rs in honour of her Highness, with the
most excellent Duke of Bavaria, the younger, her kinsman, there were
seen under the above-described lunettes, beautifully distributed in
compartments and depicted with all the appearance of reality, many of
the principal cities of Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, the Tyrol, and the
other States subject to her august brother.

OF THE HALL, AND OF THE COMEDY.

Now, ascending by the most commodious staircase to the Great Hall, where
the principal and most important festivities and the principal banquet
of the nuptials were celebrated (forbearing to speak of the magnificent
and stupendous ceiling, marvellous in the variety and multitude of the
rare historical paintings, and marvellous also in the ingenuity of the
inventions, in the richness of the partitions, and in the infinite
quantity of gold with which the whole is seen to shine, but most
marvellous in that it has been executed in an incredibly short time by
the industry of a single painter; and treating of the other things
pertaining only to this place), I must say that truly I do not believe
that in these our parts we have any information of any other hall that
is larger or more lofty; but to find one more beautiful, more rich, more
ornate, or arranged with more convenience than that hall as it was seen
on the day when the comedy was performed, that I believe would be
absolutely impossible. For, in addition to the immense walls, on which
with graceful partitions, and not without poetical invention, were seen
portrayed from the reality the principal squares of the most noble
cities of Tuscany, and in addition to the vast and most lovely canvas
painted with various animals hunted and taken in various ways, which,
upheld by a great cornice, and concealing the prospect-scene, served so
well as one of the end-walls, that the Great Hall appeared to have its
due proportions, such, in addition, and so well arranged, were the tiers
of seats that ran right round, and so lovely on that day the sight of
the handsome ladies who had been invited there in great numbers from
among the most beautiful, the most noble, and the richest, and of the
many lords, chevaliers, and other gentlemen who had been accommodated
above them and throughout the rest of the room, that without a doubt,
when the fantastic lights were lit, at the fall of the canvas described
above, the luminous prospect-scene being revealed, it appeared in truth
as if Paradise with all th