Page:How to See the Vatican, Sladen, 1914.djvu/21

 PREFACE which cost five or six guineas apiece, were written in Italian, but of the latter Mr. Heinemann has brought out a superbly illustrated translation with glorious coloured plates.

The house of Firmin-Didot et Cie have brought out, at 3 frs. 50 centimes each, two most valuable volumes containing contributions by M. Georges Goyau, M. Paul Fabre, M. Pératé, and the Vicomte Melchior de Vogüé, under the titles of La Gouvernement de l'Eglise, and La Papauté et la Civilization. The former is indispensable to anyone who wishes to form a succinct idea of the personnel of the Vatican; it is most lucidly and attractively written; and it and the Vie Intime de Pie X., by the Abbé Cigala, who is by birth a noble of Turin, are the two most interesting books on the Vatican which I have read.

The Vie Intime is even more up to date than the Gouvernement de l'Eglise; it is published by Lethielleux et Cie, who also are the publishers of M. Lector's Le Conclave.

For the information about the Vatican and St. Peter's Crypt, which form a pièce de résistance in my book, I am most indebted to the Élements d'Archeologie Chrétienne of Professor Marucchi, the Pope's archæologist, the de Rossi of the day, and the Cryptes Vaticanes of Père Dufresne, which was, until I brought out Old St. Peter's and Rh