It is from him that I received the following particulars.

He was then about 40 years of age, but his appearance was that of an older man.

He had been a painter by profession, but on taking orders changed his name from Santi to Raffaello, perhaps with an unconscious reference as well to the great Sanzio d'Urbino as to the archangel.

He assured my friend that he had been 13 years in the hermitage and had never known melancholy or ennui.
In the little recess for study and prayer, there was a small collection of books.

'I read only,' said he, 'books of asceticism and mystical theology.' On being asked the names of the most famous mystics, he enumerated _Scaramelli, San Giovanni della Croce, St.Dionysius the Areopayite_ (supposing the work which bears his name to be really his), and with peculiar emphasis _Ricardo di San Vittori_.