{"product_id":"2940013161306","title":"CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE","description":"Towards the end of the fifteenth century--that is to say, at the epoch\u003cbr\u003ewhen our history opens the Piazza of St. Peter's at Rome was far from\u003cbr\u003epresenting so noble an aspect as that which is offered in our own day to\u003cbr\u003eanyone who approaches it by the Piazza dei Rusticucci.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn fact, the Basilica of Constantine existed no longer, while that of\u003cbr\u003eMichael Angelo, the masterpiece of thirty popes, which cost the labour of\u003cbr\u003ethree centuries and the expense of two hundred and sixty millions,\u003cbr\u003eexisted not yet.  The ancient edifice, which had lasted for eleven\u003cbr\u003ehundred and forty-five years, had been threatening to fall in about 1440,\u003cbr\u003eand Nicholas V, artistic forerunner of Julius II and Leo X, had had it\u003cbr\u003epulled down, together with the temple of Probus Anicius which adjoined\u003cbr\u003eit.  In their place he had had the foundations of a new temple laid by\u003cbr\u003ethe architects Rossellini and Battista Alberti; but some years later,\u003cbr\u003eafter the death of Nicholas V, Paul II, the Venetian, had not been able\u003cbr\u003eto give more than five thousand crowns to continue the project of his\u003cbr\u003epredecessor, and thus the building was arrested when it had scarcely\u003cbr\u003erisen above the ground, and presented the appearance of a still-born\u003cbr\u003eedifice, even sadder than that of a ruin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs to the piazza itself, it had not yet, as the reader will understand\u003cbr\u003efrom the foregoing explanation, either the fine colonnade of Bernini, or\u003cbr\u003ethe dancing fountains, or that Egyptian obelisk which, according to\u003cbr\u003ePliny, was set up by the Pharaoh at Heliopolis, and transferred to Rome\u003cbr\u003eby Caligula, who set it up in Nero's Circus, where it remained till 1586.\u003cbr\u003eNow, as Nero's Circus was situate on the very ground where St.  Peter's\u003cbr\u003enow stands, and the base of this obelisk covered the actual site where\u003cbr\u003ethe vestry now is, it looked like a gigantic needle shooting up from the\u003cbr\u003emiddle of truncated columns, walls of unequal height, and half-carved\u003cbr\u003estones.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079209763056,"sku":"2940013161306","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013161306_p0.jpg?v=1763577690","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013161306","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}