PAVIA MONASTERY OF LA CERTOSA-SUMPTUOUS CHAPELS— BATTLE OF PAVIA-UNIVERSITY-BRIDGE OVER THE TES SIN, AND ANCIENT DESCRIPTION OF THAT RIVER-BOETHIUS-ANCIENT GENOA-MARENGO-THE PO, AND FABLE OF PHAETON-VALLEY OF POLCIVERA-GENOA-SUMMARY OF ANCIENT, AND MODERN, HISTORY-ANDREW DORIA, AND REVOLUTION EFFECTED BY HIM IN 1528-CONSPIRACY OF LEWIS FIESCO IN 1547-DORIA PALACE-COLUMBUS.

ABOUT four miles from Pavia stands the celebrated Monastery of La Certosa. Of all the monasteries I have yet seen this is incomparably the noblest, being also generally deemed the finest in Europe.

It was about the hour of sun-set that we approached this venerable, and sumptuous, institu tion for Carthusian Friars. Slowly we drove through lofty avenues of ancient elms, and poplars, whose boughs were gently fanned by the grateful autumnal breeze; and whose verdant foliage, so gracefully wantoning, shadowed the vermilion, and brilliant, hues of an Italian sun-set. At intervals we caught the huge, and costly, fabric glistening in the distant view; and as the setting rays gradually declined in brightness, the more appropriate were the solemn, and sombre, feelings excited by the darkening foliage, and a visit to the tombs of Monarchs, and Monks, whose

temporal, and whose spiritual, pride were alike humbled to the dust.

The Church is built entirely of white marble; the façade exhibits a striking medley of Saxon, Gothic, and Roman, architecture, adorned with numberless curious bassi-rilievi in marble of scriptural, and other, subjects, together with a series of heads of the Roman Emperors. The interior of the church with its golden dome, and glittering stars, is very imposing, but the chief beauties, and where art, and wealth, have been lavished to give due effect, are found in the series of chapels running parallel with, and on both sides of, the nave. Besides displaying choice pictures, the altars of all of them are composed of the most valuable marbles, further enriched with precious stones: there are the most variegated, and elaborate, mosaics; exquisite sculptures, and bassirilievi in front of the altars, with columns of porphyry, bronze, verde antique, oriental, and various rare, marbles either supporting the ciborj, or other ornamental temples on the altars; while jasper, cornelian, agate, crystal, onyx, lapis lazuli,* &c. are mingled to depict in mosaic birds, fruits, and flowers, which rival nature. On one of the altars is a series of subjects representing the

This latter precious stone is presumed to be the same as the Cyanus of the ancients. The best that we now procure is imported from Great Tartary.

chief incidents of the Old and New Testaments, wrought out of the teeth of the Hippopotamus, said to have occupied the entire life of a Florentine artist, besides employing his pupils.

This Certosa, or monastery for Carthusian monks, was founded by the illustrious Giovanni Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, about the year 1400. His tomb, and sculptured effigy, a whole length recumbent figure, with three of his family, are seen in the transept. The abbey once had an annual endowment of not less than 20,000/. and had accumulated immense wealth; but the Emperor Joseph II. seized it, and abolished the order. Many of its pictures, books, and treasures, were carried away, some to Paris, some to Vienna, and it has been asserted that the French, in order to gain a petty sum exposed this sumptuous edifice to irretrievable ruin by stripping the lead from the roof. Of all the former establishment two monks only are now retained to perform mass; and preserve the church. We walked over the convent. Each monk had a small detached house, consisting of three rooms; also a wine cellar, and a little garden.

It was in the fields of Pavia that Francis I. sustained so severe a defeat by Charles the Fifth, on 24 Feb. 1525; and perhaps no battle on record, till then, was so fatal to France as that. Ten thousand men were slain; among them was

the Duke of Lorrain, and the soi-disant Duke of Suffolk, alias Sir Richard de la Poole, who had been banished by Henry VIII.

Both these princes are buried in a convent of Augustin monks at Pavia.

The gallant, chivalrous, and noble minded, monarch, Francis, was himself taken prisoner, and conducted to this convent. It is recorded by the Abbé Richard, that the fallen king reached the monastery at the moment the monks were at vespers; that he walked reverently up to the altar, and joined their chaunt of the 118th and 119th Psalms, at this appropriate verse

"Bonum mihi quia humiliasti me, ut discam justificationes tuas."

On the ensuing day Francis was removed to the strong fortress of Pizzichitoné, near Cremona.

The King of Navarre, Henri d'Albert, was also captured; and, among the consequences of this memorable defeat, was the immediate evacuation of Milan, then garrisoned by a French force, and the total abandonment of Italy by that nation. The generals who achieved this splendid conquest, in the absence of their royal master Charles then in Spain, were Pescara, and Antonio de Leyva. However, two years afterwards, in

* It is good for me, O Lord, that I have been in affliction, that I may learn thy ways.

1527, General Lautrec, in order to avenge the disasters of his sovereign, abandoned the city to complete pillage, and thence may be traced the downfal of Pavia.

In Roman history this city is most known as the field where Annibal obtained a signal victory over the Romans commanded by Publius Scipio, and whose life was only saved by the intrepidity of his son, Scipio Africanus. (Livy, 21st book, 46th sec.) The University of Pavia is by some styled the Mother University: it may be traced back to 1361; and is reckoned one of the most ancient, as it has been one of the most celebrated, of Europe; it was also favoured by a special visit of Napoleon when on his way to Milan for coronation in 1805. We have this day, Sunday, explored most of its departments; the Academies of Natural History, Mineralogy, Anatomy, the Library, &c. &c. In the latter, among the curious books, is one dedicated to Eugene Bonaparte, being the Lord's Prayer in 150 different languages.

The only edifice particularly worthy of notice that I have seen is, the Bridge over the Tessin, being 340 feet long, and 12 wide, having a chapel on it, and a solid wooden roofing.

This River classically known as the Ticinus, and Pavia anciently called Ticinum, have been celebrated by Silius Italicus, and by Claudian. The former thus speaks of the river :