LIBRARY OF MONTE CASSINO. "La regola mia Rimasa è giù per danno delle carte. Le mura, che soleano esser badia, Ma grave usura tanto non si tolle Parad. xxii. Benevento da Imola commenting on this passage says: 225 "To the clearer understanding of this passage, I will repeat what my venerable preceptor, Boccaccio of Certaldo, pleasantly narrated to me. He said, that when he was in Apulia, being attracted by the fame of the place, he went to the great monastery of Monte Cassino of which we are speaking. And, being eager to see the library, which he had heard was very noble; he, humbly, gentle creature that he was besought a monk to do him the favour to open it. Pointing to a lofty staircase, he answered, stiffly, 'Go up; it is open.' Joyfully ascending, he found the place of so great a treasure without door or fastening, and, having entered, he saw the grass growing upon the windows, and all the books and shelves covered with dust. And, wondering, he began to open and turn over, now this book and now that, and found there many and various volumes of ancient and rare works. From some of them whole sheets had been torn out, in others the margins of the leaves were clipped, and thus they were greatly defaced. At length, full of pity that the labours and studies of so many illustrious minds should have fallen into the hands of such profligate men, grieving and weeping he withdrew. And coming into the cloister, he asked a monk whom he met, why those most precious books were so vilely mutilated. He replied, that some of the morks, wishing to gain a few ducats, cut out a handful of leaves, and made psalters which they sold to boys, and likewise of the margins they made breviaries which they sold to women. Now, therefore, O scholar, rack thy brains in the making of books!" In 1326, John XXII., declaring, from Avignon, that he wished to do honour to S. Benedict, raised the abbacy into a bishopric, and the monks into a chapter of canons. bishops succeeded thus, but the honour was never welcomed VOL. II. 15 Nine at Monte Cassino, as it was found to afford an excuse for interference with monastic election, and it came to an end in 1370. In the 15th century the power of Monte Cassino began steadily to decline: its fall being greatly due to its being made an Abbey in commendam. The Abbot Caraffa played into the hands of his own family: the Abbot Scarampa (the first Abbot Commendator) spent the wealth of the abbey in a crusade. Paul II. made himself abbot of Monte Cassino in order to abstract its revenues: Giovanni de' Medici, afterwards Leo X., was made abbot when he was only eleven years old, and was besieged at Monte Cassino (which successfully resisted) by Gonsalvo da Cordova. In 1649 the abbey began to be entirely rebuilt in the style of the Renaissance under the Abbot Squarcialupi, and was reconsecrated by Benedict XIII. in 1729. The last flicker of prosperity for Monte Cassino was in 1798, when the abbatial palace of S. Germano' was occupied for a time by King Ferdinand and Queen Caroline of Naples. Soon after, the French army, becoming victorious, occupied S. Germano, and laid tremendous requisitions upon Monte Cassino, upon pain of its immediate destruction. The ransom was paid, but the fate of the convent was only warded off for a time, and it was soon after completely pillaged, a young monk named Erasmus being cruelly murdered in attempting to defend the archives. In 1806 all the Houses of the Benedictine Order were suppressed in the kingdom of Naples; Monte Cassino, La Cava, and Monte Vergine, being preserved simply as Libraries, with a few monks to guard. them. After the return of the Bourbons, Monte Cassino had a temporary recovery, and since the Sardinian occupation its COURT-YARD OF MONTE CASSINO. 227 services to literature have exempted it from the entire confiscation which has fallen on all other religious houses. But the poor monks have a bare subsistence, and times are indeed changed since the Abbot of Monte Cassino was the first baron of the kingdom of Naples, administrator of a diocese (created 1321) composed of 37 parishes; while amongst the dependencies of the abbey were 4 bishoprics, 2 principalities, 20 countships, 250 castles, 440 towns and villages, 336 manors, 23 sea-ports, 33 islands, 200 mills, 300 tracts of land, and 1662 churches. Its revenues at the end of the 16th century, were valued at 500,000 ducats. But we have lingered too long over the history of the abbey, and as yet have only visited the cell of S. Benedict, which, indeed, unbelievers say only dates from the time of the restoration under Desiderius. A beautiful and spacious court-yard, by Bramante, adorned with statues of the chief benefactors, and with a noble fountain in the midst, occupies the centre of the building. Open arcades, on either side, display other courts, now used as gardens, where, amid the flowers, are preserved many portions of the granite pillars from the church which Desiderius built in the eleventh century. Colossal statues of Benedict and Scholastica guard the ascent to the upper quadrangle, which is surrounded by the statues of the great benefactors of the convent, those on the right being royal, those on the left papal. Near the entrance of the church are the parents of Benedict, of Placidus, and of Maurus. The living raven which hops about here, and which is quite a feature of the monastery, commemorates the ravens which miraculously guided the patriarch hither from Subiaco. Accurate descriptions still exist of the church of Desi derius, which was approached by a wide atrium, and divided by 20 granite columns. Both the atrium and the interior of the church were covered with mosaic representations of New Testament subjects, by artists imported from Constantinople. Over the present entrance is an inscription relating the story of the church. The present gates have the plates of the original bronze doors, inlaid in silver letters with a list of all the possessions of the abbey in 1066, when they were made at Constantinople for Desiderius. The present Church was built in 1640 in the form of a Latin Cross. It is of the most extreme magnificence, exceeds S. Peter's, and rivals the Certosa of Pavia in the richness and variety of its marbles. The roof of the nave is painted by Luca Giordano, and by the same painter is a great fresco over the doors, of the consecration of the first basilica by Alexander II. The stalls of the choir, though renaissance, are splendid specimens of carved wood-work; in the centre of each is a Benedictine saint. Here hang four great pictures by Francesco Solinus. In the left transept is the tomb of Pietro de' Medici, who was drowned in the Garigliano, Dec. 27, 1503, by the overcrowding and sinking of a boat, in which he was taking flight after the defeat of the French by Gonsalvo da Cordova. The bas-reliefs are by San Gallo. the opposite transept is the tomb of Guidone Fieramosca, last Prince of Mignano. In the side chapels are several works of Marco Mazzaroppi, the best being S. Gregory the Great, and the martyrdom of S. Andrew. Beneath the high altar and surrounded by a chain of lamps, repose Benedict and Scholastica, with these words only over their grave: In LIBRARY, MONTE CASSINO. "Benedictum et Scholasticam, Uno in terris partur editos, Una in Deum pietate cœlo redditos, Mortalis depositi pro æternitate custos." 229 In the crypt below, where Tasso, on his last journey to Rome, knelt by the founder's tomb, are some ruined frescoes by the rare master Marco da Siena. In the sacristy a number of magnificent old copes are preserved. Here are a curious old brazier and a stone lavatory. The Refectory contains an immense picture by Francesco and Leandro Bassano. In the upper part, Christ is represented performing the miracle of the loaves and fishes; in the lower, S. Benedict is distributing the symbolical bread of the Benedictine Rule. The painter Leandro has introduced his own figure to the left of the saint. In the corner is John Calvin, livid with disgust. The Library, built in the 16th century, by the Abbot Squarcialupi, still contains about 20,000 volumes. Its origin mounts up to the foundation of the abbey, for S. Benedict mentions it in one of the rules of his Order. 800 original diplomas remain, containing the charters and privileges accorded to the abbey by popes, emperors, and kings. The collection of Lombard charters deserves especial notice on account of the miniatures placed at the head of each, a contemporary portrait-gallery rudely executed, but at least interesting, as displaying the costume of the time. The earliest charter, bearing date 884, is of a Prince of Beneventum, and begins-"Ajo Dei providentia Longobardorum gentis princeps." The earliest bull is that of Pope Zacharias of the beginning of the 8th century. Amongst the MSS. is |