La Verna remains undisturbed, that "harsh rock between Tiber and Arno," as Dante calls it, where Francis "received from Christ the final seal;" the sacred mountain from which, on that September morning before the dawn, so bright a light of Divine Love shone forth to rekindle the mediæval world, that all the country seemed aflame, as the crucified Seraph uttered the words of mystery--_Tu sei il mio Gonfaloniere_: "Thou art my standard-bearer." To enter the precincts of this sacred place, under the arch hewn out from between the rocks, is like a first introduction to the spirit of the _Divina Commedia_. "Non est in toto sanctior orbe mons." For here, at least, is one spot left in the world, where, although Renaissance and Reformation, Revolution and Risorgimento, have swept round it, the Middle Ages still reign a living reality, in their noblest aspect, with the _poverelli_ of the Seraphic Father; and the mystical light, that shone out on the day of the Stigmata, still burns: "while the eternal ages watch and wait." [Illustration: FLORENCE] TABLE OF THE MEDICI GIOVANNI DI AVERARDO (GIOVANNI BICCI) 1360-1429, m. Piccarda Bueri. ____________|______________________(continued below) COSIMO (Pater Patriae), 1389-1464, m. Contessina dei Bardi. _____________________________|________________ | | | PIERO (il Gottoso) GIOVANNI, CARLO, 1416-1469, 1424-1463, (illegitimate), m. Lucrezia Tornabuoni. m. Ginevra degli d. 1492. Alessandri. ___|______________________________________________ | | | | LORENZO, GIULIANO, BIANCA, NANNINA, (the Magnificent), 1453-1478. m. Guglielmo m. Bernardo 1449-1492, | dei Pazzi. Rucellai. m. Clarice Orsini. | | GIULIO (illegitimate), | d. 1534, | (Pope Clement VII.) __|_____________________________________________________________ | | | | | PIERO, GIOVANNI, GIULIANO, LUCREZIA, MADDALENA, 1471-1503, 1475-1521, (Duke of Nemours), m. Giacomo m. Franceschetto m. Alfonsina (Pope Leo X.) 1479-1516, Salviati. Cibo. Orsini. m. Filiberta of | | Savoy. | ___|________________ | __|_____________ | | | | | LORENZO, CLARICE, IPPOLITO,[58] MARIA, FRANCESCA, (titular Duke m. Filippo (Illegitimate), m. Giovanni m. Ottaviano of Urbino), Strozzi 1511-1535, delle Bande dei Medici.