passes the village of Staggia on the rt., and at an equal distance farther on the old square castle of Monte Riggioni, which forms a very picturesque object in the landscape. All along this upper valley of the Staggia, the geologist will observe very considerable deposits of travertine, not only of fresh water origin, but interstratified in the marine beds of the tertiary marine formation. 2 m. before arriving at Siena the railroad enters a long tunnel, pierced in the hill of San Dalmazzo, which here forms the summit level, that separates the waters flowing into the Elsa and the Arno on the N., and into the Ombrone on the S. A mile beyond this tunnel we arrive at the

Siena Stat., close to the newly opened Porta di San Lorenzo, which leads into the principal street of the city. Luggage is sometimes examined at the gate, but passports are only required at the hotels where travellers pass the night. The offices of the diligences to Rome and to Chiusi are at short distances within the gate, and persons about to proceed even on the morrow by these conveyances will do well to deposit here their luggage on the way to their hotels.

SIENA (Inns: Arme di Inghilterra kept by Seggi, the nearest to the rly. station and diligence offices, very fair; Aquila Nera, equally good. There are very good apartments for families in both these hotels, and the charges are reasonable.. I Tre Re, a small but clean-looking inn. There is an excellent café (del Greco), nearly opposite the Loggia of the Casino dei Nobili. This ancient city occupies the irregular summit of a hill of tertiary sandstone, rising on the borders of the dreary and barren tract which forms the southern province of Tuscany. The whole district bears a desolate appearance, and, consists of bare clay hills capped with marine sandstone. The street entered by the post road at the Porta Camollia, or the Florentine gate, divides the city into two nearly equal portions; the streets are generally narrow and irregular, frequently so steep as to be impassable

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in carriages, and many of them are mere narrow lanes; the smaller streets are mostly paved with tiles, in the manner described by Pliny as the spicata testacea." The wider ones are generally bordered with immense mansions called palaces, some of which have lofty towers and rings near the entrance, like the old mansions of Florence. In the days when Siena, as a republic, was the great rival of Flo rence, it contained nearly 200,000 inhab.; the present population is about 22,000, and in the extreme quarters of the city grass is growing on the pavement.

Siena preserves, almost without change, the name of Sena Julia, and is supposed to have been a colony established by Julius Cæsar. Though in the heart of Tuscany, it does not possess a vestige of Etruscan antiquity. The interest of the existing city is derived from its prominent position among the free cities of the middle ages. In the early part of the 12th century it had thrown off the yoke of the Countess Matilda, and declared itself an independent republic. The nobles fell early before the power of the people, and were compelled to retire. from the city. The popular party, although divided by the rivalry of their leaders, warmly embraced the Ghibeline cause; and on the expulsion of Farinata degli Uberti from Florence, all the Florentine Ghibelines who were implicated in the conspiracy of that celebrated personage__were received favourably at Siena. During the hostilities which followed, the whole power of the Guelph party in Tuscany was defeated by the combined forces of Siena and Pisa, under the command of Farinata and the generals of Manfred, at Monte Aperto, about 5 miles from Siena. This memorable battle, commemorated by Dante, in which the Guelphs left no less than 10,000 dead upon the field, was fought on the 4th Sept. 1260; it not only established the supremacy of the Ghibelines, but left in the hands of the Sienese the great standard of Florence, whose poles are still preserved as trophies in the cathedral.

This decisive action brought back to Siena a great number of her exiled nobles, either to become citizens and traders, or to live a distinct and isolated class in a separate quarter of the city, which still retains the name of "Casato." After numerous contests between the people and the rich merchants, who formed a kind of burgher aristocracy on the overthrow of the nobles, Charles IV. in vain endeavoured to acquire the signoria; but the city, although able to resist his schemes, was too much weakened in her principles of liberty by the tyranny of Pandolfo Petrucci and other popular usurpers to withstand the encroachments of the Medici, who found means to destroy by treachery the last remnant of her freedom.

It was during this last struggle that the ferocious Marquis de Marignano, whom Cosmo de' Medici had commissioned to reduce the citizens by famine, inhumanly destroyed the population of the Sienese Maremma, and carried desolation into the whole of that once fertile district. Malaria inevitably followed this cruel policy, and " those," says Sismondi, "who at the peace returned to reap the inheritance of the victims of Marignano, soon fell themselves the victims of that disease." During the period of its freedom the territory of Siena was large and populous; 200,000 men were found within its walls; it had 39 gates, of which all but 8 are now closed; the arts were encouraged, the city became the seat of a school of painting, and its commerce was so extensive as to excite the jealousy even of the Florentines.

Siena is now the chief city of one of the 5 Compartimenti of Tuscany, the seat of an archbishop, and of a military governor.

The School of Siena is so remarkable a feature in the history of the city, that it will be desirable to give a brief epitome of its character and its masters, in order that the works of art in its public gallery and churches may be the more thoroughly appreciated. The prevailing characteristics of this school are deep religious feeling, and a peculiar beauty and tenderness of expression in spired by devotional enthusiasm, differ

ing altogether from that style which classical study had introduced into the northern schools of Italy. In antiquity the Sienese school is nearly equal to that of Florence, and there is no doubt that it exercised an important influence on the great masters of the 15th century. The patronage of the republic as early as the 13th encouraged if it did not create a society of artists, of which Guiduccio, Dietisalvi, Guido da Siena, and Duccio di Buoninsegna were the leading members. The most remarkable among the early masters is Simone Memmi, the contemporary of Giotto, and friend of Petrarch, who dedicated to him two of his sonnets as the painter of the portrait of Laura. He died in 1345; among his scholars were his relative Lippo Memmi, and Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti. In the 15th century Andrea di Vanni, Berna da Siena, Taddeo Bartolo, and Jacopo Pacchiarotto were the principal representatives of the school. The school afterwards declined, until the time of Sodoma, a follower and perhaps a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci, whose merits were so great that he was employed on the decorations of the Vatican, and the Farnesina Palace at Rome. Among his pupils were Michaelangelo da Siena (Anselmi) and Bartolommeo Neroni (Riccio), and the most eminent of all, Beccafuni, well known by the pavement of the cathedral. The last names of note in the Siena school are those of Baldassare Peruzzi, and Marco da Siena, generally considered as his pupil. subsequent history of the Sienese school presents no artists of great eminence, although the names of Salimbeni and Francesco Vanni occur during the latter half of the 16th century.

The

The Istituto delle Belle Arte contains a most interesting collection of works by the older Sienese masters, arranged chronologically in 5 rooms, and a large miscellaneous collection in 3 others. The pictures of the old Sienese masters have been chiefly obtained from suppressed religious establishments, and from the municipality of Siena. The most remarkable of them are: 1st room, 6, Guido da Siena (1221), Madonna and Child; 14, Mar

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