A VISIT TO LA VERNIA 
there, and decorated its altars with some fine terra¬ 
cottas from the atelier of the Della Robbias. One of 
these is a Pieta surrounded with lovely angels and 
saints, the other a Nativity. Both are encircled in a 
wreath of cherub heads, vine-leaves, and clusters of 
fruit, all exquisitely carved, and delicately coloured. 
The heartrending expression of grief on the Virgin’s 
face in the former, and the startled expression of the 
shepherds as the heavenly vision breaks upon their 
eyes, have much in common with the masterpieces of 
Andrea della Robbia at La Vernia, and were probably 
the work of the same master. 
It was in the plains below the old ramparts of 
Bibbiena that the great fight of Campaldino took 
place on the nth of June 1289 between the Ghibel- 
lines of Arezzo and the Florentine Guelfs. Dante 
himself, then a young man of four-and-twenty, fought 
in the thick of the battle in the ranks of the cavalry, 
and in a letter quoted by Leonardo Aretino, he de¬ 
scribes how, after narrowly escaping defeat, his own 
side won the day, and completely routed the Aretines, 
whose warlike Bishop, Ubertini, was slain in the en¬ 
gagement. In the fifth canto of the Purgatory, he 
puts the tale of that fatal evening into the mouth of 
one of the unhappy fugitives who died of his wounds 
in the flight, and whose corpse was whirled along the 
waters of the Archiano, a stream which falls into the 
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