In the light of what we have seen I think it must appear that the claims which have been advanced for the architecture of the Renaissance as the only architecture of correct principles since that of classic antiquity, and as an architecture in comparison with which the Gothic art of the Middle Ages should be considered as the barbarous product of an unenlightened age, are without justification. The mistaken notions of the Italian writers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (labouring under strange misapprehension of the principles of classic art on the one hand, and ignorance of the true Gothic on the other) have been too much inculcated in our own time; and the belief that classic art offers suitable models for modern uses, and that the architecture of the Renaissance embodies classic principles, has been accepted with too little examination of its grounds. A few of the most competent modern authors, while in the main disposed, by force of custom, to take a favourable view of the architecture of the Renaissance, have occasionally shown a juster sense of its real character. Thus the recent Italian writer Melani says:[182] “We always admire the beautiful productions of the art of the Renaissance, because we are accustomed to value the good wherever it is found; but when we think of the absurdity of this art, and still worse, of the consequences to which it has given rise, we cannot but deplore so much ill-directed energy.” APPENDIX CONDITION OF THE DOME OF ST. PETER’S The mathematicians, after describing the dome and its supports, make the following statement of the condition in which they found it:[183]-- * * * * * 1. La base esteriore A del tamburo si vede piena di spaccature, molte delle quali corrono unite in sù per tutto il tamburo medesimo, e per tutto l’attico, fino a nascondersi in _nd_ sotto i piombi non ancora scoperti. Da dette spaccature si diramano continui peli, che infrangono una quantità grandissima di travertini. 2. Esse spaccature al fondo son piccolissime, e in sù van sempre crescendo. Piegano dagli arconi in giù verso i piloni. 3. Nel Corridore CB, che gira dentro tutta la base si vedono sul muro esteriore BE molte aperture, che parimente venendo in giù piegano verso i piloni. 4. Nello stesso muro esteriore pure dentro il corridore si vedono raddoppiate aperture orizontali verso il fondo B, che nell’alzarsi il pavimento sopra gli arconi, si seppelliscono sotto al medesimo, vedendosi ivi più che altrove lo stesso pavimento separato dal muro esteriore; qual disunione è generale per tutto il corridore.