THE CERTOSA OF FLORENCE 



of the Certosa look down on the valley of Florence. 

 They can see suns set over her towers and the violet 

 glow of the plains reaching out towards Pistoja and 

 the Apennines. Beyond, behind the topmost tiers 

 of Giotto's campanile, rises the white-walled steep of 

 Fiesole, and far away on the right, often fringed with 

 snow, are the mountains of Vallombrosa. All around 

 are great memories, scenes and names celebrated in 

 Florentine story. On the opposite hills stands Poggio 

 Imperiale, the villa of the Grand Dukes, with its long 

 avenue of ilex and cypress ; further on are the tower 

 where Galileo watched the stars, and San Miniato, 

 from whose ramparts Michelangelo defended the 

 republic. Older than any of these, already famous 

 in days when the Medici and Michelangelo were un- 

 heard of, the Certosa was founded by a Florentine of 

 an earlier age, a man who, although he left his home 

 young to become great in another sphere, never forgot 

 that he was a citizen of Florence, and came back at 

 last to be laid in his own convent on Tuscan soil. 



Few figures in the history of the fourteenth cen- 

 tury command our attention more than that of 

 Niccol6 Acciaiuoli, Grand Seneschal of the kingdom 

 of Naples. We see him conspicuous among the 

 crowd of petty destinies around him, firm and unmoved 

 as a rock in the midst of confusion and strife, control- 

 ling conflicting elements by the force of his character, 

 retrieving the fortunes of a royal house, and saving a 

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