The Story of Assisi

Quiet streets and a religious procession introduce Assisi as a town whose present life carries traces of a troubled past. Lina Duff Gordon combines local history with an account of its churches, monuments and art. She considers the legends of the city's foundation, then turns to St. Francis, St. Clare and the places associated with them. Chapters on San Francesco examine its construction and the paintings of Cimabue, Giotto and the Sienese masters.

The attention to individual buildings gives the history a physical setting. In the account of St. Francis's tomb, Gordon describes the search beneath the high altar, the discovery in 1818 and the chapel built around it. Her observation of an early morning service adds candlelight, stone walls and the gestures of worshippers to the historical narrative. Readers interested in Italian towns, religious art or Franciscan history can follow how civic memory, architecture and daily devotion meet in one place.