Chap. III. 
Greatefl Tart of I T A L Y. 
Brafs, beautified with Foliages and Bees, the Arms of 
Pope Urban VIII. On each of thefe Columns ftands 
a Brafs Angel feventeen Foot high, and on the Cornifh 
you fee Children playing and walking up and down : 
The whole Height amounts to ninety Feet, tinder 
this Altar is a Pair of Stairs leading to the Chapel un- 
der Ground, where St. Teterh Body is kept, and to 
fome other facred fubterraneous Places belonging to 
this Church. At the Entrance down thefe Stairs I faw 
a Bull engraven in Marble, forbidding any Woman 
to enter there, except on Whit fun- Monday^ when Men 
are prohibited to enter, under Pain of being anathe- 
matized : The Place being very dark, we were told 
by the Sexton, that this Prohibition was occafioned by 
an amorous Intrigue. An Indulgence of feven Years 
is granted for every Step of the Stairs leading to Sc. 
Peterh Chapel, to all fueh as defcend them with De- 
votion. 
The double Row of Pillars (286 in Number) which 
furround the Great Place before the Church, and lead 
to the fame by a double Portico on each Side, is a fur- 
prizing Piece to behold. The two magnificent Foun- 
tains in this Place are highly worth a curious Traveller’s 
Obfervation, as well as the Obelisk that ftands in the 
middle of one entire Piece of Granite feventy eight Foot 
high, with either the Pedeftal or Crofs placed on the 
Top of it by Sixtus V. when he fet up this ancient Mo- 
nument here, which in 1586. weighed 956,148 Pounds 
•without the Bafe. It is a general (but erroneous) Opi- 
nion, That the Globe of Brafs, which was there for- 
merly, contain’d the Afties of Augufius ; but Bominicus 
Fontana^ the famous Archited, upon Examination, 
found it not fit for that Ufe, but to be only an Orna- 
ment to this Obelisk, which was confecrated to Au- 
gu^us and Tiberius ; as is apparent from the Infcription, 
which remains ftill undefaced ; 
Bivo Ctefari, divi Julii F. Augujlo 
Tiberio C^efari D. Aug. F. Augufio facnim. 
The Palace of the Vatican^, fo call’d from the God 
Vaticanus^ who gave his Vaticinia or Oracles here, is 
conveniently feated for the Pope near St. Petefs 
Church, but by its too near Neighbourhood takes off 
Abundance of the Profpedj as well as fome other Edi- 
fices near it. This Palace is not one entire regular 
Strudure, but a Compofition of many beautiful Pieces, 
laid to contain 12500 Chambers, Halls and Clofets, 
which may in fome Meafure be difcover’d in the Model 
which is (hewed of it in Wood. 
The .Belvedere, belonging to the Vatican, received its 
Name from its delightful Profped ; We were fo fur- 
priz’d with the moft excellent Pieces of Raphael, Michael 
Angelo,JuUus Romanus, Pinturiccio, Rolidorus,John d^Udi- 
m, Daniel Volt&rra, and other great Mafters, and they 
found us fo much Diverfion, that we negleded to take 
Notice of all the other Perfedions of this beautiful 
Edifice. I have often, with a great deal of Delight, feen 
the moft curious Perfons in Rome gaze with great A- 
mazement upon the Hiftory of Attila, (the Work of 
the incomparable who was born 1483, and 
died v/hen he was thirty feven Years old) and admire 
its Beauty and Perfedions, nay, even put their Wits on 
the Rack to find out Expreflions fuitable to the feveral 
Excellencies of this marvellous Piece j when after all 
fome nice Judges have, and not without very crood 
Reafon, found Fault with the Drefs in which R^hael 
has thought fit to reprefent Leo I. and two Cardinals 
being after the fame Manner as they are worn by them 
now-a-days ; whereas it is evident, from the Hiftory of 
th.ofe Times, thar Pope Conliantine, and the other Popes, 
(two hundred, and fifty Years after Leo I.) wore plain 
Camblet Garments. Thm Titian hath painted 
at the. Girdles of the Two Difciples that met Chrift in 
his Way to Emaus ; and another celebrated Painter, 
Rojfo, has reprefented Monks in their Habits as Guefts 
at the Virgins Weddings. I remember that at Soeji, a 
Town of Wedphalia, there is a Pidure of our Saviour’s 
Laft Supper painted in a Giafs Window of a Church, 
Vi^herein that Painter has put a Gammon of Bacon inftead 
of the Pafchal Lamb. Nay, even Michael Angelo, in his 
moft celebrated Piece of the Laft Judgment, has intro- 
duced many indecent Poftures, Angels without Wings, 
nay, even the Ferryman Charon with his Boat full of 
Souls. 
In the Hall where the Pope gives Audience to Am- 
baffadors, are three large Pidures reprefenting the Hif- 
tory of the Admiral Coligni i the firft fhews you the 
Admiral as he was carried to his Houfe, after his being 
wounded by the Ruffian Morevel, (fifty thoufand Crowns 
were fet upon his Head) at the Bottom whereof you 
read this Infcription : 
Gafper Colignius Ammir alius, accepfo vulnere domu?}^ 
refertur. Greg. XIII. Pontif. Max. 1572. i. e. 
The Admiral Gafper Coligni carried home wounded. 
The fecond reprefents him mtirderH in his own Houfe^ 
with his Son-in-law Teligny and others, with this MottJ 
underneath : 
Cades Coligni fr? Sociorum ejus, 
i. e. The Slaughter of Coligni atid his Adherents. 
In the third the News of this Murder is brought to the 
Ring, who fhews a Satisfadion in his Countenance, 
with this Infcription : 
Rex Coligni necem probat : 
i. e. The King approves of the Slaughter of Coligni. 
Befides thefe Trophies of fo barbarous an Adion, the 
fame Pope caufed Medals to be coin’d with this Infcrip- 
tion, Gregorius Xlll. Pont. Max. an. i. and on the 
Reverfe an Angel with a Crofs in one Hand, and a 
Sword (with which he feems to thruft) in the other 
with this Infcription, Ugonottorum Strages 1572, i. e! 
The Slaughter of the Hugonotts 1572. I obtained one 
of thefe Medalsj though they are become very rare of 
late Years. 
Of the Gardens of Belvedere, and the Statues there, 
I will put you in Mind only of the invaluable Marble 
Statue (of one entire Stone) of Laocoon, the Work of 
Agefander, Polydorus and Athenadorus, three Grecian 
Sculptors *, of the Trunk without Head, Arms or Leo-s^ 
with the Sculptor’s Name engraven on the Pedeftal,^ 
AnOAAONIOS NHSTOPOS A0HNAIOX- i. e. 
Apollonius, the Son of Neftor, an Athenian. 
The Vatican Library owes much of its Contents to 
that of Hydelbergh, and of the Duke of Urbino j the 
Number of Books it contains is fo varioufly reported, 
that I thought it beft to determine nothing upon that 
Head. The Pidures reprefent for the moft Part the 
Sciences, Councils, noted Libraries, Inventors of Letters, 
and fome Pieces relating to the Life of Sixtus V. The 
old MS. of Virgil is in Quarto, but of greater Breadth 
than Length, in capital Letters, without Points, or any 
other Diftindion of Words. The Gothick Letters, as 
well as the Miniature, fhew it not to be written in the - 
firft Ages of Antiquity, as fome would have it. Among 
the Manufcripts of the latter Ages, I took Notice of 
fome Letters written to and by Cardinals, wherein 
they give one another no other Title than Mr. Peter 
and Mr. Julius. They alfo fhewM us a Volume jia 
Quarto, of the Thicknefs of a Finger, containino- Let- 
ters from King Henry VIII. to Anne Bullen. *I alfo 
took particular Notice of the German Bible whic)i you 
mention’d, and, as they fay, tranflated by LtuFer, 2Lnd 
written with his own Hand s which might have fome 
Probability of Truth, were it not that a certain extra- 
vagant Prayer, written apparently with the fame Hand, 
at the End of it, did deftroy it j the Words are thus 
in the Original : 
0 God, durch deine Gute 
Befchere uns Kleider and Bute, 
Auch Mantel and Rocke 
' Fet te Kdlber and Both, 
Oxen, 
