Upon two faces of the obelisk is engraven
DIVO CAES. DIVI IVLII F. AVGVSTO TI. CAES. DIVI AVG.
F. AVGVS. SACRVM.
It now bears on the top a cross in which it is said that s.e.xtus V.
inclosed some of the holy wood; and under it is to be read by good eyes:
SANCTISSIMAE CRVCI s.e.xTVS V. PONT. MAX.
CONSECRAVIT.
E. PRIORE SEDE AVVLSVM ET CAESS. AVG. AC TIB.
I. L. ABLATUM M.D.Lx.x.xVI.
On the four faces of the base below:
1. CHRISTVS VINCIT.
CHRISTVS REGNAT.
CHRISTVS IMPERAT.
CHRISTVS AB OMNI MALO PLEBEM SVAM DEFENDAT.
2. s.e.xTVS V. PONT. MAX.
OBELISCVM VATICANVM DIIS GENTIVM IMPIO CVLTV DICATVM AD APOSTOLORVM LIMINA OPEROSO LABORE TRANSTVLIT AN. M.D.Lx.x.xVI. PONT. II.
3. ECCE CRVX DOMINI FVGITE PARTES ADVERSAE VINCIT LEO DE TRIBV IVDA.
4. s.e.xTVS V. PONT. MAX.
CRVCI INVICTAE OBELISCVM VATICANVM AB IMPIA SVPERSt.i.tIONE EXPIATVM IVSTIVS ET FELICITVS CONSECRAVIT AN. M.D.L.x.x.xVI. PONT. II.
A little lower:
DOMINICVS FONTANA EX PAGO MILIAGRI NOVOCOMENSIS TRANSTVLIT ET EREXIT.
It is reported to have taken a year in erecting, to have cost 37,975 crowns, the labor of 907 men, and 75 horses: this being the first of the four Egyptian obelisks set up at Rome, and one of the forty-two brought to the city out of Egypt, set up in several places, but thrown down by the Goths, Barbarians, and earthquakes. Some coaches stood before the steps of the ascent, whereof one, belonging to Cardinal Medici, had all the metal work of ma.s.sy silver, viz, the bow behind and other places. The coaches at Rome, as well as covered wagons also much in use, are generally the richest and largest I ever saw. Before the _facciata_ of the church is an ample pavement. The church was first begun by St.
Anacletus, when rather a chapel, on a foundation, as they give out, of Constantine the Great, who, in honor of the Apostles, carried twelve baskets full of sand to the work. After him, Julius II. took it in hand, to which all his successors have contributed more or less.
The front is supposed to be the largest and best-studied piece of architecture in the world; to this we went up by four steps of marble.
The first entrance is supported by huge pilasters; the _volto_ within is the richest possible, and overlaid with gold. Between the five large anti-ports are columns of enormous height and compa.s.s, with as many gates of bra.s.s, the work and sculpture of Pollaivola, the Florentine, full of cast figures and histories in a deep relievo. Over this runs a terrace of like amplitude and ornament, where the Pope, at solemn times, bestows his Benediction on the vulgar. On each side of this portico are two _campaniles_, or towers, whereof there was but one perfected, of admirable art. On the top of all, runs a bal.u.s.trade which edges it quite round, and upon this at equal distances are Christ and the twelve Disciples of gigantic size and stature, yet below showing no greater than the life. Entering the church, admirable is the breadth of the _volto_, or roof, which is all carved with foliage and roses overlaid with gold in nature of a deep ba.s.so-relievo, _a l"antique_. The nave, or body, is in form of a cross, whereof the foot-part is the longest; and, at the _internodium_ of the transept, rises the cupola, which being all of stone and of prodigious height is more in compa.s.s than that of the Pantheon (which was the largest among the old Romans, and is yet entire) or any other known. The inside, or concave, is covered with most exquisite Mosaic, representing the Celestial Hierarchy, by Giuseppe d"Arpino, full of stars of gold; the convex, or outside, exposed to the air, is covered with lead, with great ribs of metal double gilt (as are also the ten other lesser cupolas, for no fewer adorn this glorious structure), which gives a great and admirable splendor in all parts of the city. On the summit of this is fixed a brazen globe gilt, capable of receiving thirty-five persons. This I entered, and engraved my name among other travelers. Lastly, is the Cross, the access to which is between the leaden covering and the stone convex, or arch-work; a most truly astonishing piece of art! On the battlements of the church, also all overlaid with lead and marble, you would imagine yourself in a town, so many are the cupolas, pinnacles, towers, juttings, and not a few houses inhabited by men who dwell there, and have enough to do to look after the vast reparations which continually employ them.
Having seen this, we descended into the body of the church, full of collateral chapels and large oratories, most of them exceeding the size of ordinary churches; but the princ.i.p.al are four incrusted with most precious marbles and stones of various colors, adorned with an infinity of statues, pictures, stately altars, and innumerable relics. The altar-piece of St. Michael being of Mosaic, I could not pa.s.s without particular note, as one of the best of that kind. The chapel of Gregory XIII., where he is buried, is most splendid. Under the cupola, and in the center of the church, stands the high altar, consecrated first by Clement VIII., adorned by Paul V., and lately covered by Pope Urban VIII.; with that stupendous canopy of Corinthian bra.s.s, which heretofore was brought from the Pantheon; it consists of four wreathed columns, partly channelled and encircled with vines, on which hang little _puti_ birds and bees (the arms of the _Barberini_), sustaining a _baldacchino_ of the same metal. The four columns weigh an hundred and ten thousand pounds, all over richly gilt; this, with the pedestals, crown, and statues about it, form a thing of that art, vastness, and magnificence, as is beyond all that man"s industry has produced of the kind; it is the work of Bernini, a Florentine sculptor, architect, painter, and poet, who, a little before my coming to the city, gave a public opera (for so they call shows of that kind), wherein he painted the scenes, cut the statues, invented the engines, composed the music, writ the comedy, and built the theater. Opposite to either of these pillars, under those niches which, with their columns, support the weighty cupola, are placed four exquisite statues of Parian marble, to which are four altars; that of St. Veronica, made by Fra. Mochi, has over it the reliquary, where they showed us the miraculous _Sudarium_ indued with the picture of our Savior"s face, with this inscription: "_Salvatoris imaginem Veronicae Sudario exceptam ut loci majestas decenter custodiret, Urba.n.u.s VIII. Pont. Max. Marmoreum signum et Altare addidit, Conditorium extruxit et ornavit_."
Right against this is that of Longinus, of a Colossean magnitude, also by Bernini, and over him the conservatory of the iron lance inserted in a most precious crystal, with this epigraph: "_Longini Lanceam quam Innocentius VIII. a Bajazete Turcarum Tyranno accepit, Urba.n.u.s VIII.
statua apposita, et Sacello substructo, in exornatum Conditorium transtulit_."
The third chapel has over the altar the statue of our countrywoman, St.
Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great; the work of Boggi, an excellent sculptor; and here is preserved a great piece of the pretended wood of the holy cross, which she is said to have first detected miraculously in the Holy Land. It was placed here by the late Pope with this inscription: "_Partem Crucis quam Helena Imperatrix e Calvario in Urbem adduxit, Urba.n.u.s VIII. Pont. Max. e Sissoriana Basilica desumptam, additis ara et statua, hc in Vaticano collocavit_."
The fourth hath over the altar, and opposite to that of St. Veronica, the statue of St. Andrew, the work of Fiamingo, admirable above all the other; above is preserved the head of that Apostle, richly enchased. It is said that this excellent sculptor died mad to see his statue placed in a disadvantageous light by Bernini, the chief architect, who found himself outdone by this artist. The inscription over it is this:
"_St. Andreae caput quod Pius II. ex Achaia in Vaticanum asportandum curavit, Urba.n.u.s VIII. novis hic ornamentis decoratum sacrisque statuae ac Sacelli honoribus coli voluit._"
The relics showed and kept in this church are without number, as are also the precious vessels of gold, silver, and gems, with the vests and services to be seen in the Sacristy, which they showed us. Under the high altar is an ample grot inlaid with _pietra-commessa_, wherein half of the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul are preserved; before hang divers great lamps of the richest plate, burning continually. About this and contiguous to the altar, runs a bal.u.s.trade, in form of a theater, of black marble. Toward the left, as you go out of the church by the portico, a little beneath the high altar, is an old bra.s.s statue of St.
Peter sitting, under the soles of whose feet many devout persons rub their heads, and touch their chaplets. This was formerly cast from a statue of Jupiter Capitolinus. In another place, stands a column grated about with iron, whereon they report that our Blessed Savior was often wont to lean as he preached in the Temple. In the work of the reliquary under the cupola there are eight wreathed columns brought from the Temple of Solomon. In another chapel, they showed us the chair of St. Peter, or, as they name it, the Apostolical Throne. But among all the chapels the one most glorious has for an altar-piece a Madonna bearing a dead Christ on her knees, in white marble, the work of Michael Angelo. At the upper end of the Cathedral, are several stately monuments, especially that of Urban VIII. Round the cupola, and in many other places in the church, are confession seats, for all languages, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, French, English, Irish, Welsh, Sclavonian, Dutch, etc., as it is written on their friezes in golden capitals, and there are still at confessions some of all nations. Toward the lower end of the church, and on the side of a vast pillar sustaining a weighty roof, is the _depositum_ and statue of the Countess Matilda, a rare piece, with ba.s.so-relievos about it of white marble, the work of Bernini. Here are also those of s.e.xtus IV. and Paulus III., etc. Among the exquisite pieces in this sumptuous fabric is that of the ship with St. Peter held up from sinking by our Savior; the emblems about it are the Mosaic of the famous Giotto, who restored and made it perfect after it had been defaced by the Barbarians. Nor is the pavement under the cupola to be pa.s.sed over without observation, which with the rest of the body and walls of the whole church, are all inlaid with the richest of _pietra-commessa_, in the most splendid colors of polished marbles, agates, serpentine, porphyry, calcedon, etc., wholly incrusted to the very roof. Coming out by the portico at which we entered, we were shown the Porta Santa, never opened but at the year of jubilee. This glorious foundation hath belonging to it thirty canons, thirty-six beneficiates, twenty-eight clerks beneficed, with innumerable chaplains, etc., a Cardinal being always archpriest; the present Cardinal was Francis...o...b..rberini, who also styled himself Protector of the English, to whom he was indeed very courteous.
20th November, 1644. I went to visit that ancient See and Cathedral of St. John di Laterano, and the holy places thereabout. This is a church of extraordinary devotion, though, for outward form, not comparable to St.
Peter"s, being of Gothic ordonnance. Before we went into the cathedral, the Baptistery of St. John Baptist presented itself, being formerly part of the Great Constantine"s palace, and, as it is said, his chamber where by St. Silvester he was made a Christian. It is of an octagonal shape, having before the entrance eight fair pillars of rich porphyry, each of one entire piece, their capitals of divers orders, supporting lesser columns of white marble, and these supporting a n.o.ble cupola, the molding whereof is excellently wrought. In the chapel which they affirm to have been the lodging place of this Emperor, all women are prohibited from entering, for the malice of Herodias who caused him to lose his head.
Here are deposited several sacred relics of St. James, Mary Magdalen, St.
Matthew, etc., and two goodly pictures. Another chapel, or oratory near it, is called St. John the Evangelist, well adorned with marbles and tables, especially those of Cavaliere Giuseppe, and of Tempesta, in fresco. We went hence into another called St. Venantius, in which is a tribunal all of Mosaic in figures of Popes. Here is also an altar of the Madonna, much visited, and divers Sclavonish saints, companions of Pope John IV. The portico of the church is built of materials brought from Pontius Pilate"s house in Jerusalem.
The next sight which attracted our attention, was a wonderful concourse of people at their devotions before a place called _Scala Sancta_, to which is built a n.o.ble front. Entering the portico, we saw those large marble stairs, twenty-eight in number, which are never ascended but on the knees, some lip-devotion being used on every step; on which you may perceive divers red specks of blood under a grate, which they affirm to have been drops of our Blessed Savior, at the time he was so barbarously misused by Herod"s soldiers; for these stairs are reported to have been translated hither from his palace in Jerusalem. At the top of them is a chapel, whereat they enter (but we could not be permitted) by gates of marble, being the same our Savior pa.s.sed when he went out of Herod"s house. This they name the _Sanctum Sanctorum_, and over it we read this epigraph:
_Non est in toto sanctior orbe locus._
Here, through a grate, we saw that picture of Christ painted (as they say) by the hand of St. Luke, to the life. Descending again, we saw before the church the obelisk, which is indeed most worthy of admiration.
It formerly lay in the Circo Maximo, and was erected here by s.e.xtus V., in 1587, being 112 feet in height without the base or pedestal; at the foot nine and a half one way, and eight the other. This pillar was first brought from Thebes at the utmost confines of Egypt, to Alexandria, from thence to Constantinople, thence to Rome, and is said by Ammia.n.u.s Marcellinus to have been dedicated to Rameses, King of Egypt. It was transferred to this city by Constantine the son of the Great, and is full of hieroglyphics, serpents, men, owls, falcons, oxen, instruments, etc., containing (as Father Kircher the Jesuit will shortly tell us in a book which he is ready to publish) all the recondite and abstruse learning of that people. The vessel, galley, or float, that brought it to Rome so many hundred leagues, must needs have been of wonderful bigness and strange fabric. The stone is one and entire, and (having been thrown down) was erected by the famous Dom. Fontana, for that magnificent Pope, s.e.xtus V., as the rest were; it is now cracked in many places, but solidly joined. The obelisk is thus inscribed at the several faciatas:
_Fl. Constantinus Augustus, Constantini Augusti F. Obelisc.u.m a patre suo motum diuq; Alexandriae jacentem, trecentorum remigum impositum navi mirandae vast.i.tatis per mare Tyberimq; magnis molibus Romam convectum in Circo Max. ponendum S.P.Q.R.D.D._
On the second square:
_Fl. Constantinus Max: Aug: Christianae fidei Vindex & a.s.sertor Obelisc.u.m ab aegyptio Rege impuro voto Soli dicatum, sedibus avulsum suis per Nilum transfer. Alexandriam, ut Novam Romam ab se tunc conditam eo decoraret monumento._
On the third:
_s.e.xtus V. Pontifex Max: Obelisc.u.m hunc specie eximia temporum calamitate fractum, Circi Maximi ruinis humo, limoq; alte demersum, multa impensa extraxit, hunc in loc.u.m magno labore transtulit, formaq; pristina accurate vest.i.tum, Cruci invictissimae dicavit anno M.D.Lx.x.xVIII. Pont. IIII._
On the fourth:
_Constantinus per Crucem Victor a Silvestro hc Baptizatus Crucis gloriam propagavit._
Leaving this wonderful monument (before which is a stately public fountain, with a statue of St. John in the middle of it), we visited His Holiness"s palace, being a little on the left hand, the design of Fontana, architect to s.e.xtus V. This I take to be one of the best palaces in Rome; but not staying we entered the church of St. John di Laterano, which is properly the Cathedral of the Roman See, as I learned by these verses engraven upon the architrave of the portico:
_Dogmate Papali datur, et simul Imperiali Qud sim cunctarum mater caput Ecclesiar[)u]
Hinc Salvatoris coelestia regna datoris Nomine Sanxerunt, c.u.m cuncta peracta fuerunt; Sic vos ex toto conversi supplice voto Nostra qud haec aedes; tibi Christe sit inclyta sedes._
It is called Lateran, from a n.o.ble family formerly dwelling it seems hereabouts, on Mons Caelius. The church is Gothic, and hath a stately tribunal; the paintings are of Pietro Pisano. It was the first church that was consecrated with the ceremonies now introduced, and where altars of stone supplied those of wood heretofore in use, and made like large chests for the easier removal in times of persecution; such an altar is still the great one here preserved, as being that on which (they hold) St. Peter celebrated ma.s.s at Rome; for which reason none but the Pope may now presume to make that use of it. The pavement is of all sorts of precious marbles, and so are the walls to a great height, over which it is painted _a fresco_ with the life and acts of Constantine the Great, by most excellent masters. The organs are rare, supported by four columns.
The _soffito_ is all richly gilded, and full of pictures. Opposite to the porta is an altar of exquisite architecture, with a tabernacle on it all of precious stones, the work of Targoni; on this is a _coena_ of plate, the invention of Curtius Vanni, of exceeding value; the tables hanging over it are of Giuseppe d"Arpino. About this are four excellent columns transported out of Asia by the Emperor t.i.tus, of bra.s.s, double gilt, about twelve feet in height; the walls between them are incrusted with marble and set with statues in niches, the vacuum reported to be filled with holy earth, which St. Helena sent from Jerusalem to her son, Constantine, who set these pillars where they now stand. At one side of this is an oratory full of rare paintings and monuments, especially those of the great Connestabile Colonna. Out of this we came into the _sacristia_, full of good pictures of Albert and others. At the end of the church is a flat stone supported by four pillars which they affirm to have been the exact height of our Blessed Savior, and say they never fitted any mortal man that tried it, but he was either taller or shorter; two columns of the veil of the Temple which rent at his pa.s.sion; the stone on which they threw lots for his seamless vesture; and the pillar on which the c.o.c.k crowed, after Peter"s denial; and, to omit no fine thing, the just length of the Virgin Mary"s foot as it seems her shoemaker affirmed! Here is a sumptuous cross, beset with precious stones, containing some of the VERY wood of the holy cross itself; with many other things of this sort: also numerous most magnificent monuments, especially those of St. Helena, of porphyry; Cardinal Farneze; Martin I., of copper; the pictures of Mary Magdalen, Martin V., Laurentius Valla, etc., are of Gaetano; the Nunciata, designed by M. Angelo; and the great crucifix of Sermoneta. In a chapel at one end of the porch is a statue of Henry IV. of France, in bra.s.s, standing in a dark hole, and so has done many years; perhaps from not believing him a thorough proselyte. The two famous Oec.u.menical Councils were celebrated in this Church by Pope Simachus, Martin I., Stephen, etc.
Leaving this venerable church (for in truth it has a certain majesty in it), we pa.s.sed through a fair and large hospital of good architecture, having some inscriptions put up by Barberini, the late Pope"s nephew. We then went by St. Sylvia, where is a n.o.ble statue of St. Gregory P., begun by M. Angelo; a St. Andrew, and the bath of St. Cecilia. In this church are some rare paintings, especially that story on the wall of Guido Reni.
Thence to St. Giovanni e Paula, where the friars are reputed to be great chemists. The choir, roof, and paintings in the _tribuna_ are excellent.
Descending the Mons Caelius, we came against the vestiges of the Palazzo Maggiore, heretofore the Golden House of Nero; now nothing but a heap of vast and confused ruins, to show what time and the vicissitude of human things does change from the most glorious and magnificent to the most deformed and confused. We next went into St. Sebastian"s Church, which has a handsome front: then we pa.s.sed by the place where Romulus and Remus were taken up by Faustulus, the Forum Romanum, and so by the edge of the Mons Palatinus; where we saw the ruins of Pompey"s house, and the Church of St. Anacletus; and so into the Circus Maximus, heretofore capable of containing a hundred and sixty thousand spectators, but now all one entire heap of rubbish, part of it converted into a garden of pot herbs.
We concluded this evening with hearing the rare voices and music at the Chiesa Nova.
21st November, 1644. I was carried to see a great virtuoso, Cavaliero Pozzo, who showed us a rare collection of all kind of antiquities, and a choice library, over which are the effigies of most of our late men of polite literature. He had a great collection of the antique ba.s.so-relievos about Rome, which this curious man had caused to be designed in several folios: many fine medals; the stone which Pliny calls Enhydros; it had plainly in it the quant.i.ty of half a spoonful of water, of a yellow pebble color, of the bigness of a walnut. A stone paler than an amethyst, which yet he affirmed to be the true carbuncle, and harder than a diamond; it was set in a ring, without foil, or anything at the bottom, so as it was transparent, of a greenish yellow, more l.u.s.trous than a diamond. He had very pretty things painted on crimson velvet, designed in black, and shaded and heightened with white, set in frames; also a number of choice designs and drawings.
Hence we walked to the Suburra and aerarium Saturni, where yet remain some ruins and an inscription. From thence to St. Pietro _in vinculis_, one of the seven churches on the Esquiline, an old and much-frequented place of great devotion for the relics there, especially the bodies of the seven Maccabean brethren, which lie under the altar. On the wall is a St.
Sebastian, of mosaic, after the Greek manner: but what I chiefly regarded was, that n.o.ble sepulchre of Pope Julius II., the work of M. Angelo; with that never-sufficiently-to-be-admired statue of Moses, in white marble, and those of Vita Contemplativa and Activa, by the same incomparable hand. To this church belongs a monastery, in the court of whose cloisters grow two tall and very stately palm trees. Behind these, we walked a turn among the Baths of t.i.tus, admiring the strange and prodigious receptacles for water, which the vulgar call the Setti Sali, now all in heaps.
22d November, 1644. Was the solemn and greatest ceremony of all the State Ecclesiastical, viz, the procession of the Pope (Innocent X.) to St. John di Laterano, which, standing on the steps of Ara Celi, near the Capitol, I saw pa.s.s in this manner:--First went a guard of Switzers to make way, and divers of the avant guard of horse carrying lances. Next followed those who carried the robes of the Cardinals, two and two; then the Cardinal"s mace bearers; the caudatari, on mules; the masters of their horse; the Pope"s barber, tailor, baker, gardener, and other domestic officers, all on horseback, in rich liveries; the squires belonging to the Guard; five men in rich liveries led five n.o.ble Neapolitan horses, white as snow, covered to the ground with trappings richly embroidered; which is a service paid by the King of Spain for the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, pretended feudatories to the Pope; three mules of exquisite beauty and price, trapped in crimson velvet; next followed three rich litters with mules, the litters empty; the master of the horse alone, with his squires; five trumpeters; the _armerieri estra muros_; the fiscal and consistorial advocates; _capellani_, _camerieri de honore_, _cubiculari_ and chamberlains, called _secreti_.