On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
it were ) over the relics of their fallen greatness ! How little would they have thought that these distant islanders would one day occupy the very first rank among the civilized nations of the globe ^ and that Rome herself , " the eternal city , " the pride and centre of the world , would be iriore indebted for
her subsistence to them than to any other cause ! Yes ! indebted for her subsistence ; for nine parts out of ten of the inhabitants of this city live by ( he strangers who resort to it , and of these strangers more than one half are English . In the high season you see English carriages driving about , English nurses and children on the public walks , English amateurs examining the works of art , and English ladies occupying ' the best places at the church
. The Colosseum *—the remains of this building are the most splendid that modern Rome has to boast . On one side the four stories of porticos , all in different styles of architecture , remain entire , and on the other there are only one or two of the highest which are fallen . The dimensions are perfectly colossal : it is 1641 feet in circumference , 157 in height , and is supposed to have seated 87 , 000 spectators , besides 20 , 000 in the galleries above . Indeed there is no one object which gives a grander idea than this of the magnificence of ancient Rome . It is impossible to behold its vast inclosure , and its towering height of porticos , without being astonished at the resources
of a people who couki afford to lavish so much wealth on their mere pleasures . Yet these very pleasures prove in contest ably , that they were but a half-civilized race after all ; for it was here that gladiators were set to murder each other in cold blood , for the amusement of the spectators , and we are told , that on the day when it was opened , Titus had 5 , 000 wild beasts killed in the arena . So much for the humanity of the Romans ! Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano , or church of St . John Lateran- ^ - the same in which 1 had witnessed the ordination of the priests on the Saturday in the holy week . la the approach to this church , on the western side , stands a most noble obelisk . It was placed originally in the Temple -of the Sun at Thebes , by tlameses , King of Egypt , transported thence to Rome by the son of Constantine , and erected in its present situation by Sixtus V . Its height , without base or pedestal , is 115 feet , and its diameter at the bottom , 9 . This is the largest of the many obelisks with which modern Rome is adorned ; but that which is placed before the church of Santa Maria Maggiore always struck me as being the most beautrful . The front of the church of St . John di Laterarn , facing the Naples gate , is very fine , but the interior is spoiled by too much gilding , and by the ridiculous excrescence
of the high altar . There is , however , a good fresco , representing the Ascension , over the altar of the holy sacrament ; and on the left hand of the grand entrance , in the Corsini chapel , is the best mosaic iti Rome ; it is a portrait of Saint Andrea Corsini , the ancestor of tire founder of the chapel , co ' pied from a painting by Guido , which I had before admired in the Barberini Palace . The face and the attitude of the Saint , who is kneeling before a crucifix , exhibit all that can be expressed of fixed and fer / ent devotiotf . Adjoining this church is the building , in one apartment of which the Cardinals are shut up when they have to elect a new Pope , during all which time they are not allowed either to go out or to hold communication with any other person than the members of their own body . The charge of
supply-* Wliat a complete misnomer is this word , as applied to a certain bftildmg in thte Regent ' s £ avk , which is Evidently Copied , though uot exactly , frotia the PanthtwM
Untitled Article
Journal 6 / a Tour on the Continent . 83
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1829, page 83, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2569/page/11/
-