Les Delices de l’Italie. Vol. III

1706

de Beer Lb 1706 R

[Leiden]: Pierre Vander Aa

Brother Bonvesin de la Riva (d. circa 1313) describes 13th century Milano or Milan in his The Marvels of Milan. He wrote that among other things Milan had ‘six monasteries, eight nunneries, ninety-four chapels...120 lawyers…twenty-eight doctors…eighty farriers…[and] 440 butchers’ (Dickie, 2007). The Jesuit church San Fedele, built in the 16th century, still stands in the centre of the city today. Milano-born poet and novelist, Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873), worshipped there regularly. Sadly on the 6th of January 1873, he fell while exiting the church, hit his head and died five months later. Manzoni’s death certificate is held in the atrium of the church and a statue of him now stands in the square outside.