Chap. III. Greateft Pari of I t Kh T. 5 7 f 
ved from thence to the Cathedral, where it hung in 
the Air, in the Place where we faw it, till they built 
an Altar under it, on which it refted, and about which 
they afterwards built a magnificent Chapel. This Cru- 
cifix is in fuch high Efteem with them, that they ftamp 
it on their Coin, with the Arms of the Signiory. In 
St. FredlanH Church is a Marble Table feventeen Foot 
long, fix and a half broad, and fourteen Inches thick ; 
the whole Story whereof is exprefs’d in the following 
Infcription : 
O quifquis hgis^ lapis es, ni lapis hie moveat in admi- 
rationem cultum D. Frediani, qui templo huic con- 
JiruendOi mokm hanc in montibus ad quartum lapidem 
mdius^ virihus impar, fed fpiritu fervens ; mird fa- 
cilitate manihus humerifqm fuis^ ^ Canonicomm in 
plaufirum hinis indomitis vacculis trahendum impofi- 
tum, fexto falutis fcecuio, hdc in ade Ptatuit facrum 
monumentum. 
In the Midft nf the fame Church is to be feen a 
Tomb- Hone with this Infcription • 
Hie jacet Corpus Sandli Rieeardi Regis Anglia. 
Here lies the Body of St. Richard King of England. 
Who this Royal Saint was, I am not able to imagine ; 
for Riehard I. (firnam’d Lyonheart) died in Franee^ and 
was interr’d ^n the Abbey of Fontevraut ; Richard II. 
w'as, after his dethroning, ftabb’d at Pomfret, and bu- 
ried firfl: in St.^PW’s, from whence he was carried to 
Langley., and afterwards to tFe§fminJier ; and Richard III. 
“being (lain in the Battle of Bofworth in Leice(lerfhire, his 
Body was interr’d in the City of Leicefler. I do not re- 
member ever to have heard any Thing of a King Richard 
before the Heptarchy. 
In the Church of St. Austin you fee an Image of our 
Lady., with the little Jefus in her left Arm, concerning 
which they tell you the following Story ; A certain Sol- 
dier having loft all his Money at Dice, fell into fuch a 
Rage, that after having given a great many ill Words 
to the Image of our Lady placed then againft the 
Wall of the Guard-houfe, he threw a Stone level’d di- 
redlly at the Head of the little Jefus *, but our Lady 
perceiving the Danger, tofs’d the Child in an Inftant 
from her right Arm into the Left, where it remains 
ever fince ; the infolent Soldier was fwallow’d by the 
Earth, the Hole being ftiewn to this Day. About the 
Time -of the Reformation divers noble Families retired 
from Lucca to Geneva., where fome ftill flourifh. 
Half Way betwixt Lucca and Florence ftands Pifloya, 
viz. twenty Miles from each *, the Country thereabouts 
is extreamly fertile, and well cultivated, but the City is 
almoft defolate, having loft all its Trade with its Li- 
berty : It is much bigger than Lucca j and its large and 
regular Streets and beautiful Buildings are fufficientTef- 
timonies of- its former Grandeur. 
The Inhabitants of Pidoya have a moft profound Ve- 
neration for St. James and his Relicks ; the Altar of his 
Chapel in the Cathedral is cover’d with Plates of Sil- 
ver, and adorn’d with very rich Lamps. Here I ob- 
ferved, in a peculiar Prayer direded to him, thefe 
Words, L’u qui primatum tenes inter Apoftolos., imo qui 
eorum primus-., i. e. Lhou that wajl the firjiy nay, the chief 
among the Apo[ilcs, &c. There are not a few who pre- 
tend to look for the Original of the Guelph and Gibel- 
lin Fadions among the Piftoyans, where, they fay, lived 
two Brothers called Guelph and Gibel, the elder of which 
fided with Pope Gregory TK. whilft the younger em- 
braced the Intereft of the Emperor Barbaroffa % but, in 
my Opinion, thofe come much nearer the Mark, who 
derive the Names of thofe two famous Fadions from 
the illuftrious and potent Families of the Guelphs and 
Gibellines, (upon the Borders of Germany and Italy) who 
were at open Enmity, a confiderable Time with each 
other, betore one declared for the Emperor and the 
other for the Pope. 
6. My laft being written the next Day after our Ar- 
rival at Florence, I will in this give you a brief Deferip- 
VoL. II. N UMB. I08, 
tron of this City, and afterwards comniunicate fudi 
Obfervations as I have had Occafion to make during 
our Stay. Florence, the capital of fufe'am, dignified 
with the Title of an Archbiflioprick, and the ordinary 
Refidence of the Great Dukes, is feated upon the Ri- 
ver Arno, as it were within the Arena of an Amphi- 
theatre, being enclofed at four of five Miles Diftance, 
(except on the Side toward Pifioya) with very fruitful 
Hills, rifing by an eafy Afcent till they unite with the. 
high Mountains : If you take a full View from one of 
the Towers of Florence i, of the Villages and Houfes 
of Pleafure in the Plain and Hills, it feems to be only 
the Continuation of Suburbs, this Valley being perhaps 
the beft peopled Place of that Kind in the Univerfe. 
i was credibly inform’d, that the Circumference of 
the Walls of Florence is 15,240 Fathoms, and that the 
River Arno^ which runs through it^ is 500 Fathoms 
broad i fo that adding the, double Breadth of the Ri- 
ver to the Compafs of the Walls, the whole Circuit of 
Florence amounts to 16240 Fathoms^ three of which 
are equivalent to five Feet eight Inches Englifh Mea- 
furc,j according to which Computation it amounts to 
36^675 Feet : It is almoft of a circular Figure, The 
fame Perfon told me, that there are in Florence about 
eight thoufand eight hundred Houfes, fixty thoufand 
Souls, twenty two Flofpitals, eighty nine Convents^ 
eighty four Fraternities,' one hundred and fifty two 
Churches, eighteeii Halls belonging to Merchants, 
feventy two Courts of Juftice, fix Columns, two Pyra- 
mids, four Bridges, feven Fountains, feventeen Places 
or Squares, and one hundred and fixty publick Statues. 
The Streets are paved with broad Pieces of a grey Stone 
called Pietraforte, and moft of the Houfes are built 
of the fame ; thefe are brought from the neighbour- 
ing Quarries. 
The Great Duke’s Palace (called Pitti) is a moft 
noble Strudure, but has this Defe6t, that the Court is 
not fpacious enough in Proportion to the Edifice^ 
which being one hundred and twenty Foot high to the 
Cornifh of the third Order, cannot be feen without 
Trouble in any Part of the Court, which is only one 
hundred and fixty Foot long, and One hundred and 
forty broad. As we were entring the old Ducal Pa-^ 
lace, (the Receptacle of the fo much celebrated Curi- 
ofities) we took a full View of the four Statues of 
white Marble on the Bridge of the Trinity, reprefent- 
ing the four Seafons of the Year, made by Michael 
Angelo, The chief Curiofities we obferved here were, 
the David, the Work' of Michael Angelo ; the Judith., 
by Donatello \ the Sabin Women carried off by Vio- 
lence, by John of Bologna ; the Perfeus of Brafs, by 
Coligni ; the Hercules and Cacus, by Bandinelli and the 
Brafs Statue on Horfeback of Cofmo L by John Bologna i 
all thefe are moft exquifite Pieces. The three Baffa 
relievo* s on the Pedeftal of that Statue reprefent I. 
kneeling before the Pope as he was giving him the 
Title of Great Duke \ the fame Prince entring Florence 
in a triumphant Chariot-, and the Refignation of the 
Sovereignty to him by the Senate of Florence. The great 
Gallery of the Palace is four hundred Foot long,- where 
we pafs’d between two Rows of ancient Statues and 
Bufts. Above them, againft the Wall, we faw the Pic- 
tures of the ancient Philofophers on one Side, and thofe 
of great Generals on the other. 
Among thefe Statues, that fuppos’d to be Scipio’s^ in 
a Robe of Brafs, excels all the reft, the Characters on 
the Hem of his Garment are of the old Hetrufean \ the 
Leda embracing Jupiter with a Pleafure mix’d with 
Shame ; the Bacchus, with a Copy of the fame by MU 
chael Angelo, not inferior to the Original ; Julia the 
Daughter of Auguflus, the Pomona, the Venus, the Dia- 
na, the Apollo, another Bacchus, the Peafant ftriking a 
Boar, the Bufts of all the Emperors to Galienus, and ef- 
pecially thofe of Adrian, Pertinax, and Sever us, are ex-^ 
cellent Pieces. 
In the Chambers behind this Gallery, we obferved in 
the iirft a great branch’d Gandleftick of Amber, an ad- 
mirable Column of OrientalAhhd.?itx, a Rhinoceros* &Hon-i 
of an extraordinary Bignefs, Abundance of Ba£~o rdievo^s^ 
1 H and 
