to a German carver, but executed for the most part in the purest Luinesque manner.  The pose of the enthroned Madonna, the type and gesture of S. Catherine, and the treatment of the Pieta above, are thoroughly Lombard, showing how Luini’s ideal of beauty could be expressed in carving.  Some of the choicest figures in the Monastero Maggiore at Milan seem to have descended from the walls and stepped into their tabernacles on this altar.  Yet the style is not maintained consistently.  In the reliefs illustrating the life of S. Abondio we miss Luini’s childlike grace, and find instead a something that reminds us of Donatello—­a seeking after the classical in dress, carriage, and grouping of accessory figures.  It may have been that the carver, recognising Luini’s defective composition, and finding nothing in that master’s manner adapted to the spirit of relief, had the good taste to render what was Luinesquely lovely in his female figures, and to fall back on a severer model for his basreliefs.

The building-fund for the Duomo was raised in Como and its districts.  Boxes were placed in all the churches to receive the alms of those who wished to aid the work.  The clergy begged in Lent, and preached the duty of contributing on special days.  Presents of lime and bricks and other materials were thankfully received.  Bishops, canons, and municipal magistrates were expected to make costly gifts on taking office.  Notaries, under penalty of paying 100 soldi if they neglected their engagement, were obliged to persuade testators, cum bonis modis dulciter, to inscribe the Duomo on their wills.  Fines for various offences were voted to the building by the city.  Each new burgher paid a certain sum; while guilds and farmers of the taxes bought monopolies and privileges at the price of yearly subsidies.  A lottery was finally established for the benefit of the fabric.  Of course each payment to the good work carried with it spiritual privileges; and so willingly did the people respond to the call of the Church, that during the sixteenth century the sums subscribed amounted to 200,000 golden crowns.  Among the most munificent donators are mentioned the Marchese Giacomo Gallio, who bequeathed 290,000 lire, and a Benzi, who gave 10,000 ducats.

While the people of Como were thus straining every nerve to complete a pious work, which at the same time is one of the most perfect masterpieces of Italian art, their lovely lake was turned into a pirate’s stronghold, and its green waves stained with slaughter of conflicting navies.  So curious is this episode in the history of the Larian lake that it is worth while to treat of it at some length.  Moreover, the lives of few captains of adventure offer matter more rich in picturesque details and more illustrative of their times than that of Gian Giacomo de’ Medici, the Larian corsair, long known and still remembered as Il Medeghino.  He was born in Milan in 1498, at the beginning of that darkest and most disastrous