'Camaldoli.'
<BR><BR>
        This famous sanctuary was the original establishment of Saint 
      Romualdo, (or Rumwald, as our ancestors Saxonised the name) in the 
      11th century, the ground (campo) being given by Count Maldo. The 
      Camaldolensi, however, have spread wide as a branch of 
      Benedictines, and may therefore be classed among the 'gentlemen' 
      of the monastic orders. The society comprehends two orders, monks 
      and hermits; symbolised by their arms, two doves drinking out of 
      the same cup. The monastery in which the monks here reside is 
      beautifully situated, but a large unattractive edifice, not unlike 
      a factory. The hermitage is placed in a loftier and wider region 
      of the forest. It comprehends between twenty and thirty distinct 
      residences, each including for its single hermit an inclosed piece 
      of ground and three very small apartments. There are days of 
      indulgence when the hermit may quit his cell, and when old age 
      arrives he descends from the mountain and takes his abode among 
      the monks.
<BR><BR>
        My companion had in the year 1831 fallen in with the monk, the 
      subject of these two sonnets, who showed him his abode among the 
      hermits. It is from him that I received the following particulars. 
      He was then about forty years of age, but his appearance was that 
      of an older man. He had been a painter by profession, but on 
      taking orders changed his name from Santi to Raffaello, perhaps 
      with an unconscious reference as well to the great Sanzio d'Urbino 
      as to the archangel. He assured my friend that he had been 
      thirteen years in the hermitage and had never known melancholy or 
      ennui. In the little recess for study and prayer, there was a 
      small collection of books. "I read only," said he, "books of 
      asceticism and mystical theology." On being asked the names of the 
      most famous mystics, he enumerated 'Scaramelli, San Giovanni della 
      Croce, St. Dionysius the Areopagite' (supposing the work which 
      bears his name to be really his), and with peculiar emphasis 
      'Ricardo di San Vittori'. The works of 'Saint Theresa' are also in 
      high repute among ascetics. These names may interest some of my 
      readers.
<BR><BR>
        We heard that Raffaello was then living in the convent; my 
      friend sought in vain to renew his acquaintance with him. It was 
      probably a day of seclusion. The reader will perceive that these 
      sonnets were supposed to be written when he was a young man.