236 H. A. Newton — Fireball in the Madonna di Foligno. 



bolic, and that the bow is not a mere ornament of the land- 

 scape. In fact, if this last purpose had been the ruling one, 

 we ought to have had a more natural representation of the 

 rainbow, at least one more natural than that given in the copy. 

 Moreover, since the painter placed a fireball and its train in 

 close connection with the bow we are naturally led to ask what 

 is the significance of such an unusual addition to the picture. 



The picture was painted, it is said, in the year 1511 or 1512 

 for Sigismondo dei Conti da Foligno, private secretary of Pope 

 Julius II. In the foreground is the figure of Sigismondo 

 kneeling. Sigismondo died on the 18th of February, 1512. 

 He had been made Segretario domestico to the Pope in 1503, 

 and in his old age is said also to have been made prefect of the 

 referenda fabbrica di San Pietro, to which he bequeathed a 

 considerable fortune. In this office he must have come into 

 relations with Raphael after the latter came to Pome in 1508, 

 and shortly before his own death Sigismondo ordered the 

 painting of the famous picture. Tradition says that it was 

 made in fulfilment of a vow, but I am not aware of any historic 

 basis for the tradition. It is not improbable that the fireball 

 first suggested the idea that the picture was a votive offering. 

 It is not unlikely, also, that the picture was actually painted 

 after the death of the secretary. 



On the 4th of September, 1511, in the second hour of the 

 night, there fell on the banks of the Adda near Crema, some 

 leagues southeast of Milan, a number of stones. The following 

 are accounts of this fall : 



1. From the manuscript diary of a shoemaker, Grioanni 

 Andrea da Prato, who resided in Milan, Amoretti* quotes the 

 following entry made contemporary with the stonefall. The 

 manuscript was in the Ambrosian Library in Milan. 



" Ma prima che avanti col calamo scorra, diro siccome il giorno 

 quattro di settembre a ore due di notte, e anche alle sette apparve 

 in aere in Milano un tale splendore di corrente fuoco, che parea 

 refarsi il giorno ; e da alcuni entro vi f u veduta una similitudine 

 d'una grossa testa ; il che diede alia citta gran maraviglia e 

 spavento ; e il simile ancora accadette la notte seguente alle nove 

 ore ; poi dopo pochi giorni ultra il fiume Adda cascarono dal 

 cielo molte prede (pietre) le quali raccolte furono nel Cremasco 

 de libbre undici, e de libbre octo di colore simile a pietra arsa." 



2. Bigot de Moroguesf quotes from Pere Bonaventure de 

 Saint-Amable^: this account : 



* Opusculi Scelti, t. 22, p. 261, note; see also, Chladni, Peuer-Meteore, Wien, 

 1819, p. 210. 



f Memoire hislorique et physique sur les chutes des Pierres, etc., Orleans, 

 1812. p. 66. 



% Anuales du Limousin, vol. hi p. 746. 



