SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as hays not ham reserved for review 114 other forms.] The Tombs of the Popes. Translated from the German of Ferdinand Gregorovius by R. W. Seton-Watson. (A. Constable and Co. 3s. 6d. net.)—The Tombs of the Popes, which appears for- the first time in an English dress, was written in 1855. It is practically a study for the great work, "The History of the City of Rome during the Middle Ages," begun in 1856, and carried on with untiring industry for fifteen years. The introduction, with its sketch of Gregorovius's character and career, is an excellent piece of work. The treatise itself will well repay perusal. The anomalies in the story are, indeed, strange, but the analogies are not less remarkable. The two greatest of the Popes have no monuments,—the actual tombs have commonly perished. It is a marvel that nothing commemo- rates either Gregory VII. or Innocent III. It is a significant accident that the tomb of Leo X. stands in the choir of the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. What could better harmonise with the greeting which met him as he made his entry over the bridge of Sant' Angelo ?— " Ohm habuit Cypria sun tempera, tempera Mayors
Ohm habuit ; nune sun tempora Pallas habet."
(We quote the Latin as it stands, but it needs emendation ; at least, if it is meant to scan.) It may be Englished thus :—
" First Venus ruled, then Mars ere Leo's day ; Now learned Pallas owns unquestioned sway.'' The great patron of art had but a poor monument ; that of his, successor, Adrian VI., the last foreigner to sit in the chair of Peter, a man who despised culture, is a much finer work. After Adrian came Paul III., who had the honour of being commemorated by Michael Angelo. His chisel contributed, two statues personifying Prudence and Justice, the latter modelled, it is said, from Giulia Farnese, to whose favour with Alexander VI. the youthful Fames° owed his first clerical advancement. Paul reigned fifteen years, so more than doubling the average of a Papacy. The next famous sculptor who did honour to the ruler of Rome was Canova, who designed the monu- ments of the two Clements (XIII. and XIV.) Both would have- been the better, we cannot but think, if the allegorical figures. had been wanting, and the Pontiffs left in unattended dignity. The illustrations, giving these and other monuments, are good.
Previous page
