Chap, lit Greateji Part e?/ItALy. 5§l 
other as in an Amphitheatre. The Pit is alfo very 
fpacious, and may be filled with Water to the Height 
of three Foot, in which they reprefent Naval Combats 
with whole Squadrons of little gilt Boats. 
Befides the Schools of the Univerfity,they have here a 
College, wherein they receive young Gentlemen of all 
Nations, but none except fuch as are capable of being 
admitted Knights of Maltha. They eat together accord- 
ing to the different Sciences they learn j their Number 
at this Time amounted to two hundred and thirty. 
The Dome of the Cathedral is painted by the Hand of 
Correggio^ and in the Churches ol St.John and St. Anthony 
are various excellent Pieces. At the Race we faw Abun- 
dance of very good Company taking the ^our a la mode 
in their Coaches ; but they obferve here the fame Cuftom 
that is pradifed upon this Account at Rome.^ viz. that 
the Women never go with the Men in the fame Coach, 
but always appear in Coaches by themfelves. In our 
Journey from hence to Placentia, we faw not any Vil- 
lage or River worth mentioning, except the little dii- 
mantled Town of St. Domino, tho* they are thirty five 
Miles diftant one from another. 
The City of Placentia is feated in a pleafant Plain 
about fix hundred Paces from the Po ; its Circumfe- 
rence is larger than that of Parma -, the Houfes are of 
Brick, neatly built, but very low, and on each Side of 
the Houfes Foot- ways fenced with Pofts, as in London, 
efpecially in the Race-Jireet, which is as ftreight as a 
Line, of an equal Breadth from one End to the other, 
and three thouland Foot long. The Statues of the fa- 
mous Alexander Farnefe, Governour of the Netherlands, 
and of his Son Ranuccio I. adorn the Great Place, or, in 
plain Englijh, the great Sq^uare. From the Top of one 
of the higheft Steeples we had a full View of the Coun- 
try round about, embellifh’d with the various Windings 
of the Po, and could plainly difcern Cremona, though at 
twenty Miles Diftance. The Cathedral has fome Pic- 
tures, done by the Hand of Carache ; and that of St. 
Sixtus, an Image of our Lady, by Raphael. To con- 
clude, Placentia is ill-peopled, and the Fortifications 
are but indifferent, though much extolled by the Italians ; 
and their Weights, Meafures, and Coins, are different 
from thofe of Parma. We coafted the Banks of the 
Po, but at fome Diftance from the River, following 
the Current till we came over-againft Cremona, where 
we paffed in a Ferry-boat, for there are noBridges 
upon the Po below 'Turin. 
The City of Cremona is feated on the MilanefeAid^ of 
that River ; it is very large, but poorer and lets popu- 
lous than Placentia. The Caftle, though much extolPd 
bv the romantick Italians, is an antick ftiapelefs Heap 
of Ruins j the Inhabitants of this City boaft exceeding- 
ly of its Antiquity, but can produce no authentick 
Proofs for it. This City is forty Miles from Mantua, 
and in the Way between both you meet with no con- 
fiderable Town except Buzzolo, a fmall City furrounded 
with fome inconfiderable Works, which among fome 
People pafs for Fortifications ; however, it bears the 
Title of a Dukedom, and its Prince is at the fame 
Time Sovereign of the adjacent Country for four or 
five Miles about it. We paffed the River Oglio, which 
rifes with a large and rapid Current out of the Lake of 
Ifco, and falls into the Po. 
Almoft all Defcriptions I ever faw of Mantua, have 
given a very imperfect Account of the true Situation of 
this City, which is generally reprefented to be in the 
Midft of a Lake ; but to fpeak the Truth, this pre- 
tended Lake is no more than the Waters of the River 
Mincio, arifing from the Lake of Guarda, which over- 
flowing the flat Country, makes a kind of Marfh four- 
teen or fifteen times longer than it is broad, in which, 
but toward one Side of it, the City of Mantua is built 
on a firm Tradf of Ground. The Cawfey over which 
we paffed, was between two and three hundred Paces 
long, but on the Side towards Verona it is of a larger 
Extent. In fome Places of thefe Marfties, the Water is 
always in Motion, but as it ftagnates in moft Places, the 
beft Part of the rich Inhabitants leave the City during 
the Summer Seafon. Mantua has only a Wall for its 
Defence, but the Citadel is very ftrong : For the reft, it 
V o L. II. Numb. CIX. 
is about the fame Bignefs as trtmona, but rhuch better 
peopled ; the Streets are broad and ftreight, but the 
Houfes indifferently built. 
The Italians will tell you ftrange Things of the Mag«i 
nificence of the Palace, though, in Effe( 5 l, it has neither 
Beauty nor Regularity, and the beft Idea I can give you 
of it, is to compare it to Whitehall, viz. that it is large 
and commodious, without the other Qualifications be- 
longing to a Royal Palace. We were aifurM, that this 
Palace was moft magnificently furnifhM before it was 
ihQ Imperialijis,yuly i8, 1639, but even as 
you fCe it now, the Duke*s Lodgings want nothing of 
what is requifite to render them both convenient and 
fplendid t The Hall is filled with rare and ancient 
Pictures, and the Cabinet of Curiofities wants not Ma- 
terials to entertain the induftrious Traveller. The Duke 
of Mantua has feven or eight Country Seats, among' 
thefe we only faw la Favorite and Marmitol, the laft of 
which is very pleafantly feated near a delightful Brook and 
Wood, and well furnifh*d with Pictures and Antiqui- 
ties, with Gardens, Orange- walks. Aviaries, and moft: 
curious Fountains belonging to it. In the Church 
of St, Andrew they fliew the St.Longin, with fome Drops 
of that miraculous Blood found in this City in the Time 
of Leo III, which afterv/ards gave the Occafion (viz. in 
j6o8.) to the Inftitution of the Order of Mantua by 
Vincent Gonzaga, who felefted twenty Knights to be Com- 
panions of this Order. The other remarkable Things in 
Mantua are, the Churches of the JefuitSj of St. Barna-- 
las, St. Maurice, St, Sehajlian, St. Urfula, and St. Bar^ 
bar a, the Town-houfe, Theatre, Manufadory Halls, 
the Mill of the twelve Apoftles, the Synagogue and 
Shambles. But before we part with Mantua, we muft 
remember the Village of Andes near this City, which 
gave Birth to Virgil 5 
Mantua Mufarum Domus, atque ad fidera cantii 
Evelta Andino. Sil. Ital. J. g; 
Leaving Mantua, we travel’d for twenty two Miles, 
till we came to the River which is the common Boun- 
dary between that Dukedom and the Venetian State^ 
and eighteen Zviiles further came and lodg’d the fame 
Night at Brefcia. We were not a little furpriz’d at the 
Sight of the Women in the Streets and Shops, a Thing 
we had not feen fince our Arrival at Verona. Brefcia is 
pretty well peopled, and indifferently large 5 its Citadel, 
which is very ftrong, ftands on an adjacent Hill near 
the Foot of the Alps the other Fortifications are of no 
great Moment. The Palace of Justice is a noble 
Stru6lure, of a certain Stone not unlike Marble ; on 
the Pediment of the Front you fee thefe Words 5 
Fidelis Brixia Fidei Jufiti^e confecravit. 
The Armourers Shops are direftly oppofite to this 
Palace, under a Portico of five hundred Paces long, 
the Fire-arms of Brefcia being accounted the beft in 
Italy. This City is watered with many fine Springs, 
and a commodious Rivulet, which have their Rife among 
the Alps. 
In the Cathedral they fliew you what they call Con- 
Jlantine^s Oriftame, which they told us was the fame blue 
Crofs that appear’d to Conjiantine, with this Motto, In 
hoc Signo vinces. But how is it poffible that an Appa- 
rition in the Air could be preferv’d ? And how could it 
be called an Oriflame, which fignifies a Kind of gilt 
Standard or Banner ? Some deriving its Etymology 
from Flammula, a Banner, and aurea, golden, becaufe 
it was affix’d to a gilt Launce ; others from a Sort of 
gold and flame-colour’d Stuff j it was adorn’d with 
green Taffels, I remember Mezeray tells us, that 
the fecond Race of the French Kings ufed to have St. 
Martin'^ Cope born before their Armies, but that the 
Capets made Ufe of the Banner of St. Dennis, called Ori- 
flame, kept in that Saint’s Church. Perhaps th.h Oriflame 
of Brefcia is the Laharum in which Conjiantine, after his 
Vidory over Maccatius, order’d a Cypher, which con-* 
fifts of the initial Letters of the Name of Chrift, to be in- 
ferted, 
7 \ 
A; 
