San Marco, Convent and Church of (Real)

San Marco, Convent and Church of (Real),The Dominican monastery of which Savonarola is Prior. "San Marco . . . the long corridors fined with cells—corridors where Fra Angelico's frescoes, delicate as the rainbow on the melting cloud, startled the unaccustomed eye here and there, as if they had been sudden reflections cast from an ethereal world, where the Madonna sat crowned in her radiant glory, and the Divine infant looked forth with perpetual promise." Romola's brother, the Dominican Fra Luca, dies at San Marco, and it is there, at his death bed, that Romola first sees Savonarola. When Bernardo del Nero is arrested Romola goes to San Marco to beg Savonarola for her godfather's life, and later Tito Melema goes to San Marco to obtain the letter by means of which he hopes to ruin Savonarola. After the proposed Trial by Fire, San Marco is attacked by the mob and Savonarola is arrested there. The famous Monastery, with the adjoining Church of San Marco, on the Piazza San Marco, was founded 1290 by the Silveetrini, and later, under Cosimo the Elder, was transferred to the Dominicans. In the fifteenth century the monastery was restored by Michelozzo and was decorated with frescoes by Fra Angelico da Fiesole. It was suppressed in 1867, and is now a museum. Several of the historical characters in Romola, including Pico delta Mirandola and Angelo Poliziano, are buried in the church.

<em>Romola</em>

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