paying
the necessary fee to see these buildings one thinks again what the
feelings of Giovanni and Cosimo and Lorenzo the Magnificent, and
even of Cosimo I, all such generous patrons of Florence, would be,
if they could see the present feverish collection of lire in their
beautiful city.

Of the Chapel of the Princes I have little to say. To pass from
Michelangelo's sacristy to this is an error; see it, if see it you
must, first. While the facade of S. Lorenzo is still neglected and the
cornice of Brunelleschi's dome is still unfinished, this lapidary's
show-room is being completed at a cost of millions of lire. Ever since
1888 has the floor been in progress, and there are many years' work
yet. An enthusiastic custodian gave me a list of the stones which were
used in the designs of the coats of arms of Tuscan cities, of which
that of Fiesole is the most attractive:--Sicily jasper, French jasper,
Tuscany jasper, petrified wood, white and yellow, Corsican granite,
Corsican jasper, Oriental alabaster, French marble, lapis lazuli,
verde antico, African marble, Siena marble, Carrara marble, rose agate,
mother of pearl, and coral. The names of the Medici are in porphyry
and ivory. It is all very marvellous and occasionally beautiful; but...

This pretentious building was designed by a natural son of Cosimo
I in 1604, and was begun as the state mausoleum of the Grand Dukes;
and all lie here. All the Grand Duchesses too, save Bianca Capella,
wife of Francis I, who was buried none knows where. It is strange to
realize as one stands here that this pavement covers all those ladies,
buried in their wonderful clothes. We shall see Eleanor of Toledo,
wife of Cosimo I, in Bronzino's famous picture at the Uffizi, in an
amazing brocaded dress: it is that dress in which she reposes beneath
us! They had their jewels too, and each Grand Duke his crown and
sceptre; but these, with one or two exceptions, were stolen during
the French occupation of Tuscany, 1801-1814. Only two of the Grand
Dukes have their statues--Ferdinand I and Cosimo II--and the Medici
no longer exist in the Florentine memory; and yet the quiet brick
floor is having all this money squandered on it to superimpose costly
marbles which cannot matter to anybody.

Michelangelo's chapel, called the New Sacristy, was begun for Leo X
and finished for Giulio de' Medici, illegitimate son of the murdered
Giuliano and afterwards Pope Clement VII. Brunelleschi's design
for the Ol