I went to class as usual Monday morning and needed to wear a mask at times as I was still coughing.

After class, I went to the Refettorio vecchio di Santo Spirito (the old refectory of Santo Spirito). It is all that remains of the church that was on the current site but destroyed in 1471 to make way for the Brunelleschi designed church that now stands. Inside is the second oldest still extant cenacolo (Last Supper) in Florence. I say extant but the fresco has more missing area than remaining.

The Crucifixion is mostly intact, but the Cenacolo below has only two people at a table on the right side of the fresco and a portion of a head on the left, so 10 people are totally gone.

It was painted by Andrea di Cione, usually referred to as l’Orcagna, around 1360-1366. He was a follower, possible student, of Giotto.

The refectory also houses the collection of Salvatore Romano, donated to Florence in 1946. There’s not much information about the stuff—sometimes where it came from and who carved or painted the object. The two things that interested me were fragments of reliefs attributed to Donatello. One has not much to look at.

It looks like it went with the other fragment which is supposedly San Prosdocimo, the first bishop of Padua, identified because he often is shown carrying a ewer.

It is dated circa 1450 with no additional information. The face on the relatively low relief is interesting.

In the afternoon we had a lecture on modern and current Italian politics. I have no good photos.

One of the Americans took umbrage at the explanation that Italy chose not to structure their constitution on the American constitution because the Italians thought the American structure would permit a legitimately elected leader to become a dictator, which is what happened with Mussolini.