Romano, with all the paraphernalia of Popery" bell, book, and candle."

The bronze door of this gloomy Edifice, executed by Ghiberti, upon the designs of Arnolfo, is a miracle of art, representing in eight compartments, of three or four feet square, as many Scripture Histories-from the stupendous moment of Creation, when God said, "Let there be light, and there was light"-to the portentous hour, when our First Parents were driven out of Paradise, by the Angel with a flaming sword. The Figures are but a few inches high, yet they are finished to the minutest feature, and project from the surface with perspective relief.

Neither is the door-case unworthy of the door, though it was wrought by another Artist, in Flowers and Foliage, among which are elegantly interwoven Birds and Fruit.

Two lateral Doors are also curious Performances of Contemporary Genius, exhibiting in smaller compartments the awful History of the Life, Sufferings, and Death of Christ; and they are alike richly framed with Fruit and Flowers.

Behind the High Altar of the Church of San Lorenzo is the costly Mausoleum of the Medicean Princes, which remained unfinished when the aspiring Family became extinct.

It is an octagon of fifty feet diameter, crowned with a dome, the walls of which are lined with Sicilian Jasper, and richly inlaid with precious stones.

Upon six of its sides are marble Sarcophaguses, designed by the prolific genius of Michael Angelo, two of which are surmounted by Regal Crowns, placed upon cushions of red Jasper, and studded with transparent gems.

Near it is the Capella dé Principi-a secluded Chapel, designed by the same creative Pencil, and filled by the same various Hand, with the Tombs. of Giuliano Duke of Nemours, and Brother to Leo X. and Lorenzo Duke of Urbino, on the right and left of the Altar.

Each

Each of them exhibits its princely Occupant, in complete armour, sitting with. in a niche, behind his Tomb-the For. mer, accompanied by recumbent Figures of Day and Night-the Latter, by DayBreak and Twilight-Ideas happily emblematical of Monumental fame, in which, as in the Paris Register,

-To be born and die,

Of Rich and Poor, makes all the history-
Enough if Virtue filled the space between,
Prov'd by the ends of being to have been.*

In the adjoining Convent there is a noble Library, particularly rich in ancient Manuscripts and early editions of the classics.

Among the former there is a Bible of the Vulgate Translation, supposed to have been written as early as the Se

• Pope.

venth Century, in which the Curious have observed the omission of the con

troverted text of St. John,

"There are

three that bear record in Heaven."*

There is also a copy of Virgil's Eneid, said to be of the Fifth Century, in which the four first verses,

Ille ego qui quondam, &c.†

are wanting. The Poem begins with

Arma Virumque cano.‡

The

"For there

• This disputed text stands, in our Bibles, as follows. are three that bear record [in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth] the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one:" But in the most ancient Greek Manuscripts, collated by Stephens, Mills, and other learned men, the words included within crotchets were totally wanting, viz. v T xpavão, é Пaтnp, ó ΛόγΘ, και το άγιον Πνεύμα και έτοι οἱ τρεις ἵν εισι. Как трыс 11017 di μaptupõvres w rñ yã. So much therefore of the seventh and eighth verses of the fifth chapter of the first Epistle of John, appears to be an interpolation, which (whenever fabricated) was not universally adopted by the Latin Church until the Middle Ages.

I who but lately sung, &c.

Arms and the Man I sing.