the skilfully-constructed 
 open-air staircase which leads from floor to floor 
 round the four sides of the court. He led the 
 way into the large hall, a beautiful room with 
 carved and coloured beams and double arched 
 windows set high in the thickness of the wall. 
 We wandered from room to room and from storey 
 to storey. Fragments of partitions taken down, 
 of glaring wall-papers torn from the walls, of 
 brick and mortar, lay about here and there — 
 disfigurements of a later date which are now in 
 course of being removed. After centuries of 
 concealment the ceiling construction and the 
 old fresco decorations of the walls were being 
 bared to the light of day, for the castle is now 
 in the hands of the Government and is in course 
 of restoration as a national monument. The 
 palace chapel contained curious frescoes at- 
 tributed to Spinello Aretino and Jacopo del 
 Casentino. Remains of old wall-painting in 
 curious patterns and of earlier date decorated 
 the dining and other halls. We ascended to 
 the uppermost storev, and there in the way of 
 a caryatide supporting a leafy volute, on which 
 rested the inner cornice of the roof, stood the 
 figure of Count Guido of Battifollc, the son 
 of Simone, carved in stone. It is a beautiful 
 youthful figure, the uncovered head full of 
 clustering curls, the face strong and somewhat 
 1 1 1
 
 Throuo^h the Casentino 
 
 defiant in expression, the body clad in plate-mail, 
 with the one hand holding a short dagger, and 
 the other resting on the hilt of a long sword. 
 Whose the thought thus to place the owner of 
 the palace, who the artist to carry it out, are 
 not recorded, but as it stands the figure may 
 well have delighted him who made it and 
 him whom it represents. 
 
 ARMS OF THE GUIDI
 
 VII 
 
 Capo lV Arm 
 
 " Per mezzo Toscana si spazia 
 Un fiumicel che nasce in Falterona 
 E cento miglia Hi corso nol sazia." 
 
 {Purg. 14, 18 ft.) 
 
 As one wandered about the palace and the streets 
 of Poppi, the thought arose if and under what 
 circumstances Dante stayed here. He is known 
 to have come into the Casentino during the 
 early part of his exile — that is, about the year 
 1305 ; he was here again in March and April 
 of 131 1, as is proved by the letters he wrote and 
 dated from here. One of these contains the 
 fierce invective against Florence, the other 
 expresses the fears which the poet apprehended 
 from the Emperor's delay. They are dated 
 "on the confines of Tuscany near the springs 
 of the Arno," and on the strength of this 
 expression the strongholds of Poppi, Romcna 
 and Porciano, besides Pratovecchio, claim to have 
 harboured the poet. 
 
 These different strongholds, at the beginning 
 of the fourteenth centurv, were still in the 
 possession of different branches of the Guidi 
 family. The castle of Pratovecchio was owned 
 by Count Guido Selvatico, who belonged to 
 H 113
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 the branch of the family which embraced 
 Guelf sympathies. He fought on the side of 
 the Guelfs at Campaldino, at Florence he 
 afterwards joined the Neri, and his sympathies 
 
 ^■Zm^iXrB^i 
 
 CHURCH OF ROMENA (cASEKTINo) 
 
 were therefore akin to those of Dante. 
 Boccaccio tells us that Dante enjoyed the 
 hospitality of Guido Selvatico, and this would 
 be during the early part of his exile. The 
 wife of Guido Selvatico was Manessa, the 
 daughter of Buonconte, who perished at Cam- 
 paldino, and it is generally supposed that Dante's 
 relation to Manessa caused him to introduce 
 114
 
 l^hrouc^^h the Casentino 
 
 the account of Buonconte's flight into the 
 Comedy. 
 
 There is extant a letter of Dante, in which 
 he describes how, after setting foot by the 
 streams of the Arno, he made the acquaintance 
 of a woman whom he thought in all respects 
 suited to his inclination, his character and his 
 fortunes. This lady so inspired him that he 
 gave up his resolve to keep aloof from women 
 and from songs about women. He composed 
 a canzone in her praise, a copy of which he 
 appended to the letter. But the lady's name 
 and her whereabouts have always remained a 
 mystery. 
 
 Prom which of the other strongholds Dante 
 dated the letters of 131 1 is difficult to decide. 
 The expression " Capo d'Arno " may well refer 
 to Poppi, which is the first place reached coming 
 over the hills from Florence by the old road. 
 Its castle, as we have seen, was owned at this 
 time by the younger Count Guido of Battifolle, 
 who, after his uncle's death, was called Guido 
 Novello, and who, after re-building the castle, 
 quietly dwelt there. He was comparatively 
 peace-loving, and lived on friendly terms with 
 his cousin of Pratovecchio ; their sons too were 
 friends. When the Emperor, in 1 3 12, sum- 
 moned the Guidi to join him in his march on 
 Florence, Guido Novello the younger did not 
 respond to the call, but sent troops in aid of
 
 Throuf^^h the Casentino 
 
 the city. He became podestd of P'lorence a 
 few years later, and it was during the term of 
 his rule that the proposal was tendered to Dante 
 to return to Florence, but on terms which the 
 poet felt unable to accept. 
 
 Villani tells us that this Count Guido caused 
 a large part of the Palazzo Vecchio to be rebuilt 
 on the plan of his palace at Poppi. Perhaps this 
 act caused his portrait to be introduced in a 
 fresco of the Capella degli Spagnuoli, one of the 
 greatest monuments of fourteenth-century art. 
 The Count, who stands as a beardless youth on 
 the staircase at Poppi, is here represented in 
 manhood. He is seen in profile, forming one 
 of a group which includes Cimabue, Boccaccio, 
 Petrarch and Laura. 
 
 The wife of this Count Guido was Gherardesca, 
 the daughter of Count Ugolino, who with his 
 sons died of starvation at Pisa. The description 
 of their sufferings is among the most terrible 
 of the Divine Comedy. Several letters have 
 recently come to light addressed by Gherardesca 
 to Margaret, the consort of the Emperor, and, 
 partly because these letters are preserved with 
 the letters of Dante, partly because of certain 
 peculiarities in their style, the opinion has been 
 advanced that they were drafted by Dante. 
 One of them is of the year 131 1 and is dated 
 from Poppi. 
 
 Among the Novelle^ or short stories, which 
 116
 
 Throus^h the Casentino 
 
 Sacchetti put into writing in the fourteenth 
 century, one (nr. 179) tells what befell one day 
 when Countess Gherardesca ' of Poppi, and 
 Countess Manessa of Pratovecchio, were cross- 
 ing Campaldino together. It is intended to 
 illustrate the sharp tongue and ready wit of 
 the female sex. Gherardesca was a proud ladv, 
 and she attracted her companion's attention to 
 the promising state of the harvest. With 
 reference to the defeat of the Ghibellines there, 
 among whom Buonconte, Manessa's father, had 
 fought, she remarked that the corn no doubt 
 stood so high in consequence of the blood that 
 had been spilt there. But Manessa met her in 
 the same spirit. Alluding to the death bv starva- 
 tion of Ugolino, the father of Gherardesca, she 
 replied that thev would no doubt enjoy a fine 
 harvest provided thev did not die of starvation 
 before it was ripe. Gherardesca pretended not 
 to understand, and so they continued their walk 
 together in peace. 
 
 While Dante's relations with the owner of 
 Poppi leave room for conjecture, his connection 
 with the Counts of Romena rests on a firm 
 foundation. The stronghold of Romena, judg- 
 ing by the position and extent of its ruins, was 
 the most imposing castle of the Casentino. 
 
 There was a Count Alessandro of Romena 
 who was a leader of the Guelfs of Tuscany 
 against the Ghibellines in 1288. He afterwards 
 117
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 joined the Bianchi and was expelled from 
 Florence. Later we find him captain of the 
 exiles at Arezzo. He led the attack on Florence 
 which ensued, and died shortly afterwards. 
 Dante then addressed a letter of condolence to 
 his nephews, the Counts Oberto and Guido of 
 Romena, in which he deplored the death of one 
 who had such greatness of soul, and added much 
 to his praise. He would have come to the 
 funeral but that, being an exile, he was deprived 
 of the necessary horses and arms. 
 
 The idea has been accepted by some scholars 
 and rejected by others that this Count Alessandro 
 was identical with the Count of Romena of the 
 same name, who, with Guido and another brother, 
 employed the forger Adamo of Brescia to coin 
 false florins at Romena. The reader of Dante 
 is familiar with the figure of Adamo, whom the 
 poet found in Hell, suffering from dropsy and 
 terrible thirst. He told him how he was burnt 
 alive for his acts at Romena, and how he longed 
 for the sight of those who employed him — one 
 of the counts, he has heard, is already in Hell. 
 Falsified florins were discovered in 1281 ; a cairn 
 on the road above Romena is popularly held 
 to mark the spot where Adamo was burnt. It 
 is locally known as the " Maccia del Uomo 
 Morto," and travellers not many years back 
 were wont to throw a stone on it in passing. 
 The genealogy of the owners of Romena, how- 
 118
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 ever, remains a matter of dispute. On the face 
 of it, it seems improbable that Dante thought 
 well of the abettor of a forger, or relegated 
 a man he admired to Hell. Still these were 
 stirring times of changing sympathies, and 
 though the view has been advanced that there 
 were two Counts Alessandro, uncle and nephew, 
 the evidence brought forward by Passerini, who 
 argues that there was but one, has never been 
 conclusively disproved. 
 
 Above Romena, at the head of the valley, lie 
 the ruins of Porciano, and the expression " Capo 
 d'Arno," if taken literally, would apply to it. 
 But Dante's relation with its counts is based 
 on legend only. They were a set of lawless, 
 changeful men. There was a Count Guido of 
 Porciano who was condemned in 1282 by the 
 city of Florence to pay five thousand lire for 
 murder, theft and arson. He had eight sons, and 
 several of them were fined in 1291 for waylaying 
 and robbing a merchant from Ancona. In 131 1 
 five of the brothers received the ambassadors of 
 the Emperor at San Godenzo and swore fealty 
 to the Imperial cause, but four of them after- 
 wards deserted it. If Dante thought favour- 
 ably of those of Porciano for their Imperial 
 sympathies, it cannot have lasted. For in de- 
 scribing the sources of the Arno in the Comedy 
 he says that the river takes its rise among " foul 
 hogs more worthy of galls than of any food 
 119
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 made for the use of man," with obvious refer- 
 ence to the meaning of the word porci as con- 
 tained in the place-name Porciano. 
 
 A tradition is preserved, according to which 
 the poet was kept prisoner at Porciano, possibly 
 after the battle of Campaldino. An anecdote 
 intended to illustrate his ready wit is localised 
 here. The poet, we are told, had left the castle 
 and was walking down the hill when he met 
 some men from Florence, who were sent to 
 take him into custody. They did not recognise 
 him, and asked if Dante were at Porciano, 
 and he replied, " He was there while I 
 was ! " 
 
 There seemed no end to the stories associated 
 with Dante which were localised in this neigh- 
 bourhood. Palmieri, a writer of the early 
 fifteenth century, described an incident, which he 
 says befell Dante on Campaldino. The poet and 
 the triumphant Guelfs after the battle pursued 
 the enemy as far as Bibbiena and beyond it, and 
 on the third day they returned to look for their 
 friends and to bury the dead. Dante found a 
 friend, who either " was not quite dead or else 
 suddenly revived," and who proceeded to describe 
 what he had seen during these days of Hell and 
 Purgatory, words through which the whole plan 
 of the Comedy was revealed to Dante. The 
 account contains expressions which recall Dante's 
 description, still it is sufficiently distinct. It 
 1 20
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 rambles on over about half a dozen pages in 
 print without definite plan or purpose. 
 
 It was with a feeling of regret that we left 
 Poppi, which played so important a part in the 
 history of the district. We left it early one 
 morning and crossed Campaldino, now, as six 
 hundred years ago, green with sprouting corn. 
 Beyond it the driving road over the Consuma 
 begins its steady ascent along a mountain spur 
 which is formed by the Arno and its tributary 
 the Solano. The old road branched ofF, follow- 
 ing the course of the Solano, and up this we went 
 to explore. 
 
 I presume that foreigners carrying knapsacks for 
 their convenience do not often walk in these parts. 
 We had been accosted before and asked what 
 our Toba was, and women especially joined us 
 along the road in hopes of driving a bargain 
 in needles and scissors. In the vallev of the 
 Solano our appearance brought concern to the 
 heart of a professional pedlar, who eyed us askance. 
 When we came down the valley again in the 
 afternoon we were met by a woman, who told 
 us she had been looking out for us ever since 
 we went past in the morning ; might she see 
 our wares r She too looked upon us as rivals 
 of the pedlar. 
 
 We found the narrow, tortuous valley of 
 the Solano oppressive and unattractive, and we 
 did not penetrate much beyond Strada San 
 
 121
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 Niccolo, a town of high houses built close 
 between the mountain sides. Here too the 
 history of many centuries lay condensed, as it 
 were, in a nutshell. The ancient church near 
 the castle, now deserted — the ruins of the castle 
 itself, long a stronghold of the Guidi, which 
 the growing Commune destroyed in the fifteenth 
 century — the modern city with its manufactories 
 — each represented a special phase in the history 
 of growing civilisation. 
 
 The city of Borgo-alla-Collina on the Con- 
 suma road, to which we returned, bore a very 
 different character. Situated on a breezy height, 
 its wide streets were grass-grown, and its low, 
 rambling houses looked desolate. Here Christo- 
 fero Landini, the author of the Conversations of 
 CamaldoH^ spent the last years of his life. He 
 had been the teacher of Lorenzo the Magnifi- 
 cent ; he afterwards became Chancellor of the 
 Republic of Florence, and a palace at Borgo 
 was given him in acknowledgment of his 
 services. Ampere, in his Voyages dantesques^ tells 
 an amusing incident which happened to him 
 here. A priest offered to show him the un- 
 corrupted body of a saint, and he showed 
 Ampere a dried mummy in a sarcophagus. But 
 when Ampere looked at the inscription on the 
 sarcophagus he saw that the holy man here 
 displayed was none other than Landini. 
 
 We did not stay to see the wonderful relic. 
 
 122
 
 ~7^ 
 
 
 
 ' :'''*v''?t':;Aiiif li"' ,„, f Ml' I;, ,,,.■■ I J ,.i 
 
 w 
 
 
 CASrel. SAN NICC0I.O
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 The crispness of the air outside and the panorama 
 of the hills had greater attractions. The road 
 above Borgo commanded a wide field of view, 
 and the eye was free to roam across the valley 
 where the Arno flowed fed by many streams, 
 and to the heights around. The valley was 
 closed in by the Falterona, which is the highest 
 mountain of this part of the Apennines ; it 
 rises to an elevation of 5434 ft. 
 
 After an hour's walk we deviated to Romena, 
 where we spent some time in the ancient church 
 which flanks the hill. We greatly admired the 
 old column capitals, one of which bears the date 
 1 1 52. Beni's guide-book says that the church 
 also possesses an ancient bell, with the date 
 1 1 86, and the words " Mentem Sanctam Deo 
 Placentem." 
 
 From Romena we left the road and descended 
 by a path to Pratovecchio, a large rambling 
 place, which seemed to have no special attrac- 
 tion. We then pushed on to Stia, which lies at 
 the confluence of the Arno and the Staggia ; 
 above it rise the ruins of the castle of 
 Porciano. 
 
 Stia is a picturesque city. Its market-place, 
 set on rising ground, with houses jutting out 
 from both sides, suggested the arrangements ot 
 scene decoration. Its ancient church is un- 
 attractive ftom outside, but beautiful within. 
 Stia is a convenient centre for walks, but we 
 125
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 thought badly of its Albergo Alpina^ and would 
 give the preference another time to the inn 
 at Pratovecchio, the situation of which is quite 
 as convenient. The Falterona is usually 
 ascended from Stia, but the snow that had 
 recently fallen made the ascent impossible. 
 We were even prevented from penetrating to 
 the fir woods which have been planted in 
 honour of Dante near the sources of the Arno, 
 a spot to which the expression " Capo d'Arno " 
 is now currently applied. Our walks were 
 limited to the valleys and the lower heights, 
 but we thereby saw more of the people than we 
 should have done otherwise. They were 
 courteous and friendly and charmed us by their 
 unaffected ways. In Dante's ears the speech of 
 the inhabitants of the Casentino sounded harsh 
 and ugly ; to us their Italian seemed correct and 
 clear, and we were struck more than once by 
 their conversational ease. 
 
 With pleasure we recalled a homestead on 
 the road to San Godenzo, in which seemed to 
 linger that unaffected rusticity of classic times 
 which the Georgics of Virgil have preserved for 
 us. We were sheltering from a shower in an 
 outhouse when the woman of the farm came 
 out and invited us in. We entered a long 
 low room with a window at each end, the 
 further one looking out into the distance of 
 the hills. The room seemed dark at first, but 
 126
 
 Throuc^h the Casentino 
 
 as one's power of vision readjusted itself to the 
 mellow light, the wide hearth stood forth with 
 its glowing embers with the children hanging 
 round. Earthenware pots and plates shone 
 bright from shelves against the wall ; and the 
 board and the benches, all rounded and polished 
 with use, also caught the reflection from the 
 glow. One of the children threw on some 
 crackling sticks ; two others, dark-haired and 
 red-checked, came and clung about their mother. 
 Rickety chairs were placed for us near the 
 hearth, then the woman resumed her low seat 
 and went on winding her yarn. In her rough 
 homespun, with her little ones about her, she 
 looked a picture of health and vigour. She 
 readily talked of her home and the children's 
 varying ways, and of the mill at Stia to which 
 she was sending the yarn which she had spun. 
 Presently the husband too came in, a figure 
 such as one associates with the hills, tall and 
 well-made. He began cleaning his gun, and 
 with the same friendliness talked of the hares 
 he had shot, and of the sport still in store 
 for him. They seemed a happy family, 
 making us welcome with the simple dignity 
 which is so marked a feature in the Italian 
 peasant, and speeding us on our way with the 
 wish that for our sake the weather might 
 improve. 
 
 Yet another interior remains with mc, the 
 127
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 workshop of a cobbler below Porciano. Here a 
 number of houses stood huddled together against 
 the slope of the hill. The word vino^ roughly 
 painted in red on a wall that faced the road at 
 an angle, attracted our attention, for we were 
 thirsty, as one often is in a country where 
 one feels suspicious of the water, and we 
 entered. The hale, white-haired cobbler rose 
 from his stool and motioned us to a seat with 
 a certain formality. He then reached two 
 glasses and a huge straw-covered flagon from 
 the shelf, drew out the bit of tow that closed its 
 mouth, and flicked on the floor the drops of oil 
 that floated on the wine, and a little of the wine 
 itself. Here was a reasonable basis for the offer 
 of a libation ! Then he filled our glasses, and 
 resuming his work spoke of a son in America, 
 and of the love of change and the growing 
 desire for travel in the younger generation. 
 We too were travelling : whence had we come, 
 whither were we bound ? His caustic aptness 
 of speech recalled the saying that the smell 
 of leather sharpens a man's wits. We had been 
 puzzled that day by a roadside shrine dedicated 
 to a saint Mona Giovanna, and I asked about 
 her, hazarding the remark that his trade was 
 known to go with love of reading. He seemed 
 pleased, and pointing to a small store of books 
 he said he could oblige us, and drew forth the 
 story of the saint in the cheap form in which 
 128
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 these stories circulate among the peasantry. In 
 this case it was the question of a woman whose 
 claim to holiness the folk endorsed, while the 
 clergy refused to accept it. Finally the bells 
 at Stia tolled of their own accord as she entered 
 the town, and the candle she was carrying to 
 the shrine was miraculously set alight. In the 
 pantheon of the saints Giovanna has found a 
 place in connection with Bagno on the further 
 side of the hills, but the cobbler was sure about 
 the miracle happening at Stia, and the book 
 confirmed his belief. 
 
 This was one of several occasions on which I 
 engaged in conversation with the people on their 
 local saints. Many of the stories which have 
 been worked into legends, and now go to swell 
 the bulk of the Acta Sanctorurn^ are fresh in the 
 mind of the folk, and a question or two draws 
 from them an account of most wondrous 
 wonders which happened in these districts. The 
 incidents are related in sober earnest, but some- 
 times the narrator ends with a smile and a 
 shrug of the shoulders. " This is what they say, 
 as to when it happened, chi lo sa F " The chief 
 saint of the district, of whom many wonders are 
 told, is St Torello, the saint of Poppi, whose 
 image faces that of the abbot Fedele of Strumi 
 in the chief church of the place. The wonders 
 worked by Torello chiefly refer to wolves, his 
 I 129
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 power over them was such, that he succeeded 
 in taming one and turning him practically 
 into a dog. In our British Isles the wonder of 
 taming the wolf and setting him to guard the 
 sheep, "which he does to this present dav," is 
 attributed to the woman saint Modwen who 
 came into England from Ireland. Torello 
 seems to have been content to have the wolf 
 as his companion, and those who called upon 
 him against wolves henceforth found protection. 
 The learned editors of the Acta Sanctorum 
 suggested that Torello lived in the eleventh 
 century, but his legend, as it was put into 
 writing by an inhabitant of Poppi, contains linger- 
 ing pre-Christian superstitions. The great wolf 
 locally called " Moninus," whom he put under a 
 ban, seems to be unknown except in this dis- 
 trict. Torello is also called upon by the 
 people to protect them against famine and 
 the plague. 
 
 The driving road over the Consuma to 
 Florence is a well planned road, which rises to a 
 height of 3435 ft. On the day when we crossed 
 the mountains the weather gave a peculiar 
 grandeur to the wildness of the surroundings. 
 We joined the road above Romena and cast a 
 farewell look back on the Casentino. It 
 stretched away in a sunny morning haze, with 
 the hills of Poppi and Bibbiena just visible, and
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 the heights of La Verna overshadowed bv clouds. 
 The road went steadily rising through scenery 
 which became more and more bleak and deso- 
 late. We passed Casaccia, a solitary inn, since 
 turned into a private house, and appropriated to 
 some society. After passing Casaccia the road 
 wound in and out at about the same height till 
 a gap in the hills was reached, down which one 
 looked down into the valley of the Solano ; the 
 old path here joined the new road. In this 
 valley a storm was brewing. Clouds came 
 rolling up, but they could not prevail against 
 the strong wind which blew from the pass. 
 It was grand to see the masses of blue and 
 purple and black, rolled back on each other in 
 the valley, more and more densely packed. 
 Every now and then a streak of cloud escaped 
 and ran under shelter of a rock till it met 
 the wind, which seized it and scattered it and 
 dashed it towards us in the form of blinding 
 snow. On the further side of the pass the 
 weather was settled and fine. The sun shone 
 clear and a blue sky spanned the distant view 
 towards the Mediterranean. This view was 
 limited in the north only by the distant 
 mountains of Carrara ; in the south it embraced 
 Florence and all the hills around it, spreading 
 away to the flatness of the distant coast. And 
 in the glow of the late afternoon sun we once 
 131
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 more caught sight of the Arno in the near 
 distance. We had left it a rushing mountain 
 stream at Stia ; we now beheld it again a 
 broad, shining river, flowing beneath the city 
 of Florence.
 
 HINTS FOR THE TRAVELLER 
 
 The Casentino is reached from Florence. 
 
 — by rail via Arezzo (55 miles, 6 trains daily, 
 in ii-4 hours) and Bibbiena (20 miles, 3 trains 
 daily, in li hours). The railway goes on to 
 Poppi, Pratovecchio and Stia, the terminus of 
 the line lying midway between the two latter 
 towns which are about a mile apart. 
 
 — or by rail to Pontassieye, Alhergo del Vapore, 
 Locanda della Stazione, Restaurant Piselli^^nd from 
 there by carriage road oyer the Consuma Pass to 
 Stia or Pratoyecchio. A diligence starts daily 
 from Pontassieve for Stia at 2.30 in the afternoon 
 (3 lire), and for Pontassieye from Stia at 
 ri o'clock in the morning. At Pontassieye 
 carriages in the inns mentioned aboye. To Stia 
 one-horse carriage, 12 lire; two-horse carriage, 
 
 24 lire. Carriages from Pontassieye to Camaldoli, 
 
 25 lire and 40 lire. 
 
 — or by rail to St EUero, the station beyond 
 Pontassieye, and on by steep grade line to Saltino 
 (trains yary according to the season) and Vallom- 
 brosa. At Saltino Hotel Vallombrosa^ Hotel Croce di 
 Savoia^ and ten minutes further Hotel Castello di
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 Acquabella (all large and with modern comforts). 
 From Saltino carriage road \\ miles to Vallom- 
 brosa, Albergo della Foresta^ Villino Medici (recom- 
 mended). From Vallombrosa a road ending in a 
 footpath across the mountains reaches the Con- 
 suma road near Consuma, about two hours' walk. 
 
 Convenient centres for excursions are Bibbiena, 
 Albergo Amorosi ; Poppi, Restaurant and pension 
 Gelati^ Albergo Vezzosi^ near the station ; Prato- 
 vecchio^ Albergo Spigliantini , Albergo Bastieri ; Stia, 
 Albergo della Stazione Alpina^ Albergo Falterotia. 
 
 Bibbiena is situated on a hill fifteen minutes' 
 walk from the station, fare 50 c. In the church 
 of San Lorenzo are two della Robbias. 
 
 Excursions from Bibbiena. 
 
 — to La Verna (inn) by road, jh miles. Two- 
 horse carriage from Bibbiena, 15-20 lire. The 
 monastery, which is visible from afar, consists of 
 several parts which date from different periods. 
 The road on leaving Bibbiena passes the in- 
 teresting Dominican monasterv Madonna del 
 Sasso, founded in 1347, and enlarged in i486. 
 It then passes Campi, crosses the Corsalone 
 and ascends through a wood and along rockv 
 slopes. Outside the monastery lies the Cappella 
 degli Uccelli, where flocks of birds welcomed St 
 Francis on his first visit. The oldest part is the 
 Cappella degli Angeli, built in 1216. This 
 134
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 contains three della Robblas. The large church 
 was begun in 1348 bv Tarlato, Count of 
 Pietramala. This contains several della 
 Robbias. The small church of the Stigmata 
 was built in 1263 bv Count Simone of Batti- 
 folle, as is indicated by a well-cut inscription at 
 the entrance. It contains a very fine della 
 Rohhia. Below this chapel is the Sasso Spicco, 
 whence the devil hurled St Francis, and the 
 cave, called St Francis's Bed, whence a raven 
 used to call him every night to matins. \n 
 the Luoghi Santi, St Francis frequently stayed. 
 A path leads to the chapel, three-quarters of 
 an hour above the convent, from which there 
 is an extensive view, and beyond ascends the 
 Penna. Below lies Chiusi di Casentino, formerly 
 looked upon as Clusium Noviim^ mentioned by 
 PI in v. Here Ludovico Buonarotti was podestd 
 at the time when his son Michel Angelo was born 
 at Caprera, a short distance to the south-east. 
 
 — to Ortignano,an hour's drive along the vallev 
 of the Teggina. A beautiful view of Bibbiena 
 looking back. A paved path leads from the 
 road up to Ortignano, and beyond to the church, 
 which contains a beautiful Virgin and Child 
 bv Alatteo di Giovanni. Along the road 
 beyond Ortignano lies Raggiolo (inn), with 
 the ruins of a castle which was held by the 
 Ubertini (1325), and passed from them to the 
 Tarlati. From Raggiolo the Prato Magno is 
 '35
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 sometimes ascended, about two and a half hours' 
 walk, guide necessary. 
 
 — to Badia a Prataglia, a rising summer resort, 
 Albergo Mulinacciy and at Boscoverde, 2700 ft., a 
 summer pension, 10 miles. Diligence from 
 Bibbiena, 2 lire ; one-horse carriage, 8 lire. The 
 road follows the valley of the Archiano and passes 
 Camprena. The ruins of Gressa (formerly of the 
 bishops of Arezzo and taken by the Florentines 
 in 1259) ^"^ ^^ Marciano (granted to Badia a 
 Prataglia in 1084) are visible on the right. 
 At Partina are ruins of a castle held by the 
 Guidi till 1389. Serravalle, with its tower of 
 1 188, is visible on the left. A driving road 
 leading up to it from beyond the bridge is in 
 course of construction, and several new villas 
 have been built near the old village. The 
 Archiano is here joined by the Fosso of 
 Camaldoli. A path this side of the bridge leads 
 along the valley to Camaldoli. Another path 
 further up over the hills also leads through 
 the woods to Camaldoli. Badia a Prataglia, 
 founded about the year 980, was associated with 
 Camaldoli in the twelfth century, and for a 
 time suppressed. The church has an interest- 
 ing crypt with romanesque columns, now used 
 as a wood store. The old monastery adjoining 
 the church is now a private villa. Bevond Badia 
 the road ascends, and from the height of the pass 
 Bagno in Roma2;na is visible. From Badia 
 136
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 to Bagno lo, to Forli 58 miles. Interesting 
 short walks to the confluence of the Arno and 
 Archiano, and to Memmenano, where is a fine 
 della Robbia. 
 
 Poppi lies on a hill, fifteen minutes' walk 
 from the station. The castle is being re- 
 stored. It is the work of Jacopo Lapo. On the 
 top of the staircase Count Guido of BattifoUe. 
 The chapel contains frescoes attributed to 
 Spinello Aretino and Jacopo da Casentino, and 
 other fresco decorations have been uncovered 
 in the dining hall. In the church of the 
 Augustinians a poor della Robbia. Another 
 della Robbia outside the Casa Bremasole. The 
 parochial church, beautifully situated, contains 
 several good paintings, including a Virgin of 
 Franciabigio, others attributed to Guido da 
 Siena, and the head of St Torello, the patron 
 saint of the district, in silver gilt casing. 
 
 Excursions from Poppi 
 
 — to Camaldoli bv road 8 miles. One-horse 
 carriage, 7-10 lire. In summer months a dili- 
 gence. The older bad road is by Lierna, the 
 new one leaves Ragginopoli to the right. Both 
 contain ruins of strongholds owned by the Guidi. 
 The monastery of Camaldoli lies in a wooded 
 valley on a rockv slope of the Apennines. A 
 few of the more aged and infirm monks remain 
 here, but the greater part of the monastery is 
 137
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 turned into a hotel, Grande Albergo^ with every 
 comfort. The monastery founded by St 
 Romuald in 1018 was destroyed by fire in 
 1203, ^"^ ^^^ °^^ convent court remains un- 
 changed. It owned an early printing press, 
 and the famous Annal'i Camaldolensiy 907-1764, 
 were written here. The church, which was 
 injured in 1498 when the monastery was 
 besieged by the Duke of Urbino, was rebuilt in 
 1523, and contains three paintings by Vasari. 
 It was restored 1 772-1 776. The monastery was 
 suppressed in 1866 and belongs to the Woods 
 and Forest Department of the State. The 
 majority of the monks have retired to the 
 hermitage. This lies three-quarters of an hour 
 up the glen above the convent, along a paved 
 path, at a height of 3700 ft. Visitors are shown 
 over the church and the cell of St Romuald by 
 one of the monks. Beyond the hermitage a path 
 leads to the Prato al Soglio, fine and extensiye 
 view, and across the hills to Badia a Prataglia. 
 In the opposite direction a footpath to Lonnano 
 and Poppiena. Fine walk along the ridge to 
 Monte Falterona. 
 
 — to Fronzola, with the remains of a castle 
 besieged by Count Simone of Battifolle in 1344. 
 The road leads on to Raggiolo, 
 
 — to Borgo alia CoUina and Strada San 
 Niccolo (inn). The road follows the valley and 
 crosses Campaldino, the site of the famous 
 i-,8
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 battle. At Certomondo there is a church and 
 cloister of the fifteenth century. Near here were 
 found Etruscan remains in 1846. The road to 
 the Consuma Pass diverges to the left. Borgo 
 alia Collina (inn), six miles from Poppi, has an 
 old church containing a Virgin and saints of 
 1423. The new church contains the body of 
 Cristofero Landini, Chancellor of the Republic 
 of Florence. From the road extensive views of 
 the valley. To the left a road leads to Strada. 
 Interesting church of San Martino in Vadowith 
 manv curious column capitals, similar in stvle to 
 those of Romena and Stia. On the further side 
 of the river lies the ruined Castel S. Niccolo, one 
 of the great strongholds of the Guidi, with 
 church, also in ruins. A road diverges to the 
 right to Cajano. Of the Castle of Eattifolle 
 only a few stones are left. From Cajano the 
 paved road in a steep ascent reaches the high 
 road between Casaccia and Consuma. From 
 Strada the road along the Schcgijia ends in a 
 path by which it is possible to reach Monte- 
 mignajo, a stronghold of the Guidi, of which 
 the tower, a vast cistern, and part of the walls 
 are left. In the church of Santa Maria, are 
 column capitals, similar in style to those of 
 Romena, etc. To reach Montemignajo 
 driving, it is necessary to drive almost to the 
 height of the pass between Casaccia and 
 Consuma, branching off to the left. From 
 '39
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 Montemignajo a rough path leads to the Croce 
 Vecchia and on to Vallombrosa, 
 
 — to Pratovecchio (6 miles) the road follows the 
 valley of the Arno. The place, large and ram- 
 bling, is closely connected with the history of the 
 Guidi. There are extant the ruins of towers and 
 remains of the ancient walls and fortifications. 
 The convent church of the Dominican nuns 
 contains several seventeenth century paintings. 
 From Pratovecchio three different paths, the 
 one via Lonnano, the other via Casalino, 
 the third via Moggiona, lead to Camaldoli. 
 
 Stia lies on the confluence of the Staggia and 
 the Arno. The church (La Pieve) is of the 
 twelfth centurv, partly modernised, but contains 
 interesting round arches and carved column 
 capitals. It is said to have been built by 
 Countess Matelda. In the church several della 
 Robbias. In the town hall a beautiful della 
 Robbia. Also in the Oratorio della Madonna 
 del Ponte a polychrome della Robbia. In the 
 bed of a small lake north-east of Stia, during 
 the drought of 1838, were discovered many 
 Etruscan antiquities. 
 
 Excursions from Stia and Pratovecchio 
 
 — to Monte Falterona (5434 ft.) about four 
 
 hours. Guide advisable (5 frs.). The usual way 
 
 is by Porciano, an ancient stronghold of the Guidi. 
 
 From here following the path in a northerly 
 
 140
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 direction to the Capo d'Arno, from where bv a 
 steep ascent to the refuge Ricovero Dante built 
 by the Italian Alpine Club. (The icev procur- 
 able at the house of Signor Beni at Stia, or of 
 the Secretary of the Club at Florence.) In 
 the club hut only bare bedsteads. On a clear 
 day the view extends to the Adriatic and the 
 Tyrrhenian. From Falterona a splendid walk 
 along the mountain ridge to Camaldoli. 
 
 — to Santa Maria delle Grazie, at one time a 
 dependency of Vallombrosa, sometimes called 
 Vallombrosella. The church, beautifully situ- 
 ated, dates from the end of fifteenth century. 
 Some good pictures and several beautiful della 
 Robblas. The ruins of Castel Castagnajo, and 
 of Campo Lombardo, strongholds of the Guidi, 
 are seen on the further side of the river. A 
 path leads on to the mountain village Vallucciole. 
 Another road along the valley of the Staggia 
 leads to Gaviserri branching off to the left to 
 Papiano, near which are the ruins of Urbech, 
 a stronghold of the Guidi. 
 
 — to the Castle and Church of Romena along 
 the road which joins the main road over the Con- 
 suma. The Castle ruins are in a commanding 
 position and are visible from afar. The site in 
 1034 was in the power of Count Guido Alberti 
 of Spoleto, and passed into the family of the 
 Guidi through marriage. It passed to Florence 
 in 1357. An inscription records Dante's stay 
 141
 
 Through the Casentino 
 
 here during his exile. Haifa mile below lie the 
 ruins of the church, built in 1152, as mentioned 
 on one of the column capitals. The road passes 
 Fonte Branda. The church, which contains 
 some good paintings, has been restored. Beyond 
 Romena the road returns to the main road 
 which rises to Omo Morto, a heap of stones 
 that is popularly associated with Maestro Adamo 
 of Brescia, and beyond to Casaccia and the 
 pass over the Consuma. 
 
 142
 
 INDEX 
 
 Adamo of Brescia, ii8, 141. 
 Ampere, Voyages dantesques, 11, 
 
 122. 
 Apennines, 57, 77 ff. 
 Arcliiano, 57, 78, log, 136. 
 Arezzo, trains from, 133. 
 Arno, valley of the, i ; sources of, 
 
 113 ff. 
 Arnolfo Lapo, 110. 
 
 Badia a Prataglia, 10, 85, 87 ; 
 
 inns at and situation, 136. 
 Badia a Tega, 10. 
 Bagno, 56, 68, 136. 
 Battifolle, 90 ; ruins of, 139. 
 Beni, guide book of, 49, 125 ; 
 
 address of, 141. 
 Bibbiena, z, 13 ff. ; market-place, 
 
 14; innsat and excursions from, 
 
 .'34. 
 Bibbiena, Cardinal, 13, 17, 21 ff. 
 Borgo alia Collina, 122 ; situation 
 
 of, 138, 
 Boscoverde, pension at, 136. 
 Buonconte, killed at Campaldino, 
 
 114, 117. 
 
 Cajano, T39. 
 
 Calandra, 26 ff. 
 
 Camaldoli, 2, 51 ff. ; views of, 53, 
 73 ; landmark of, 76 ; approaches 
 of^i '33i '36 ; inns at and ex- 
 cursions from, 137 ; paths to, 
 140. 
 
 Campaldino, 114, 120, 138. 
 
 Campi, 134. 
 
 Campo Lombardo, 141. 
 
 Camprena, 55. 
 
 Capo d'Arno, 113 ff. ; paths to, 
 140. 
 
 Cappella degli Uccelli, 134. 
 
 Caprera, 135. 
 
 Casaccia, 131, 139. 
 
 Casalino, 140. 
 
 Castel Castagnajo, 141. 
 
 Castel San Niccolo, 139 ; view of, 
 
 Castiglione on Cardinal Bibbiena, 
 
 22 ff. 
 Certomondo, 139. 
 Chiusi di Casentino, 135. 
 Consuma, 107, 121, etc. ; driving 
 
 road over, 133 ; paths leading 
 
 to, 134, 139, 141. 
 Conversations 0/ Camaldoli, 80 
 
 ff. 
 Corsalone, 35, 134. 
 Cortegiano, il, 24 ff. 
 
 Dante, on the Guidi, 7 ; con- 
 nection with the Guidi, 93, 113 
 ff. ; on St Francis, 44 ; on St 
 Romuald, 10. 
 
 Delia Robbia, at Bibbiena, 17, 
 134 ; at La V'erna (frontispiece), 
 46, 49, 134 ; at Memmenano, 
 137 ; at Poppi, 137 ; at Santa 
 Maria, 141: at Stia, 140. 
 
 Divizio, Angelo, 32 ; Bernardo, see 
 Bibbiena, Cardinal. 
 
 Eremo, 63, 78 ff., 138. 
 Etruscan remains, 2, 18, 139. 
 
 Faenza at war with Guidi, 105. 
 Falterona, i, 113, 125 ; ascent of, 
 
 140. 
 Fedele of Strumi, 129. 
 Florence at war with Guidi, 105. 
 Fonte Branda, 63, 142. 
 Forli, road to, 101, 137. 
 Fosso of Camaldoli, 78, 136. 
 
 143
 
 Index 
 
 Francis, St, 5, 10, 11, 33 ff. ; 
 
 portrait of (frontispiece). 
 Fronzola, 138. 
 
 Gaviserri, 141. 
 
 Gherardesca, Countess, 116, 117. 
 
 Giovio on Cardinal Bibbiena, 22, 
 
 Gisla, Countess, 94. 
 
 Gressa, 55, 136. 
 
 Gualdrada, Countess, 95, 104 flf. 
 
 Guidi, Counts, go ff. ; Guido, 95 ; 
 Guido il Marc/iesc, 97, 102 ; 
 Guidoguerra, 98, idi ; Guido 
 Vecchio, 104, 106 ; Guido Mag- 
 nifico, 106 ; Guido Novello, 106 
 ff. ; Guido Selvatico, 113 ; Guido 
 of BattifoUe, 115, his portrait, 
 109 ; Guido Novello the younger, 
 115; Tegrimo, 94; Tegrimo 
 Bevisangue, 94 ; Tegrimo of 
 Modigliana, 107 ; Simone of 
 BattifoUe, 48, 106, 135 ; Aless- 
 androof Romena, 117 ff.; Oberto 
 and Guido of Romena, 118 ; 
 arms of, 112. 
 
 JaCOPO del CaSEN'TINO, 46, III, 
 
 137- 
 Jacopo Lapo, no, 137. 
 
 Landini, Cristofero, 11, 80 ff. ; 
 
 relic of, 139. 
 La Verna, 5, 11, 33 ff. ; views of, 
 
 3i 34) 43 > description of, 134. 
 Lierna, 137. 
 Lonnano, 138, 140. 
 
 Maccia del Uo.mo Morto, 118. 
 Madonna del Sasso, 35, 134. 
 Maldolo, Count, 71. 
 Malespini on Guidi, 95. 
 Manessa, Countess, 114, 117. 
 Marciano, 55, 136. 
 Mariotto, 82. 
 
 Matelda, Countess, 96, 97, 140. 
 Medici in the Casentino, 21, 81 ff. ; 
 
 princess at Eremo, 77, 
 Memmenano, 137. 
 Moggiona, 140. 
 Mona Giovanna, 128. 
 Montemignajo, 97, 139. 
 
 Orlando, Count, 46. 
 Ortignano, 135. 
 
 Otto of Freysiiig on Guidi, lot. 
 Ozanam on St Francis, 40, 41. 
 
 Pappiano, 141. 
 I'asserini on Guidi, 119. 
 Penna, 33, 50; ascent of, 135. 
 Peter Damian, 64, 65. 
 Pontassieve, inns at, 133. 
 Poppi, 75, 89, 90 ff. ; views of, 91, 
 
 99, 109 ; inns at, 134 ; excursions 
 
 from, 137. 
 Poppiena, 138. 
 Porciano, 90, 95, etc. 
 Prato al Soglio, 85, 138. 
 Pratomagno, 18, 76 ; ascent of, 135. 
 Pratovecchio, 46, 113, 125; inns 
 
 at, 134; excursions from, 140. 
 
 Ragginopoli, 136. 
 Raggiolo, 135, 138. 
 Romena, 90, 97, 98 ; view of, 114 ; 
 
 ways to, 141. 
 Romuald, St, 5, 10, 51 ff., 80, etc. 
 Ruskin on St Francis, 39, 41. 
 
 Sacchetti on Countesses at 
 
 Poppi, 117. 
 Saltino, hotels at, 133. 
 San Martino di Vado, 97, 139. 
 Santa Maria delle Grazie, 141. 
 Sasso Spicco, 135. 
 Scheggia, 139. 
 Serravalle, 59, S5, 89, 136. 
 Soci, 55, 56, 57, 90. 
 Solano, 97, 121. 
 Staggia, 125, 141. 
 Stia, 97, 125, 133; inns at, 134 ; 
 
 excursions from, 140. 
 StravaSan Niccolo, 121 ; situation 
 
 of, 133. 
 Strumi, 94, 129. 
 
 Tarlati, 20, 22 ; of Pietramala, 
 
 56. 
 Teggina, 135. 
 Tolosanus on Guidi, 101. 
 Torello, St, 129 ff., 137. 
 
 Urbech, 141. 
 
 Vallo.mbrosa, inns at, 134. 
 Vallucciole, 141. 
 Vasari, 46, 8^, 90, no, 138. 
 Villani, 95, 109, 116. 
 
 THE END 
 
 Colston i5r» Coy- Limited, Printers, Edinburgh
 
 Over ZOOO feet outlined thus Over 3000 feet outlined thu^ .,„„„-- 
 
 ri
 
 A LIS 'J' OF DKNT'S 
 
 COUNTY GUI DPS 
 
 Kditi-d bv (tH()rc;k a. b. 1)1. war. 
 
 IN issuing this series of books the publishers believe that 
 thev are making a departure, no less welcome than 
 needful, from the usual lines on which such Handbooks 
 are compiled. What they have endeavoured to do tor the 
 historic Towns of I'^urope in their " Medixval Town Series," 
 they now hope to accomplish for the Counties of lingland, 
 by presenting their unrivalled attractions in such a way as 
 shall no longer make a guide-book a weariness to the flesh. 
 
 Their object is to produce a series of books at once 
 thoroughly readable and thoroughly efficient as tourist guides. 
 
 The volumes will be redolent of the fresh open air and 
 the country side. Natural History and Sport in their various 
 branches will be in the hands of ex])erts living in the districts 
 described. The Scenery and History of each interesting s])ot 
 will be written of by a man of letters who knows and lo\es 
 his own county. 
 
 Hach \olume is divided into three parts. Part I., dealing 
 with the " Story and Scenery " of the county, consists of 
 Itineraries devoted to its characteristic districts ; and it is 
 intended that these sections, though independent of each other, 
 may form a connected whole fit to be read through as are 
 the chapters of a book. To make the " Story and Scenery " 
 of the county readable as a whole, it has been necessary to 
 condense into Part III. "A County Gazetteer," much 
 antiquarian and other information about towns, villages, and 
 churches, together with indispensable directions of a purely 
 practical character about trains, hotels and inns, and the like. 
 Part II. consists of articles on the Natural History and Sport 
 of the county, contributed by writers who have studied these 
 subjects on the spot, together with a chapter specially intended 
 for the use of cyclists.
 
 LIST OF VOLUMES 
 
 Each With niimcyous Topof^yaphiad Illustrations, Sectional Plans 
 accompanying the Itineraries, and a County Map. Fcap. 8vo (con- 
 venient for the pocket), cloth gilt, tinted edges. Is. Gd. net per volume. 
 
 THE LAKE COUNTIES. By W. G. Col- 
 
 LiNGWOOD, with Special Articles on: Birds, by Mary L. 
 Armitt; Butterflies and Moths, by Canon Crewdson ; 
 Flora, by S. L. Petty; Geology, by Prof. E. Hull, 
 LL.D.; Fox-hunting, by Rev. E. M. Reynolds, 
 M.F.H.; Mountaineering, by W. P. Haskett Smith ; 
 Yachting, by Arthur vSevern ; Angling, by A. Severn, 
 Junr. ; Shooting, by A. Ruskin Severn ; Cycling, by 
 A. W. Rumney. [Spring, 1902. 
 
 SURREY. By Walter Jerrold, with Special 
 
 Articles on: Birds, by J. A. Bucknill, M.A,; Flowers, 
 
 by Edward Step, F.L.S.; Entomology, by Rev. J. 
 
 Vernon ; Geology, by Prof. Edward Hull, LL.D.; 
 
 Cycling, by Duncan Tovey. 
 Athenaum. — "Rewrites with ample knowledge and enthusiasm, 
 and the volume may be recommended as fully maintaining the high 
 reputation which the series has already gained. . . . Besides Mr. 
 Jerrold's main narrative, which is strong on the antiquarian and 
 literary side, we have special articles . . . which seem excellent." 
 
 Field. — " Something more than a guide book, though in that 
 direction it would be hard to beat, for while the author is an en- 
 thusiast, and writes very pleasantly, he is far from unmindful of 
 those details which, though they may be commonplace, are very 
 valuable." 
 
 NORFOLK. By William A. Dutt, with 
 
 Special Articles on: Birds, by Rev. R. C. Nightingale; 
 Botany, by H. D. Geldart ; Entomology, by Claude 
 Morley, F.E.S.; Geology, by F. W. Harmer, F.G.S.; 
 Shooting and Fishing, by A. J. Rudd ; Sea Fishing, 
 by E. A. Croxon ; Cycling, by H. Morriss. 
 Academy. — "As near a model guide book as may be ; the itiner- 
 aries are ample and well arranged, the maps good, and he discourses 
 pleasantly by the way of matters interesting to more than the mere 
 tourist." 
 
 Daily Chronicle. — "This little volume is so excellent as far as it 
 goes, has been written with so much cheeriness and love for the 
 Eastern county, is such a miracle of cheapness, and so exactly what 
 the tourist in Norfolk needs during his stay, that we can only speak 
 of it with cordial praise and admiration."
 
 HAMPSHIRE WITH THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 
 
 By George A. B. Dewar, with Special Articles on : 
 Botany, by John Vaughan ; Entomology, by G. M. A, 
 Hewett ; Birds, by G. B. Corbin ; Geology, by 
 Prof. Edward Hull, LL.D. ; Fishing and Shooting, 
 by the Editor ; Cycling, by W. M. Harman. 
 
 Atlifiitviiiit. — '• After ,t uw'iir <iiiti [^racticiil ixpi-riiiice of i^'ii/'df-fiooks 
 for iifijr/v forts years, we have no hesitation in saving that it is the 
 best of its size I J fO />/>.) that we have as vet seen, ft is a book that 
 the general aiiti(/iiarv or /o:rr of Xatiirr as '.cell as the roiintrv resident 
 'uiU delight to have on their sliehes." 
 
 Times. — "The authors have done their work extremely well, . . 
 an immense amount of information presented in an orderly and 
 attractive form." 
 
 County (jenlh'vian. — "At once practical and romantic, useful ;^d 
 ornamental." 
 
 PRESS APPRECIATIONS 
 
 Outlook. — " Many will bless Messrs. Dent for the happy 
 idea embodied in this series." 
 
 Atliciuvitm. — "This seems to us an excellent plan, and 
 should produce a kind of volume decidedly superior to the 
 ordinary run of handbooks." 
 
 Ddilv A't'ias'. — " There is no reason why a guide-book 
 should not be artistic and literary, as well as an accurate pro- 
 duction, but before the issue of ' Dent's County Guides,' we 
 are not aware that anybody ever thought of making it so." 
 
 Dailv Chronicle. — " We rejoice that the writing of guide- 
 books has come into the hands of men of line taste, large 
 appreciation, and delicate style, and has for ever escaped from 
 those who, in the past, gave guide-books a reputation for all 
 that was commonplace, banal, and dull. Messrs. Dent are 
 to be much commended." 
 
 Scottish (TC0<>raphicnl Mn^lazinc. — " These guide-books 
 may be said to inaugurate a new departure. Instead of bare 
 statistics, dry details, and unattractive forms of ordinary 
 guide-books, we have here dainty little volumes with interest- 
 ing letterpress, clear maps, and exquisite woodcuts from 
 original sketches. . . . No lover of the beautiful could have 
 more delightful companions." 
 
 J. M. DENT & Co., Bedford Street, London, W.C.
 
 Surrey 
 
 have taken us to the left over the river by Summerset 
 Bridge (so called from the neighbourinc^ farm) and on by 
 the side of Peper Harow Park through one of the lovely 
 lanes which are so characteristic of our Surrey valleys, to 
 where the road turns through the park past the church and 
 rnansion, after which we may turn left to Hashing or right 
 y down through the Ox- 
 
 enford gateway, and so 
 back to the Godalming 
 road. A very pleasant 
 walk from Hashing is 
 by following the road 
 to Shackletord church 
 and then turning to the 
 right, after pausing to 
 admire the wonderful 
 situation of the church, 
 set by four cross roads 
 in a pleasant woodland, 
 with the few neighbour- 
 ing houses hidden in the 
 trees. The village of 
 Shackleford, a good half 
 mile further ahead, is 
 well worth a visit ; it is 
 one ot the many places 
 in the county which 
 have yielded relics of 
 the Roman occupation. Following the road to the right 
 we ascend fairly rapidly to the quaint hillside hamlet of 
 Hurtmore, a little way bevond which we reach a height of 
 over three hundred and thirty feet and have beautiful views 
 all round — south and west over Godalming and the Wey 
 valley and north to the Hog's Back. Continuing, we 
 shortly see on our right the noble pile of buildings of the 
 great Charterhouse School. Taking the first lane to the 
 right we may descend into Godalming, or continuing 
 46 
 
 (ao6e\lrr)in| 
 
 Spcciiiurt Pdi^e and Illiisltalioii.
 
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