ook. The foliage is well carved, and the
pilasters are panelled in two stages. Behind the church is the first
cloister, surrounded by an arcade resting on coupled octagonal
colonnettes with unmoulded round arches, divided into groups of six by
piers. The wall above is pierced by oculi of different sizes, some of
which have quatrefoil tracery within, and the caps of the columns show
an almost Romanesque variety and vivacity. The wall terminates with a
carved quarter-roll moulding and a balustrade with cusped round arches
above coupled colonnettes. This balustrade, notwithstanding its style,
was only completed in 1629, unless this date refers merely to repairs
done at that time. On the south side is a fifteenth-century fountain,
with a later statue of S. Francis; in front of it is a paved walk
flanked by seats, the backs of which form the enclosure of the raised
garden on each side. It is as pleasant a place as the Dominican
cloister, though quite unlike it. The architect was Mag. Mycha of
Antivari, whose signature may be found on a corner pilaster, with the
date 1363. Higher up the hill is another cloister, long and narrow, with
round arches resting on square piers, and a well under a picturesque
penthouse roof. Here it was that the herbs and simples were grown. By
the side of the steep stair (which goes up still higher) a little rill
of water flows, I suppose, to the lower cloister. The convent cost
28,000 ducats to the public treasury, besides much given by generous
donors, the Ghent merchants especially contributing largely. The top of
the campanile was replaced after the earthquake of 1667. In the sacristy
are some stall-fronts and cupboards ornamented with intarsia of
arabesques and figures of saints of the Order, the latter rather rough
in workmanship. Also a pretty, early Renaissance lavabo in Istrian
stone. The church plate, including a fine monstrance, is kept in a
Gothic cupboard painted with the arms of the Bona family. In the church
is a great crucifix which came from Stagno, painted in tempera, with the
symbols of the Evangelists. The library is rich in literary documents,
and in the convent, upstairs, is a picture which shows Ragusa as it was
before the earthquake.

High on the hill above the Franciscan church is the early nuns' church
of La Sigurata, hidden away in a court. Like several others of the early
churches it shows no sign of its great antiquity.

The Rector's Palace was commenced in 1388 and com