this grand composition, appear, to the right,
St. John the Baptist, holding the cross, and pointing upwards to Our
Saviour; to the left, Abraham seated, a child on his lap, and resting
his hand on another by his side.

The background and scene of the whole composition is of blue, to
represent heaven,--studded with stars, shaped like the Greek cross.

The Transfiguration, which corresponds to this subject on the back of
the robe, is the traditional composition, only varied by the unusual
shape of the vesica piscis which encloses Our Saviour. The two
compositions representing the Institution of the Eucharist, on the
shoulders, are better executed and more original. In each of them, Our
Saviour, a stiff but majestic figure, stands behind the altar, on
which are deposited a chalice and a paten or basket containing crossed
wafers. He gives, in the one case, the cup to St. Paul, in the other
the bread to St. Peter,--they do not kneel, but bend reverently to
receive it; five other disciples await their turn in each
instance,--all are standing.

I do not apprehend your being disappointed with the 'Dalmatica di San
Leone,' or your dissenting from my conclusion, that a master, a
Michael Angelo I might almost say, then flourished at Byzantium.

It was in this Dalmatic--then _semee_ all over with pearls and
glittering in freshness--that Cola di Rienzi robed himself over his
armour in the sacristy of St. Peter's, and thence ascended to the
Palace of the Popes, after the manner of the Caesars, with sounding
trumpets and his horsemen following him--his truncheon in his hand and
his crown on his head--'terribile e fantastico,' as his biographer
describes him--to wait upon the legate.[618]"

FOOTNOTES:

[617] In the 'Manual of Dionysius,' recently published
by M. Didron (p. 71, &c.), these winged wheels are
interpreted as signifying the order of angels commonly
distinguished as Thrones. Their interpretation as the
Covenants of the Law and Gospel, sanctioned by St.
Gregory the Great in his Homilies, is certainly more
sublime and instructive.

[618] Cited from the original life, printed in
Muratori's 'Antiquit. Ital. Medii AEvi,' tom. viii., by
M. Sulpice Boisseree, in his essay, 'Ueber die
Kaiser-Dalmatica,' &c.

APPENDIX V., TO PAGE 320.

The Hon. and Rev. Ignatius Clifford has permitted me to make extracts
from his "Memoranda of some remarkable Specimens of Ancient Church
Emb