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If the traveller follows the road which leads from Ra venna to Ferrara, he will stumble near Commachio upon the old Benedictine Abbey of Pomposa, whose second consecration took place in 1027. 1 The pavement of the three aisles is in the old Alexandrine style; and it is highly probable that the apsis and tribune, and the whole of the spaces above the arches of the nave were filled with mosaics in early times. These, however, apparently shared the fate of many others in Italy, and were repla ced by paintings, possibly on the same lines. Thus, one may still remark in the apsis a figure of the Redeemer, and on the arch of the tribune, an angel holding a scroll, with the four doctors of the church, and the four evan gelists round him. In the courses of the nave, stories from the old testament, commencing with the creation, and almost obliterated; scenes of the new testament beginning with the annunciation; — and, in the birth of the arches, illustrations of the Revelations of John. In the, tribune, incidents from the life of S. Eustace seem not to have been copies like the rest from older works; but in the wall above the chief portal, the Sa viour is represented in glory in a company of angels, — lower, as the Judge distributing blessings and curses to the elect, and the condemned beneath him. These feeble paintings may have been executed by Chegus (Cecco or Francesco) of Florence whose name was found in the records of the Abbey by Federici, and who la boured at Pomposa in 1316- 2 Contiguous to the Abbey is the chapterhouse of Pomposa now the property of Count Guiccioli, 3 in which numerous frescos are still preserved. On one of the -walls of the old refectory three large and fairly composed subjects remain. In the central one whose figures are all marked by dignity, fair proportion, and natu- 1 As is proved by an inscription * For whose kindness and cour- in the body of the building. tesy public thanks must here be * Rerum Pomposiensium by Pla- tendered, cido Federici fol. 1781. p. 279.