t all the priesthood do not resemble those
of Certaldo, and that one of them who did not possess the bones of
Boccaccio would not lose the opportunity of raising a cenotaph to his
memory. Bevius, canon of Padua, at the beginning of the sixteenth
century, erected at Arqua, opposite to the tomb of the Laureate, a
tablet, in which he associated Boccaccio to the equal honours of Dante
and of Petrarch.

22.

What is her Pyramid of precious stones?
Stanza lx. line 1.

Our veneration for the Medici begins with Cosmo and expires with his
grandson; that stream is pure only at the source; and it is in search of
some memorial of the virtuous republicans of the family that we visit
the church of St. Lorenzo at Florence. The tawdry, glaring, unfinished
chapel in that church, designed for the mausoleum of the Dukes of
Tuscany, set round with crowns and coffins, gives birth to no emotions
but those of contempt for the lavish vanity of a race of despots, whilst
the pavement slab, simply inscribed to the Father of his Country,
reconciles us to the name of Medici.[617] It was very natural for
Corinna[618] to suppose that the statue raised to the Duke of Urbino in
the _capella de' depositi_, was intended for his great namesake; but the
magnificent Lorenzo is only the sharer of a coffin half hidden in a
niche of the sacristy. The decay of Tuscany dates from the sovereignty
of the Medici. Of the sepulchral peace which succeeded to the
establishment of the reigning families in Italy, our own Sidney has
given us a glowing, but a faithful picture. "Notwithstanding all the
seditions of Florence, and other cities of Tuscany, the horrid factions
of Guelphs and Ghibelins, Neri and Bianchi, nobles and commons, they
continued populous, strong, and exceeding rich; but in the space of less
than a hundred and fifty years, the peaceable reign of the Medices is
thought to have destroyed nine parts in ten of the people of that
province. Amongst other things it is remarkable, that when Philip II. of
Spain gave Sienna to the Duke of Florence, his ambassador then at Rome
sent him word, that he had given away more than 650,000 subjects; and it
is not believed there are now 20,000 souls inhabiting that city and
territory. Pisa, Pistoia, Arezzo, Cortona, and other towns, that were
then good and populous, are in the like proportion diminished, and
Florence more than any. W