THE CERTOSA OF FLORENCE 
of the Certosa look down on the valley of Florence. 
They can see suns set over her towers and the violet 
glow of the plains reaching out towards Pistoja and 
the Apennines. Beyond, behind the topmost tiers 
of Giotto’s campanile, rises the white-walled steep of 
Fiesole, and far away on the right, often fringed with 
snow, are the mountains of Vallombrosa. All around 
are great memories, scenes and names celebrated in 
Florentine story. On the opposite hills stands Poggio 
Imperiale, the villa of the Grand Dukes, with its long 
avenue of ilex and cypress ; further on are the tower 
where Galileo watched the stars, and San Miniato, 
from whose ramparts Michelangelo defended the 
republic. Older than any of these, already famous 
in days when the Medici and Michelangelo were un¬ 
heard of, the Certosa was founded by a Florentine of 
an earlier age, a man who, although he left his home 
young to become great in another sphere, never forgot 
that he was a citizen of Florence, and came back at 
last to be laid in his own convent on Tuscan soil. 
Few figures in the history of the fourteenth cen¬ 
tury command our attention more than that of 
Niccolo Acciaiuoli, Grand Seneschal of the kingdom 
of Naples. We see him conspicuous among the 
crowd of petty destinies around him, firm and unmoved 
as a rock in the midst of confusion and strife, control¬ 
ling conflicting elements by the force of his character, 
retrieving the fortunes of a royal house, and saving a 
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