ALASSIO AND ITS FLORA 
21 
' Alassio having sailed to meet him, and 
defeated and put him to flight. 
In this century (1500) new evidences 
appear of the working in coral. In 1595 
on 8"> September fifteen hundred Alassians 
went to Vico of Mondovi to honour the 
Madomia of that Sanctuary; they offered 
60 ducats and a crucifix with a rock of 
coral finely carved. At the end of 1593 they 
built the convent of the Capuchins at the 
Coscia, and rebuilt the rustic Sanctuary of 
Nostra Signora della Neve in 1579. 
The year 1600 appears full of praise- 
worthy works of genius, and ornamental 
arts practised by the Alassians; clever 
writers became celebrated, the first of 
whom was Giancardi with his History of 
Alassio (1653), then the lawyer Alessandro 
Ferrari, Giovanni Battista de Cutis, Ales- 
sandro Battaglia, and the patriotic Gian 
Maria Bonorino, 
Theological science was cultivated with 
great success by Tommaso Gastaldi, whose 
treatise (Be Angelis) was the cause of his 
being raised to the bishopric, a position to 
which another Alassian, Stefano Martini 
