Thomas Ashby

“ Two magnificent marble ambones, the larger dating from 1175, a large 11th-century altar frontal in the south aisle, having scenes from the Bible carved on thirty ivory tablets, with 13th-century mosaics in the apse, given by Giovanni da Procida, the promoter of the Sicilian Vespers, and the tomb of Pope Gregory VII., and that of Queen Margaret of Durazzo, mother of King Ladislaus, erected in 1412, deserve to be mentioned. In the crypt is a bronze statue of St Matthew. The cathedral possesses a fine Exultet roll. ”

“ S. Domenico near it has Norman cloisters, and several of the other churches contain paintings by Andrea Sabbatini da Salerno, one of the best of Raphael’s scholars. A fine port constructed by Giovanni da Procida in 1260 was destroyed when Naples became the capital of the kingdom, and remained blocked with sand, till after the unification of Italy, when it was cleared; but it is now unimportant. The chief industries are silk and cotton-spinning and printing. Good wine is produced in the neighbourhood. ”