Every so often, if you have a lot of books, it is a good idea to get rid of some (if only to free up space for more books). Of course figuring out which books should go isn't always an easy process. So when my dad thought he'd go through some of our books and started making a To The Used Bookstore pile, I knew I'd need to hop in and save a few things. (He's done this before and more than 50% of the books he was ready to get rid of were ones that belonged to me or my mom - and we're both big on rereading. Needless to say there was a big "wait, what are you doing" conversation.)

A Traveller in Italy (1964) wasn't a book I'd have thought he'd put in that pile though. It's hardback, nicely bound, and belonged to a great aunt of mine who I'm still fond of remembering. She always had interesting taste in books and I still enjoy a lot of her choices. She'd underlined text on some of the pages - but not all the way through, making me think she set it aside to finish later (I can relate).

After I read the following quotes I knew I was going to keep this book:

p 16, part of a discussion on the people of Milan and what they wear:

"...surely the disappearance of the hat is one of the most curious social changes of our time. I can remember a more conventional age when a bare-headed person was stared at in the streets and laughed at by rude boys. Whether the hatlessness of the world, for all countries are now alike in their bare-headed crowds, is the successful work of the No Hat Brigade, which operated before the First World War, or whether it is due to other and more complex forms of emancipation, I don't know, but hatlessness is now so general that the ancient trade of hatter will someday surely become extinct."

p. 22-3, in the Ambrosian Basilica, Milan - reliquary of the crypt

"...As I stood shivering, I noticed a glimmer of light under the high altar. I walked towards it and, descending a flight of steps, entered a crypt where a number of old women dressed in black were waiting for early Mass to begin. They looked like a secret society or a gathering of primitive Christians. The verger hurried down with a bunch of keys. He unlocked the altar-piece in four places, and with four different keys, and this was then revealed as four painted steel panels which he cranked down into slots or grooves. As he did so, he revealed the object they had concealed and protected. As this came into view, the old women fell upon their knees and crossed themselves, for they were in the presence of one of the world's most awesome survivals.

All I could see at first was a sheet of plate-glass, but when the verger switched on the lights a gruesome and extraordinary sight sprang into view. Three clothed skeletons were lying side by side upon a bed, or bier, within a crystal shrine, the central skeleton resting upon a higher level than those on its right and left. This was my first sight of the bones of S. Ambrose, whose remains have been preserved in the basilica since his death in Mediolanum in AD 397. An antique mitre rested upon the saint's skull, upon the finger-bones were red episcopal gloves, upon the skeleton feet were golden slippers, and in the crook of the arm-bones lay a crozier. The skeletons on each side are those of the martyrs, S. Gervasius and S. Protasius, of whom little is known except that they were Roman soldiers said to have died for their faith long before the time even of S. Ambrose. Ambrose, who was a law unto himself, exhumed these martyrs and placed their bones in his basilica at a time when the Latin Church forbade the removal of saintly bones. This was, therefore, the first translation of relics into a Western Church, for the custom did not become general until after the desecration of the Catacombs many centuries later."

When I went to Italy back in the 1980s I saw multiple saints bodies in various churches. And while the idea of a skeleton in a church was new to me, I got used to it, and then it really interested me. Mainly because I like the idea of remembering the dead - I think in the current century we're a bit too into hustling the dead quickly out of sight and then ignoring cemeteries, for all sorts of reasons. Also I'm frankly interested in how such artifacts hold up through time. Some of these skeletons are very elaborately dressed, and finding out when the textiles were made and on what occasions the body would/could be redressed is fascinating. Well, to me anyway.

Of course, I immediately wanted to see what this crypt looked like (I can NOT resist googling this sort of thing). I didn't manage to find any images of the unlocking/opening of the altar, but I did find some of Ambrose and the martyrs.

Saint Ambrose - on that wikipedia page if you scroll down you'll see a small image of the skeleton/reliquary. If you want a much larger image (includes the martyrs), here you go.

Interior and Exterior of the Basilica - scroll down past the Milan Cathedral images.

Altar of St Ambrose - I'm not at all sure if this is the same altar mentioned in the quote, but it's the most famous and often mentioned due to the artwork. Lots of details of all sides of the altar at that link.

If you've read much of my blogging you'll quickly know that the whole question of whether this is the altar that opens, and how it works (I'd love to see the mechanics of it), immediately fascinated me. Yes, I've resisted falling into hours of googling - barely.

Anyway after those quotes I decided I was definitely hanging onto the book - I liked the author's style of writing and choices of history that he shared. I also noted that the author had written several books on London and the UK, which sounded like ones I should track down too. And then I read his wikipedia page.

(I'm about to post more quotes. Short version: author has problematic beliefs about race, etc. Also warning: references to child abuse, and Marion Zimmer Bradley. No details, just links.)