Through the Casentino with Hints for the Traveller by Lina Eckenstein

Author:Lina Eckenstein [Eckenstein, Lina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel, General, Nonfiction
ISBN: 4064066123277
Google: 2sLHDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Good Press
Published: 2019-12-23T05:00:00+00:00

[Image unavailable.] COURTYARD OF CAMALDOLI

ancient courtyard. We wandered into the roomy church. One of the old monks had died that afternoon, and prayers were being offered for his salvation. We met the bier as it was carried out from the church.

Like other monasteries, Camaldoli has experienced many vicissitudes in times of war and in times of peace. Throughout the Middle Ages it remained a famous goal for pilgrimages, and its woodland air and mountain freshness made it a favourite health resort. The converts to the order were at first devoted to outdoor pursuits—the hermits in their little gardens tended plants that were used for making drugs, and the monks were devoted to the culture of the forests. Later, they contracted a taste for learning, and a famous library was collected, chiefly by Ambrogio Traversari, who took an important place in the early Italian Renaissance. Of this intellectual life no trace remains. The books were scattered at the beginning of this century. Some are at Poppi, others are at Florence, and the love of letters is dead. But with the older achievements time has dealt more sparingly. A pharmacy still makes part of the settlement, and the surrounding forest retains the fame of being one of the finest in Europe. When the Government appropriated Camaldoli, the traditions of the monks regarding the cultivation of the trees were carried on, and Vallombrosa, the monastery on the further side of the Pratomagno, was turned into a school of forestry. All the forests throughout the district were placed under its care, and thus the great fir trees, the abete of Camaldoli, its chestnut groves, and its beech and oak forests have preserved some of their old grandeur.

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