How
often since that time, down to the days of Gibbon and Niebuhr, have the
same ruins stirred men's minds to the same reflections!
This double current of feeling is also recognizable in the 'Dittamondo'
of Fazio degli Uberti, composed about the year 1360--a description of
visionary travels, in which the author is accompanied by the old
geographer Solinus, as Dante was by Virgil. They visit Bari in memory
of St. Nicholas, and Monte Gargano of the archangel Michael, and in
Rome the legends of Aracoeli and of Santa Maria in Trastevere are
mentioned. Still, the pagan splendor of ancient Rome unmistakably
exercises a greater charm upon them. A venerable matron in torn
garments--Rome herself is meant--tells them of the glorious past, and
gives them a minute description of the old triumphs; she then leads the
strangers through the city, and points out to them the seven hills and
many of the chief ruins--'che comprender potrai, quanto fui bella.'
Unfortunately this Rome of the schismatic and Avignonese popes was no
longer, in respect of classical remains, what it had been some
generations earlier. The destruction of 140 fortified houses of the
Roman nobles by the senator Brancaleone in 1257 must have wholly
altered the character of the most important buildings then standing:
for the nobles had no doubt ensconced themselves in the loftiest and
best-preserved of the ruins.
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