Category: Travel account Page 3 of 5

Felix Fabri (1438/39-1502), Evagatorium in Terrae Sanctae, Arabiae et Egypti Peregrinationem (c. 1484-88)

On February 23, 2021

In 15th century, Latin, Pilgrimage account, Travel account

Born as Felix Schmid in Zurich, Fabri entered the Dominican order as a young man, and from 1468 on was a member of the Dominican convent of Ulm. In 1480 and in 1483/84 he undertook two pilgrimages to the Near East, and after his return from the second journey he composed a long and detailed account of his experiences. Until the first print edition in the mid-nineteenth century, this text was accessible only through manuscripts. Fabri’s fame as one of the most interesting authors of pilgrim books is the result of his modern reception.
The citations that we have chosen for our collection of sources deal with the Akeldamah in Jerusalem, the burial site for Christian pilgrims. Like Marco Bartolomeo Rustici, Pero Tafur and Fadrique Enríquez de Ribera, Fabri maintains that the holy earth present in the Camposanto of Pisa was taken from this particular site and shares the same properties of rapid decay. It seems therefore that in this period, the connection between the Akeldama and the Pisan cemetery was part of an oral tradition that circulated in Jerusalem. / DG

Edition: Felix Fabri, Les Errances de frère Félix, pèlerin en Terre saint, en Arabie et en Égypte (Evagatorium Fratris Felicis), ed. and transl. by Jean Meyers and Michel Tarayre, 3 vols., Textes littéraires du Moyen Âge, 25 (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2013-2014).

Translation: Felix Fabri, The Book of the Wanderings, transl. Aubrey Stewart, 2 vols., (London: Palestine Pilgrims Text Society, 1896), vol. 1.2, pp. 534, 535, 537.

Fabri_0166-167_markiert

Source: Autograph, manuscript, 2 vols., 294 and 264 folios. Ulm, Stadtbibliothek, Hs. 19555.

Transcription

“De hoc agro habemus Matth. XXVI: qui ante passionem Christi dicebatur ager figuli, quia forte erat possessio cuisdam figuli. Hunc agrum emerunt Iudei pro illis XXX denarios quos dederunt Iude pro Domino Iesu, in sepulturam peregrinorum quorum corpora ante hoc tempus insepulta proiciebantur. […]

Super ipsum autem agrum est aedificium quatuor murorum, sicut bassa turris quadrangularis, et testudo ducta per latera operit aedificium. Habet autem illa testudo novem rotunda foramina superius, per quae mortuorum corpora iniiciuntur. Et quia in montis declive iacet, ideo a parte superiori, qua de monte descenditur contra ipsum aedificium, sine ascensu super ipsam testudinem venitur. […]

De hoc agro dicunt pro certo quod corpora defunctorum inmissa statim in triduo incinerantur, et nichil nisi ossa arida manent. Sic eciam dicunt de agro sancto qui est Rome ad sanctum Petrum, ad quem terra deducta est hinc per mare et agro illo superfusa. Sed et Pysani, dum dominarentur in Syria, de hoc agro terram sumpserunt et, implentes naves Pisamque ducentes, sepulturam pretiosissimam fecerunt pro magnatibus terrae. In hiis ergo tribus cimeteriis corpora in tribus diebus resolvuntur, quae in aliis cimeteriis vix in XVIII annis ad plenum consumuntur.” (3:406, 412)

Translation

“About this field we are told in Matt. 26 that, before the Passion, it was called the Potter’s Field, because it was owned by some potter. The Jews bought this field for those 30 pieces (of silver) which they gave to Judas for the Lord Jesus, that they might bury strangers therein, whose bodies had aforetime been cast forth unburied. […]

On the field itself stands a building with four walls, like a low, square tower, covered by a vault resting on the side-walls. This vault has nine round openings in its upper part, through which the bodies of the dead are thrown. Now, since it stands upon the slope of the mount, on the upper side, where one comes down the mount towards the building, one can walk on the vault without climbing. […]

Of this field they relate for a truth that the bodies of the dead when placed in it are straightway reduced to dust within three days and the dry bones alone left. So they say of the holy field (campus sanctus) which is in Rome, beside the church of St. Peter, to which earth was carried from hence over the sea and strewn over that field. So likewise the people of Pisa, when they bore rule in Syria, took earth from this field, freighted ships therewith, carried it to Pisa, and made a most costly burial place therewith for the great men of their land. In these three cemeteries bodies are dissolved within three days, whereas in other cemeteries they are hardly altogether consumed in eighteen years.”

Marco di Bartolomeo Rustici (1392-1457), Dimostrazione dell’andata o viaggio al Santo Sepolcro (1442-1455)

By camposanto

On February 23, 2021

In 15th century, Italian, Pilgrimage account, Travel account

The book from which the following two texts come is rather unique: it is the fictitious account of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Mount Sinai which the Florentine goldsmith Marco di Bartolomeo Rustici is presumed to have undertaken. Starting with a detailed description of his hometown – extensively illustrated with drawings – Rustici begins an imagined itinerary that leads him along the Ligurian and Tuscan coast, across the Mediterranean and finally to the Holy Land. The Camposanto is mentioned at two points: when the group stops at Pisa at the beginning of their journey, and when Rustici gives a description of the Christian pilgrim cemetery in Jerusalem, the Akeldama. Interestingly, this text which Rustici obviously compiled from other pilgrim accounts at his disposal, indicates two different sites from where the Pisans had taken the holy earth: the Holy Sepulchre and the Akeldama, which also appears in the travel and pilgrim accounts of Pero Tafur, Felix Fabri and Fadrique Enríquez de Ribera. / DG

Rustici_Akeldama_markiert

Source: Manuscript, 1442-1455, Florence, Biblioteca del Seminario Arcivescovile Maggiore, Codice Rustici

Edition: Kathleen Olive and Nerida Newbigin, eds., Il Codice Rustici. Edizione critica, in: Dimostrazione dell’andata, o viaggio al Santo Sepolcro e al Monte Sinai di Marco di Bartolomeo Rustici (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2015), 1:95-298.

Il secondo libro del Santo Sepolcro e del monte Sinai
9. Partìmoci de la cità di Firenze, io Marco con mia compagnia, per montare in galea

“Dirimpetto, a non tropi pasi, v’è un cimitero, chiamasi il Campo Santo, magnifico e bello, coperto di piombo; e nel mezo è pieno di sipulture di rilievo, intagliate di nobile istorie, il quale i Pisani dificorono e fondorono della terra la quale egli arecorono per zacora da’ navili di Gerusaleme dal Santo Sipolcro.” (171 (fol. 89v))

The second book of the Holy Sepulchre and Mount Sinai
9. We depart from the city of Florence, me, Marco, and my company, in order to board the ship.

In front of this, in a distance of not too many footsteps, there is a cemetery which is called Camposanto, magnificent and beautiful, covered with lead. And in the center it is full of sculptured sepulchres, incised with noble stories. The Pisans built it and founded it with the earth that they brought with [??] ships from the Holy Spulchre of Jerusalem.

2. Istoria del santo viagio in Gerusaleme ed al monte Sinai e in Arabia
49. I dodici apostoli feciono il Credo

“Salendo sù pel muro inverso levante, sendo in cima èvi piano coperto di terra. Ha di sopra VI finestre; guatando di quindi ivi si vede quel campo il quale i Giudei comperarono de’ XXX danari di Cristo che Giuda il vendé e quel campo è pien di sipulture di pelegrini. Chiamasi il detto campo Acheldama. Tutti i pelegrini vi sono sopeliti. Chi vàe in detto campo si dice sua orazione co riverenzia e co requiem etternam per l’anime di coloro che sopeliti vi sono Cristiani. Chiamasi Campo Santo. Ècci di perdono anni VII dìe LXX.

E i Pisani anticamente signoregiorono il Sipolcro e per vettoria e trionfo recorono di quella terra di quello campo; con divozione dificorono nella città di Pisa uno cimitero chiamato Campo Santo magnifico e bello, coperto di piombo, a grolia di Dio.” (264 (fol. 237v))

History of the holy travel to Jerusalem, to mount Sinai and to Arabia
49. The twelve apostles did the Creed

Climbing up on the wall towards the east, there is on top an area which is covered with earth. There are six windows, and from there the field can be seen which the Jews bought with the 30 coins of Christ when sold him. And this field is full of sepulchres of pilgrims. And this field is called Acheldama. All the pilgrims are buried there. Whoever goes to this field says his prayer with reverence and with requiem aeternam for the souls of the Christians who are buried there. It is called Campo Santo. And the indulgence is seven years and seventy days.

In ancient times the Pisans ruled over the Sepulchre and, as a sign of victory and triumph, they brought some earth from that field. In Pisa, they devoutly built up a wonderful and beautiful, lead-covered cemetery called Campo Santo for God’s glory.

Pero Tafur (c. 1410-c. 1484), Andanças é viajes (c. 1453/54)

By camposanto

On February 20, 2021

In 15th century, English, Spanish, Travel account

Pero Tafur (c. 1410 –c. 1484) was a nobleman from a Castilian family who participated in military campaigns of the Reconquista before he undertook a long journey around the Mediterrenean and across several parts of central Europe and Italy between 1436 and 1439. Although he visited Jerusalem and Palestine in the first part of his trip, his principal interest was more as an adventurer and religious themes played no particular role. Tafur composed the written account of his journey only several yeas later, in 1453/54. While he visited Pisa on the way to Rome, at the very beginning of his trip, the lengthy description of the city that we reproduce here is included in the very last chapters of the book, when Tafur was en route to Spain. His account of Pisa’s history is very characteristic for the entire book, as it relies exclusively on heresay and is full of phantastic and historically impossible claims. The central aim of this highly ficticious narrative is to give an explanation for Pisa’s decline, from a powerful sea republic to a satellite of Florence. In this framework, Pisa’s decision to sell Jerusalem is seen as the principle reason for its ultimate defeat. Therefore, the Camposanto plays a prominent role here, as a “container” of the holy earth. / DG

Ms_1985_excerpt Source: Manuscript copy, eighteenth century, Salamanca, Biblioteca Universitaria de Salamanca, Ms. 1985.

Edition: Pero Tafur, Andanças é viajes de Pero Tafur por diversas partes del mundo avidos (1435-1439), ed. Marcos Jiménez de la Espada, Colección de libros españoles raros ó curiosos, 8 (Madrid: Miguel Ginesta, 1874), 294-295.

Translation: Pero Tafur, Travels and Adventures 1435-1439, transl. Malcolm Letts (London: Routledge, 1926), 228-229.

“Esta çibdat de Pisa dizen que señoreó antiguamente la isla de Çeçilia, é Çerdeña, é Córçega é otras, é en la tierra firme grandes provinçias; é dizen que porque una vez pasó una nao que levava un cardenal é çiertos perlados de embaxada del Papa al rey de Françia, é porque non fezieron çierta salva acostumbrada, armaron luégo é pelearon con la nao, é dizen que la quemaon é el Papa, de que lo supo, indignado contra ellos, mandóles fazer guerra, é dió cruzada sobrellos, é fiziéronlos muy grant dapño. Mas, á ruego de algunos reyes é prinçpes, ovo el Papa de mitigar su furia, con condiçion que para que ellos fuesen asueltos, que ganasen la Casa Santa de Ierusalem. É ellos disposieron é fizieron una grant flota, é pasaron Ultramar é ganaron á Ierusalem con su terretorio, é la poseyeron çierto tiempo, é al fin, dízese, que porque les costaba mucho tenella, que la vendieron, donde se cree que les ha venido quanto mal tienen, que es dubda si en toda Pisa ay un natural della; é los sobrados les fezieron abaxar, é áun dizen, que, por desonrra, la barreta les fazen traer al revés, é son vituperio de la gente é sojudgados de aquellos que eran sus siervos. En aquella vez que ganaron á Ierusalem, dizen que ansimesmo fueron veneçianos é ginoveses, é quando ganaron á Ierusalem, al partir de aquel tesoro que allí ovieron, fizieron tres partes: en la una pusieron el Santo Grial, que es de una esmeralda, en la otra posieron dos colupnas, en las quales dizen que se veye cada uno el mal que le tractavan é lo que queríe él, en la otra pusieron todo el tesoro; é dizen que echaron suertes é cupo el Santo Vaso á Génova, do agora está, el qual yo ví, é las colupnas con Ierusalem á los pissanos, la quales truxeron á Pisa, é el tesoro á Veneja, é desto dizen que es toda su riqueza; é las colupnas que vinieron á Pisa, despues que vendieron á Ierusalem, perdieron su virtud. É está aquí una yglesia muy notable, é una claustra quel suelo della es de la tierra de aquel Campo Santo que fué comprado por los treynta dineros, que es en Ierusalem, é ainsí le llaman aquí en Pisa el Campo Santo, é dizen que persona que entierren allí non tura más de treynta dias, que la tierra lo gasta; sin dubda, grant fecho era esta çibdad antiguamente.”

“This city of Pisa, they say, owned at one time the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, with vast provinces on the mainland. But once a ship passed which carried a cardinal and certain prelates, ambassadors from the Pope to the King of France, without giving the accustomed salute. Thereupon the Pisans flew to the arms, and captured and burnt the ship, and the Pope, when he heard of it, was so incensed that he ordered war to be declared and proclaimed a crusade against them, and did them great damage. But on the entreaty of certain kings and princes, the Pope made an end of his wrath, on condition that the culprits should be absolved if they set out and captured the Holy City. Then the Pisans prepared a great fleet and passed over the seas, and took Jerusalem with its dependencies, and remained there some time, but finally they found it was too costly to retain the city and they sold it, from which act all their evils are believed to have come. It is to be doubted if there is now a single natural-born Pisan in the city. They had also to pull down their buildings, and, further, as a mark of dishonour, to wear their helmets reversed. Thus they are disdained by all men and are subjugated to those who were their servants.
It is said that when they captured Jerusalem, the Venetians and Genoese were also there, and after the city was taken they divided the treasure which they found into three parts. In one they placed the Holy Grail, which is made of a single emerald, in the second they placed two columns, in which each one can foresee the evils which are to befall him and whatever he desires, and in the third they placed the treasure. They then threw lots, and the Holy Grail fell to Genoa, where it now is, as I myself have seen, the columns, with the city of Jerusalem, came to the Pisans, which columns they brought to Pisa, and Venice took the treasure which is the foundation of all its wealth, but the columns which were brought to Pisa lost their virtue when Jerusalem was sold.
There is a very notable church and a cloister, the soil of which is from the holy field (Campo Santo) at Jerusalem, which was purchased with the thirty coins, and therefore they call it here in Pisa the Campo Santo. And they say that bodies interred here do not endure more than thirty days, as the earth consumes them. Without doubt, Pisa was formerly a great place.”

John Boyle (1707-1762), Letters from Italy (1754/1773)

By camposanto

On January 27, 2021

In 18th century, English, Travel account

John Boyle’s book is a collection of letters, just like many travel accounts of his time. Interestingly, his letter starts from Lyons, France and ends with annecdotes from Florence without mentioning Rome or other Italian cities. As 5^th earl of Cork, it seems that he was in connection with distinguished members of the society during his trip. John Duncombe, the editor of this book, writes in the preface that Boyle presented Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language to the Accademia della Crusca while residing in Florence.
Although Boyle mentions Camposanto, his description of it is quite short. He does not even specify, what kind of “miracles” take place in the sacred ground. It seems that the power of the holy earth consuming dead bodies was well-known, as Boyle states, the miracles are “undoubtedly recorded by many legendary writers.” Editor’s notes in the book are worth paying attention in this book. Duncombe refers to Tobias Smollett and Edward Wright in the Letter IX, which manifests that he actively consulted other previously published travel books. / DJ

Letters from Italy_Boyle_Pisa Source: John Boyle, Letters from Italy, in the Years 1754 and 1755, by the Late Right Honourable John Earle of Corke and Orrery, Published from the Originals, with Explanatory Notes, ed. John Duncombe (London: B. White, 1773), 102-103.

“The burying –place [Il campo santo] is encompassed by a Gothic cloister, like that of Westminster, but in an oblong square [note by the editor: Its inner area is filled with earth which was brought from Jerusalem, in 1228, as ballast, in the galleys of the Pisans, when they returned form warring with the Turks, and from thence takes its name: it was begun to be built in the year 1200, and was finished in 1278. It is the property of the Jerusalem-earth to reduce a body to skeleton in twenty-four hours. Wright]. Miracles attend every inch of the sacred ground. They are undoubtedly recorded by many legendary writers. I will not add to the number.
Around the walks of the cloister, are ranged many sarcophagi, some very fine, in alto relievo. They were found in different parts of Europe, and brought hither, as to a repository, by the purchase and command of the former great dukes of Tuscany.”

Tobias Smollett (1721-1771), Travels through France and Italy (1765/1766)

By camposanto

On January 27, 2021

In 18th century, English, Travel account

Tobias Smollett was an acclaimed novelist of his time, known for his picaresque novels, a genre of fiction depicting the comedic and satiric adventures of a lower-class protagonist. His gift for writing is also reflected in the Travels, which is a personal account that also provides factual information based on other guidebooks. Smollett traveled with his wife across the European continent between 1763 and 1765 in an effort to find a more agreeable climate for his failing health. The letters that comprise his travel book were most likely written while he was staying in Nice. Based on his book, we can reconstruct his travel itinerary. He entered Italy through Genoa, traveled along the Mediterranean coast till he reached Pisa, and then headed to Rome via Florence and Siena.
His gives a critical description of the paintings on the walls of the Camposanto. The drawing is “incorrect, lame and unnatural,” he writes. Still, he recognizes the new developments in art at the beginning of Renaissance. The section on the earth of the Camposanto is interesting. According to Smollett, the earth consumes bodies in nine days, instead of twenty-four hours, as other authors of his day such as Johann Georg Keyssler record. Smollett is not convinced of the legend, though, and writes of the earth, “it is no other than common earth mixed with quick-lime.” / DJ

Travels_Through_France_and_Italy_Letter27_Pisa Source: Tobias Smollett, Travels through France and Italy (Letter 27: Nice, January 28, 1765). 2:60-62.

“Between the cathedral and this building, about one hundred paces on one side, is the famous burying-ground, called Campo Santo, from its being covered with earth brought from Jerusalem. It is an oblong square, surrounded by a very high wall, and always kept shut. Within-side there is a spacious corridore round the whole space, which is a noble walk for a contemplative philosopher. It is paved chiefly with flat grave-stones: the walls are painted in fresco by Ghiotto, Giottino, Stefano, Bennoti, Bufulmaco, and some others of his contemporaries and disciples, who flourished immediately after the restoration of painting. The subjects are taken from the Bible. Though the manner is dry, the drawing incorrect, the design generally lame, and the colouring unnatural; yet there is merit in the expression: and the whole remains as a curious monument of the efforts made by this noble art immediately after her revival. Here are some deceptions in perspective equally ingenious and pleasing; particularly the figures of certain animals, which exhibit exactly the same appearance, from whatever different points of view they are seen. One division of the burying-ground consists of a particular compost, which in nine days consumes the dead bodies to the bones: in all probability, it is no other than common earth mixed with quick-lime. At one corner of the corridore, there are the pictures of three bodies represented in the three different stages of putrefaction which they undergo when laid in this composition. At the end of the three first days, the body is bloated and swelled, and the features are enlarged and distorted to such a degree, as fills the spectator with horror. At the sixth day, the swelling is subsided, and all the muscular flesh hangs loosened from the bones: at the ninth, nothing but the skeleton remains.”

Johann Georg Keyssler (1689-1743), Keysslers Neueste Reisen (1740)

By camposanto

On January 24, 2021

In 18th century, German, Travel account

Johann Georg Keyssler traveled around Europe many times when he served the counts of Bernstorff. As tutor to the sons and grandsons of the counts, he traveled to England, Germany, Switzerland and Italy between 1716 and 1727, and he traveled to France, Holland and Denmark later. His travel account was written in the form of letters. It is notable that he devoted a whole section to Pisa in his book. In many other travel accounts, Pisa is usually mentioned only briefly as a short stop between Genoa and other cities in Tuscany such as Siena or Lucca. The description of Camposanto is also relatively comprehensive and does not simply focus on the legend of the holy earth and the inscriptions of the building, as is often the case in earlier travel literature.
Keyssler’s mention of the holy earth strongly differs from earlier writers’ in that he states that “this virtue [of the bodies consumed by the holy earth in twenty-four hours] is long since lost”. If it were still the case, he writes, he would attribute this “virtue” to the use of lime. Keyssler is also the first writer among the literary sources collected on this blog to refer to the plague as one possible reason for the decrease in the miracle of the holy earth. / DJ

Keyssler_Pisa_DE_marked

Source: Johann Georg Keyssler, Neueste Reise Durch Teütschland, Böhmen, Ungarn, Die Schweitz, Italien, Und Lothringen, Worin Der Zustand Und Das Merckwürdigste Dieser Länder Beschrieben Und Vermittelst Der Natürl. Gelehrten, Und Politischen Geschichte, Der Mechanik, Mahler-, Bau- Und Bildhauer-Kunst, Müntzen Und Alterthümer Erläutert Wird. (Hannover: Nicolai Förster, 1740), 464-465 (40. Brief).

Translation: Travels through Germany, Boheia, Hungary, Switzerland, Italy, and Lorrain. Giving a True and Just Description of the present state of those countries; their natural, literary, and political history; manners, laws, commerce, manufactures, painting, sculpture, architecture, coins, antiquities, curiosities of art and nature, etc. Vol. I, Second edition (London: A. Linde and F. Field, 1756), 402-403.

Transcription

“Zur Seite der Dom-Kirche ist auch der allgemeine Begräbniß-Ort der Stadt oder il campo santo in Augenschein zu nehmen. Solcher ist eigentlich ein langer viereckiger und auf seinen vier Seiten mit einer Galerie umgebener Platz, welcher mit niedrigen Steinen in drey gleiche Theile unterschieden ist. In dem obersten werden die adelichen Personen begraben, in dem mittelsten die Bürger oder Cittadini und in dem dritten die Land-Leute.
Als im Jahr 1228. die Pisaner dem Kayser Friderico II. funfzig Galeren zu Hülfe nach dem gelobten Lande geschicket, sollen diese bey ihrer Zurückkehre, vermuthlich aus derjenigen Andacht, welche auch des Constantini M. Mutter Helenam bewogen, viele Erde aus dem gelobten Lande nach Rom zu schicken, ihre Ladung von der Erde zu Jerusalem genommen und hieher gebracht haben, da man denn die besondere Eigenschaft daran bemerket, daß die hinein gebrachten Leichen in den ersten acht Stunden sich aufgeblasen, in den folgenden achten wieder zusammen gefallen, und endlich in noch acht Stunden bis auf die Gebeine verzehret worden. Jetztgedachte Kraft des Bodens ist nicht mehr zu spüren, und wenn sie denn jemals sich ereignet hat, so hatte sie ausser Zweifel ihren Ursprung dem vielen und starken Kalke, womit das Erdreich vermischet worden, zu danken; man könte auch diese Wunderkraft leicht erneuern, wenn nicht überflüssiger Platz vor die Gräber dieser von Einwohnern fast entblösseten Stadt vorhanden wären. Die Pisaner erzehlen, daß die Eigenschaft des Bodens, die todten Cörper innerhalb vier und zwanzig Stunden zu verzehren, sich sonderlich zu einer Pest-Zeit verlohren, da die vielen dahin gebrachte Leichen das Land gar zu fett gemacht hätten. Die Galerien um diesen Platz haben den Giovanni Pisano zum Baumeister und sind im Jahr 1289. vollendet worden. Ihre Seiten oder Wände sind mit Kalke überzogen, und darauf verschiedene Biblische Historien von guten und berühmten Meistern gemahlet, worunter insonderheit die Geschichte Hiobs in acht Stücken vom Giotto nicht vorbeyzugehen ist. Benotius Florentinus, der auch alhier begraben ist, hat den Lebenslauf des Alt-Vaters Joseph in vielen Gemählden vorgestellet, und Bufalmaco oder Andrea d’Orcagna, der im Jahr 1389. verstorben, das jüngste Gericht in einem sehr grossen Stücke, in dessen Mitte der König Salomo gebücket, und als einer, der kein gutes Gewissen hat, erscheinet. Zur Linken des Heylandes zeiget sich die Hölle und zur Rechten der Haufe der Auserwehlten, welcher meistentheils aus Mönchen und Nonnen bestehet. Indessen bemerket man doch dabey, daß ein Engel sich die Freyheit nimt, einen Mönchen beym Haren aus dieser Gesellschaft zu ziehen. Die Erfindung des Stückes soll aus dem Dante genommen seyn. Unter den übrigen Gemählden sind die besten vom obgedachten Benozzo Gozzoli, welcher in den Vorstellungen der alten Geschichte die Portraite der berühmtesten Männer seiner Zeit gemahlet hat. Man findet ferner in einer dieser Galerien siebenzig bis achtzig grosse marmorne Särge, so noch aus dem Alterthum kommen und guten Theils mit trefflichen bas reliefs gezieret sind.”

Translation

“Il Campo Santo, or the city burying-place, is an oblong piece of ground, with a gallery round it, and divided by low stone walls into three equal parts; in the uppermost lie the nobility, the citizens in the middle, and the peasants in the lowest part.

In the year 1228, the Pisans having sent fifty galleys to the holy war, as auxiliaries to the emperor Frederick II. the commanders, probably in imitation of the pious example of Helena, grand-mother to Constantine the Great, who sent a quantity of earth from the Holy Land to Rome, took in a cargo of the earth, near Jerusalem, brought it to this Cœmètery, where it was observed to have such a singular quality, that it caused the bodies interred in it, for the first eight hours, to swell prodigiously, which in the succeeding eight hours, shrunk again to their natural proportion, and within eight hours more, were consumed to the very bone, but this virtue has been long since lost; and if it ever existed, it was certainly owing to a mixture of a great quantity of strong lime; so that the supported miracle might be easily renewed, if the burial-place did not afford room for many more than the inhabitants of this desolate city. The Pisans have a tradition, that this virtue, of consuming dead bodies within twenty-four hours, was observed particularly to decrease in the time of the plague, or any epidemical distemper, by reason of the unctuousness communicated to the soil, from the great numbers interred in it. The galleries were built by Giovanni Pisano, and finished in 1289.

On the walls are several scriptural histories, painted by several hands, among which the history of Job, in eight pieces, by Giotto, deserves particular notice. Bennoti Florentini, who is also buried here, has adorned this gallery with the life of the patriarch Joseph, in four compartments, and to Bufalmaco or Andrea d’Orgagna, who died in 1389, it owes a very large representation of the Last Judgment, in the middle of which is seen king Solomon hanging down his head, with all the other signs of a guilty conscience. On our Saviour’s left hand, hell is represented, and on his right the mansions of felicity, crowded with monks and nuns: However, an angel is seen to take the freedom of dragging away a monk by the hair, as not qualified to be in such good company. The invention of this piece is said to be borrowed from Dante’s poem on this subject. Of the other paintings to be seen here those of Benozzo Gozzoli are the best, who has very happily introduced into his historical pieces the portraits of the most eminent persons in his time. In one of these galleries or porticos are seventy or eighty large marble coffins, which by reason of the admirable bas-reliefs they are adorned with are supposed to be the work of antiquity.”