Milan 239 



I found Padre Pini, professor of natural history, a better object 

 than his church; he has made a great and valuable collection 

 of fossils, and has taken the means necessary for self-instruction, 

 much travel and much experiment. St. Celso there are two 

 statues of Adam and Eve, by Lorenzi, that cannot be too much 

 admired; and a Madonna, by Fontana. Here also are pictures 

 that will detain your steps by the two Procacinis. The great 

 hospital is a vast building, once the palace of the Sforza's, dukes 

 of Milan, and given by Duke Francis for this use. It has a net 

 revenue of a million of livres, and has at present above one thou- 

 sand three hundred patients. At the Abbey of St. Ambrose, 

 built in the ninth century, and which has round arches, anterior 

 to gothic ones, they showed us a MS. of Luitprandus, dated 721, 

 and another of Lothaire, before Charlemagne. If they contained 

 the register of their ploughs they would have been interesting; 

 but what to me are the records of gifts to convents for saving 

 souls that wanted probably too much cleaning for all the scrub- 

 bing-brushes of the monks to brighten ? But unquestionably the 

 most famous production of human genius at Milan is the last 

 supper of Leonardo da Vinci, which should be studied by artists 

 who understand its merit, as it is not a picture for those who, 

 with unlearned eyes, have only their feelings to direct them. 

 View the Ambrosian library. 



10th. The climate of Italy, I believe, is generally in extremes ; 

 it has rained almost incessantly for three days past, and to-day 

 it pours. I have made a sad blunder, I find more and more, in 

 selling my French equipage ; for the dependence on hiring, and 

 on the vetturini, is odious. I want to go to-morrow to Lodi, etc., 

 and I have lost much time in finding a horse and chaise; and 

 after all can have only a miserable thing, at 7^ livres a day. In 

 the evening, at the opera, and Signore Beecken came to me in 

 the pit and asked me if I would be introduced to one of the 

 prettiest ladies at Milan? Senza dubio. He conducted me to 

 the box of Signora Lamberti, a young, lively, and beautiful 

 woman, who conversed with an easy and unaffected gaiety, that 

 would make even a farmer wish to be her cicisbeo. The office, 

 however, is in the hands of another, who was seated in his post 

 of honour, in the front of the box, vis-a-vis the lady. — Refresh- 

 ments — suppers — magnificent ridotto. Having mentioned the 

 cicisbei, I may observe that the custom seems to flourish at 

 Milan; few married ladies are without this necessary appendix 

 to the state: there were to-night a great number of them, each 

 attending his fair. I asked an Italian gentleman why he was 



