A VISIT TO LA VERNIA 



there, and decorated its altars with some fine terra- 

 cottas from the atelier of the Delia Robbias. One of 

 these is a Pieta surrounded with lovely angels and 

 saints, the other a Nativity. Both are encircled in a 

 wreath of cherub heads, vine-leaves, and clusters of 

 fruit, all exquisitely carved, and delicately coloured. 

 The heartrending expression of grief on the Virgin's 

 face in the former, and the startled expression of the 

 shepherds as the heavenly vision breaks upon their 

 eyes, have much in common with the masterpieces of 

 Andrea della Robbia at La Vernia, and were probably 

 the work of the same master. 



It was in the plains below the old ramparts of 

 Bibbiena that the great fight of Campaldino took 

 place on the nth of June 1289 between the Ghibel- 

 lines of Arezzo and the Florentine Guelfs. Dante 

 himself, then a young man of four-and-twenty, fought 

 in the thick of the battle in the ranks of the cavalry, 

 and in a letter quoted by Leonardo Aretino, he de- 

 scribes how, after narrowly escaping defeat, his own 

 side won the day, and completely routed the Aretines, 

 whose warlike Bishop, Ubertini, was slain in the en- 

 gagement. In the fifth canto of the Purgatory, he 

 puts the tale of that fatal evening into the mouth of 

 one of the unhappy fugitives who died of his wounds 

 in the flight, and whose corpse was whirled along the 



waters of the Archiano, a stream which falls into the 



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