distinction, but not quite so memorable. The Ugo is his masterpiece.

The carved wooden ceiling, which is a very wonderful piece of work
and of the deepest and most glorious hue, should not be forgotten;
but nothing is easier than to overlook ceilings.

The cloisters are small, but they atone for that--if it is a fault--by
having a loggia. From the loggia the top of the noble tower of the
Palazzo Vecchio is seen to perfection. Upon the upper walls is a
series of frescoes illustrating the life of S. Benedict which must
have been very gay and spirited once but are now faded.

The Badia may be said to be the heart of the Dante quarter. Dante must
often have been in the church before it was restored as we now see it,
and a quotation from the "Divine Comedy" is on its facade. The Via
Dante and the Piazza Donati are close by, and in the Via Dante are many
reminders of the poet besides his alleged birthplace. Elsewhere in the
city we find incised quotations from his poem; but the Baptistery--his
"beautiful San Giovanni"--is the only building in the city proper now
remaining which Dante would feel at home in could he return to it, and
where we can feel assured of sharing his presence. The same pavement is
there on which his feet once stood, and on the same mosaic of Christ
above the altar would his eyes have fallen. When Dante was exiled in
1302 the cathedral had been in progress only for six or eight years;
but it is known that he took the deepest interest in its construction,
and we have seen the stone marking the place where he sat, watching
the builders. The facade of the Badia of Fiesole and the church of
S. Miniato can also remember Dante; no others.

Here, however, we are on that ground which is richest in personal
associations with him and his, for in spite of re-building and
certain modern changes the air is heavy with antiquity in these
narrow streets and passages where the poet had his childhood and
youth. The son of a lawyer named Alighieri, Dante was born in
1265, but whether or not in this Casa Dante is an open question,
and it was in the Baptistery that he received the name of Durante,
afterwards abbreviated to Dante--Durante meaning enduring, and Dante
giving. Those who have read the "Vita Nuova," either in the original
or in Rossetti's translation, may be surprised to learn that the
boy was only nine when he first met his Beatrice, who was seven,
and for ever passed into bondage to her. Who Beatrice was is