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The Tombs of the Popes Landmarks in Papal

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The Tombs of the Popes Landmarks in Papal M T H E T O B S O F T H E P O P E S LANDMARKS IN PAPAL HI S TORY BY F ERD I NA N D GREGOROVI U S T RAN S LATED F R M T H E S EC N D AN D E N LARGED GERMAN EOD ITI N W ITOH A M EM I R O , O O F T HE AU TH R BY O , E - R . W . S TON WATSON Author o f MAXI M I LIAN I — F ructus mun di m in a . Po pz GREGORY I WESTMINSTER ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE CO LTD 2 WHIT EHALL GARDEN S 1903 r. » A s Bur TA NN R m a 8: E , ' Ta n S nnwo o n a rmo Worms, FROMt , A ND LONDON . M Y G R A N D F A T H E R GEORGE SETON O N HIS E I G H T Y - F I R S T B I R T H D A Y T HE TO M ES OF THE POPES T HE TO M ES OF T HE POPES o w h l n f is idea up n hich t is out i e o Papal history based . It is sufli ciently orig'inal to be quoted here To the lo ver of histo ry nothing is more agreeable and stimulating tha n to give form and feature to the past by the co ntemplation of her monuments . In this way History herself grows living as a po rtrait . In our ow n days she is slowly but surely rising in her v strength abo e the other Sciences , and at the same n . time with tra sfigured countenance Her do cuments , explored and examined more lovingly than ever befo re —.ln o r o of ther wo ds , the living representati n her scenes and her monuments— are laying the founda tion of a new epo ch in the cultivation of the Sciences . This is the sense in which the author would have his present study on the Papal monuments re Its plan was conceived some years ago in St . ’ ’ of I II . s Peter s , where one day the sight Paul statue o filled me with a sense o f perplexity . As I gazed up n o n these mysterious figures grouped ar u d the Church , n and solemnly stretching fo rth their hands in blessi g , like a Senate of gods o r of guardians of this mighty o o temple , it struck me that it w uld surely be pr fitable of o to search o ut the scattered to mbs the P pes , and h o of by their aid to depict the ist ry the Papacy, as ’ though in a sculptor s relief. o mo n in o Ro man task , since in R me re tha any ther o o o oo city o f the w orld , Research f ll ws cl sely in the f t And in no other s ot u on this prints of Death . p p ' globe is the human heart so frequently oppressed by of o a the spirit of melancho ly , as at the feet R m of Immortalis, w ho still stands there amid the ruins x TRANS LATOR’ S I NTRO DUCTION centuries , beautiful and sorrowing , the mangled of o o n o Nemesis hist ry, still h lding in her ha d the r ll on which the fates o f the n ations are inscribed . These hours of labo ur I do not feel that I have spent in vain ; and I have sought to free my spirit fro m the o of o ff o shad w the dead , by laying this ering bef re their " " To me l om of shrine . , he tel s us, The T bs the ’ Po pes have served as a compass for my larger work o and I regard the essay as in s me sense a vestibule , t f ow n ification wi hin which I have fitted up , or my ed ‘ and a mmar i i er the u ts as su y o histor c as , b s , the " o m f o . sarc phagi , and the onume nts o the P pes sole apo lo gy for its failings lies in the style of the t original . Wholly suited o the subject with which it o m o deals , it seems hewn fr the s lid marble , and one o reminds , in its rugged yet c ncise and vivid lines , of l o o Michael Ange o , to wh se Moses it dev tes a striking paragraph . In on e instance only have I departed fro m the f r vi t scheme o the original . G egoro us relega ed the o Latin epitaphs to an Appendix , and placed in the b dy of the text his own translations in German hexa . f meters In spite o his genuine poetic talent , these o one o of o latter f rm the weak p int the essay, and d not o m t enc urage e o venture upon a poetical version . o e I have theref re placed the Latin in the t xt , giving the translations in footnotes . More than one of these e i o p taphs is bscure and barbarous , and in such cases . 0 2 68 o o (see pp 3 , 5 , ) I have f ll wed the reading given Gre orovi by g us in his German translatio n . oi of o In the ch ce illustrati ns , I have endeavoured to steer a middle course betw een the purely historical and the r l u pu e y artistic points of view . Gregorovi s xi 6 T HE TOM ES OF T HE POPES naturally lays mo st stress on the former of thm . A goo d example of this is to be fo und in his attitude to wards the exquisite tomb o f Benedict XI . at Perugia , ’ of o which he virtually ignores , because that P pe s m co parative insignificanc e . Fro m the fact that ’ Greg orovius gives the Cathedral as Benedict s place of — f o o interment instead o S . Do menic , as it sh uld be— on e cannot but suspect that when this essay was w r ritten he was as yet unfamiliar with Pe ugia , and that the error escaped his notice in a subsequent edi o . f o X . ti n This tomb, and that o Greg ry , I have o f repr duced , on the ground o their architectural n to m f beauty . Objectio s may be raised the o ission o m the to bs of Gregory VII . and Innocent III the tw o of o — ut to mightiest all the P pes b , being limited a n m to defi ite nu ber, I decided to co nfine myself con tempora ry monuments . That in memory of Gregory . o 1 o f o VII was nly erected in 573 , and that Inn cent . 1 0 III in 89 , so that they cannot possibly be regarded as characteristic of their ow n epochs . One further ‘ — omission may be noticed the tomb of Leo X . But I was unwilling to insult the memory of that Maecenas of to the Papacy, by giving pro minence such an on o fo artistic m str sity as his tomb , and have there re substituted for it that of Adrian VI the last foreigner w ho o f — has ccupied the thron e o St . Peter the sin gular beauty of which offers a striking contrast to his - f well kno wn aversion to all forms o Art . The tomb of o o of Paul IV th ugh utterly dev id artistic merit, o o of o on has been th ught w rthy inserti n in the series , acco unt of the remarkably vivid description with n which it is ho o ured by Gregorovius . That of Urban VIII . is given as a specimen of the wo rk of N Bernini . o lover of art will demand an apology xu TRAN S LATOR’ S I NTRODUCTIO N for the inclusion of three monuments from the hand of o f . m Can va ; while the figure o Pius IX , the Pria ” of of the Papacy , is such universal interest , that his m onument could not well be passed over . R . W . S . W . 1 1 0 . August , 9 3 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS T a s ra omb of Paul IV in S . Mari op Mlnerva, Ro me or X. in o Greg y . Arezz Cathedral III in . 00 e 8 M , P rugia v in x-an a m the Late . R e ’ V . in . t om I , St Pe er s, R e ' l in Pi - in - Vlnculis om . euo Ju ius II S , R e ’ m in . r Ad . 8 Ma ia n m o m VI , dell A i a, R e ’ u in o m Pa l III St. Peter s, R e us V in M M . 8 . r or om St Pi ., a ia aggi e, R e ’ UM VI in S . eter om II t P s, R e in SS . s l om Apo to i , R e “ in S . e a W e t P t s, s . in S . L zo c e Piu IX , om , ut mo Rome E REGOR VI M MOIR OF G O US .
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