A very interesting development in the litera ture of this time is that of the mystical writers who in Italy, France, Germany and England wrote works which have continued to live be cause of the depth of their meaning hut mainly for their literary quality. Piers Ploughman in England and Wyclif's work belong to this class. Wycill's translation of the Bible deeply influenced all subsequent English writers. Gasquet has disputed the genuineness of the versions of Scriptures attributed to Wyclif, and there is now no doubt that the Bible was familiar to laymen before this and that trans lations of the New Testament in English were common before Wyclif. Two 14th century works in Italian, the (Fioretti' of Saint Francis and the letters and 'Dialogues' of Saint Cathe rine of Siena are now attracting wide attention, 500 years later. The 'Moretti,' which breathes the charm of Saint Francis better than any thing ever written about him, has had a strik ing revival. The development of feminism has brought with it a renewal of attention to Catherine of Siena (1347-80). Though she did not learn to read until she was 25 nor to write until she was 30 (and she died at 33), her "work has survived the wreck of time be cause she wrote with a passionate tenderness, intense and always present, which her deep feeling transmutes into eloquence.° (Snell, Periods of Literature, Fourteenth Century'). She is the classic of Sienese, the other mode of Tuscan, besides the Florentine. These two equally influenced modern Italian. Saint Catherine, who was that curious composite being, "a mystic, a poet, a politician and a saint' deeply impressed her time. Her life was full of visions, yet she was a great practical social worker who led in the correc tion of many abuses and the consolation of many sufferings and whose influence became so great that she was the peacemaker of the troubled time, not only between individuals but also cities and states. To her influence more than to any other single factor is due the re turn of the Popes from Avignon to Rome. In France, Jean Gerson (1363-1429), the chan cellor of the University of Paris, deeply moved his own and succeedinggenerations by his preaching and writing, the authorship of the 'Imitation of Christ' was for long at tributed to him. It was in Germany, however, that mysticism in our modern sense of the word flourished at this time. Master Eckert with John Tauler and Heinrich Seuse, his disciples, created a mode of literature that was to have its culmination in the immortal 'Imitatio Christi' by a Kempis.
Painting had a wonderful period of develop ment during the century. Cimabue at Florence and Duccio at Perugia had made great begin nings in the 13th century, and Giotto in the 14th continued their traditions and brought decorative art to one of its highest points of achievement. His pictures of the life of Saint Francis at Assisi and his decorations for the Chapel of the Arena at Padua are still the sub ject of loving study by painters, not only out of reverence for the past but particularly for the fine points of technique which they illustrate for all time. "As compositions in color and as wall decorations with certain architectural effects they have almost never been excelled. As serious and faithful efforts to realize the inner meaning and significance of the Bible stories and of the Franciscan incidents, they are quite as admirable.° (Goodyear). Giotto was one of the first to make portrait studies and he has all the qualities of a great portrait painter. He was never surpassed in solemnity and seriousness, in religious feeling and in original power. The work of his students in the Campo Santo Pisa has always attracted loving atten tion. In Pisa the sculpture of the 14th cen
tury flourished, though this had reached a cul mination in the preceding century. Giovanni Pisano directed the sculptural effects on the facade of the Cathedral of Orvieto at this time. In this earlier Renaissance, the painter was often a sculptor also, as Giotto's fine plaques for the •Campanile at Florence illustrate, and Orcagna's work on the tabernacle of the Oratory of Or San Michele. Pisan sculptors worked throughout Central Italy, and the bronze doors by Andrea of Pisa on the Florence bap tistery show how well. Architecture flourished quite as luxuriantly as painting and sculpture, though some signs of decadence are to be seen. The secular buildings of Italian Gothic of this period and especially the great town halls and civic palaces are admirable. Many of these buildings were literally town fortresses to withstand the stormy outbreaks and civic convulsions in which the overflowing vigor of these municipalities found vent, but their mas sive simplicity adds impressive dignity to their fine lines. Siena, Perugia, Florence, Piacenza contain some beautiful palaces from this time, and above all, Venice is the place to study the development of beautiful palaces of private citizens. There were fountains and other monu ments also erected which show that Italy at this time had fully reached the idea of the city beautiful. The interior decorations of these buildings were done by the best painters of the time, and they are still models of artistic taste and charm. Particularly hospitals were the subject of loving attention in this way, as is very well illustrated by the hospital built after her death in honor of Saint Catherine of Siena. It was felt that the ailing poor should have something to occupy their minds during the time while they were confined to the hos pital. The city built its public buildings for its citizens and nothing was too good for them and then had them decorated fittingly. At times, the decorations or portions of them were done by artists who had been cared for by the hospital and who wished to leave a substantial memorial of their gratitude. Instead of being deterrent, then, hospitals became some of the most attractive of municipal structures. The museum as such was unknown but the various public buildings, cathedral, town hall, hospital, took its place, and the pictures made for them were thus exhibited in a suitable environment.
The severe shock to humanity caused by the immense mortality of the Black Death and the serious disturbance of social life dee ravages made the people of the end tury incline to hysteria. It is very mei not a little of this was due to the the braver souls among men had perished and the race for a time propagated to a large extent by those r. escapee death by cowardly flight epidemic. The movement known as tb lants was in its origin probably ex: penitential impulse on the part of women who felt that the sins of ma6c brought down the awful scourge of and who hoped to allay the storm vengeance by due acknowledgment 7 inflicted punishment. After a time, be an hysterical epidemic associated rt. abuses and productive of serious evt hysterical manifestations as for irFo..t-2 Dancing Mania spread throughout Et— deeply affected the populations of a grt. countries. Hecker, the medical historx Black Death, has treated these also, and suggests that after all they I- only a certain exaggeration of reac6.it religious emotions that are common r times in history. Various curious existing are the testimony to the fact du: i nature is not changed and is still quit: of going to these excesses.