The church of the Dominicans contains, in a mag. nificent chapel, the monument of St Dominico, who died in 1221, which is of white marble, and adorned with beautiful basso relievos by Michael Angelo. The vestry contains a _great ,quantity along with the Old Testament, said to be written by Ezra.. Montfaucon, in his .Diarizem Pelican?, says, that this MS. is very ancient, and was presented by the.Jews at the beginning of-the 14th century.
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The chapel of contains the remains of Luigi Caracci ; And possesses such a quantity of plate, that it is .guarded in the night by several mas tiffs, and a centinel well The Franciscan church is enriched with some highly, finished .paintings by ,Luigi caracci, Facini, Brizio, Guido, and ,Tiarini.
"Ilie church called Chiesa del Buono Giesu, is of an oval figure, •,and • is ornamented with paintings in fresco by Pianori. It contains also fine statue of our Saviour by .Brimelli, a marble one of St Apol Ionia, and one of St Bernardine in terra cotta, both by,Lombardi. The basso relievo of the •circumci sion -by. Brunelli is above all praise.
• The church of St George, contains the nativity of Christ in fresco, by Cignani; annunciation, by Luigi Caracci ; the Virgin ary, by Annibal Ca meo ; and the baptism of Christ, by Albani.
The church of St Giovanni Battista de Celestini has a high altar piece, containing a picture of the Virgin with the infant Jesus, which they ,pretend to say is painted by St Luke.
The church of Giovanni in Monte is in possession of an admirable picture of St Cecilia -by Raphael. Entranced with the harmony of a choir of angels, the saint dashes all her musical instruments upon the • ground. Though the Count Malvasia censures the stiffness of this piece, it is highly praised by Addi son, and is reckoned one of Raphael's masterpieces.
In the church of St Gregory is a fine piece-by Luigi Caracci, representing St George relieving•St. Margaret from the dragon ; a picture of St Gregory performing a miracle, by Dionysius Calvert ; a bap.. tisin of Christ, .by Caracci ; and a large picture of St William, by Guercino. . . • The largest church in Bologna is the church of St Petronius, famous for being the place where Charles V. was crowned in 1530. It is 360 feet long, and 154 feet,broad. The pictures of the cler;.
gy in hell, of an executioner beheading a saint with a long sword, and of the coronation of Charles V., are deserving of notice. The principal curiosity in this church, however, is the meridian line, drawn by Dominique Cassini in 1653, and renewed in 1695. The line is half the length of the church, and is equal to the 6000th part of the circumference of the globe. It consists of pieces of red and white marble
inlaid, about three or four inches broad, and the pieces on which the signs of the zodiac are cut are a foot square. The marbles, which were quite out of repair, were renewed, in 1776, under the direction of M. Zanotti. The gnomon is 83 feet high ; a circu lar image of the sun, about eight inches diameter, being admitted through a round aperture in the roof.
The church of St Salvatore is adorned with many fine paintings by Luigi Caracci, (the assumption of the Virgin Mary, and the picture of our Saviour, are by this artist,) Girolami Carpi, Guido, Benevenuto Tisio, Samachino, and Cavedoni. The perspective pieces, by Mitelli ; the marble statue of Christ, by Brunetti ' • a MS. of the book of Esther ; a Hebrew MS. of the Old Testament ; and about 300 other MSS. arc among the curiosities contained in this church. The building itself is very fine, having three noble chapels on each side.
The university of Bologna is said to have been founded in 433, by the Emperor Theodosius ; while others are of opinion, that it owed its origin to Charles the Great. If this monarch had not the me rit of being its founder, it was at least greatly indebt ed to his generosity, and to that of the Emperor Lo thario. The first professor of civil law was Ireneri or Irnerio, who was brought here by Lothario. In the time of Andrea and Azzo, the one professor of canon and the other of civil law, it is said that there were no fewer than 10,000 students at the university. The public college, or university, called II Studio, is 213 common paces long, and was built by Barocci of Vignola. Under the word ACADEN1Y, we have already given a full account of the Institute of Bo logna. In this establishment, the principal objects deserving of notice are the astronomical school, con taining a model of the Copernican system, the meri dian line, cut through a wall a foot thick, under the direction of Manfredi ; the observatory; college library; the school for experimental phiosophy; the academy of sculpture ; the academy for painting ; the anatomical theatre ; and the museum, which con tains a large collection of antiquities and natural cu riosities. These admirable institutions, of which a full account will be found in Keysler's Travels, are owing to the liberality of Count Marsigli, one of the generals of Pope Clement XI:; who, being dismissed from the service, went to Bologna to spend his for tune in the patronage of the sciences.