vation ; for it is certainj that few leave their Country to 
fettle elfewhere, if they are not preffed at home fo, that 
they cannot well live among their Friends and Kindred. 
But to return to the Wealth of Bologna, it appears 
in every Corner of the Town, and round it, though its 
Situation is not very favourable ; for it lies at the Foot 
of the Jppennines, .on. the North Side, and is very cold 
in Winter. The Houfes are built as at Padua and 
at Bern, fo that one walks covered under Piazzas ; but 
the Walks here are both higher and larger than elfe- 
where. There are many noble Palaces, and the 
Churches and Convents are incredibly rich : Within the 
Town the richeft are the Dominicans, which is the chief 
Houfe of the Order, where their Founder’s Body is 
laid in one of the bed Chapels of Italy •, and next to 
them are the Francifcans, the Servites, the JeJuits, and 
the Canons Regular of St. Salvator. In this lad there is 
a Scroll of the Hebrew Bible, which, though it is not 
the tenth Part of the Bible, they fancy to be the Whole ; 
and they were made to believe by fome Jew, that 
hath no doubt fold it at a high Rate, that it was written 
by EzrcPs> own Hand, and this hath pafs’d long for cur- 
rent •, but the Manufcript is only a fine Copy, like thofe 
the Jews ufe in their Synagogues, that may be, per- 
haps, three or four hundred Years old : That Part on 
which I cad my Eye, was the Book of EJiher ; fo by 
the Bulk of the Scroll, 1 judg’d it to be the Collection 
of thofe fmall Books of the Old Teji ament, that the 
Jews fet after the Law. But thofe of the Houfe fancy 
they have a great Treafure in it; and perhaps fuch 
Jews as have feen it, are willing to laugh at their Ig- 
norance, and fuffer them to go on in their Error. The 
chief Church of the Town is St. Petr one’s, and there 
one fees the curious and exabt Meridional Line, which 
that rare Adronomer Cajfmi laid along a great Part of 
the Pavement in a brafs Circle : It marks the true Point 
of Mid-day from June to January, and is one of the 
bed Performances that perhaps the World ever faw. 
In the great Square before the Church, on the one Side 
of which is the Legate’s Palace ; among other Statues, 
one furprized me ; it was Pope Joan’s, or is fo named 
by the People : It is true, the learned Men fay it is the 
Statue of Pope Nicholas IV. who had a womanifh Face ; 
but as I looked at this Statue very attentively, through 
a little Perfpedive that I carried with me, it appeared 
plainly to have the Face of a young Woman, and was 
unlike that of Pope Nicholas IV. which is in St. Maria 
Maggiore at Rome ; for the Statue of that Pope, though 
it hath no Beard, yet hath an Age in it that is very 
different from the Statue at Bologna. I do not build 
any Thing on this Statue, for I do not believe that Sto- 
ry at all ; and I myfelf faw in England a Manufcript of 
Martinus Polonus, who is one of the ancient Authors of 
this Matter, which did not feem to be written long after 
the Author’s Time ; in it this Story is not in the Text, 
but is added on the Margin by another Hand. 
On the Hill above Bologtia dands the Monadery of 
St. Michael in Bojco, which hath a mod charming Si- 
tuation, and is one of the bed Monaderies in Italy ; it 
has many Courts, and one that is odangular, which is 
fo nobly painted in Frefco, that it is a great Pity to fee 
fuch Work expofed to the Air ; all was once retouch’d by 
the famous Guido Reni, but it is now much decay’d : 
The Dormitory is very magnificent, the Chapel is little 
but very fine, and the Stalls are richly carved. On the 
other Side of Bologna, in the Bottom, the Carthufians 
have alfo a very rich Monadery. Four Miles from Bo- 
logna there is a Madona of St. Luke’s ; and becaufe ma- 
ny go in great Devotion there is a Portico building, 
which is carried on almod half way ; it is walled to- 
wards the North, but dands on Pillars to the South, and 
is about twelve Foot broad, and fifteen Foot high ; It 
is carried on very vigoroufly, for in eight or ten Years 
half is built, and this may prove the Beginning of ma- 
ny fuch Portico’s in Italy ; for Things of this Kind 
want only a Beginning, and when they are once fet on 
Foot, they quickly fpread in a Country that is fo entirely 
fubdued by Superdidon and the Artifices of Prieds. 
In Bologna they reckon feventy thoufand Perfons ; I faw 
not one of the chief Glories of this Place, for the fa- 
E xh Travels Book fp 
mous Malpighius was out of Town. I Lw a Play there, 
but the Poefy was fo bad, the Farces fo rude, -and all 
fo ill abled, that I was not a little amazed to fee the 
Company exprefs great Satisfaction in that which would 
have been hifs’d OS’ the Stage either in England ox France, 
From Bologna we go eight Miles in a Plain, and then 
advance into that Range of Hills that carry the Name 
of Apennines ; though that is driClly given only to one 
that is the highed. All the Way to Florence this Track 
of Hills continues, though there are feveral Bottoms, 
and fome confiderable Towns in them, but all is up- 
hill and down-hill, and Florence itfelf is jud at the Bot- 
tom of the lad Hill. The great Roads all along thefe 
Hills are kept in lb good Order, that in few 
of the bed inhabited Countries one finds the Highways 
fo well maintained as in thefe forfaken Mountains; but 
this is fo great a PalTage, that all concerned in it find 
their Account in the Expence they lay out upon it. On 
the lad, in a little Bottom in the Midd of the Hill 
dands Pratolino, one of the Great Duke’s Palaces, where 
the Retreat in Summer mud be very agreeable, for 
the Air is extreme thin and pure. The Gardens in Italy 
are codly, the Statues and Fountains are very rich and 
noble, the Grounds well laid our, and the Walks long 
and even ; but as they have no Gravel as we in England, 
fo the cbndant Greennefs of the Box fo much pleafes 
them, that preferring the Sight to the Smell, their Gar- 
dens are fo high Rented by Box-plots, that it is no Plea- 
fure to walk in them ; they alfo lay their Walks fo 
between Hedges, that one is confined in them. 
I faw fird, in a Garden at Vincenza, that which I 
found afterwards in many Gardens in Italy, which was 
very convenient ; there went a Courfe of Water round 
the Walls, About a Foot from the Ground in a Chan- 
nel of Stone, along the Side of the Wall ; and in this 
there were jHioles, fo made, that a Pipe 6f white Iron 
or Wood j^ut into them, conveyed the Water to fuch 
Plants as in a dry Seafon wanted watering ; and a Cock 
fet the Water a running in this Courfe, fo that 
without the Trouble of drawing Water, a finglePerfon 
could eafily manage a great Garden. Florence is a 
beautiful and noble Tovm, full of great Palaces, rich 
Churches, and dately Convents. The Streets are pav’d 
in Imitation of the old Roman Highways, with great 
Stones bigger than our Pavement Stone, but much 
thicker, which are fo hollowed in their Joinings to one 
another, that Horfes find Fadening enough for their 
Feet. There are many Statues and Fountains in the 
Streets, fo that in every Corner one meets with many 
agreeable Objebls. I will not entertain you with a 
a Defcription of the Great Duke’s Palace and Gardens, 
of the old Palace, and the Gallery that joins it, and of 
the vad Colledtion of Pidures, Statues, Cabinets, and 
other Curiofities, that mud needs amaze every one that 
fees them ; the Plate, and in particular the Gold Plate 
and great Coach, are fuch extraordinary Things, that 
they would require a very copious Defcription, if that 
had not been done fo often. The great Dome is a 
magnificent Building, but the Frontifpiece to the great 
Gate is not finifhed : The Cupola is after St. Peter’s, 
the greated I faw in Italy ; it is Three hundred Foot 
high, and of a vad Compafs ; and the whole Archi- 
tecture of this Fabrick is very fingular, as well as regu- 
lar ; only that which was intended to add to its Beauty, 
lelfened it in my Thoughts ; for the Walls, that 
are all of Marble, being white and black, laid 
in different Figures and Orders, looked too like 
a Livery and had not the Air of Noblenefs, which 
in my Opinion becomes fo glorious a Fabrick. 
The Baptidery, that dands before it, was a noble Hea- 
then Temple ; its Gates of Brafs are the bed of that 
Sort that are in the World ; there are fo many Hido- 
ries fo well reprefented in Bas-relieves in them, with fo 
much ExaClnefs, the Work is fo natural, and yet fo 
fine, that a curious Man could find Entertainment for 
many Days, if he would examine the three Gates of 
this Temple with a critical ExaClnefs. The Annunciata, 
St. Mark’s, St. Croce, and St. Maria Novella, are 
Churches of great Beauty and vad Riches ; but the 
Church and Chapel of St. Laurence exceeds them all, 
as 
