A MEDIEVAL GIRL SCHOOL 1 



THIS last summer I revisited Oropa, near 

 Biella, to see what connection I could find 

 between the Oropa chapels and those at 

 Varallo. I will take this opportunity of 

 describing the chapels at Oropa, and more 

 especially the remarkable fossil, or petrified 

 girl school, commonly known as the Dimora, 

 or Sojourn of the Virgin Mary in the 

 Temple. 



If I do not take these works so seriously as 

 the reader may expect, let me beg him, before 

 he blames me, to go to Oropa and see the 

 originals for himself. Have the good people of 

 Oropa themselves taken them very seriously ? 

 Are we in an atmosphere where we need be 

 at much pains to speak with bated breath ? 

 We, as is well known, love to take even our 

 pleasures sadly; the Italians take even their 

 sadness attegramente, and combine devotion 

 with amusement in a manner that we shall 



1 Published in the Universal Review, December 1889. 

 108 



