among which are those of St. Benedict and his
sister, St. Scholastica. Still farther up the hill, upon the monastery,
stands the church which is built on the site of the ancient one that was
erected by St. Benedict himself--this present edifice dating back to
1637. Above the portals there is a long inscription in Latin relating
the history of the monastery and the church. These portals are solid
bronze, beautifully carved, with inlaid tablets of silver on which are
inscribed a list of all the treasures of the abbey in the year 1006. The
church is very rich in interior decoration of mosaics, rare marbles,
and wonderful monumental memorials. Either side of the high altar are
monuments to the Prince of Mignano (Guidone Fieramosca) and also to
Piero de Medico. Both St. Benedict and his sister, St. Scholastica, are
entombed under the high altar, which is one of the most elaborately
sculptured in all the churches of Italy.

Among the pictorial decorations of this church are a series of fresco
paintings by Luca Giordano, painted in the seventeenth century,
representing the miracles wrought by St. Benedict. In the refectory is
the "Miracle of the Loaves," by Bassano; and in the chapel below are
paintings by Mazzaroppi and Marco da Siena. Nothing can exceed the
richness and beauty of the carvings of the choir stalls. These were
executed in the seventeenth century by Coliccio.

The library of this monastery is renowned all over Europe--indeed, it is
famous all over the world--for its preservation of ancient manuscripts
done by the monks. These are carefully treasured in the archives. Among
them is the record of a vision that came to the monk Alferic, in the
twelfth century, on which it is believed that Dante founded his
immortal "Divina Commedia;" there is also a fourteenth-century edition
of Dante with margined notes; and the Commentary of Origen (on the
Epistle to the Romans), dating back to the sixteenth century; there is
the complete series of Papal bulls that were sent to the monastery of
Monte Cassino from the eleventh century to the present time, many of
them being richly illuminated and decorated with curiously elaborate
seals. There is an autograph letter of the Sultan Mohammed II to Pope
Nicholas IV, with the Pope's reply,--the theme of the correspondence
being the Pope's threat of war. The imperial Mohammed seems to have been
in terror of this, and in his epistle he expresses his willingness, and,
indeed, his intentio