e church too has suffered many violations, and to-day
there are but two frescoes left of all the work Angelico did here,--a
triptych in a chapel, a Madonna and Saints restored by Lorenzo di Credi,
and a Crucifixion in the sacristy. Of old, Perugino's Baptism now in the
Uffizi hung here, but that was taken by Grand Duke Leopold, who gave in
exchange Lorenzo di Credi's picture; but the French stole Angelico's
Coronation of the Virgin, now in the Louvre, and gave nothing in return,
so that of all the riches of this little place almost nothing remains,
only (and this is rare about Florence at any rate) the original owners
are in possession, and you may hear Mass here very sweetly.

It is down a lane, again between garden walls, that you must go to the
Badia, once the great shrine of the Fiesolans, but since the eleventh
century an abbey of Benedictines, where S. Romolo once upon a time lay
in peace, till, indeed, the oratory not far from the church was
stupidly destroyed. The Badia itself was rebuilt in the fifteenth
century for Cosimo de' Medici, by the hand, as it is said, of
Brunellesco. Here in the loggia that looks over the city the Platonic
Academy often met, so that these very pillars must have heard the gentle
voice of Marsilio Ficino, the witty speech of the young Lorenzo, the
beautiful words of Pico della Mirandola, the laughter of Simonetta, the
footsteps of Vanna Tornabuoni. It was, however, not for the Benedictines
but for the Augustinians that Cosimo rebuilt the place, giving them,
indeed, one of the most beautiful convents in Italy, and one of the
loveliest churches too, a great nave with a transept under a circular
vaulting, while the facade is part really of the earlier building, older
it may be than S. Miniato or the Baptistery itself, as we now see it;
and there the pupils of Desiderio da Settignano have worked and Giovanni
di S. Giovanni has painted, while Brunellesco is said to have designed
the lectern in the sacristy. Later, Inghirami set up his printing press
here, while in the church Giovanni de' Medici in 1452 was made Cardinal,
and in the convent Giuliano, the Due de Nemours, died in 1516. Returning
from this quiet and beautiful retreat to S. Domenico, one may go very
well on foot, though not otherwise, by the old road to Fiesole, still
between the garden walls; but then, who would go by the new way, noisy
with the shrieking of the trams, while by the old way you may tread in
the footsteps of the B