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The hills descend in melancholy earth-heaps on the plain, crowned here and there with ruined castles. Four of these mediaeval strongholds, called Bianello, Montevetro, Monteluzzo, and Montezano, give the name of Quattro Castelli to the commune.

The dictionaries offer small help to the student as to the doings of this erratic painter. He was born October 24, 1824. He died June 29, 1886. He was of mixed blood, Italian and French. His father was a gauger, though Adolphe declared that he was an authentic descendant of the Crusader, Godefroy Monticelli, who married in 1100 Aurea Castelli, daughter of the Duca of Spoleto.

The Grand Duke commanded his ambassador to see Castelli on the subject to urge him to obtain leave from the Pope to spend a few months in Florence and to supply him with money and every thing that was necessary for his journey. Influenced by this kind and liberal message, Castelli obtained an audience of the Pope, and requested leave to pay a visit to Florence.

The only place of importance passed is Rovigno, though the Canal di Leme, an arm of the sea 7-½ miles long, from 70 to 100 ft. deep, and some 500 yds. broad, which affords accommodation for much more shipping than ever makes use of it, leads up towards Due Castelli, now ruinous, but at one time a thriving and important town.

Vale civitas, valete castelli parvi; relicti estis propter aquam et non per vim inimicorum! Oh! the donkey 'Castelli parvi!" "What does it mean?" asked the Beggar. "Farewell, Leyden, farewell, ye little 'Castelli; ye are abandoned on account of the waves, and not of the power of the enemy. 'Parvi Castelli! I must tell mother that!"

Urban instantly suspected the object of his journey; and, upon Castelli's acknowledging that he could not possibly refrain from seeing Galileo, he received permission to visit him in the company of an officer of the Inquisition. Castelli accordingly went to Florence, and, a few months afterwards, Galileo was ordered to return to Arcetri.

John Baptist, for instance, and women and slaves. Still, Genoa had no peace, for we find her making a stout and successful defence shortly after against Frederic I, the whole city, men, women, and children, on his approach from Lombardy, building a great wall about the city in fifty-three days, of which feat Porta S. Andrea remains the monument. Then followed that pestilence of Guelph and Ghibelline; out of which rose the names of the great families, robbers, oppressors, tyrants, Avvocato, Spinola, Doria, the Ghibellines, with the Guelphs, Castelli, Fieschi, Grimaldi. Nor was Genoa free of them till the great Admiral Andrea Doria crushed them for ever. Yet peace of a sort there was, now and again, in 1189 for instance, when Saladin won back Jerusalem, and the Guelph nobles volunteered in a body to serve against him, leaving Genoa to the Ghibellines, who established the foreign Podest

The church is said to contain the bodies of SS. Victor and Corona, taken from Due Castelli during the war of Chioggia. The "Chronicle" relates that a Genoese squadron was in the Canal di Leme, and the people of S. Lorenzo sent a deputation suggesting co-operation in an attack on Due Castelli, between which town and itself there were rivalry and hatred.

Beneimbene records none of his personal experiences, but his protocol-book is still preserved in the archives of the notary of the Capitol. Adriano Castelli of Corneto, a highly cultivated humanist, and privy-secretary to Alexander, who subsequently made him a cardinal, was very close to the Borgias. As the Pope's secretary he must have frequently come in contact with Lucretia.

In this state of warlike preparation Galileo addressed a letter, in 1613, to his friend and pupil, the Abbé Castelli, the object of which was to prove that the Scriptures were not intended to teach us science and philosophy.