We now turn to the right hand, and in an eminent part of the city are brought to the Emperor’s palace, old and irregular in outward appearance, but within its precincts is the old cathedral church, an handsome Gothic building of the year 923, as appears by an inscription on the chief altar. The stateliness of the old architecture, with the richness as well as beauty of the modern ornaments, make it a venerable pile. They have here a picture of the _Virgin_, which is pretended to be of _St. Luke’s_ hand. At the gate entering into this palace there is another in sight, which is the residence of the Archbishop. From the cathedral we are carried to the _Capuchin_ cloister, which consists of a small but most beautiful quadrangle. Round the four sides, under a fair portico, are painted thirty different copies of so many of the most eminent and miraculous images of the _Virgin_, each in the proper garb, posture, and colours of the originals; and the remaining space of the wall beneath is filled with votive tables, in acknowledgement of favours received from each picture. I thought this collection observable, in that it is an apparent instance of the different representations of the _B. Virgin_, who is not invoked under the same character in all places, and on all occasions; but according to the fancy of the first painters, and the superstition of the late devotees, is split into so many distinct objects of worship; as the Lady _de Victoria_, _de Litera_, _de Consilio_, _Crysostomiana_, _Cyrilliana_, _Bernardina_, _Lauretana_, _Eremitana_, _Cellensis_, _Passaviensis_, _Wranoviensis_, _Hallensis_. As this shews how polytheism crept in among the heathen, who first of all worshiped God under so many distinct attributes, and afterwards as so many distinct beings; so it argues greater superstition in the church of Rome: for instead of the several characters of _Venus_, as _Cypria_, _Cytherea_, _Victrix_, and others; or of _Diana_, as _Aricinia_, _Leucophryne_, _Taurica_[139]; we have many more of _Sta. Maria_. In the middle of this quadrangle is an handsome imitation of the chapel of _Loretto_ with the _Virgin_ and our _Savior_ above the altar in the complection of _Moors_; and on the outside walls are various religious stories elegantly represented.