DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7186#0089
Plates 29 to 33,
THE CERTOSA AND CONVENT OF PA VIA.
1 English feet.
I Mitre.
IVE miles from Pavia, opposite the village of Torre del Mangano, on
the 8th September, 1396, Galeazzo Visconti, duke of Milan and
lord of Pavia, laid the first stone of the famous Ccrtosa of Pavia.
Three years later the convent was tenanted by twenty-six Carthusian monks, to
whom the duke assigned as endowment various neighbouring farms, which pro-
duced a considerable income ; charging this, however, with a fixed annual sum
devoted to carrying on the unfinished building.
It is not our purpose to give a description of this magnificent monument,
which the historian Guicciardini calls ' perhaps the finest monastery beyond all
others nor of the abundant art treasures which it contains : these have already
been repeatedly described.1 We will confine ourselves to those portions of the
cloister which are embellished by terra-cottas.
We think we are correct in stating that the architects who took part in
erecting the Certosa of Pavia belonged to that body of artists who pro-
fessed modern freemasonry, and which considered the individual artistic intel-
ligence of each member as the common stock of all. From this society
proceeded technical knowledge, the fruit of long practice in the art of con-
1 See also L. Gruner's text to his ' Fresco-Decorations' the history of this magnificent convent is given,
(part ii. p. 49 fl.), where all that is worth knowing of
* N 2
Scale
of
Plate 32. j ( '° *° 3° 4° 5°
THE CERTOSA AND CONVENT OF PA VIA.
1 English feet.
I Mitre.
IVE miles from Pavia, opposite the village of Torre del Mangano, on
the 8th September, 1396, Galeazzo Visconti, duke of Milan and
lord of Pavia, laid the first stone of the famous Ccrtosa of Pavia.
Three years later the convent was tenanted by twenty-six Carthusian monks, to
whom the duke assigned as endowment various neighbouring farms, which pro-
duced a considerable income ; charging this, however, with a fixed annual sum
devoted to carrying on the unfinished building.
It is not our purpose to give a description of this magnificent monument,
which the historian Guicciardini calls ' perhaps the finest monastery beyond all
others nor of the abundant art treasures which it contains : these have already
been repeatedly described.1 We will confine ourselves to those portions of the
cloister which are embellished by terra-cottas.
We think we are correct in stating that the architects who took part in
erecting the Certosa of Pavia belonged to that body of artists who pro-
fessed modern freemasonry, and which considered the individual artistic intel-
ligence of each member as the common stock of all. From this society
proceeded technical knowledge, the fruit of long practice in the art of con-
1 See also L. Gruner's text to his ' Fresco-Decorations' the history of this magnificent convent is given,
(part ii. p. 49 fl.), where all that is worth knowing of
* N 2
Scale
of
Plate 32. j ( '° *° 3° 4° 5°