Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/435

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ROME 415 hill with the public gardens on its terraced summit, and about one third of the Corso. 5. The rione di Ponte contains one of the finest streets in Eome, the strada Giulia. 6. The rione di Parione contains the Orsini and Pam- fili palaces, and the place Pasquino, where for- merly stood the statue of Pasquin. 7. The rione della Regola contains the churches of San Girolamo della Caritd and San Tommaso, the English college, and the celebrated Farnese pal- ace. 8. The rione di Sant' Eustachio contains the church of that saint and the university. 9. The rione della Pigna contains the beautiful Dominican convent and church of La Minerva. 10. The rione Campitelli contains the forum, the Colosseum, the basilica of Maxentius, and the Capitoline hill, on which stand the three modern palaces appropriated for the assemblies of the magistrates, the observatory, and the fine art collections. The gallery of sculpture in one of these palazzi contains many of the most precious antiques, among which are the so-called " Dying Gladiator," now recognized as a Gallic chief dying in battle, the statues of Marcellus and Agrippina, the Venus of the capitol, and the complete series of busts of the Roman emperors. 11. The rione Sant' Angelo contains the beautiful ruins of the portico of .Octavia, and the Ghetto, or the quarter in which the Jewish inhabitants were confined under the papal government, though allowed to have shops elsewhere. 12. The rione Ripa con- tains the immense thermce of Antoninus (Cara- calla), the temple of Fortuna Virilis, the temple of Hercules, long miscalled that of Vesta, the Tiber island, on which are some remains of the temple of ^Esculapius, the Monte Testaccio, the pyramid of Cestius, and the burial place of Protestants. 13. The rione Trastevere, the ancient Janiculum, on the W. side of the Ti- ber, contains the great fountain of Aqua Paula, a botanical garden, the villa Corsini, and the Bridge and Castle of Sant' Angelo, with St. Peter's in the distance. church of San Pietro in Montorio. 14. The rione di Borgo contains the castle of Sant' An- gelo, the citadel, the centre or nucleus of which was the mausoleum of Hadrian. This castle is now of little importance as a fortress, and is chiefly used as a state prison. It communi- cates by a long covered gallery with the palace of the Vatican, an immense edifice, almost un- rivalled for its internal splendor and magnifi- cence. Among its treasures of literature and art are the great library, chiefly rich in rare manuscripts ; the tapestry chambers, hung with tapestry copied from the cartoons of Raphael ; picture and sculpture galleries filled with mas- terpieces of the highest order ; the camere and loggie, painted in fresco by Raphael and his pupils; and the Sistine and Pauline chapels, painted in fresco by Michel Angelo. (See VATICAN.) Celebrated statues and pictures also adorn other palaces and churches of the city; and besides the great collection of the Vatican there are 10 or 11 public libraries, 711 VOL. xiv. 27 two of which, the Angelica and the Casa- natense, have more than 100,000 volumes each and many valuable manuscripts. There are in the city about 360 churches and 180 conven- tual edifices; but many of the convents and monasteries have been suppressed since the occupation of the city by the Italian govern- ment, and the buildings converted to public uses. Preeminent among the Christian temples of the world is St. Peter's church, the work of many popes and architects, finally consecrated by Urban VIII. in 1626, which Gibbon calls "the most glorious structure that has ever been applied to the use of religion." (See CATHEDRAL.) Externally the work, though magnificent in materials and dimensions, is disfigured by the prominence of the front added by Maderno, which almost hides from the near spectator the principal feature, the vast and towering dome ; while, had the origi- nal plan of Bramante and Michel Angelo been followed, the whole dome would have been