votive
hands and a few other bronzes, and a little gold jewellery. The library
has a good MS. of Dante. The cathedral, originally a Tuscan Romanesque
building of the 11th-12th centuries, is now a fine Renaissance basilica
restored in the 18th century, containing some paintings by Luca
Signorelli, a native of the place. Opposite is the baptistery, with
three fine pictures by Fra Angelico. S. Margherita, just below the
Fortezza, is an ugly modern building occupying the site of a Gothic
church of 1294, and containing a fine original rose window and reliefs
from the tomb of the saint by Angelo e Francesco di maestro Pietro
d'Assisi. Other works by Signorelli are to be seen elsewhere in the
town, especially in S. Domenico; Pietro Berettini (Pietro da Cortona,
1596-1669) is hardly represented here at all. Below the town is the
massive tomb chamber (originally subterranean, but now lacking the mound
of the earth which covered it) known as the Grotta di Pitagora (grotto
of Pythagoras). To the E. is the church of S. Maria del Calcinaio, a
fine early Renaissance building by Francesco di Giorgio Martini of
Siena, with fine stained glass windows.

The foundation of Cortona belongs to the legendary period of Italy. It
appears in history as one of the strongholds of the Etruscan power; but
in Roman times it is hardly mentioned. Dionysius's statement that it was
a colony (i. 26) is probably due to confusion.

See G. Dennis, _Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria_ (London, 1883), ii.
394 seq.; A. Della Cella, _Cortona Antica_ (Cortona, 1900).
(T. AS.)

CORUMBA, a town and river port of Brazil on the W. bank of the Paraguay
river, 1986 m. above Buenos Aires and 486 m. above the Paraguayan
frontier. Pop. (1890) 8414. Corumba is a fortified military post, has
the large Ladario naval arsenal, where small river boats are built and
repaired, and is the commercial entrepot of the state of Matto Grosso.
It is near the Bolivian frontier and is strongly garrisoned. Although
the climate is extremely hot, the neighbouring country has many large
cattle farms. Corumba is one of the most important places in the
interior of Brazil.

CORUNDUM, a mineral composed of native alumina (Al2O3). remarkable for
its hardness, and forming in its finer varieties a valuable gem-stone.
Specimens were sent from India to England in the 18th century, and were
described in 1798 by the Hon. C. Greville under the name of corundum--a
word which he b