his wife, the holy Empress Gunegonda, which was
reigning in those times; and they presented and endowed the said church
with many rich possessions in Florence and in the country, for the good
of their souls, and caused the said church to be repaired and rebuilt of
marble, as it is now. And they caused the body of the blessed Miniato to
be translated to the altar, which is beneath the vaulting of the said
church, with much reverence and solemnity, by the said bishop and the
clergy of Florence, with all the people, both men and women of the city
of Florence; but afterwards the said church was completed by the
commonwealth of Florence, and the stone steps were made which lead down
by the hill; and the consuls of the Art of the Calimala were put in
charge of the said work of S. Miniato, and were to protect it."

Thus far Villani: to-day S. Miniato, the church, and the great palace
built in 1234 by Andrea Mozzi, Bishop of Florence, come to us with
memories, not of S. Miniato alone, that somewhat shadowy martyr of so
long ago, but of S. Giovanni Gualberto also, of the Benedictines too,
and of the Olivetans, of the siege of 1529, when Michelangelo fortified
the place in defence of Florence, saving the tower from destruction, as
it is said, by swathing it in mattresses; of Cosimo I, who from here
held the city in leash. It is the most beautiful of the
Tuscan-Romanesque churches left to us in Florence; built in 1013 in the
form of a basilica, with a great nave and two aisles, the choir being
raised high above the rest of the church on twenty-eight beautiful red
ancient pillars, over a crypt where, under the altar, S. Miniato sleeps
through the centuries. The fading frescoes of the aisles, the splendour
and quiet of this great and beautiful church that has guarded Florence
almost from the beginning, that has seen Buondelmonte die at the foot of
the Statue of Mars, that has heard the voice of Dante and watched the
flight of Corso Donati, have a peculiar fascination, almost ghostly in
their strangeness, beyond anything else to be found in the city. And if
for the most part the church is so ancient as to rival the Baptistery
itself, the Renaissance has left there more than one beautiful thing.
For between the two flights of steps that lead out of the nave into the
choir, Michelozzo built in 1448, for Piero de' Medici a chapel to hold
the crucifix, now in S. Trinita, which bowed to S. Giovanni Gualberto
when he forgave his brother's