left of the arcade
are portraits of the most prominent saints of the Hieronomyte order.
Exposed to the weather at first, these invaluable frescoes had faded
into mere spectres of pictures; but they are now protected from
further injury by glass.

Usually the church is closed, except in the early morning, and
visitors are admitted by the custode on ringing a door bell under the
portico. The interior is dark and solemn, with much less gilding and
meretricious ornament than is usual in Roman churches. It contains, in
the side chapels, many objects of interest; frescoes and altar-pieces
by Annibale Caracci, Pinturicchio, and Peruzzi; and splendid
sepulchral monuments. Of the last the most conspicuous are the marble
tomb of Alessandro Guidi, the Italian lyric poet, who died in 1712;
and the simple cenotaph in the last chapel on the left of one of the
titular cardinals of the church, who died in 1849, the celebrated
linguist Mezzofante. But the tomb upon which the visitor will gaze
with deepest interest is that of Torquato Tasso, who died in the
adjacent monastery in 1595. The chapel of St. Jerome, in which it is
situated, the first on the left as you enter, was restored by public
subscription in 1857, in a manner which does not reflect much credit
upon the artistic taste of modern Rome. Previous to this the remains
of the poet reposed for two hundred years in an obscure part of the
church close to the door, indicated by a tablet. Above this spot there
is a portrait of the time, which from an artistic point of view is
very poor, but is said to be a good likeness. Removed on the
anniversary of his death, about thirty years ago, to the chapel of St.
Jerome, the poet's remains are now covered by a huge marble monument
in the cinque-cento style, adorned by a bas-relief of his funeral and
a statue of him by Fabris. Whatever may be said regarding the artistic
merits of this monument, no one who has read the poet's immortal epic,
and is conversant with the sad incidents of his life, can stand on the
spot without being deeply moved.

Connected with the church is a monastery dedicated to St. Jerome. In
one of the upper corridors is a beautiful arched fresco of the Madonna
and Child, by Leonardo da Vinci, with the donor of the picture in
profile kneeling before her. The picture is surrounded by a frame of
fruit and flowers on an enamelled ground. The soft, tender features of
the infant Jesus, and the quiet dignity and grace of the s