Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Even Carmen Sandiego did not try to steal Jesus' tomb

These guys are totally awesome in a Carmen Sandiego type way.  They tried to steal Jesus's tomb.
The Medicean Chapel at the back of the choir was intended by its founder, Ferdinand I., for the reception of the Holy Sepulchre, the intention being to steal the latter from Jerusalem. In 1603 there arrived at Florence a mysterious personage from the East, styling himself Emir of the Druses. This emir revealed the fact that he was a descendant of the pious " Goffredo," and as such entertained an hereditary hatred against the Turks, and offered his aid to the Grand-Duke [Cosmino II] to enable him to acquire or to steal the most revered relic of Christendom. When, in 1604, the emir returned to Jerusalem, a small fleet of galleys was dispatched to (he coast of Syria, and the emir and his confederates actually found means to enter the church, and begin their operations for detaching the sepulchre. They were, however, surprised by the malice of the Greeks and compelled to take flight, leaving their saws, and the marks already made, behind them.

Cosmino II converted the building [Medicean Chapel] into the cemetery of the grand ducal family. The walls are entirely covered with the richest marbles and pietre dure, jasper, chalcedony, agate, lapis lazuli, and still more precious stones. The armorial bearings of the principal cities of Tuscany, incorporated in the dominions of the Medici, ranging round the chapel are examples of the richness of Florentine mosaic I was much struck by red Giglio on shield of Florence. The Medicean cenotaphs are, in splendor of material, in accordance with the mausoleum which incloses them.[1]

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