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Show Varied History of Italy s Oldest Abbey Grottaferrata Built One Thousand Years Ago Some Parts of the Walls of the Earliest Buildings Still Standing The Comparatively Modern Portions. (Special Correspondence.) T is Edmond About ,$v that relates a strange USfn- story 0' Napoleon the ""Vif'i Cr treat's feeling for an-Vp! an-Vp! cient descent. Napo- m iif 'fejsf leon questioned a mem-es$-yfi-i Der the Massimo ifyHf family of Rome, and J-'i& with that brurque man- ner which was more or less habitual with the conqueror of many nations, he asked: "Is it true that you are descended from Fabius Abbey of Grottaferrata was founded, and now, at the close of its ninth centenary cen-tenary of existence, a commemoration of its founding is about to be observed. It is not to be expected that much of the original building should now remain, re-main, but the bell tower, or campanile, and some of the walls go back to that date. After so many centuries the abbey proper still endures, and the Greek rite is celebrated within its walls. The library, opening from the grand clois- HfU' - Aft i " ''" , ' i ; ' '. ., ' V : . . .. -:.;' ; -: ' . . ' ' V ' '. ' - ,' . :, i L ...a,, .,i,i,i.,r f.rt, v--,a,.,..1,,,i,M,,iw,.w,.-v;.,....,. ,i. y, i The First Chapel. Maximus?" "I cannot prove it," replied re-plied the noble Roman, "but it is a tradition tra-dition in our family for more than a thousand years." The Abbey of Grottaferrata has not quite so antique a descent, but it comes pretty near the thousand. It is the most ancient abbey in Italy, and is now about to celebrate the ninth centennial of its foundation. A strange and varied history has been lived and written since that fortresslike fortress-like refuge of Greek monks first arose ter, where the capitals of the columns show the shield of Cardinal della Ro-vere, Ro-vere, afterward Pope Julius II., possesses pos-sesses many treasures of ancient Greek manuscripts, although many of these have been removed to the Bar-berini Bar-berini and the Vatican libraries. Now the Abbot Pellegrini is about to celebrate this ninth centenary of the foundation of the abbey by holding an exhibition in it of the works of art it possesses, and of other works belonging be-longing to the Italo-Byzantine period. I J r- w 4 $ I ' - v - .if U y 4 Ruins of Early Abbey. amidst the hills that slope up from the broad Campagna to the heights of Tus-culum. Tus-culum. In the early years of the eleventh century that is, in the year 1004 the The place itself 13 an exhibition, and will bring scholars and students and travelers within its wails, for it presents pre-sents a survival of a past that is full of matter of thought to inquirers. |
