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ITALY:

REMARKS MADE IN SEVERAL VISITS

THE TEAR 1816 to 1854.

RIGHT HON. LORD BROUGHTON, G.C.B.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
Vol. I.

LONDON:
JOHN MUEEAY, ALBEMAELE STEEET.
1859.
The right of Translation it reserved.

LOKDON : PRINTBD ET W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,
AND CHAAING CROSS.

PREFACE.
I PUBLISH these little volumes with much hesitation.
They treat, for the most part, of times long past, and
refer to a country now made accessible by a few hours'
joumey and familiar to us by every mode of illustration.
It is more than a hundred years ago that Johnson,
reviewing a work called 'Memoirs of the Court of
Augustus,' said of it, — the " book relates to a people who
" above all others have famished employment to the
" studious and amusement to the idle ; who have
" scarcely left behind them a coin or a stone which has
" not been examined and explained a thousand times ;
" and whose dress and food and household stuff it has
" been the pride of leaming to understand." This
remark must apply, in part, to any work that treats
either of Rome, or Italy under its Roman masters ; and
if it was true in 1756, with how much greater force must
it apply to a book published after an interval during
which archseological studies, and particularly those
which relate to Rome, have made greater progress than
at any former period ! a 2

iv PEEFACE.
I should not, iadeed, have ventured upon such a
publication but for the following circumstance.
When I rejoined Lord Byron at La Mira, on the
banks of the Brenta, in the summer of 1817, 1 found
bim employed upon the fourth canto of ' Clulde Harold,'
and, later in the autumn, he showed me the first sketch
of the poem. It was much shorter than it afterwards
became, and it did not remark on several objects which
appeared to me pecuharly worthy of notice. I made a
list of those objects, and, in conversation with him, gave
him reasons for the selection. The result was the poem
as it now appears, and he then engaged me to write
notes for the whole canto. I performed this task chiefly
at Venice, where I had the advantage of consulting the
Ducal library, and was seduced by the attractions of the
inquiry, and, if I may say so much, by my love for it,
into a commentary too bulky for an appendix to the
Poem. The consequence was the division of the notes
into two parts, one of which was appended to the canto
in the form of notes, the other appeared in a separate
volume of 'Historical Illustrations.' I mentioned this
in the Preface to that, volume, and I repeat it now to
another generation, to account for venturing to write
about Italy at all.
I have been given to understand that both the Notes

PREFACE. V
and the Illustrations have been received favourably by
those qualified to form a judgment on such subjects;
and having been enabled, by subsequent visits to Italy
and some researches at home, to make amendments and
explematory comments on them, I have added much new
matter, which, I hope, may contribute, in some degree,
to their general interest, and make them more usefid
to the traveller.
I am aware that this new portion of my volumes
requires most excuse, but that excuse wiU, I hope,
suggest itself to the reader ; for, if it does not, nothing
that the writer might say would be of any avaU.
London, January, 1859.

CONTEXTS OF VOLUME I.

CHAPTEE L
Switzerland — Chamouni — Byron — Shelley — Madame de Stael
— ¦ Schlegel — Bonstetten, his account of Voltaire — Departure for
Italy — La Eipaille — General Duppa — Meillerie — Lago Mag
giore — Isola Bella  Page 1

CHAPTEE II.
Milan — Society of 1816 — De Breme — Silvio Pellico — Bosieri —
De Tracy — Confalonieri — Count Luigi Porro — Anelli — Count
Strasoldo — Austrian Government — The French kingdom of
Italy — First appearance of Napoleon at Milan — Madame Cas
tigUone — Prince Eugene — The Secret Society — The Allies
enter Italy — Promises of independence — B evolution at Milan
— Murder of Prina — -Provisional Government — Austrians re
cover Milan and all Lombardy — Attempt at insurrection in
1820-21  9

CHAPTEE IIL
De Breme — Monti — The Scala — Sgricci — Italian Improvvisatori
— Perticari  35

CHAPTEE IV.

Milan — The Arena — The country-house of Prince Eugene —
Napoleon — His personal habits — Illness in 1812 — The sights
of Milan  51

viii CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
CHAPTEE V.
Brescia — The neighbourhood — Eoad to the Adriatic — The Lago
di Garda — Sinnium — Catullus — Famine in the Venetian Pro
vinces — Desenzano — Verona — The Amphitheatre — The Con
gress of 1822 — The tombs of the Scaligers — Eomeo and Juliet
— Maffei — Arco de' Gavi  Page 63
CHAPTEE VL
Verona to Montebello — Vicenza — Palladia,n villa of Count Capra
— Olimpic Theatre — Effect of political condition on dramatic
writing — Goldoni — Modern melodrames — Condition of Italian
actors — The Sette Communi — Padua — ¦ The University — The
Bo — Tomb of Antenor — Livy — Famous natives of Padua —
St. Anthony — St. Giustina — Dondi  83
CHAPTEE VIL
The Banks of the Brenta — Venice  101
CHAPTEE VIIL
Few remains of Eepublican Eome — Uncertainty of Eoman anti
quities — The walls of Eome — Their aucient and modem mea
surement — Various names at different times given to the
same remains — Tomb of the Scipios — Destruction of ancient
sepulchres  301
CHAPTEE IX.
Causes of Destruction of Eoman Structures  330
CHAPTEE X.
Continuation of Causes of Dilapidation of Eoman Structures .. 360
CHAPTEE XL
Continuation of Causes of Dilapidation  384

ITALY.

REMARKS M.\DE IN SEVEEAL VISITS
FEOM THE YEAR 1816 TO 1854.

CHAPTEE L

S'.vitzerland — Chamouni — Byron — Shelley — Madame de Stael
— Schl^el — Bonstetten, his account of Voltaire — Departure for
Italy — La Eipaille — General Duppa — Meillerie — Lago Mag
giore — Isola Bella.
In the summer of 1816 I visited Smtzerland for the
first time, and remained there until early in the following
October. I passed those happy days with Lord Byron,
chiefly at the villa Diodati, on the Savoy side of the
lake of Geneva, but, occasionally, in short journeys to
some of the spots usually visited by strangers. One was
to Chamouni, another to the Grindelwald. Of the latter
Lord Byi'on recorded short notices in a journal which he
sent to his sister, and which Mr. Moore published in his
Life. It was on our visit to Chamouni that a circum
stance occurred which has been so entirely distorted,
and represented directly contrary to the fact, that I feel
bound to mention it. At an inn on the road the travel
lers' book was put before us, and Lord Byron, having
written his name, pointed out to me the name of Mr,
VOL. I. B

2 BYEON- SHELLEY. Chap. L
Shelley, with the words atheist and philanthropist writ
ten in Greek opposite to it ; and observing "Do you not
think I shall do Shelley a service by scratching this
out ?" he defaced the words with great care. This was
the fact^the fiction afterwards printed and published
was, that Lord Byron wrote the word " atheist " after his
own name in that book ; and Mr. Southey, although he
does not repeat that absurd story, nevertheless en
deavours to make Lord Byron answerable for Mr.
Shelley's inscription.
During my residence at Diodati I had the satisfaction
of renewing my acquaintance with Madame de Stael,
and seeing her where she was best seen — at home. I
have elsewhere (in page 271 of this volume) attempted
to show her in the light in which she appeared at
Coppet. There, indeed, she gave full play to a dis
position most engaging and unaffected. In the arti
ficial existence of Paris and London some foibles were
forced into life which were dormant in her native Swit
zerland. In the society of cities she was not always
satisfied with waiting for the approaches of the "little
people called the great," but was impatient and rather
too persevering in her advances. Not so at Coppet —
there she was impartially attentive to all, or, if her
civilities were directed to one more than to another,
they were pointed to the guest whose inferior preten
sions made them the more acceptable to him. In the
exercise of her polite hospitalities, she forgot former
injuries ; and one of the company whom we met at her

Chap. 1. MADAME DE STAEL— SCHLEGEL. 3
table was the wife of a French mai-shal, ^ho, in the
days of Napoleon, would not ^villingly be seen in the
same room with ^Madame de Stael. In contrast, some
what, with this behaA-iour, was her reception of another
guest, a serene higlmess, to whom she was sufQciently
poUte, as others thought, but not submissive enough to
suit the taste and habits of a German friend, who thus
reproved her indifierence : " Ne connoissez-vous pas,
madame," said he, "que c'est un Prince de Mecklen-
burgh Schwerin?" Those who remember the most
learned and very eccentric person who gave her this
admonition will admit that Mr. Schlegel afibrded her
many opportunities for the exercise of her social quali
ties. With him she was engaged in a perpetual con
troversy, plaArfal and good-humomred on her side, but
conducted by him in terms which gave very little grace
to opinions in themselves far from popular. According
to him, Canova knew nothing of sculpture, and had no
merit of any kind as an artist. " Have you seen his
group of Filial Piety?" asked Lodovico di Breme. " Have
you seen my bust by Tieck ?" was the reply. He con
tended that the Italian was a dialect of the German
language; and, on another occasion, having asserted
that Locke was unsatisfactory because he did not ac
coimt for the phenomena of the human mind, and a
person present having remarked "that Locke had ac
counted for the phenomena as well as human reason
would allow," Mr. Schlegel exclaimed, " La raison ! je
me moque de la raison." Yet, in spite of these extrava-
B 2

4 BONSTETTEN: Chap. L
gances, Mr. Schlegel was long a much-cherished guest
at Coppet; and Madame de Stael, who respected his
vast erudition, had too much good sense and good
feeling, whilst availing herself of the learning of the
scholar, to sport with the infirmities of the friend.
At Coppet we saw Mr. de Bonstetten, famous for his
friendships with remarkable men, and valuable on his
own account. The associate of Gray, and Muller, and
Voltaire, had much to tell, and told it with the vivacity
of youth rather than the garruHty of old age. One even
ing, returning with us from Coppet to Genthod, he gave
us a short account of his first introduction to Gray.
They met by accident at a London assembly, and after
a good deal of conversation the poet said to him, " I see
you can do better than be a man of fashion — come to
Cambridge ;" an invitation which Bonstetten accepted,
and accompanied his new friend the next day to the
University. Ih answer to a question from Lord Byron,
Bonstetten told us that Gray was not esteemed as a
poet so much at that time as afterwards, but was treated
with much personal deference. He had the "esprit
gai " and the " humeur triste," — a hvely wit, but a'melan-
choly turn of mind. He used to talk of his intended
lectures on .history ; but when asked why he did not do
somethiag more than he had done, he answered only
with a sigh.
Mr. Bonstetten confirmed to us all the usual accounts
of Voltaire. He was unhke any other human being:
what he said, on whatever subject, important or trivial.

Cu.ir. I. HIS ACCOUXT OF VOLTAIEE. 0
was quite in his own way, and yet without the offensive
singularity of a professed humomist. The whole
country, that is, the country on the banks of the Lake
of Geneva, was in a tremor of anxiety at every move
ment of his pen ; and his theatre contiibuted not a httle
to the uneasiness of his very sensitive neighbours, for he
occasionally amused himself with interpolating Moh^re
with allusions to existing foUies. He was, so at least
said our informant, habitually kind and considerate in
his intercourse with his dependants. The person who
had been his secretary for twenty years declared that
in aU that time Voltaire had never used a harsh word
to him, and never required duties more than ordinary
without expressions of apology and regret. Bonstetten
denied positively the truth of the story which originated
with one of Voltaire's medical attendants, namely, that
he died a death of terror and despair ; and he added,
that the physician himself confessed the pious imposture
— and, what is more strange, excused it. Nothing is
more injudicious, nothing more prejudicial to the cause
of religion itself, than such inventions. The detection of
the falsehood is almost inevitable ; but, even supposing
the story to be uncontradicted, to what does it amount ?
These terrors may assail the most pious and best con
ducted of Christians ; indeed, a truly religious man, not
trusting to his own merits, would be much more exposed
to the horrors of the hour of death than the most con
firmed unbeliever. But in most cases, as in this, we
may safely conclude with the charitable curate of St.

6 DEPARTURE FOR ITALY. Chap. I.
Sulpice, who witnessed the last moments of this wonder
ful person, that no importance ought to be attached to
the words of the dying man—" Vous voyez bien qu'U
n'a plus sa t^te."
The day before we left Switzerland I met Madame de
Stael in Geneva. Taking leave, she said, " God bless
you ! stay for me in Italy," alluding to a fanciful project
of joining us on the other side of the Alps ; and on the
same evening I had a note from her concluding with
these words : " I shall never forget the two friends."
When I revisited Geneva in 1828 1 passed by Coppet,
and. paused a short time to gaze on the vine-covered
slopes under the villa Diodati. I could discover the
little pathway down which I had many a time rambled
to the cove where Lord Byron's boat was anchored. The
weU-known scenes on either side of the lake were indeed
as magnificent and lovely as ever — " but all the guests
departed." It is seldom that death in so few years has
dealt so many blows in a circle where old age was
scarcely to be seen. Of the inmates and habitual visitors
at Diodati, Lord Bja-on, Mr. Shelley, Mr. Lewis, Dr.
Polidori were gone. Of those I saw at Coppet, Madame
de Stael herself, her son, her friend Eocca, Mr. de Bon
stetten, and Schlegel, all had passed away. I am speak
ing of the year 1828, but when I last saw the same
scenes, in 1842, many other names might be added to
the list.
We left the neighbourhood of Geneva for Italy on the
5th of October, 1816. From Thonon we went to La

Chap. I. LA EIPAILLE. 7
Eipaille, where we saw one of the living wrecks of the
Eevolution. The old inhabitants of this celebrated re
treat, the monks, were expelled by the French, aud the
extensive but ruined mansion, having been thrice sold,
was at last tenanted by General Duppa. The general
was present when we entered the premises — a fine, tall,
pleasing-looking person, dressed like a farmer. His
wife was killing fowls in the com-tyai-d. " Formerly,"
said the general, " I commanded divisions, now I com
mand nobody but my wife ; I have no steward, and am
my own servant." He added that he had lost 75,000
livres of annual income by French politics, and was now
on the point of losing 4000 more because he did not
choose to be naturalized in France. He informed us
that he had served under Louis XVI., but said nothing
of his other commander-in-chief. Napoleon. An Eng
lishman who should be equaUy communicative with one
whom he had never seen before, and was never hkely
to see again, would be thought mad.
At La EipaiUe the church was tm-ned into a barn, the
towers, aU but two, were razed, and a garden had been
planted on the embanked buttresses. Over the front
gate were stUl seen the arms of the Prince of Savoy, sur
mounted by that papal crown which he resigned for this
sensual seclusion. The French, by an easy conversion,
had made the tiara look Uke a cap of Uberty.
Passing the rocks of Meillerie, we could not help
remarking that the bowers of Clarens are not visible
from that spot, but that the view of them which

8 ISOLA BELLA. Chap. I.
charmed St. Preux must have been taken nearer to St.
Gingough, where the precipices are higher and more
immediately overhanging the lake — but MeiUerie
sounded well, and was preferred. The noble road
which has been cut through the. rocks has discontented
some of the lovers of Eousseau, as having spoilt aU the
tender recollections connected with this region of
romance. This objection was made in our hearing at
Coppet, when a gentleman present, an old soldier, re
marked "that the road was weU worth the recoUec
tions." Lord Byron, in a note to the third canto of
Childe Harold, has mentioned this, but made the re
mark somewhat stronger by changing the " vaut bien "
into " vaut mieux."
We crossed the Simplon and stayed a day on the
banks of the Lago Maggiore, to visit the Borromean
islands. On the Isola BeUa we were shown the large
laurel-tree on which Napoleon cut the word "Bat
taglia" a day or two before the battle of Marengo.
This sort of record has one advantage over other me
morials, that the incision may be deepened repeatedly,
and the tradition easily kept aUve without injury to the
original. One of the first objects pointed out to me
when I went to Westminster School were the letters
" J. Dryden," rudely cut or scratched in the bench of
the lower-fifth form, and no one doubted that the first
traces of the name had been made by the hand of the
great poet himself.

Cuap. II. MIL,VN IX 1S16.

CHxVPTEE IL
Milan — Society of 1816 — De Breme — Silvio PoUico — Bosieri
— De Tracy — Confalonieri — Count Luigi Porro — Anelli —
Count Strasoldo — Austrian Government — The French kingdom
of Italy — First appearance of Napoleon at Milan — Madame
Castiglione — Prince Eugene — The Secret Society — The Allies
enter Italy — Promises of independence — Eevolution at Milan
— Murder of Prina — Provisional Government — Austrians
recover Milan and all Lombardy — Attempt at insurrection in
1820-21.
We arrived in Milan on the 12th of October, 1816, and
left it on the 3rd of November. Those with whom we
chiefly associated during the time were the Abate
Monsignore Lodovico Gattinara de Breme, and his
brother the Marquis, the head of that distinguished Pied
montese family; the celebrated Monti; Silvio PeUico,
the author of 'Francesca da Eimini,' afterwards so
weU known by the painftd narrative of his sufferings
in the dungeons of Spielberg, There also we saw
Count Perticari, an author of some repute, and Bosieri,
the conductor of a Uterary journal caUed 'The Day,'
These gentlemen — even Monti, of whom it may now
safely be told, for " nothing can touch him further," —
were aU of one way of thinking in poUtics ; but we also
saw something of the inmates and frequenters of the
Casa CastigUone, such as Acerbi, conductor of the
B 3

10 MILAN IN 1822. Chap. H.
BibUoteca Italiana, AneUi, and others whose opinions
took their complexion from the recently-restored masters
of Lombardy.
I passed through Milan in 1822. AU my friends of
the Liberal party had disappeared. Where is De
Breme? "He is happy in having died; he has seen
none of these things," was the reply. And Silvio
PeUico ? " In an Hungarian dungeon." Bosieri too ?
"In prison." De Tracy? "Also in confinement."
Confalonieri ? " Eeprieved on the scaffold ; but whether
dead or in prison now, no one knows." Count Luigi
Porro ? " In exUe." He had been executed in effigy
a few days before my arrival. Such were the bitter
fruits of that unhappy attempt to shake off the Austrian
yoke in 1821. Shortly after the failure of this con
spiracy it was known that the Heads of Departments
were prepared to retire from Milan, with the treasure
and the archives, had the Piedmontese advanced into
Lombardy with the expected force. The fate of Italy
was then in the hands of the Prince of Carignan, the
unfortunate Charles Albert of later days. It should be
told, however, that neither Count Strasoldo nor Count
Bubna, the civil and miUtary governors of MUan, were
accused of remembering their dangers with the ran
cour which such recoUections usuaUy inspire ; indeed
their administration generally could not be caUed
tyrannical or unjust. The severe punishment of in
surrection, or poUtical conspiracy, is an inevitable con
dition of foreign subjection ; but the ordinary tribunals

Chap. II. AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT. 11
were impartial and just. The interference of the priest
hood in civU and social matters was much checked;
several church ceremonies, the encouragement of idle
ness or vice, had been suppressed ; the employment of
many labourei-s and artizans in pubUc works, and the
cheapness of provisions, which enabled the labour of
three days to provide food for a week, had satisfied
those classes to whom such advantages are the test of
good government. The discontented belonged to an
other portion of the community, who were aggrieved by
the employment of Germans in aU the higher, and
many of the inferior departments of administration. The
head of the Milanese Church was acknowledged to be
a Uberal and a highly honourable man, but he was dis
agreeable to the nobUity as a foreigner. The same
dislike, and no Uttle ridicule, attached to the Austrian
principal of the university of Padua ; and what made
this preference of foreigners stiU more distasteful was,
that, although the higher classes were excluded from
employment at home, they were almost prohibited from
seeking amusement or instruction abroad. Foreign
travel was discouraged as much as possible, and,
when a Ucence for that purpose was obtained, the
term of absence was specified, and a positive promise
exacted that the traveUer would not hold intercourse
with the diplomatic members of any court that he might
frequent. But even those ItaUans who were in pubUc employ
ment of an inferior grade partook in some degree of

12 AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT IN 1828. Chap. II.
the discontent of the upper classes. Their salaries were
extremely smaU ; a police agent, a custom-house officer,
an attendant on the Court, had no more than a franc
a day — hence not only their discontent, but their im
portunity with strangers. But it should not be forgotten
that the pay of clerks in the public ofiices, of higher
mechanics, such as engineers and superintendents in
manufactories, was proportionably small. Three Austrian
livres, about two shiUings a-day, were considered good
wages — four were never given ; yet on that pittance this
class of MUanese citizens contrive to frequent the res
taurateurs and the theatres — it is true their wives Uved
at home on soup. Except in England, there is no city
in Europe where so many weU-dressed cleanly-looking
people are to be seen as in MUan. In some subsequent
visits I found very little if any change in the appear
ance or manners of the inhabitants. The glories of the
Corso, the two-mUed string of carriages, had survived,
in 1845, the ruin of aU their governments; the Scala
opera-house was equaUy flourishiag. The Milanese
patrician, so early as in 1828, had forgotten, or seemed
to have forgotten, the storms of 1821, and was much as
I saw him at iny first visit in 1816. The iadividuals
were gone, but the fashions remained, somewhat, in
deed, modified by EngUsh hterature and English habits.
There were four teachers of the EngUsh language in
1828, The booksellers' shops abounded with EngUsh
works, both ancient and modern, both original and
translated, some of them such as bigotry and despotism

Chap. II. FRENCH KINGDOM OF ITALY. 13
could hardly be expected to tolerate: for example,
Locke and Gibbon: Sh Walter Scott had long been
a favourite ; Moore had genei-al admittance since 1822 ;
Lord Byron was prohibited, but in 1826 his ' Corsair '
was acted every night at the Scala. At that period the
Anglo-American method of speedy and elegant writing
was recommended in placards on every waU, and the
cavaliers of the Corso, with English horses and EngUsh
saddles, studiously imitated the EngUsh seat and the
EngUsh pace : but even two years before, viz. in 1826,
Count Strasoldo, in a state proclamation denouncing
the black slave-ti-ade, laid it down as an axiom in
poUtical morals, that " man instinctively feels he is his
own property," a manifest copy fi-om the Abbe Gregoire
and 3Ir. WUberforce, and, I should think, a very con
trovertible proposition, especiaUy in the meridian of
MUan.
The Feexch Kingdom op Italy.
During the days of the two short-lived republics, the
higher classes of Lombardy showed very Uttle sympathy
with Frenchmen and French principles, and very few
indeed were persuaded to partake of the fortunes of
Napoleon at his first conquest of Italy. I heard an
account of his proceedings at MUan from an eye-wit
ness. One of his harangues was deUvered from a
balcony opposite to the Casa CastigUone, where my
informant stood at the time and heard him. He told

14 MELZI, DUKE OF LODI. Chap. II.
the MUanese youth that " he would make something of
them — ^he would make them soldiers — and would lead
them, in six months, as conquerors to the Tower of
London." A member of that noble famUy heard him,
and joined his banner; he was drowned. Madame
CastigUone then foretold, from his deportment towards
his officers and those about him, that he was only at the
outset of his career : " This man," said she, " wUl not be
content with being a general," After the complete
subjection of Italy, and the consoUdation of his power.
Napoleon, though never popular with the Milanese patri
cians, worked, to some extent, a favourable change in
theu" character. The extreme activity of his govern
ment partiaUy communicated itself to those whose long-
cherished hereditary vice was laziness; and some of
them condescended to become influential in the state,
and useful in society. Many of the great nobles did
still keep aloof from the new viceregal court, but some
of the best and most active of the administration were
of the highest class. Melzi, Duke of Lodi, was an able
and an honest minister, and a vigUant superintendence
was maintained over aU the public departments. No
less than a hundred clerks and others were employed
in the Ministry of the Interior; fom* hundred were
attached to the War Department — these were aU
ItaUans ; the Senate, the CouncU of State, the Metro
pohtan and Provincial Prefectures, aU opened a career
to the native community ; and I' was informed that, in
MUan alone, there were eighteen hundred persons in

Chap. II. PRINCE EUGENE. 15
government pay : the army also, to a great degree, was
national. This could not faU of producing a salutary
influence with those who, for the first time, discovered
that activity was profitable. The inevitable consequence
ensued — men of considerable capacity appeared in every
branch of administration, and a general spirit of emula
tion and enterprise was diffused amongst the northern
ItaUans. Prince Eugene had been Uked, but his popularity
did not survive the campaign of Moscow, and his sub
sequent behaviour was imworthy of his former cha
racter. During the early part of his viceroyalty he
had been much esteemed for a quaUty seldom found
in men of high station and moderate capacity — he
listened to good advice, and was thus enabled to ex
tricate himself from many difficulties. His conduct
towards the Pope, for example, showed how capable he
was of reconcUing the interests of Napoleon with the
temper of those whom he was caUed upon to control.
He seems, however, to have been directed no longer
by the same good sense or the same wise counseUors,
when, during the retreat from Eussia, he studiously
neglected his ItaUan generals, and thereby forfeited the
attachment of those on whom he was chiefly to depend
in the approaching struggle. Other causes are assigned
for his decreasing popularity. Guicciardi mentions the
inspection of the post-office correspondence, and Botta
reckons the employment of Prina and Mejean, and the
vigorous activity in raising the contingent for the cam-

¦ 16 THE SECRET SOCIETY. Chap. IL
paign of 1813, as injurious to Eugene. But he was
himself, as wUl be hereafter seen, the chief cause of his
own downfall. He was guUty of something worse than
precipitancy during his last unhappy days at Mantua,
when he seized the crown from selfishness, and sur
rendered it from spite.
The Secret Society.
It is now weU known, and no danger can result from
the promulgation of the fact, that for some time previous
to the downfall of Napoleon a widely-extended con
spiracy had been formed in his ItaUan provinces, having
for its object the long-desired, unattainable independ
ence of the ItaUan peninsula. The secret, if so it may
be called, was in the breasts of no less than four thou
sand individuals, calUng themselves Freemasons, and
communicating by the masonic signs in use, not in
France, but in England. These persons, although for
ordinary purposes they acted with aU the Freemasons
of Italy, yet, for special poUtical objects, were governed
by rules and conducted by chiefs known only to them
selves. Thus Prince Eugene was grand-master of
Lombardy, but the private grand-master was the real
head of the brotherhood, and of the project of which it
was intended the viceroy should be the last to hear, and
which was scrupulously concealed from every one sup
posed to be connected with French interests. When
Murat passed through MUan, after the reverses of the

Chap. II. THE SECRET SOCIETY. 17
campaign of 1813, he repaired to the house of a mer
chant, from whom he borrowed a thousand louis d'ors,
to enable him to retiu-n to his capital with the equipage,
at least, of a sovereign, and he then confided to the
lender of the money his scheme of speedUy assembUng
an army of 80,000 men, marching northwards, raising
the patriots of every province, and declaring the inde
pendence of Italy. The merchant was a Freemason,
and communicated the project of Murat to the Great
Lodge ; the consequence was that the whole secret, just
at the time that concealment was most necessary, was
betrayed by  to the friends of the Viceroy. From
that moment discord arose between Murat and Eugene
and their respective partizans, which put an end to all
chance of co-operation between the Neapolitans and
Lombards, and was, most probably, the real cause of the
unfortunate poUcy adopted by the Viceroy at Mantua.
The battie of Hanau afforded the ItaUans the last op
portunity of displaying their military genius beyond the
Alps ; and when General Zucchi, who commanded their
contingent of the French army, returned to MUan, he
proclaimed pubUcly that he was authorized to announce
that Napoleon resigned the iron cro^vn, released his
ItaUan subjects and soldiers from their oaths, and left
the whole of their armed force to work out the inde
pendence of their common country. This certainly was,
if any, the time to secure that glorious object. Eugene
and his councU deUberated on a declaration proclaiming
the union of aU the states of Upper Italy, with Eugene

18 THE ALLIES ENTER ITALY, Chap. II.
for their constitutional monarch, and France for a per
manent aUy, The decree was written, and preparations
made for sending it to aU the provincial prefects ; but
the prince hesitated, and the decree was canceUed, He
was un wiUing to convoke the electoral or representative
bodies, fearful lest his influence, declining daily with the
disasters of his imperial step-father, should prove too
weak to place the crown on his own head. The patriot
Freemasons also were inactive, partly because they were
aware of divisions amongst themselves, and partly be
cause they depended on the assistance of England to
secure their Uberties at a general peace. Some of the
bolder malcontents, amongst them Pino, opened com
munication with Murat, who was advancing through the
Eoman states with designs unknown to others, and
probably not determined upon by himself. The war
came at last into Italy, and, according to approved pre
cedents, the Austrians advanced with the assurance that
they came to Uberate the Lombards from a foreign yoke,
and had no desire to regain their ancient Cisalpine pos
sessions. An EngUsh general officer was charged to
pledge the imperial word of Francis the First to that
effect. In fact, the independence of Italy had been one
of the conditions proposed to Napoleon at Dresden in
1813. Not one of aU the champions contending for the
honour of imposing a master on this unhappy country
omitted the usual ceremony of promising better days of
freedom and happiness. The Austrian general, Nugent,
and his English partizans disembarked at the mouth of

Chap. II. PRINCE EUGENE. 19
the Po and overran Eomagna, and before they were
repulsed by the French general, Grenier, near Parma,
had time to proclaim themselves "disinterested Ube-
rators." Prince Eugene, in his proclamation of the 4th
of February (1814), from Verona, declared that Murat
had for the three past months promised to march to his
aid. But ^lurat was now the ally of Austria ; and ad
vancing towards Lombardy, proclaimed, by the mouth
of his general, Carascosa, the independence of Italy.
The EngUsh, SiciUans, Calabrians, and Greeks, who
landed at Leghorn under the command of Lord WUliam
Bentinck, assumed the same generous character of libe
rators and friends, aUies in the same pious enterprise —
the final emancipation of aU Italy from a foreign yoke.
It must seem to us, who have seen the event, very
strange that the most credulous of the patriot ItaUans
should have indulged in any hopes not derived from' the
acknowledged prowess of their own ItaUan army; nor
would they, perhaps, if Eugene had adopted a decided
course, and raised the national banner. This, however,
he did not do ; he preferred, for the time, constancy to
his great benefactor ; and in his declaration of the 4th
of February, 1814, from Verona, " Fidelity," not
"Liberty," was declared to be the watchword of aU
true ItaUans.
When Eugene opened the campaign against the so-
caUed Uberators of Italy, he was at the head of 60,000
men, of whom somewhat more than a third were
Italians. Several bloody, though it appears fruitless.

20 MEETING OF SENATE. Chap. II.
battles were fought, and the honour of the ItaUan army
was upheld ;, but a retreat behind the Mincio was in
evitable, and ought to have been adopted whilst the last
native defenders of the soil were undiminished and un
broken. The Austrian general did not choose to act at
once offensively, being uncertain what conduct Murat
might adopt ; and when the Viceroy, after the action at
VaUegio, had taken up his position at Mantua, and the
news of Napoleon's abdication had arrived, he readily
Ustened to the proposal for a suspension of arms, and
agreed not to cross the Mincio untU an answer should
be returned on the part of the deputies who were sent
to the allied sovereigns at Paris. The agreement,
signed at Schiavino Pizzino on the 16th of April (1814),
between Eugene and Count Bellegarde, provided for the
departm-e of the French part of the army, the cession
of several fortresses, including Venice, and, as if in
mockery, also for the renewal of hostilities, after due
notice given. The day after the suspension of arms,
Melzi, Duke of Lodi, then suffering from an attack of
gout at his vUla, convened, in his capacity of president,
an extraordinary meeting of the senate, and addressed a
message to them, avowing the real state of the kingdom,
concluduig with a proposal that the deputies should de
mand at Paris a final cessation of hostiUties, the inde
pendence of Italy, and the crown of the new kingdom
for Prince Eugene. The senate deliberated on the
message, first in a committee of seven members, and
afterwards in the whole house. The deputies named at

Chap. H. DIVISIONS IN MILAN. 21
Mantua were Generids Bertoletti and FoutaneUi for the
army, and Coimts Paradisi and Prina for the nation
generaUy. The senate approved the two fii-st of the
demands of Melzi, but, after some wai-m discussions,
they evaded the last, viz. the choice of Eugene; and,
instead of the deputies before named, they appointed
Count Louis CastigUone, of MUan, and Count Guic
ciardi,* to represent the wishes of the Senate and
People of Italy.
At this time opinions were much divided at MUan —
Pai-adisi, Oriani, Priaa, Mejean, Darnay took the part of
Eugene ; others proposed a retum to the Austrian rule ;
the third and strongest party contended for independ
ence, with an Austrian, or any monarch, except Eugene.
The above-mentioned deputies proceeded at once (18th
April) to' Mantua, and had an audience of Eugene, to
w hom they deUvered a despatch from the Duke of Lodi,
containing the decree of the senate. They were imjustly
blamed at the time for not taking the road to Paris at
once, and for going to Mantua ; but it was indispensable
so to do, in order to procure passports from the Austrian
general, BeUegarde. The visit to Mantua, however,
gave colour to a rumour that the Duke of Lodi and the
deputies were playing a part for Eugene; and in the
bUndness of the moment it was believed that not only
the Duke of Lodi had falsified the decree of the senate

* The same, hefore alluded to, who published a short account of
these transactions.

22 REVOLUTION AT MILAN. Chap. IL
in his despatch to Eugene, but that the senate had
entered into his views in favour of Eugene. The truth
was, that Count Guicciardi, chanceUor of the senate, and
one of the deputies, had, in the secret sitting of that
body on the 17th of April, strenuously opposed the
selection of the Viceroy ; but the rumour did its work
before the truth was known, and paralysed all the pro
ceedings of the senate, who were henceforth regarded as
partizans of the French interest and opposed to the
national cause. The consequence was a temporary
union between the patrician Milanese and the patriot
Freemasons. Aware of the weakness of the government
— for the regular troops at MUan amounted only to 400
men, commanded by an officer not to be trusted — the
united parties, joined by the civic guard, resolved upon
measures amounting in fact to an overthrow of the
existing authorities. A paper was put forth, with 141
signatures, of which the first names aU belonged to the
highest of the nobles — Count Pino, Luigi Porro, Gia
como Trivulzio, Federigo Confalonieri, and Ghiberto
Borromeo. This paper, demanding the convocation of
the electoral coUeges, was sent to the senate on the
19th of April by Count Darini, the podesta of MUan ;
but the measure was not considered sufficiently decisive,
and preparations were made for the fatal event of the
ensuing day — the Eevolution of the 20th of AprU, 1814.
Early at the meeting of the senate on that day, Marini,
adjutant of the civic guard, demanded that the senate
should dismiss the regular troop that guarded their

Chap. II. REVOLUTION AT JIILAN. 23
palace and accept a patrol fi-om his own body of armed
citizens. This was compUed with ; the troops of the
line were withdrawn, and from that moment the free
deUberations of the assembly were at an end. The
tumult in front of the palace became alarming ; many
of the higher nobUity, and amongst them several ladies,
shouting "Patria e Independenza, non Eugenio, non
Vicere, nojj Francesi!" were discovered amongst the
crowd ; and although the historian of this shameful day
ascribes good motives to the patrician rioters and the
motiey multitude, the accounts I heard from some of the
parties concerned were anything but creditable to the
insurgents, headed though they were by the unfortunate
Confalonieri and the virtuous Alberto Litta. A voice
was heard from the crowd, demanding in a furious tone
the convocation of the electoral coUeges and the recaU
of the deputation to Mantua. The adjutant, Marini,
alarmed for the consequences of the tumult of which he
had himseK been the first promoter, implored the indi
vidual thus clamorous not to inflame the multitude, but
to present himself to the assembly and address them
peaceably. He implored in vaiti ; the people burst into
the outer court of the senate-house, and had already
mounted the steps of the haU, when Count Verri, ac
companied by the senators Massori and FaUci, attempted
to address them, but after several fruitless efforts, and
returning more than once to his coUeagues, he was pre
sented with a paper opening with these words : " Hanno
la Spagna e I'Alemagna gittato via dal coUo U giojo dei

24 REVOLUTION AT MILAN. Chap. II.
Francesi ; haUe TltaUa ad imitare." Verri did not read
the papej, but carried it forthwith to his coUeagues in
the hall, who, however, had not time to recite the whole
of this address, for they were interrupted by the
entrance of some officers of the civic guard (Pietro Bai- ¦
labio, a colonel, and Benigno Bossi, a captain, were
principal actors in this unhappy scene), who seemed
scarcely less alarmed than the senators themselves, and
remained pale and agitated for a short time, wiliout
speaking, a word. At last Bossi recovered himself, and
renewed the demand, in a loud voice, for the convoca
tion of the electoral coUeges and the recall of the
deputies from Mantua. The president of the senate put
two decrees to that effect to the senate ; they were
carried, signed, and taken out of the hall by Bossi, wh o
shortly returned, demanding in the. name of the people
that the Senate should declare their deUberations had
been free. This also was decreed, and thirty copies of
these decrees, having been made by the civic guard, were
distributed amongst the crowd. The senators now dis
persed themselves in aU directions, amidst shouts of
laughter from the people, who had forced their way into
the haU and instantly began the work of demoUtion.
Furniture was dashed to pieces, decorations torn dowii,
the records of the assembly were thrown into the canal.
The signal for these exploits was given by a nobleman,
who thrust his umbreUa through the portrait of Na
poleon by Appiani. Count Frederic Confalonieri was
said to be the man, but he indignantly refuted the

Chap. II. MURDER OF PRINA. lo
charge ; and, in fact, the real hero was u Castiglione.
It was not Ukely that the madness should end with the
destruction of a picture. "\Miilst the rage was at its
height, some one caUed out Melzi, Melzi ! but a friend
of that minister called out Prina — so says Botta, but I
did not hear that story in 1816. What I did hear was,
that the people rushed to the house of Prina ; entered in
a body, in spite of the gaUant resistance of one friend, a
general officer, the Baron de Eegen, seized him, half
stripped him, and threw him from a window. He was
able to walk, and after traversing a street where the
sentinels at a pubUc office witnessed his distress and
helped him not, he took refuge in the house of a wine-
merchant near the Scala Theatre. The people dis
covered his retreat, and threatened to bum the house.
Prina came forth, presented himself to them, and ex
claimed, " Sfogatevi pure sopra di me poichfe sono gia
immolato aUa vostra rabbia, ma fate almeno che sia
I'ultima questa vittima." These were his last words :
the people seized him and bea{ him to death with their
umbrellas. It was supposed that he retained some Ufe
for nearly four hours; not a single mortal wound was
found upon his body, which was dragged about by the
savage populace by torchlight untU ten o'clock at night,
and was so much disfigured that no one could be found
to identify the corpse, Botta* spares his readers the
detaUs of this tragedy; I beUeve they were such as
above described.

* Storia d' Italia, lib, xxvii., vol. iv. p. 498.
VOL. I. C

26 PRINA : HIS CHARACTER. Chap. II.
Prina was a man of great talents, fertile in resources,
imdaunted by difficulties, intrepid in action, superior to
his station, and above his fortune in aU the circum
stances of Ms career ; but he was a great dissembler,
a masker of his passions, cold, unfeeling, inexorable, a
heart of stone — bent only upon the accomplishment of
Ms immediate object, without scruples, without pity.
He had been mimster, first to the King of Sardinia,
then to the Cisalpine Eepublic. His next master was
Napoleon, and to that mighty prince he dedicated aU
his genius. His financial schemes were easUy devised,
and he generally raised a revenue larger than his own
estimate or the expectations of Napoleon himself; but
only the state was a gainer, for he died a poor man.
Secure of the support of Ms sovereign, he disregarded
the opimons of the Viceroy and the decisions of Ms
council whenever they were opposed to Ms own convic
tions. Such a man imght have been the powerful
iustrument of a tyranny more severe than that of
Napoleon, and was quaUfied for employments far more
important than the administration of the Lombard
treasury ; but it was easy to foresee that the downfaU of
Napoleon would leave Mm without a friend. A warn
ing voice did exhort him to provide for his safety the
evemng before his death,* but he had been too lono- used
to the rnastery of the Milanese to regard them with
alarm ; and when his hour was come, he met Ms assas-

* This fact is mentioned in the Abate di Breme's pamphlet, after
wards cited.

Chap. II. POPULAR EXCESSES. 2 /
sins with the countenance of a man accustomed to com
mand. His dying request was heard. It was said that
Mejean and Darnay were sought for, but they were not
found, and he was the only victim.*
But the populace committed great excesses (on the
21st of AprU), and from daybreak untU night the city
was a prey to every alarm. The shops were mostly
shut, the streets were crowded with persons of the most
menacing appearance. The pubUc offices and some
private houses were marked for destruction ; a general
piUage was expected. The few regular soldiers com
posing the garrison had disappeared ; even the Custom
house officers had left the gates of the city. The civic
guard, who had partaken of, or at least permitted, the
first outrages against the senate, seemed disinclined to
act ; and it was now seen that the most active of the
rioters were men of an imcouth and savage mien, evi
dently not natives of the capital. These ruffians ran
wUdly through the streets, brandishing scythes and

* Count Mejean had been sent by Prince Eugene to Milan to
sound the senators and principal ofiBcial personages in favour of his
pretensions to the crown. He was also the instrument employed to get
together the provincial partisans of the Viceroy, called the Estensi,
composed of natives of Bologna, Eavenna, Modena, and Eeggio,
feUow-subjects, but not friends nor favourites with the Milanese.
Darnay was Director of the Posts. Both Mejean and Darnay had
seconded the efforts of Paradisi and Oriani in the discussions in
the senate, of which Botta gives a short summary, whether imagi
nary or not I cannot say ; but they are probable enough, and the
arguments are such as might have been fairly used. — See Storia
(f Italia, lib. xxvii. 1814.
C 2

28 REVOLUTION AT MILAN. Chap. II.

r

eaping-hooks, and ropes in nooses. The terrified mu
nicipal councU named a provisional regency, who issued
proclamations, aboUshed taxes, and caUed on the citi
zens to arm. The last order was partially obeyed, but
the insurgents were stUl masters of the town ; they en
countered smaU parties of the armed citizens, and
frightened them into inactivity. MUan was saved by
an accident. The insurgents met a smaU body of the
patrol and ordered them to unfix their bayonets as their
comrades had done ; one of the patrol happened to be
armed with a rusty musket, and was not able to take
off his bayonet. The populace became impatient, and,
exclaiming " Down with the bayonets," began to fling
stones ; the patrol, to save their own Uves, charged the
multitude, who fled in every direction, and never re
assembled afterwards. The arrival of a few cavalry
soldiers restored tranquilUty, and enabled the city
merchants and municipal councU to provide against
future tumults by organizing a civic guard for the pro
tection of the regency. The members of that council
were Pino, Carlo Verri, Giacomo MeUerio, GMberto
Borromeo, Alberto Litta, Georgio GuiUni, and Buzetta.
Pin& was declared commander-in-cMef, and issued a
proclamation accordingly. The electoral coUeges were
convoked, to meet the ensuing day.
The coUeges did meet (on the 22nd of AprU), but
not in sufficient number to give assurance of national
support, or even to transact business. By the con
stitution one-third of the members was required for

Chap. U. PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. -•>
any enactment, but only 70 out of 1153 electors ap
peared in then- places: and yet this fragment uf the
electoral body assumed to itseU' sovereign power, over-
tMew all previous authorities by a simple decree,
firamed a new constitution, and resolved to demand of
the alUed sovereigns at Paris much the same boon as
the deputies of the senate and the army had been pre
viously instructed to request,' except that, in stipulating
for a monarch " whose origin and quaUties might make
them forget the evils of their former government," they
seemed to exclude Eugene from the throne. The depu
tation appointed to proceed to Paris consisted of Marc-
Antonio F^, Frederick Confalomeri, Giacomo Ciani,
Alberto Litta, Giacomo Trivulzi, Pietro Ballabio, with
Giacomo Beccaria for secretary. Botta includes Sommi
of Crema, and omits TrivuM. Individuals better
known, names more Ulustrious, it would have been diffi
cult to select. The deputies set out for France forth
with, but they might have spared themselves their haste.
The real hopes of Italy, and aU chances of independ
ence, were centered iu Mantua. There it was that her
destimes were to be determined; and, unfortunately,
although the transactions at Milan were powerless of
any good, they produced the worst results when the
news of them reached the Viceroy and the army at
Mantua. The Counts Guicciardi and Castiglione, the
first-appointed deputies, returned to MUan, without any
effort to overtake their coUeagues, Generals Fontanelli
and Bertolini, who were already on their road tMough

30 EUGENE'S PROCLAMATION. Chap. II.
Bavaria to France. Their conduct, however, was ex;
cusable ; the real error, to call it by no harsher name,
was committed by Eugene. That prince, hearing of
the murder of Prina, and not aware of any efforts to
support his pretensions, resolved to assume the crown
by an act of Ms own. Accordingly he published a
proclamation, declaring Ms readiness to take upon Mm-
self the cares of sovereignty, without much attempt at
reasoning or justification, and only aUuding shortly to
the exigencies of the times. Perhaps, of aU the strange
accidents of this eventful period, it is one of the most
singular that a prince who had long been the heir of
an imperial crown, and a viceroy over a great kingdom,
and who now was a general of high repute, at the head
of a formidable army in an impregnable fortress, should
create an independent monarchy, and place the crown
of it on his own head ; and that an act of such vast
significance should not only be productive of no results,
but should drop, as it were, stUl-bom, so that the very
fact may be said to have been almost unknown. Count
Guicciardi does not mention it in Ms narrative, nor Botta
in his Mstory. But the proclamation was issued : I was
assured of that fact at Mantua m 1816. No notice was
taken of it, except that murmurs were heard amongst
the superior officers. It was never canceUed, nor con
tradicted, nor acted upon ; indeed the paper on wMch
it was printed could hardly have been dry when Eugene
himself signed, with Field-Marshal Bellegarde, the
convention of the 23rd of April, by wMch he lost Ms

Chap. II. ITS FAILURE. 31
crown, Ms army, and Ins honour. Wliat he secm-ed
was a retreat in Germany, and Ms militiuy ti'easm-e.
But even these were not easUy saved from the wreck
of his fortunes and of his character ; for no sooner was
the capitulation kne\vn, than the officers of the garrison
broke out almost into open mutiny. They scrupled not
to accuse the prince of treachery ; they declared Ms
whole conduct to have been the result of a deep-laid
scheme for Ms own aggrandisement; and they called
to mind the words of Gremer, the commander of the
French forces, who, when leaving Mantua with his
army, is reported to have said to the prince, " You
want to be king of Italy — ymi ivill he nothing." The
dismissal of that French army was charged against him
as one of the sacrifices by which he hoped to propitiate
the triumphant aUies. His frequent commumcations
with BeUegarde were also remembered. His abortive
proclamation, and his surrender of Mantua, left Mm
without party, and without support of any kind, " de-
formitas exitus misericordiam abstulerat." Such was
the indignation of the garrison, that General Palombini
proposed to arrest Mm. It was too late; he had left
Mantua, and his treasure was conveyed tMough a gate
guarded by an officer whom the pubhc voice accused of
having accepted a large bribe for suffering it to pass.
It cannot be domed that great abUities, or undoubted
probity, perhaps a union of both, were requisite to
extricate Eugene from the difficulties of Ms position.
It is equally certain that the friends of independence -at

32 AUSTRIANS RECOVER MILAN, Chap. II.
]\IUan were deplorably ignorant of their own interests,
when, mstead of joimng with the prince and the army,
they chose to act in opposition to them, and added to
the general embarrassment. This, however, is no ex
cuse for the prince. Botta hands him over to the per
petual scorn of posterity for Ms surrender of Mantua :
" Atto veramente biasimevole del quale perpetuamente
la posterita accusera Eugemo ;" and Guicciardi, some
what Ms apologist, drily remarks that he left the re-
establishment of order to the troops of Ms Apostolic
Majesty.* Mantua being given to the Austrians, the ItaUan
army was broken up, and General Sommariva, arriving
at MUan on the 25th of AprU, put himself at the head
of the regency as commissary for the Mgh alUes. Some
faint hopes, however, were stUl entertained from the
efforts of the deputies at Paris. The Electoral CoUeges
continued their sittings, and even on the day of Som-
mariva's arrival passed some decrees which Ms excel
lency condescended to overlook. The Civic Guard
protected the capital. " Independence or Death " was
still the pass-word of the citizens ; and the official
journal, describing the entrance of the Austrian troops
into Milan on the 28th of April, announced that they
"were received with the noble reserve becoming a
nation whose first wish was Independence."

* A futile attempt has recently been made to relieve Prince Eugene
from this stigma by a legal process in Paris (1858).

Chap. IL AND ALL ITALY. 33
It was soon known that the deputies at Paris had
not to complain of the misery of suspense. At their first
interview with the representative of that power to which
principaUy they looked for deUverance, Lord Castle
reagh told them to address themselves to their master,
the Emperor of Austiia. His Imperial Majesty's answer
was expUcit enough, although somewhat iromcal :
" Eispose, anche lui essere ItaUano ; i suoi soldati avere
conquistato la Lombardia : udirebbero a MUano quanto
loro avesse a commandare ;" * and Humboldt told them
the painful truth, that they " should have brought thefr
twenty-fire thousand soldiers to negotiate for them."
Nevertheless the Electoral CoUeges contmued to legis
late for the forthcoming king and kingdom of Italy.
Their last sitting was on the 2nd of May, when " their
patriotism did not forget to Umit the manorial rights
of the royal viUa of Monza:" so says Guicciardi with
bitter irony. Some of their body were deputed to
Marshal BeUegarde, a few days afterwards (on the
10th of May), stiU to pray for poUtical existence. The
Eegency also gave signs of Ufe. They made some mUi
tary promotions, for an army now disbanded ; amongst
them, Ugo Foscolo was created Brigadier-General. This
was not all : despair suggested a wUd scheme of insur
rection, wMch the unhappy patriots, whom no expe
rience could disabuse, thought woidd be countenanced

* Botta, vol. iv. p. 499.
C 3

34 ATTEMPTED INSURRECTION. Chap. II.
by the EngUsh, at that time masters of Genoa ; * and
these hopes and projects were entertained only a day
or two previously to the 23rd of May, when Field-
Marshal Bellegarde issued a proclamation, announcing
that Lombardy was taken possession of for the Emperor
of Austria, that the Electoral Colleges were dissolved,
and that BeUegarde Mmself was now president of the
Eegency. When Lord Byron and myself visited MUan two
years after these scenes, the mistakes committed by the
principal actors in them were acknowledged by all
parties; but concerning the revolution or insurrection
of the 20th of AprU, all were sUent, because aU were
ashamed. A formal denial in a French jom-nal at
tempted at the time to exempt the Milanese fi-om all
share in the foUies and atrocities of that unhappy day ;
but if the assassins of Prina were not inhabitants of the
city, they were not unknown to some of the citizens ;
in fact, they were peasants from the estates of some
of the Mgher nobles, admitted during the night, and
instructed what part they were to perform; and as
the murder was not punished, it is but a fair conclusion
that it was not thought safe to inquire as to the real
instigators of the excesses which led to so unprofitable
a crime. * Surrendered to Lord William Bentinck on the 15th of April.

Chap. III. DE BREME.

CHAPTEE IIL
De Breme — Monti — The Scala — Sgricci — Italian Improvvisatori
— Perticari.
I WOULD say sometMng more of tiiose whom we saw at
MUan in 1816, and first of the Abate de Breme, to
whom we were introduced by a letter from Madame de
StaeL He was one of the most amiable of men, and
the Mgh station he had held under the French (he was
one of the almoners, " aumomer vicaire," of the Italian
court of the kingdom of Italy) gave authority to his
account of events m wMch he had borne a part, and
wMch were, at the time of our visit, much more the
object of curiosity than they are at this day. His
father was jVIitdster of the Interior for the Emperor
Napoleon at Turin, and Ms famUy mfluence would
have raised him to the Mghest dignities in the church,
a profession, indeed, wMch at first he seems to have
adopted of Ms own accord. He was offered a mitie tMee
times, but refused to occupy a position not at aU smt-
able to his taste, nor congenial with Ms opinions.
There was, however, no laxity of principle, nor neglect
of moral propriety, to influence his refusal, for he had
a high charactel" in every respect, and was so much
esteemed that he was offered great promotion by the

36 DE BREME. Chap. III.
Austrians, to whom he was known to bear no good
wiU. His talents were considerable, and, although not
much distinguished as an author, he was well read in
ancient and modem literature, and had acquired a
critical knowledge of Ms own language — a rare attain
ment. He had been the intimate friend of Caluso,
the friend of Alfieri, and the father of his genius;
Caluso died in Ms arms. In society he was surpassed
by no man. The variety of his information, the UveU-
ness and justice of his remarks, Ms grave humour, and
almost imperceptible frony, gave to Ms conversation
charms which were rendered stiU more attractive by
kind, unaffected, noble manners. The intimacy which
I had the happiness of forming with tMs exceUent
person was somewhat checked, in after times, by an
unwary expression contained in my Uttle essay on
ItaUan literature. I called the controversy between
the Eomantici and the Classicist! "an idle question."
Now the Abate was, both by writing and in society,
an eager advocate of the former, and did not Ulie to
be told -that Ms time and talents had been wasted in
a frivolous dispute. Yet frivolous it was ; for even if
it admitted of any decision, it could produce no result
nor infiuence on language or hterature. The question
is a question of taste ; and the production of an in
genious romance, such as the Promessi Sposi, has done
no more to estabUsh the opinions of the Eomantici than
the appearance of a great work, written entirely on the
ancient model, would decide the dispute in favour bf

Cn.\p. III. DE BREME. 37
the opposing pai-ty. In this, as in other literaiy quar
rels, the antagonists on both sides pushed tlioir argu
ments too far. The Classicisti decried all imitation and
aU translation of modern authoi-s as unworthy of a
nation abounding in perfect native models ; whUst, on
the other hand, the Eomantici had the boldness to
deride the severe taste and style of many of the old,
and almost aU the modern Italian writers, as Uttle
better than pedantiy and affectation. Of tMs war of
words Madame de Stael had been the umntentional
author, by teUing the ItaUans, first in her essay on
the Influence of Literature, and afterwards in Corlnne,
that there were good writers beyond the Alps whom
it might be profitable to peruse, and, perhaps, no dis
grace to copy. The conductors of the ' Piedmont Ga
zette,' and the 'Milanese Spectator,' took fire at this
fiiendly hint, and the friends of the lady repUed to
them in a tone stiU more furious than that of the critics.
It was an idle question ; but pronouncing it to be such
was sure to displease both parties, for it was the con
stant topic of conversation, aud much importance was
attached to it in aU societies of that day.* Idle, how-

* De Breme, being much offended by an article in the Bio-
graphie des Vivans, by L. G. Michaud, purporting to be a Life of
him, published at Genoa and Paris, in 1817, a pamphlet, called
' Geand Commextaike stjb UN Petit Article, par un Vivant re-
marquable sans le savoir.' The pamphlet gives some account of his
father, of himself, and of his literary pursuits and opinions, inter
mixed with interesting anecdotes of the principal personages of the
French kingdom of Italy, with whom he was ofiBcially and privately
connected. The Abate was, perhaps, 'a little more angry than the
occasion required ; and his defence of his poetry, his prose, and his

38 DE BREME. Chap. III.
ever, as it essentiaUy was, it was to a stranger not
altogether destitute of amusement, as the contending
critics favoured us repeatedly with attacks on their
opponents, not confined to the points in debate, but,
as usual in such cases, embracing the whole of their
literary, and something of their personal history. Mr.
de Breme's opera-box, and our own room, were en
livened mornmg and evenmg by these anecdotes, which
gave us, perhaps, more than a long residence under
other circumstances might have done, a tolerable view
of the society, and an adequate notion of the ephemeral
literature of Upper Italy. It was satisfactory to find
aU parties agreed in one point; namely, that Monti,
Pindemonte, and Foscolo were the Uving writers es
teemed as decidedly superior to all their contempo
raries. I have afready told what I beUeve is the
judgment generaUy formed in Italy of the merits of
these distinguished authors.* They are aU dead. The
last, the youngest of them, died first. He was buried
at CMswick, in the churchyard, where a tombstone teUs
his name and the day of Ms death, Sept. xiv., a.d. 1827.
His age was only fifty years, seven months, and a few

literary controversies, has not much to engage the attention of
readers at the present day. But the pamphlet, with its appendices,
abounds with noble and generous sentiments, worthy of the character
and the career of the writer ; and we may well regret that he
did not live to produce that History of bis Own Times, which
we learn by the concluding paragraph he " seriously intended " to
write. * See ' The Present State of Italian Literature,' appended to the
Illustrations of the 4th canto of ' Childe Harold,' reprinted in the
Appendix to these volumes.

Ch.\p. III. MONTI. "!»
days.* The other two died witiiin a few months of
each other in 1828.
I may now teU what it would have been unsafe to
mention iu the hfe-time of Monti — that m spite of con-
gratidatoiy odes and outward compUances, that great
poet did not look on any foreignera with cordial good
wUl ; and, as for the Germans, he hated them with a
true ItaUan hatred. His Uterary transformations were
too abrupt, his panegyrics of aU his many masters too
evidently insincere to be of service to them ; it is sur
prising that they were of use to Mm. Yet when the
Austrian Government estabUshed the BibUoteca ItaUana,
Monti was requested to conduct that journal. He re
fused, but consented to be an occasional contributor to
it. The same offer was made to Foscolo, who also
refused. Monti, in confidential conversation, left no
room to doubt that Ms incUnations and opinions were
those of aU educated ItaUans. " I shaU not Uve," said
he to me, " to sing once more the Uberties of Italy ;
no change can happen in my time; I am too old."
I ventured to observe that, although he could not sing
the Uberties of Ms country, he might try what his muse
could do towards restoring them. " Alas ! " he repUed,
" it would be ' vox clamantis in deserto.' Besides," he
added, "how can the grievances of Italy be made
known? No one dares to write, scarcely to think,
poUtics ; if truth is to be told, it must be told by the

See plate to Foscolo's ' Dante,' published by Eolandi in 1842.

40 . MONTI. Chap. III.
EngUsh — England is the only tribunal yet open to the
complaints of Europe." He then addressed Lord Byron
in a low and earnest tone, and gave an account of the
return of the Emperor Francis to his Lombard pro
vinces. His discouraging story ended, however, with
the remark that a certain portion of instruction had
gone forth amongst the people, wMch could not be
altogether lost, and would, in time, be productive of
good fruit. Monti in every respect afforded a singular
contrast between his writings and his real opimons. In
the before-mentioned literary dispute he argued vehe
mently against aU attempts at innovation ; but his own
compositions, even when deaUng with the old my
thology of Greece and Eome, are, in thefr pMaseology
and general tone of expression, decidedly new and
modem. Homer was Ms god, although he did not, as
he Mmself confessed, understand Greek; Dante was
Ms hero ; Shakspeare he thought almost equal to Dante,
and, like the great German critic, cMefly admfred his
comedies ; MUton he defended from the charge of
steaUng his ' Paradise Lost ' from the Italians. " The
artist," said he, " when he cast the first mould of the
Venus de Medicis, found the clay somewhere, but that
does not make him a thief" He then told us that
he was charmed with the celestial cannons, and the
angels flmging hUls at one another : the ItaUans had
nothing Uke that. The frony here was a little too
apparent, and our talk broke up with a laugh.
Monti was then evidently in the decline, not only

Chap. III. MONTI. 1 1
of Ms life, but his mental powers, and the deference
paid Mm was a tribute rather to his former fame than
to his present superiority. " I revere Mm as a portrait
of what he was." said De Breme, and he then repeated
a part of the wonderful ode on the death of Louis
XVI.. exclaiming, " This would make a nation revolt."
Never, perhaps, was so much genius combmed with
such weakness of character. The countenance of Monti
was very striking : he had a Mgh and rather curved
forehead ; his eyes were not dark nor large, but Uvely
and piercing ; his eyebrows were shaggy and over
hanging ; his nose somewhat aquUine ; his mouth
rather projecting, but of a most pleasing and mUd
expression; Ms features and his whole frame were
above the common size. When we saw him he was
a Uttle bent; his long loose hair was not quite grey.
In manners he was very pleasing and natural, and
apparentiy sincere. Showing us a snuff-box given to
him by Pius ^11., he repeated Dante's verses, " Due
bestie sotto una peUe." With the exception of Foscolo,
whom he disliked, he seemed to encourage and speak
favourably of his contemporaries, particularly of SUvio
PeUico, whose ' Francesca ' he aUowed to be a successful
essay in a new style. The part of Francesca, played by
the then celebrated actress, had made an effect such
as simple pathos has seldom produced; but she has
been far surpassed by the Eistori of these days (1856).*

* The Abate di Breme, in the before-cited pamphlet, records the
effects produced by this tragedy, p. 148.

42 THE SCALA. Chap. III.
The Scala Theatre.
The Scala theatre is the general rendezvous of MUan,
and those who meet no where else meet there. The
principal business of the audience certainly is not atten
tion to the music; and murmurs, loud talking, and
laugMng are heard from the beginmng to the end of
the performance, except duriag one or two favourite
afrs, when aU are stUl. Those who sit in the pit are
the only real audience. Those who stand in the alleys
come to hear the news, and arrange commercial affafrs.
Of the boxes the two first tiers are the most poUte
and the least amusing. In the tMrd and fourth tiers
are settled almost aU intrigues of all kinds; in the
filth some of them are brought to a conclusion ; and
there also are card-tables, and gambling is going on
during the whole performance. The siKth is open, like
the pit. Such was the "carte scandaleuse" given td
us in 1816. If a fair picture, it would appear that
Milanese morals had not much mended since Parini
described the amusements of the Corso.
The baUets of tMs theatre are thought, I beUeve,
superior to any in Italy. The dancing tragedies are,.
mdeed, as good as such tMngs can be. We saw the
famous PaUarina, and whatever dumb show can effect
she contrived to accompUsh: it is impossible to carry
farther the art of wringing hands, and staring wUdly,
and startmg suddenly, and fainting and falling. To me,
however, it appears that, although a single accident.

Chap. III. SGRICCI. !•'!
such as that of the father dropping his uifant from a
window. wMch Gairick made so appalling, may be
represented as weU by action as by words ; yet, to intro
duce the storj', and carry on and unravel the jilot, of a
drama, merely by gesture, is a poor substitute for such
plays as Italy has produced, and is excusable only where
the poUce interferes with the words, as has been the
case with some of Alfieri's tragedies. Then indeed the
expedient might be not without value, and I heard there
was an intention of adopting it at MUan. WhUst we
were in MUan (1816), the celebrated Sgricci, the im-
prowisatore, made Ms appearance before the critical
audience of Lombardy. Hia visit had been announced
and his praises loudly trumpeted by the Bologna
Gazette, where it was proclaimed that he had refused
the crown of Corinna, as premature, but would accept
the weU-deserved tribute when he had obtained " the
suffrages of all Italy." The novelty, and the chaUenge,
fiUed the Scala Theatre. We were present in Mr. De
Breme's box, where an amusing running commentary
kept us awake during a performance, on the whole,
rather duU, and broken by intervals more frequent and
long than usual on the stage. It opened with music,
and, whilst the orchestra were playing, some of the
audience handed in folded papers inscribed with subjects
for the poet's ingenuity, to a person who shortly retfred
behind" the scenes. The stage was then for some time
empty, and the music ceased. The audience became
impatient and so eager for the show, that when a man

44 sgricci. Chap. III.
appeared and came forward, with much ceremony, car-
rymg a vase m Ms hand, they took Mm for the poet
and applauded loudly. He was a servant, who, placUig
the vase on the table, withdrew. Then entered a man
in mourning and a boy, who took up thefr position
solemnly at opposite ends of the table. The first trial
of skiU was to be. m " versi sciolti," and the man in
black read aloud the subjects inscribed on each paper,
and then, folding up the papers, threw them into the
vase. The audience manifested thefr opimon of the
subjects sometimes by applause, sometimes by loud
laughter ; but it seemed to us that these subjects, most
of them classical or Mstorical, were understood by a
much greater number of persons than might be ex
pected to be found in a very large weU-fiUed theatre,
promiscuously filled by an audience paying only fifteen-
pence a-head. At last, aU the papers being folded up
and thrown into the vase, wMch was then sufficiently
shaken to secure fair play, the boy, with averted head,
lifted up his hand, as was the custom at the drawmg of
our aboUshed lotteries, and, dipping it into the vase,
drew out a paper. The man, opening the paper, read
aloud the proposed theme, " The taking of Algiers," — a
happy if not a suspicious chance selection, the place
having been taken a few months before. The attend
ants now withdrew and the table was removed. The
anxiety for the commencement of the performance be
came intense, and broke out into loud clapping of
hands. At last Sgricci appeared, and was received

Chap. UI. SGRICCI. 45
with shouts of applause. He was fantastically dressed :
his long black hafr flowed wUdly over Ms face and
shoulders, and his neck was bare. He wore yeUow
Turkish sUppers. He began at once to pour forth his
unpremeditated verse, invoking, as he said, not the
Greek muse, but the muse of Mount Libanus. The
classical deities were, however, very soon put in requi
sition, and we heard a good deal about Amphitrite and
Aurora. The poem ended with a speech from the Ube-
rated slaves, and this was the only cfrcumstance that
distinguished the taking of Algiers from any other suc
cessful siege. The recitation lasted nearly a quarter of
an hour, and the poet did not hesitate for a single
moment. As he withdrew much applause was heard.
The attendants with the table and vase again made
thefr appearance, and the same ceremomes were ob
served as before. The subject chosen for the terze rime
was "Artemisia at the tomb of Mausolus." Sgricci
again appeared: his action was more vehement than
Jbefore, and his poetry not less fluent; but we heard
very many rhymes in "ente" and "etto." A Uttle
cMld of the Queen of Caria added pathos to the dis
tress of her Majesty, and Aurora was again introduced
to console the weeping widow, but nothing was said
about the ashes of Mausolus, nor of the tomb giving a
name to all superb sepulchres. The performer con
tmued without interruption for about the same time as
when attacking Algiers; but he was less applauded
than for the siege. He withdrew, and the assistants

46 SGRICCI. Chap. III.
came forward and read the subjects proposed for the
great trial — the touchstone of gemus, the tragedy.
The themes sounded like ancient bUls of mortaUty;
deaths of kings, queens, heroes, poets, and patriots
slowly succeeded each other. None found favour with
the audience ; but the Apotheosis of Victor Alfieri was
received with thunders of applause. It did not, how-'
ever, turn up, and the paper chosen by the lottery-boy
was inscribed " The death of Socrates." There was a
long pause, after which Sgricci came on the stage and
hoped that another lot might be dra^vn, as the " bems-
simo pubbUco " would probably think with Mm that the
death of Socrates was not " tragediabUe " — a tragedy has,
however, been written on the subject. The audience
consented to have another lot drawn, and the boy pulled
out " The death of Motezuma." Sgricci reappeared, and
saying that he could not reconcUe the adventures of
Motezuma with the manners of Italy, protested that, of
the two, he preferred Socrates. On tMs the audience
became very noisy ; some caUed out for Socrates, others
for Motezuma, and after a good deal of clamour the lots
were a third time tried, and " Eteocles and Polynices "
drawn. Even this subject, " tragediabUe" enough, seemed
to disconcert the poet, who continued so long sUent that
the audience began to hoot and wMstle, and again caU
for Socrates and Motezuma. At last Sgricci was in-
spfred ; he told us that Ms scene was in the palace at
Thebes, Ms personages Eteocles, Polynices, Jocasta,
Tiresias, and Manto, with a chorus of Theban women.

Chap. III. SGRICCI. 47
Tossing up his head and hands, he then began versify
ing in one character, and when ho changed to another
he walked to the side of the stage. He gave a tolerable
copy of the description in ^Eschylus of the cMefs before
Thebes, and he was much impassioned in the part of
Jocasta ; but the audience gave evident signs of im
patience, and before the tragedy was concluded had
partiaUy left the house. Though at the end of the fifty
minutes during wMch this surprising exMbition lasted
there was some applause, the tragedy was considered a
failure, and the whole performance did not satisfy the
MUanese. Our friends of the romantic school spoke of
it with the utmost contempt ; but Monti and Perticari
patropized Sgricci, and during his performance were be
hind the scenes, to inspect the papers and take care that
no offensive subjects were introduced amongst them.
What La Bendetina, or the great Eoman improwisatore,
Gianni, may have been able to perform, I know not,
except by the printed poems of the latter, wMch, if they
were reaUy spoken without premeditation, exMbit
talents far superior to those wMch were displayed by
Sgricci when we heard Mm. A judgment of his power
in tMs way may be formed by those who have read the
tragedy wMch he afterwards pubUshed, in 1827, I
beUeve. He probably selected for the press that wMch
he thought the best of his spoken dramas.
I think I discover in a charming writer on Italy —
Forsyth — an mcUnation to admfre these performances,
and he goes so far as to cUscover signs of improvization

48 IMPROVVISATORI. Chap. III.
in Homer himself, or, rather, ifeelf, from the frequent
recurrence of the same verses. That the Homeric
verses were sung by the rhapsodists ages before they
were committed to writing, no one, I beUeve, denies,
but there is a wide difference between unwritten and
unpremeditated poetry, and it is hard to beUeve that
any number of the Homeric, or any Greek verses, such
as we now read them, were composed and spoken at
the same moment. The same may, I presume, be said
of all poetry of the Mghest class ; and whatever may
be the comparative merit of the ItaUan improvvisatori,
fi-om Serafino d'AcquUa down to Signor Sgricci, I
never heard but one opimon from men of real judg
ment in regard to this capacity. They all lamented
that encouragement should be given to mediocrity in
that department of hterature in wMch, by common
consent, mediocrity is not to be borne. The market
place is the proper stage, and the g-uitar the proper
accompaniment, for such effusions, and even the draw
ing-room may be enUvened by extemporary trifles in
verse; but the tragic muse, like the heromes of ro
mance, requires a long and assiduous courtsMp, and
the stage is degraded by exMbitions resembUng the
real masterpieces of dramatic poetry in notMng but
thefr inferior properties, the metre and the rhyme.
A second exMbition of Sgricci, several years afterwards,
when he gave Ms forty-thfrd extemporary tragedy at
Vemce, did not alter my opinion, either as to the poet
or his performance. He gave us the Earl of Essex,

Chap. III. IMPROVVISATORI. 49
whom he called "Odoardo;" and as he pretended he
knew nothUig of the story, it was told to Mm, some
what incorrectly, aloud, by a person from one of the boxes
of the theatre. The Queen EUzabeth of Sgricci made
war upon France. The tragedy lasted two hours.
When I went away half the audience had already
fled. It would be weU, not only for the hterature, but the
character of the Italians, if they did not play so much
with thefr noble language. The sing-song exercises
of aged monsignori and simple professors, the shepherds,
£ind the lovers, and the poets of ArcacUan academies,
the eternal sonnet that celebrates every exploit, the
inscription ready for all imaginable events and every
description of person, bespeak and add to the dangerous
faculties of the language, and, combined with political
disaster, have filled the countiy of Dante aud Mac-
cMaveUi with a nation of triflers.* On the other hand,
the pedantry of criticism, though it has not added to
the strength or ease of composition, and though it
affects to decry aU these fluent foUies, is but trifling
of another kind, and must rather impede than promote
the real objects of a sound national hterature. Who,
for example, but an Italian would have thought of

* At Venice I saw a sonnet addressed by the Harlequin of the
Arena, an open. theatre, to the Venetian people. At the Mira I read this
placard : — " Al chiarissimo Signor David Zuliani, medico chirurgo, per
1' insigne. operazione da esso eseguita alia Mira nell' estrazione della
placenta dopo 36 ore del' Parto alia povera Antonia Allegro,
Sonetto." Then followed the verses on this uncomfortable subject.
VOL. I. D

50 PERTICARI. Chap. III.
alluding to the verbal licences observable in the fine
Hymn to Death dictated by Pandulfo CoUenuccio
whilst he was waiting for the executioner ? • Yet Perti
cari, himseU a poet, did, m his memofr of that his
torian, remark that there were " alcum vizj.del dire"
in these dying notes, such as "preghe" for "pregMere,"
secondo 1' esempio del Cavalca! TMs seems ridiculous
enough, but the memoir was not without merit of
another kind ; for when it was submitted to a counseUor
of state for an imprimatur, the critic struck out several
passages, as of dangerous political tendency. Acerbi
showed the manuscript to Count Saurau, the governor
of Milan, who said "Let it pass," a liberal permission as
it appeared to me ; but Mr. Acerbi remarked, " The
counseUor was afraid, if he made a mistake in such a
matter, of losing Ms place — Count Saurau was not."

* CoUenuccio, was strangled in prison at Pesaro by order of
Giovanni Sforza, then master of that town.

Chap. IV. MILAN — THE ARENA. 51

CHAPTEE IV.
Milfui — The Arena — The country house of Prince Eugene —
Napoleon — His personal habits — Hlness in 1812 — The sights
of Milan.
One of the sights of MUan (in 1816) was the Arena, an
open cfrcus, the work of Canomci, said to be capable of
containing 30,000 spectators, adapted for chariot races
and other ancient games. The area can be fiooded for
the exMbition of " naumacMa " on a smaU scale. This
is the unfimshed work of Napoleon, who was present at
one of the games the year after he was crowned King of
Italy. For some time after the change of government
the cfrcus was neglected, and the races discontinued;
but the velvet tMone of Napoleon, and two figures in
the ceiling representing him and Ms empress JosepMne,
were shown at our first visit. At my next visit, m 1822,
the empress was become a Minerva, and the former
master of the fron crown was an old man with a beard.
The Austrian government, after an interval, continued
the work on the cfrcus, and a few days before my tMrd
visit, in September, 1828, a boat-race was exhibited, the
performers being gondoUers brought from Venice. Even
then, however, the Arena was not finished : some of the
stone-work being incomplete. The buUding wUl hold
30,000 spectators.
The passion for copying the ancients was encouraged
D 2

52 NAPOLEON. Chap. IV.
by Napoleon, not only in Italy, but in France ; but he
wished his subjects to confine thefr imitations to the
artists of Greece and Eome. The writers it was not so
safe to hold up as models; accordingly, his MUanese
edition of the classics was to have excluded aU passages
of a democratic tendency. Such an insane project is
more than a set-off agamst the wish to amuse the Lom
bards with the shows of the ampMtheatre. The Aus
trians are, I believe, not so apprehensive of the text of
the old authors, but they are very suspicious of com
mentators ; and the new editions of VfrgU and Cornelius
Nepos were sent to Vienna for the inspection of the
aulic council. Monti, who told me of the projected
castration of the classics by Napoleon, was also my
authority for the sage precaution of Ms German suc
cessors. I may here mention that, at tMs time (1816),
strangers were taken to the vice-regal country house
of Prince Eugene, buUt originally by Marshal Belgioso,
commonly caUed the VUla Buonaparte. We went
there. It was as handsome a palace as could be
made out of a barrack. The rooms appeared as if the
late owners had just risen from thefr chairs, and left
them, shortly to return. In the theatre the scenes were
standmg, and a transparent sun wMch had shone on
the last play acted before the French Viceroy was still
dimly seen in the canvas heaven. Those who visited
Lombardy at this time saw many simUar tokens of the
haste of the departed guests, and the laziness or indif-

Chap. IV. HIS PERSONAL HABITS. 53
ference of thefr immediate foUowers. The very pictures
used at the coronation of Napoleon were in the sacristy
of the cathedral at MUan.
The gardens at this villa were inconsiderable; they
were English a la Parisienne, as ]\Ir. Simond says ; but
the park was ten mUes in cfrcumference, and fiUed with
game. Beauharnois, Uke Ms great stepfather, was fond
of the chace — that is, of shooting, and hunting, or cours
ing, in a very unsportsmanUke style — very different
from that in wMch our Duke used to foUow his fox
hounds in the Spanish Peninsula. It is possible there
was some Uttie affectation m this attachment to what
has long been a royal amusement, particularly of the
Bourbons, to whose habits Napoleon was not unwUling
to be thought a successor, as weU as to thefr tMone.
He used, so says an authority not quite incontestable in
such matters,* frequentiy to balance himself on one leg
wMlst overlooking the card-parties at his court cfrcles —
a notorious trick of the two last legitimate sovereigns of
France. This was recorded of him in the latter days of
his glory — when he was king of kings — when it was
reckoned a sign of bad taste and disaffected poUtics to
aUude in any way to death, or any of the disastrous
chances of humamty, as being common to Napoleon with
the rest of the species — and when Genevieve was very
nearly compeUed to give up the patronage of Paris to
the emperor's own saint. Napoleon. It was no wonder

* Madame de Stael, ' Dix Ans d'Exile.'

54 NAPOLEON. Chap. IV.
that the inteUect of this marvellous man was not quite
proof against the intoxication of the TuUeries ; and it
now seems pretty certain that it gave way during the
dreadful reverses of the Eussian campaign. The now
celebrated Mr. Beyle told us, at MUan, that he saw
Napoleon more than once put the signature " Pompey "
to an official paper, and ventured to notice the mistake
to Ms imperial master, who rectified it without any
remark.*

* This gentleman in those days was called De Beyle, and after
wards called himself, for authorship, Count Stendhall. We were
told that he was one of the intendants " de la mobili^re de la
couronne," and acted occasionally as secretary to Napoleon during
the Russian campaign. His anecdote is somewhat confirmed by
what M. Thiers has narrated, in his 14th volurhe ' Du Consulat,' &c.,
of Napoleon's frequent mention of Pultowa during his retreat from
Moscow. I confess I was not aware of the great celebrity of Mr.
Beyle until this year (1856), when, opening a clever article in the
' Edinburgh Review' for January, I awoke and " found him
famous." My previous acquaintance with him as an author, I
ought to be ashamed to say, was confined to a quotation from his
' History of Painting in Italy,' which I found in Moore's ' Life of
Byron' (p. 47, vol. i. quarto), and which contains an account of
what passed at a dinner given by De Breme to Lord Byron, Monti,
and others, at Milan, in 181G. I was one of the guests on that
occasion, and can only repeat the old remark, " Although all these
things happened in my time, I never heard of them." The dinner
was a formal banquet, the attendants being in state liveries ; and
the whole ceremony — for a ceremony it was — reminded me very
much of Eousseau's account of the grand Turinese entertainments,
at which he assisted in the capacity of footman. I think that if any
one had repeated nearly the whole canto of a poem at table, I must
have recollected it. Yet Mr. Beyle says that Monti did repeat the
first canto — almost the whole of it — of his own ' Mascheroniana,'
" vaincu par les acclamations des auditeurs," on that occasion ;
and, adds he, " causa la plus vive sensation a I'auteur de Childe
Harold. Je n'oublierai jamais I'expression divine de ses traits-^

Chap. IV. AMBROSLVN LIBRARY. 55
I say nothing of the beautiful Duomo, except recom
mending the ti-aveller to see it first by moonlight, just
as Arthur Young, m Ms accoimt of MUan, contents
Mmself with sapng, " See the Ambrosian Library."
That acute and sagacious observer of many tMngs does
not appear to have devoted much attention to this
famous Librai-y. It seems also that he traveUed
tMough France without noticing any symptoms of the
convulsion wMch shortiy afterwards flung the monarchy
to the ground, and tore aU its members to pieces. Since
the good agriculturist traveUed in 1789, this precious
coUection has partaken the fortunes of other Italian
treasuries — it has been robbed, and aU that was lost has
not been entfrely restored. But the discoveries of Mai
have added to the mterest of the Ubrary : fortunately
they came too late to enrich the plundered portion of
the Imperial coUection at Paris. Had the value of the
palimpsests been suspected, not only they, but Mr. Mai
himseK, might have been transferred to the French
capital. Of the pictures and designs which were sent
to France, seven are missing, besides the greater part of
Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts. The PetrarcMan
VfrgU, the Josephus, and the iUuminated missals arc
safe; so is that wMch our feUow-countrymen enquire

c'^tait I'air herein de la puissance et du g4me." Not only Lord
Byron, but every one else, would, I have no doubt, have experienced
a very lively sensation at such an exhibition at dinner time ; and
I feel almost cei-tain that if any such singular occurrence had taken
place, I should have noted it at the time.

56 CARDINAL BEMBO. Chap. IV.
after more often than any other curiosity, the MS.
letters of Bembo and Lucretia Borgia, when Duchess of
Ferrara. The very doubtful moraUty of the lady, and
a long lock of her bright yeUow hafr, add, perhaps, to
the attractions of the correspondence. She addresses the
Cardinal in a very tender tone, "My dear," and some
times " My dearest Messr. Bembo," * and sends to Mm,
on one occasion, a copy of Spamsh verses. If it is true, as
has been said (by Baretti, in Ms 'Frusta Litteraria,'
XXV.), that Bembo's warmth was only in Ms lips, not in
Ms heart, there was Uttle scandal and less danger in
such a Uterary intercourse. How the hafr came with
the letters I do not know. The ItaUans, who write
treatises on all subjects, have not overlooked either the
letters or the lock of hafr. Oltrocchi has a memoir on
them, which I have not seen. We endeavoured, in
vain, to procure a copy of the letters, but Lord Byron t
was aUowed to take the smaUest possible specimen of
the other treasure, for which he proposed this motto
from Pope — " And beauty draws us by a single hair."
Between my first and second visit to MUan (in 1822),
some letters of Tasso had been discovered and pub
lished. They add nothing to Ms literary or personal

* If Bembo resembled the bust of him on his tomb in the
Cathedral at Padua he was a very handsome man.
t Byron says, in a letter, published by Moore, that he was pro
mised a copy of the letters. — Life, vol. ii. p. 45.

Chap. IV. THE BRERA. 57
history. The promotion of Mai to the Vatican had
suspended researches in the Ambrosian Ubrary. There
is not, and never was, a complete catalogue of the
books and MSS. — a fortunate neglect — as they might
have shared the fate of the pictures.
The Beera.
The gaUery of pictures coUected by the late Govern
ment having been accumulated by purchase, and not by
plunder, was suffered to remain, without any diminution
of its treasures. Guercino's ' Hagar ' affected us more
than any other of the spoils of the Zampieri Palace,*
although the 'Peter and Paul' was once reckoned, so
says Arthur Young, the finest picture in Italy.
It is not quite fafr to the modern painters to exMbit
annuaUy, as is the custom, thefr productions in the
Brera apartments ; yet there is always a crowd round
the huge flesh-coloured daubs of the hvmg, whUst only
a stranger or two are seen near the masterpieces of the
dead. The same preferences may, however, be re
marked m London and in Paris. The arcMtectural
designs and sculptures were far superior to the paint
ings. Bossi had left no worthy successor, but Marches!
was an artist of great merit; and, in engraving, the
CavaUer LongM was by many considered superior to

* John Bell felt a.s much as Lord Byron whilst gazing at the
Hagar. — Obsebvations on Italy, vol. i. p. 74.
D 3

58 ST. AMBROGIO. Chap. IV.
Morghen. We visited him (1816), and he showed us
some of the plates on which he was then working. One
of them was the famous ' Marriage of Joseph and the
Virgin,' in the Brera. He also pointed out to us a fuU-
length portrait of Prince Eugene. TMs work was for
some time deposited with the poUce ; for the prince
being dressed in vice-regal robes, there was some doubt
as to the expediency of encouraging the remembrances
of usurpation. But as the engravmg was for the
prince's cabmet, and he was to pay 24,000 francs for it,
the Austrian government restored it to LongM. TMs
artist was also a painter ; he showed us a portrait of a
deceased brother, remarking, quietly, "J'ai fait cela
pour temoigner le chagrin que j'ai eu pour sa perte," a
grief quite as sincere as that wMch prompted Lord
Lyttelton's monody. St. Ambeogio.
Besides the old metropohtan church of this saint, a
work of the mnth century, there is, in Milan, a Uttle
chapel, where he baptized St. Augustin, and, divinely
inspired, broke out into the chaunt "Te Deum lau-
damus," which the other continued with " Te Dominum
confitemur." At the ,church they stiU persist in show
ing the doors, as being those which he shut against the
Emperor Theodosius. The stone seats and the double
pulpits, and the mfraculous serpent, and the brass eagle,
and everything within and without the basUica, are, in

Chap. IV. ST. LORENZO. 59
appearance, as old as tiie buihUng itself, excepting the
very recent tomb of MarcelUua, the sister of Ambrose, and
herself a saint, whose relics were removed to this spot
in the year 1812, after a procession round the city.
The monument and the statue are of the wMtest marble,
" fresh as a farthing from the mint " amongst a collec
tion of old coins.
St. Ambrose was not a native of Milan, but it was in
that city that his vfrtues and Ms indomitable energy
were cMefly displayed ; and it is not a Uttle remarkable
that, incontestably the two greatest men that ever
flourished in MUan were archbishops and saints. The
long interval between Ambrose and Borromeo produced
no man in the capital of Lombardy equal to either of
them, whether as regards thefr influence in life, or their
renown after death. St. Loeenzo.
The ststeen columns in front of tMs basiUca, once
thought to belong to the Baths of Maximian, are now
supposed to have been a portion of the Temple of
Hercules, destroyed by Theodosius : so says an inscrip
tion on the spot. Being almost the only reUc ofthe Pagan
Eoman Empfre now to be seen at MUan, the inhabitants
would do weU to be careful of it, but it is as much neg
lected by them as it is admfred by strangers. Mr.
Forsyth caUs the colonnade " magnificent," and says it
is the latest specimen, seen by him, of the ancient

60 STA. MARIA DELLE GRAZIE. Chap. IV.
CorintMan. But the MUanese, generaUy, are not dis
tinguished for thefr respect for ancient or modern art.
Laurenzi's celebrated statues of Adam and Eve were
left in the niches in front of St. Celso, and the fron net
work before them rather prevented them from being
seen than afforded them any useful protection, so that
they might easUy be mistaken for a Venus and youthful
Bacchus. They should be removed to the Brera.
Sta. Makia dellb Geazie. The Last Supper.
TMs work, itself a restoration, was fast crumbling
away. I perceived the process of decay even between
1816 and 1828. The fresco painting at the opposite
end of the room is older, but in better preservation;
and the frescoes of St. Vittore, between 300 and 400
years old, are as fresh as those of Appiani at St. Celso.
Some accuse the oU, others the dampness of the waU, as
the cause of the disaster ; but the neglect, as weU as the
positive violence which the picture had to endure when
the apartment that it adorned was, successively, a re-
fecitory, a stable, and a prison, wUl account for its con
dition ; the only wonder is that any vestige of it re
mains. Mr. Eustace talks of it as a work that " was,"
and had disappeared. If, as a more accurate writer
mentions, it is true that the Dominican monks of the
convent whitewashed the picture, and it is certain that
they cut away the legs of the Saviour and his Apostles,
to open a commumcation between thefr dinjng-room and
kitchen, they are far more to be condemned than the

Chap. IV. THE LAST SUPPER. 61
barbarians, whether Sclavonians or French, who used it for
a target to shoot at, for these soldiers had never seen the
wonderfiil composition untU it had been long neglected,
and afready much effaced. Bossi's copy of it in the Brera
is a very fine picture, much superior to the old painting
of 1612 in the ximbrosian Ubrary. In 1816 we saw that
the attempts of the French government to preserve the
work from further injury were recorded in an inscription
in honour of Eugene. In 1828 the inscription had
disappeared. " The picture is now nearly lost, and all its beauty
gone," says John BeU,* who saw it in 1817. TMs ac
complished and scientific observer adds that "This is
principally owing to the whimsical theories Leonardo
had conceived in the composition, and maimer of laying
on his colours. He is reported to have been occupied
sixteen years in this painting, the cMef part of wMch
time was, I doubt not, employed in experiments more
properly chenucal ; and after having tried and rejected
many materials, he at last finished the picture in oU, on
a groimd composed of pitch, mastic, and plaster, com
bmed with some fourth ingredient, and wrought with
heated fron ; an invention probably altogether his own,
but wMch was afterwards used by Sebastian del Piombo.
Over this preparation he laid his fresco, a cement of
burnt clay and ocMe, wMch, being miKcd up with
varnish, formed a colouring of great beauty, but short
duration." * See ' Observations on Italy,' vol. i. p. 67, edit. Naples, 1834.

62 COUNT HECTOR VISCONTI. Chap. IV.
MoNZA.
We visited Monza and saw the curiosities there, hav
ing obtained the usual permission from Count Saurau.
What most struck us, after the holy naU in the mside of
the far-famed iron crown, was the skeleton of Count
Hector Visconti, who was kUled at the siege of Monza
in 1412. It was found in the ruins of the old castle,
and kept in a cupboard in the cloisters of the cathedral.
The flesh was sticking to many parts of it, particularly
the hands and the left leg, the ankle of which looked as
if just shattered by the shot wMch kUled Mm : there
was an appearance of blood upon it. The hole under
his right breast was made after Ms body was found. His
sword, a short, broad, very sharply-pointed weapon, was
hanging with him in its sheath. The beginning of the
inscription, on a paper in the case containing the bones,
runs thus : " This skeleton once enclosed the soul of
Count Hector Visconti." * TMs skeleton and the tombs
in the cathedral, and the plaster busts in the old Vis
conti Palace at Milan, were aU that recalled to us the
powerful famUy that so long governed tMs fine country.

* The Italians do not feel that dread of human bones found
amongst other nations. In a little wayside open chapel I have
seen skulls piled in fantastic forms of pyramids like cannon-balls
in a battery, or stuck in niches like shells in a grotto, with the
names of those who owned them living, such as the ' Canonico '
and ' il Cavaliere ;' and no other distinctive note — no time, or place,
or date of age.

Chap. v. BRESCIA. ^<-^

CHAPTEE V.
Brescia — The neighbourhood — Eoad to the Adriatic — The Lago
di Garda — Sirmium — Catullus — Famine in the Venetian
Provinces — Desenzano — Verona — The Amphitheatre — The
Congress of 1822 — The tombs of the Scaligers — Eomeo and
Juliet — Maffei — Arco de' Gavi.
In out journey from MUan to Vemce (1816) we passed
tMough Brescia. The decayed fortifications, the narrow
arcaded streets, and the taU towers and battlements,*
gave an afr of antiquity to tMs town; but the well-
dressed crowd, the gay equipages, and the new
theatre, one of the most magmficent in Europe, bespoke
prosperity and a large population. The famous pistol
manufactory had lost much of its former renown, but
there were stUl 40,000 inhabitants in Brescia, and there
was trade enough to supply many weU-furmshed shops.
The palaces, a name given in Italy to the mansions of
the Mgher nobUity, were numerous, and the houses in
the principal streets were handsome and of a good size.t

* Torre dell' Orologio, Torre di Pallade, the towers and battle
ments of the Broletto.
t Mr. Murray's Handbook will show how many things were to be
seen in Brescia in 1848. I visited this city in 1845, and went over
the Museum of Antiquities, which had been put together since my
first visit. I quite agree with the Handbook, that converting the

64 NEIGHBOURHOOD OF BRESCIA. Chap. V.
The immediate neighbourhood of Brescia appeared
exteemely populous. The mterminable plam below it
was studded with houses of every description, from the
spacious viUa to the vine-dresser's cottage ; and viUages
embosomed in fruit-gardens rose one above the other
on the sides of the Mils as far as the eye could reach.
From Eezzato, where the Mgh road leaves the Mils, the
country did not seem so tMckly inhabited, but was
equaUy weU cultivated. The road itself, from Milan to
the Adriatic, was one of the many works of the French
— a noble contrast with the old Venetian road, wMch
was one of the worst in Europe. After Ponte St. Marco
we again approached the hUls, and beyond Lonato, a
smaU town with a miUtary post on a height, the scenery
changed at once, and gave us a view of the high Alps,
rismg round a dark deep basin, to the north. Descend
ing from Lonato, we soon had our first view of the great
lake of Garda, and the thin long strip of land, the
Sirmio of the poet, to whom, as is usual in Italy, all the
wonders of the Benacus are said to belong. The subter
ranean ruins of a palace of the ScaUgers, on the pro
montory, are caUed the grottos of Catullus ; and some
vestiges of an old town, wMch may occasionaUy be seen
beneath the surface of the lake, are given to the same
classical personage. There were a few fishermen's huts.

cell of the ruined Temple into a museum for the reception of these
remains, was an unhappy idea — as unhappy as desecrating the
chapel at Holyrood by modem tombstones.

Chap. V. SIRMIONE. 65
sheltered by an olive gi-ove, on Sfrmione, for it retains
its old name ; but, when approached, the Uttle peninsula
had a desolate and unheidthy appearance — haU choked
with reeds, the resort of innumerable wUd fowl. We
stopped at Desenzano, a small town on the side of the
lake, mth a stone pier and a Uttle port for the boats
that exchange the grain from Mantua and the MUanese
for the timber of the Tyrol ; but our project of visiting
Sfrmione was not carried into effect, for the rain and
mist of an autumnal evening gradually gathermg on the
mountain shores in the distance, and driving down the
lake upon us, we soon saw only an horizon of foaming
waters ; and had we wished to toy the voyage, no boat
would have ventured out with us. The waves leapt up
the Uttle promontories wMch we could now and then
discern for a moment, and drove against the pier with
all the roar and violence of a stormy sea. Although
VfrgU recoUected the tempests of the Benacus, CatuUus,
the poet of Sirmio, found perfect repose in his much-
loved home ; and, m regard to VfrgU's epithet. Lord
Byron remarked that, in one respect, the lake did not
resemble the sea, for when the storm subsided there was
no sweU in the offing.
This was a year (1816) of great disteess in the Vene
tian provinces;* mUlet, the principal food, had risen

* The peasants were reduced to feed on cakes made of grass.
New diseases appeared. The medical faculty memorialized the
Aulic Council, who transmitted an Imperial rescript to be read in
all the churches, recommending the people to live generously, on

66 VERONA. Chap. V.
from one soldo to five for the pound ; the taxes were
the same as under the French, eight francs a-head capi
tation tax, and twenty francs for exemption from mili
tary service in the civic guard; but there was no
employment ; and eleven hundred of the inhabitants of
Salo, a town on the lake rendered famous by the resi
dence of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, had sold every-
tMng and repafred to Genoa, intending to emigrate, but
they were sent back again, and were now dispersed over
the country, and, to a man, begging from door to door.
An improvisatore, singing in the streets of Desenzano
when we were there (5th Nov. 1816), attributed this
misery to the Austrians — an unlucky fiight, for the poor
poet was arrested and imprisoned.
From Desenzano we passed onwards to Peschiera, a
fortress of the Scaliger princes, constructed amongst the
reeds at the end of the lake, where the Mincio fiows out
of it, and not into it, as Gibbon so strangely asserted.*
Vbeona.
" Magna et prseclara poUet urbs base in ItaU^, in
partibus Venetiarum, ut docet Isidorus, quae Verona

good meat and wine, that diet being the only cure of the disorder.
They wanted, doubtless, to rival Maria Theresa in her prescription
of croiite de pate. The same wise men, in the programme of the
procession of the patriarch on taking possession of his see, prescribed
his progress to St. Mark's in a coach and six ! !
• See ' Historical Illustrations of Childe Harold,' canto iv. p. 58.
2nd edit. 1818, and page 330 of this volume.

Chap. V. VERONA — ARENA.

67

vocitatur ohm antiquitus." This ^yas written about the
year 790, when Charlemagne was master of Italy and
Pepin himself resided m Verona ; but the reign of the
Carlovingiau princes lasted only seventy-three years,
and Verona itself, although it appears to have been the
strongest place of refuge in upper Italy, could not keep
out the Barbarians, who for fifty years spread themselves
over the fafrest portion of the Peninsula. The Hunga
rians, a nation described as more ferocious than ferocity,
were in Verona about the year 900 ;* and it is said that
the fall of some ancient edifice during thefr stay was
nearly fatal to the Arena, the famous atteaction of the
place, for much damage being done by this accident, it
was thought advisable to puU down that part of the
other great buUding wMch tMeatened a simUar catas
trophe — accordingly what was standing of the outer
cfrcle of arcades of the ampMtheatee was puUed down.
The repafrs began as early at least as the end of the
sixteenth century, as an inscription records,! and have
been frequent smce that period. Napoleon devoted an
annual sum to that object, and Ms zeal was commemo-

* " Gens ipsa feritate ferocior ac omnium Barbarorum immanita-
tem post se relinquens," says Muratori, ' Antiquitat. Medii Mvi.'
Diss. Prima I. i. p. 22. There seems to have been a friendly con
test between Maffei and Muratori as to the exact date of the Hun
garian invasion ; but the latter, in his 40th Dissertation, says posi
tively, " Tota ergo periodus serumnarum quas ab Hungris Italia
sustinuit inter annum 900 et ann. 950 revera concluditur." — P. HI.
p. 670.
t Quod ex parte coiTuerat civitas a solo restituit, mdxov.

68 AMPHITHEATRE. Chap. V.
rated as usual, but .the inscription has been effaced.
The Austrian government, however, continue to devote
the same sum to the same purpose. Like the CoUseum,
in former days, the lower arcades of tMs vast structure
were, in part, converted into mean dwellings, one or
two of wMch were inhabited when we first saw it. I
cannot, however, caU to mmd the old clothes' shops, by
wMch Mr. Simond entered into the Arena, nor did I see
any of the rags which that amusing writer must have
thought were the common banners of Italy, for he met
them fiying everywhere, and deUghted to contrast the
" guenUles" with the past grandeur and present pride
of the Italians. A wooden theatre and a cfrcus for
equestrian performances, were, we saw, fitted up and
lost in the vast area. A better opportunity of com
paring an ancient with a modern exMbition of such
games could not have been devised. The whole audi
ence of the theatre could now be easUy seated on a
smaU section of a few yards of the ancient ampMtheatee ;
and the other spectacle, simUar to Astley's or Franconi's,
might take place, at the same time, without interfering
with the dramatic performance, wMlst in spite of both
shows, including audience and actors, men and horses,
scenes and wooden cfrcus, the huge circumference would
appear almost empty.* Large as it is Mr. Simond

¦* The dimensions were as follows : — The actual elevation of the
outer wall, 110 feet, but originally it was between 40 or 50 feet
higher. The largest diameter, 478 feet ; the smaller, 375 feet. The

Chap. V. AMPHITHEATRE. 69
demes the possibUity of 60,000 spectators finding room
in the A'eronese ampMtheatre, and reduces the number
to one half; nevertheless it was calculated that when
Pius \I. in 1782 gave liis benediction there, no less
than eighty thousand partook of the blessing. The
ceremony is thus recorded : —

circumference, 1344 feet. Mabillon (Iter. Italic, tom. i. p. 24,
edit. Paris, 1724) calls it " opus insigne ac fere integrum a Vero-
nensibus m^na diligentia servatum;" but he reduces the num
ber of spectators to 26,000.
In the ' Eythmical Description of Verona,' written about the year
790, there are these lines: — "Habet altum laberinthum, magnum,
per circuitum in qua nescius egressus non valet egredi nisi igne
lucemje vel a filo glomere.' Foro Iato specioso stemuto lapidibus —
ubi in quatuor cantus magnus instat fomiceps — platea; miraj sternuta;
desectis lapidibus." — {Berum Jtal. Script, t. ii. § ii, p. 1095.)
I'he exact date of building the amphitheatre is unknown ; nor is
it known at what period the ruin of this huge structure began.
I cannot recover the allusion to the ruin in the time of the Hunga
rians. I find no earlier record of its decay than the notice in the
' Chronicon Veronense,' under date M.CLXSXiii : — " Millesimo supra-
dicto intrante mense Jannario, maxima pars ato Arena; Veronas
cecidit terra motu magno per prius facto, videlicet ala exterior." —
(Script. Ber. Ital. t. viii. p. 622.)
The restoration and care of the Arena began at an early period —
certainly in the 13th century ; but after that date the stones of
it were carried away and used for modem buildings, and this " fatal
use" of them, Maffei- is obliged to confess was continued at least up
to 1406. — {Degli Anfiteatri, lib. primo, p. 140, oper. t. v., edit.
Milan, 1826.)
The integrity of the inside of it, and the red cement used in
reconstructing the blocks, give a very modern appearance to this
part of the structure, which contrasts strongly with the exterior
ruin.

» Maffei reads— Cum fili glomere, and " nunquam " instead of " non."

70 CONGRESS OF 1822. Chap. V.
" Pius VI. Pont. Max.
"Trans alpino rediens itinere civibus et incolis provincisB per
cuneos arenamque compositis ab aureo solio coelestia munera ex-
oravit." — M. Savorniano, Prafecto.
It is true that the multitude was not commodiously
arranged, for, when the blessing was given, much con
fusion took place and many were seriously injured.
The influx of strangers into the city on that occasion
caused also a temporary famme. No such miscMef
happened when Joseph II. witnessed a bull fight there,
wMch he appears, from inscriptions, to have done m
1769 and 1779, nor could aU the sovereigns of the
Congress in 1822 attract so dangerous an assemblage,
for nothing could pass off more peaceably than the
concert and the ball with which thefr imperial and
royal majesties were regaled ia the ampMtheatre. I
happened to be at Verona a few days afterwards before
the decorations ofthe festival had been removed. In
the middle of the arena stood a gigantic figure, half
plaster, half drapery, of Madonna Verona ; and, on the
exterior wall, a large placard, like that of a travelling
menagerie, contained the foUowing invitation : —
" Quotquot VeroniB considitis
Imperatores, Reges, Principesque viri
Dignitate, auctoritate, sapientia
Prsestantissimi.
Amphitheatiiim ingredimini
Bt amplitudini animarum
Par siet loci amplitude."
The English song-writer asks for a bowl " as large as
his capacious soul ;" but the magnanimity which could

CH.ir. V. CONGRESS OF 1822. 71
not be cfrcumscribed by the amphitheati-e was hardly to
be found at the congress of Verona. A few days after
the concert in the amphitheatee tho alUed sovereigns
attended the performance of a cantata composed for the
occasion, and presented by the Chamber of Commerce
of Verona as " an offering to thefr adored sovereign the
Emperor Francis." The august visitors consisted of the
Emperor Alexander, the Emperor Francis, the Empress
of Austria, the King of Naples, the Kmg of Sardinia,
the Duchess of Lucca, the Archduke Eeymer, Viceroy
of Lombardy, and the Empress Maria Louisa. AU
these, excepting the last, were in the Imperial box in
front of the orchestea. When they first entered, the
Emperor Alexander and the Empress of Austria seemed
to preside over the ceremomes and to lead m the mmor
monarchs and inteoduce them to the people who greeted
them warmly, particularly a lady whom they mistook
for Maria Louisa. These great personages were some
time before they could arrange themselves m due order ;
but after much bowing and curtsying they were seated,
and the performance began. The audience consisted of
the masters of the civUised world, most of them present
in person, and aU by thefr ambassadors. The men, the
scene, the occasion, it would seem impossible to imagme
a more imposing spectacle ; nevertheless the general
effect was inconsiderable, and Rossini's music, sung by
GalU, CreveUi, and VeUuti, the first artists in Italy,
coupled with such poetry as the occasion requfred, was ,
not esteemed one of Ms happy efforts. Whether the

72 CONGRESS OF 1822. Chap. V.
music was admired or not we could not at the time
judge, for aU applause was forbidden, except with re
ference to the real personages of the scene. FUeno,
Elpino, Alceo, Argene, and other shepherds and shep
herdesses, representatives of the Lombard Provinces, the
Genius of the House of Austria, attended by Clemency,
Faith, Justice, and Valour, passed almost unnoticed
before the assembled monarchs; even the Emperor
Francis scarcely noticed, unless by a nod, the marks of
favour bestowed upon the Gemus of Ms House, nor
moved Ms eyes from the printed Cantata containing Ms
own praises. It will be seen, from the dedication of the
Canto to the Emperor Francis, that the Veronese, to
use an expression of Swift, " gave thefr monarch better
weight." " Sacea Maesta.
" Se dalla eminente maesta del Trono commisurar si dovesse
r offerte di un ceto di devotissimi suddetti, il commercio di Verona
serberebbe un profondo e rispettoso silenzio ; ma non isdegna un
Padre amoroso di racoogliere i teneri sensi de' proprj figli, e questa
idea non meno vera che dolce rinfranca, fra tutti, qu^ Veronesi
che sono adetti al commercio.
" Pochi carmi pronunciati dalla pastorale innocenza possano men-
tare uno solo sguardo benigno della paterna maesta vostra, e saranno
cosi adempiati que' voti del cuore che lingua alcuna, ne penna,
esprimer potrebbe adeguamente."
WMlst looking at the cluster of crowned heads it was
impossible not to remark that the absolute lords of so
many milUons of men had not only notMng to distin
guish them from the common race of mankmd, but were,
in appearance-, inferior to what might be expected from

Chap. V. CONGRESS OF 1822. 73
the same number of gentiemen taken at hazard from
any society in Europe. Nor was there to be seen a
trait expressive of any great or atteactive quality in
all those who were to be the sources of so much happi
ness or misery to so large a portion of the civUised
world. Yet some of those were notoriously good men
in thefr private capacity, and scarcely one of them has
been distinguished for vices eminently pernicious to
society, or any other than the venial failings of humamty ;
or, as a writer of no democratic tendency* says of them,
" aU exceUent persons in private life, aU scourges of the
countries submitted to thefr sway."
Of the sovereigns at Verona the Emperor Alexander
took the most pains to ingratiate himself with the
Veronese, by rambling about in pretended mcognito,
and seizing the hands of the ladies whom he happened
to encounter in the steeets, or giving sequins to the boys
at play. He one day amused himself with carrying up
the coffee to his brother of Austria, and it was some
time before Francis discovered that he was waited upon
by an emperor in disguise. A strange but innocent
froUc, but " veUem Ms potius nugis."
To prepare for the Congress two hundred poUcemen
were despatched from Vemce to Verona, and two hundred
from MUan. The number of teoops in the city and
round it amounted to 10,000. The principal employ-'
ment of the pohce was to watch the proceedings of those

* Mr. Stewart Eose, in his Letters from, the North qf Italy,
VOL. I. D

74 CONGRESS OF 1822. Chap. V.
to whom it was not desirable the Italians should have
promiscuous access. The Emperor Alexander and. the
Duke of WeUmgton were the especial objects of their
care. The latter peculiarly so ; for he had been much
cheered in St. Mark's Square at Venice, and had become,
unwdttingly no doubt, very popular by appearing in the
pit at the opera-house there in plam clothes. Every
movement of the Emperor Alexander was vigUantly
observed and noted. A legion of spies hovered round
Mm wherever he went. At this time (1822) these most
odious of all the satelUtes of despotism were, in fuU
activity. The commotions of 1820 and 1821 had roused
the suspicions of aU the petty monarchs of the Penmsula,
as weU as of their master at Vienna. The persons em
ployed were cMefiy natives of the ItaUan Tyrol, who
corresponded directly with Vienna or Milan, without
reference to the local authorities. One of these spies
did, however, hand in a report to the delegate at Verona
implicating several respectable Veronese families, and,
upon receiving a reproof for his officiousness, actually
went to MUan and saw the Archduke Viceroy Mmself,
who made him a present of a hundred louis d'or. Thus
encouraged he returned to Verona, and very soon sent
in a Ust of Carbonari to Milan, including amongst them
the delegate Mmself. It was not without some difficulty
that the magistrate was saved and the denunciator ex
posed. PhiUp de Comines had sagacity enough to see that

Chap. V. CONGRESS OF 1822. 75
the interviews of sovereigns seldom are advantageous to
themselves, and it is equally or more certain that their
respective subjects derive no benefit from them, often
the conteary. The ambition of Napoleon was not cured
by meeting Frederick and Alexander on the raft, nor
was the future intimacy between the sovereigns more
cordial or smcere than before the meeting. Thefr
subjects traced from it nothing but ftiture wars and
more bloodshed. The conferences at Aix produced no
fruit except the melancholy reaction in France. The
royal meeting at Troppau immediately preceded the
regulations against German Uberty. At Laybach the
subjugation of Italy was resolved upon ; and the congress
of Verona, although it did not cause, yet permitted the
French invasion of Spain.
The Veronese are supposed to be much attached to
the ancient order of things : they were the last to yield
to the French in 1797, after a sangumary straggle, of
wMch there were signs in 1822. The French troops
were in possession of the Castle of St. Pietro; the
citizens were masters of the town. The consequence
was that the shot from the castle injured several buUd
ings, which were not repafred when we saw them. Since
that time the population has much decreased, and the
silk trade, wMch used to employ 10,000 hands, is also
on the decUne. Maffei says of the silk, " Che la gran
quantitib d'un cosi prezioso prodotto si e resa da gran
tempo U primo sangue di questo corpo civUe ; poiche
per 5, 6, e fino a sette cento mUa ducati di denaro
E 2

76 SITUATION OF VERONA. Chap. V.
forestiero si pub tfrar con la seta annuahnente in
Verona." *
Verona is buUt on the side and on the area of a
natural theatre of MUs, the base of the Mgh Alps ; and,
what with its old battlements above, its dUapidated
bridge, and its great Eoman rmn in the centre below,
has itself the afr of an antiquity. . The Adige flows cfr-
ciUtously tMough the town, and before the peace of
Presburg (1805) was the boundary between the Lom
bard and Venetian states. The Veronese were always
proud of thefr old bridge,! whose largest arch, not in
the centre, but on one side, they boast is larger than
that of the Eialto. The modern part of it was the work
of Can Grande the Second. Five centuries have spared
the tombs of the tMee Scaliger princes, which, although
not in any church, but in what was once a church
yard, the old cemetery of Sta. Maria Antica, now

"¦ Verona Illtjstrata, parte terza, capo primo. Edit. Milan,
1826. t Hist. lib. ii. cap. xi. Liutprand calls it " ingens mannoreus novi
operis mirfeque magnitudinis pons," and says nothing of the amphi
theatre. This eleventh chapter of Liutprand affords a curious speci
men of the learning of the ecclesiastics of the tenth century. The good
bishop puts into the mouth of the ti-aitor who betrayed King Lewis
to Berengarius the' words of our Saviour: — "Estote misericordes
siout et pater vester misericors est. Nolite judicare et non judica-
bimini," &c. And Berengarius addresses his captive with the first
words of Cicero's Catilinarian Oration : — " Quousque tandem
abutere, Ludovice, patientia nostra ? " for which abuse of his patience
the ferocious conqueror condemns the King to lose his eyes, saying
to him, — " Vitam tibi, sicut ei qui te mihi prodidit promiseram
coiicedo, oeulos vero tibi auferri non solum jubeo sed compello."

Chap. V. TOMBS OF THE SCALIGERS. 77
an open steeet, and protected only by fron treUis-work,
have received no injury. The elegant fretwork and the
small statues of these sMines are fresh and unfaded.
The stone coffins are m the afr; and in 1816 my
feUow-teaveUer, naturally enough, remarked that such a
sepulcMe renders the contemplation of death less dread
ful than our dreary deep-sunk underground vaults. In
Italy this custom is very general; and even in the
churches the sarcophagus is usuaUy above-ground. With
us the monument is a cenotaph. There is no memorial
wMch recalls the Uves of our great predecessors so
vividly as that wMch records thefr deaths ; but when we
£nd ourselves surrounded by thefr mortal remains, the
feeling is stUl steonger, and we almost fancy ourselves
thefr contemporaries. In Italy the great men are to be
sought for amongst the tombs.
The style of the tombs of the ScaUgers is a mixtm-e
of the pomted and the Romanesque. Cansignorio,* the

* This magnificent Lord Cansignorius three days before his death
killed his brother Paulus Albuinus, in order that his own bastards,
Bartholomew and Anthony, might succeed him. They did succeed
him, and then Bartholomew killed his brother Anthony ; shortly
after which murder, Verona fell into the hands of Franciscus Novellus,
of Carrara ; and, says the chronicler : — " Et sic finivlt dominium
illorum de la Scala qui mutuo se interfecerunt, etc. Bt sic finis
ipsorum est." "And so ended the dynasty of theDe la Scalas, who
killed one another ; and so there was an end of them." — (Chronicon
Veronense, ab an. 1117, ad an. usque 1278; Ber. Ital. Scrip.
t. viii. p. 660, ed. Milan, 1726.) But it appears by the story that
the chronicler is wrong — Bartholomew did not kill Anthony, but
Anthony killed Bartholomew. Anthony himself was poisoned in

78 TOMBS OF THE SCALIGERS. Chap. V.
Worst of the tMee princes, has by far the largest monu
ment.* The shrines of the Scaliger princes are not, however,
so much the object of curiosity for EngUshmen as the
stone coffin caUed the Tomb of JuUet, which may be
equaUy authentic with the Shakspearian reUcs at Strat
ford-on-Avon, for there is the same proof for it, namely,
the positive assertion of the local authorities. The sar
cophagus lies above-ground m a garden without the
city, where stood the Franciscan convent of Friar Law
rence. A tradition tells that it had been originaUy in a

Eavenna by order of John Galeazzo Visconti,"' to whom the final over
throw of the Scala family must be ascribed. — (See Hallam's Middle
Ages, chap. iii. part ii.) The Scaligers were lords of Verona about
113 years. The last, who reigned for a few days, was Guglielmo de
la Scala, who was a bastard of Can Grande II. 'He and his sons
were supported by Francisco Novello de Carrara ; and in the quarrels
between that prince and the Venetians, Verona was taken by the
latter, who'held it until their downfall in 1797.
The Carrara family were masters of Padua about eighty-seven
years, from Giacomo Grande, in 1318, to Francesco II., who was
strangled in the prisons of Venice with his two sons — a tragical
story, but disposed of very summarily by Sannudo, the biographer
of the Doges : — " A 17 di Gennajo, a ora di vespro, s' intese per la terra,
che il Signor Francesco da Carrara di Padova era stato in prigione
strangolato per deliberazione del Consiglio de' Dicci, e fu detto esser
morto de catarro. H suo corpo fu portato a sepilire a Santo Ste
fano in un area. Sicchfe si dice uom morto non fa guerra." — Vite de'
Duchi di Venezia; ap. Ber. Ital. Scrip, tom. xxii. p. 832, edit. 1733,
* See Mr. Gaily Knight's splendid work. Ecclesiastical Archi
tecture in Italy, vol. i. plate 34.

" The historians Dam and Sismondi give to this cruelty its proper stigma.
The man chosen for the ignoble office of executioner was Bernard dl Prinli, a
patrician.

Chap. V. EOMEO AND JULIET. 79
church, and sceptics assert that the old tomb has been
lost ; but, between my first and thfrd visit, in 1845, to
Verona, a picture of the church and tomb had been
happUy imagined, to satisfy the inqufries and sUence the
doubts of steangers.
For one English traveUer who has read Dante or
thinks anything of Can Grande on entering this city,
ten thousand caU to mind that Romeo and Juliet, ac
cording to thefr historian-poet, Uved, and loved, and died
in Verona ; and I may add that Lord Byron and myself
talked a great deal more of Shakspeare than of CatuUus,
or Claudian, or Dante, and listened attentively to the
guide, who told us the teue story, out of the tragedy,
and added, that, although JuUet died so long ago as
1303, the MonteccM and Capuletti famiUes were not yet
quite extinct. But this was long before the days of
handbooks. We carried off a cMp of the red marble
from the tomb itself, Uke true beUevers.*
The so-caUed tomb of King Pepui, although partly
underground, has been less respected than that of the
ScaUgers. The vault was opened, and the body, whose
ever it was, carried away — some said by the French;
The Germans had as Uttle respect for the church and
cemetery and tomb of St. Zeno, the patron saint of
Verona,t for they converted the cloisters uito a cavalry

* See Lord Byron's Letter of Nov. 17, 1816, in Moore's Life,
quarto, vol. ii. p. .50. See also Murray's Handbook, which laughs at
the sentimental young and elderly ladi&s who do as we did.
I Seethe Ecclesiastical AEcmTBCTcrBE op Italy, vol. i. plate v.

80 MAFFEI. , Chap. V.
barrack. The sexton, showitig the place, remarked that
the said French and Germans were " dui bovi " — a tme
impartial ItaUan contempt for all Transalpines. Both
these oxen had spared a beautiful fresco in the cloisters
— an infant Jesus. The Martyrdom of St. George, in
the church of that name, by Paul Veronese, and the
famous Assumption, by Titian, m the cathedral, had not
gamed admirers by thefr retum from Paris; for they
were m positions where it was very difficult to see them
distinctly, and were, moreover, exposed to injury from
damp, and candle-smoke, and incense.
Verona has been fortunate in producmg a writer who
devoted much of Ms Ufe and learning to Ulusteate Ms
native city, and whose partiaUty, fond as it is, seldom
betrays him into exaggeration. Maffei's great work,
'Verona Illustrata,' has been abridged for the use of
strangers, who might find it inconvenient to travel with
the five volumes of the last MUan edition of 1826 ; but,
in truth, the curiosity of foreigners is generally monopo
lized by the ampMtheatre, and is contented with a
glance at the other Eoman remains. The double gate
way of GaUienus is much of the same merit as Ms arch
at Eome ; but I cannot say that it struck me as being
overloaded with ornament.* Bemg the first I had seen
in Italy, I read the inscription with the interest with

* " L' architettura di questa porta benche viziosa per 1' eccesso
degli ornamenti e per licenze in essa usate mostra 1' arte gia guasta
ma non perduta." — Veeona Illust. P. III. cap. 2, vol. iv. p. 72,
edit. Milan, 1826.

CiiAP.V. ARCO DI GAVL ^1
wMch any record of the masters of the Koman world
inspfred me in those days ; and when I saw the " Coss "
felt some awe, without much considering who the con
suls were and what the emperor was. The Arco di
Gavi, wMch PaUadio called " most beautiful," the work
of a period of art superior to that of Vitruvius, according
to Scammozi, was taken down by the French at their
first conquest of Lombai-dy. ]\[affei, however, terms it
part of the skeleton of an arch.*
Two of the arches of the Ponte di Pietra, wMch abut
upon the CasteUo VeccMo, are a Eoman work ; aU that
remains of the ancient theatre can only be seen inside a
house in the Piazetta del Eedentore. These and some
fragments of the old waU of GaUienus are, so far as I
am aware, the only ancient remains of a city wMch, for
relics of Eoman magmficence, has been ranked next to
Eome.t JBiit ^e Lapidario of Maffei, the successor of
the Philharmpmc Museum, wMch atteacted the attention
of MabiUon,^ has been much increased smce the death
of its iUustrious founder ; and the Atheman WUl, which
the French carried to Paris, has been restored to the
coUection. Verona, from the days of Constantine, has been the

* " Parte dello scheletro d'un arco, celebratissimo parimente
dagli architetti." — Veeon. Illus. vol. iv. p. 83.
t " E poiche Verona in maggior copia ne has conservato di qua-
lunque altra citta eccettuando Eoma." — ^Vbeon. Illus, vol. iv.
cap. 11, p. 62.
J Itee Italic, tom. 1. cap. 16. He travelled in 1685.
E 3

82 IMPORTANCE OF VERONA. Chap. V.
great bulwark of Upper Italy. That conqueror, in his
struggle for empfre, fought Ms first important battle
under its walls ; and here it was that, in 1848, the fate
of the peninsula was decided; so that, in one sense,
Verona might in these days be caUed, as she was m the
time of the ScaUgers, — " Citta ricca e nobile,
Donna e Eeina delle terre Italiche."*
When I passed some days there in 1845, every height
appeared to me crowned by a battery commanding the
city ; and I was told that the Austrians were stUl add^
ing to the defences of the citadel.

* Canzone diretta a Mastin della Scala. — Vebon. Illus. tom.iv.
cap. prim. p. 61.

Chap. VI. "S-ERONA TO MONTEBELLO. 83

CHAPTEE VL
Verona to Montebello — Vicenza — Palladian villa of Count Capra
— Olimpic Theatre — Effect of political condition on dramatic
writing — Goldoni — Modern melodrames — Condition of Italian
actors — The Sette Communi — Padua — The University —
The Bo — Tomb of Antenor — Livy — Famous natives of Padua
— St. Anthony — St. Giustina — Dondi.
The countey between Verona and MontebeUo appeared
to Burnett, nearly two centuries ago, to be better culti
vated than any other part of Italy. The merit of the
culture is not easUy determined by a passing teaveUer,
but nothing can exceed the beauty of it, nor the appa
rent richness. The vmes hang in festoons from rows of
mulberry teees, in fields of clover, and miUet, and
maize, and Other grains. The neighbouring MUs are
clothed with vmeyards and gardens to thefr summits,
and are studded with wMte viUages and vUlas, with,
here and there, an old castle, or a waUed town, upon a
distant height. The country, on the day we passed
(1816), seemed to have poured forth aU its population
into the roads. AU classes, gaily or neatly dressed,
were hurrying to the fafr at Verona ; groups of cMldren
were playing m the fields by the road-side, and one
Uttle girl was swinging on a festoon of vine tendrils
between the mulberry trees. There was nothing in the

84 VICENZA. Chap. VI.
scene to remind us that this country had been a battle
field over and over again, and, only a Uttle more than
two years ago, had been the theatre of war. Monte
bello, indeed, with its castle, did recall the victory and
the title of one of Napoleon's most favoured marshals.
From this place to the neighbourhood of Vicenza
the country is less populous and less enclosed. The
Euganean range appears on the south, whUst the dark
shadowy forms of the Trentine Alps bound the northern
horizon. Near Vicenza the wMte viUages, and gaudy
summer-houses, and battlemented waUs of gardens,
crown the summits of vine-covered, corneal eminences,
hardly to be caUed MUs. The immediate approach to
the city is tMough a suburb of detached viUas ; but the
general effect is much more pleasing than the mdividual
examination of these PaUadian abodes, where mansions
of porticoes and pediments, with an approach between
sculptured pUasters, surmounted by statues of gods and
heroes, are frequently found to be in a cabbage garden,
enclosed by four dead waUs. ViCENZA.
The author of ' Letters from the North of Italy ' says
of this place, " I saw more beggars and more palaces*

* Vicenza seems to have overflowed with nobles and powerful
families. At the end of the ' Chronicles ' of Godi, who is thought to
have written about the year 1313, three lists are given : the first, of
fifty-six families, settled in Vicenza ; the second, of twelve noble

ch-vp. VI. villjV capra. 85
here than in any other town in Italy," "We did not
find beggars m much greater force here than m other
ItaUan cities of 30,000 inhabitants. The architectural
merit of the palaces, wMch it requu-es an arcMtectural
eye to understand, is not set off by the narrowness of
the streets, made stUl narrower by arcades, nor by
the multitude of wMte tin pipes projectmg from the
eaves, nor by the number of these buUdings, which
diminishes the effect of each of them.* But the
Palazzo PubbUco (or Prefettizio), the GotMc basUica,
with PaUadian loggie, the two columns, between wMch,
as at Vemce, criminals were executed, and other
structures of the Piazza de' Signori, are grand and im
posing. I am not aware of any Eoman remains at
Vicenza, but MabUlon was shown some fragments of an
ancient ampMtheatee.t Steangers are taken to see the
vUla Capra, the prototype of PaUadian Chiswick. It is
worth a walk, and so also is the Monte Berico, with its
arcaded stations, and the sanctuary at the summit, if it

families, all of them counts, who were extinct, and scarcely remem
bered, when the list was copied from the MSS. ; the third, of
ninety-nine powerful families, many of them noble and very ancient.
Tet Vicenza seems to have been pre-eminently miserable in these
dark days. The chronicler, a noble native of the city, begins his
Proludium in these terms: — "Enarrare deliberanti miserias, aflBic-
tiones, oppressiones, clades, depopulationes, stupra, incendia, calami-
tates, et caedes quas civitas Vicentia, ejusque districtus hactenus
passa est," &c. — Ebe. Ital. Sceip. t. viii. p. 69, edit. Milan, 1726,
* The Handbook calls them Venetian Gothic.
t Iter Italic, tom. i. p. 25, cap. 17. — " Voracissima temporis
injuria Vicentina monumenta adeo attrita sunt utnunc prisci decoris
perexigua supersit notitia," said a learned Vicentine to Mabillon.

86 VICENZA. Chap. VI.
were only to enjoy the prospect of the lovely country,
and the city, and the winding river, BaccMgUone,
below. The Letters from the North of Italy have given
due praise to tMs charming scene.
The Olimpic Theatre.
TMs copy of an ancient playhouse received its name
from the Society of the OUmpici, at whose expense it
was buUt. It is not only without a rival, but without
an imitation, for Scammozzi's theatee, at Sabbionetta,
has long ceased to exist; yet every other PaUadian
structure has been copied in every country in Europe,
and such a wooden buUdmg, with its stuccoed statues
and decorations, would cost but little, and would be a
useful appendage to classical schools, and even our own
umversities. The theatre was not fimshed untU 1584,
four years after the death of PaUadio, when Vmcenzo
Scammozzi completed it, and it was opened with the
' CEdipus ' of Giustiniam. The ' Sofonisba ' of Trissino
was twice performed there; but in later times it has
been used only for balls and concerts given in honour
of the succeeding sovereigns of Italy ; — Joseph IL,
Napoleon, and Francis, enjoyed that distmction. The
records of loyalty towards the first of these Emperors
stiU disfigured, m 1822, the bases of some of the statues.
The theatee is capable of holding 2400 spectators.
Italy was, and stUl is, famous for the magnificence of
her theatees ; and dramatic writing was, and stUl is, her

Chap. VI. THE DRAMA. 87
comparatively inferior accomplishment. Her political
condition has generaUy been adduced as the sufficing
cause of this deficiency — it appears to me without reason,
for CorneUle and MoU^re were not the citizens of a free
state, nor did our own greatest dramatists live under such
institutions as we now enjoy. Indeed, even in our own
times, the stage Ucenser has had sometMng more than
nominal authority. Besides, the many communities of
Italy were not always governed despoticaUy. Macchia-
veUi could expose hypocrisy in Florence, and, in the
worst times, the writers of one state might display thefr
humour at the expense of folhes notoriously prevalent
in another. It may be added that the best comedies
may be produced without giving offence to the most
sensitive government. The ' School for Scandal,' or the
' Suspicious Husband,' would have encountered no oppo
sition from any ItaUan authority, had any ItaUan genius
been equal to the production of them. The same may
be said of teagedy, except where, m tunes of excite
ment, the representation of certain exploits, and the
expression of particular sentiments, may bear too
dfrectly upon existiog circumstances, and awaken feel
ings wMch a pmdent government would wish to lie
dormant. It is no wonder that the ' Congiura de' Pazzi '
should be a forbidden play, but the 'Mirrha,' and other
of AMeri's teagedies, which are daUy performed, show
that, where great dramatic gemus really exists, it can
easily find means for the display of aU its powers, even
witMn the Umits prescribed by despotism. Except

88 VICENZA. Chap. VI.
'Julius Csesar,' aU Shakspeare's plays might be per
formed at Vienna. The early tragic writers chose many
of the same subjects as were afterwards adopted with so
much success in England and in France. ' Mariamne,'
' Tancredi,' ' Merope,' ' Csesar,' ' Semiramis,' had ap
peared in Italy before they had triumphed beyond the
Alps. In truth, if freedom from restraint were the
cMef incentive to dramatic talent, the Italians would
excel as much in dramatic composition as in other
branches of literature, for thefr comedy abounds in
satire and sarcasm capable of personal apphcation more
than the dramas of France or England ; indeed, the
Commedia deU' arte, on which it is founded, is little
else than satfrical droUery. The cMef merit of it, as
Lord Byron observed to me, consists in telling home
truths ; but the plots are fiimsy and insigmficant, the
characters are individual and local, not specific and
general. The manners and sentiments resulting from
such plots and characters are not so much those of
nature, nor of European society, as they are artificial
and provincial, intelligible only to one sort of audience,
and in one community. The language partakes, in
some degree, of the same defect; and like inferior
EngUsh comedies, much of the humour consists in the
dialect. The half extemporary farces, now banished
from the regular stage, the masked Pantaloons of Venice,
the pasteboard Gfrolamos of MUan, might be adduced
to prove that the ItaUan gemus is not averse to merri
ment; far from it, since the broad humour of these

Chap. VI.

THE DRAMA. 89

buffooneries, wMch are frequentiy announced as " totto
DA EiDEEE," is really veiy laughable. I saw Vestris
in the 'Trumpeter,' at Venice; Listen was never
better. But Goldom, who aspfred to the real honours of the
sock, and who is generaUy thought to have obtained
them — ^he, as it appears to me, may be quoted as proof
that comedy, m the modem sense of the word, as dis
tinct from farce and tragedy, is not one of the produc
tions of ItaUan genius. Ariosto, BentivogUo, the comic
writers of Florence, with the great MaccMaveUi Mmself,
have shown how far the art was understood by the
classical dramatists of former times ; yet no one but an
Italian critic would compare the best of thefr produc
tions with the masterpieces of the French or EngUsh
school ; nor would the Italians themselves now tolerate
them on the stage. Are any of the Tuscan comedies,
are even Lasca's, ever acted in these days ? I beheve
not, any more than the Aminta or the Canace, or the
Calandria, aU of wMch, m thefr different styles, were
the wonder and the deUght of thefr day, and estabhshed
the reputation of thefr respective authors. Cesarotti, in
his letter to Dem'na, says of Sperom's play, that if
Canace is now forgotten, her contemporary sisters have
not survived her. Nor would Goldom himseU be popu
lar even now, were it not that, with all his defects, he
has not been surpassed by any native writer. But I
contend that these defects are not to be attributed to
the poUtical condition of the people for whom he wrote.

90 VICENZA. Chap. VI.
He faUs m points totaUy unconnected with such a cause,
and is tamted with those vices wMch I have afready de
scribed as characteristic of modem ItaUan comedy.*
Mr. Forsyth seems to attribute the inferiority of dra
matic composition partly to the preference given to the
opera, and partly to the degraded condition of the
Italian actor. But how was it that music came to be
preferred to the language of the stage ? and how, in a
country where dramatic imitation seems the deUght of
all classes, how was it that the professors of the his
trionic art feU mto contempt? Whatever may be the
cause of the deficiency, the ItaUans themselves seem as
sensible of it as foreigners ; and most of the plays, not
tragedies, which I have seen in Italy, were imitations or
translations from the sentimental comedies, or tales,
wMch have disgraced the hterature and infested the
stage of our own and other counteies. The half-
Mstorical, patchwork piece, a monster on the stage, and
wMch, even in romance, requires a master gemus to
make it tolerable, was attempted by Goldoni before it
became so popular in the succeeding age; but it was
seasoned with satirical allusions and mimicry, mtel-
ligible to natives but lost upon foreigners. Such is his
Torquato Tasso, written to ridicule the Tuscans, in
wMch Leonora is the mistress, not the sister, of Al-

* For the opinion given of Goldoni I would refer to a most com
petent authority, the late Stewart Rose. My friend di Breme was
of the same way of thinking, and gave mortal offence by calling him
" Panon Venetico."

Chap. VI. THE DRAMA.

91

phonso, m wMch the poet's madness is attributed to love,
and after being sent to the hospital, not for seven years,
but five mmutes, he accepts an invitation to be ci-owned
in the Capitol, and so concludes the drama. His
MoUfere is another steange perversion of personal
history. It is in rhyme, and, to say the tenth, is no
favourite with the Italians. I saw it performed at the
St. Luca Theatre, at Vemce, to an audience of just
fifty-five souls. Since the days of Goldom there have
been numberless biograpMcal dramas of a simUar kind,
and even contemporary heroes are occasionaUy inteo-
dnced, not, as with us, to help out an exhibition of
horsemansMp, but as amusements of the regular stage.
We saw Lord Exmouth bombarding Algiers to a very
crowded audience at Vemce, not long after the real
admfral had triumphed on the coast of Barbary. His
lordsMp was dressed in a jacket, with a feather in Ms
cap.* Mythological dramas, Uke operas without music,
or ballets without dancing, are very popular with them ;
to us they would be mtolerable. I have before said that
the actor is held in no honour in Italy ; in fact, he is
teeated hke a stroUer of the lowest order — his suppUca-
tions to the audience, Ms showman's picture, playhouse-
placard, Ms dress, his scenery, his benefit begging-teay
— aU bespeak the meanness of Ms condition. The

* Our friends the French put up with this miserable mock drama.
A thing, called ' Edmond Kean,' represents that great actor as rival
for some woman with the Prince of Wales, and boxing with him.

92 VICENZA. Chap. VI.
whole expenses of one of the principal theatres at
Venice, including the salaries of the actors, amounted
in one season only to three hundred pounds ; yet the
company Vestris e Vomer addressed the most bene
volent pubhc in strains of pathetic gratitude for past
favours and soUcitation for future patronage. " If there
is a happy moment ia the life of man," said one of these
placarded addresses, " it is when he revisits friends dear
to him by the recoUection of past benefits ;" but, like
true ItaUans, they frequently choose these occasions for
moraUzmg, and convert an advertisement mto a poUtical
lesson. One of the compames began their play-bUl
thus : " When Europe was divided into factions."
The favours of the audience are divided between the
actors, the author,' and the scene-pamter, each of whom
is now and then caUed for at the end of the play. On
one occasion, an ape, who had it is true been the prin
cipal personage in the drama, was obUged to appear,
and received the applause of the spectators. My valet
de place, who was standing behmd me at the time,
seemed ashamed of his feUow-countrymen, and ex-
clauned, " Oh, Popolo !"
The Olimpic Theatre, which no pains were taken to
preserve when we saw it, is hidden in an obscure lane.
The facade of Palladio's own house may be easUy over
looked near the Verona gate ; and the famous Eotunda,
before mentioned, of Count Capra, has a Uttle pot-herb
garden before one of the fronts, and is flanked by dead

Chap. VI. NEQLECT OF NATION.VL OBJECTS. 93
walls, balustraded, as it were, with dirty statues. The
PaUadian Triumphal Arch is preserved with somewhat-
more care, as it bestrides the base of the long flight of
steps leading to the Madonna of Monte Berico. Yet
PaUadio is more frequently in the mouth of the Vicen
tine guide than any other native; and even at Padua
he divides the palm with Livy.
To neglect the objects, and even the men, of whom
they are proud, has long been one of the vices of the
ItaUans, although much has been said of the splendid
pateonage of early times. The governments of the
peninsula have seldom shown much anxiety to save
either the one or the other from premature decay ; and
few mdividuals have had both the wiU and the means
to become patrons of Uving artists or guardians of thefr
masterpieces. The latter, Uke many good books that
are more often praised than read, are generaUy left to
the care of a hfreUng, who farms them as a show, and
who, to secure his daUy subsistence, only provides that
they shall last Ms time, and not faU to pieces before his
eyes. K PaUadio in his lifetime received no more sub
stantial encouragement than another great Vicentine
artist, he was as much neglected as some of his works.
Sansovino was proto-arcMtect to the empfre of St. Mark,
and his pay was just nine Venetian Ure a-week.*

* From the Pisani Papers.

94 PADTTA. Chap. VI.
The Sette Communi.
A friend of mine, whom I met on the road from
Vicenza to Padua, endeavoured to mduce me to turn
back with Mm and visit the " Sette Communi," a moun
tainous district of the Vicentine territory, inhabited by
certam Cimbrians, who talk sometMng like German —
indeed, a very poUte Teutonic dialect, if credit is to be
given to a Danish sovereign, who was deUghted with Ms
reception by them. But these Cimbrians and tMs king
of Denmark have fallen into abler hands, and Mr.
Stewart Eose has made good sport with his Majesty
Frederick the Fourth and Ms Teutonic cousms,* and I
do not much regret that I did not " seek out these
savages in thefr huts and hfred farms."
Padua.
We entered Padua by a neglected gateway, in the
midst of ruined houses. The waUs were " a world too
wide " for its shrunk population. Excepting Ferrara,
it had an afr of desolation and desertion more striking
than that of any Italian city. Without gomg back to
the old times, when the Atenorea Athenese sent 110,000
fighting men into the field, Padua was very flom-isMng
when she was the head of an independent state. TMs
was the case with most of the Italian cities so long as

Letter xxiv. from the North of Italy.

Chap. VI. THE UNIVERSITY. 95
they were governed by " detestable Uttie tyrants of tiieir
own," under different denominations, whether princes,
or lords of a councU, or popular assemblies. The spoUs
of one of the last lords of Padua, at the arsenal of
Vemce, show what happiness might be expected under
Ms rule — a spiked coUar for his captives, and a padlock
for his wife. Yet Padua long continued to be very
populous. She had, in 1816, only 25,000 inhabitants.*
The conversion of the tyrant's tower (Eccelmo) into an
observatory, has not saved either the city or the uni
versity from decay. The students of tMs most cele
brated imiversity have dwindled with the population.
They were once 18,000 ; we found them 400 ; but the
staff was kept up at its fuU complement — ^there were no
less than fifty-four professors. A residence of three
years is requfred for a law degree, and of seven for a
medical graduate. The pubhc examinations take place
in June, when from 60 to 70 students take thefr
degrees. On tMs occasion Padua is plastered with
sonnet& A student, with whom we were acquainted,
informed us that he attended tMee lectures in the fore
noon of several days in the week — one on political
economy, one on civU law, and a thfrd on general polity
or government. What use or apphcation could be the
result of the last lecture we did not ask him. The lec-

* In 1842 reckoned at 42,000 by Murray's Handbook. Tbis
authority states the students at a number fluctuating from 1500 to
2000. They must have increased greatly since our visit.

96 PADUA, Chap. VI.
tures are not compulsory. We attended one on experi
mental phUosophy in the PaUadian Bo — the Academical
Palace^ The students clapped thefr hands at the con^
elusion of the lecture. We did not thmk the inner
cortUe, in itself a beautiftil buUding, improved by the
escutcheons of the former members of the university,
wMch are hung round the waUs and on the ceiUng.
Our student showed me the tomb of Antenor, the
Trojan founder of Padua, without the sUghtest mdica-
tion of want of faith. The sarcophagus is GotMc aU
over. The sepulcMal slab ascribed to the patron
heathen saint of Padua does, in fact, belong to a freed-
man of Lily's fourth daughter ; but tradition has given
authenticity to the bust of the great Mstorian ; and one
of the arms belonging to the skeleton discovered in
1413, and recognised as bemg the mortal remaias of
Titus Livius, was presented by the city to Alphonso IV.
of Naples, at the suggestion of Panormita, the Venetian
ambassador ; so records an inscription over the tomb in
the great pubUc haU called the Palazzo deUa Eazione,
a noble structure. We asked who built it ; our guide
said " Livio." *
But Livy and Antenor are not the only boasts of
Padua. Contiguous to the church of St. Giustina,
round an oval cavity, the site of an ancient amphi
theatre, are placed a series of freestone statues, many of

* See Murray's Handbook for a description of this hall, the work
of Frate Giovanni.

Chap. VI. CHARACTER OF TIIE PAPUANS. 97
them representing Paduans, from Livy downwards, all
well kno\vn in their native territory, but many never
heard of beyond the terra firma provinces of the Most
Serene EepubUc. AMien Demna, m 1795, published his
discourse, addressed to the BerUn Academy m 1793, in
which he confined the merits of the Paduans to the
probity of the men and the chastity of the women, " a
sort of bonhommie, the effect of a fat soU and a heavy
afr," Cesarotti indignantiy repelled the slander, and in
a long letter to the Abate endeavoured to show that the
wealth of his feUow citizens had not made them more
stupid nor less vaUant than thefr neighbours, and the
poet produced a formidable list of Patavinian heroes,
such as Giannino di Peragra, " riguardato come I'AcMUe
di Padova," and Arquano Buzzacarino, "ancor piii
famoso," whom Denma had shamefully overlooked.
The letter is found m the fourth volume of Cesarotti's
collected works,* and is an amusing specimen of ItaUan
provinciality : but, in truth, Denina was unjust — he had
no right to forget that Davila was a Paduan.
If the students of tMs once famed university could be
made restless by the images of thefr forefathers, they
might, m the Prato della VaUe, pass many hours of
sleepless meditation on the many roads to human glory.
But example is lost where imitation is dangerous ; and
even under the Venetian republic distinction could very
seldom be gained, except by a Patrician. At this day
the statues of the Prato would be scarcely noticed, were

* P. 349, edit. Milan.
VOL. I.

98 CANOVA. Chap. VI.
not two of them the work of Canova. Eight years
had elapsed between the first production of tMs great
sculptor, the Basket of Fruit, on the Stafrcase of
the Farsetti Palace, at Venice, and the statue of the
Marchese Poleni (the correspondent of Newton),
wMch adorns the Prato ; and tiie interval had been em
ployed on works, one of wMch, at least, gave promise
of Ms future fame. Indeed, the Pisani Dsedalus and
Icarus, produced in 1779, had afready received the
applause of Eome. The Poleni was sculptured in 1780.
Cicognara, in Ms funeral oration on Canova, caUs it a
juvenUe work. It does not seem the work of the same
hand that had, the year before, produced the Dsedalus.
The surpassing exceUence of Canova is not, perhaps,
to be sought for m his representations of the real human
figure. There he was surpassed by many who were
infinitely mferior to Mm m the Mgher efforts of the art.
When his originals remmded Mm of the nymph-Uke
voluptuous forms wMch were congemal to his imagina
tion, Ms portraits were masterpieces of elegance and
beauty ; and where his Uving subjects, as with Napoleon
and his august mother, enabled him to copy the antique,
he was eminently successful ; but, with these exceptions,
I know of no bust, and there are many of them, nor fuU-
length figure, of tMs renowned artist, not even his Popes
of the Vatican, in wMch he showed himself to be at the
head of Ms profession ia portraiture.* In tMs branch of

* Cicognara, indeed, extols the Eezzonico of St. Peter's as a perfect
imitation of real nature ; but the sleeping lion is generally preferred
to the supplicating Pope.

Cuap. VI. STA. GIUSTINA. 99
sculpture he was occasionaUy below the ordinary run of
artists. Witness Ms Mdeous Ferdinand, in the StudU at
Naples ; an unhappy subject, it is true, but something
better might have been made even of tMs monstrous
monarch. The celebrated adopted saint of Padua (il Santo, as he
is caUed) has maintained his worship in the great
church,* where Ms chapel is rich in sculpture and in
reUcs. Of the latter there are more than 700 in one
case. His tongue and Ms hand-Avriting are kept apart,
also the glass with which Anthony broke a stone, in
proof of his mfraculous power.
The great Benedictine estabUshment at the much
admfred Sta. Giustina, although it had lost the greater
part of its wealth, stUl (in 1816) educated 300 young
men for the priesthood. The Ubrary was stUl rich in
first editions, and the librarian seemed well qualified for
the care of such treasures. He dwelt with much deUght
on the detection of the surreptitious Pine's ' Horace,'
and of the false DelpMn ' Cicero,' both of them more
fatally correct than the faulty originals. In the pseudo
Horace, on a medal of Csesar, the mistake " post est "
was corrected to "potest," and m the Cicero's philo-
sopMcal treatises, page 76 was foUowed by page 77, and
not by page 78, as in the authentic copy. The hbrarian

* See the xxist plate, representing San Antonio of Padua, in the
Ecclesiastical Architectuee of Italy. Tho contiguous eques
trian statue of Brasmo di Nami, the condottiere, by Donatello, is
justly criticised by the Handbook, p. 312.
F 2

100 THE DONDI FAMILY. Chap. VI.
showed us an autograph letter from Petrarch to Dondi,
in which the poet seems to have been singularly precise,
not only in Ms style, but Ms hand -writing, wMch is
elegant and accurate to the last degree. The margin
contains a few corrections, for wMch he apologises in the
opening sentence.
The great astronomical clock, which procured for
Giacomo Dondi the correspondence of Petrarch, and
gave him and his famUy a title, was removed from
Padua to Bologna, and from Bologna to Madrid, but it
has been restored to the tower in the Piazza de' Signori.
The Dondi family has produced merit of almost every
description. Lucrezia Dondi deU' Orologio, wife of
Piero Enea degli Obizzi, more than rivaUed the fame of
her Eoman namesake, for she saved her chastity, though
she lost her Ufe. Cesarotti asks Denina whether thera
is not something more than " bonhommie " in this.*

* The reader may not dislike to see a specimen of Cesarotti's
Patavinity. The Abate Conti, a personage with whom the English
literati of the early part of the last century were well acquainted,
but whose renown has not been increased by time,' is described by
Cesarotti in the following terms : — " Quest' uomo poteva dirsi archi-
vista, segretario e ministro dell' Enciclopedia, nato ad aprir un com
mercio libro fra le provinoie le piu disparate dello scibile, a illumi-
narle 1' una per F altra, e a formarne uno solo stato, animandolo del
medesimo spirito. Fisico, matematico, metafisico, leterato nel sense
piu ampio e legittimo egli possedeit le viste del Verulamio, la
eiiidizione ragionata di Bayle, la sottigliezza e profondita di Lebniz-
zio, la scienza di Newton, il genio e la fantasia di Platone." —
(Cesarotti, Lett, all' Ab. Denina, Op., vol. iv. p. 400, edit. Milan.)

Chap. VII. APPROACH TO VENICE. 101

CHAPTEE VIL
The Banks of the Brenta — Venice.
The river looks like a canal between Mgh banks, and
is not easUy distmguished from one or two artificial
steeams, equaUy large, that mtersect the Paduan flats.
Innumerable viUas, and now and then a gondola,
announce the approach to the capital. A Uttle beyond
the post towTi of Dole, the road, a noble work of the
French government,* leaves the banks of the river, and
leads to Mestee, the principal port on the Great Lagune.
Here, late in a November evening (m 1816), we got
mto a large gondola, and pushed off for Vemce. We
had just Ught enough to see on our left the fortifications
raised by Napoleon, and havmg deUvered up our pass
ports at a guard house, and after bemg stopped by a
Custom House boat, we rowed on between low embank
ments, and long Unes of stakes, for nearly an hour and
a half, untU we found ourselves amongst the Ughts
wMch we had, for some time, seen at a distance ; and,
tMough the loopholes of our black cabiu, we discerned

* I traversed, in 1845, this tract by the railroad, which has ren
dered this work useless — I mean the road, and perhaps might add
the description of it.

102 ARRIVAL AT VENICE. Chap. VII.
that we were gliding under lofty buUdfrigs, by the side
of long quays. The echoes of our oars told us we were
under a bridge, and one of our boatmen exclaimed
" The Eialto !" We soon landed. Our hotel was a
palace in decay (Mr. Simond has given a plan of it),
with a magmficent marble stafrcase, a vast saloon, and
numerous apartments, of faded frescoes, dusky gUding,
and sUk hangmgs m tatters. SimUar symptoms of the
recent rum of tMs extraordinary state were, as we after
wards found, to be seen m every quarter of the city.
The pictures of Vemce wMch represent the Piazzetta
or any of the great quays do not convey a correct idea
of the detaUs or even of the general appearance of this
smgular city. I found myself mistaken m supposing
there were footways on the sides of aU the canals. You
may, from the back of most houses, and sometimes from
the front, step from the hall door mto your boat at once,
and may row tMough the city almost the whole day
without suspectmg there are any streets m it ;• or you
may wander tMough innumerable lanes and narrow
aUeys Uke the courts of commumcation between some of
our great London thorougMares, without coming upon a
smgle canal or seeing the water once. The view from
the great belfry does not show any of the water steeets,
for so they may be caUed — they are not canals.
The arcaded square of St. Mark, and the mosque-Uke
cathedral, and the palace of the Doge, and the tall
belfiy, and the long red flag staffs stripped of the
ensigns of the tMee tributary kingdoms, the Athenian

Chap. VII. BRIDGE OF SIGHS— POZZL 103
columns, and the Quay ofthe Piazzetta — these are kno'wu
by a thousand pictures, wMch render them almost as
famUiar to our imagination as to a native resident. But
no peneU can paint the scene, wMch I have so often
beheld from the shores of the Lido, when the sun pours
Ms last rays upon innumerable domes, and palaces,
and towers, floating, as it were, on the bosom of the
water, and long after he has sunk behmd the cupola of
St. George, leaves his cold purple Ught upon the distant
snow-alps and far seen promontories of Istria.
Venice.
I remained m Venice from November to December,
1816, rejoined Lord Byron at his vUla of La Mira on
the banks of the Brenta in July, 1817, and thence,
after some weeks, removed to Vemce, where I remamed
untU Febmary, 1818.
I revisited Vemce m 1826 and 1845, and I subjoin
some notices either coUected during those visits, or sug
gested by references to au'thors who have treated of the
same subject.
The Bridge of Sighs. — The Pozzi.*
The commumcation between the Ducal palace and
the prisons of Vemce is by a gloomy bridge, or covered

* Of this my account of the prisons, the contributor to Murray's
' Handbook of Northern Italy ' is pleased to say that the Pozzi " cor
respond ¦with the well-known and accurate description given by
Lord Byron." The great poet did not write any of the notes to
the 4th canto of Childe Harold, except three or four short ones.

104 BRIDGE OF SIGHS— POZZI. Chap. VII.
gaUery, Mgh above the water, and divided by a stone
waU mto a passage and a ceU. The state dungeons,
called " Pozzi," or weUs, were sunk in the tMck walls of
the palace ; and the prisoner when taken out to die was
conducted across the gaUery to the other side, and bemg
then led back into the other compartment, or ceU, upon
the bridge, was there strangled. The low portal tMough
wMch the criminal was taken into this ceU is now waUed
up ; but the passage is stUl open, and is stUl kno-wn by
the name of the Bridge of Sighs. The Pozzi are under
the flooring of the chamber at the foot of the bridge.
They were formerly twelve, but on the first arrival of
the French, the Venetians hastUy blocked or broke up
the deeper of these dungeons. You may stUl, however,
descend by a trap-door, and crawl down tMough holes,
half choked by rubbish, to the depth of two stories below
the first range. If you are in want of consolation for
the extinction of patrician power, perhaps you may find it
there ; scarcely a ray of light glimmers into the narrow
gaUery wMch leads to the cells, and the places of con
finement themselves are totaUy dark. A small hole m
the waU admitted the damp afr of the passages, and
served for the mtroduction of the prisoner's food. A
wooden paUet, raised a foot from the ground, was the
only furmture. The conductors teU yoii that a Ught
was not aUowed. The ceUs are about five paces in
length, two and a half ia -width, and seven feet m height.
They are dfrectly beneath one another, and respfration
is somewhat difficult in the lower holes. Only one

Chap. VII. THE POZZI. 105
prisoner was found when the repubUcans descended into
these Mdeous recesses, and he is said to have been con
fined sixteen years.* But the mmates of the dungeons
beneath had left traces of thefr repentance, or of thefr
despafr, wMch are stUl visible, and may perhaps owe
something to recent ingenuity. Some of the detained
appear to have offended agamst, and others to have
belonged to, the sacred body, not only from their signa
tures, but from the churches and belfries wMch they
have scratched upon the walls. The reader may not
object to see a specimen of the records prompted by so
terrific a soUtude. As nearly as they could be copied
by more than one pencU, tMee of them are as
foUows : —

NON TI FIDAB AD ALCUNO PENSA e TACI
SE FUGIE -VaOI DE SPIONI INSIDIB 6 LACCI
IL PENTIETI PENTIBTI NULLA GIOVA
ILA BEN DI VALOR TUO LA VERA PROVA
1607. ADI 2. GENAHO. FUI RE-
TENTO P' LA BESTIEMMA P' AVER DATO
DA MANZAR A UN MORTO
lACOMO . GRITTI. SCBISSE.

* He was a murderer. • Mr. Simond, who was in Italy in 1817,
but whose book was published only in 1828, tells a strange story of
this man's liberation. He was alarmed, and, it seems, angry at his
removal ; was caressed by the French ; paraded through the city ;
but endured his painful freedom only four days, for ho then died
of fresh air. Tbis is very like the story told in Goldsmith's
Essays. (1858.)
F 3

106 THE POZZI. Chap. Vli.
2.
UN parlar pocho et
NEGAEE PRONTO et
UN pensar al fine puo dare la vita
a NOI altri meschini 1605
ego iohn baptista ad
ECCLESIAM COBTELLAEIUS.

DB CHI Ml FIDO GUARDAMI DIO
DE CHI NON MI FIDO MI GUARDARO 10.
-^ la Sta CH. K'. RKA.
The copyist has foUowed, not corrected, the original
letters, wMch were e-vidently scratched in the dark. I
presume that Bestemmia and Mangiar may be read in
the first inscription, wMch was probably 'written by some
prisoner confined for an act of impiety at a fiineral.
CorteUarius is the name of a parish on the Terra Firma,
and the last imtials are e-vidently put for Viva la Santa
CMesa KattoUca Eomana.
In a book called 'Medicma Forense,' of wMch an
edition was published in 1801, I saw Rules for Tor
turing, which it would be supposed were put into prac
tice up to the last days of the EepubUc. On inquiry,
however, I found that torture had been discontinued for
thirty years before that period. The monsteous codes of
the Inquisitors of State, an organized system of social
treachery and murder, wMch Darn first made pubhc,
had become a dead letter long before the downfaU of
Venice. It would be a Ubel on human nature to beUeve

Cuap. VII. THE GONDOLIER'S SONG. 107
that this famous EepubUc owed its long Ufe to the
observance of these maxims of blood — yet Paul Sarpi
was e-ndentiy of that opimon.
The Gondolier's Song.
The weU known song of the gondohers, of alternate
stanzas, from Tasso's -Jerusalem,' has died with the
mdependence of Vemce. Editions of the poem, with
the original on one column and the Venetian variations
on the other, as sung by the boatmen, were once
common, and are stUl to be found. The foUo-wing ex
tract wiU serve to show the difference between the
Tuscan epic and the ' Cauta aUa Barcariola.'
Original.
" Canto 1' arme pietose, e '1 capitano
Che 1 gran Sepolcro liberb di Cristo.
Molto egli oprb col senno, e con la mano
Molto soffri nel glorioso acquisto ;
E in van 1' Inferno a lui s' oppose, e in vano
S' aiino d' Asia, e di Libia il popol misto,
Che il Ciel gli die fa vore, e sotto a i Santi
Segni ridusse i suoi compagni errant). "
Venetian.
" L' arme pietose de cantar gho vogia,
E de Goiiredo la immortal braura
Che al fin 1' ha libera co strassia, e dogia
Del nostro buon Gesii la Sepoltura
De mezo mondo unito, e de quel Bogia
Missier Pluton no 1' ha bu mai paura :
Dio r ha agiuta, e i compagni sparpagnai
Tutti '1 gh' i ha messi insieme i di del Dai."

108 GONDOLIERS. , Chap. VII.
Some of the elder gondoUers wiU, however, take up
and continue a stanza of their once famUiar bard.
On the 7th of January^ 1817, Lord Byron and I rowed
to the Lido with two singers, one of whom was a car
penter, and the other a gondoUer. The former placed
Mmself at the prow, the latter at the stem of the boat.
A Uttle after leaving the quay of the Piazzetta, they
began to sing, and contmued thefr song untU we
arrived a;t the island. They gave us, amongst other
essays, the Death of Clorinda, and the Palace of Armida ;
and did not sing the Venetian, but the Tuscan verses.
The carpenter, however, who was the cleverer of the
two, and was frequently obUged to prompt Ms com-
pamon, told us that he could translate the original. He
added, that he could smg almost three hundred stanzas,
but had not spirits (morbin was the word he used) to
leam any more, or to smg what he afready knew : a
man must have idle time on his hands to acqufre, or to
repeat, and, said the poor feUow, " look at my clothes
and at me — I am starving." This speech was more
affecting than Ms performance, wMch habit alone can
make attractive. The recitative was sMUl, screaming,
and monotonous, and the gondoUer behind assisted his
voice by holding Ms hand to one side of his mouth.
The carpenter used a quiet action, wMch he eyidentiy
endeavoured to restram ; but was too much mterested
in his subject altogether to repress. From these men
we learned that singing is not confined to the gondoUers,
and that, although the chant is seldom, if ever, volun-

Chap. VII. LION AND HORSES OF ST. MARK. 109
taxy, there are stiU severtd amongst the lower cla,sses
who are acquainted with a few stanzas.
It does not appear that it is usual for the performers
to row aud sing at the same time. Although the verses
of the - Jerusalem ' are no longer casuaUy heard, there
is yet much music upon the Venetian canals ; and on
hoUdays, those strangers who are not near or informed
enough to distmguish the words, may fancy that many
of the gondolas stiU resound -with the strains of Tasso.
The Lion and Horses of St. IVIaek.
The hon has lost notMng by his journey to the In-
vaUdes, except the gospel wMch supported the paw that
is now on a level -with the other foot. The horses also,
after no more serious accident than the breakmg of a
leg, are returned to the Ul-chosen spot whence they set
out, and are, as before, half Mdden under the porch
-wmdow of St. Mark's church.
Thefr history, after a desperate struggle, has been
satisfactorily explored. The decisions and doubts of
Erizzo and Zanetti, and lastiy, of the Count Leopold
Cicognara, would have given them a Eoman extraction,
and a pedigree not more ancient than the reign of Nero.
But M. de ScUegel stepped m to teach the Venetians
the value of thefr own teeasures, and a Greek vindicated,
at last and for ever, the pretension of Ms countrymen to
this noble production.* Mr. Mustoxidi has not been left

* Sui quattro cavalli della Basilica di S. Marco in Venezia. Let
tera di Andrea Mustoxidi Corcirese. Padua, per Bettoni e com-

110 HORSES OF ST. MARK. Chap. VH.
without a reply ; but, as yet, he has received no answer.
It should seem that the horses are frrevocably CMan,
and were transferred to Constantmople by Theodosius.*
Lapidary -writing is a favourite play of the ItaUans, and
has conferred reputation on more than one of thefr hte
rary characters. One of the best specimens of Bodom's
typography is a respectable volume of inscriptions, aU
written by his friend Pacciaudi. Several were prepared
for the recovered horses. It is to be hoped the best was
not selected, when the foUowmg words were ranged in
gold letters above the cathedral porch. -f-
" QUATUOR . EQUORUM . SIGNA . A . VENETIS . BYZANTlO . CAPTA .
AD . TEMP . D . MAR . A . R . S. MCCtV . POSITA . QU.aE . HOSTILIS .
CUPIDITAS . A . MDCCIIIC . ABSTULERAT . FRANC . I . IMP . PACIS . ORBI .
DATiE . TROPH.ffiUM . A . MDOCOXV - VICTOR . EBDUXIT."
Nothing shaU be said of the Latin, but it may be
permitted to observe, that the mjustice of the Venetians
in transporting the horses from Constantmople was at
least equal to that of the French m carrying them to
Paris, and that it would have been more prudent to have
avoided aU allusions to either robbery. An apostoUc

pag. . . . 1816. I am surprised that so well-informed a writer- as
the contributor ofthe article on Venice to Murray's 'Handbook'
should still adhere to the hypothesis of Cicognara.
* Mr. Mustoxidi told me that he owed his discovery to a hint
in Ducange's ' Glossary.'
t Canova endeavoured to persuade the Emperor to choose another
site for the horses, but his Imperial Majesty, after eight days' con
sideration, and a visit to the belfry of St. Mark, decided upon
restoring them to the porch, saying there was something in " an old
position."

Chap. VII. HORSES OF ST. MARK.. Ill
prince should, perhaps, have objected to affixing over
the principal enteance of a metropohtan church an
inscription having a reference to any other triumphs
than those of reUgion. Nothmg less than the pacifi
cation of the world can excuse such a solecism.
We find from the foUowing narrative that these horses
were, m early times, the emblem, as it were, and the
token of Venetian pride : —
After the loss of the battie of Pola, and the taking of
CMoza on the 16th of August, 1379, by the umted
armament of the Genoese and Francesco da Carrara,
Signor of Padua, the Venetians were reduced to the
utmost despafr. An embassy was sent to the con
querors with a blank sheet of paper, praying them to
prescribe what terms they pleased, and leave to Vemce
only her independence. The Prince of Padua was
inclined to listen to these proposals, but the Genoese,
who, after the -victory at Pola, had shouted, " to Vemce,
to Vemce, and long Uve St. George ! " determmed to
annihUate thefr rival, and Peter Doria, thefr commander-
in-cMef, returned this answer to the suppliants : " On
God's faith, gentlemen of Vemce, ye shaU have no
peace from the Signor of Padua, nor from om- com
mune of Genoa, untU we have first put a rein upon
those unbridled horses of yours, that are upon the porch
of your evangelist St. Mark. WUd as we may find
them, we wiU soon make them stand stUl. And this
is the pleasure of us and of our commune. As for
"these my brothers of Genoa, that you have brought

112 HORSES OF ST. MARK. Chap. VII.
'with you to give up to us, I 'wiU not have them : take
them back ; for, in a few days hence, I shaU come and
let them out of prison myself, both these and aU the
others."* In fact the Genoese did advance as far -as
Malamocco, -witMu five mUes of the capital ; but thefr
own danger and the pride of thefr enemies gave courage to
the Venetians, who made prodigious efforts, and many
individual sacrifices, aU of them carefuUy recorded by
thefr Mstorians. Vettor Pisani was put at the head of
thfrty-fom- gaUeys. The Genoese broke up from Mala
mocco, and retfred to CMoza in October; but they
again tMeatened Vemce, wMch was reduced to ex
tremities. At this time, the 1st of January, 1380,
arrived Carlo Zeno, who had been cruising on the
Genoese coast -with fourteen galleys. The Venetians
were now strong enough to besiege the Genoese. Doria
was kUled on the 22nd of January by a stone buUet
195 pounds weight, discharged from a bombard caUed
the Tre-visan. CMoza was then closely invested : 5000
auxiUaries, amongst whom were some EngUsh Condot
tieri, commanded by one Captam Ceccho, joined the

* " Alia ffe di Dio, Signori Veneziani, non havarete mai pace dal
Signore di Padoua, ne dal nostro commune di Genova, se primiera-
mente non mettemo le briglie a quelli vostri cavalli sfrenati, che
sono su la lieza del Vostro Bvangehsta S. Marco. Imbrenati che gli
havremo, vi faremo stare in buona pace. E questa e la intenzione
nostra, e del nostro commune. Questi miei fratelli Genovesi che
havete menati con voi per donarci, non li voglio ; rimanetegli in
dietro perche io intendo da qui a pochi giorni venirgli a riscuoter
dalle vostre prigioni, e loro e gli altri."

Chap. VII. BARBAROSSA AND POPE ALEXANDER. 113
Venetians. The Genoese, in thefr turn, prayed for con
ditions, but none were granted, until, at last, they sur
rendered at discretion ; and, on the 24th of June, 1380,
the Doge Contarim made Ms teiumphid entry into
CMoza. Four thousand prisoners, mneteen gaUeys,
many smaUer vessels and barks, with aU the ammum-
tion and arms, and outfit of the expedition, fell into the
hands of the conquerors, who, had it not been for the
inexorable answer of Doria, would have glacUy reduced
thefr own domimon to the city of Vemce. An account
of these teansactions is found in a work called the ' War
of CMoza,' written by Darnel CMnazzo, who was in
Vemce at the time.*
The RECONCILIATION BETWEEN FeEDERIC BaR-
BAROSSA AND POPE ALEXANDER.
The porch of St. Mark's church, surmounted by the
horses, was the scene of the most exteaordinary perhaps
of aU the events wMch have Ulustrated the early periods
of Venetian history.
After many vam efforts on the part of the ItaUans
entfrely to tMow off the yoke of Frederic Barbarossa,
and as fruitless attempts of the Emperor to make himself
absolute master tMoughout the whole of Ms Cisalpme
dominions, the bloody struggles of four and twenty
years were happUy brought to a close in the city of

* Chronaca della guerra di Chioza, &c. — Scrip. Ber. Ital. tom. xv.
pp. 699 to 804.

114 BARBAROSSA AND ALEXANDER. Chap. VII.
Venice. The articles of a treaty had been previously
agreed upon between Pope Alexander III. and Barba
rossa, and the former having received a safe-conduct,
had already arrived at Vemce from Ferrara, in company
with the ambassadors of the King of SicUy and the
Consuls of the Lombard league. There stUl remained,
however, many points to adjust, and for several days the
peace was beUeved to be impracticable. At this juncture
it was suddenly reported that the Emperor had arrived
at CMoza, a town fifteen mUes from the capital. The
Venetians rose tumultuously, and msisted upon imme
diately conductmg Mm to the city. The Lombards took
the alarm, and departed towards Trcviso. The Pope
himself was apprehensive of some disaster if Frederic
should suddenly advance upon Mm, but was reassured
by the prudence and address of Sebastian Ziam, the
doge. Several embassies passed between CMoza and the
capital, untU, at last, the Emperor, relaxing somewhat of
Ms pretensions, " laid aside his leonine ferocity, and put
on the mUdness of the lamb."*
On Saturday the 23rd of July, m the year 1 177, sIk
Venetian galleys transferred Frederic, m great pomp,
from CMoza to the island of Lido, a mile from Venice.
Early the next mormng the Pope, accompanied by the
SicUian a.mbassadors, and by the envoys of Lombardy,

* " Quibus auditis, imperator, operante eo, qui corda prinoipum
sicut vult et quando vult humiliter inclinat, leonina feritate deposita,
ovinam mansuetudinem inAviit." ~ Bomualdi Salernitani Chroni
con, apud Script. Ber. Ital. tom. vii. p. 229.

Chap. VII. BARBAROSSA AND ALEXANDER. 115
whom he had recalled from tiie main land, together
with a great concourse of people, repafred from the
patriarchal palace to St Mark's church, and solemnly
absolved the Emperor and his partisans from the excom
munication pronounced against him. The ChanceUor of
the Empfre, on the part of his master, renounced the
antipopes and their schismatic adherents. Immediately
the Doge, 'with a great suite both of the clergy and laity,
got on board the galleys, and waitmg on Frederic,
rowed Mm m mighty state from the Lido to the capital.
The Emperor descended from the gaUey at the quay of
the Piazzetta. The Doge, the pateiarch, Ms bishops and
clergy, and the people of Vemce 'with thefr crosses and
thefr standai-ds, marched m solemn procession before
biTTi to the church of St. Mark's, Alexander was
seated before the vestibule of the basiUca, attended by
his bishops and cardinals, by the patriarch of AquUeja,
by the archbishops and bishops of Lombardy, aU of
them in state, and clothed m thefr church robes.
Frederic approached — " moved by the Holy Spirit,
venerating the Almighty m the person of Alexander,
laying aside his imperial digmty, and tMowing off Ms
mantie, he prosteated himself at fuU length at the feet
of the Pope. Alexander, 'with tears m Ms eyes, raised
bim bemgnantly from the ground, kissed him, blessed
him ; and immediately the Germans of the teain sang,
with a loud voice, ' We praise thee, 0 Lord.' The Em
peror then taking the Pope by the right hand, led him
to the church, and having received Ms benediction, re-

116 BARBAROSSA AND ALEXANDER. Chap. VII.
turned to the ducal palace."* The ceremony of humUia-
tion was repeated the next day. The Pope himself, at
the request of Frederic, said mass at St. Mark's. The
Emperor agam laid aside his imperial mantle, and,
taking a wand in his hand, officiated as verger, dri-ying
the laity from the chofr, and preceding the pontiff to the
altar. Alexander, after recititig the gospel, preached to
the people. The Emperor put himseK close to the pulpit
in the attitude of listening ; and the pontiff, touched by
tMs mark of his attention, for he knew that Frederic did
not understand a word he said, commanded the patriarch
of AquUeja to teanslate the Latm discourse mto the
German tongue. The creed was then chanted. Frederic
made his oblation and kissed the Pope's feet, and, mass
bemg over, led Mm by the hand to Ms white horse. He
held the stirrup, and would have led the horse's rein to
the water side, had not the Pope accepted of the inclina
tion for the performance, and affectionately dismissed
Mm with his benediction. Such is the substance of the
account left by the archbishop of Salerno, who was
present at the ceremony, and whose story is confirmed
by every subsequent narration. It would not be worth
so minute a record, were it not the triumph of Uberty as
well as of superstition. The states of Lombardy ovred
to it the confirmation of thefr pri-vUeges ; and Alexander
had reason to thank the Almighty, who had enabled an
infirm old man to subdue a terrible and potent sovereign.

* Chronicon, etc., tom. vii. p. 231.

Chap. VII. HENRY DAXDOLO. 117
Daxdolo.
From the tropMes of the East wMch enrich tiirough
aU its details the church of St. Mark's, we turn our re
flections towards the hero whose name is identified with
our earUest impressions of Venetian glory. Henry
Dandolo, when elected doge in 1192, was eighty-five
years of age. TVhen he commanded the Venetians at
the takmg of Constantinople, he was, consequently,
ninety-seven years old. At tMs age he annexed the
fourth and a half of the whole empire of Eomania,* for
so the Eoman empfre was then called, to the title and
territories of the Venetian Doge ; the three-eighths of
this empfre were preserved in the diplomas untU the
dogeship of Giovanni Dolfino, who made use of the
above designation m the year 1357.
Dandolo led the attack on Constantmople in person :
two sMps, the " Paradise" and the " PUgrim," were tied
together, and a drawbridge or ladder let down from their
Mgher yards to the waUs. The doge was one of the first

* Gibbon has omitted the important cb, and has written Poraani
instead of Romanise. — (Decline and Fall, cap. Ixi. note 9.) But the
title acquired by Dandolo runs thus, in the Chronicle of his name
sake the Doge Andrew Dandolo : — " Ducali Titulo addidit — Quarts
partis et Dimidiae totius Imperii 'B.omaxAsi" (And. Dan. Chron.
cap. iii. pars xxxvii. ; ap. Scrip. Ber. Ital. tom. xii. p. 331) ; and
the Romaniae is observed in the subsequent acts of the Doge. Indeed,
the continental possessions of the Greek empire in Europe were then
generally known by the name of Eomania, and that appellation is
still seen in the maps of Turkey as applied to Thrace.

118 DECAY OF VENICE. Chap. VII.
to rush into the city. Then was completed, said the
Venetians, the prophecy of the Erytlirsean sibyl : — " A
gathering together of the powerful shall be made amidst
the waves of the Adriatic, under a blmd leader ; they
shaU beset the goat — they shaU profane Byzantium —
they shall blacken her buUdings — ^her spoils shall be
dispersed ; a new goat shall bleat untU they have mea
sured out and run over fifty-four feet, nme inches, and a
haE" *
Dandolo died on the first day of June, 1205, having
reigned thirteen years, sIk months, and five days, and
was buried in the church of St. SopMa at Constantinople.
Steangely enough it sounds that the name of the rebel
apothecary who received the doge's sword, and played
so conspicuous a part in the downfall of the ancient
government in 1796-7, was Dandolo.
Decay of Venice.
That a dehberate project should have been formed to
hasten the ruin of such a city as Vemce seems scarcely
credible ; but it was almost umversally beUeved, in 1817,
by the Venetians themselves, and some hmts were given
to us that means more speedy than mere neglect were

* " Piet potentium in aquis Adriaticis congregatio, caoo produce.
Hiroum ambigent. Byzantium prophanabant, aadificia denigrabunt.
Spolia dispergentur. Hircus novus balabit usque dum liv. pedes et
ix. pollioes et semis prasmensurati discurrant." — Chronicon, iUA.
pars xxxiv.

Chap. WI. DECAY OF VENICE. 119
to be employed for this purpose. Two sMps had been
burnt m the arsenal ; the great Cornaro Palace had been
destroyed by fire ; stores almost mflammable had been
deposited m many government buUdings; and it was
remarked that when these fires took place, no effort
was made to extinguish them — a neglect wliich, how
ever, was accounted for by assertmg that the Germans
thought salt water mflammable, — and tMs they m-
ferred from the Government having sunk a weU m
the island of St. George, an artificial bank of mud and
stones.* Even after Vemce had lost her independence, her
commerce, if encouraged, might have served to prolong
her existence ; and a generous pohcy might have kept
ahve that spirit of enterprise wMch is sometimes to be
found amongst the subjects of an enhghtened despotism.
But Trieste exhausted all the commercial gemus of the
Austrian cabmet. There was not enough and to spare
for another great maritime possession ; and the -wise al
ternative seemed to be the immediate supply of the
Austrian teeasury by the impoverishment of the Venetian
states. The old revenue of aU these pro-rinces, mcluding
the capital, was stated to be about 26,000,000 of francs.
Austria, ia 1822, drew twelve mUUons from Vemce
alone, and at the same time laid a hea-vy impost upon
every article produced, even on the neighbouring terra
firma. The commonest wiaes of Padua paid eighteen

See Letters from the North of Italy.

120 DECAY OF VENICE. Chap. VII.
francs a-barrel. The taxation under the French was
equaUy Mgh; but the commercial regulations were so
different, that there was more trade during the blockade
by the English sMps-of-war than afterwards, under that
of the Custom-house officers. With less means for pur-
chasmg the most essential articles of life, the Venetians
then paid, m many instances, more than double for those
necessaries ; and even oU had risen one-half in price.
The produce of the taxes m the time of the French was
m great part expended m the city or in the state : four
thousand workmen were employed in the arsenal alone.
The number employed m that estabUshment in 1817 was
one thousand, and in 1822 only two hundred and fifty.
AU the good money received as taxes was sent to Vienna,
the salaries and wages of workmen employed by govern
ment were paid m base Austrian coin.
The population of Vemce at the end of the seventeenth
century amounted to nearly two hundred thousand souls;
in 1788 it had decUned to one hundred and fifty thou
sand. At the census taken ih 1815 it was no more than
about one hundred and tMee thousand, and it was dimi
nishing daUy. The commerce and the official employ
ments, wMch were to be the unexhausted source of Vene
tian grandeur, had both expfred.* The Celsi, the Comari,

* " Nonnullorum 6 nobilitate immensa? sunt opes, adeo ut vix
sestimari possint : id quod tribus e rebus oritur, parsimonia, com
mercio, atque iis emolumentis, quas fe Eepub. percipiunt, quse hanc
ob causam diuturna fore creditur." — See de Principatibus Italice,
Tractatus. edit. 1631. .

Chap. VII. REMNANTS OP THE NOBILITY. 121
the MarceUi, undoubted cMldren of the Maru, the Cor-
neUi, the MarceUi of Eome, were but vain names.* Most
of the patrician mansions were deserted, and would have
gradually disappeared, had not the government, alarmed
by the demohtion of seventy-two durmg the last two
years, expressly forbidden this sad resource of poverty.
Many remnants of the Venetian nobUity were scat
tered and confounded with the wealtMer Jews upon the
banks of the Brenta. Thefr PaUadian palaces had sunk,
or were sinking, m the general decay. Of the descend
ants of the families contemporary -with the electors of the
first doge I heard only of one, and he enjoyed a ridiculous
celebrity.t Of the " gentU uomo Veneto " the name was
stUl known, and that was all. He was but the shadow of his
former self, but he was pohte and kind. It surely may be
pardoned to him if he was querulous. Whatever may have
been the vices of the repubUc, and although the natural
term of its existence may be thought by foreigners to
have arrived in the due course of mortality, only one
sentiment can be expected from the Venetians them
selves.* At no time were the subjects of the repubhc so
unanimous in thefr resolution to raUy round the standard
of St. Mark as when it was for the last time unfurled ;

* " Celsi ; dagli antichiMari di Eoma; .... Cornaro ; dagli anti-
chi Comeli di Eoma ; — Marcelli, paie che non si possa mettere in
dubbio che questa famigUa discenda dagli antichi Marcelli di Eoma."
— See Dizionario storico di tutte le Venete Patrizie Famiglie.
t Gradenigo, a respectable gentleman, suffered more than the
other patricians from the French, who could not resist playing on a
name unhappily obnoxious to a pun.
VOL. I. G

122 DOWNFALL OF THE REPUBLIC. Chap. VII.
and the cowardice and the treachery of the few patricians
who recommended the fatal neutraUty were confined to
the persons of the teaitors themselves. A Venetian re
marked to me, -with evident deUght, that only two of
these traitors had escaped an end of ignommy or wretch
edness. The present race cannot be thought to regret
the loss of thefr aristocratical forms, and too despotic
government; they think only on thefr vanished inde
pendence. They pine away at the remembrance, and
on this subject suspend for a moment thefr gay good
humour. Vemce may be said, m the words of the
Scripture, " to die daUy ;" and so general and so appa
rent is the decUne, as to become painful to a stranger,
not reconcUed to the sight of a whole nation expiring as
it were before his eyes. So artificial a creation having
lost that principle wMch caUed it into Ufe and supported
its existence, must faU to pieces at once, and sink more
rapidly than it rose. The abhorrence of slavery wMch
drove the Venetians to the sea, has, since thefr disaster,
forced them to the land, where they may be at least
overlooked amongst the crowd of dependants, and not
present the humiliating spectacle of a whole nation
loaded with recent chains. Thefr Uveliness,* thefr affa-
bihty, and that happy mdifiference wMch constitution
alone can give, for phUosophy aspfres to it in vain, have

• A worthy friend of mine. Count Eizzo Patarol, endeavoured to
console himself for the downfall of the republic by saying that
Venice had never been anything since the days of Charles V.

Chap. MI. INTERCOURSE "WITH THE AUSTRIANS. 123
not sunk under cfrcumstances; but many pecuharities
of costume ahd manner have by degrees been lost, and
the nobles, -with a pride common to aU Itahans who have
been masters, have not been persuaded to parade their
insignificance. That splendour wMch was a proof and a
portion of thefr power, they would not degrade mto the
trappings of thefr subjection. They retired from the
space wMch they had occupied in the eyes of thefr feUow-
citizens, thefr continuance m wMch would have been a
symptom of acquiescence, and an insult to those who
suffered by the common misfortune. Those who re
mamed in the degraded capital might be said rather to
haunt the scenes of thefr departed power, than to Uve in
them. No one can blame them for that afr of suUen
subjection wMch marks thefr mtercourse with thefr
Austrian lords ; for to those who have but lately lost
thefr independence, any masters must be an object of
detestation ; and it may be safely foretold that this un
profitable aversion -wiU not have been corrected before
Vemce shaU have sunk into the slime of her choked
canals.* Many complaints have been made against Venetian
society, even under the old government ; but there was,
at least, a choice of company ; and m no ItaUan capital
did the steanger find more " conversaziom," "casinos,"
and " academie," than at Vemce. At my first visit these
had almost disappeared ; only two or tMee houses were

"Written in 1817.
G 2

124 IMPROVED MORALITY. Chap. VII.
open to respectable recommendations; and at my last
visit, only one. The coffee-houses and the arcades of St.
Mark's Square were, mdeed, at certam hours, crowded
by noisy idlers, belongmg to that inferior class of ItaUans
whose last shilling, and whose last laugh, are invariably
wasted upon bad company, away from home. Formerly
the places of public resort were open aU mght, especially
during the carnival: the amusements stiU begm late,
but end long before the mornmg. TMs change may be
caUed a reform, and those who recoUect the old times
wiU occasionaUy confess that the morals of Vemce have
been improved by hey misfortunes. If nations or indi
viduals were ever made wiser by example, it would be
ad-visable to say sometMng of that corruption and disso
luteness of manners, that feebleness of pubUc and private
character wMch- had long marked the decUne, and may
by some, besides the conquerors, be thought to justify
the ruin, of the repubUc. Bonaparte, who had pro
mised them independence and glory, had afready found
the population " so stupid, so cowardly, so httle made
for Uberty," that it appeared to him "quite natural" to
leave them to those to whom the French gave the conti
nent. But had the Venetians been the most ingenious,
the . bravest, the most pateiotic of communities, though
they might not have suffered themselves to be tricked
out of thefr mdependence, nor have yielded to a paltry
army of six thousand men, it is to be doubted whether
they could have saved themselves in the shock of
empfres which crushed so many states far more powerful

Chap. VII. FALL OF THE REPUBLIC. 125
than they were, or ever had been. Even as it was, their
subjection to Austeia was owing, as usual in such events,
to an accident, arismg not altogether from thefr own
misconduct. ,
The Fall of the Eepublic of Venice.
During my several visits to Venice, I coUected ma
terials for a short account of the last days of the
EepubUc, but Darn, although he has done httle more
than foUow the details contained in the " Eaccolta
cronologica, ragionata di documenti mediti che formano
la storia diplomatica deUa rivoluzione e caduta deUa
EepubUca di Venezia," published in 1799, has rendered
such an attempt superfluous. I do not think that por
tion of Botta's History wMch relates to this catasteophe
the most valuable of his work. It is more impassioned,
more MgMy coloured, more laboured, perhaps, than
other parts of his History ; but it is less impartial, less
clear, less instructive. He has a hundred pages for the
-violence and perfidy of France ; a single line suffices for
the cupidity and injustice of Austria. The Venetians
themselves, it is true, would atteibute thefr faU to a
deep laid perfidious project of the French Dfrectory,
carried mto effect with equal teeachery and injustice by
thefr -victorious general ; * but the secret correspondence

* " Che non meno turpe e nefanda fu la condotta de' suoi generall
in Italia, dediti a latrocinj e alle depredazione, sconoscenti ed isleali
nel tempo, in cui il generale in capite fingeva d' essere grato ai Vene
ziani, e prometteva ad essi ingrandimento di dominio, e, a fine di

126 CONDUCT OF BONAPARTE. Chap. VII.
of Bonaparte and a more impartial observation of
events enable us to arrive at the more probable conclu
sion, that the exigences of the moment, rather than any
long-settled arrangement, decided the fate of the un
happy EepubUc.
Bonaparte would not, it is most probable, have pro
ceeded to extremities -with Venice, had he not received
inteUigence of the appointment of a rival general to the
cMef command in Germany, wMch induced him to
hasten the treaty -with the Emperor, that the glory and
the conclusion of fhe war might be aU Ms o'wn. Vemce
was the victim of private jealousy. It was the fear of
Hoche that made her the prey, not of the conqueror,
but of the conquered ; * otherwise she might have been
spared for a season, and have recovered a precarious
mdependence, wMch former experience might, perhaps.

poter senza ostacolo preordinare le cose alia totale revoluzione e per-
dizione di medesima." Such is one of the corollaries deduced from
the details put together in the Raccolta Cronologica.
* This anecdote, respecting the precipitate sacrifice of Venice,
I had from a gentleman in the civil service of Bonaparte, employed
by him during the transaction. The date of Bonaparte's promise to
consolidate the liberties of Venice, and of his letter to the Directory
in which he gave the above quoted character of the Venetians and
signed their perpetual subjection, is the same day, i. e. the 26th of
May, 1797, just eleven days after the occupation of Venice by
Baraguay d'Hilliers.
His letter to the municipality of Venice (Montebello, May 26,
1797) has these words : — " Dans toutes les circonstances je ferai
tout ce qui sera en mon pouvoir pour vous donner des preuves du
ddsir que j'ai de voir se consolider votre liberte', et de voir la mise
rable Italie se placer enfin, avec gloire, libre et independante des
strangers," &c. — Correspondance, &c.

Chap. VU. CONDUCT OF BONAPARTE. 127
have taught her not to resign witiiout an honourable
steuggle. From the preliminaries of peace between France and
the Emperor, signed at Leoben, from the teeaty with
Vemce herself, no suspicion of the cession to Austeia
could have been formed ; nor was such a design at that
moment, in aU prohabUity, entertained : on the con
trary, the mforporation of the Venetian States with the
new Eepubhc of Lombardy, or the formation of a new
Venetian repubUc, seems to have been contemplated by
the regenerating conqueror of Italy.* Such a consum
mation would have been less disgraceful for France, but,
perhaps, not much more acceptable to Venice than the
Austrian yoke. Indeed, it appears that during the
short-lived democracy, after the old government had
been overtMown, on the fatal 12th of May, 1797, there
were some poUticians who prefen-ed the latter as the
least of all the evUs that threatened the expfrmg Ee
pubUc. Grimani at Vienna, and Querini at Paris, sus
pected and announced that Austria might be the future
mistress of Vemce ; and one of the patriotic party, who

* * See Napoleon's Letters to the Directory, dated 13th May, 1797,
from Milan, and 19th May from Montebello. It would seem from
some words in the above quoted corollary, " ingrandimento di
dominio," promised by Bonaparte, that the Venetians hoped to gain
something in the general scramble. The first of the secret articles
(Correspond. Ined. i. p. 178), signed at Milan on the 16th of May
by Bonaparte and Lallement and the Venetian deputies Doria, Jus
tiniani, and Moncenigo, runs thus : — " La E^publique Franpaise et
la E^publique de Venise s'entendront entre elles pour I'e'change dos
differens territoires."

128 AUTHORS OF THEIR OWN DISGRACE. Chap. VIL
had resigned himself to banishment m Switzerland,
Pesaro, subsequently reappeared to perform the part of
Imperial commissary, and receive the aUegiance of his
degraded fellow citizens. ViUetard, writing to Bonaparte
on the 30th June, when Venice had been more than a
month occupied by French troops, uses these remarkable
words : " General, U ne faut vous rien d^guiser— U existe
des mtrigues pour U-vrer ce pays a rEmpereur ; des in-
trigans dans la mimicipaht^ qui conduisent cette teame,
et des hommes faibles qui la favorisent sans s'en aper-
cevofr." *
ViUetard, although much abused by the Patrician
party, appears to have been a sincere repubhcan, and
Botta gives him credit for complete ignorance of any
ulterior views entertained — if they were then enter
tained — by Bonaparte, for the transfer of Venice to the
Austrians. The first disgraceful deed, the origin of aU thefr sub
sequent disasters, was the work of Venetians, whether
deceived by the French general or not matters Uttle.
Andrew Spada, the coadjutor of the druggist Zorzi,
awoke the patrician ex-Proveditor BattagUa in the
middle of the mght, and showed him a letter from one
HaUer, a corn-broker at MUan, a confidant of Bonaparte,
conveying the conqueror's wishes as to the dissolution of

¦* I extract from the Correspondance de Napoleon, &c., ^tats de
Venise, p. 417, from the very copy, in my possession, which Napoleon
used at St. Helena when contemplating his own memoirs. It con
tains many pencil-notes in his own handwriting.

Chap. VIL MEANS OF RESIST.\NCE. 129
the old Venetian aristocracy, that is, the Eepublic.
BattagUa, at daybreak, transmitted this letter to the
Signoria. "Wliy." exclaims the indignant Mstorian,
"did they not throw tMs Spada into the canal, for
violating one of the mam laws of the state by corre
sponding with a foreign minister ? " But thefr day was
come ; they were to fall by mean and ignoble hands,
without the glory of a protracted struggle, or the happi
ness of a sudden death. A broker, an apothecary, and
a petty French agent, without name, without authority,
tricked the most potent, grave, and reverend signiors
out of aU thefr honours, and the power of a thousand
years.* " La position locale de cette vUle lui offrait des res-
sources fonnidables ; eUe pouvait resister." The French
general -wrote thus to Bonaparte, when informmg him of
the " arret bizarre, par lequel U (the Grand Council)
se d^mettait de son pouvofr." A thousand pieces of
cannon, e%ht thousand saUors, fourteen thousand regular
teoops, and an ardent population, might have offered
an honourable resistance to the -victorious French ;
but terror and teeachery did thefr work, and the
Great CouncU on the day before mentioned, the 12th
of May (1797), adopted the proposal of the agent

* By a strange coincidence their ancient rival, Genoa, had come
to a like end. A foreigner, a druggist, and the bearer of a noble
name, had played the most conspicuous part in the destruction of
that aristocracy. Vitaliani, Morando, and Doria were the Haller,
the Zorzi, and the Dandolo of Genoa.
G 3

130 PUSILLANIMITY OF PATRICIANS. Chap. VII.
of France, ViUetard, and put an end to the ancient
EepubUc. A few musket shots, fired under the windows
of thefr palaces, whether by fiiends or enemies no one
inqufred, so much augmented thefr alarms, that the for-
maUties of deUberation seemed too tedious and perUous,
and -without waiting for the result of a deputation sent
to Bonaparte at MUan, they pronounced sentence on
themselves, in a tumult of terror and despafr. Of 537
Patricians only twelve, or, at most, twenty, voted agauist
this abdication; and five, such are the resources of
shame mingled -with fear, remained neuter, and were
sUent spectators of the last agomes of thefr country.
The Great CouncU informed their ambassadors, nobles,
and residents at foreign courts, by a cfrcular that records
thefr disgrace, of thefr suicidal decree: "DaU' unito
Species Facti rilevarete la determinazione presa dal
Maggior ConsigUo di adottare U proposto Provisorio
Eappresentativo Governo, anche prima di conoscere U
risultato deUe negoziaziom de' suoi deputati presso U
generale ia capite Buonaparte."
The destruction of the state was consummated in the
name and for the sake of religion ; so the people were
told in a proclamation issued by the mumcipaUty, now
become a provisional government; but tMs time the
people were not deceived by the common delusion.
They rose in favour of those who had abandoned them ;
paraded thefr patron samt to the old cry of Viva San
Marco ! sacked several houses, and made an attempt at
counter revolution, wMch was not put do-svn -without

Ch.u>. vii. ARRIVAL OF FRENCH TROOPS. 131
bloodshed, nor was teanquUlity thought to bo thoroughly
secured without the aid of French troops, who, however,
did not, as ^li. Simond. asserts (vol. i. p. 61), ai-rive in
the daytime, in open boats, and unopposed ; but ha-ving
been privately sent for by Doria and Battagha, came in
the night, on board of Venetian vessels. They landed
on the 16th of May. the same day that the treaty be
tween the Venetian Eepublic and Bonaparte was signed
at MUan. It is no wonder that, after the pusUlammous
desertion of the Doge and the Patricians generaUy, the
people should have beheld with mdifference the burning
of the Golden Book,* and the ducal ensigns, and the
fraternizing feast of the French and those who mvited
them to Vemce ; nor is it surprismg that they received
thefr Austrian masters, subsequently, with symptoms of
extravagant dehght — it was the only mode left to them
of showing thefr detestation of the recent revolution.
Nevertheless, the deed itself, the teansfer of Vemce to
Austria, was detestable. The first perfidy and duphcity
wMch promised, as we have seen, independence to the
Venetian municipaUty, and -wrote by the same hand on
the same day, " Vemse a I'Empereur," are the exclusive

* The poet Arnault, -writing from Venice to Bonapaite on the
Sth of June (1797), says, of the people of Venice, " II ne prend
aucune part active a ce qui se passe ici. II a vu tom'ber ses Lions
sans donner aucune marque de joie, et dans un peuple aussi mou,
cela n'^quivaut-il pas a des marques de tristesse ? L'appareil de la
fgte, la destruction des attributs de I'ancien gouvemement, la com
bustion du livre d'or, et dea omemens ducaux n'ont excitd en liii
aucune enthousiasme."

132 CONDUCT OF PLENIPOTENTIARIES. Chap. VII.
shame of Bonaparte,* but the blame of the subsequent
transactions must be divided between the contractmg
parties, who, " more than once during thefr negotiations,
appear to have forgotten thefr mutual hatred, in order to
apply themselves to the laudable object of settUng thefr
own differences at the expense of others, cMefly the inno
cent and the weak. The exchange, or, rather, the aban
donment of territories, was proposed -without shame, and
accepted -without remorse. Provinces, to wMch neither
party had the shghtest claim, were demanded, and were
offered without scruple. The discussions turned cMefly
upon mere statistical detaUs, and the French and
Austrian plempotentiaries never mquired what right
they had to give, but only what it might be desfrable to
receive." t
The French government of the day were, it now
appears, un-wiUing accompUces m the ruin of Venice.
It -wUl be seen m the appendix of Dam's History that
the Dfrectory struggled hard for the independence of
Vemce against the demands of Austria, and against thefr
favourite general, who almost resigned his command m
consequence. On the 29th of September (1797) they
wrote to him that they would continue the war to save
Venice from the Emperor. On the lOth of October

¦*¦ Daru, Pieces Justif. Hist., tome vii. p. 363.
f This is a free translation of Baira (Histoire de Venise, liv. 38,
p. 428). I cannot join in the censure of Daru, which I find in the
Handbook.

Chap. VII. CONDUCT OF BONAPARTE. 133
Bonaparte wrote to tiiem, and uiformed thoin that on
that very mght Venice would be signed away to
Austria ;* that it was teue she had 300 good patriots,
but that a few hundred men were not to be saved at the
expense of the 20,000 French whom the war would
desteoy ; moreover, that the EngUsh people were well
worth the Venetian people, and thefr Uberation would
consoUdate for ever the hberties and happiness of
France.t '• Cependant," says Daru, "plusieurs vois
s'eleverent dans le corps legislatif de France centre les
mesures qui venoient d'efl^acer la EepubUque de Venise
du rang des puissances Europeennes. H n'etoit plus
temps : I'ceuvre etoit consomme." j:
Between the 12th of May and the 18th of October
the government was administered by an elected munici
paUty of fifty persons, assisted by six French Commis-

* Daru, Hist, de Venise, Pieces Just., tome vii. p. 429. — "II neme
reste plus," said Bonaparte to the Directory in this letter of 10th
October, " qu'a rentrer dans la foule, reprendre le soc de Cincin-
natus, et donner I'exemple du respect pour les magistrats et de
I'aversion pour le service militaire," &c.
t Daru, Hist, de Venise, tome vii. p. 431. It seems that, even '
then, Bonaparte looked towards Egypt : in fact, he proposed an
expedition to that country in a despatch to the Directory, dated the
13th of September of that year ; and the Directory, in reply, owned
that his ideas were grand. This annihilates the fine plot vphich
Botta, in his History, affirms to have been laid in England to bribe
and cajole the French Government into the Egyptian expedition,
and, by so doing, deprive them of their best army and their best
general, and embroil them at the same time with Turkey, the only
power -with whom they had not hitherto been at war.
X Daru, Hist, de Venise, liv. 38, p. 436.

134 TREATY OF CAMPO FORMIO. Chap. VII.
saries ; but thefr authority did not extend to the Vene
tian provmces of Terra Ferma, and, on the last-named
day, Venice itself was handed over to the Austrians in
virtue of the treaty of Campo Formio, in spite of the
remonstrance ofthe mumcipaUty, wMch was answered by
the cmel taunt of Bonaparte that " the Venetian people
were Uttle fitted for liberty; if they were capable of
appreciatmg it, and had the -virtue necessar}' for ac
quiring it, well and good : existing cfrcumstances gave
them an exceUent opportumty of pro-ving it : let them
defend it."* On the same day that the French teoops
quitted Vemce, the Austrians entered it amidst the
frantic shouts of the populace, and the congratulations
of the patrician party. " From that moment," says the
French Mstorian, "the latter vicissitudes of this state,
wMch had lasted for fourteen centuries, belong to the
history of another people ;"t but not always the same
people, for at the peace of Presburg, Vemce, wMch had
belonged to Austria smce 1797, was made a portion of
the kingdom of Italy, that is of France, and again m
1814 became the property of Austria, as part of tiie
'Eegno Lombardo Veneto.
Austrian Administration in Venice.
Smce the return of the Austrians in 1814 the poUtical
admmistration of Vemce has been neither better nor

Daru, Hist, de Venise, liv. 38, p. 439. f lb. p. 442.

Chap. VII. THE MARQUIS C.VNNONICI. 1"5
woi-se than that of MUan ; but a littlo before my visit,
in 1822, the square of St. Mark had been the scone
of a pumsliment inflicted on others than the guilty or
than the subjects of Austria. The Marquis Cannonici
of Ferrara, ha^Tug some pecumary affairs to arrange in
the Venetian states, applied to the authorities for a
passport, wMch was granted to him in due form. AVhen
taking leave of Ms friend the papal legate, that prelate
dissuaded him from the joumey ; but the Marquis,
stating that he was a subject of the Pope, and not con
scious of being in any way obnoxious to the ruler of
Lombardy, rejected the advice of Ms friend and crossed
the Po. He was immediately seized, his papers were
examined, and, although no charge was made against
him, he underwent a temporary imprisonment. At his
Uberation, no imputation of improper designs and no
threats of future punishment were conveyed to him, and
he returned to Ferrara; but, some time afterwards,
wishing to visit Verona, he agam obtained a passport,
and again crossed the Po. He observed, on settmg foot
on the Austrian side of the river, that a government
messenger immediately started for Venice ; but he con
tmued his joumey. Scarcely, however, had he arrived at
Verona than the Commissary General of PoUce arrested
him, together with a teadesman of the town, -with whom
he was teansactmg some business. Cannomci was trans
ferred to the prisons of Murano, in the Lagune, and after
having been detained there some time, he was brought
mto St. Mark's Square, and 'with thirty others exposed

136 THE MARQUIS CANNONICI. Chap. VII.
there on a scaffold.* His sentence was then read to hun :
it was ten years of close imprisonment. He had never
been tried, scarcely even mterrogated. "VATien taken
from the scaffold Ms head was shaved and the jaU dress
put upon Mm ; he was then froned and tMown mto a
dungeon. He endeavoured to dash out his brams
agamst the wall of the cell, but faUing, was fettered
more hea'vUy and more carefully confined. The prison
aUowance of food, as he was in bad health, was unwhole
some, and his famUy, who only by accident had heard
of his distress, sent Mm some money to procure better
subsistence. The money was taken from birr) and re
turned to them. His aged mother petitioned to be per
mitted to attend him. She was refused. Cardinal
Consal'vi claimed Mm as a subject of the Pope, but re
ceived for answer that the Marquis had been guUty of
Mgh treason against the Emperor of Austeia, and his
imprisonment was a mercy. At last a relation of the
Marquis appealed to the Emperor m person, and received
a consolatory reply; but the consequence was only a
relaxation of severity. Cannonici was reheved from
rigorous capti-vity, but was not released. How long he
continued a prisoner I never heard.
In these days of alarm (1820-21) examples of vigi-

* The circumstance was mentioned to me in 1822, in presence of
a young Count in the Austrian service, who, when the narrator told
ofthe scaffold in St. Mark's Square, con-ected him, saying "Pardon-
nez-moi; c'dtoitune loge." Probably the Count had heard the story
from a Venetian, and was not aware that, in Italian, " palco " serves
both for a scaffold and a box at a theatre.

Chap. VIL AUSTRIAN SEVERITY. 137
lance and severity were thought necessai-y. An Austiian
colonel proposed to a young man to become a Cai-bonaro.
The Itahan refused, but shortiy afterwards he was arrested,
charged with the crime of non-revelation of teeason, and
condemned to three years' close imprisonment. His
father, an author and a man of considerable talent, weU
known to the Austeian court, went to Vienna and im
plored the Emperor, in person, to remit the sentence.
Francis told the father that his son would profit by a
seclusion of tMee years ; and then, turning to another
subject, complimented the suppUant upon his capacity,
and lamented that so much gemus should be so Uttle
employed. " Alas," repUed the father, " your Majesty
can only mean to mock me : the gemus you are pleased
to attribute to me has been given to me m vain, if it
cannot save my innocent cMld." In such times the
watchftdness of fear discovers conspfracy m actions the
most insignificant. A young man had written in the
album at Arqua some verses to this effect : — " 0 Petearch,
thou who didst reprove the foUies of our ancestors, how
much less wretched would thefr descendants be if they
were to foUow thy counsels !" For this reflection the
versifier underwent an imprisonment of tMee days, and
a severe examination of several hours. The old lady who
showed me Petearch's house at Arqua in 1822, told me
that the album had been taken away because some one
had written " qualche sporcheria" m it. I had no notion,
at that time, to what sort of filth she aUuded.
I found, as I have before mentioned, at Vemce, a

138 THE OLD SYSTEM. Chap. VII.
certam fond recoUection of thefr old system, wMch was
endeared to them rather by its loss than by its real
value. They considered themselves as having been
deprived of more than any other ItaUans by the disasters.
of revolution. They lost an independent sovereignty, a
loss for which a Lombardo Venetian kingdom, whether
under French or Austrian protection, or even as a state
standmg alone, with MUan for its capital, would, m their
eyes, be no compensation. Indeed the aUiance of MUan
was never courted; subjection to her would not have
been endured. One of the first remarks of a very influ
ential person at Venice in reply to a question respectmg
MUanese society and Uterature was of tMs kind : — " We
know very little of MUan or of her squabbles, Uterary or
other-wise, fortunately for us." Vemce was the world of
the Venetians. A friend, speakmg to me ofthe old time,
said, " You should have seen our carmval m those days ;
the square of St. Mark quite fuU ; the coffee-houses all
open aU night ; eight theatees in constant acti-vity — a
man of fasMon roamed from one to another of them every
evemng ; and then, to crown the whole, everything ' k si
bon mercato.' " " WeU, but your aristocracy ? " " Oh, the
gentU' uomo was a very inoffensive, gay man, kind to Ms
inferiors ; he never quarreUed except with a gentleman."
" But your poUce was always very bad." " We did not
want poUce — ^we were accustomed to do 'without them at
Vemce." "You had no good roads untU the French
made them for you." " We did not want roads ; we never
travelled farther than Brescia, and seldom so far ; we had

Chap. \ll. ATTACHMENT TO OLD US.VGES. 139
canals." " But your government was, surely, as bad as
possible?" "No, it was not; it was very good: more
over, ' non conviene embarrarsi del governo,' " he
added, " it was one of Alberom's projects to divide the
MUanese States, and give one half to Vemce, the other
to Savoy ; but it was only m these latter days of crime
and injustice that it was imagmed possible for any
ItaUan city to become the meti-opoUs of Vemce."
The horror of innovation seems to have been the cha
racteristic of the Venetian government, as weU as of the
people. In the statutes ofthe Inquisition, embodying the
gemus of the nation, we find it laid down: — "If an
orator at the Great CouncU wander from Ms subject, let
biTTi be stopped at once by one ofthe Ten. If he contests
that authority, suffer Mm to continue his harangue ; but
arrest him immediately afterwards, try Mm for his
offence, and if he escapes from that trial, put him to
death secretiy."
So attached were the Venetians to old usages that up to
the last thefr year began m March, and consisted of
eleven months of thirty-tMee days.
Even m 1822 there were occasions on wMch it would
have been difficult for a steanger to guess at the de
population and decline of Vemce ; such, for example, was
the festival ofthe Madonna deUa Salute (November 21),
the anniversary ofthe cessation of the great plague. St.
Mark's Square was then crowded 'with weU dressed people,
and the procession wMch moved across the Bridge of
Boats to the church wMch was dedicated to the Vfrgm

140 TRACES OF THE FRENCH. Chap. VII.
who performed that mfracle, might recall some of the
Ducal ceremomes of the old times. So great was the
crowd in 1815 that the Emperor Francis was nearly
pushed from the bridge into the 'water, whilst walking in
the procession.
On such days the Venetians seem to recover some of
thefr former animation. The very lamp-Ughters associate
to feast on the produce of thefr oU refuse, and parade
the town with shouts. The gaining of a lawsuit often
draws a. crowd of congratulators to the house ofthe suc
cessful htigant, who seldom faUs to repay thefr vivats
'with a trifling present.
In general, however, the thoroughfares of Vemce,
excepting always St. Mark's Square, are peaceable
during the day, and durmg the mght a profound stillness
reigns tMough the canals and streets, intermpted only
by the warning cry of the gondoliers, and the dip of
thefr paddles, or by the tinkling of some solitary guitar.
Change in m:anners during French occupation.
The French have left teaces of thefr dominion in
Vemce, as in other parts of the Peninsula, wMch may,
m some measure, atone for their spoliations, and thefr
first abuse of the right of conquest.* I do not aUude to

* A contributor to the Handbook, North of Italy, p. 328, vindi
cates the Austrians at the expense of the French, who, he says,
demolished 166 noble churches, broke the monuments in pieces, sold
the marbles as rubbish, the bronzes as old metal, plundered the

Chap. VH. TE.VCES OF THE FRENCH. 141
thefr promenade, nor thefr lai-ge steeet, though vci-y useful
novelties, nor to the Government Palace, and iU assorted
substitute for the old chm-ch of St. Geminiam. I refer
rather to the improvements inteoduced, either by or
with them, in the education of the Mgher classes of
society. I was assured by persons not at all partial to
thefr late masters, that, in former days, even weU-born
women were seldom able to write, and music and dancing
were accomplishments rarely attamed by them. They
were taught to embroider a Uttle, and to sing thefr
psalter, and, having acqufred these useful arts, were

galleries and libraries, destroyed the archives, damaged and degraded
and defaced the buildings, from mere wantonness, and reduced the
city to what it now is — a mere shadow of its ancient splendour.
" So far from the Austrians having acted as Huns towards Venice,"
the writer continues, " the preservation of our wreck is omng to
their endeavours," &c. The quotation is from 'A Letter from a
Resident,' who says that, in 1842, the trade of the city was rapidly
increasing, the shops becoming vast depots of stores, and Venice
beginning to recover from her depression ; though, he adds, " it
cannot be denied that a large proportion of her rich and fairy patrician
palaces are still falling into dilapidation and decay."
I was at Venice three years after this date, and had not the good
fortune to fall_ in with the Eesident, nor with any one who had a
good word for the Austrians. The alacrity with which the Venetians
rose, and the German garason ran away, in 1848, and the prolonged
resistance of the insurgents afterwards, show that the Venetian
population generally did not agree with the Eesident in his estima
tion of Austrian rule. The admission of the "Eesident" as to the
dilapidarion and decay of a large proportion of the rich and fairy
patrician palaces tells the story of Austrian domination. I looked
in vain in 1845 for some of those noble buildings which I had seen
in 1817 and 1822 : one, indeed, 1 did see ; it was the projierty of an
opera dancer. Venice was declared a free port in 1829 : " Sero —
Haec est fides"!!

142 TRACES OF THE FRENCH. Chap. VH.
taken from their convent, about the age of sixteen, to be
married. The nobles of the other sex were nearly as
ignorant. They were ashamed to be thought fond of
readmg, and scarcely condescended to learn the common
accomplishments of good society. An union between two
beings of such an order was so Uttle expected to procure
mutual happiness that some resource was not un
frequently provided by the marriage contract, stipulating
for the interference of a thfrd party, a privUege now and
then extended, by special favour, to the female of an
inferior " seto," with the express declaration, " come se
fosse nobUe." But the right of frequently changmg
this vicarious husband was jealously engrossed by the
noble dame. The humbler imitators were confined to
one cavaher, and, after his dismissal, could not adopt
another, except after a reasonable interval ; yet m these
times the outward observances of reUgion were much
more strictly attended to than afterwards : for example,
it was aU but impossible to procure meat on a fast day.
Such were the nobles, speaking generaUy, of the old
timCi The merchants, advocates, physicians, and, now
and then, a very few members of the priesthood, were,
with some rare exceptions, masters of aU the human
learmng that Vemce could boast. Under the French
rule the nobUity were sometimes weU educated. The
daughters of great families were mstructed in the usual
acqufrements of thefr sex, and to write and read and
know French was not uncommon amongst them. The
men were ashamed to be thought ignorant, and the

Cii-iP. VII. LITEIUTURE. 143
clergy themselves assisted in reforming the old mode of
private and pubUc instruction. The French, also, intro
duced a mixture of society between classes formerly
kept quite distinct ; but we found still remainmg some
symptoms of the old patrician pride, for, although indi
viduals of aU ranks, and it must be added of no cha
racter, were found in the Mgher " academie," yet their
admittance was generaUy accompanied 'with the pretext
that they could sing or dance weU, or divert the com
pany with some accomplishment not usuaUy possessed
by thefr superiors. A " Terra Firma Countess" was a
title of disrespect as belonging to sometMng below the
private citizen ofthe Dominante. We found the Vene
tians in 1817, as might be expected, pretty much as the
French left them, m regard to thefr social Ufe.
Literature.
Vemce, Uke aU other great Itahan cities, is seldom
'without some writer of real gemus. Pindemonte and
Foscolo, both of them, might m some respects be caUed
her chUdren, and her own Gritti * had found a successor

* Gritti enjoyed a great reputation in hia day, and was an object
of curiosity to strangers. An absurd mistake happened in regard
to him when Madame de Stael visited Venice. It was intended
that he should be shown to that celebrated lady ; but the invitation
was carried to a pastry-cook of the same name, who obeyed the sum
mons. 'When Madame de Stael saw the supposed pioet she accosted
him in terms highly complimentary to his works. The cook very
modestly replied, " Si fa cio che si pub."

144 literature. Chap. vii.
in another provmcial poet of equal celebrity. Bouratti,
Uke Gritti, indulged Ms veiu at the expense of his
feUow-citizens ; but his satfre was personal rather than
general, and it spared no man, least of aU his friend. In
a poem, expressly directed against a nobleman 'with
whom he was mtimate, Bouratti accused him, amongst
other atrocities, of confining his brother m a madhouse.
The charge was totaUy without foundation ; and yet this
mahcious exteavagance was overlooked by the admfrers
of the poet, one of whom, m my presence, contended
that Bouratti was a good father, a considerate master,
and a kmd friend — m short, the best man in the world,
but unable to resist the teinptation to ridicule or expose
any one, if he happened to be m the vein.
The same humourist having satirised a young Dal
matian just returned to Vemce 'with the latest London
fasMons, the gentleman caUed on him and insisted on
hearmg the Unes read, declarmg that ff they contained
anytMng affectmg his honour he should caU the poet to
account. Bom-atti read the poem to him, when the
young man, probably pleased with the notoriety wMch
he should gaia, consented to the pubhcation and took
Ms leave. Such subjects might safely be chosen for his
muse, but when, in a poem on the destraction of the
mad elephant by the garrison of Geneva, he had a word
or two for Francis the Ffrst, Bouratti was admonished by
the pohce, that the laws of German criticism admitted
of no such episodes. That Emperor, mdeed, lUi:e the
Eoman, did not court the notice, m any way, of his

Chap. VII. THE GREEKS IN A-ENICE. 145
hterai-y subjects ; when the representatives of certain
academical bodies waited upon him at Verona with a
complimentary address, he told them that "he did not
want learned men, he wanted good subjects."
Much of Bouratti's merit must have escaped a
foreigner, for he 'wrote in the Venetian dialect ; but Ms
success serves to confirm the opinion afready hazarded,
that the humour of the Italians is rather personal than
general, and that it is not for want of the utmost hcence
m the choice of thefr subjects that their comic dramatists,
with one or two splendid exceptions, have been Mtherto
inferior to thefr other wiiters. Provided the government
was spared, the poet nught deal his blows around bim
with Uttie danger and 'with the certainty of a favourable
reception : the privUeged classes had no pri-vUege against
him. I open Goldom at hazard, and find, in the first
scene of the ' Locandiere,' a count and a marquis who
make themselves and thefr tities mutuaUy contemptible
and ridiculous. The Greeks m Venice — Nationality.
There was a mixture of Greek blood in the veins of
some of the better Venetians, wMch did not disgrace
either race ; and of the writers of our day, tMee belonged
to Greece as much as to Vemce. Ugo Foscolo was bom
in Corfu; Mustoxidi belongs only by adoption to the
Venetian states — ^he is an loman ; Madame Albrizzi, nee
Theotoki, was also from the loman islands. Her pleas-
VOL. I. H

146 NATIONALITY. Chap. VII.
mg Portraits * and her hospitality were equaUy useful to
strangers, who were indebted to her- house, and to two or
tMee foreign residents, for almost aU that was at that
time to be seen of Venetian society. Petritini, the
Censor of the press in 1817, was a Greek ; he was an
accomphshed man, and deserved weU of his adopted
country. He mformed me that he had transmitted a
memorial to the Emperor Francis, requesting permission
to prmt an edition of Botta's ' American Eevolution,' and
was refused. But though the Mstorian of revolutions
was not encouraged, the race of learned men is never
extiact in any great Itahan city; and when we first
came to Venice the aged librarian, MoreUi, stUl presided
over his department in the magnificent saloon of the
Great CouncU.
The contests and the triumphs of erudition exercise
the mgenuity and indulge the vamty of those whose
talents might, under other cfrcumstances, be more nobly
and more usefully employed. Those who might be
Mstorians of past times, or of thefr own, devote them
selves to the safer discussion of some debated question in
topography or archaeology, or Ulusteate those arts wMch
have always found favour with despotism.
In works of this description they are allowed to dis
play thefr nationaUty at the expense of foreigners of aU
nations. Cicognara, whose great exploit ui Ufe has been
the discovery of Titian's 'Assumption,' in his large work

An essay so called, by Madame Albrizzi.

Chap. VII. CANOVA. 147
on modern sculptm-e has not mentioned the name of
Thorwaldsen, just as Frederick of Prussia, in his poem
on the Art of War, does not say a word about Marl- -
borough, and makes Eugene the hero and conqueror at
Blenheim. I have aUuded to a treatise by Mustoxidi on
the Horses of St. Mark's. It settied the question of their
parentage and Mstory to the satisfaction of all impartial
judges ; but Mustoxidi was not a Venetian — he was not
even an Italian : he was therefore to be refuted and ex
posed. Accordingly, a Dandolo, a pupU at the Lyceum,
put his name to a dissertation restormg the horses to
thefr ItaUan birtMight ; and the question was tauntingly
put to the Greek and his partizans, " Why go to CMos
for sculpture, or to Corfu for a critic, when Eome could
supply the one and a schoolboy answer the other?"
Mustoxidi told me he steongly suspected Cicognara of
bemg the author of the Dandolo Dissertation.
Canova.
The greatest modem Venetian undoubtedly was Ca
nova, for he was bom and cUed m the Venetian states.
His ' Helen,' and Ms ' Hebe,' and his ' Emmo,' were
amongst the shows of Vemce ; and the production's of
such a feUow-citizen almost consoled the faUen capital
for aU her disasters. Count Cicognara, in Ms funeral
oration over the great artist, seems nearly to say as
much when he calls CanoVa "uomo concesso daUa Pro-
videnza aUa specie umana per dimosteare che qualche
equUibrio han pur tea loro talvolta le interminabUe
H 2

148 ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS. Chap. VII.
serie deUe sventure e i fugaci sorrisi deUa fortuna." The
master hand of tMs most distmguished and amiable man
was at the ser-vice of the successive conquerors of his
country. The Bonaparte famUy and the House of
Hapsburgh were equaUy his employers and his patrons.
He enjoyed his Venetian pension, in aU changes, from
the rum of the repubUc to the last transfer to Austria.
Durmg Ms Iffe he was overlaid -with panegyric, and his
death was bewaUed as a calamity that had deprived
Italy of her Ufe and Ught. Ten thousand sequms were
subscribed (and amongst the subscribers were most of
the sovereigns of Europe) for his monument ; and it was
actuaUy proposed that, ff this great monument, wMch
was to be erected in the church of the Frari, opposite to
the tomb of Titian, should not exhaust the whole sub
scription, the remainder should be devoted to a Uttle
monument m honour of him whom they caUed the rival
of Zeuxis and ApeUes. Cicognara luckily saw the ridi
cule of such a project, and stopped it.
The Academy of the Fine Arts.
To keep open the only road to fame wMch an ItaUan
may safely pursue, no pains are spared, no incitement
unemployed. The Academy of the Fme Arts, with aU
its schools, does its best to perpetuate the glory and con-
tmue the race of great Venetian pamters. The number
of students at my last visit was about 300, -with seven
professors and a president to dfrect thefr labours. There
is no danger to be apprehended, either to church or state,

Chap. VII. VENETIAN SIGHTS. 149
by fostering genius of tiiat description — not even if
Caghai-i, Tmtoret, Palma, Bassano, and the great Titian
himself were rivaUed by a new generation of artists.
Nevertheless, it is equaUy certam that, m order to pre
serve the teopMes of native gemus, some portion of the
population should be able and wUUng to wield the sword
as weU as the pencU. Fortunately, the large pictures of
the Ducal Palace are part of the Great CouncU Cham
ber, and almost defy removal; but the Venetians can
feel but Uttle pride m pomting to the ' St. Peter ' and
the other recovered treasures of thefr academy. They
lost them without a struggle, and recovered them
without any efforts of thefr own — indeed, by the valour
and generosity of the Transalpme barbarians whom
they affect to despise.* Venetiajt Sights.
I have made the cfrcuit of these sights several times
smce my first arrival and residence in Vemce with Lord
Byron. Perhaps a few notices of them may be pardoned,
even after aU that has been said and sung of them.

* The patriots of 1848 seem to have run into the opposite ex
treme, and to have looked upon the cultivation of the fine arts as
one of the causes of Itahan degeneracy. Both at Eome and at
Venice some efforts were made to give a practical illustration of
this belief, by selling the masterpieces of their collections for state
purposes. If independence could have been obtained by that sacrifice,
the loss would have been as nothing compared with the gain. Many
lovers of art have deplored the dispersion of the collection made by
our unfortunate Charles ; but who would set that loss as a counter
balance to the benefits of the great struggle which occasioned it ?

150 ST. MARK'S. Chap. VII.
Mr. Forsyth calls St. Mark's Church a fortuitous
jumble. It may be so; for it is aU gUt mosaic and
precious stones, stuck round, above, and underneath,
upon architecture which seems made for Turks, Greeks,
Goths, and ItaUans, according to the different pomts of
view from wMch it is beheld. Nevertheless, the effect
is very striking, and, ff the word may be used, historical.
Of the PaUadian churches of Venice, I was most pleased
-with the Eedentore, wMch, although the simplest and
least decorated, was never finished. Contrast tMs with
the grey and green church of the Jesuits, or -with that of
the CarmeUtan Scaki, the Pataviman Temple, said to
have cost 300,000 sequins, aU marble and gold and
gaudy colouriag, but cumbrous and fantastic -without,
and -witMn broken into fifty Uttle chapels, to perpetuate
the piety and pride of the noble founder.
Amongst all the decorations of these MgMy orna
mented churches, those wMch, at that time, most sur
prised me were the stone landscapes of SS. Giovanm e
Paolo, wMch are fimshed -with a deUcacy and mcety of
detaU more resembUng waxen pictures, or cast models,
than marble reUefs. Two of them are by Toretti, the
master of Canova, and his ' CMist in the Temple ' recalls
to mind the lightness and elegance of his great pupU.
The pictures in the Madonna deUa Salute appeared to
me in better preservation, and shown in a more favour
able light, than those of the other churches. The ' Na-
ti'vity' of Luca Giordano contains some exquisite
female figures.

Chap. VII. THE PALACES. 151
The Palaces.
These are -sdsited cMefly for the sake of thefr pictures ;
but the ai-cMtects, as well as the founders of many of
them, are great names, and their gigantic basements
seem built for etermty. The same enormous blocks
compose the great fourteen-mUe dyke of Malamocco — a
more than Eoman work. The taste and luxury of the
Venetian nobles sur-vived to the last periods of independ
ence. The charmmo; coUection of the Manfrini Palace *
was made only a few years before the fall of the repubhc,
and the Viceroy Eugene offered ten thousand sequins for
Titian's ' Deposition from the Cross,' and offered m vain.
This coUection does not abound with the Mdeous mar
tyrdoms of church history. The Barberigo Titians, the
famous ' Magdalen,' and the long series of doges ; the
Pisam Veronese (the famUy of Darius) ; the Grimam
Cabinet of Antiques, were amongst the daUy sights of
Venice, although thefr o-wners, in our days, were never
seen. The ' ViteUius,' m the Grimam coUection, is exactly
Uke what Napoleon was when I saw Mm m 1815. The
group there, called ' Alcibiades and Socrates,' is a strange
satfre on the -wisest of men ; and the Boy carrymg a
basket on a stick over Ms shoulder is an admfrable figure.
The confraternity of St. Eoque have Uttle left but the
Tintorets of thefr magnificent saloon. Thefr revenues.

* This collection has been dispersed, and sold chiefly to English
men and Americans.

152 ARMENIANS OF ST. LAZARO. Chap. VII.
once amounting to sixty-four thousand sequms, have
dwindled to a montMy pittance assigned for the care of
the apartments. Thefr brotherhood, of seven hundred
m former days, is reduced to the one keeper of the
pictures. But even tMs great estabhshment designed
more than it ever accomplished : the variegated marble
flooring of thefr chapel was fimshed only at the altar ;
and, after two hundred years of preparation, their tardy
labours were terminated by the French mvasion.
The Armenians of St. Lazaro.
In the ffrst days of our residence at Venice we rowed
over to the island of St. Lazaro to see the establishment
of Armeman priests. The fathers were at prayers when
we entered the chapel, but one of them soon bowed from
the altar, and accompamed us round the convent. The
ceUs, the refectory, the school, all the apartments were
preserved -with a scrupulous neatness not often seen in
Italy. The Ubrary we were unable to see on this occa
sion, as the same accident happened to us as befeU Dr.
Johnson in Ms HigMand tour — the Ubrarian was absent,
and had the key in his pocket. The object of this insti
tution was described to us m a smgle pMase by the at
tendant father — " the Ulumination of our people."
The estabhshment was founded, we were told m
1816, about 120 years ago.^ The number of resident

¦* The Handbook says the beginning of the last century, by the
abbot Mechitar.

Chap. VII. ARMENIANS OF ST. LAZARO. 153
monks was then forty ; but there are fifty others be
longmg to the convent m different parts of the world :
the greater part of them natives of Constantmople —
some few fi-om xVrmema. Thefr principal was a Tran-
sylvanian. The school was frequented by eighteen
pupUs, all of whom were instructed m the hteral Ar
meman, m Latin, and in ItaUan; some learnt Greek,
and French, and German, and Turkish. EngUsh was
about to be mteoduced by our conductor, who had been
m London, and spoke our language tolerably weU.*
To promote thefr praiseworthy objects, this fratemity
had a printing-press m constant activity, wMch had
afready printed twelve works from origmal manuscripts,
and twenty other works. They were then employed
upon a translation of EolUn, undertaken at the expense
of a Mr. Eaphael, a merchant from Madras, formerly
settled at Thames Ditton, in Surrey.f They also con-

* Mr. Simond describes this worthy brother as having made an
exchange of his Armenian for Lord Byron's English — an heroic
bargain ; but, alas! the Armenian spoke-English before he saw Lord
Byron, and Lord Byron never spoke Armenianat all. He attempted
to leam it, but found it lost time to master the thirty-six letters of
the Euaric alphabet, and very -wisely and generously preferred con
tributing to the expense of a dictionary and grammar, which might
enable the descendants of the sons of Nimrod to know something of
English. + Mr. Eaphael abandoned his library for parliamentai-y pur
suits and became member for St. Alban's. 'When I visited the
Armenian convent in 1845, 1 was shown a black sarcophagus in the
cloisters, ani told it was Mr. Eaphael's tomb. I remembered that
I had left him alive a very short time ago, and was informed that it
was only the intended burial-place of.their benefactor, who wished
H 3

154 ARMENIANS OF ST. LAZARO. Chap. VII.
trived, at the same time, to publish, once a fortmght,
an Armeman newspaper.
Thefr Ubrary contamed about 400 MSS., of wMch aU
but 130 were dupUcates. The most esteemed, and the
greater number of them, belong to the eighth century ;
some few are of the fourth, when the hteral language
was first mvented. Of these the most curious is an
Uluminated Lffe of Alexander the Great, wMch, although
not differmg m essential pomts from the ancient his
torians, contams, we were told, some detaUs not to be
found in Quintus Curtius or Arrian. The copy at St.
Lazaro was tom, but there is a perfect one at Smyrna,
of wMch it was intended to publish an Itahan translation.*
We were sho'wn also the Armeman translation of the
' CMomcles ' of Eusebius, of the fitfth century, of wMch
ScaUger has published a fragment. Other MSS. of
Mstory, geography, and bibUcal learning, are by Ar
meman authors. Some treatises on the arts, two of
wMch, on navigation and perspective, have been prmted,
are translated compUations from modem pubUcations.
The Ubrary, besides the books in thefr own language,
contains a very useful coUection of works of reference,
m Latm, Greek, ItaUan, French, and German.

to secure during his lifetime a decent monument for himself in a
favourite place. I do not know whether his remains were conveyed,
at his death, to the convent.
* It has been published ; but, as I hear — for I have not seen it,
adds little to our knowledge ijf " the great Emathian conqueror."

CH.AP. VII. THE ARSENAL. 155
The funds wMch supported tiiis establishment were
drawn partiy from landed property, and partly from
occasional donations, conti-ibuted, in great measure, by
thefr friends, the Armemans of Calcutta. Napoleon
saved it from the fate of other monasteries, by a decree
wMch made an honourable exception m favour of those
" whose labours and whose revenues were devoted to the
instruction of thefr feUow countrymen." Some sagacious
persons have found m this exception a deep-laid scheme
to open a channel of communication between certam
subjects of France and the malcontents, ff any, in our
Indian empfre.* This may have been the motive, but I
never heard it was proved to have been so. Moreover,
the Armemans of Calcutta are the last persons hkely
to be the agents of teeason.
The Arsenal.
No one goes to Venice 'without 'visitmg the arsenal.
The old jealousy wMch survived the EepubUc f no longer
existed. An order from the naval commandant was
easUy procured. High and weU-constructed battle
mented stone waUs, about two mUes in cfrcuit, enclose
aU the works. The great gate of entrance, an imposmg
archway, is guarded by the Atheman Uons and the name
of the Peloponnesian Morosmi.
Much of the present appearance of the great docks is

* I find the suggestion in the Handbook of Northern Italy, p. 361.
t See Forsyth's Italy, p. 436, edit. 1816.

156 THE ARSENAL. Chap. VII.
due to Napoleon, who buUt that part of them m wMch
seven sMps were constructed during his reign, and also
opened the outlet wMch looks towards the sea. The
smaUer galleys of the EepubUc used to pass tMough the
gate on the land side. Napoleon Mmself attended the
launcMng of the -' EivoU,' and the Venetians were caUed
upon to prepare a similar spectacle for thefr next
master, who, however, seemed more charmed 'with a
much less magnificent operation, for he gazed for two
hours at the twistmg of a cord m the PaUadian rope-
house. The Emperor Francis, m the first fond moments
of reconciUation 'with his Itahan pro'nnces, very good-
humouredly endured aU that was expected of Ms
patience ; and was, besides, so easy of access, and so pro
digal of Ms word, that it was no wonder he did not fulfil
aU of the forty thousand promises wMch his Imperial
Majesty was said to have made m Venice alone. He
had no rebuffs to administer to learned men m that city.
Those who have seen the machinery in Portsmouth
dockyard would tMnk very httle of the Block-house in
the Arsenal, where most of the work seemed to be done
by hand ; but the covered docks themselves are superb ;
and. when we recoUect at what period the arsenal was
constructed, we can understand how it was that Venice
was regarded in former days as one of the greatest of
maritime powers.*

* Bet-ween 1307 and 1320 (Handbook, p. 350, where the above
remark is made).

Chap. VII. FERRARA.— TASSO. 157
The armoury m tiie land arsenal contained but a
small number of muskets, and swords, and pikes, com
pared with the collection in the Tower of London, but
there is room for a far more formidable array. We were
sho-wn some questionable curiosities, such as the hehnet
of Attila, found at AquUeja, and some instruments of
torture, said to belong to Francesco di Carrara. Here
also we saw Canova's monumental bust of Emmo, who
was fated to be the last of Venetian heroes ; and whose
exploits, at the time, were thought to secure Mm an
immortaUty as durable as that of the Eepubhc. Scarcely
had the monument been completed when the EepubUc
itseff feU, to rise no more ; and the admfral was to be no
longer the favourite of fame, for the finger and the pen
of the recording gemus were broken off by some patriot
of the short-Uved democracy ; but the word " Immor
tality " remains upon the tablet, as ff in mockery of
human praises and human hopes.
Ferrara. Tasso. Ariosto.
In the hospital of St. Anna, at Ferrara, they show a
ceU, over the door of wMch is the foUo-wmg mscrip-
tion : —
" Rispettate, 0 Posteri, la celebrita di questa stanza, dove Tor
quato Tasso, infermo piu di tristezza che delirio, ditenuto dimorb
aimi vii., mesi ii., scrisse versi e prose, e fu rimeso in liberta ad.in-
stanza della citta di Bergamo, nel giomo vi. Juglio, 1596."
The dungeon is below the ground-floor of the hospital,
and the light penetrates tMough its grated windows

158 tasso. Chap. VII
from a smaU yard, wMch seems to have been common
to other ceUs. It is nme paces long, between five and
six -wide, and about seven feet Mgh. The bedstead, so
they teU, has been carried off piecemeal, and the door
half cut away, by the devotion of those whom "the
verse and prose" of the prisoner have brought to
Ferrara. The above address to posterity was inscribed at the
instigation of General MioUis, who filled Italy with
tributes to her great men, and was not always very
sohcitous as to the authentic apphcation of Ms record.
Common tradition had assigned the ceU to Tasso- long
before the inscription : and we may recoUect that, some
years ago, a great German poet was much incensed, not
at the sufferings of the prisoner, but at the pretensions
of the prison. But the author of Werther need not have
felt so insulted by the demand for his faith. The ceU
was assuredly one of the prisons of the hospital, and m
one of those prisons we know that Tasso was confined,*
The present inscription, indeed, does exaggerate the
attraction of the chamber, for the poet was a prisoner
in the same room only from the middle of March 1579,

* Mr. 'Walker, in his historical memoir on Italian tragedy, saw
this dungeon in 1792, and, in spite of some hints from Mr. Black,
the biographer of Tasso, was inclined to believe it to have been the
original place of the poet's confinement ; (see ' Life of Tasso,' cap. xv.
vol. ii. p. 97 ;) but the site will not correspond with what Tasso
says of his being removed to a neighbouring apartment, " assai piu
commoda " — there is no such commodious neighbouring apartment
on the same level.

Chap. VII. TASSO. 159
to December 1580, when he was removed to a con
tiguous apartment much larger, in wMcli, to use his
o\vn expressions, he coidd phUosopMze and walk about.*
His prison was, in the year 1584, agam enlarged.! It
is equally certain, also, that once, m 1581, he was per
mitted to leave the hospital for the greater part of a
day,$ and that this favour was occasionally granted to
Mm m the subsequent years of his confmement§ The
inscription is mcorrect, also, as to the immediate cause
of his enlargement, wMch was promised to the city of
Bergamo, but was carried mto effect at the intercession
of Don Vincenzo Gonzaga, Prince of Mantua, cMefly
owing to the unwearied apphcation of Antomo Con
stantino, a gentieman m the suite of the Florentme
embassy. |1
But the address should not have confined itself to the
respect due to the prison : one honest hue might have
been allotted to the condemnation of the gaoler. There
seems in the ItaUan -writers something like a disposition
to excuse the Duke of Ferrara by extenuating the
suffermgs, or exaggeratmg the derangement, of the
poet. He who contemplates the dungeon, or even the
hospital of St. Anna, wiU be at a loss to reconcUe either

* La Vita di Torquato Tasso, scritta dall' Abate Pierantonio Se-
rassi, seconda edizione  in Bergamo, 1790, pp. 34 and 64,
tom. ii.
t La Vita, &c., lib. iii. p. 83, tom. ii. •
i La Vita, &c., lib. iii. p. 63, tom. ii.
§ Vide p. 83, ut sup.
II La Vita, &c., lib. iii. p. 142, tom. ii.

160 TASSO. Chap. VII.
the one or the other -with that " ample lodgment " wMch,
according to the author of the ' Antiquities of the House
of Este,' the partiaUty of Alfonso aUotted to the man
" whom he loved and esteemed much, and wished to keep
near his person." * Muratori confesses himself unable to
define the offence of the patient ; and m a short letter
devoted expressly to the subject, comes to no other
general conclusion than that he could not be caUed in
sane,! but was confined partly for chastisement, partly
for cure, having probably spoken some indiscreet words
of Alfonso. He makes no mention of any distemper m
the prince ; nor is it easy to discover that free exercise
of his understanding for wMch Gibbon has somewhere

* " Ma perciocche questo principe I'amava e stimava forte, e non
voleva privarsene elesse di alimentarlo in quell' ampio luogo, con
desiderio che ivi fosse curato anche il corpo suo." Antichita Estensi,
parte sec. cap. xiii. p. 405, ediz. foi. Mutin. 1740.
t Lettera ad Apostolo Zeno, see Tasso's "Works, vol. x. p. 244.
" Ne mentecatto ne pazzo," are Muratori's words. See also p. 242
and p. 243. He is a little freer spoken in this letter, but still says,
" the wise prince did not give voay to his anger." Muratori's Annals
were attacked on their first appearance, as " uno de' libri piii fatali
al principato Eomano ; " to which the librarian replied, that " truth
was neither Guelf nor Ghibelline." If he had thought that she was
neither Catholic nor Protestant, he would not have slurred over the
massacre of St. Bartholomew as an event which gave rise to many
exaggerations from the Hugonots. " Lascerb io disputare ai gran
Dottori intorno al giustificare o riprovare quel si strepitoso fatto ;
bastando a me di dire, che per cagion d'esso immense esagerazioni
fece il partito de gli Ugonoti, e loro servi di stimolo e sousa per
ripigliar I'armi contra del Ee." Annali ad an. 1572, tom. x. p. 464.
In page 469, ibid., he talks of the great loss of France by the death
of the murderer Charles IX., who, if he had lived, would have " ex
tirpated the seed of heresy."

Chap. VII. TASSO. 161
praised tMs celebrated antiquary.* Indeed, in Ms
notice of tMs injustice, the librarian of the Duke of
Modena, so far from seemmg to forget the interests of
the princely house wMch pensioned his labours, suggests
rather the ob-vious reflection, that, when a writer has to
obtain or repay any other pateonage than that of the
pubhc, his first and paramount object cannot be the
establishment of truth. In truth, the subject of an abso
lute monarchy is an unsafe guide on almost every topic.
La Bruyfere, hke a good CathoUc, reckoned the dragoon
ing of the Protestants amongst the most commendable
actions of Louis XlV.t
Manso, the friend and biographer of Tasso, might
have been expected to tMow some Ught upon so import
ant a portion of his history, but the flve chapters devoted
to the subject only encumbered the question with mcon-
clusive discussion. What is stiU more extraordmary, it
appears, that of seven or eight contemporary Ferrarese
annalists, only one has mentioned that Tasso was con
fined at aU, and that one, Faustim, has assigned a cause

* For a fine and just character of Muratori, see, however, the
Antiquities of the House of Brunswick, p. 641, vol. ii. quarto.
Gibbon's Misc. Works.
t The same writer declares "homage to a king" to be the sole
sufficing virtue of every good subject in a monarchy, " where there is
no such thing as love of our country — the interest, the gloi-y, and the
service of the prince, supply its place." (De la Bepublique, chap, x.)
For which sentiment our great poet has made honourable mention of
him amongst his dunces (The Dimciad, book iv. v. 522), with whom
he might be safely left, did he not belong rather to the flatterers
than the fools.

162 TASSO. Chap. VII.
more absurd than instructive.* The later Ubrarian of
Modena, TfraboscM, was equaUy disingenuous -with Ms
predecessor, and had the assurance to declare, that by
prescribing a seven years' confinement Affonso consulted
only the health, and honour, and advantage of Tasso, who
e-rinced Ms contmued obstmacy by considering himseff a
prisoner, t But, -with the Ubrarian's leave, the suspicion
was justified by the apprehensions of the poet's Italian
contemporaries, who, m thefr supplications for his release,
seldom gave him any other name. The same -writei"
announced, in the first edition of his ' History of Italian
Literature,' that he had made the long-looked-for dis
covery as to the cause of Tasso's confinement, and had
entrusted the documents found m the arcMves of the
house of Este to the Abate Serassi. In Ms second
edition he declared that his expectations, and those of
aU the learned world, had been answered by the Lffe of
the poet published by the Abate in 1785 : 1;. but the

* " II Duca Alfonso II. il fece rinchiudere per curarlo di una
fistola che lo travagliava." Vid. Tiraboschi Storia della Letter. Ital.,
lib. iii., part iii., tom. -vii. p. 1210, edit. Venet. 1796.
t " Credette egli percib che e all' onore e alia salute del Tasso
niuna cosa potesse esser piii utile che il tenerlo non gia prigione, ma
custcdito  intanto procurava con rimedj di calmarne I'animo
e la fantasia. Ma cio che Alfonso operb al vantaggio del Tasso non
servi che a renderne sempre peggiore la condizione — Gli parve esser
prigione." Tiraboschi, Storia, &c., lib. iii. tom. vii. par. iii. p. 1213,
edit. Venet. 1796.
X storia, &o., p. 1212 ut sup. '
The English author of the Life of Tasso seems half inclined to
believe in the love of the poet for Leonora (Black, chap. viii. vol. i.
p. 188, and chap. xiii. vol. ii. p. 2), and quotes a passage in a letter

Chap. VII. TASSO. 163
antiquary, stiU faithftil to his patrons, did not mention
that it appears, from every page of the biograjjhy, that
the imprisonment must be attributed rather to the ven
geance and mean apprehensions of the prmce, than to
the extravagance of the poet.
The Abato Serassi was acknowledged to be a perfect
master of the " cmquecento," and he has spoken as
freely as could be expected from a priest, an Itahan, and
a frequenter of the tables of the great. He shows that
he is labourmg with a secret, or, at least, a persuasion,
wMch he is at a loss how, honestiy, to conceal; and
wMch, m spite of our natural respect for the best of
princes, and the most Ulusteious of cardinals, is suffi-
cientiy apparent to confirm our suspicion of Affonso's
tyranny. The duke had not the excuse of Tasso's pre
sumption m aspiring to the love of the princely Leonora.

from Tasso to Gonzaga, omitted by Serassi, in which he talks of
the princess having but little corresponded to his attachment (lb.
chap. xiv. vol. ii. p. 59). Mr. Walker, in his historical memoir,
was bold enough to follow the old story even in the face of Serassi,
¦svho appears to me to have completely settled the question.
Poetical gallantry -will account for all the phenomena. Dr. Black
himself wisely rejects the passion of love as the adequate cause
of Torquato's insanity : but we may not perhaps subscribe to his
opinion, that the poet lost his senses on account of the objections
made to his Jerusalem. The biographer presumes him positively
mad, and argues on his case out of Pinel, and Haslam, and others.
On this ground he supposes the harsh conduct of the duke was
adopted as necessary for the cure of Tasso (see chap. xv. p. 91,
vol. ii. ; chap. xii. vol. i. p. 808 ; chap. xv. vol. ii. p. 87 ; and chap.
xvi. vol. ii. p. 113) ; and, if his meaning has not been mistaken,
he almost apologises for the prescription of Alfonso.

164 TASSO. Chap. VII.
The far-famed kiss is certainly an mvention, although
not of a modern date. The EngUsh were taught by a
contemporary -writer to beUeve that the Lydian boy and
¦ the goddess of Antium had precipitated Torquato mto
Ms dungeon,* and Manso Muted the same probability,
but -with much cfrcumspection. The tale was at last
openly told m ' The TMee Gondolas,' a httle work, pub
lished in 1662, by Gfrolamo Brusom, at Venice, and
immediately suppressed.! Leonora of Este was thirty
years old when Tasso came to Ferrara; and this,
perhaps, not-withstandmg that serene brow, where Love
aU armed was wont to expatiate, reconcUed Mm to the
reverence and wonder wMch succeeded to the first feel
ings of admfration and dehght.| It is true that neither
her age, nor the vermiUon cloud wMch obscured the eyes

* Mutis abditus ac nigris tenebris
In quas prasoipitem dedere oaeci
Infans Lydius, Antiique Diva.
See some Hendecasyllables of Scipio Gentilis. (Serassi, la Vita del
Tasso, &c., lib. iii. p. 34, tom. ii.)
t Serassi calls it an operaccia. La Vita, &c., lib. ii. p. 169, tom. i.
Muratori, in his letter to Apostolo Zeno, p. 240, loc. cit., tells the
story from Carretta, who had heard it from Tassoni ; and though he
hesitates about the kiss, seems to believe Tasso was in love -with
Leonora, p. 242. Gibbon (Antiquities of the House of Brunswick,
p. 693) turns the story to good account — he believes — and makes
a period. X E certo il primo di che '1 bel sereno
Della tua fronte agli ochi miei s' ofiferse,
E vidi armato spaziarvi 1' Amore,
Se non che riverenza allor converse
E meraviglia in fredda selce il seno
Ivi peria con doppia morte il core.
Canzone. La Vita, &c., lib. ii. p. 148, tom. i.

Chap. VII. TASSO. 165
of her sister Lucretia,* rendered Ms muse less sensible to
the pleasure of being patromzed by the Ulusteious ladies ;
and perhaps his intercourse with them was not altogether
free from that mcUnation which the charms of any atteac
tive woman might readUy excite m a temperament too
warm to be a respecter of persons. But his heart was _
devoted to humbler and younger beauties ; and more
particularly to Lucretia Bendedio, who had also to rank
the author of the ' Pastor Fido ' amongst her immortal
suitors.! Of this passion the princess Leonora was the
confidante, and aspfred to the cure, by the smgular
expedient of persuading him to become the enconUast of
one of his rivals.^ Leonora San VitaU, Countess of
Scandiano, was the second of the tMee Leonoras, who,
whether they all existed or not, have rendered that
name dear to the lovers of ItaUan poetry. But even
the passion for the countess is reduced to a perhaps by
the author of the Literary History of Italy. § It appears
then that the biographer is justified in exclaimmg
against the scandal, wMch is mcompatible with the
rank and piety of a princess who was a temple of
honour and chastity, and a smgle prayer of whom res-

* Questa nebbia si bella e si vermiglia.
Tass. Oper. vol. vi. p. 27 ; La Vita, &c., lib. ii. 150, tom. i.
t La Vita, &c., Ub. ii. p. 157, tom. i.
t La Vita, ut sup. Pigna was this rival.
§ H ^tait combattu d'un cotd par son attachement pour le Due
Alphonse, pour ses soeurs, peut-Stre pour la jeune Comtesse de
Scandiano. (G^iWH^reK/, part ii. chap. xiv. p. 200.) In another place
Guingene' declares " mais cette passion fut toute pohtique." How
could he know ?

166 TASSO. Chap. VII.
cued Ferrara from the anger of Heaven and the in
undation of the Po.* It is, also, but too certam that
Leonora deserted the poet in the first days of Ms dis
tress ; and it is equaUy known that Tasso, who would
not have forgotten an early flame, did not hang a single
garland on the bier of Ms supposed mistress.
The biographer has left it -without doubt that the first
cause of the punishment of Tasso was his desfre to be
occasionaUy, or altogether, free from Ms ser-vitude at the
court of Affonso, and that the immediate pretext of Ms
imprisonment was no other than disrespectful mention
of the Duke and Ms court. In 1575 he resolved, not-
withstandmg the ad-vice of the Duchess of Urbmo, to
visit Eome, and enjoy the indulgence of the jubUee, and
this " error increasing the suspicion afready entertamed
at court, that he was m search of another service," was
the origin of Ms misfortunes.! Alfonso defamed bim at
Ferrara by the expectation of unrealized favours, § and
also by -withholdmg Ms Jerusalem, wMch he would not

* Quando del Pb tremar 1' altere sponde
Ferrara dannegiando e dentro, e fuora ;
Un sol prego di te, casta Leonora,
Spense 1' ire del ciel giuste e profonde.
Sonetto di Filippo Binaschi. See La Vita, &c., lib. ii. p. 170, tom. i.
t La Vita, &c. lib. iii. pp. 12, 48, 50, tom. ii.
X " Perciocche da un si fatto errore si pub dir che avessero origine
le sue disawenture, essendosi con cib accresoiuto a dimisura il sos-
petto, che gia si aveva alia corte, ch' egli cercasse altro servizio." —
La Vita, &o., lib. ii. pp. 232, 233, tom. i.
§ "II Diioa m' ha fatto molti favori, ma io vorrei frutti e non
fiori." In a letter from Tasso to Scalabrino. — La Vita, Sec, lib. ii.
p. 245, tom, i.

Chap. VII. TASSO. 167
allow the author to can-y w^th him to Vemce, nor,
although he had promised the dehvery of the MS.
to Cardinal Albano, would consent to restore after the
flight of Tasso to Eome.* An habitual melancholy,
wMch, it appears, made Mm teemble for Ms spfritual
condition, a morbid sensibUity frritated by the injuries
of his rivals and the teeachery of Ms friends, had driven
bim into an excess against an mdividual of the court :
but Alfonso did not punish him for dra-wing his knffe :
he was merely confined to his apartment, from wMch
the Duke soon released Mm, and carried bim to the
villa of Befriguarda — ^but finaUy, when Tasso was stUl
discontented, the Duke teansferred him to the Franciscan
Convent at Ferrara, with strict orders that the concerns
of his soul, and the diseases of his body, should be sub
mitted to the teeatment of the Holy Fratemity. The
repeated complaints of the poet formed some pretext
for the proMbition wMch he soon received command-
mg bim to write no more, either to the Duke, or the
Prmcess his daughter. This, however, drove Tasso to
despafr, and from the confinement, and the medicine of
the Convent wMch he equally dreaded, he found means
at last to escape.! He wandered, first, to his sister at

* " Forse perche incresceva al duca e alle principesse il perdere
dopo la persona del poeta anche i suoi pregiati oomponimenti." An
innocent observation of the Abate's. — La Vita, &c., lib. iii. p. 7,
tom. i.
t " Intanto il Tasso comincib a lasciarsi purgare, ma di malissimo
animo." (La Vita, &c., lib. ii. p. 283, tom. i.) Poor Tas»o thought

168 TASSO. Chap. VII.
Sorrento, and thence to Eome ; but he felt an anxiety
to recover Ms MS., and, although the Cardinal Albano
and Scipio Gonzaga dissuaded him from trusting himself
at the court of Alfonso, returned to Ferrara. He there
found that the Jerusalem had been put mto other
hands, and that the Duke, after refusmg to hear him
mention the subject, domed him, at last, aU access to
himself and the princesses. Serassi presumes that this
treatment is to be partly charged upon the poet, who,
instead of putting himseff mto a course of medicme, ate
and drank to excess ; but he candidly owns that Tasso had
a right to Ms own property, the fr-uits of Ms own gemus.*
He again retired from Ferrara, and remained absent for
some time ; but he again returned, m opposition to the
entreaties of the Marquis Philip of Este, and others, who
were better acquainted than himseff -with the character
of Alfonso.! The Duke now refused to admit him to an
audience. He was repulsed from the houses of aU the
dependants of the court ; and not one of the promises
wMch the Cardmal Albano had obtained for him was

the excellence of a physician consisted in prescribing medicines not
only salutiferous but agreeable : " Perche come V. S. sa, 1' eccel
lenza de' medici consiste in buona parte in dar.le medicine non solo
salutifere, ma piacevole." — Tass. Oper. vol. x. p. 360. Lettera a
Biaggio Bernardi. La Vita, &c., lib. iii. p. 81, tom. ii.
* " Per altro sebbene sia da credersi che molte di si fatte cose
fossero soltanto effetto della sua imaginazione, e ch' egli anzi avesse
irritate quell' ottimo principe col non aver voluto prestarsi ad una
purga rigoroso .... ad ogni modo sembra, che se gli dovesse
almeno restituire il suo poema." — La Vita, &c., lib. iii. p. 13, tom.ii.
t La Vita, &c., lib. iii. p. 31, tom. ii.

Chap. VII. TASSO. 169
carried into effect. Then it was that Tasso, " after
havmg suffered tiiese hardsMps -with patience for some
time, seeing himseff constantiy discountenanced by the
Duke and the prmcesses, abandoned by his friends, and
derided by his enemies, could no longer contain Mmseff
within the bounds of moderation, but, gi-ving vent to Ms
choler, pubhcly broke forth into the most mjurious
expressions imagmable, both against the Duke and all
the house of Este, as weU as against the principal lords
of the court, cursing Ms past service, and refracting all
the praises he had ever given m Ms verses to those
princes, or to any indi-yidual connected -with them,
declaring that they were all a "gang of polteoons,
mgrates, and scoundrels." These are the words of
Serassi ;* and for this offence was Tasso arrested, and
instead of being punished, such is the hint of his bio
grapher, was, by his "generous and magnanimous"
sovereign, conducted to the hospital of St. Anna, and
confined m a sohtary ceU as a madman. From repeated
passages m his letters, from the mtercessions made in
his favour by so many of the Italian potentates,! from
the condition annexed to his release, by wMch the Duke of
Mantua stipulated that he would be guarantee against any
Uterary reprisals from the poet against Ms persecutor,!

* " Che tutti in quel momento spaccib per una ciurma di pol-
troni, ingrati, e ribaldi." — La Vita, &c., lib. iii. p. 33, tom. ii.
¦f La Vita, Sec, lib. iii. p. 128, tom. ii. Bergamo tempted
Alfonso by the present of an antique fragment, p. 128, ut supra.
X " Ma riflettendo, che i poeti sono di loro natura genus irritdbile,
VOL. I. I

170 TASSO. Chap. VII.
there can be no doubt but that these mjurious expres
sions, and these alone, were the cause of the confine
ment of Tasso: so that, as the unwillingly con-yinced
biographer is obhged to exclaim, it appears extraordi
nary that so many fables should have been dreamt of to
account for the motive of his long imprisonment.* Had
that wMch Montaigne caUed " his fatal vivacity " dfrected
itseff against any others than the Duke and court of
Ferrara, or had it preyed, as the Frenchman thought,
upon Mmseff alone,! a prison would not have been the
prescription for such harmless extravagance.
It has been before mentioned that he was only mne
months in the first dungeon aUotted to Ms crime, or, as
Ms tyrant caUed it, his cure ; but to one whose disease
was a dread of soUtude, and whose offence was a love of
Uberty, the hospital of St. Anna was, of itseff, a dungeon.!

e temendo percib che Torquato, trovandosi libero, non volesse
coll' armi formidabili della sua penna vendicarsi della lunga pri-
gionia, e de' mali trattamenti ricevuti a quella corte, non sapea
risolversi a lasciarlo uscire da' suoi stati, senza prima essere assicu-
rato, oh' ei non tenterebbe cosa alcuna contro 1' onore e la riverenza
dovuta a un si gran principe com' egli era." — La Vita, &c., lib. iii.
p. 128, tom. ii.
* " Cosiochfe sembra cosa strana, come altri abbia potuto sognare
tante favole, come si e fatto interna al motive della sua lunga pri-
gonia." — La Vita, Sec, lib. iii. p. 34, tom. ii.
t "N'a-t-il pas de quoi savoir gr6 a cette sienne vivacity
meurtriere," &c. &c. — Essais, &c., liv. ii. cap. xii. p. 214, tom. ii.
edit; stereot. 1811.
X " E' 1 timor di continua prigionia molto accresce la mia mesti-
zia ; el accresce 1' indegnita, che mi conviene usare ; e lo squallore
della barba, e delle chiome, e degli abiti, e la sordidezza, e' 1 succi-
dume fieramente m' annojano : e sovra tutto m' afflige la solitudine,

Chap. VII.

TASSO. 171

It is certain that for nearly the first year he endured all
the horrors of a sohtary sordid ceU, and that he was
under the care of a gaoler whose cMef vutiie, although
he was a poet and a man of letters, was a cruel obedi
ence to the commands of his prmce.* Whatever occa
sional alleviations were allowed to his disteess, he was a
prisoner to the last day of his abode m the hospital, and
he felt that there was perpetuaUy a door barred between
him and the rehef of his body and his soul.! His mis
fortune was rather aggravated than diminished by the
repeated expectations held out to him of approacMng
Uberation. His calamities gathered upon Mm with his
confinement, and at no time was his condition more

mia crudele e natural nemica, della quale anco nel mio buono stato
era talvolta cosi molestato che in ore intempestive m' andava cer-
cando, o andava ritrovando compagnia." — Letter from Tasso to
Scipio Gonzaga. Oper., vol. x. p. 386 ; La Vita, &c., lib. iii. p.
35, tom. ii.
* " Sed neque cui parvo est virtus in corpore major
Mustius, obsequiis intentus principis usque."
His name was Agostino Mosti.— See La Vita, Sec, lib. iii. p. 38, tom.
ii. Tasso says of him, in a letter to his sister, " ed usa meco ogni
sorte di rigore ed inumanita.'' — See Opera, vol. ix. p. 183, and
La Vita, Sec, lib. iii. p. 40, tom. ii. Bamffaldi tries to defend him
by saying that Tasso was guilty of high treason, and Mosti was only
doing his duty. — Vita di M. L. Ariosto, lib. iii. p. 244. This
avowal is everything for the point wished to be proved.
t " 0 Signor Maurizio, quando sara quel giomo ch' io possa
respirar sotto il cielo aperto, e che non mi veda sempre un uscio
senato davanti, quando mi pare di aver bisogno del medico o del
confessore." This pathetic letter was written to his friend Cataneo
a few months before his release. — Opera, vol. ix. p. 367 ; La Vita,
lib. iii. p. 139, tom. ii.
I 2

1 72 TASSO. Chap. VIL
deplorable than in the last months of his detention.*
Amongst the diseases of his body and Ms mind, the
desfre and despafr of freedom so constantly preyed upon
him, that, when the order for Ms departure had been ob
tamed, Ms friends were cautious not to commumcate the
glad tidmgs to him too abruptly, for fear of some fatal
revulsion. We must then deduct something from the
harmomous praise wMch our eloquent and courtly
Gibbon claims for the splendid pateonage of the house
of Este. The hberahty, the taste, the gratitude of
Cardinal Hippolyto, may be collected from the poet
whom he degraded into a courier, whose Orlando he
derided, and whose services he requited with disdainful
neglect.! The magnificence of Ms brother, the duke.

* " Sappia che per I'infermita di molti anni sono smemoratis-
simo e per questa cagione dolentissimo, benche non sia questa sola
e, c' e la debolezza di tutti i sensi e di tutte le membra, e.qiiasi la
vechiezza venuta innanzi agli anni, e la prigionia, e 1' ignoranza delle
cose del mondo, e la solitudine, la quale e misera e nojosa oltre
1' altre, massimaniente s' ella non e d' uomini, ma d' amici." A
solitude to which all the unhappy are condemned. — Letter to Mon-
sigi-. Papio, dated Sept. 1585. Opera, vol. x. p. 313 ; La Vita,
lib. iii. p. 133. t Non mi lascid fermar molto in un luogo
E di poeta cavallar mi feo. — Ariost., Sat. vi.
Messer Ludovico dove avete mai trovate tante fanfaluche ? was
the famous speech of the Cardinal to Ariosto on first reading the
Orlando. Hippolyto dismissed him from his service without any
recompense : he had before encouraged the composition of the
Orlando, by telling the author, " che sarebbegli stato assai piu caro
che avesse atteso a servirlo." See the before-cited La Vita di M.
Lodovico Ariosto, scritta dalV Abate Oirolamo Baruffaldi Ciunime :
Ferrara, mdoccviii. lib. ii. pp. 119, 120; lib. iii. pp. 174, 177.

Chap. VII. TASSO.

173

assigned to Ariosto a pension of 21 Ure a montii, and
food for tMee servants and two horses ; a salary witii
wMch the poet would have been contented had it been
paid.* But our historian has stepped beyond the
bounds of panegyric in ascribmg the Orlando to the
favour of the first Alfonso.! The immortal poem
struggled into lffe under the barren shade of the Car
dinal Hippolyto, and the author derived no other benefit
from its second appearance, under the auspices of the
court of Ferrara, than the sale of a hundred copies for
eight-and-twenty crowns. J The obligations of the
Jerusalem DeUvered to the second Affonso, may have
been afready appreciated. They consisted m the seven
years' imprisonment of the author, and the surreptitious
pubhcation of a mutilated MS. The princes of Italy
were not deficient in a fruitiess deference to the claims
of Uterature : tbis was the taste of the age, and they
divided that merit with the accomplished Mghwaymen
of the day.§ They regarded a man of letters as aneces-

The Abate, under the 'late Government, could afford to give an
honest character of this Purple Maecenas — and has done it.
* See Ariosto Satir. ad Annibale Malaguzzo, and La Vita, &c.,
Ub. iii. p. 184.
¦f "Ferrara may boast that in her classic groimd Ariosto and
Tasso lived and sung ; that the lines of the Orlando Furioso, aud of
the Jerusalem Delivered, were inscribed in everlasting characters
under the eye of the first and second Alfonso." — Gibbon's Anti
quities of the House uf Brunsviick, edit. cit. p. 694.
X La Vita di M. Lodovico Ariosto, &c., lib. iii. p. 136.
§ See the adventure of Ariosto with Filippo Pachionei— La Vita
di M. L. Ariosto, &c., lib. iii. p. 187 ; and that of Tasso with Marco
di Sciarra — La Vita del Tasso, Sec, lib. iii. p. 229, tom. ii.

174 TASSO. Chap. VII.
sary appendage to thefr dignity, and a poet was the more
cherished as he was the oftener employed m recording the
triumphs of his protectmg court. The muse was encou
raged and confined to her laureate duties ; and so care
fuUy was her gratitude secured, and her recompense so
exactly weighed, that, the day before the Prmce of
Mantua obtained the Uberation of Tasso, he commanded
the captive to compose a copy of verses, as an earnest, it
should seem, of more elaborate efforts.* The same
prince imitated the example of Alfonso in retaining the
MSS. of our poet, as a pledge for his future attachment
to the house of Gonzaga ; and ha-ring assigned him a
small sum for Ms immediate exigencies, would not
aUow Mm to purchase clothes unless he would consent
to wear them out m the duties of the Mantuan court.
A thousand traits m the Ufe of Tasso serve to show that
gemus was considered the property, not ofthe mdividual,
but Ms pateon; and that the reward aUotted for this
appropriation was dealt out with jealous avarice. The
author of the Jerusalem, when he was at the height of Ms
favour at the court of Ferrara, could not redeem the
covering of his body and bed, wMch he was obhged to
leave m pledge for 13 crowns and 45 Ure, on accom
panying the cardinal of Este to France. This cfrcum
stance appears from a testamentary document preserved
m manuscript in the pubhc Ubrary of Ferrara, wMch is

¦*¦ La Vita, &c., lib. iii. p. 144, tom. ii.

Chap. VII. TASSO. 175
imperfectiy copied into the Lffe of Tasso,* and the fol
lowing letter! is extracted frpm tiie same collection of
autographs as a singular exemplification of what has
been before said of princely pati'onage.
My very Magnificent Signok,
I send your worsMp five shirts, all of wMch want
mending. Give them .to your relation ; and let Mm
know that I do not wish them to be mixed with the
others ; and that he wiU gratify me by commg one day
with you to see me. In the mean whUe I wait for that
answer wMch your lordsMp promised to sohcit for me.
Put your fiiend in mind of it. I kiss your worship's
hand. Your very faithful servant,
ToKQUATO Tasso.
From S. Anna, the ith of Jan. 1585.
If you cannot come with your relation, come alone.
I want to speak to you. And get the cloth washed in
wMch the shirts are -wrapped up.
To the very Magnificent Signor,
The Signor Luca Scalabrino.X

* Lib. ii. p. 171, tom. i. Serassi had not seen the original, but
copied from a copy^the list of goods in pavrn is left out.
t Dr. Black has followed some incorrect writer in saying that
Tasso's handwriting "was small and almost illegible." (Chap. xxiv.
vol. ii. pp. 344, 345.) That it was large and very legible will be
seen from a facsimile of an autograph in my possession, also sub
joined. X No inquiry has been able to discover who this Luca Scalabrino

176 tasso. Chap. VII.
Such was the condition of him who thought that,
besides God, to the poet .alone belonged the name of
creator, and who was also persuaded that he Mmseff
was the first ItaUan of that di-vine race.* Those who
mdulge in the dreams of eartMy retribution -wiU ob
serve that the cruelty of Affonso was not left -without
its recompense, even in his own person. He survived
the affection of Ms subjects and of his dependants, who
deserted Mm at his death, and suffered Ms body to be
interred -without princely or decent honours. His last
wishes were neglected; his testament canceUed. His
kinsman Don Caesar sMank from the excommumcation
of the Vatican, and after a short struggle, or rather sus
pense, Ferrara passed away for ever from the dominion
of the house of Este.!
Affonso was the cMef deUnquent, but he was not the
only contriver, of Tasso's misfortunes. It appears that
the poet was m part the -victim of a household con-
spfracy,J formed by those who were totaUy mcapable of

* " II Tasso si levb in coUera, e disse .... che il poeta era cosa
divina, e i Greci il chiamano con un' attribute che si da a Dio, quasi
volendo inferire, che nel mondo non ci e chi meriti il nome di crea-
tore, che Dio e il Poeta." (See La Vita, &c., lib. iii. p. 262.) Mon
signor de Nores asked him who he thought deserved the first place,
" fra i nostri poeti .... mi rispose, ' al mio giudizio all' Ariosto
si deve il secondo :' e soggiungendogli io subito, ' e il primo ? ' Sorrise,
e mi voltb le spalle, volendo credo io che intendessi, che il primo lo
riserbava a se." — See La Vita, Sec, lib. iii. p. 262, tom. ii.
t Antichita Estensi.. par. ii. cap. 13 and 14.
X La Vita, &c., p. 277.

Chap. VII. TASSO. 177
appreciating either his -vfrtues or Ms failings ; and who
thought themselves interested^ ff they did not find, to
prove, him insane. For this i>urpose every Uttle ex-
teavagance of action was carefuUy watched and noted
down. Not only his words were submitted to the same
charitable interpretation, but his thoughts were scru
tinized, and, m pursuit of the same evidence of Ms
derangement and disaffection to his duties, Ms books,
his papers, and his correspondence were explored m
those repositories wMch are safe against aU but domestic
treachery ; * affection for his person, and admfration for
his talents, were the pretext for every proceeding
against Ms hberty and his fame; and so far did this
insulting hypocrisy proceed, that a report was indus
triously spread, that it was the kind resource of pity
to pronounce him not guUty but mad. This rumour
caused and excused the desertion of one whose rehef
seemed hopeless. Eemonsteance was an aggravation,
concession a proof, of his dehnquency. Both were un
availing, and the voice of friendsMp could give no other
counsel than to be sUent and to submit. Hia disaster
was considered as his decease ; and his contemporaries
usurped and abused the rights of posterity. Composi
tions, some unfinished, and none of them intended for
the Ught, were devoted to the greedy gains of Uterary

* Ibid. lib. ii. p. 258, tom. i. Plutarch tells us that Eomulus
allowed only three causes of divorce — drunkenness, adultery, and
false keys.
I 3

178 tasso. Chap. VIL
pfrates ; and on such documents, no less garbled than
the representation of his actions, did his enemies pro
ceed to judgment. These calamities would have over
whelmed guUt, and might confound innocence. But
the tried affection of an only sister, the unshaken though
unserviceable regard of former associates, and, more
than aU, Ms own unconquerable mind, supphed the
motive and the means of resistance. He had lost the
hope of mercy, he cherished the expectation of justice.
This confidence preserved the prmciple of hfe ; and the
sensibUity of misfortune gave an irresistible edge and
temper to his faculties whenever his spirit emerged from
distress. The rays of Ms gemus could not dissipate, but
they burst, at mtervals, tMough the gloom of Ms seclusion,
and his countrymen soon found that thefr poet, although
Mdden from thefr sight, was stUl Mgh above the horizon.
The -Jerusalem Deliveked.'
The opposition wMch the Jerusalem encountered from
the Cruscan academy, who degraded Tasso from aU
competition with Axiosto, below Bojardo and Pulci,
must also in some measure be laid to the charge of
Alfonso and the court of Ferrara. For Leonard Sal-
viati, the prmcipal and nearly the sole origin of tMs
attack, was, there can be no doubt,* influenced by a
hope to acqufre the favour of the House of Este : an

* La Vita, &c., lib. iii. p. 90, tom. ii. The English reader may
see an account of the opposition of the Cnisca to Tasso, in. Dr. Black,
Life, Sec, cap. xvii. vol. ii.

Chap. vn. THE 'JEEUS.VLEM DELIVERED.' 179
object wMch he thought attainable by exalting tiie repu
tation of a native poet at the expense of a rival, tiieii a
prisoner of state. The hopes and efforts of Salviati
must serve to show the contemporary opinion as to the
nature of the poet's imprisonment ; and wUl fiU up the
measure of our indignation at the tyrant jailer. In
fact, the antagonist of Tasso was not disappomted in
the reception given to his criticism; he was called to
the court of Ferrara, where, having endeavoured to
heighten his claims to favour, by panegyrics on the
famUy of his sovereign,* he was in his turn abandoned,
and expfred in neglected poverty. The opposition of
the Cruscans was brought to a close m six years after
the commencement of the conteoversy; and ff the
academy owed its first renown to ha-ring almost opened
with such a paradox,! it is probable that, on the other
hand, the care of Ms reputation aUeviated rather than
aggravated the imprisonment of the mjured poet. The
defence of his father and of himseff, for both were
involved in the censure of Sal-riati, found employment
for many of his sohtary hours, and the captive could
have been but Uttie embarrassed to reply to accusations
where, amongst other delinquencies, he was charged
with invidiously omitting, m his comparison between

• Orazioni funebri .... delle lodi di Don Luigi Cardinal d'Este
.... delle lodi di Donno Alfonso d'Este. — See La Vita, lib. iii.
p. 117.
t It was founded in 1582, and the Cruscan answer to Pellegrino's
Caraffa or Epica Poesia was published in 1584.

180 TASSO. Chap. VII.
France and Italy, to make any mention of the cupola of
St. Maria del Fiore at Florence.* The late biographer
of Ariosto seems as ff willing to renew the controversy
by doubtmg the mterpretation of Tasso's seff-estimation!
related m Serassi's Lffe of the poet. But TfraboscM had
before laid that rivalry at rest,! ^J showing that be
tween Ariosto and Tasso it is not a question of com
parison, but of preference.
The opposition to Tasso was not confined to the
Itahans, nor to Ms ovm age. Every one must remember
the famous hues m wMch BoUeau makes an invidious
comparison between the gold of the .^neid and the
tinsel of the Jerusalem : —
A Malerbe, a Racan, pref^rer Th&phile,
Et le clinquant du Tasse a tout I'or de Virgile.
Sat. ix. V. 176.
The biographer Serassi,§ out of tenderness to the
reputation either of the Italian or the French poet, is
eager to observe that the satirist recanted or explained
away this censure, and subsequentiy aUowed the author
of the Jerusalem to be a "gemus, subUme, vast, and
happUy born for the Mgher flights of poetry." To this
we must however add, that the recantation is far from
satisfactory, when we examine the whole anecdote as

* " Cotanto potfe sempre in lui il veleno della sua pessima volonta
contro alia nazion Piorentina." — La Vita, lib. iii. p. 96, 98, tom. ii.
t La Vita di M. L. Ariosto, scritta dall' Abate Girolamo Baruf
faldi Giuniore, &c, Ferrara, 1807, lib. iii. p. 262.
X Storia della Lett., &c., lib. iii. tom. vii. par. iii. p. 1220, sect. 4.
§ La Vita del Tasso, lib. iii. p. 284, tom. ii., edit. Bergamo, 1790.

Chap. VII.

TASSO. 181

reported by OUvet.* The sentence pronounced against
Mm by Bouhours ! is recorded only to the confusion of
the critic, whose paUnodia the Italian makes no effort
to discover, and, perhaps, would not accept.!
Fereaea.
"V^Tien Tasso arrived in Ferrara in 1565, he found the
city one briUiant theatee.§ The largest streets which
he saw thronged with all the forms bf gaiety and splen
dour were in 1817 almost unteodden, and supported a

* Histoire de I'Academie Fraufaise depuis 1652 jusqu'a 1700,
par I'Abbe' d'Olivet, p. 181, edit. Amsterdam, 1730. " Mais ensuite,
venant a I'usage qu'il a fa.it de ses talens, j'aurois montr^ que le
bon sens n'est pas toujours ce qui domine chez lui," p. 182. Boileau
said he had not changed his opinion. " J'en ai si peu chang^, dit-
il," &c., p. 181.
t See La maniere de bien penser dans les ouvrages de I'esprit,
sec. dial. p. 89, edit. 1692. Philanthes is for Tasso, and says in the
outset, " De tous les beaux esprits que I'ltalie a portas, le Tasse est
peut-Stre celui qui pense le plus noblement." But Bouhours seems to
speak in Eudoxus, who closes with the absurd comparison, " Faites
valoir le Tasse tout ce qu'il vous plaira, je m'en tiens, pour moi, k
Virgile."— 7J., p. 102.
Marmontel has rendered tardy justice to the great Italian in the
following lines : —
" iTentends Boileau qui s'^crie : 0 blasphfime,
Loner le Tasse ! — oui, le Tasse lui-mfime.
Laissons Boileau tacher d'etre amusant,
Et pour raison donner un mot plaisant."
t Addison agrees with Boileau, and says, — " And as for the poet
himself, from whom the dreams of this opera are taken, I must
entirely agree -with Mons. Boileau, that one verse of Virgil is
worth all the clinquant or tinsel of Tasso." — Spectator, No. 3,
March 6, 1710-11.
§ See n Gianluca, Oper. del Tasso, edit. Ven. 1738, vol. viii.
pp. 13, 14.

182 TASSO. Chap. VII.
few paupers in the fruitless attempt to eradicate the
grass and weeds. The cutting the canal from the Eeno
to the Po, and the saltpetre manufactories, during the
French rule, had begun to re-vive and augment the
languid population. The return of the legate to the
castle confirmed the curse on the streets of Ferrara.
The Ferrarese subjects of Alfonso II. must share m the
disgrace attached to the imprisonment, for they con
tributed to the persecution, of Tasso.* To many names
now scarcely known except as ha-ving been joined in tMs
base design, must be added those of Horatio Ariosto,
great nephew of the poet, and of the more celebrated
Guarini. The disordered fancies of Tasso furmshed
them -with the excuse and -with the means for Ms ruin.
The toleration of the eccentricities of gemus is more
frequentiy found m the language than the practice of
mankind: and the natural inclination to repel any
assumption or supposition of exemption from the com
mon rules of hfe, is not more hkely to be found m the
saloons of prmces, wMch are made up of forms and pre
cedents, than m the lower mdependent classes of society.
The Ferrarese appear to have carried thefr complaisance
to thefr sovereigns to an .unusual excess; for on the
tower of the cathedral we read the foUo-wing inscription.
" DIVO HERC-VLE SEOVN DVCE IMPEEANTE."

* " Cib che e certo e, che in Ferrara per la malvaggia invidia
cortigiana venne a formarsi contro il povero Tasso una specie di
congiura," &c. — La Vita del Tasso, &c., dell' Abate Pierantonio
Serassi, sec. ediz. in Bergamo, 1790, lib. ii. p. 259, tom. i.

Chap. VII. TASSO. 183
An apotiieosis for wMch, ff tiieir god was stiU alive,
there is some doubt whether the slavcu-y of Imjierial
Eome can furnish them with an example.* Now it
was one of the exteavagancies of Tasso to discover that
haughty spirit of a gentieman and a scholar, winch made
him averse to flatter^-, and to that seff-anmhUation wMch
is the most acceptable quality in a dependant. To this
ignorance of the arts of courtly dissimulation Ms bio
grapher does not hesitate to atteibute his misfortunes,
and the inference must be discreditable to his Ferrarese
competitors.! Tasso's Letters aiid Will.
I shaU conclude my notice of the great author of the
' Jerusalem Dehvered ' by a transcript of eight letters,
written by Tasso when m the Hospital of Sta. Anna, and
of a testamentary memofr -written when he undertook
Ms joumey to France.
The letters, with the exception of one wMch appeared
in the 'PoUgrafo,' a periodical work, edited at MUan

¦* Julius C«sar, Caligula, and Domitian, were deified during their
lifetime. See the question argued in Donatus, who gives it against
the nrvvs. Eoma Vetus, lib. iii. cap. iv. Classical authority
excused even irreligion. Bembo rejected that unity of the Deity
which was repugnant to his Ciceronian latinity ; and, when writing
in the name of the Pope, ascribed his election to the chair of St.
Peter to the favour of the " imvmortal gods," deorum immortalium
beneficiis. t " Quanto egli fe piuttosto di sua natura altiero ed alieno da
ogni termine di adulazione, che acconcio alle scun-ilila cortigiane."
— Im Vita, &c., lib. iii. p. 261, tom. ii.

184 TASSO. Chap. VII.
during the reign of Napoleon, were, it is beUeved,
pubUshed for the fitrst time m the Historical lUusteations
to the fouj-th canto of ' Childe Harold.' They do not
establish any new facts, but are not altogether devoid of
mterest. A translation of one of them has been afready
inserted amongst these Notices. There is also a copy of
verses, beginmng " Gentilezza di sangue e gloria antica,"
wMch has been before published. Serassi mentions the
-wiU as ha-ring been m the possession of Baruffaldi of
Cento, and as being no longer m the Ubrary belonging
to the nephew of that learned person. It thus appears
that the biographer had never seen the origmal, and it is
certain that he foUowed an imperfect copy, for he has
omitted the postscript or reference, wMch is mterestmg
so far as it Ulusteates the scanty wardrobe of the poet,
and consequentiy the mean patronage of the house of
Este. On this account the reader may not object to see
an exact copy of the memorial, notwithstanding the
translation of an imperfect one has been afready pre
sented to bim by a late English author.
A difSculty has suggested itseff to Serassi respecting
the date of the wUl, wMch he contends cannot be that of
the copy wMch he foUowed, for Tasso had left Ferrara
before 1573, the year marked m the printed document :
the date preferred by the biographer is 1570. The fact
is, that the manuscript is -written on a doubled sheet of
paper, of wMch the wUl itseff occupies the two sides of
the first half-sheet, and the epitaph on Ms father, and

Chap. VII. TASSO'S -^ILL. 185
the reference to the goods in pawn, are on tiie thfrd
opposite page. The date is at the bottom of the second
page, and, having been worn away from the doubUng of
the sheet, the fourth figure cannot be deciphered.
The Will.
Benche la -rita k frale, se piacesse al S'' Iddio disporre
alteo di me m questo -s-iaggio di fr-ancia, sia pregato il
Sig' "" Hercole EondineUi a prender cura d' alcune mie
cose ; e prima m quanto aUe mie compositiom procuri di
raccoghere i miei sonetti amorosi, e i madrigaU, e gU
mandi in luce ; gU altri o amorosi o m altra materia, c' ho
fatti per servigio d' alcuno amico, desidero che restino
sepolti con esso meco, fuor che quel solo. " Hor che 1'
aura mia dolce alteove spfra." L' oratione ch' io feci m
ferrara nel principio deU' academia havrei caro che fosse
vista, et simUmente quatteo hbri del poema heroico.
Del Gottifredo i sei ultimi canti, e de' due primi queUe
stanze che saranno giudicate men ree, si veramente che
tutte queste cose siano re-viste et considerate, prima dal
Sig^. Scip. Gonzaga, dal Sig""'. Domemco Vemero, e dal
Sig""^. Batt'*. Guarino, i quali per 1' amicitia e servitii ch'
io ho con loro, mi persuade che non ricuseranno questo
fastidio. Sappiano per6 che mia intentione sarebbe che
teoncassero e risecassero, senza risparmio tutte le cose
ch' o men buone o sopercMe giudicassero ; ma nel
aggiungere o nel mutare andassero piii ritenuti, non
potendosi questo poema vedere se non imperfetto 
DeU' altee nue compositiom si al suddetto Sig"''. Eondi-

186 TASSO'S -WILL. Chap. VII.
neUi, et a prefati sig*. alcuna ne parebbe non hidegna d'
essere vista, sia loro Ubero T arbitrio di disporne ; le mie
robbe che sono in pegno presso Abram  , per xxv
Ifre, et sette pezzi di razzi che sono hi pegno per 13 scudi
appresso U Sig""'. Ascanio, e queUe che sono in questa
casa, desidero che si vendmo e del sopravanzo de dinari
se ne faccia uno epitafio a mio padre, U cui corpo h m
San Polo; et 1' epitafio sark 1' infrascritto; et s' in
alcuna cosa nascesse qualche impedimento, ricorra il
Sig°'. Hercole al favor deU' Ecc"^ Mad^ Leonora, la
qual confide che p' amor mio gUene sara Uberale.
Io torq tasso scrissi fer*. 157
Bernardo taxo (Principum nego"^*) Musarum ocio et
Principum negotiis suma ingenU ubertate atque excel-
lentia pari fortunse varietate ac mconstantia relictis
utriusque industrise monumentis clariss". torquat^. fiUus
posuit. -visit an septuagmta et sex. obi an. 1569. die 4°
Septemb. Eobbe che son presso Abram in via Cussa.
Due padigUom.
Due colore turchesche guarmte di xendallo,
Un tomaletto di Eazzo.
Due anteporti.
The eight letters, a translation of one of wMch has
been afready given, are as foUows : —

• Principum nego'". These words are struck out in the MSS.
Tasso thought better of the Muses than the Princes, and changed
the precedence.

Chap. VII. TASSO'S LETTERS. 187
Tasso's Letters.
1.
31. E"*". MIO Oss"°.
Nel fogUo giunto temo che vi sia corso un' error
di penna, ma non ne sono ben sicuro : comunque sia,
avertite che si legga cosi, e che non esca alteamente.
Se la feUcita ^ premio, 1' infeUcitk h pena: Ma la
feUcita k premio inteinseco deUa -vfrtii. Dimque 1' m-
feUcita e pena interiore del vitio. E mi vi raccomando.
Di S. Anna U xxvi di Giugno. Di V. S. Ser'. U Tasso.
Al JI". i?>. mio CoV°.
Don Grio. Bat". Liciriio.

2.
M. Mag~. Sig^. MIO 0SSM°-
Non posso acquetar 1' animo, s' io non sono certo
del vosteo buono stato : per6 vi pregno che me ne diate
a-riso, e se come io credo sete risanato, mi farete piacere
a venfre a vedermi : cosi piaccia a la Providenza del
Sig". Iddio, d' averci in protettione.
Di S. Anna U x di SeW\ del 1584.
Di V. S.
AS^". Ser^ Toeq™. Tasso.
Al M". Magn". Sig'. mio
Osf". it Sig'. Luca Scalabrino.

3.
M. Mag«^0- Sig"^.
Mando a V. S. cmque camice le quali hanno
tutte bisogno d' essere racconcie : Le dia al suo parente :

188 TASSO'S LETTERS. Chap. VII.
e r avertisca, che non vorrei che fosser mescolate con 1'
altre : e mi verrk* fare piacere di vemre un giomo seco k
parlarmi : frattanto aspetto queUa risposta, che V. S. mi
promise di soUecitare, ne dia ricordo a 1' amico, e le
bacio le mani. Di S. Anna U 4 di Getf". del 1585.
Di V. S.
S'. certiss'"". Toeq'^". Tasso.
Se non pu6 venfr col parente venga solo, c'
ho bisogno di parlarle : e faccia lavare U
drappo nel quale sono invUuppate le
cammice.
Al 31". Magn". Sig".
n Sig'. Luca Scalabrino.

4.
MoLTO Mag'"'- Sig"^. come Fratello.
Scrivo a 1' lUmo Sig'. nostro padrone : e gU
raccomando U negotio de la mia -rita, pero credo che non
abbia alcun bisogno di ricordo : il ricordo nondimeno a
voi medesimo : e mi -ri raccomando. Da Ferrara U xi
d' Aprile del 1585.
Di V. S.
come FrateUo P. Ser'^ Toeq™. Tasso.
Al molto Mag". Sig'. Giorgio
Alessio mio OSS'"'.

5.
Illmo. e Emo. Sig. e Peon, mio Colmo.
Dopo la prigioma, e 1' frffermit^ di molti aimi, se
le mie pene non hanno purgato gli errori, almeno la
* Thus in the MS.

Chap. VII. TASSO'S LETTERS. 18'.t
clemenza di V. S. lUmS, pu6 faciUmente perdonai-Ii ;
laonde io stimo, che la sua bemgmta mi faccia pUi lecito
di suppUcare arditamente, che non suoi fare la nUa
calamita. La supUco dimque che non consenta a si
lunga ostmazione de gh Uomini, n^ vogha, che dia fine
a la mia grave miseria la morte, ma la pieta : e quan-
tunque cio le fosse piii facUe ne lo stato de la CMesa,
che m alcuno altro : nondimeno m questo di Ferrara non
le sara difficUe : perche U Ser™°. Sig^. Duca non mi tiene
in alcuna sua prigione, ma ne' lo Spedale di S. Anna :
dove, i frati e i preti posson risitarmi a vogUa loro, n6
sono impediti di farmi giovamento. E '1 cenno di V. S.
lUma. poteebbe esser Legge a tutti non che ammomtione :
01teedici6 puo gipvarmi in diverse mamere co' suoi
Bolognesi medesimi : et m ciascuna d' esse mostrarmi
la sua bont^ congiunta a 1' autorita : et m ciascuna,
obbUgarmi aUa sua Casa, et a se stessa perpetuamente.
Ma forse io non la suppUco arditamente come havea
detto, e come do-vrei : perche non basta la samtk, senza
la hbert^ ; e 1' una, scompagnata da 1' altea, sarebbe assai
piccol done di cosi gran Cardmale. Adunque le cMedo
insieme. E benche sia quasi disperato di lisanare,
nondimeno i salutfferi medicamenti, e gU efScaci rimedU,
e r aUegrezza di vedermi Ubero potrebbono ritomarmi
nel primo stato : ma sopratutto la gratia di N. S"''. b di
V. S. lUma. e la quale non dice U modo come possa
farlo: perche la prudenza gUe le manifesta e 1' alto
grade gUe le agevola — ma le scopro U bisogno, e la
necessity, e 1' infeUcita degna di ritrovar compassione ne

190 TASSO'S LETTERS. Chap. VII.
r animo suo reUgiosiss™". : e le bacio humiliss'^ le mam.
Di Ferrara U xU d' Aprile del 1585.
Di V. S. lUma.
HumUiss"". Ser°- Torquato Tasso.
AW 111"", et Emo. Sig". e Padron
mio Colendis^. il Sig'. Cardinal
Bon Compagno, Eoma.

6.
M. Mag™. Sig"*. mio Ossmo.
SuppUcai r altro giorno al Ser™". Sig'. Duca di
Ferrara : che mi facesse gratia di molte cose, e partico-
larmente di rendermi le nUe robe. Le quah fosser
consegnate a Don Giovan B**. et a voi: n^ debbo
dubitare, da S. Altezza la gratia, ch' h, molto picciola a
la sua clemenza, et a la mia calamity : pero -ri piaccia di
pariame al Sig". Crispo, et al Sig'. Cole .™°: hora ri
mando per Don Gi6 : Batta. Licinio cmque lettere d'
opp"' : e di risposte. Le quali vorrei, che si stampassero
con r Apologia — non vogliate yi prego mancamu deUa
vostra promessa : e questo -ri scrivo non per dubbio, ch'
io n' abbia ; ma per desiderio d' un altro aneUo. Serbate
per r ultimo fogUo la ded"°. et amatemi. Di S. Anna U
vu di Maggio del 1585.
DiV.
Ser*^ U Tasso.
Pos. noio nipote vorrebbe una beretta, fate che le sia
fatta : che de 1' aneUo parler6 poi.
Al Molto Mag". Sig". mio Oss"'.
II Sig°. Luca Scalabrino.

Chap. VII. TASSO'S LETTERS. 191

M. Mag<=°. Sig=. mio Oss"".
Io diedi i Mesi passati a V. S. un Ubro del Sig''.
Alessandro GendagUa : nel quale erano alcuni miei
concieti, hora ha mandato un suo a dimandarlomi.
Laonde -ri prego, che gUe le diate : et havendo qualche
risposta de 1' Illmo. Patriarca Gonzaga, mi farete
piacere di portarlami senza indugio e vi bacio le mam.
Di S. Anna U p""". di Dicem'^ del 1585.
Di V. S.
Ser^ ToEQ™. Tasso.
Al J/'". Ma^. .Sig . mio Oss"".
Il .Sig . Luca Scalabrino.

Illmo. Sig^=. e Padron mio Oss"".
Mandai a V. S. Hlma. queste settimane passate
ciiiquanta scudi d'oro : et moneta perch' io non U posso
tener sicuri : e credo, ch^ 1' Sig*. Luca Scalabrino ; al
quale io gU diedi U manderk a buon ricapito : non dico
alteo, se non ch' in questa camera c' ^ un foUetto ch'
apre le Casse e togUe i danari: benche non in gran
quantity ma non cosi piccola, che non possa discomodare
un povero come son io. Se V. S. Illma. -vuol* farmi
questa gratia di serbarmeU, me ne dia arise e frattanto

In the origmal MSS. the u and v are indifferently used.

192 TASSO'S LETTERS. Chap. VII.
ch' io provedo d' altro sia contenta, di pigliarli e le bacio
le mam. Di S. Anna U 9 di Dic'^ del 1585.
Di V. S. E"".
Aff™. Ser^ ToRQ™. Tasso.
All' Illmo. e Emo. Sig". e Fron mio Colmo.
II Sig. Patriarca Gonzaga. Eoma.

These letters may be thus teanslated : —
1.
Veby Eevbebnd mt veby Eespectable,
In the sheet which is arrived I fear that there is an error of
the' pen, but I am not quite sure of it : however it may be, take
care that it is read thus, and that it is not pubhshed otherwise.
" If happiness is a reward, unhappiness is a punishment : but
happiness is the intrinsic reward of virtue ; then unhappiness is the
internal punishment of vice :" and I recommend myself to you.
From S'. Anna, the 26'" of June. Prom your servt. Tasso.
To the very reverend my very venerable
Don Giovanni Batt". Licinio.

Very magnip. and mt respect : le Signoe.
I cannot set my mind at ease, if I am not sure of your well-
being : therefore I pray you to give me information concerning it,
and if, as I believe, you are recovered, that you -will do me the
pleasure to come and see me : may it please the Providence of the
Lord God to keep you in his protection.
S'. Anna, the lO'i" of September, 1584.
Of your Worship
The most affect, serv'. TouQ. Tasso.
For the very Magn. my Lord, the very respectable
Signor Luca Scalabrino.

Oh.u\ VII. TASSO'S LETTERS. I'.'^i
3.
The translation of tlus letter has alreiuly bei-n given
at page 17-3.  4.
Vert MAG^ Signor and dear as my Brother.
I -n-rite to the ?iIost Illustrious Lord our master : and I
recommend to him the business of my life — however 1 believe that
he has not any need of a remembrancer : nevertheless I remind you
yourself of it : and I recommend myself to you.
From Ferrara, the llth of April, 1585.Of your Worship,
The Brother to serve you, Torq™. Tasso.
To the very JInj. Sig'. Qeorge Alessio,
my most respectable.

5.
Most Illvstbious axd most Bev. and mt
MOST respectable Lobd.
After my imprisonment, and the infirmity of many years, if
my pains have not purged away my errors, at least the clemency of
Your Most Illustrious Lordship may easily pardon them : therefore
I think that your benignity will make it allowable to ask with
more courage than my calamity is wont to assume. I supplicate
you, then, that you -will interpose against the long and cruel per
severance of some men, nor suffer that death alone should be the
close of my heavy sufferings — let them rather be terminated by
compassion ; for although that might be more easy to you in the
territory of the Church than in any other ; nevertheless, in this of
Ferrara it wiU not be very difficult : because the Most Serene Lord
Duke does not detain me in a.iy of his prisons, but in the Hospital
of St. Anna, where the brothers and the priests may \isit me at
their pleasure, and are not prevented from administering to my
wants. Besides, a hint from Tour Most Illustrious Lordship would
be not only an admonition, but a law to all : in addition to which,
VOL. I. ^

194 TASSO'S LETTERS. Chap. VII.
you may assist iQe in different ways amongst your Bolognese them
selves ¦ and in each demonstration of kindness give me a proof both
of your goodness and of your authority ; and moreover lay me under
perpetual obligations to yourself and to your house. But perhaps I
do not ask you with courage, as I had said I would, and as I ought
to do ; for health is not enough without liberty, and the one unac
companied by the other would be a very small gift from so great a
Cardinal. I ask, then, for both at once. And though I almost
despair of being cured, nevertheless, salutary medicines, efficacious
remedies, and the joy of finding myself free, might restore me to my
former condition ; but I account above all the favour of our Lord
(the Pope) and of your most Illustrious Lordship ; although I do
not tell you the manner in which you may perform it ; because it
will be suggested by your prudence, and made easy by your high
rank. All that I venture to disclose is, those wants and that mis
fortune which are truly worthy of awakening the compassion of
your most religious soul : and I most humbly kiss your hands.
Of your most Illust. Lordship,
The most humble servant, Toequato Tasso.
Ferrara, the 12th of April, 1585.
To tlie most Hlust. and most Bev. and my
very venerable Patron, the Lord Cardinal
Bon Compagno. Bome.

6.
Mt very magnificent and respectable Signok,
I intreated, the other day, the most Serene Lord Duke of
Ferrara, that he would grant me sundry favours, and particularly
that he would restore to me my goods, so that they might be con
signed to Don Giovanni Battista and to you : nor ought I to doubt
of recei-ving from his Highness this favour, which is but a very
small one, both in proportion to his clemency and to my calamity, ;
therefore be pleased to speak of it to Signor Crispo, and to the
Signor my other respectable friend. I now send you for Don
Giovanni Battista Licinio five letters of objections and of answers,
which I should -wish to be printed with the apology : do not, I pray
you, fail in your promise to me : I write this to you, not from any

Chap. VII. TASSO'S LETTERS. 195
doubt, but from the desire of another ring. Keep the dedication
for the last sheet, and love nie. From your servant, Tasso.
St. Anna, the Tth of May, 1585.
Postscript. — My nephew -svanta a cap ; get one made for him ; I
will speak to you about the ring afterwards.
For my very magnificent and respectable Signor,
the Signor Luca Scalabrino.

Veby maqnip. and respect. Signob.
I gave, during the last months, to your Worship a book of the
Signor Alessandro Gendaglia, in which were some thoughts of my
own : he has now sent a person to ask me for it. Therefore, I pray
you that you will give it to him ; and when you have any answer
from the Most Illustrious Patriarch (Jonzaga, you -will do me a
favour to bring it to me without delay, and I kiss your hands.
From your Worship's servant, ToEQ. Tasso.
St. Anna, the 1st of December, 1585.
Foj- the very magnificent my Sig". the respectable
Sig". Luca Scalabrino.

8.
Most illustbious Signob and mt veby respectable Lord,
I sent your most illustrious Lordship, these few weeks back,
fifty crowns in gold, because I cannot keep them safely myself :
and I presume that the Signor Luca Scalabrino, to whom I gave
them, wiU see them conveyed safe to hand : I shall only say that in
this room of mine there is a demon that opens the boxes and takes
out the money : in no great quantity, indeed, but not so little as
not to incommode a poor fellow such as I am. If your most illus
trious Lordship will do me this favour to take care of them for me,
let me have advice of it ; and whilst I provide otherwise, perhaps
K 2

196 TASSO. Chap. VII.
jTOi will have no objection to take them into your keeping. I kiss
your hands. Of your very Eev. Lordship,
The affectionate servant,
Torquato Tasso.
From St. Anna, the 9th of December, of the year 1585.
To the most Hlustrious and most Bev. Lord, and
my very respectable Patron., the Lord Patriarch
Oonzaga._ Bome.

Since the preceding notices were -written I have re
considered the interesting subject to which they refer,
and I have again risited the scene of Tasso's misfortunes.
After mature deUberation, and foUo-wing several -writers,
through a course of somewhat devious criticism, I have
returned to my original position, and have concluded, as
before, that the poet was a victim, first of the wounded
pride, and afterwards of the jealous fears, of Alphonso ;
and that his attachment to the Princess Leonora, not
only was not the cause of his imprisonment, but was not
even a serious passion.
As to the question of his mental infirmities, I must
repeat that Dr. Black, whom I have before noticed as
beheving in his actual insanity, has not at aU made out
that the poet was a maniac, for whose cure bodily re
straint was an indispensable or a salutary prescription.
Symptoms, indeed, he occasionaUy manffested of a
distempered imagination. He was not free from the
3-aperstitious terrors wliich have often beset more sober
minds ; and a fond contemplation of the reveries of

Cuap. VII. TASSO. 197
Plato made him either beUeve, or feign, that he was
favoured with that intercourse which Numa, and which
Socrates, had held with more than human beings.*
That the frritabUity of Tasso approached, sometimes,
to madness, seems probable ; but we can hardly agree
with a French critic, that a decisive proof of Ins insanity,
after his confinement, was the persuasion that he should
be finaUy able to obtain from Alphonso sometMng like
justice, something like pity.f
To retm-n to the attachment of the poet for Leonora
of Este : Serassi thought he had put an end to that con
troversy. I must confess I thought so too. But let no
one flatter himseff that he has laid at rest any disputed
question. This has been rerived by Guingene and others,
and latterly by the author of a new translation of the
Jerusalem. Guingene thinks he has shown that Tasso
was really a passionate admirer of Leonora : but to what
do his proofs amount ? that Tasso wrote many verses to
a Leonora, who, on some occasions it is certain, and
on others it is possible, was Leonora of Este, and that
the SophroiUa of the Jerusalem was a portrait, probably,
of the princess, the poet being her Olindo ; that his sighs
for Leonora San VitaU and Lucretia Bendidio, were
meant to conceal his real passion for the sister of
Alphonso ; that his occasional coolness was but a disguise
for his love ; and that when he pretended to ask for a

¦* The sprite was sometimes malicious, as is seen by the letter
already given in this volume.
t Guingen^ Hist. Lit. d'ltalie, part ii., chap. xiv. p. 227.

198 TASSO. Chap. VII.
reconcUiation in the name and on the behaff of a friend,
that friend was in fact himself.
To the first conclusion it may be repUed, ia. the words
of Guingene himseff, that " the gaUantry of the manners
of the age caused the homage of a poet, when addressed
to ladies of the highest rank, to be regarded as inconse
quential, leading to nothing, and flattering -without com
promising them."* The youthful bard who maintained
fifty " AMOROUS conclusions" in pubUc debate, at the
court of Ferrara, would have been thought deficient, not
only in spfrit, but in respect, had he faUed to celebrate,
and even to sigh, at least in poetry, for the mature
charms of the presiding princess.
Secondly, to the surmise that Tasso's professed admi
ration for other wonien was but a cloak for his more
ambitious passion, no reply can be made except that it
is merely a surmise. In one of his letters Tasso enter
tains Leonora -with the account of his love for Lucretia
Bendidio, and of the artifice by which he persuaded his
powerful rival Pigna to allow of his competition for the
smUes of "this glorious lady," " questa gloriosa signora."^
Now I would beg to inquire of the experienced in the
passion, if this is one of the topics on which a lover is
Ukely to enlarge when writing to the real object of his
adoration. Ovid, and the other authorities, do, I beUeve,
teach that to gain the mistress it is sometimes advisable

* Hist. Lit. ib. tom. v. p. 238.
t Tass. Op. vol. ix. p. 313.

Chap. VII. TASSO. 199
to address the handmaid ;. but I should doubt tiie expe
diency of making the lady herseff a confidante of the
pretended passion.
M. Guingene's other conjectures, as to the simulation
and dissimulation by which Tasso concealed, under ,
feigned names and feigned cfrcumstances, his real love
for the princess, are merely conjectures, equaUy in
capable of proof and of reply ; and as a specimen of this
unsatisfactory method of teeating the point in dispute, 1
shaU exteact his remark on the concluding sentence of
Tasso's WUl, of which I have preriously given a copy
fiom the original manuscript : —
Kappelons-nous les dernieres volont^s que le Tasse d^posa, en
partant pour la France, entre les moins d'un ami, et oe sonnet qu'il
voulait sauver seul de I'oubli, et qui offre un de ces d^guisements du
nom de L6)nore, dont nous avons vu d'autres exemples, et surtout
cet appel fait a la protection de la princesse, qui I'accordera, disait-il,
pour Vamour de lui. N'y voyons-nous pas le voeu d'un jeune homme
passionne, pour que,si le sort dispose de lui dans une contrfe lointaine,
sea interets et sa memoire puissent occuper aprfes lui celle dont il
emporte I'image ? Mais le Tasse, amoureux comme un poete, dtait
discret comme im chevalier. L'ami, d^positaire de ce testament,
ignora sans doute lui-m6me la nature du sentiment qui I'avait dict^ ;
nul autre ne fut admis dans ce secret, et je crois toujours fermement
que I'indiscr^tion de cet autre ami qui occasiona dans le palais du
Due une affaire d'felat n'avait aucun rapport a L^onore.-*
Now let us see what the French critic assumes and ex
pects us to make articles of our behef. In the first place,
he says that Tasso wished to save the sonnet beginning,
"Hor che I'aura mia dolce altrove spira ;"

Hist. Litt., ibid. p. 237-8.

200 TASSO. Chap. VII,
because that sonnet was addressed to Leonora, and was
a record of his passion for her. "We are to take for
granted that Laura meant Leonora, and we are also to
take for granted that, when Tasso positively asserted in
Ids WUl that this sonnet was -written for the service of a
friend, he said this only to deceive his executors, and
because, " though amorous as a poet, he was discreet as a
cavaUer," and would be for ever the sole depository of
his secret passion for the princess.
But what becomes of this discretion ff We are to attach
any importance to the words which M. Guingene has put
in itahcs, and which it is clear that author considered as
almost decisive of the truth of his hypothesis, namely,
"for the love of me" 1 Certainly, ff this phrase was to be
taken in the literal sense, that the princess loved the
poet, there was an end of aU mystery, and Tasso need
not have concealed the fact that the sonnet which he
wished to save was addressed to Leonora. The infer
ences of the critic are reaUy inconsistent one with
another ; and even ff this were not the case, any one who
reads the WiU cannot faU to remark that it furnishes
proofs only of his anxiety for his o-wn fame, and for the
memory of his father, and that the incidental mention
which he makes of Leonora only shows that he hoped
the princess would extend her patronage of him even
beyond his Ufe, and enable his executor to carry his last
wishes into complete effect.
After all his conjectures Guingen^ is, however, obliged
to confess that the passion of which he finds so many

C.ivr. VU. TASSO. 201
tokens was as much in tiie imagination as in the heart,*
and he coincides with Serassi in rejecting the fable wliich
assigned to that cause the imprisonment of the injured
poet.t Hugo Foscolo has shghtly touched upon this subject in
a short essay on the h-ric poetey of Tasso, J which, ff his
own digamma did not discover the secret, would betray
its author by the rigour, the fancy, and the acuteness
that invariably distinguish even the mosttrifling com
positions of this accomphshed writer. But he has added
nothing to om- prerious knowledge in this respect, and,
after seeming to credit the story of the poet's attachment
to Leonora of Este, he dismisses the subject by leading
us to suspect that the object of Tasso's passion was
rather a misteess than a sister of the Duke. It is true
that he declares that the misfortunes of Tasso were the
effect of an unconquerable and unhappy passion ; but
as he has made the assertion -without advancing a single
argument in proof of it, and without even an allusion to
the many detaUs and deductions of Serassi, which prove
just the contrary, Foscolo has only afforded another in
stance of the truth of his own position, " that historians
wiU be ever embarrassed to explain the reasons of Tasso's
imprisonment." I cannot dismiss this subject without adverting to

* Hist. Litt., ib. p. 243.
t Ib. p. 241.
X See New Monthly Magazine for Oct. 1822, p. 373, signed /.
K 3

202 TASSO. Chap. VII.
a Lffe of Tasso prefixed to the translation of the Jeru
salem DeUvered, by Mr. Wiffen. This gentieman is
positive that " there is no real foundation for the
hypothesis which ascribes the imprisonment of Tasso to
his love of Leonora;"* and he agrees -with the opinion
expressed in the lUustrations of the 4th canto of OhUde
Harold, that the source of the poet's calamity was
" a few unguarded expressions, uttered in the paroxysm
of passion, and deplored almost as soon as uttered."
But the translator is a firm beUever in the love of Tasso
for Leonora of Este, and he is almost a beUever in the
love of Leonora for Tasso. Before remarking shortly on
the grounds of this faith, I must be permitted to ob
serve that the translator has mistaken the meaning
when quoting the foUowing words of the lUustrations of
ChUde Harold : " Serassi seems throughout to be labouring
with a secret, or, at least, a persuasion, which he is at a
loss in what manner honestly to conceal." From these
words the translator infers the " secret " to have been
the mutual love of Tasso and Leonora. No such thing ;
the secret which Serassi had discovered, and did not
choose to teU plaiiUy, though he left the reader to infer
it from his details, was that Tasso was crueUy and un
justly punished by Alphonso, as a state criminal who
had spoken, and who might -write, injuriously against the
vindictive duke.

¦* P. cxx. Life of Tasso, prefixed to Translation of Jerusalem
Delivered, by J. H. Wiffen; 1826. 2nd edition. He was librarian
at Woburn Abbey.

Chap. VIl. TASSO. 208
The teanslator was probably a very young man, and,
as such, incUned to attribute to love a greater influence
in human affairs than wUl be aUowed by those who have
travelled fai-ther in the path of hfe. He gives to his
poet an exteemely erotic parentage, for, according to him,
the youth of Bernardo, the father of Tasso, was " spent
in the cultivation of letters, and the celebration of an
unsuccessful attachment," so that to love, and to love in
vain, was the fatal bfrthright of Torquato. The teans
lator rehes much on the inferences of Guingene, and on
his own discernment, which enables him to discover when
the amatory effusions of the poet are expressive of a
real, and when of a poetic, passion. But, aUowing this
gentieman to be ever so deeply read in the learning of
love, the critics wiU not, it is to be feared, permit bim to,
decide this celebrated controversy merely by his skUl in
detecting the " real symptoms of the passion." That skUl
and the instructions of Guingen^ enabled Mr. Wiffen to
discover that certain love poems, which have hitherto
wanted a'dfrection, were, in fact, addressed to Leonora of
Este ; that where Tasso mourns the death of a beautiful
lady (she was forty-four years of age), that lady was
Leonora of Este ; that where he iudulges in a pleasing
melancholy on the memory of past love, the " dolce ani-
metta mia," " my hfe, my dulcet Uttle soul," as the trans
lator renders it,* was no other than the very mature and
awful princess of Este ; and that the lady who spoke the

• Life of Tasso, p. cv,

204 TASSO. Chap. VII.
" dear Uttle love words " * (they are Mr. Wiffen's expres
sions) to bim on a balcony, and chided him for -withdrawing
his arm from hers, was the same princely vfrgin. It -wUl be
seen, from this latter instance, that Mr. Wiffen does not
beUeve that the poet was condemned altogether to sigh
in vain. He is, indeed, prudent enough to confess that
" how far Leonora corresponded to this ardent love must
ever remain an inscrutable mystery; "f but in another
place the translator's travels and researches in the
" rpyaume du tendre " make him competent to decide
that she "indulged with him in the simple luxury of
loving.']:]; Without stopping to inqufre into the exact nature
of this "simple luxury," I shaU subjoin Mr. Wiffen's
logic of love in his own words, and show the manner in
which he would prove that the princess in some degree
returned the passion of the poet.
" Little as it [the correspondence of attachment] might seem to
poor Tasso at this crisis, it was doubtless greater in reality than he
was at all aware of, it being the policy and perhaps tbe prudence of
a woman conscious of her own deserts, and of the sacredness of her
virgin feelings, to conceal from the aspirant to her heart the full
strength of the emotions -with which he may inspire her. But as
love burns necessarily out without some ray of hope, however slight,
to enliven it, we may safely conclude that there were many gracious
tokens on her part shown from time to time to preserve in the soul
of her admirer for seventeen years a passion fervent as at first." §
Poor Tasso ! how could he be aware of the attach
ment which left him to languish in a dungeon, not only

* Life of Tasso, p. ci. t lb. p. c.
X lb. p. Ixxxix. § lb. p. oi.

Chap. VII. TASSO. 2U5
-without em attempt at his reUef, but without reply to
his most pathetic complaint ?
One word more with Mr. Wiffen. I have before
noticed the use which Guingen6 has made of some ex
pressions in Tasso's WUl, but the English biographer
thinks his predecessor has not made half enough of that
document, and he reasons thus : — " But what is most
worthy of remark in this instrument is the appeal to
the princess ^rith which it closes. ' Should an impedi
ment take place in any of these matters, I intreat Sig.
Hercules to have recourse to the favour of the most
exceUent Madam Leonora, which, for the love I bear
her, she -will UberaUy grant.' Do we not most clearly
perceive in this appeal the fond project of a lover to
occupy, in case it were his fortune to perish in a distant
country, the memory of her whose image was stamped
upon his heart ? " *
Mr. Wiffen has not only printed his translation of the
important phrase in itahcs, but has given the original in
triumphant capUals below, PEE AMOK MIO. This is
a most singular mistake, and I fear disqualifies the
teanslator for criticism, either in love or grammar.
Where could that gentleman leam that the translation
of " per amor mio " is "for the love I bear her " ?
Tasso merely says that ff his friend EondineUi should
meet -with any difSculty, or, in other words, should not
procure money enough from the sale of his goods to

* Wiffen, Life of 'i'asso, p. xcvi.

206 TASSO. Chap. VII.
raise the monument to his father, he would have him
recur to the favour of the most exceUent Mad. Leo
nora, " who" (not "which," as Mr. Wiffen has it), he
says, " I trust, for my sake, ^viU be Uberal to him for that
purpose." Having pointed out this most egregious perversion of
a very simple phrase, I shaU not say anything of Mr.
Wiffen's "fond projects," and stem "images stampt"
upon hearts, except to observe that the deduction and
the fine sentimental phraseology are both borrowed from
Guingene,* who, as he had been copied so closely, might
as weU have been foUowed throughout the whole sen
tence, and have saved the Enghsh biographer from the
sins and sad consequences of mistranslation.

Since this was -written a most audacious attempt has
been made to prove that which was previously conjec
tured by the -writers above aUuded to, namely, the
mutual love of Tasso and the princess Leonora. In the
year 1834 I received a letter from the late Captain
BasU Hall, dated 25th of November, from Gratz in
Styria, informing me that a certain Count Alberti had
discovered in the Falconieri Ubrary, at Eome, a manu
script correspondence between Tasso and the Princess
Leonora of Este, which, ff pubUshed, would set the dis
puted question completely at rest ; and adding that, as
the owner of this treasure was coming to England, he

"¦ See Hist. Litt., tom. v. p. 237, before quoted.

Chap. VII. TASSO. 207
wished me to become acquainted with liim, in order, as
he was pleased to say, " that I might assist him in ad
vancing the cause of letters, and of truth, and, ff it
might be added, of true love." The MSS. had marginal
notes by GuariiU upon them. I heard no more of this
Count Alberti until the other day (1856), when I was
informed that iu the very year mentioned by Cap
tain BasU HaU, 1834, Alberti was arrested at Eome,
and brought before a miUtary tribunal, charged with
having stolen certain MSS. of Tasso from the Fal
conieri hbrary. These lilSS. had formerly belonged
to Foppa, — at least so said Alberti, — ^who, in 1666,
published three volumes in quarto of Tasso's posthumous
works, and whose coUection of Tasso's MSS. had become,
by inheritance, the property of the Falconieri famUy.
Alberti' produced a declaration of Orazio Falconieri,
dated June 1825, by which it was made to appear that
Alberti had bought the MSS. of this Falconieri ; but it
was afterwards held that this declaration was a forgery.
At that time, however (that is, November 1834) Alberti
was acquitted ; and in 1837 he began to publish his
MSS., .Ulusteated -with fac-simUes, notes, and porteaits.
Before the edition was completed, he was accused of
ha-ving forged the MSS. in question, and he was con
demned to the gaUeys. What has become of him since
I have inqufred, but caimot leam.
The article Tasso in the ' Biographie UniverseUe '
takes a just riew of the cause and cruelty of his

208 AEIOSTO. Chap. VIL
imprisonment. Speaking of lUs return to Ferrara, the
author, Mr. de AngeUs, says, —
" II est d'abord repousse' par les courtisans, outragd par les domes
tiques. Mal dispose comme il etait envers les gens d'Alphonse, il
se rdpand en invectives centre le Due, centre sa famille, et les prin
cipaux personnages de la cour ; il regrette tant d'anndes perdues a
leur service, se reproche les eloges qu'il leur a prodigu6s dans ses
vers, et finit en les traitant de l&ches et d'ingrats. Le Due, informe
de ses emportemens, au lieu de les regarder comme les symptomes
d'un esprit malade, resolut d'en ti'rer vengeance ; et celui que I'ltalie
revdrait comme son plus beau genie fut ignominieusement enferm^
dans un hopital de fous (Mars, 1579)." *
Fekeaea. Aeiosto.
Before the remains of Ariosto were removed from the
Benedictine church to the Ubrary of Ferrara, his bust,
which surmounted the tomb, was struck by Ughtning,
and a crown of fron laurels melted away. The event,
which is aUuded to by Lord Byron in the fourth canto of
ChUde Harold, has been recorded by a -writer of the last
century, t The transfer of these sacred ashes on the 6th
of June 1801 was one of the most briUiant spectacles of
the short-lived ItaUan EepubUc; and to consecrate the
memory of the ceremony, the once famous faUen " In-
trepidi " were rerived and re-formed into the Ariostean
academy. The large pubhc place through which the

¦* Biog. Univ., tom. xiv. p. 20.
t " Mi raceontarono que' monaci, ch' essendo caduto un fulmine
nella loro ohiesa schiantb esso dalle temple la corona di lauro a quell'
immortale poeta." — Op. di Bianconi, vol. iii. p. 176, ed. Milano,
1802 ; lettera al Signor Guido Savini Arcifisiocritico, sull' indole di
un fulmine caduto in Dresdo 1' anno 1759.

Chap. VII. ARIOSTO. 209
procession pai-aded was tiien for the first time called
Ariosto Square. The author of the ' Orlando ' is jealously
claimed as the Homer, not of Italy, but Ferrara.* The
mother of Ariosto was of Eeggio, and the house in ^Yhich
he was born is carefuUy distinguished by a tablet with
these words : " Qui nacque Ludovico ^Vriosto il giomo 8
di Settembre deU' anno 1474." But the Ferrarese
make Ught of the accident by which thefr poet was bom
abroad, and claim bim exclusively for thefr own. They
possess his bones, they show his arm-chair, and his ink
stand, and his autographs. "  Hie illins arma
Hie currus fuit . . . ."
The house where he Uved, the room where he died, are
designated by his own replaced memorial,! and by a
recent inscription. The Ferrarese are more jealous of
thefr claims since the animosity of Denina, arising from
a cause which thefr apologists mysteriously hint is not
unknown to them, ventured to degi-ade thefr soU and
climate to a Boeotian incapacity for all spiritual produc
tions. A quarto volume has been caUed forth by the
detraction, and this supplement to Barotti's Memofrs of
the iUustrious Ferrarese has been considered a trium-

¦* " Appassionato ammiratore ed invitto apologista dell' Omero
Ferrarese." The title was first given by Tasso, and is quoted to
the confusion of the Tassisti, lib. iii. pp. 262, 265. — La Vita di M.
L. Ariosto, &e.
t " Parva sed apta mihi, sed nulli obnoxia, sed non
Sordida, parta meo sed tamen sere domus."

.210 EEGGIO. Chap. VII.
phant reply to the ' Quadro Storico Statistico deU' Alta
ItaUa.' Eeggio.
There is no countey which can contend -with Italy in
the honours heaped upon the great men of past ages ;
and the present race accuse themselves of U-ving upon
the labours of thefr ancestors, and, as is the usual re
proach of hefrs, of finding in thefr transmitted wealth an
inducement to inactirity. The territorial di-risions and
subdi-risions which contributed to the emulation of the
luminaries themselves have tended to the preservation of
thefr fame, and the jealousy of each Uttle district guards
the altar of its indiridual divinity, not only as the shrine
which is to attract the pUgrims of united Europe, but as
the bfrthright which is to distinguish it amongst the
children of the same mother, and exalt it to a preference
above its immediate neighbours. ItaUan rivalry, in
default of those contests which employed the arts and
arms of the middle ages, now vents itseff in the invidious
comparison of indiridual fasti, and in the innocent,
ostentatious display not of deeds but names. Thus it is
that there is scarcely a viUage in which the traveUer is
not reminded of the birth, or the residence, or the death,
or the actions of one or more of the offspring of a soU
fruitful in every production, but more especiaUy the land
of famous men. The affection with which even the lower
classes appropriate the renown of thefr departed feUow-
countrymen is very strikmg to a foreigner; and such

Chap. VII. EEGGIO. 211
expressions as "our Correggio," and "our Ariosto," in
the mouth of a peasant, rcrive, aa it were, not only
the memory of the man, but the man himself. When
Napoleon made his progress through his Itahan do-
miiuons, the inhabitants of Eeggio received him -with a
fete the principal decoration of which was a Temple of
Immortality, painted at the end of a gaUery, adomed
with a double range of tablets to the honour of those
worthies for whose existence the world had been indebted
to the duchy of Eeggio. The pretensions of Eeggio
may exempUfy those of the other pro-rinces of Italy, and
the reader may not object to survey the pompous list.
Boiardo, Signore di Scandiano, epico, de! secolo xv.
Guida da Lazara, giureconsulto, del secolo xiii.
Ludovico Ariosto, nato a Eeggio, da Daria Maleguzi, Eeggiana,
lirico, comico, satirico, epico, del secolo xiv.
Domenicho Toschi, Cardinale, Eeggiano, giureconsulto, del se
colo xvi.
Filippo Caroli, Eeggiano, giureconsulto, del secolo xiv.
Antonio Pacchioni, Eeggiano, anatomico, del secolo xvii.
Cesare Magati, Scandianese, medico e chirurgo, del secolo xvii.
Gianntonio Bocca, Eeggiano, matematico, del secolo xvii.
Antonio AUegri, detto il Corregio da Corregio, pittore, del se
colo xvi.
Tomaso Cambiatori, Eeggiano, giureconsulto, oratore, poeta, del
secolo .xvi.
Sehastiano Conradi di Arceto, grammatico e critico, del secolo xvi.
Lelio Orsi, Eeggiano, pittore, del secolo xvi.
Vincenza Cartari, Eeggiano, filologo, del secolo xvi.
Eafaello Motta, Eeggiano, pittore, del secolo xvi.
Guido Panciroli, Eeggiano, giureconsulto, storico, filologo, del
secolo xvi.
Ludovico Parisetti, Eeggiano, poeta Latino, del secolo xvi.
Gasparo ScarofS, Eeggiano, oeconomisto, del secolo xvi.
Luca Ferrari, Eeggiano, pittore, del secolo xvii.
Domenico Ceccati, da Stiano, scultore ed intagliatoie, del secolo xvii.

212 PETEARCH AND LAUEA. Chap. VII.
Antonio Vallisnera da, Scandiano, medico, naturalista, del secolo
xvii. Pelegrino Sallandri, Eeggiano, poeta, del secolo xviii.
Agostino Parradisi, Eeggiano, ceoonomista, oratore, poeta, del
secolo xviii.
Francesco Fontanesi, Eeggiano, poeta, del secolo xviii.
Jacopo Zannoni da Montecchio, botanico, del secolo xvii.
Lazari Spalanzani da Scandiano, naturalista, del secolo xviii.
Laura Bassi di Scandiano, fisica, del secolo xviii.
Carlo Antouioli da Corregio, filologo, del secolo xviii.
Francesco Cassoli, Eeggiano, poeta, del secolo xviii.
Luigi Lamberti, Eeggiano, filologo e poeta, del secolo xviii.
Antonio Gamborini, Eeggiano, teologo, del secolo xviii.
Bonaventura Corti, Eeggiano, fisico, del secolo xviii.

Peteaech and Lauea. Vaucluse.
Thanks to the critical acumen of a Scotchman, we
know as Uttle of Laura as ever.* The discoveries of
the Abbe de Sade, his triumphs, his sneers, no longer

* See An Historical and Critical Essay on the Life and Cha
racter of Petrarch, and a Dissertation on an Historical Hypothesis
of the Abbe de Sade : the first apreared about the year 1784, the
other is inserted in the fourth volume of the Transactions of the
Eoyal Society of Edinburgh ; and both have been incorporated into
a work published, under the first title, by Ballantyne in 1810.
Tiraboschi, after praising the Abb^ de Sade very copiously, devotes
a whole treatise bf forty-two octavo pages to exposing his blunders,
but gives him full credit for having decided the great question as to
the family and condition of Laura, though he says it is no wonder
that the discovery was not made before. " Cib che tutto a lui deesi,
si fe r aver finalmente decisa la gran questione intorno alia famiglia e
alia condizione di Laura, che egli ha svolta tanto felicimente, e com-
provata con si autentici monumenti, che piii non rimane luogo a
disputame." — See Biflessioni sopra la Vita di Francesco Petrarca,
scritta dall' Abate de Sade, prefixed to the Petrarch of the Milan
edition of 1805.

Ch.ap. vn. PETRARCH AND LAURA. 213
instruct or amuse.* We must not, however, think that
these memoirs are as much a romance as Belisarius or
the Incas, although we are told so by Dr. Beattie, a
great name but a little authority.t His " labour " has
not been in vain, not-withstanding his " love " has, Uke
most other passions, made him ridiculous.| The hypo
thesis winch overpowered the struggling ItaUans, and
carried along less interested critics in its current, is i-un
out. We have another proof that we can be never sure
that the paradox, the most singular, and therefore haring
the most agreeable and authentic afr, wUl not give place
to the re-established ancient prejudice.
It seems, then, first, that Laura was bom, lived, died,
and was buried, not in Arignon, but in the country.
The fountains of the Sorga, the thickets of Cabrieres,
may resume thefr pretensions, and the exploded de la
Bastie again be heard with complacency. The hypo
thesis of the Abbe had no stronger props than the
parchment sonnet and medal found on the skeleton of
the wffe of Hugo de Sade, and the manuscript note to
the VfrgU of Petearch, now in the Ambrosian Ubrary.
K these proofe were both incontestable, the poetry was
written, the medal composed, cast, and deposited within

* Memoires pour la Vie de Petrarque.
t Life of Beattie, by Sir S. Forbes, t. ii. p. 106.
X Gibbon called his Memoirs " a labour of love " (see Decline
and Fall, cap. Ixx. note 1), and followed him -svith confidence and
delight. The compiler of a very voluminous work must take much
criticism upon trust; Gibbon has done so, though not so readily
as some other authors.

214 PETEARCH AND LAURA. Chap. VIL
the space of twelve hours ; and these deliberate duties
were performed round the body of one who died of the
plague, and was hurried to the grave on the day of her
death. These documents, therefore, are too decisive:
they prove not the fact, but the forgery. Either the
sonnet or the VirgUian note must be a falsification.
The Abbe cites both as incontestably true ; the conse
quent deduction was ine-ritable— they were both sus
pected of being false.*
Secondly, the Scotch critic would make us beUeve
that Laura was never married, and was a haughty -vfrgin
rather than that tender and prudent -wffe who honoured
Arignon by making that town the theatre of an honest
French passion, and played off for one-and-twenty years
her little machirwry of alternate favours and refusals!

* The sonnet had before awakened the suspicions of Horace
¦Walpole : see his letter to Wharton in 1763. Foscolo quotes the
Virgilian memorandum, as if there had been no doubt of its authen
ticity. — Essay on the Love of Petrarch, p. 35, edit. 1823. Tiraboschi
had decided in favour of it ; but he was fair enough to own that it
had been questioned by some " monumento di cui alcuni han voluto
rivocare in dubbio 1' autorita." — Vita del Petrarca, p. xcii. The
chief sceptics were Vellutello, Gesvaldo, and Tassoni ; but Guin
gene says that the doubts of these sceptics in this matter had been
cleared up, and their objections refuted, — " mais leurs doutes ont ^te
^olaircis, et leurs objections r^fute'es." — Hist. Lit., chap. xii. sect. 11,
p. 440, note. A careful reperusal (1857) of de la Bastie's essays and
of Lord Woodhouselee's essay has, however, convinced me that the
probabilities are against the authenticity of the Virgilian note, and
that the story of the discovery of the parchment sonnet in Laura's
supposed cofBn was a gross fiction. De la Bastie's essays are in the
volumes xv. and xvii. of the Academy of Inscriptions.
t " Par ce petit manfege, cette alternative de favenrs et de rigueurs

Chap. VIL PETRARCH AND LAUEA. 215
upon the first poet of the age. It seemed, indeed, rather
too hard that a female should be made responsible for
eleven chUdren upon the faith of an abbreriation, and
the decision of a Ubrarian.* It is, however, satisfactory
to think that the love of Petrarch was not a fiction.
The happiness which he prayed to possess but once, and
for a moment,! was surely not of the mind, and some
thing so very real as a marriage project, with one who
has been idly caUed a shadowy nymph, may be, perhaps.

bien menag&s, une femme tendre et sage amuse, pendant vingt et un
ans, le plus grand poete de son sifecle, sans faire la moindre brSche a
son honneur." — Mem. pour la Vie de Petrarque, Preface aux Fran-
fois. The Italian editor of the London edition of Petrarch, who has
translated Lord Woodhouselee, renders the " femme tendre et sage "
" raffinata civetta." — Biflessioni intorno a Madonna Laura, vol. iii.
p. 234, ed. 1811.
* In a dialogue -with St. Augustin, Petrarch has described Laura
as having a body exhausted -with repeated ptubs. The old editors
read and printed perturbationibus ; but Mr. Capperonier, librarian
to the French king in 1762, who saw the MS. in the Paris library,
made an attestation that " on lit, et qu'on doit lire, partubus ex-
haustum." De Sade joined the names of Messrs. Boudot and Bejot
to that of Mr. Capperonier, and in the whole discussion on this ptubs
showed himself a downright literary rogue. — See Biflessioni, Sec,
p. 267. I'homas Aquinas is called in to settle whether Petrarch's
mistress was a chaste maid or a continent wife. Foscolo has given
reasons for believing the word to have been "partubus;" but the
context, which de Sade omitted to quote, gives authority to the
other reading. Noticing these ptubs, Petrarch compares his own
suflFerings to those of Laura, which he is not likely to have done if
they were those of childbirth.
t " Pigmalion, quanto lodar ti dei
Deir imagine tua, se mille volte
N' avesti quel ch' i sol una vorrei."
—Sonetto 58, p. 189, edit. Venet. 1756.

216 PETRARCH AND LAURA. Chap. VII.
detected in at least six places of his own soimets.* The
love of Petearch was neither platonic nor poetical ; and
if in one passage of his works he calls it " amore vee-
mentissimo, ma unico ed oneste," he confesses in a letter
to a friend that it was guUty and perverse, that it ab
sorbed him quite, and mastered his heart.f
In this case, however, he was, perhaps, alarmed for the
culpabiUty of his wishes, for the Abbe de Sade himseff,
who certainly would not have been scrupulously deUcate
ff he could have proved his descent from Petrarch as
weU as Laura, is forced into a stout defence of his
virtuous grandmother. As far as relates to the poet, we
have no security for the innocence, except, perhaps, in
the constancy, of his pursuit. He assures us in his epistle
to posterity that, when arrived at his fortieth yeai-, he
not only had in horror, but had lost aU recoUection and
image of any " irregularity." % But the birth of his
natural daughter cannot be assigned earUer than his
thirty-ninth year ; and either the memory or the moraUty
of the poet must have faUed him, when he forgot or was
guUty of this sUp.^ The weakest argument for the

• See Biflessioni, Sec, p. 291.
t " Quella rea e perversa passione ehe solo tutto mi occupava e
mi regnava nel cuore." Tiraboschi, and after him Ugo Foscolo,
have set this question at rest. The passion of Petrarch for Laura
was of the usual kind, no doubt ; and that it was never gratified is
equally clear. — See Essay on the Love of Petrarch, p. 219.
X Azion disonesta are his words.
§ "A questa confessione cosi sincera diede forse occasione una
nuova caduta ch' ei fece." — Tiraboschi, Storia, &c, tom. v. lib. iv
par. ii. p. 492.

Cuap. VII. PETRARCH AND LAUEA. 217
pm-ity of tliis love has been drawn from the permanence
of effects, which survived the object of his passion. The
reflection of ]ilr. de la Bastie, so much approved by the
amiable Scotchman,* that virtue alone is capable of
making impressions which death caimot efface, is one of
those which everybody applauds, and everybody finds
not to be teue, the moment he examines his own breast
or the records of human feeling.t Such apophthegms
can do nothing for Petrarch or for the cause of morality,
except -with the very weak and the very young. He
that has made even a Uttie progress beyond ignorance'
and pupUage cannot be edified vrith anything but
tmtL ^Tiat is called vindicating the honour of an
indiridual or a nation is the most futUe, tedious, and
uninstructive of aU writing; although it -wUl always
meet with more applause than that sober criticism which
is attributed to the maUcious desfre of reducing a great
man to the common standard of humanity. It is, after
aU, not unlikely that our historian was right in retaining
his favourite hypothetic salvo, which secures the author,
although it scarcely saves the honour of the mistress of
Petearch. J
* Life and Character of Petrarch, p. 219, 2nd edit.
t " 11 n'y a que la vertu seule qui soit capable de faire des impres
sions que la mort n'efface pas." — M. de Bimard, Baron de la Bastie,
in the Memoires de I'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres,
tom. XV. and xvii. See also Biflessioni, &c., p. 295.
X " And if the virtue or prudence of Laura was inexorable, he
enjoyed, and might boast of enjoying, the nymph of poetry."^-
Decline and Fall, vol. xii. cap. Ixx. p. 327, oct. Perhaps the if is
here meant for although. I wrote the above sentence when very
VOL. I. L

218 PETRARCH AND LAURA. Chap. VII.
Guingene contends for the purity of Petrarch's love.*
But it must be confessed that this candid author gives to
the pure passion certain symptoms which may easUy be
confounded -with that feeling which Petrarch himseff
avows was criminaLt Of aU the very famous men that
ever Uved, Petrarch appears to have been more distin-

young. Now that I have arrived (1857) at the opposite extremity
of life, I have satisfied myself that there is conclusive e-vidence to
be derived from the writings of Petrarch himself, to say nothiug of
other testimonies, that Laura deserved the praises and the com
plaints of her immortal lover, and never rewarded his poetry by
any criminal compliance with his passion. The Scotch critic con
cludes that he has cited authorities sufficient to prove that the only
object of the poet was a lawful marriage "with his virgin mistress — a
consummation disappointed by death.
Tranquillo porto avea mostrato amore
A la mia lunga e turbida tempesta,
Gih, traduoeva a' begli ochi '1 mio core,
E r alta fede non piii lor molesta,
Ahi morte ria, eome a sohiantar se' presta
II frutto di molt' anni in si poche bore.
— Son. 49, part ii.
* " La purete d'un sentiment que ni le temps, ni I'age, ni la mort
mSme de celle qui en etoit I'objet ne purent ^teindre, a trouve beau
coup d'incr^dules ; mais on est aujourd'hui forcd de reconnoitre,
d'une part, que ce sentiment fut tres rfel et trfes profond dans le
cceur de Petrarque ; de I'autre, que si Petrarque toucha celui de
Laura, il n'obtint jamais d'elle rien de contraire a son devoir." —
Hist. Lit. d'ltalie, chap. xii. sect. i. tom. ii. p. 242, edit. 1824. ¦
t " Petrarque, de retour dans sa solitude, livr^ a des agitations
toujours plus fortes, n'avait point de soulagement plus doux que
d'dpancher dans ses poesies touohantes les sentiments dont il ^toit
comme oppress^."" Many similar passages might be quoted.
" Un sentiment purement platonique ne donne point les agitations
et le trouble ou on le voit sans cesse plough," •¦

" Ilist. Lit., ibid., p. 353. •- Ibid., p. 382.

CU.A.P. VII. PETRARCH .VXD LAURA. 210
guished than others by a sort of supernatural reno-wn.
His love was beUeved to be of the angehc land ; his
poetic genius made him, like VfrgU, a magician in the
eyes of the Pope and the people ; * and a false report of
his death and funeral haring been spread, he no sooner
reappeared than he was taken for a spectee or shadow of
the departed laureate, permitted to re-visit earth; and
some who saw him would not, without touching him,
believe that he was a U-ring man.-f- A blind man made
a long joumey merely to touch him.| If we look at the
character of Petearch under certain aspects, he must
appear scarcely sane. The deferential homage with
which he was teeated by aU men, from the throne to the
cottage, fi'om the Emperor Charles IV. to the goldsmith
of Bergamo, may weU have tumed his head : nor can we
wonder that, whilst he calls himseff " a simple indiridual
of the human flock," he should compare himseff indi
rectly to the most iUustrious men in history, nor that he
cannot inform posterity of the origia of his famUy with
out borro-wing the words of Augustus. §
There was something crazy in the very temperament

* One of the proofs given to Pope Innocent VI. of Petrarch's
dealing in the black art was his attachment to Virgil. — Do la
Bastie, Mem., vol. xvii. p. 435.
t Hist. Lit., chap. xii. sect. i. tom. ii. p. 369.
X De la Bastie gives a detailed account of this joumey, Mdm. de
I'Academie, tom. xvii.
§ On the Character of Petrarch, p. 126 : — " Vestro de grege unus :
fui autem mortalis homuncio, nee magnse admodum, sed nee vilis
originis: familia, ut de se ait Augustus, antiqua" — Epist. ad
Poster. L 2

220 PETEAECH AND LAUEA. Chap. VII.
that made him immortal, and in his remedies for it ; at
one time -writing a sonnet on seeing his cold mistress
kissed on the forehead and eyes by a prince ni a baU-
room,* and at another by whipping himseff.f
Mr. HaUam, with an enthusiasm seldom to be found
in his useful works, says that " Dante and Petrarch are,
as it were, the morning stars of our modem Uterature ; "
and adds, very truly, that Petrarch "gave purity,
elegance, and even stabUity to the ItaUan language,
which has been incomparably less changed during near
five centuries since his time, than it was in one between
the age of Guido GuinizzeUi and his own ; and none
have denied him the honour of having restored a true
feeUng of classical antiquity in Italy, and consequently
in Europe." — ('Literature of Europe,' &c., vol. i., pp.
56, 57, chap, i.)
The only modern contemporary writer who has some
what questioned the merits of Petearch's love, and
Petrarch's love poetry, is Sismondi. " J'aurais voulu,"
says he, " pour comprendre I'amour de Petrarque, et m'y

* The note of Soave to the Milan edition of Petrarch, 1805
(p. 265), ascribes this celebrated salute to a prince of Anjou ; De la
IBastie and Guingen^ to Charles of Luxembourg, afterwards the
Emperor Charles IV., with greater probability.
f " La mia sanita ^ si forte, si robusto il mio corpo, che ne un' eta
pill matura, ne occupazioni piii serie, nfe 1' astinenza, ne i flagelli
non protebbono domar del tutto questo riealcitrante giumento, a cui
fo continua guerra." — Extract from a Letter to Ouido da Settimo.
Tiraboschi, Vita del Petrarca, p. xlix. His " kicking jade " was,
however, the glory as well as the torment of his illustrious life.

Chap. VII. MEZZOFANTI. 221
interesser, que les deux amans s'entendissent un peu "
. . . "je suis fatigue de ce voUe toujours baisse, non
seulement sur la figure, mais sur I'esprit et sur le cceur
de cette femme, etemeUement celebree par des vers
toujours semblables." But the worthy Swiss-Tuscan
shrinks from his own criticism, and adds, " Cependant,
mettant de cote, autant qu'U dependra de moi, une pre
vention contee Petearque, dont je rougis, puisqu'eUe est
en opposition avec le gout universel," * &c. &c.
Bologna. Mezzofanti. Signora Tambeoni.
At Bologna I had on two occasions the opportum'ty of
-witnessing instances of the exteaordinary faculty of
Mezzofanti. In 1817 I visited the great Ubrary of
that city, of which he was principal hbrarian, in com
pany with a near relation of mine, who had for some
time been resident at Calcutta. We were received by
Mezzofanti with the utmost courtesy, and conversed
-with him in our o-wn language, with which he seemed
almost as familiar as ourselves. On my mentioning
that my relation had just returned from Calcutta, the
Ubrarian addressed bim in the common coUoquial ver
nacular of that capital, and I was assured by my com
panion that he spoke with a fiuency and accuracy
scarcely to be distinguished from the talk of a native
Hindoo. At my second risit to Bologna, in 1822, I was con-

Litt^rature Italienne, xiv. siecle, tom. i., pp. 408, 410, edit. 1813.

222 SIGNORA TAMBEONI. Chap. VIL
versing with liim m the library, when a stranger entered,
and, addressing him in ItaUan, asked him for a book.
Mezzofanti informed him that the book was in the
library, and that, ff he would caU the next day, it would
be placed before him. When the stranger -withdrew I
asked who he was. Mezzofanti repUed that he had
never seen the steanger before, but that he had asked for
a book which it was most improbable would ever be
asked for except by one person, and that he was an
Englishman, the book being a Chinese work; "and,"
said Mezzofanti, "unless I am much mistaken, that
gentleman is Mr. Manning, who, you know, has Uved
several years in China." Mezzofanti was right. I
came the next day, and found that Mr. Manning had
been to the Ubrary and consulted the volume in ques
tion, conversing -with Mezzofanti in Chinese.
I was indebted to the courtesy of Mezzofanti for an
inteoduction to the Signora Tambroni, Professor of
Greek in the imiversity of Bologna. He took me to
see that celebrated lady. She received us in a small
apartment, up several pafr of stafrs : the room was
strewed -with books ; her professional cap and gown were
on a chair, materials for -writing, and a cup of coffee, on
a small table, beside her. She rose as we entered, and
the noble expression of her features, her majestic figure,
and graceful afr and manner, reminded me much of
Mrs. Siddons. She was not young, but was stiU beau-
tfful. Her voice was solemn but sweet, and there was a
modest dignity in her address most becoming her noble

Chap. VII. FLORENCE. 22.3
employment. When informed that I had visited the plain
of Troy, she seemed pleased with our visit; but when
Mezzofanti aUuded to some Greek poems whieii she had
recently pubUshed, she would not accept the professor's
compUments. "They are nothing," said she, smUing,
and changed the subject. At my next visit to Bologna
she was dead, but held in affectionate remembrance ;
and her portrait, with cap and gown, was seen amongst
those of the professors who had conferred honour on the
famous imiversity.
The subsequent career of Mezzofanti was more ho
nourable to those who placed him amongst the Princes
of the Church, than advantageous to his own renown.
As member of the CoUege of Cardinals, he added Uttle
or nothing to his former fame ; but he -wUl be always
recoUected as possessed of the most prodigious memory
that a coimtry abounding in such marvels ever produced.*
Florence. The Tribune.
What a sagacious observer, who traveUed when I was
first in Italy, remarks, is quite trae. Mr. BeU says,
" The statues of the Tribune, the most exquisite in the
world, are lodged in a mean and gloomy chamber, a

* Fra. Paciflco, a peasant child, is mentioned by Cardinal Wise
man as being able, after hearing a sermon preached only once, to
repeat it almost word for word. He became a most eloquent
preacher, and used to dictate a sermon to a secretary, and then
preach it -mthout reading it over at all.— See Wiseman's Four
Popes, p. 163, note.

224 THE VENUS DE MEDICIS. Chap. VII.
duU, tasteless, dreary, and melancholy apartment."*
But that fact did not strike me so much as that which I
-witnessed in that famous room. A lady, an English
woman, was sitting -with her back to the Venus de
Medicis, vrith a young man flirting . -with her, so as
siduously and earnestly, that neither the one nor the other
seemed to be aware that they were within a yard of " the
statue that enchants the world." The man, however,
had some excuse for his indifference to high art, for the
Uving object of his attention was exceedingly beautiful.
The Venus has aU the characteristics indispensable to
beauty. " She is comparatively smaU, measuring only
four feet, eleven inches, and four lines ; she is smooth ;
she is varied in the dfrection of component parts, and
these parts are not angular, but moulded, as it were, into
each other." She seems the prototype of Burke's ideal
model; and so exquisite are aU her proportions, that
any observer can detect at once that portion of the
statue which did not belong to the original figure.
There is an affectation in the maimer of the restored
hands, and especiaUy in the curve of the right hand,
that is most unpleasing, — so says the high authority
before quoted ; f and Mr. BeU adds to this criticism on
the Venus a less obrious remark on the Dancing Faun,
" the most exquisite piece of art of aU that remains of

* Observations on Italy, by John Bell, edit. 1834, p. 48, vol. i.
t Observations, &c., p. 56. A work of surpassing merit in every
respect. Some of the descriptions are most vivid, and, to those who
recollect the early death of the author, most affecting.

Chap. VII. THE 'WHETTER. 225
the ancients ; " for he hazai-ds the conjecture that
Michael Angelo, in restoring the head and arms, perhaps
from an antique gem, mistook the limbs of a drunken
old Faun, balancing from inebriety, for those of a young
ster "dancing with glee." This may be so; but the
restoration is a wonderful -work, and no one but an
anatomist would see the aUeged incongruity of the
parts.
The Whetteb.
It seems steange -that the character of that disputed
statue, the Whetter, should not be entfrely decided, at
least in the mind of any one who has seen a sarcophagus
in the vestibule of the BasUica of St. Paul without the
walls, at Rome, where the whole group of the fable of
Marsyas is seen in tolerable preservation ; and the Scy
thian slave whetting the knife is represented exactly in
the same position as this celebrated masterpiece. The
slave is not naked : but it is easier to get rid of this diffi
culty than to suppose the knffe in the hand of the
Florentine statue an instrument for sha-ring, which it
must be, ff, as Lanzi supposes, the man is no other than
the barber of JuUus Csesar. Winkehnann, Ulustrating a
bas-reUef of the same subject, foUows the opinion of
Leonard Agostini, and his authority might have been
thought conclusive, even ff the resemblance did not
strike the most careless observer.*

* See Monim. Ant., ined., par. i. cap. xvii. n. xiii. p. 50 ; and
Storia delle Arti, &c., lib. xi. cap. i. tom. ii. p. 314, note l).
L 3

226 THE TRIBUNE. Chap. VII.
The student who, from the four masterpieces of sculp
ture, turns to the glorious paintings of this wonderful
Uttle room, has an opportunity of testing the truth of
Sfr Joshua Reynolds's remarks on the " divine " master,
the reformer and finisher of modem art, and in no
pecuUarity more distinct and specific than that he is not
to be duly appreciated by the unlearned, nor at first
sight. It was not untU I had read the affecting fareweU
discourse of our great painter to the pupils of the Eoyal
Academy, that I imderstood why, of all the pictures of
the Tribune, I admfred the Michael Angelo the least.*
Dante.
Dante was bom in Florence in the year 1261. He
fought in two battles, was fourteen times ambassador,
and once prior of the repubUc. When the party of
Charles of Anjou triumphed over the Bianehi, he was
absent on an embassy to Pope Bonfface VHL, and was
condemned to two years' banishment, and to a fine of
8000 Ure ; on the non-payment of which he was further
punished by the sequestration of aU his property. The
repubUc, however, was not content -with this satisfaction,
for in 1772 was discovered in the archives at Florence
a sentence in which Dante is the eleventh of a list of
fifteen condemned in 1302 to be burnt aUve; Talis

* Said to be the only authenticated easel picture of Michael
Angelo. See Duppa's Life of M. Angelo (1807), p. 282.

CuAr. VII, DANTE. 227
perveniens igne comburatur sie quod moriatur. The pre
text for this judgment was a proof of unfafr barter,
extortions, and iUicit gains. Baracteriarum iniquarum,
extorsionum, et illicitorum lucrorum,* and after such an
accusation it is not steange that Dante should have
always protested his innocence, and the injustice of his
feUow citizens. His appeal to Florence was- accom
panied by another to the Emperor Henry, and the death
of that sovereign in 1313 was the signal for a sentence
of irrevocable banishment.! He had before lingered
near Tuscany ^rith hopes of recall ; then traveUed into

* Storia deUe litt. Ital., tom. v. lib. iii. p. 448. Tiraboschi's
date is incorrect.
! From a letter of Dante's lately discovered (in the Laurentian
Library), it appears that about the year 1316 his friends succeeded
in obtaining his restitution to his country and possessions on con
dition that he compounded "nith his calumniators, avowed himself
guilty, and asked pardon of the commonwealth. — See Foscolo's
Essay, A Parallel between Dante and Petrarch, Sec, pp. 202-3,
where his glorious refusal is given, concluding thus : — " Quidni
nonne solis astrorum que specula ubique conspiciam ? nonne dul-
cissimas veritates potero speculari ubique sub celo [sic] ni prius
inglorium immo ignominiosum populo, florentinse civitati me
reddam? quippe panis non deficiet." — Appendix, p. 277. Dante
could, however, at times indulge in feelings respecting his counti-y-
men which might help to reconcile him to exile, e. g., " B questa
forse tu noi sai, Firenze ? Questa orudel morte e chiamata : questa
e la vipera volta nel ventre della madre : questa e la pecora inferma,
la quale col suo appressamento contamina la grege del suo Signore :
Questa 6 Mirra scelerata ed empia, la quale s' infiamma nel fuoco
degli abbracciamenti del padre." Thus wrote Dante to the Emperor
Henry VH. ; and well might Foscolo add, " Firenze, ' bellissima, nel
"Convito" famosissima figlia di Eoma,' qui morde da vipera, le
viscere della madre ; e il padre incestuoso era il Papa." — Disiorso
sui Testo, p. 222.

228 DANTE. Chap. VII.
the north of Italy, where Verona had to boast of his
longest residence, and he finaUy settled at Eavenna,
which was his ordinary but not constant abode untU his
death. The refusal of the Venetians to grant him a
pubUc audience, at the prayer of Guido NoveUo da
Polenta his protector, is said to have been the principal
cause of- this event, which happened in 1321. He was
buried ("in sacra Minorum aede") at Ravenna, in a
handsome tomb, which was erected by Guido, restored
by Bernardo Bembo in 1483, Prefer for that repubUc
which had refused to hear him, again restored by Car
dinal Corsi in 1692, and replaced by a more magnificent
sepulchre, constructed in 1780 at the expense of the
Cardinal Luigi Valenti Gonzaga. The offence or mis
fortune of Dante was an attachment to a defeated party,
and, as his least favourable biographers aUege against
him, too great a freedom of speech and haughtiness of
manner. But the next age paid honours almost divine
to the exUe. The Florentines, having in vain and fre
quently attempted to recover his body, crowned his
image in a church,* and his picture is stUl one of the
idols of thefr cathedral. They struck medals, they
raised statues to him. The cities of Italy, not being
able to dispute about his own birth, contended for that
of his great poem, and the Florentines thought it for

* So says Ficino ; but some think his coronation only an alle
gory. — Storia, ubi sup., p. 453. There is now a large monumenf to
him in the Santa Croce at Florence, with this inscription, " Onorate
r altissimo Poeta " — from his own poem.

Cuap. VIL DANTE. 229
thefr honour to prove that he had finished the seventh
canto before they drove him from his native city.
Fifty-one years after his death they endowed a profes
sorial chafr for the expounding of his verses, and
Boccacio was appointed to this patriotic employment.
The example was imitated by Bologna and Pisa, and
the commentators, ff they performed but little serrice
to literature, augmented the veneration which beheld a
sacred or moral allegory in all the images of his mystic
muse. His birth and his infancy were discovered to
have been distinguished above those of ordinary men :
the author of the Decameron, his earhest biographer,
relates that his mother was warned in a dream of the
importance of her pregnancy; and it was found, by
others, that at ten years of age he had manffested his
precocious passion for that -wisdom, or theology, which,
under the name of Beatrice, had been mistaken for a
substantial misteess. When the Divine Comedy had
been recognised as a mere mortal production, and at the
distance of two centuries, when criticism and compe
tition had sobered the judgment of ItaUans, Dante was
seriously declared superior to Homer ; * and though the
preference appeared to some casuists " an heretical blas
phemy worthy of the flames," the contest was rigorously
maintained for nearly fifty years. In later times it was
made a question which of the Lords of Verona could

* By Varchi, in his Ercolano. The controversy continued from
1570 to 1616. See Storia, Sec, tom. vii. lib. iii. par. iii. p. 1280.

230 DANTE. Chap. VII.
boast of having patronised him,* and the jealous scepti
cism of one -writer would not aUow Eavenna the un
doubted possession of his bones. Even the critical
Tfraboschi was incUned to beUeve that the poet had
foreseen and foretold one of the discoveries of GaUleo.
Like the great originals of other nations, his popularity
has not always maintained the same level. The last
age seemed incUned to undervalue bim as a model and
a study; and BettiueUi one day rebuked his pupU
Monti for poring over the harsh and obsolete extrava
gances ofthe Commedia. The present generation, having
recovered from the GaUic idolatries of Cesarotti, has
returned to the ancient worship, and the DanteggiaYe of
the northern Itahans is thought even indiscreet by the
more moderate Tuscans.-!-

* Gio. Jacopo Dionisi, canonico di Verona. Serie di Aneddoti,
n. 2. See Storia, &c., tom. v. Ub. i. par. i. p. 24.
f Foscolo, in the opening sentence of his ' Parallel between Dante
and Petrarch,' writes thus : — " The excess of erudition in the age of
Leo X. carried the refinements of criticism so far as even to prefer
elegance of taste to boldness of genius. The laws of the Italian lan
guage were thus deduced, and the models selected, exclusively from
the works of Petrarch, who being thus proclaimed superior to
Dante, the sentence remained until our times um-eversed. Petrarch
himself mingles Dante indiscriminately with others eclipsed by his
own fame : — Ma ben ti prego, che in la terza spera
Guitton salute, e messer Cino e Dante. Trionf., p. 164.
Whether Petrarch was really insensible to, or jealous of, the
genius of Dante, may be a matter of speculation ; but there is no

Chap. VII. FOSCOLO. 231
Foscolo.
I would steongly recommend to every lover of Italy,
of Italian literature, and especially of Dante, the careful
perusal of the first of the volumes published, in 1812,
by Rolandi, ' La Commedia di Dante Alhghieri, Ulustrata
da Ugo Foscolo.' The preface to this edition, by an
ItaUan (Mazzini), is worthy of the w ork, and shows the
fervour of that worship of which Foscolo himseff was
deemed scarcely worthy to be a priest, although he has
doubtiess done more to Ulusteate the great object of
Italian veneration than any preceding writer. From

doubt that Boccacio suspected him of that defect." This Parallel is
very instructive, and is perhaps the most masterly and eloquent of
all the critical essays produced by Foscolo during his last days in
England. I doubt if a more interesting combination of characters
and circumstances can be imagined than the earnest endeavour of
Boccacio to persuade Petrarch to read Dante.*"
The ' Inferno ' which Lord Byron, when residing at Eavenna,
habitually carried about with him, is in my possession. He gave
the volume to me at Pisa in 1822. I then took leave of him, to see
him no more. In the fly-leaf is the following memorandum in his
handwriting : — " Bavenna, June 12, 1819.
" This edition," in three volumes, of 'La Divina Commedia,' I
placed with my own hands upon the tomb of Dante, in this city, at
the hour of four in the afternoon, June 12th, 1819. Having thus
brought the thoughts of Alighieri once more in contact -with his
ashes, I shaU regard this work, not -with higher veneration, but -\vith
greater affection, as something like ' a copy from the author.' " BVEON."
" ParaUel, p. 165. ' Ibid., p. 165.
It is the edition of Pompeo Venturi, Livomo, 1817.

232 FOSCOLO. Chap. VII.
this preface a just conception may be formed of the
character and merits of Foscolo, and also of the dfreful
distresses of his latter days. I am afraid it is too trae
that his BiscffTso sui Testo, and other writings on Dante,
which were his last, and were begun with the praise and
encouragement of some of our first scholars, were con
cluded amidst the straits of poverty, the persecutions of
creditors, and bodUy sufferings, rendered more acute by
assiduous study, and by the bitter consciousness that he
would be unable, from want of means, of time, and of
BREAD, to complete his labours in a manner equal to his
own conception of the importance of his task, and to his
veneration for Dante and love of Italy.* The very last
sentence of his address to the reader portrays the sad
simiUtude of griefs by which the commentator mourn-
fuUy but proudly associates himseff -with the poet, and
is never read, by me, at least, who knew bim welb
-without much pity and more regret. "Ne parmi ch6
" io potrb dfre Uetamente addio aU' ItaUa e all' umane
" core, se non quando le avrb mandato U suo poeta
" Ulustrato, per quanto io posso, da lunghi studj ; e
" sdebitarmi verso di lui che mi e maestro non solo di
" lingua, e poesia, ma di amore di patria senza adularla,
" di fortezza nel esigUo perpetuo, di lunganinit^ neUe
" imprese, e di disprezzo aUa plebe letteraxia, patrizia, e
" sacerdotale, deUa quale U genere umano ebbe, ed ha,
" ed avra sempre necessity." t

* Prefazione, p. xix. t Al Lettore, p. xxx.

Chap. VII. AEQUA. 233
Petrarch. Arqua.
"VMiilst at La Mfra, on the Brenta, I made, in com
pany -with Lord Byron, an excursion to Arqua, to visit
Petrarch's tomb.*
Arqua, for the last syUable is accented in pronunci
ation, is twelve mUes from Padua, and about three mUes
on the right of the high road to Rovigo, in the bosom of
the Euganean hiUs. After a walk of twenty minutes
across a flat weU-wooded meadow, you come to a littie
blue lake, clear, but fathomless, and to the foot of a
succession of accUrities and hills, clothed with vineyards
and orchards, rich -vrith fir and pomegranate trees, and
every sunny forest shrub. From the banks of the lake
the road winds into the hills, and the church of Arqua
is soon seen between a cleft where two ridges slope
towards each other, and nearly inclose the viUage. The
houses are scattered at intervals on the steep sides of
these summits ; and that of the poet is on the edge of a
Uttle knoU overlooking two descents, and commanding
a view not only of the glowing gardens in the dales
immediately beneath, but of the wide plains, above
whose low woods of mulberry and wiUow thickened into
a dark mass by festoons of vines, taU single cypresses
and the spfres of to-wns are seen in the distance, which
stretches to the mouths of the Po and the shores of the
Adriatic. The cUmate of these volcanic hUls is warmer,
and the vintage begins a week sooner, than in the plains

* 10th Sept. 1817.

234 ARQUA — PETEAECH. Chap. VIL
of Padua. Petrarch is laid, for he cannot be said to be
buried, in a sarcophagus of red marble,* raised on four
pilasters on an elevated base, and preserved from an
association with meaner tombs. It stands conspicuously
alone, but -will be soon overshadowed by four lately
planted laurels. Petearch's fountain, for here every
thing is Petrarch's, springs and expands itseff beneath
an artificial arch, a Uttle below the church, and abounds
plentffuUy, in the driest season, -with that soft water
which was the ancient wealth of the Euganean hiUs.
It would be more attractive, were it not, in some sea
sons, beset -with hornets and wasps. No other coinci
dence could assimUate the tombs of Petrarch and
ArchUochus. The revolutions of centuries have spared
these sequestered vaUeys, and the only riolence which
has been offered to the ashes of Petrarch was prompted
not by hate but veneration. An attempt was made to
rob the sarcophagus of its treasure, and one of the arms
was stolen by a Florentine, through a rent which is stiU
risible. The injury is not forgotten, but has served to
identify the poet -with the country where he was born,
but where he would not Uve. A peasant boy of Aiqua,
beuig asked by us who Petrarch was, repUed that the
people of the parsonage knew aU about him, but he only
knew that he was a Florentine.

* Chaucer (Clerk's Prologue) calls the tomb a chest, from the
Latin cista : — " He now is dede, and nailed in his chest —
Fraunces Petrark."

Chap. VII. PETR.\.RCH. 235
Peti-arch retfred to Arqua immediately on liis return
from the unsuccessful attempt to v^isit Urban V. at
Eome in 1370 ; and with tiie exception of his celebrated
joumey to Venice, in company \rith Francesco NoveUo
da Carrara, he appears to have passed the four last years
of his lffe between that charming sohtude and Padua.
For four months previous to his death he was in a state
of continual languor, and in the morning of July 19, in
the year 1374, was found dead in his Ubrary chafr, with
his head resting upon a book. The chafr is stUl shown
amongst the precious reUcs of Arqua, which, from the
uninterrupted veneration that has attached to every
thing connected -with this great man, from the moment
of his death to the present hour, have, it may be hoped,
a better chance of authenticity than the Shakesperian
reUcs of Steatford-upon-Avon.
Every footstep of Laura's lover has been anxiously
teaced and recorded. The house in which he lodged is
shown in Venice. The inhabitants of Arezzo, in order
to decide the ancient controversy between thefr city and
the neighbouring Aversa, where Petearch was carried
when seven months old, and remained untU his seventh
year, have designated by a long inscription the spot
where thefr great feUow citizen was bom. A tablet has
been raised to him at Parma,* in the chapel of St.

* D. 0. M.
Francisco Petrarchfe
Parmensi Archidiacono.
Parentibus praeclaris genere perantiquo

236 PETEAECH. Chap. VII.
Agatha, at the cathedral, because he was archdeacon of
that society, and was only snatched from his mtended
sepulture m thefr church by a foreign death. Another ,
tablet with a bust has been erected to him at Paria, on
account of his having passed the autumn of 1868 in
that city, -with his son-in-law Brossano. The poUtical
condition which has for ages precluded the ItaUans from
the criticism of the Uving, has concentrated their atten
tion to the Ulustration of the dead.
Mr. Forsyth* was not quite correct in saying that

Ethices Christianas scriptori eximio
Eomanae linguae restitutori
Etruseae principi
Afriese ob carmen hac in urbe peractum regibus accito
S. P. Q. E. laurea donate.
Tanti Viri
Juvenilium juvenis senilium senex
Studiosissimus
Comes Nicolaus Canonicus Cieognarus
Marmorea proxima ara excitata.
Ibique oondito
Divje Januarise cruento corpore
H. M. P.
Suffectum
Sed infra meritum Francisci sepulchre.
* Eemarks, Sec, on Italy, p. 95, note, 2nd edit. A very striking
instance of the ignorance of some, and those celebrated, English
scholars, respecting Italian literature, may be seen in Denham's
preface to his translation of a poem, whose author, Manoini,he says,
" was contemporary to Petrarch and Mautouan, and not long before
Torquato Tasso, which shows that the age they lived in was not so
unlearned as that which preceded or that which followed." What
could the author. of ' Cooper's Hill' have meant by the chronology
or the conclusion ? Petrarch " not long before " Tasso ! and what
is it that shows the superior learning of the age of Petrarch over the
preceding and the following times ?

Chap. VII. PETRARCH. 237
Petrarch never returned to Tuscany after he had once
quitted it when a boy. It appears he did pass tiirough
Florence on his way from Parma to Eome, and on his
return in the year 1350, and remained there long enough
to form some acquaintance -with its most distinguished
inhabitants. A Florentine gentleman,* ashamed of the
avei-sion of the poet for his native country, was eager to
point out this teirial error in our amiable traveUer,
whom he knew and respected for an exteaordinary
capacity, extensive erudition, and refined taste, joined to
that engaging simphcity of manners which has been so
frequentiy recognised as the surest, though it is certainly
not an indispensable, teait of superior geiuus.
The Florentines did not take the opportunity of
Petearch's short -risit to thefr city in 1350 to revoke the
decree which confiscated the property of his father, who
had been banished shortly after the exUe of Dante.
His crown did not dazzle them ; but when in the next
year they were in want of his assistance iti the forma
tion of thefr University, they repented of thefr injustice,
and Boccacio was sent to Padua to entreat the laureate
to conclude his wanderings in the bosom of his native
country, where he might finish his immortal Africa, and
enjoy, with his recovered possessions, the esteem of aU
classes of his feUow-citizens. They gave him the
option of the book and the science he might condescend
to expound : they caUed him the glory of his country,
who was dear, and would be dearer to them ; and they
—  ^
¦*- The late Cavaliere Cosimo Buonarroti.

238 VAUCLUSE. Chap. VII.
added, that, if there was anything unpleasing in thefr
letter, he ought to return amongst them, were it only to
correct thefr style.* Petrarch seemed at first to Usten
to the flattery and to the entreaties of his friend, but he
did not return to Florence, and preferred a pUgrimage
to the tomb of Laura and the shades of Vaucluse.
Vaucluse.
In October, 1826, being at Arignon, I devoted a day
to -visiting Vaucluse. The road, for about four mUes,
passed over a very rich flat country of vines, ohves, aud
mulberries, interspersed -with meadows and corn-fields.
It then ascended a chain of low hills, on which is the
-vUlage of Chateauneuf, and afterwards crossed another
rich plain by the rillages of Thor and Lisle. Thence I
came to a more barren and uncidtivated coimtry, and
reached the foot of the rocky hiUs, from which issues
the Sorgue, the river of Vaucluse. The scenery here
was very dreary and naked, the hUls without a teee taU
enough to be seen at any distance. On one of the bare
peaks to the left there was a chateau belonging to the
Noves famUy, the family to which Laura belonged.
Here I found myseff in the mouth of the vaUey of
Vaucluse, which, to say the truth, is indebted to poetry
for all its charms. It is a sort of narrow pass, with

* " Acoingiti innoltre, se ci 6 lecito ancor l' esortarti, a compire
1' immortal tua Africa  Se ti avviene d' incontrare nel nostro
stile cosa che ti^dispiaocia, cib debb' essere un altro motivo ad esau-
dire i desiderj della tua patria." — Storia della Lett. Ital., tom. v.
par. i. lib. i. p. 76.

Chap. VII. VAUCLUSE. 239
httle more than room for the road between low stony
bills and the steeam of the Sorgue. Advancing up the
valley, I saw a paper-mUl, with a green meadow and a
few poplars, on my right ; and on the left, cut into the
rock, was a house which an Englishman had hfred for a
fishing box — ^his name was Perry. Beyond were some
stunted oUve-teees on the sides of the rocks, and here
and there ledges of scanty -vines. I soon came in riew
of the viUage of Vaucluse, and of the ruins of the
castie on the rock under which it stands. This is caUed
the chateau of Petearch, and a house in the -riUage is
caUed the house of Laura. The whole scenery reminded
me of a recess in the Apennines ; not so mountainous,
but quite as -wUd, and bare, and hot. The stream, how
ever, is rapid and fuU ; and ff it did not turn paper-
mills, might be romantic and poeticaL I was taken to
the inn of the ' Two Lauras,' which my driver preferred
to the ' Petearch and Laura,' a rival establishment. I
went to the famous fountain ; it is hardly ten minutes'
walk from the vUlage, the path passing by the banks of
the Sorgue at the side of dry hUls, with a few olive
trees, mulberry teees, and a large walnut tree or two.
At the end of the viUage, on the right, under the rock
with the mined ctistle, there is another large paper-mUl
and manufactory : and here, looking upwards, I saw a
Uttle waterfall, and a column placed at the very mouth
of Petearch's fountain of Vaucluse, and looking like an
artificial cascade in a park, except that a portion of the
steeam is tumed off to work the paper-mUl. About a

240 VAUCLUSE. Chap. VII.
hundred and fifty yards, however, above this spot, I
came to where the rocks close in upon the river, and,
ascending a Uttle by the side of a cataract falling over
large stones, came to the fountain itseff. This was
indeed a most secluded and romantic pool of sea-green
water, under a stupendous precipice of red rock, whose
crags, cut, as it were, into regular shapes, hke cfrcular
buttresses, bent forward on each side so as to clasp
round and conceal the source below. A huge rugged
peak, rising above the ledges on the right, and a steep
decUvity of loose fragments of rock on the other side,
-with a precipice cut sheer in front, made the fountain
appear unapproachable. It was shaped Uke an frregular
segment of a cfrcle less than a semicfrcle, the cord of
the arc being about thfrty-five paces -wide ; two smaU
¦wild fig-trees grew out of the rocks just above the water,
and a few stunted beeches were also to be seen ; but there
were no banks where Laura might repose her lovely
Umbs, and the fair vision must have been seen, not in
this hollow of the rocks, but in the meadow by the
stream below. The fountain seemed perfectly stUl, but
it overflowed the ledges of the rocks, and formed at once -
a considerable stream ; and there were several springs
gushing from the rocks lower do-wn than the fountain
itself, which is said to be fathomless, and to pour forth
its river to its fuU height in four-and-twenty hours from
the time when it is most dry. CUmbing to a crag above
the pool, I sat down in the shade, whUst the rocks
above were glo-wing in sunshine : I then made the above

Chap. VII. BOCCACIO. 241
note, but, alas ! " -with no poetic ardour fired." If any
one desfres to behold this favoured reteeat of the great
Tuscan poet embellished by the hand of kindred genius,
I commend him to the charming description in Foscolo's
Essay.* Boccacio.
Boccacio was buried in the church of St. Michael and
St. John at " Certaldo," a small to-wn in the Valdelsa,
which was by some supposed the place of -his birth.
There he passed the latter part of his Ufe in a course of
laborious study which shortened his days, and there
might his ashes have been secure, ff not of honour, at
least of repose; but "the hysena bigots" of Certaldo,
as Lord Byron calls them, tore up the tombstone of
Boccacio and ejected it from the holy precincts of the
saints. The occasion, and, it may be hoped, the excuse,
of this ejectment was the making of a new fioor for the
church ; but the fact is, that the tombstone was taken
up and thro-wn aside at the bottom of the buUding.
Ignorance may share the sin -with bigotey. It would be
painful to relate such an exception to the devotion of

* C. xi. p. 26. I prefer it to the verses of De Lisle, which, it
may be observed, converted the recess in the rocks into something
very Eke the cave into which Dido and ^Eneas retired, and asked a •
question, exceedingly pertinent indeed, but rather injurious to the
fair fame of Laura : —
" Une grotte ^eart^e avait frapp^ mes yeux :
Grotte sombre, dis moi si tu les vis heureux,
M'feriai-je." — Les Jardins, ch. iii.
VOL. I. M

242 BOCCACIO. Chap. VII.
the Italians for thefr great names, could it not be ac
companied by a trait more honourably conformable to
the general character of the nation. The principal
person of the district, the last branch of the house of
Medicis, afforded that protection to the memory of the
insulted dead which her best ancestors had dispensed
upon aU contemporary merit. The Marchioness Lenzoni
rescued the tombstone of Boccacio from the neglect in
which it had some time lain, and found for it an honour
able elevation in her own mansion. She has done more :
the house in which the poet lived has been as Uttle re
spected as his tomb, and is faUing to ruin over the head
of one indifferent to the name of its former tenant. It
consists of two or three Uttle chambers, and a low tower,
on which Cosmo II. affixed an inscription. This house
she has taken measures to purchase, and proposes to
devote to it that care and consideration which are
attached to the cradle and to the roof of genius.
This is not the place to undertake the defence of
Boccacio ; but the man who exhausted his Uttle patei-
mony in the acqufrement of learning, — who was amongst
the first, ff not the first, to aUure the science and the
poetry of Greece to the bosom of Italy, — who not only
invented a new style, but founded, or certainly fixed, a
new language,* — who, besides the esteem of every polite

* It is almost forgotten that Boccacio was a poet. His contempo
raries and after-ages treated his verses as he treated them himself
after reading Petrarch's productions ; yet his ' Teseide ' was pro
bably the first poem in which the ottava rima was employed with

Chap. VII. BOCCACIO. 243
court of Europe, was thought worthy of employment by
the predominant repubUc of his own countey, and, what
is more, of the friendship of Petearch, — who, though not
free from superstition, Uved the lffe of a phUosopher
and a freeman, and who died in the pursuit of know
ledge, — such a man might have found more consideration
than he has met -with from the priest of Certaldo, and
from a late English teaveUer, who steikes off his portrait
as an odious, contemptible, Ucentious -writer, whose
impure remains should be suffered to rot -without> a
record.* That English teaveUer, unfortunately for those
who have to deplore the loss of a very amiable person,
is beyond all criticism ; but the mortality which did not

success, and -was the prototype of ' Palamon and Arcite.' He -wrote
another poem in ottava rima, called ' Filostrato, or Love Con
quered.' — Por an account of these poems, and the plot of the
' Teseide,' see Mr. Panizzi, Essay on the Bomantic Narrative Poetry
of the Italians, pp. 159-163, edit. 1830.
' Classical Tour, cap. ix. vol. ii. p. 355, 3rd edit. " Of Boccacio,
the modem Petronius, we say nothing ; the abuse of genius is more
odious and more contemptible than its absence ; and it imports
Httle where the impure remains of a licentious author are consigned
to their kindred dust. For the same reason the traveller may pass
unnoticed the tomb of the malignant Aretino."
ITiis dubious phrase is hardly enough to save the tourist from
the suspicion of another blunder respecting the burial-place of
Aretine, whose tomb was in the church of St. Luke at Venice, and
gave rise to the famous controversy of which some notice is taken
in Bayle. Now, the words of Mr. Eustace would lead u.s to think
the tomb was at Florence, or at least was to be somewhere recog
nised. Wbether the inscription so much disputed was ever written
on the tomb cannot now he decided, for all memorial of this author
has disappeared from the church of St. Luke, which is now changed
into a lamp warehouse.
M 2

244 BOCCACIO. Chap. VII.
protect Boccacio from Mr. Eustace, must not defend
Mr. Eustace from the impartial judgment of his succes
sors. Death may canonize his virtues, not his errors ;
and it may be modestly pronounced that he trans-
gressedj not only as an author, but as a man, when he
evoked the shade of Boccacio in company with that of
Aretine, amidst the sepulchres of Santa Croce, merely to
dismiss it with indignity. As far as respects

" II flagello de' Principi,
II divin Pietro Aretino,"

it is of Uttle import what censure is passed upon a cox
comb who owes his present existence to the above bur
lesque character given to him by the poet whose amber
has preserved many other grubs and worms: but to
classffy Boccacio with such a person, and to excommuni
cate his very ashes, must of itself make us doubt of the
quaUfication of the classical tourist for -writing upon
ItaUan, or, indeed, upon any other Uterature ; for igno
rance on one point may incapacitate an author merely
for that particular topic, but subjection to a professional
prejudice must render him an unsafe director on aU
occasions. Any perversion and injustice may be made
what is vulgarly caUed "a case of conscience," and
this poor excuse is all that can be offered for the priest
of Certaldo, or the author of the ' Classical Tour.' It
would have answered the purpose to confine the censure
to the novels of Boccacio ; and gratitude to that source

Chap. VII. BOCCACIO. 245
whence Chaucer drew some of his inspiration, * and
which supphed the muse of Dryden -\rith her last and
most harmonious numbers, might perhaps have resteicted
that censure to the objectionable qualities of the hundred
tales. At any rate the repentance of Boccacio might
have arrested his exhumation, and it should have been
recoUected and told that in his old age he -wrote a letter
inteeating his friend to discourage the reading of the
' Decameron,' for the sake of modesty, and for the sake
of the author, who would not have an apologist always
at hand to state in his excuse that he wrote it when
young, and at the command of his superiors. -f* It is
neither the Ucentiousness of the -writer, nor the e-ril
propensities of the reader, which have given to the
'Decameron' alone, of aU the works of Boccacio, a per
petual popularity. The establishment of a new and

* Dryden says that he had once thought that ' Palamon and
Arcite ' was of Enghsh growth, and Chaucer's own ; " but I was un
deceived by Boccace, for, casually looking on the end of his seventh
^ornata, I found Dioneo (under which name he shadows himself)
and Fiametta (who represents his mistress, the natural daughter of
Eobert King of Naples), of whom these words are spoken : — Dioneo
e Fiametta gran pezza Eantarono insieme di Arcita, e di Pala
mon," by which it appears that this story was -written before the
time of Boccace. — See Preface to the Fables, Dryden's Works, vol.
xi., Scott's edition.
t " Non enim ubique est, qui in excusationem meam consurgens
dicat, juvenis scripsit, et majori coactus imperio." The letter was
addressed to Maghinard of Cavalcanti, marshal of the kingdom of
Sicily. — See Tiraboschi, Storia, Sec, tom. v. par. ii. lib. iii. p. 525,
ed. Ven. 1795.

246 BOCCACIO. Chap. VII.
delightful dialect conferred an immortaUty on the works
in which it was first fixed. The sonnets of Petrarch
were, for the same reason, fated to surrive his seff-
admfred ' Africa,' the "favourite of kings." The invari
able teaits of nature and feeling -with which the novels
of the one, and the verses of the other, abound, have
doubtless been the chief som-ce of the foreign celebrity
of both authors ; but Boccacio, as a man, is no more to
be e.stimated by the tales than Petearch is to be regarded
in no other Ught than the lover of Laura. Even, how
ever, had the father of Tuscan prose been known only
as the author of the 'Decameron,' a considerate writer
would have been cautious to pronounce a sentence on
him frreconcUable with the unerring voice of many ages
and nations. An irrevocable value has never been
stamped upon any work solely recommended by un-
purity. The true source of the outcry against Boccacio, which
began at a very early period, was the choice of his
scandalous personages in cloisters as weU as courts ; but
the princes only laughed at the gaUant adventures so
imjustly charged upon Queen TheodoUnda, whilst the
priesthood cried shame upon the debauches drawn from
the convent and the hermitage, and, most probably, for
the opposite reason, namely, that the picture was faithful
to the lffe. Two of the novels are aUowed to be facts
usefuUy tumed into tales, to deride the canonization of
rogues and laymen. 'Ser CiappeUetto' and 'Marcel-
Unus' are cited -with applaTise even by the decent Mura-

Chap. VII. BOCCACIO. 247
torL* A new edition of the novels was published in
1573,t of -nhich the expm-gation consisted in omitting
the words " monk" and "nun," and tacking the immo-
rahties to other names. But it was not long before the
whole of Europe had but one opinion of the 'Deca
meron ;' and the absolution of the author seems to have
been a point settied at least a hundred years ago : " On
se feroit siffler si I'on pretendoit convaincre Boccace
de n'avofr pas ^te hoimete homme, puisqu'U a fait le
Decameron." So said one of the best men, and perhaps
the best critic, that ever Uved — the very martyr to im-

* Dissertazioni sopra le antichita ItaUane. Diss. Iviii. p. 253,
tom. iii. edit. Milan, 1751.
t The title of this edition is as follows : — " II Deoamerone di
Messer Giovanni Boccacio Cittadino Fiorentino. Eicorretto in Eoma
ed emendate secondo T ordine del Sacro Cone, di Trento. Et riscon-
trato in Firenze con teSti antichi et alia sua vera lezione ridotto da'
Deputati di loro Alt. Ser. Nuovamente stampato — con privilegii del
Sommo Pontefice, delle Maestadi del Ee Christianissimo et Ee Cat-
toHco, delli Serenissimi Gran Duca et Principe di Toscana, dell' III.
et Ecc. Duca di Ferrara e d' altri Sign, et Eep. In Fiorenza nella
Stamperia de i Giunti. 1573." A detailed account of this edition
is given in the ' Discorso Storico sui Testo,' prefixed to the Deca
meron, published by Pickering, London, in 1825. Nothing can be
more amusiog than the controversy between the Master of the
Sacred Palace and the Deputati, who undertook to defend the book
in which they " saw all the treasures of human eloquence." The
sixth novel of the first day could not be altered so as to suit the
Master of the Sacred Palace ; it was, therefore, proposed to leave it
out : but how could ninety-nine tales be called a hundred tales ?
As this could not be, the objectionable story was left out, but an
other tale was supplied from the ' Fiametta ' of Boccacio himself.
Yet this plan was not satisfactory, for the Florentine academicians
objected that the author had -written well and purely only in the
Decameron. — Discorso, p. xliii.

248 BOCCACIO. Chap. VII.
partiaUty.* But as this infomiation, that in the begin
ning of the last centiiry one would have been hooted
at for pretending that Boccacio was not a good man,
may seem to come from one of those enemies who are
to be suspected, even when they make us a present of
truth, a more acceptable conteast -with the proscription
of the body, soul, and muse of Boccacio may be found
in a few woids from the -rirtuous, the pateiotic contem
porary, who thought one of the tales of this impure
writer worthy a Latin version from his own pen.
" I have remarked elsewhere," says Petrarch, writing to Boccacio,
" that the book itself has been worried by certain dogs, but stoutly
defended by your staff and voice. Nor was I astonished, for I have
had proof of the vigour of your mind, and I know you have fallen on
that unaccommodating, incapable race of mortals, who, whatever
they either like not, or know not, or cannot do, are sure to reprehend
in others ; and on those occasions only put on a show of learning
and eloquence, but otherwise are entirely dumb." t
It is satisfactory to find that aU the priesthood do not
resemble those of Certaldo, and that one of them who
did not possess the bones of Boccacio would not lose
the opportunity of raising a cenotaph to his memory.
Beriiis, canon of Padua, at the beginning of the 16th

¦* Eclaircissement, Sec Sec, p. 638, edit. Basle, 1741, in the Sup
plement to Bayle's Dictionary.
t " Animadverti alicubi librum ipsum canum dentibus laces-
situm, tuo tamen baculo egregie tufique voce defensum. Nee mi-
ratus sum : nam et vires ingenii tui novi, et scio expertus esses
hominum genus insolens et ignavum, qui quicquid ipsi vel nolunt
vel nesoiunt, vel non possunt, in aliis reprehendunt : ad hoc unum
docti et arguti, sed elingues ad reliqua." — Epist. Joan. Boccatio.
Opp. tom. i. p. 540, edit. Basil.

Chap. VIL BOCC.VCIO. 249
century erected at Arqu&, opposite to the tomb of the
Laureate, a tablet, in which he associated Boccacio to
the equal honours of Dante and of Peti-arch.*
The teeatment which the remains and the memory
of Boccacio received in late years is the more remark
able when it is kno-wn, as has been set forth in Foscolo's
' Discourse on the Text of the Decameron,' that, during
the last year of his Ufe, his " lo-ring noble nature " was
debased and saddened by the terrors of reUgion.f To
such a degree, indeed, did these terrors affect him, that
a monk having, on some pretended prophecy of a doubt
ful saint (Peteoni), warned him to prepare for death,
he communicated his fears to Petrarch, who endea
voured to reason him out of them, but in vain ; for
though he survived the prediction twelve years, not
dying untU 1376, he appears never to have recovered
his former frame of mind ; and the immortal novelist,
the exposer of the frauds of the cloister, certified by
his -wiU, in his own handwriting, that he had "for a
long time made search for holy reUcs in divers parts
of the world," and bequeathed the fruits of his labours

* " Danti Aldigerio, Francisco Petrarchae, et Joanni Bocatio, viris
ingenio eloquentiaque clarissimis, Italica linguse parentibus," &c.
&c. — See Bernardini Scardeonii, &c., De Antiquitate Urbis Patavii,
Sec ; edit. 1560, p. 435.
t " Verso la fine dell' eta sua la poverta che h piu grave nella
vecchiaja, e lo stato turbolente di Firenze gli fecero rincrescere la
vita sociale, e rifuggiva alia solitudine ; ed allora I' anima sua gene
rosa ed amabile era invilita e intristita da' terrori della religione." —
Discorso, Sec, tom. i. p. v., prefixed to the Decameron, 1825.
M 3

250 BOCCACIO. Chap. VII.
to a convent of monks. It is true that to a brother
of this same convent he left aU his books, on con
dition that the said Master Martin, of the order of
the Frati Heremitani of St. Augustin and of the con
vent' of Sto. Spirito of Florence, should pray for his
soul, and allow any person who pleased to have copy
of his books; a condition which convinced Foscolo
that the autographs of the Decameron had been de
stroyed preriously by Boccacio himseff, for how could
the repentant author have left Ms Tales as a legacy
to his coiffessor for the use of his convent and for the
express purpose of future pubhcation to the world?
It is, in fact, incredible that he should have done so
almost at the same time that he denounced the Tales
as of a nature to make the readers of them think the
author as " spurgidum, lenonem, incestuosum senem,
impurum hominem, turpUoquem, maledicum, et aUe^
norum scelerum aridum relatorem ;" * and he then adds
the excuse, " non enim ubique est qui in excusationem
meam consurgens dicat: juvenis scripsit, et majori
coactus imperio." I repeat this excuse for the sake
of noticing the conjecture of Foscolo, that the empfre
employed to force the author to -write the indecent
stories was that of a woman : f of which suggestion I
shaU only remark, that women are often made re-

¦* See the above-cited letter in Tiraboschi.
f " E diresti che le scrivesse indotto dal predominio d' una donna :
forse quella ch' ei poeo dopo rinnegb diffamendola nel Laberintho
d'Amoke." — Discorso, p. ciii.

Chap. VII. BOCCACIO — MACHIAVELLI. 251
sponsible for the folUes of men when no other excuse
is ready to be found. The woman made responsible for
Boccacio's sin appeai-s, under the name of Fiametta,
to have been Maria, a natural daughter of King Eobert
of Naples.*
The ItaUans, and more particularly the Tuscans,
regarded the Decameron with a sort of superstitious
reverence, as containing in itseff almost every word
requfred for the complete mastery and use of thefr
Tuscan, or rather Florentine,! languaga
Machia-velli.
An Englishman was the first to attack the poUtical
writings of MachiaveUi; an Englishman was the first
to raise, after centuries of neglect, a monument over

* Panizzi, p. 160, note ; and previous note, p. 245.
t " Da prima a levarsi invidia dalle citta Toscane, gli Academic!
tennero tre anni di consulte intorno al titolo del Vocabolario, e de-
cretavono che si chiamasse Delia Lingiui Toscana. Poscia, aflSnchfe
tutto r onore si rimanesse co' Piorentini, v' aggiunsero, Cavato dagli
scrittori e uso della Citta di Firenze. Finalmente con politico lo
nominarono Vocabolario deW Academia della Crusca, senz' altro ;
cosi fu stampata, e la prima volta senz' altre voci se non ne nel
Decamerone e di pochi scrittori contemporanei del Boccacio." — Dis
corso, p. xcts. Foscolo refers to Salviati's 'Avertimenti della Lingua
sopra '1 Decamerone.' It is in two octavo volumes, — at least, such
is my edition of it, published at Milan, 1809; and the twelfth
chapter of the second book, vol. i. p. 195, gives a detailed account
of the authors who with Boccacio belonged to what Salviati calls
the " buon secolo." This is the title of it : — ' Scrittori del buon' se
colo, chi furono, e qnali cose, e in che tempo scrisse ciascun di loro,
e qual piu e qual meno sia da pregiare, e perchfe.' Foscolo calls
Salviati's work, somewhat ironically, a sort of evangelical prepara
tion for the deUa Cruscan Vocabulary.

252 MACHIAVELLI. Chap. VII.
his ashes. The Anti-Machiavel of Cardinal Pole did
not destroy his reputation, any more than the tablet
of Lord Cowper has altogether cleared him from aU
reproach. Lord Bacon, not very long after the Car
dinal denounced him, ranked bim amongst the writers
to whom the thanks of mankind were due ; * but the
true estimate of this great -writer was reserved for our
o-wn times, when Guingen^, Sismondi, HaUam, Macaulay,
and a writer in the Biographie UniverseUe, made it
pretty clear that the great Florentine secretary, Uke
most other very distinguished men, was not altogether
to be condemned, nor to be extoUed as above aU
praise. Guingen^ is right. It would have been more dis
creet to have omitted the first hne of the epitaph in
Sta. Croce. " Nicholaus MachiaveUi,
Obut A.D.V. MDXxn." —
(had the date of his birth, 1469, been added) would

* Lord Bacon's praise of MachiaveUi is couched in language which
seems to allude only to narrative, and not to maxims or advice.
His words are as follows : — " Nam sicut fabulose perhibetur de
Basilisco si primus quisquiam conspexerit, illico hominem perimit,
siquis ilium prior, Basiliscus perit : pari ratione, fraudes, imposturae,
et malEB artes, si quis eas prior detexerit nooendi facilitate privantur,
quod si ill* prevenerint, tum vero, non alias, periculum crearit. Est
itaque quod gratias agamus Machiavello, et hujusmodi scriptoribus,
qui aperte et indissimulanter proferunt quid homines facere soleant
non quid debeant."— i)e Aug. Scient., lib. vii. cap. ii., edit. Lond.
1826, vol. vi. p. 333. Is it presumption to ask to whom Lord
Bacon alluded by the phrase, " Machiavello et scriptoribus hujus
modi " ? What other writers were like MachiaveUi ?

Chap. VII. MACHIAVELLI. 253
have been enough, \rithout the upper line. The
" Tanto nomini nullum par elogium " is not true, and
it did not set at rest the controversy as to the
merits and motives of the Ulusteious dead. Eoscoe, who
is not quite so much esteemed now as in his o-wn
day, denied bim the possession of a great capacity
and an enlarged -riew of human nature, — a judg
ment worthy of no other answer than a smile, says
a celebrated Florentine contemporary of ours,* who,
however, when he comes to the charges made against
the moraUty of MachiaveUi, only a few years after
his death, by Varchi, merely remarks, " Non h qui
" loco di rabattere queste accuse, e d' esaminare se nel
" MachiaveUi le doti deU' animo andarono del pari con
" queUe deUa mente ; solo dfrb che nei puhbUci affari si
" portb con tale integrita che ei morendo lasciava in
" somma poverty i suoi figU."t But no one ever accused
MachiaveUi of " robbfrig the Exchequer ; " and, with
NiccoUni's pardon, it must be remarked, that it does
not at all foUow that a statesman has Uved honestly
because he has died poor. Indeed, MachiaveUi was
accused, probably felsely, -with having dissipated bis
fortune in riotous U-ring. Varchi, who Uved in his
time, beiug bom in 1502, makes, no such accusation.

* Niccolini's words are :— "H Eoscoe, fautore della Potenza Me-
dicea, afferma che esso non era ' uomo di genio ' (Vita di Leon X).
E a questa affermativa risponderemo con un sorriso." I do not find
that Eoscoe says this in so many words.
t Prose di Gio. Batista Niccolini, Firenze, 1823, vol. iii. p. 223.

254 MACHIAVELLI. Chap. VII.
but confines his censure to the 'Prince,' which he
calls " Opera empia veramente, e da dover essere
non solo biasimata ma spenta, come cfercb di fare egU
stesso dopo U rivolgimento deUo stato, non essendo
ancora stampata : " but he adds, " Era nondimeno U
" MachiaveUi nel conversar piacevole, officioso verso gU
" amici, anUco degU uomini virtuosi, ed, in somma, degno
" che la natura gU avesse o minore ingegno o migUor
" mente conceduto." * He mentions, however, as a fact,
that both the good and the bad were rejoiced at his
death : " Onde avenue neUa morte di lui queUo, che
" sia ad av venfre impossibUe, cioe che cosi se ne raUe-
" grarono i buoni come i tristi, la qual cosa facevano i
" buoni per giudicarlo tristo, ed i tristi per conoscerlo
" non solamente piu tristo, ma eziandio piu valente di
" loro." I cannot quite reconcUe this record of Varchi
with the assertion of our dehghtful historian and
essayist, that " to those immoral doctrines which have
since called forth such severe reprehensions no excep
tion appears to have been taken. The cry against
them was first raised beyond the Alps, and seems to
have been heard with amazement in Italy."! It is
true that Varchi's History was not published untU 1721 ;
but the fact recorded is contemporary with Machia
veUi, and scarcely compatible -with the aUeged amaze-

* Storia Piorentina, lib. iv. p. 211, edit. Milan, 1803.
t Macaulay, Critical and Historical Essays, vol. i. p. 66, edit.
1843.

Chap. VII. MACHIAVELLI. 255
ment in Italy that any one should condemn his poUtical
docteines. MachiaveUi, as is usual with those against whom no
crime can be proved, was suspected of, and charged
with, atheism. Paulus Jovius disgraces himseff by this
accusation ; and the first and last most riolent opposers
of the ' Prince ' were Jesuits, Father Possevin and Father
Lucchesini; but the 'Anti-Machiavel,' published in 1576,
was written by GentiUet, a French Protestant This an
tidote was so Uttie acceptable to the riolent opponents of
the Florentine, that Possevin attacked it, together with
the ' Prince,' " ce qui est singuUer," says Guingene. The
other riolent antagonist accused MachiaveUi of foUy, in
a teeatise which, however, was received with so Uttie
favour, that the bookseUers made a jest of its very
titie.* The motives of a writer caimot be inferred from the
tendency of his works. The general lesson, or what is
commonly caUed the moral, of a book, may be un
deniably good, but the mode of teeating the subject
decidedly objectionable. The moral of ' Candide ' is so
similar to that of ' Easselas,' that Johnson himseff con
fessed that, ff the two had not been pubUshed so closely
that there was no time for imitation, it would have been
in vain to deny that the scheme of that which came

* The title was, ' Sciocchezze scoperte nell' opere del MachiavelU
dal P. Lucchesini.' " Les libraires, pour abr^ger le titre de cet opus
cule Satirique, y mettaient simplement, dit-on, Sottises du P.
Lucchesini." — Hist. IM. dital., chap. xxii. sect. i. vol. viii. p. 77.

256 MACHIAVELLI. Chap. VII.
latest was taken from the other.* Yet how different the
immediate motive and aim of the two authors ! our
good and great feUow countryman wanted money to pay
for his mother's funeral and few debts — Voltafre had no
such object in the composition of his " tableau epouvan-
tablement gai des miseres de la rie humaine." f Who
can now read -without a smUe the Anti-Machiavel of
Frederick of Pmssia, and the flattery of his -witty corre
spondent, when he assures, his majesty that his comment
on the ' Prince' ought to be " the catechism of kings and
ministers " ? It would be as difficult to prove that the
motive of the king was good, as that the motive of
MachiavelU was bad.
The author of the eulogium prefixed to the MUan
edition of MachiavelU (1804) considers that he has
clearly sho-wn that the maxims of the ' Prince' were given
insidiously to the Medicean famUy, inasmuch as he
adrised them to trust to the arms of thefr subjects for
thefr defence, "quasi suggerendo loro in tal guisa
" d' armare aUa vendetta U braccio dei numerosi nemici
" di un nuovo giogo ; " a strange suggestion to be intro
duced into a professed panegyric, and which, to a cer
tain extent, justifies the estimate apparentiy formed by
MachiaveUi himseff of the poUtical moraUty of his feUow
countrymen.^ ¦* BosweU, Life, &c., vol. i. p. 185, edit. 4to, 1791.
•f- Anger. Bib. Un., art. Voltaire.
X But Signor Giov. Battista Baldelli, independently of this idle
conjecture, is an unsafe guide, and Guingen^ has pointed out several
errors in his 1

Chap. VII. MACHIAVELLI. 257
This, at any rate, may be said of the poUtical as well
as the dramatic WTitings of Machiavelh, that what is
good in them belonged to the man ; and, perhaps, with
some reserve, we jmay add, what is bad in them be
longed to the age. I cannot understand how any one
can read the 18th chapter of the ' Prince ' without being
convinced of this. MachiavelU teUs us in so many
words that his teaching is appUcable to the bad part of
mankind, not to the good, — " e se gU uomini fussero tutti
buoni questo precetto non sara buono ; " and, after being
acquainted with the pubUc moraUty of MachiaveUi's
contemporaries, I am no more astonished at the maxims
of his 'Prince,' and other writings, than I am at the
obscenities of his ' Mandragola ' and ' Chzia.'
These dramas, displaying as they do more of the true
" -vis comica" than modem times had hitherto produced,
were the deUght of the most civilized portion of the
Christian world, and were represented in the presence of
cardinals and popes. Yet Mr. HaUam is surely justified
in saying that "the story of the 'Mandragola' hardly
bears to be told, although Guingene has done it." *
In regard to the motives which prompted the compo
sition of the ' Prince,' the confession of MachiavelU him
seff ought to pass for something of value : and what
does he say ? he says that the ' Prince ' was -written to
procure some employment under the Signori Medici,

* Chap. viii. sect. ii. vol. i. p. 601, edit. 1837.

258 MACHIAVELLI. Chap. VII.
" were it only to roU a stone." * Guingene says, fafrly
enough, " c'etait un homme Ubre dont les intentions
dans cette cfrconstance furent cependant servUes, et un
honnete homme qui croyait d'apres les moeurs et lea
evenements de son siecle pouvofr exclure la morale du
gouvernement des etats. "t Nevertheless, -with these per
sonal objects, and this laxity in political morals, he doubt
less combined that glorious aim fiiUy disclosed in the last
chapter of the 'Prince,' bearing for title 'Esortarione
a Uberare la ItaUa dai Barbari,' and concluding with
a libertine excitement to the future redemption of Italy.
" Non si deve adunque lasciar passare questa occasione,
" acciocche la ItaUa vegga dopo tanto tempo apparire un
" suo redentore. Ne posso esprimere con qual amore ei
" fusse ricevuto in tutte queUe provincie, che hanno patito
" per queste iUurioiu estema, con qual sete di vendetta,
"' con che ostinata fede, con che lacrime. Quali porte se
" U serrerebeno ? QuaU popoU U negherebbeno la obbe-
" dienza ? Quale ItaUano U negherebbe Tossequio? ad
" OGNUNO PUZZA QUESTO BAKBAEO DOMINIO." %

* See his Letter to Vettori in the ' Pensieri intorno alio scope di
Nicolo MachiaveUi nel Libro di Principe,' by Angelo Eidolfi, pub
Ushed at Milan in 1810, and quoted in the article on MachiavelU in
the Biog. Universelle.
t Chap. xxxi. sect. 1.
X Amongst the most enthusiastic admirers of MachiaveUi must
be reckoned Mr. 'Whiteside, who, after quoting from the preface to
the edition of 1796, which embodies the principles of the great
author, declares, " It would, I think, be difBeult to find, out of the
Scriptures, sounder doctrines for princes and people to act upon." —
p. 315.

Chap. VII. THE MEDICI. 25!)
Church of St. Lorenzo. — The Medici.
Our admfration for the Medici begins with Cosmo
and expfres with his grandson ; that stream is pure
only at the source ; and it is in search of some memo
rial of the early representatives of the famUy that
we -visit the church of St. Lorenzo at Florence. The
tawdry, glaring, unfinished chapel in that church, de
signed for the mausoleum of the Dukes of Tuscany,
set round with crowns and coffins, gives birth to no
emotions but those of contempt for the larish vanity
of a race of despots, whilst the pavement slab simply
inscribed to the Father of his Country reconcUes us
to the name of Medici* It was very natural for
Corinna f to suppose that the statue raised to the Duke
of Urbino inthe Capella de' Depositi was intended for his-
great namesake ; but the magnificent Lorenzo is only
the sharer of a coffin haff hidden in a niche of the
sacristy. The decay of Tuscany dates from the sovereignty of
the Medici. Of the sepulchral peace which succeeded to
the establishment of the reigning families in Italy, our
own Sidney has given us a glo-wing, but a faithful picture.
" Notwithstanding," says he, " aU the seditions of
Florence and other cities of Tuscany, the horrid factions of
Guelphs and GhibeUns, Neri and Bianehi, nobles and

¦* Cosmus Medices, Decreto Publico Pater Patria3.
X Corinne, lib. xviii. cap. iii. vol. iii. p. 248.

260 THE MEDICI. Chap. VII.
commons, they continued populous, strong, and exceeding
rich ; but in the space of less tha,n a hundred and fifty
years the peaceable reign of the Medices is thought to
have destroyed nine parts in ten of the people of that
pro-rince. Amongst other things it is remarkable, that,
when PhUip II. of Spain gave Sienna to the Duke of
Florence, his embassador then at Eome sent him word
that he had given away more than 650,000 subjects ;
and it is not beUeved there are now 20,000 souls
inhabiting that city and territory. Pisa, Pistoia, Arezzo,
Cortona, and other towns, that were then good and
populous, are in the Uke proportion diminished, and
Florence more than any. "When that city had been
long troubled -with seditions, tumults, and wars, for the
most part unprosperous, they stUl retained such strength,.
that when Charles VIII. of France, being admitted as
a friend -with his whole army, which soon after con
quered the kingdom of Naples, thought to master them,
the people, taking arms, struck such a terror into him,
that he was glad to depart upon such conditions as
they thought fit to impose. Machiavel reports, that in
that time Florence alone, -with the Val d'Arno, a smaU
territory belonging to that city, could, in a few hours,
by the sound of a beU, bring together 135,000 weU-
armed men ; whereas now that city, with aU the others
in that prorince, are brought to such despicable weakness,
emptiness, poverty, and baseness, that they can neither
resist the oppressions of thefr o-wn prince, nor defend
him or themselves ff they were assaulted by a foreign

Chap. VII. THE MEDICI. 261
enemy. The people are dispersed or destroyed, and
the best famiUes sent to seek habitations iu Venice,
Genoa, Eome, Naples, and Lucca. This is not the
effect of war or pestUenee ; they enjoy a perfect peace,
and sufier no other plague than the government they
are under." *
Ftom the usurper Cosmo down to the imbecUe Gaston,
we look in vain for any of those unmixed quaUties which
should raise a patriot to the command of his feUow
citizens. The Grand Dukes, and particularly the thfrd
Cosmo, had operated so entfre a change in the Tuscan
character, that the candid Florentines, in excuse for
some imperfections in the phUosophic system of the vfr-
tuous Leopold, are obliged to confess that the sovereign
was the only Uberal man in his dominions. Yet that
exceUent prince himseff had no other notion of a national
assembly than of a body to represent the wants and
-wishes, not to enforce the -wiU, of the people.
The latter portion of the first volume of the before-
quoted work, 'Italy in the Nineteenth Century,' by
Mr. "Whiteside, the present eloquent Attorney-General
for Ireland, is devoted to what he caUs " a Sketch of
Florentine History and of the Medici," and a very
amusuag sketch it is, although the clever author is,
perhaps, a httie too fronicaUy facetious with regard to

* On Government, chap. ii. sect. xxvi. p. 208, edit. 1751.
Sidney is, together with Locke and Hoadley, one of David Hume's
" despicable " -writers.

262 THE MEDICI. Chap. VII.
"the crafty apothecary" and the "pUl-box" which
"flourished on the crest of these humble foUowers of
Galen." * Mr. "Whiteside takes the decided repubhcan
-riew of the controversy as to the merits of the famUy,
all of whom, including the Father of his Country,! he
considers as httle better than clever impostors, bent prin
cipaUy, ff not solely, upon thefr o-wn aggrandisement
Mr. Whiteside's book was published in 1848, as appears
not only by the titie-page, but by many reflections re
ferring to the poUtics of that day, and showing no great
respect for those who then reigned in any part of
Europe. The learned gentleman may now, perhaps,
smUe at reading his o-wn sketch of the aUiance between
FiUppo Strozzi and that Alessandro de' Medici whom
he calls the Negro. " Yet this Strozzi aided the mis-

• Italy in the Nineteenth Century, p. 230, vol. i.
t Subjoined are a few extracts from the Sketch : — " Such was
the infamous behaviour of one of the best of the Medici, called,
as I have said, ' the Father of his Country.' " * " It is satisfactory to
know that his detestable character," says Mr. "Whiteside, speaking of
Pietro, son of Cosmo, " became perfectly understood and hated by his
countrymen.'"' Of the magnificent Lorenzo, with many similar
compliments, he says : — " In Florence this poUshed despot carefuUy
considered how best he could permanently enslave his beautiful
country." '' And again : — " The poUcy of this excellent man, Lo
renzo de' Medici, was to ally himself with despotic sovereigns, and
plot against free republics."'' Every other member of the family
comes in for his share of reproach ; and, to say the truth, it now
appears most surprising that any of them should have found so
good a man as Eoscoe amongst their panegyrists. — (1858.)

» Italy, &o., p. 237, vol. i. c ibj^., p. 254.
' Ibid., P- 239. d uy., p. 257.

Chap. VII. THE MEDICI. 263
creant Alessandro in building a citadel to overcome the
citizens, like the fortifications of Paris," &c. &c., p. 326.
The judgment of Massimo AzegUo on the Medici is
given in a few words introduced into his description of
the vicissitudes which the Palazzo Vecchio of Florence
has witnessed and surrived.
" Interrogai il Palazzo Vecchio, antico ed immoto testimonio di
tanti trionfi, di tante rovine, che vide sorgere e cadere tante fortune ;
che dall' alto de' suoi merU Guelfi vide oppresso il Duca d' Atene,
vincitori i Ciampi, arso Fra Girolamo, stracinato il cadavere di Jacopo
de' Pazzi, calpestata tre volte T idra Medicea, e tre volte risorta ;
che sopravisse aUa republica, la vide vendicafa nelle impure e san-
guinose vicende della razza di Cosimo spenta vilmente dopo dugenf
anni." *
I cannot quote the -writings of this exceUent man
without lamenting that he should have had so Uttle
time to study the past history and present condition of
the United Kingdom, that he does not scruple to speak
of the grievances of Ireland and of Poland as being
of the same nature, and concludes that, because they
suffer more, and more worthUy and with more endurance,
than the Italians, Ireland and Poland have obtained the
esteem, sympathy, and good -wishes of the whole ciri-
lized world.
" E r Irlanda, la Polonia, perchfe P ottengono ? Perche soffrono
piu di noi, e piu degnamente, piu osservLimente di noi. L' opinione,
la simpatia, il vote della civilta intera sta per loro, e sono pure
oggidi i potenti alleati ! E di noi ? Di noi si ride." t
It would be cmel to impute as a fault to Azeglio

• Nicolo de' Lapi, Prefazione, p. 6, edit. Firenze, 1850.
t Degli ultimi casi di Eomagna, Torino, 1850, p. 18.

264 INaEATITUDE OF Chap. VII.
that he took a very sanguine -riew of the prospects of
Italy in 1847 and 1848 ; but it is impossible not to be
amused with the prophetic exultation of his ' Proposta
di un Programma per 1' Opinione Nazionale Italiana.'
" Ci sembra,'' says he, " veder avvicinarsi rapidamente 1' epoca in
cui le nazioni saranno le piii sicure basi de' troni e la cura de' loro
interessi il piu secure pegno di sicurezza e stabilita. Questa verita
riconosoiuta e posta in pratica da Pio IX. e stata luminosamente
compravata dall' esperienza in un anno solo ; e quel trono che vacil-
lava sotto i suoi piedi quando vi saliva, e oggi il piii sicuro e stabile
d' Europa." ¦*
Ingkatitude of Eepublicajst Governments.
Ingratitude .is generaUy supposed the rice peculiar to
repubUcs; and it seems to be forgotten that for one
instance of popular inconstancy, we have a hundred
examples of the faU of courtly favourites. Besides,
a people have often repented — a monarch seldom or
never. Leaving apart many famUiar proofs of this fact,
a short story may show the difference between even an
aristocracy and the multitude.
Vettor Pisani, having been defeated in 1354 at Porto-
loiigo, and many years afterwards in the more decisive
action of Pola, by the Genoese, was recaUed by the
Venetian government, and thrown into chains. The
A-wogadori proposed to behead him, but the supreme
tribunal was content with the sentence of imprisonment.
"WhUst Pisani was suffering this unmerited disgrace.

* Eaccolta degU scritti poUtici di Massimo Azeglio, p. 229.

Chap. VII. EEPUBLICAN GOVERNMENTS. 2(>C}
Chioza, in the ricinity of the capital, was, by the
assistance of the Signor of Padua, deUvered into the
hands of Pietro Doria. At the intelUgence of that
disaster, the great beU of St. Mark's tower toUed to
arms, and the people and the soldiery of the galleys
were summoned to the repulse of the approaching
enemy ; but they protested they woidd not move a step,
unless Pisani were liberated and placed at thefr head.
The great councU was instaitly assembled : the prisoner
was caUed before them, and the Doge, Andrea Contariiu,
informed him of the demands of the people and the
necessities of the state, whose only hope of safety was
reposed on his efforts, and who implored bim to forget
the indignities he had endured in her serrice. " I have
submitted," repUed the magnanimous republican, "I
have submitted to your deUberations without complaint ;
I have supported patiently the pains of imprisonment, for
they were inflicted at your command : this is no time
to inqufre whether I deserved them — the good of the
repubUc may have seemed to requfre it, and that which
the repubUc resolves is always resolved wisely. Behold
me ready to lay down my lffe for the preservation of my
country." Pisani was appointed generalissimo, and by
bis exertions, in conjunction with those of Carlo Zeno,
the Venetians soon recovered the ascendancy over thefr
maritime rivals.
The Italian communities were no less unjust to thefr
citizens than the Greek repubUcs. Liberty, both with
the one and the other, seems to have been a national,
VOL. I. N

266 ALFIERI. Chap. VII.
not an individual object : and, not-withstanding the
boasted equality before the laws which an ancient
Greek writer* considered the great distinctive mark
between his countrymen and the barbarians, the mutual
rights of fellow-citizens seem never to have been the
pruicipal scope of the old democracies. The ItaUans,
however, when they had ceased to be free, stUl looked
back with a sigh upon those times of turbulence, when
every citizen might rise to a share of sovereign power,
and they have never been taught fuUy to appreciate the
repose of a monarchy. Sperone Speroni, when Francis
Maria II. Duke of Eovere proposed the question,
" which was preferable, the repubUc or the principaUty
— ^the perfect and not durable, or the less perfect and
not so liable to change," repUed, " that our happuiess is
to be measured by its quaUty, not by its duration ; and
that he preferred to Uve for one day Uke a man, than for
a hundred years Uke a brute, a stock, or a stone." This
was thought, and caUed, a magnificent answer, do-wn to
the last days of ItaUan ser-ritude.f
Alfieei.
Alfieri is the great name of this age. The Itahans,
without waiting for the hundred years, consider bim as
" a poet good in law." — His memory is the more dear to

* The Greek boasted that he was Itrovofios. See the last chapter
of the first book of Dionysius of Haliearnassus.
t " B intorno alia magnifica risposta," Sec — Serassi, Vita del
Tasso, lib. in. p. 149, tom. ii. edit. 2, Bergamo.

Chap. VII. ALFIEEI. 267
them because he is the bard of freedom ; aud because,
as such, his tragedies can receive no countenance from
any of thefr sovereigns. They are but vei-y seldom, and
but very few of them, aUowed to be acted. It was
observed by Cicero that nowhere were the true opinions
and feelings of the Eomans so clearly shown as at the
theatre.* In the autumn of 1816 a celebrated impro-
-risatore exhibited, as before mentioned,! his talents at
the Opera-house of MUan. The reading of the theses
handed in for the subjects of his poetry was received by
a very numerous audience, for the most part in sUence,
or -with laughter ; but when the assistant, unfolding one
of the papers, exclaimed, " The apotheosis of Victor
Alfieri," the whole theatre burst into a shout, and the
applause was continued for some moments. The lot
did not fall on Alfieri; and the Signor Sgricci had
to pour forth his extemporary commonplaces on the
bombardment of Algiers. The choice, indeed, is not

* The free expression of their honest sentiments survived their
Uberties. Titius, the friend of Antony, presented them with games
in the theatre of Pompey. They did not suffer the brilliancy of the
spectacle to efface from their memory that the man who furnished
them -with the entertainment had murdered the son of Pompey :
they drove him from the theatre -with curses. The moral sense of a
populace, spontaneously expressed, is never -wrong. Even the sol
diers of the triumvirs joined in the execration of the citizens, by
shouting round the chariots of Lepidus and Plancus, who had pro
scribed their brothers, De Oermanis non de Oallis duo triumphant
Consules — a saying worth a record, were it nothing but a good pun.
— 0. Veil. PatercuU Hist., lib. u. cap. kxix. p. 78, edit. Elzevir,
1639. t See Chap. III. of thia volume.
N 2

268 ALFIEEI. Chap. VII.
left to accident quite so much as might be thought
from a flrst view of the ceremony ; and the poUce not
only takes care to look at the papers beforehand, but, in
case of any prudential after-thought, steps in to correct
the blindness of chance. The proposal for deifying
Alfieri was received with immediate enthusiasm, the
rather because it was conjectured there would be no
opportunity of carrying it into effect.
The foUowing anecdotes of Alfieri are from an au
thentic source, and appear worthy of record. The poet
was one evening at the house of the Princess Carignani,
and leaning, in one of his sUent moods, against a side
board decorated with a rich tea-service of china, by a
sudden movement of his long loose tresses, threw do-wn
one of the cups. The lady of the mansion ventured to
teU him that he had spoilt her set, and had better have
broken them all ; but the words were no sooner said,
than Alfieri, -without replying or changing countenance,
swept off the whole service upon the floor. His hair
was fated to bring another of his eccentricities iato
play; for, being alone at the theatre at Turin, and
hangiug carelessly -with his head backwards over the
comer of his box, a lady in the next seat on the other
side of the partition, who had, on other occasions, made
several attempts to attract his attention, broke into
violent and repeated encomiums on his auburn locks,
which were flowing down close to her hand. Alfieri
spoke not a word, and continued in his posture until he
left the theatre. The lady received the next morning a

Chap. VII. ALFIEEI. 269
parcel, the contents of wluch she found to be the tresses
she had so much admfred, and which the count had cut
off close to his head. There was no bUlet -with the
present, but words could not have more clearly expostu
lated, " If you like the hair, here it is, but for heaven's
sake leave me alone."
Alfieri employed a respectable young man at Florence
to assist, him in his Greek tianslations, and the maimer
in which that instruction was received was not a httle
eccenfric. The tutor slowly read aloud and translated the
Greek author, and Alfieri, -with his pencU and tablets in
hand, walked about the room and put down his version.
This he did without speaking a word, and when he found
his preceptor reciting too quickly, or when he did not
understand the passage, he held up his pencU, — this was
the signal for repetition, and the last sentence was slowly
recited, or the reading was stopped, untU a tap from the
poet's pencU on the table warned the translator that he
might continue his lecture. The lesson began and con
cluded -with a shght and sUent obeisance, and during the
twelve or thirteen months of instruction the count
scarcely spoke as many words to the assistant of his
studies. The Countess of Albany, however, on receiving
something Uke a remonstrance against this reserve,
assured the young man that the count had the highest
esteem for him and his serrices. But it is not to be
supposed that the master felt much regret at giring his
last lesson to so Pythagorean a pupU. The same gentle
man described the poet as one whom he had seldom

270 ALFIEEI. Chap. VII.
heard speak in any company, and as seldom seen smile.
His daily temper depended not a Uttle upon his favourite
horse, whom he used to feed out of his hand, and ordered
to be led out before him every morning. If the animal
neighed, or repUed to his caresses -with any signs of
pleasure, his countenance brightened, but the insensi-
bUity of the horse was generaUy foUowed by the dejec
tion of the master.
The tomb of Alfieri in the Santa Croce is one of
the least successful productions of Canova. The whole
monument is hea-vy, and projects itseff into the aisle
of the church more prominently than becomes the
associate of the more retfring but richer sepulchres
of Michael Angelo and MachiaveUi. The colossal
Cybele of Italy, weeping over a medaUion in low
reUef, shows the difficulty of doing justice to the
mourner and the monument, and may besides be mis
taken for the princess of the house of Stolberg, whose
name and title have left Uttle room on the inscription
for Alfieri himself. They show a Uttle step opposite
to the monument, on which the princess herseff peri
odically contemplates her own work and that of Canova.
The grief of an amiable woman for the loss of an
accomplished man may be expected to endure; and,
to say the truth, the other sex has too long wanted
a " contrast "* to the twice retold tale of the Ephesian
matron. * In the former edition the word " pendant " was used ; and when
I revisited Florence I found that my informant and Madame Albany

Chap. VII. MADAME DE STAEL.

Madame de Stael.

Santa Croce wUl recaU the memory not only of those
whose tombs have made this church the cenfre of pil
grimage, the Mecca of Italy, but of her whose elo
quence was poured over the iUustrious ashes, and whose
voice is now as mute as those she sung. Coeinna is no
more ; and with her should expfre the fear, the flattery,
and the en-vy, which threw too dazzling or too dark
a cloud round the march of genius, and forbad the
steady gaze of disinterested criticism. "We have her
picture embellished or distorted, as friendship or de
traction has held the pencU : the impartial portrait
was hardly to be expected from a contemporary. The
immediate voice of her surrivors wiU, it is probable,
be far from affording a just estimate of her singular
capacity. The gaUantry, the love of wonder, and the
hope of associated fame, which blunted the edge of
censure, must cease to exist. The dead have no sex ;
they can surprise by no new mfracles ; they can confer
no privUege : Corinna has ceased to be a woman — she
is only an author : and it may be foreseen that many

herself were very indignant at the phrase. The fact was, I thought
" pendant " might be used in the sense of " contrast," just as Home
Tooke called his contrast " a jiair of portraits." My informant was the
young man mentioned in these anecdotes as assisting the poet in leam
ing Greek ; and nothing was farther from my thoughts than saying
anything which might compromise him -with his patroness or offend
the lady herself. A celebrated Irish lady asked Madame Albany before
much company if she had read the notes to ' Childe Harold.' The
princess gave her no answer, and never asked her to her house again.

272 MADAME DE STAEL. Chap. VII.
wdU repay themselves for former complaisance by a
severity to which the extravagance of pre-rious praises
may perhaps give the colour of truth. The latest
posterity, for to the latest posterity they -wUl assuredly
descend, -wUl have to pronounce upon her various pro
ductions ; and the longer the vista through which they
are seen, the more accurately minute -wUl be the ob
ject, the more certain the justice, of the decision.
She -wiU enter into that existence in which the great
writers of aU ages and nations are, as it were, asso
ciated iu a world of their o-wn, and, from that superior
sphere, shed thefr eternal influence for the control and
consolation of mankind. But the indiridual wUl gra
duaUy disappear as the author is more distinctly seen :
some one, therefore, of aU those whom the charms of
involuntary -wit, and of easy hospitahty, attracted
within the friendly cfrcles of Coppet, should rescue
from obhvion those -vfrtues which, although they are
said to love the shade, are, in fact, more frequently
chUled than excited by the domestic cares of private
lffe. Some one should be found to portray the un
affected graces -with which she adorned those dearer
relationships, the performance of whose duties is rather
discovered amongst the interior secrets than seen in the
outward management of family intercourse ; and which,
indeed, it requires the deUcacy of genuine affection
to quaUfy for the eye of an indifferent spectator. Some
one should be found, not to celebrate, but to describe,
the amiable mistress of an open mansion, the centre
of a society, ever varied, and always pleased, the creator

Chap. VII. THEASIMENE. 273
of which, divested of the ambition and tjie arts of
pubhc rivafry, shone forth only to give fresh animation
to those around her. The mother, tenderly affection
ate and tenderly beloved, the friend unboundedly
generous, but stUl esteemed, the charitable patroness
of all distress, cannot be forgotten by those whom she
cherished, and protected, and fed. Her loss wUl be
mourned the most where she was known the best ;
and, to the sorrows of very many friends and more
dependants, may be offered the disinterested regret of
a stranger, who, amidst the subUmer scenes of the
Leman Lake, received his chief satisfaction from con
templating the engaging quaUties of the incomparable
Corinna.*
Eoads from Florence to Eome — Theasimene.
I have traveUed the road by Perugia and the road by
Sienna several times, and I prefer the former, although
the raifroad gives greater advantages by the latter route.
My first journey in 1816, and my last in 1854, took
me through that part of Tuscany which has been well
described by a recent traveUer as beiug "cultivated, as far
" as possible, as a beautifiU garden ; the lands at either
" side of the road from Cortona to Florence (some sixty
" mUes) present a picture of cleanliness, skiU, variety of
" tUlage, comfort in the dwellings and appearance of the

• This and the following account of Thrasimene are quoted in
the guide-books as having been written by Lord Byron — a mistake
not discreditable to the author.
N 3

274 THEASIMENE. Chap. VIL
" people, liot to be surpassed in any part of Europe."*
This appeared to me to be true at my last visit. PoUti
cal changes had passed over the land and left no trace
observable by a mere traveUer. I was not, indeed,
on the look-out for symptoms of discontent, but recurred
rather to my former pursuits, and, descending from the
hUls that skirt the Lake of Perugia on the Eoman
frontier, again examined the site of the ever memorable
battle of Thrasimene. But that site is more easUy
recognisable by any one coming from the Tuscan
frontier, and cannot be mistaken. The traveUer from
the vUlage under Cortona to Casa di Piano, the next
stage on the way to Eome, has, for the first two or three
mUes, around him, but more particularly to the right,
that flat land which Hannibal laid waste in order
to induce the Consul Flaminius to move from Arezzo.
On his left, and in front of him, is a ridge of hUls, bend
ing down towards the Lake of Thrasimene, caUed by
Livy " montes Cortonenses," and now named the Gual-
andra. These hUls he approaches at Ossaja, a viUage
which the itineraries pretend to have been so denomi
nated from the bones foqnd there : but there have been
no bones found there, and the battle was fought on the
other side of the hUl.f From Ossaja the road begins
to rise a Uttle, but does not pass into the roots of

* "Whiteside, Italy in the Nineteenth Century, vol. i. p. 115.
t And, besides this fact, Niebuhr says that the name should be
Orsaia, from the Orsi family.

Chap. VII. THEASIMENE. 275
the mountains untU the sixty-seventh mUestone from
Florence.* The ascent thence is not steep but per
petual, and continues for twenty minutes. The lake is
soon seen below on the right, with Borghetto, a round
tower, close upon the water ; and the undulating hUls
partially covered with wood, amongst which the road
winds, sink by degrees into the marshes near to this
tower. Lower than the road, down to the right amidst
these woody hUlocks, Hannibal placed his horse,t in the
jaws of, or rather above, the pass, which was between the
lake and the present road, and most probably close
to Borghetto, just under the lowest of the " tumuU."J
On a summit to the left, above the road, is an old
cfrcular ruin which the peasants caU "the Tower of
Hannibal the Carthaginian." Arrived at the highest
point of the road, the traveUer has a partial riew of the
fatal plain which opens fuUy upon him as he descends
the Gualandra. He soon finds himseff in a vale enclosed

* This was an accurate description of the road in 1816. At pre
sent it passes nearer to the lake, and more at the foot than on the
decUvities of the hills, probably about the pass where Flaminius
entered the plain. The sixty-seventh milestone now is not near
Ossaja, but Camuscia imder Cortona. I remarked also, in 1854, that
Passignano is not at the very end of the lake, but just at the foot of
the hiUs which enclose the plain on the side of Perugia. The best
¦view of the site of the battle is from the Papa;l custom-house close
to the Tuscan frontier in the Gualandra hills.
t " Equites ad ipsas fauces saltus tumuUs apte tegentibus locat."
— T. Livii,lib. xxii. cap. iv.
X " Ubi maxime montes Cortonenses Thrasimenus subit." —
Ibid.

276 THEASIMENE. Chap. VII.
to the left and in front and behind him by the Gualandra
hills, bending round in a segment larger than a semi
cfrcle, and running down at each end to the lake, which
obliques to the right and forms the chord of this moun
tain arc. The position cannot be guessed at from the
plains of Cortona, nor appears to be so completely
enclosed unless to one who is fafrly within the hills.
It then, indeed, appears "a place made as it were on
jiurpose for a snare," locus insidiis natus. " Borghetto
is then found to stand in a narrow marshy pass close to
the hUl and to the lake, whUst there is no other outlet
at the opposite turn of the mountains than through the
little town of Passignano, which is pushed into the
water by the foot of a high rocky accUvity."* There is
a woody eminence branching down from the mountains
into the upper end of the plain nearer to the side of
Passignano, and on this stands a white -riUage caUed
Torre. Polybius seems to allude to this eminence as
the one on which Hannibal encamped and drew out his
heavy-armed Africans and Spaiuards in a conspicuous
position.! From this spot he despatched his Balearic
and light-armed troops round through the Gualandra
heights to the right, so as to arrive unseen and form an

* " Inde coUes assurgunt." — T. Livii, lib. xxii.
t Tov fiiv Kara npoa-umov rrjs rropeias X6(j)ov avTos Kareka^ero <a\
Toiis Ai^uas Kai Toiis'lfirjpas exa>v eV avrov Karea-rpaTOTreSeva-e. —
Hist., Ub. in. cap. 83. The account in Polybius is not so easily
reconoileable with present appearances as that in Livy :"he talks of
hills to the right and left of the pass and valley ; but when Fla
minius entered he had the lake at the right of both.

Chap. VII. THILVSIMENE. 277
ambush amongst the broken accUvities which the road
now passes, and to be ready to act upon the left flank
and above the enemy, whUst the horse shut up the pass
behind. Flaminius came to the lake near Borghetto at
sunset ; and, %rithout sending any spies before him,
marched through the pass the next morning before the
day had quite broken, so that he perceived nothing of
the horse and Ught troops above and about him, and
saw only the heavy-armed Carthaginians in front on the
hiU of Torre.* The Consul began to draw out his army
in the fiat, and in the mean time the horse in ambush
occupied the pass behind bim at Borghetto. Thus the
Eomans were completely enclosed, haring the lake on
the right, the main army on the hUl of Torre in front,
the Gualandra bills fiUed -with the Ught-armed on thefr
left flank, and being prevented from receding by the
cavalry, who, the farther they advanced, stopped up all
the outiets in the rear. A fog rising from the lake now
spread itseff over the army of the Consul, but the high
lands were in the sunshine, and aU the different corps in
ambush looked towards the hiU of Torre for the order of
attack. Hannibal gave the signal, and moved down
from his post on the height. At the same moment aU
his troops on the eminences behind and in the flank of
Flaminius rushed forwards as it were with one accord
into the plain. The Eomans, who were forming their
array in the mist, suddenly heard the shouts of the

' A tergo et super caput decepere insidiae." — T. Liv., &c.

278 THEASIMENE. Chap. VII.
enemy amongst them, on every side, and before they
could faU into thefr ranks, or draw thefr swords, or see
by whom they were attacked, felt at once that they
were surrounded and lost.
There are two Uttle rivulets which run from the
Gualandra into the lake. The traveUer crosses the
flrst of these at about a mUe after he comes into the
plain, and this dirides the Tuscan from the Papal terri
tories. The second, about a quarter of a mUe further
on, is caUed "the bloody rivulet," and the peasants
point out an open spot to the left between the " Sangui
netto " and the hiUs, which, they say, was the principal
scene of slaughter. The other part of the plain is
covered with thick-set oUve-trees in corn-grounds, and
is nowhere quite level except near the edge of the lake.
It is, indeed, most plrobable that the battle was fought
near this end of the vaUey, for the six thousand Eomans
who, at the beginning of the action, broke through the
enemy, escaped to the summit of an emiaence which
must have been in this quarter, otherwise they would
have had to traverse the whole plain and to pierce
through the main army of Hannibal.
The Eomans fought desperately for three hours, but
the death of Flaminius was the signal for a general dis
persion. The Carthaginian horse then burst in upon the
fugitives, and the lake, the marsh about Borghetto, but
chiefly the plain of the Sanguinetto and the passes of the
Gualandra, were strewed with dead. Near some old
walls on a bleak ridge to the left above the rivulet

Chap. VII. THEASIMENE. 279
many human bones have been repeatedly found, and
this has confirmed the pretensions aud the name of tiio
" stream of blood."
Every disfrict of Italy has its hero. In the north
some painter is the usual genius of the place, and the
foreign Juho Eomano more than dirides Mantua with
her native VfrgU.* To the south we hear of Eoman
names. Near Thrasimene tiadition is stUl faithful to
the fame of an enemy, and Hannibal the Carthaginian
is the only ancient name remembered on the banks
of the Perugian lake. Flaminius is unknown ; but the
postiUons on that road have been taught to show the
very spot where il Console Romano was slain. Of all
who fought and feU in the battle of Thrasimene, the
historian himseff has, besides the generals and Maharbal,
preserved indeed only a single name.-f- You overtake
the Carthaginian again on the same road to Eome. The
antiquary, that is, the hostier, of the posthouse at
Spoleto, teUs you that his town repulsed the rictorious
enemy, and shows you the gate stUl caUed Porta di Anni
bale. It is hardly worth whUe to remark that a French
travel-writer, weU known by the name of the President
Dupaty, saw Thrasimene in the lake of Bolsena, which
lay convenientiy on his way from Sienna to Eome.

» About the middle of the twelfth century the coins of Mantua
bore on one side the image and figure of Virgil. — Zeeca d' Italia, pi.
xvii. i. 6. Voyage dans le Milanais, &c., par A. Z. Millin., tom. ii.
p. 294 : Paris, 1817.
t "Ducario, Insuber eques," who, before he killed Flaminius,
made a short speech, given by Livy ! !

280 THE CLITUMNUS. Chap. VII.
The Clitumnus.
The CUtumnus rises at Le Vene di Gampello, or di
Pisdgnano. In the territory of Trevi and that of
FoUgno it is called the " Clitunno," and lower down
in its course assumes the name of La Timmia. Anti
quaries have been careful to measure the exact size
of its original fountain, which they find to be eleven
Eoman palms and ten inches long, and one palm seven
inches and a haff -wide. This source pours from be
neath a blind arch in the high road from FoUgno to
Spoleto, haff a mile from the post-house of Le Vene,
and, gushing into a thousand blue eddies, is soon lost
in a bed of giant reeds. The peasants of the neigh
bourhood say that the stream has many fountains ;
and, although no where in the immediate -ricinity it
is wider than a mUlbrook, is in many places unfa
thomable. The CUtumnus has been sung by most of
the poets from VfrgU to Claudian. The Umbrian
Jupiter bore the same name ; and either he or the
river-god himseff inspired an oracle which gave answers
by lots, and which was consulted by CaUgula.* There
were festivals celebrated by the people of the neigh
bouring HispeUum in honour of this deity, f When

' Sueton. in Vita Calig.
f Gori. Mus. Etrus., tom. u. p. 66. " ClitumnaUa sacra apud
Hispellates in ejus honorem celebrata fuisse, constat auctoritate
hujus vetustas arse, eidem dedioata, quae inter Gudianas vulgata est."
— Edit. Florent., 1737.

Chap. VII. THE CLITUMNUS. ^81
Pliny the younger saw and described the Clitumnus,
the fountain spread at once into a considerable river,*
capable of bearing two laden boats abreast ; t biff it
is thought has been shrunk by the great earthquake
in 446, which shook Constantinople for sis months,
and was riolently felt in many parts of Italy. The
" glassy Fiicine lake, the sea-green Anio, the sul
phureous Nar, the clear Faberis, and the turbid Tyber,"
are, -with the cold CUtumnus, known to have been
affected by this tremendous convulsion. | Hence, per
haps, the holes which are said to be unfathomable.
It has, however, been always honourably mentioned
amongst the rivers of Italy ; § and ff the Uttle temple
on its banks was not thrown down, the effects of the
earthquake could not have been very important. With
respect to this temple, now a church dedicated to
the Saviour, which is seen a few paces before you
come to the principal source, some doubts have been
entertained of its antiquity by a late English traveUer,

* " Fons adhuc et jam amplissimum flumen." — Epist. cul Bo-
manum, lib. viii. epist. viii.
t " Xaveis tamen ne heic inteUigas majores sed scaphas tantum."
— P. Cluverii, Italice Antiquce, Ub. ii. cap. x. tom. i. p. 702, edit.
Elzev. X Sidon. ApolUnar., lib. i. epist. v.
§ Boccacio de Flum. in verb. Clitum. " CUtumnus Umbrire
fluvius apud Mevaniam et Spoletum defluens, ex quo (ut quidam
volunt), si confertim postquam concepit bos bibat, album pariet.
Quam ob rem Eomani magnas hostias Jovi immolaturi ad hunc
locum per albis tauris mittebant. Hunc aUi fontem alii lacum
dicunt." — Lib. de Oeneal. Deorum. in fin, edit. Princ.

282 THE CLITUMNUS. Chap. VII.
who is very seldom sceptical out of place.* Fabretti,
in his inscriptions,t had before asserted that it had
been buUt from ancient fragments by the Christians,
who baptized it, sculptured the grapes on the tympa
num, and added the steps. Mr. Forsyth's objection
can, however, in this instance, perhaps, be removed
by the mention of a fact -with which he appears to
have been unacquainted. The inside of the temple
described by Pliny was "bescratched -with the non
sense of an album," and of this record no vestiges
were seen by our acute traveller : nor could they, for
the whole of the interior of the chapel is aUowed to
have been modernized when the altar niche was added
at the conversion of the structure, and any ancient
remnants then left within were carried away when it
was reduced to its present appearance in the middle
of the last century. The sculpture of the columns,
singular as it is, can scarcely be made a valid objec
tion. PaUadio calls it most delicate and beautifuUy
various ; J and ff what appears in his drawiugs vine-
leaves be in reality, as Venuti asserts, § and as they
seem to be, fish-scales, the workmanship may have

"¦ Eemarks on Italy, Sec, p. 320, sec. edit.
t Inscrip., p. 38. See Osservazioni, &c., p. 61, ut inf.
X " Lavorate delicatissimamente e con bella varieta d' intagli." —
Ichonog. de' Temp., lib. iv. p. 2, cap. xxv., del Tempio ch' e sotto
Trevi, tom. vi. p. 10, Ven. 1745. The plates are not at all recog
nisable. § Osservazioni sopra il fiume Clitunno, dall' Abate Eidolpho Ve
nuti, Cortonese, a Eoma, 1753.

Chap; VIL THE CLITUMNUS. 283
some aUusion to the river-god. The above great ar
chitect saw this temple entfre, and made fivo designs
of it.* What remains, which is only tiie -nestcrn por
tico and the exterior of the cell, is certainly a part of
the temple seen by him, and called by Cluverius one
of the Fanes of Jupiter CUtumnus.t It appears the
Fane preserved the form copied by Palladio down to
1730, when an earthquake broke off a piece of the
cornice; and even in 1739 it had not been reduced
to the ruin in which Venuti saw it, and which seems
to differ but Uttie from its present condition.^ The
chapel belonged formerly to the community of Treri,
but about the year 1420 they lost it together with the
castie of Piscignano, and it became a simple ecclesi
astical benefice of ten or twelve ci^wns annual rent
attached to the Dateria at Eome. In 1730 it was in
trusted to a brother HUarion, who, under the pretext
of repairing it, made a bargain with Benedetti, Bishop
of Spoleto, to furnish him with a portion of the columns
and marbles for three-and-twenty crowns. The com
munity of Piscignano opposed this spoUation for some
time, and an order was even procured from Pope

* See Ichonog., nt sup.
t P. Cluverii, Italiaj Antique, ut sup. Sacraria ista uuUa alia
fuere, nisi quaj ab initio ad varies Clitumni fontes variis Jovis Cli-
tumni nominibus numinibusque posita, ea baud dubie postea in
Christianae religionis usum con versa. His annotator Holstenius also
believed it most ancient, Annot. ad Cluv. Geog., p. 123.
t " La facciata che vedesi verso Ponente h 1' unica che sia rimasta
illesa dal furore degl' ignoranti." — See ut sup., p. 45.

284

THE CLITUMNUS. Chap. VII.

Clement XII. to prevent it. But Monsignore Ancajani,
then Bishop of Spoleto, confirmed the sale, laughed
at the kijunction, and said the marbles were but old
stones;* consequently the hermit, brother Paul, who
had been left by HUarion, feU to work, demoUshed
great part of the porticoes, and sold four of the columns
for eighteen cro-wns to the Signori Fontani of Spoleto,
who used them in buUding a famUy chapel in the
PhUippine church of that to-wn.f In 1748 the same
brother Paul, looking for a fancied treasure, broke his
way through the interior of the chapel and tore up
part of the subterranean ceU, of which pious researches
there are the marks at this day. Whatever remained
of marble in the inside of the structure was then car
ried away, and il was -with much difficulty that the
remaining portico was saved from the hands of the
hermit.J The reader is requested to bear in mind
this transaction of two bishops and two holy brothers.

* " Quale se ne rise, dieendo essere sassacci, e seguito il frate a
demolire e portar via." — See Osservazioni, ut sup.
f " Distruttore di questa fabbrica e stato un certo Eremita Chia-
mato Fra Paolo, ehe le ha vendute (4 colonne) per soli diecidotto
scudi ai Fontanini di Spoleto, che se ne sono ser-viti per fare una
loro cappella in onore di St. Filippo." — Lettera MS. del Conte Gia
como Valenti, ap. Venut. Osservazioni, &c., p. 49.
X "... and the statue of the god (the CUtumnus) has yielded its
place to the triumphant cross. This circumstance is rather fortu
nate, as to it the temple owes its preservation." — Classical Tour
through Italy, chap. ix. tom. i. p. 321, 3rd edit. Mr. Eustace was
innocent of all knowledge of the above fact ; otherwise, though a
zealous crusader, he would not have stuck his triumphant cross on
the Clitumnus.

Chap. VIL THE CLITUMNTS. 285
executed in spite of the most respectable opposition
in the middle of the last century. It may assist his
conjectures when he comes to estimate the probable
merits of the Christian clergy, who are said to have
been so instrumental during the dark ages in pre
serving the relics of Eome. The Abate of Cortona
talks -vrith indignation of the offence,* and concludes
with a prayer to Benedict XIA". to recover the pil
lage, and replace the columns and marbles on thefr
ancient base. Indeed the spoUers were guilty not
only of a crime against the antiquary, but of sacri
lege. CUtumnus could not be expected to deter brother
HUarion and brother Paul, but the name of our Sariour
might. Benedict XIV. did not listen to the Abate,
and we see the temple as it was left by the honest
hermit. It should seem then that the Uttle portico and the
form at least of the ceU belong to an ancient temple,
and probably to that of the Clitumnus, ff not to one
of the many chapels which were near the principal
fane.-f- There were formerly vestiges of two other
smaU ancient structures,^ which had not entfrely dis
appeared when Venuti -wrote, and had given to a spot
above the church the name ad sacraria. The counts

* " E quello non hanno fatto i Goti nelle incursione, 1' hanno
fatto quelU, ehe non s' int«ndono d' antichita." — Osservazioni, Sec,
ut sup.
t " Sparsa sunt circa sacella complura.'' — Plin. Epist., &o.
X Holstenius Annot. ad Geog. Cluv., p. 123.

286 TEENI. Chap. VII.
Valenti di Trevi found also the statue of a river-god
near the chapel, and placed it in thefr coUection.
Add to this that the names * stUl seen on the roof of
the subterranean ceU belonged probably to those who
had consulted the oracle, and that there can be no
doubt of the antiquity of that adytum, although it is
half blocked up and defaced by the excavations of
brother Paul. The cypress grove which shaded the
hiU above the source of the river has disappeared, but
the water stUl preserves the ancient property of pro
ducing some of the finest trout to be met with in
Italy.f Terni.
The fall looks so much Uke what Lord Byron called .
" the heU of waters," that Addison thought it might
be the guff through which Alecto plunged into the
infernal regions. It is singular enough that two of the
finest cascades in Europe should be artificial — ^this of
the VeUno, and the one at TivoU. The traveUer is
strongly recommended to trace the Velino, at least as
high as the Uttle lake called Pie' di Lup. The Eeatine

" T. SEPTIMIVS BIDIA. L. F.
PLEBEIVS POLLA
Tbe temple of the oracle of Memnon in Upper Egypt was full of
such inscriptions. — See Osservazioni, Sec, p. 56.
t Alas for the temple, and the fountam, and the stream, and the
vale of the Clitumnus ! A mill and manufactory have been esta
bUshed immediately below tbe little chapel ; and in 1854 I scarcely
recognised the spot which had inspired Lord Byron, and charmed
me so much, in 1816.

Chap. VII. TEENI. "287
territory was the Italian Tempe,* and the ancient
naturalist, amongst other beautiful varieties, remarked
the daUy rainbows of the lake Velinus.f A scholar
of great name has devoted a treatise to this tUstrict
alone.;); In March 1854 I passed a week at Temi, and walked
several times up the vaUey of the Velino. The best
riew of the fall is obtained by descending the hiU at
Papigno, crossing the river opposite to the Casino of the
brothers CasteUi (where Caroline, queen of George IV.,
passed several days), then ascending through the gar
dens of the Casino, and passing along rocky ledges of
brushwood, until you come -within sight and sound of
the great torrent tumbUng through a cleft of the oppo
site heights. Nine days before my visit this beautiful
spot was chosen by a young artisan of Temi, a native of
Ancona, for his last look at the world. Before he leaped
from the rocks into the depths below he penciUed a few
words, and left the paper where he stood, merely de
claring that he had done the deed himseff. Not an
uncommon conclusion, in this part of the country, of Ul-
requited love, — at least so I was told at Temi It seems
the swains either take this desperate step or tum friars.

* " Eeatini me ad sua Tempe dnxerunt."— Cicer., Epist. ad' Attic.
XV. lib. iv.
t " In eodem lacu nullo non die apparere arcus." — Plin., Hist.
Nat., Ub. ii. cap. Ixu.
t Aid. Manut. de Eeatina urbe agroque, ap. Sallengre Thesaur.,
tom. i. p, 773.

288 APPEOACH TO EOME. Chap. VII.
There is an arbour with a wooden bench in it just oppo
site to the great cataract, a Uttle above this lover's leap,
and this is farmed by a peasant at 10 scudi a-year.

Appeoach TO Eome.
The fixing localities, and determining the claims
of those antiquities whose chief interest is derived from
the story attached to them, is generaUy supposed the
pecuUar pro-rince of duU plodding writers : but as the
man most willing to give scope to his imagination would
hardly choose to have any other foundation for his feel
ing than truth, and as he would be incensed at having
been entrapped by an ignorant enthusiastic deolaimer
into an admfration of objects whose authenticity may be
questioned by the first cool examinant, it is but fafr that
he should accept the labours of the professed topographer
and antiquary -with thefr due share of complacency and
praise. The common opinion that blind beUef is the
most convenient viaticum is contradicted by the ex
perience of every traveUer in Italy. He who begins his
joumey -with such entfre confidence in common fame
and common guide-books must have the conriction of
imposture and mistake forced upon him at every turn.
He is Ukely then to sUde into the contrary extreme,
and, if he is averse to aU previous examination, wiU
subside at last into complete scepticism and indifference.
We may apply a literal sense to the words of Erasmus
in praise of Italy : " In thai country the very walls are

Chap. VII. APPEOACH TO EOME. 289
more learned and more eloquent than our men."* But the
immense variety of antiquarian objects, the innumerable
details of historical topography belonging to every
pro-rince, the national inchnation to fable, aud, it may
be said, to deception, suggest themselves to every con
siderate traveller, and induce him to a caution and
reserve which, with wonders less multipUed and guides
more faithful, he might deem superfluous and embar
rassing. A very Uttle experience is sufficient to conrince
him how smaU is the proportion of those antiquities
whose real character has been entfrely ascertained.
From his first riew of Soracte he rapidly advances upon
Eome, the approach to which soon brings him upon de-
bateable ground. At Cirita Castellana he wUl find him
seff amongst the Veians when in the market-place of
Leo X., but going on the town bridge he is told by
Pius "VI. that he is at Falerium. After he has
caught the first -riew of St. Peter's from the height
beyond Baccano, he hopes that the remaining sixteen
mUes may furnish bim at every other step -with some
sign of his vicinity to Eome : he palpitates with expec
tation, and gazes eagerly on the open undulating deUs
and plains, fearful lest a fragment of an aqueduct, a
column, or an arch, should escape his notice.
Gibbets garnished -with black withered Umbs, and a
monk in a vetturino's chaise, may remind him that he is
approaching the modem capital ; but he descends into

* Lib. i. Epist. iv. to Eob. Fisher.
VOL. I. O

290 APPEOACH TO EOME. Chap. VIL
alternate hoUows, and vrinds up hUl after hUl -with
nothing to observe except the incorrectness of the last
book of travels, which -wUl have talked to him of the flat,
bare, dreary waste he has to pass over before arriving at
the Etemal City. At last, however, he is stopped at a
sarcophagus, and told to look at the. tomb of Nero: a
hardy falsehood, which may prepare him for the misno
mers of the city itseff, but which, notwithstanding the
name of C. viBivs maeianvs is cut upon the stone, was
so exactly suited to the taste and leaming of the presi
dent Dupaty, that he pointed a period of his favourite
starts and dashes with this epigram, on the approach
to ruined Eome, " c'est le tombeau de Niron qui Van-
nonce." *
The do-wns which the traveUer has passed after leav
ing Monterosi sink into green shrubby deUs as he
arrives -within five or six mUes of Eome. The Monte
Mario stretches forward its high woody platform on the
right. The distant plain of the Tiber and the Cam
pagna, to the left, is closed by the Tiburtine and Alban
hills. In the midst Eome herseff, wide spreading from
the Vatican to the pine-covered Pincian, is seen at
intervals so far apart as to appear more than a single
city. Arrived at the banks of the Tiber, he does not
find the muddy insignificant stream which the dis
appointments of overheated expectations have described

* Santi Bartoli gives a picture of this tomb, plate 44, and says of
it, " falsamente detto di Nerone."

Chap. VII. APPEOACH TO EOME. 291
it, but one of the finest rivers in Europe, now roUing
through a vale of gardens, and now sweeping the base of
swelling accUrities clothed with wood, and cro-wned with
-riUas and thefr evergreen shrubberies. Immediately
after he has crossed the river he -wiU see the gate of the
city at the end of a vista two mUes in length ; and the
suburb is not composed of mean dwellings, but a fine
road -with a wide pavement passes between the waUs of
vineyards and orchards, with here and there neat sum
mer-houses or arched gateways rising on either hand,
and becoming more frequent with the nearer approach
to the city. The Flaminian gate, although it is thought
unworthy of Eome and Michael Angelo, wUl content
those who are not fastidious. An entrance, not an arch
of triumph, is sufficient for the modern capital. The
stranger, when -within that gate, may ascend at once by
the new road winding up the Pincian mount, and enjoy
from that eminence the -riew of a city, which, whatever
may be the faiUts of its architectural details, is, when
seen in the mass, incomparably the handsomest in the
world.* The pure transparent sky above him wUl seem
made, as it were, to give brilUancy to the magnificent
prospect below. The new climate wiU indeed add much
to his deUght, for although, amongst those branches of

* Donatus prefers the site, the streets, and, as far as the church
of St. Peter's is considered, the edifices, of the modem to those of tbe
ancient city. — Boma Vetus, lib. i. cap. 29. The town is much im
proved since the time of Urban VHL, to whom Donatus dedicated
his work.
o 2

292 APPEOACH TO EOME. Chap. VII.
the Apennines which approach within forty miles of the
city, he may have been chUled by the rigours of a
Lombard sky, he is no sooner in the plain of the Tiber
than his spfrits expand in an atmosphere which, in
many seasons, preserves an unsulUed lustre and exhi
larating warmth from the rains of autumn to the tem
pests of the vernal equinox. "What has been said and
sung of the tepid winter of Italy is not inteUigible to
the north of Eome ; but in that divine city — for some
transport may be aUowed to the recoUection of aU its
attractions — we assent to the praises of VfrgU, and feel
his poetry to have spoken the language of truth.
" Hie ver assiduum atque alienis mensibus «stas.''
This must have been written at Eome: the banks of
his frozen Mincio would have iospfred no such rapture.*
But not the superb structures of the modern town, nor
the happy climate, have made Eome the coimtry of
every man and " the city of the soul." The education
which has qualified the traveller of every nation for that
citizenship which is again become, in one point of -riew,
what it once was, the portion of the whole civUized
world, prepares for him at Eome enjoyments indepen-

Eome had fallen when Eutilius said of her climate, —
" Vere tuo nunquam mulceri desinit annus
Deliciasque tuas victa tuetur hyems."
— CI. Eut., Num. Iter.

Chap. VII. APPEOACH TO EOME. 293
dent of the city and inhabitants about him, and of all
the aUurements of sight and climate. He wUl have
already peopled the banks of the Tiber -with the shades
of Pompey, Constantine, and Belisarius, and the other
heroes of the MUrian bridge. The first footstep -within
the venerable walls -wiU have shown bim the name and
the magnificence of Augustus ; and the three long narrow
streets branching from this obelisk, Uke the theatre of
PaUadio, wiU have imposed upon his fancy -with an afr
of antiquity congenial to the soU. Even the mendicants
of the countoy asking alms in Latin prayers, the mile
stones of the Via Cassia, and the vineyard gates of the
suburbs inscribed with the ancient language, may be
aUowed to contribute to the agreeable delusion. Of the
local sanctity which belongs to Athens, Eome, and Con
stantinople, the two first may be thought to possess,
perhaps, an equal share. The latter is attractive chiefly
for that site which was chosen for the retreat and
became the grave of empfre. The Greek capital may
be more precious in the eyes of the artist, and, it may
be, of the scholar, but yields to the magnitude, the
grandeur, and variety of the Eoman reUcs. The robe of
the Orientals* has spread round Athens an air of antique
preservation, which the European city and the concourse
of strangers have partiaUy dispeUed from Eome. But the
requfred soUtude may be occasionally found amongst
the vaults of the Palatine, or the columns of the great

Now exchanged for the Bavarian hat and breeches (1854).

294 GUIDES FOE EOME. Chap. VII.
Forum itseff. Ancient and modern Eome are linked
together like the dead and Uving criminals of Mezentius.
The present to-wn may be easUy forgotten amidst the
-wrecks of the ancient metropoUs ; and a spectator on the
tower of the Capitol may tum from the carnival throngs
of the Corso to the contiguous fragments of the old city,
and not behold a single human being. The general
effect of such a prospect may be felt by any one ; and
ignorance may be consoled by hearing that a detaUed
examination must be made the study rather of a Ufe
than of a casual visit.
Guides foe Eome.
The traveller who is neither very young nor very
incurious may inqufre what previous instruction or
present guides wiU enable him to understand the his
tory as weU as to feel the moral effect of " the broken
thrones and temples." To this question no satisfac
tory answer can be given.* The earUer notices of
the Eoman antiquities abound with errors, which might
be expected from the infancy of a study requfring so
much discretion. Petrarch, who was himseff an anti
quary, and presented a coUection of gold and sUver
medals to the Emperor Charles IV. in 1354, caUed
the pyramid of Cestius the tomb of Eemus; and

•* "Written in 1817 ; but Dr. Smith's Eome has now provided the
traveller with much that he wants.

Chap. vii. GUIDES FOE EOME. 295
Poggio, who is surprised at such an error,* has in
dulged in exaggerations which very much reduce the
value of his lamentation over the faUen city. The
Ul-tempered Florentine has also told us what to ex
pect from his contemporary Cfriacus of Ancona, whose
forty days' ride in Eome, -with his tablets in hand, has
procured for him no better names than an impostor
and a dunce.-f- Flarius Blondus, who dedicated his
treatises to the patron of this latter writer, Euge-
luus rv., contented himseff -with a description rather
of the ancient city, and hazarded so few conjectures
on its comparative topography, that he owns he could
hardly discover the seven hills on the most minute
inspection.! When less doubtful, he is not less erro
neous ; and, amongst other instances, may be selected
bis assertion that Theodoric permitted the Eomans to
employ the stones of the CoUseum for the repafr of
the city walls. § In the end of the same century
(15th) Pomponius Laetus made a coUection of an
tiques on the Quirinal, and distinguished himseff in

* De fortune varietate urbis Bomse et de ruinis ejusdem de
scriptio. Ap. Sallengre Nov. Thesaur. Antiq. Eoman., Venet. 1735,
tom. i. p. 501.
t See an account of him in Tiraboschi. Storia della Lett., tom.
¦vi. par. i. Ub. i. p. 264 et seq., edit. Venet. 1795. He rode on a
white horse, lent him by Cardinal Condolmieri, afterwards Bugenius
IV. Tiraboschi defends Ciriacus.
X Eoma instaurata, edit. Taurin. 1527, in a collection, lib. i.
foi. 14.
§ Ibid. lib. iii. foi. 33. See notice of the Coliseum.

296 GUIDES FOE EOME. Chap. VII.
exploring the ruins ; but the forgery of the inscription
to Claudian * renders the authority of the restorer of
the drama more than suspected. SabeUico Peutinger
and Andreas Fulrius, both of the school of Laetus, -wiU
throw Uttle light on a survey of Eome. The cha
racter of MarUanus may be given from his annotator
Fulvius IJrsinus.t He does not treat frequently of
the modem town, and despatches the curiosities of the '
Capitol in twenty Unes. The arbitrary rashness which
displeased Ursinus is, however, shown in instances more
decisive than the one selected by his annotator. Lucius
Faunus is occasionaUy quoted by later -writers, and

* Claudian had a statue in the forum of Trajan, but the inscrip
tion was composed by Pomponius Lsetus. See Tiraboschi, Storia,
&c., tom. ii. lib. iv. It imposed on all the antiquaries, and was be
lieved even by Nardini. See Roma Antic, lib. v. cap. ix. Con
siderable caution is requisite even at this time in reading inscriptions
either on the spot or copied. That on the horse of Aurelius was
written at a venture, when that monument was transported from the
Lateran to the Capitol, in 1538, by Paul III.
Faunus, Gruter, Pagi, Smetius, Desgodetz, Piranesi, gave an in
correct copy of the inscription on the Pantheon. MarUanus, Faunus,
and Nardini have done the same by the inscription on the Temple of
Concord. See the Abate Fea's dissertation on the ruins of Eome at
the end of his translation of 'Winckelmaim's Storia delle Arti, Sec,
tom. iii. pp. 294, 298.
t Fulvius is angry -with MarUanus for placing the temple of
Jupiter Tonans near the Clivus Capitolinus, but it was placed there
again by the antiquaries of our own day. " Atque fortasse minus
est admirandum quod ita factus est homo bio ut arbitratu suo
temere omnia tractet." — See Marliani tirbis Bomce Topographia,
ap. Orcev. Antiq. Boman., tom. ui. Ub. ii. cap. 3, p. 141, note 3.
MarUanus dedicated his treatise to Francis I., whom he styles libe
rator Bomca.

Chap. VII. GUIDES FOE ROME. 2!)7
generally for the sake of correcting his errors.* The
studious but unlearned Ligorius, the erudite obscure
Panrinius, have received thefr estimation from Mont-
faucon.t Pancfrolus does not attempt to be a modern
guide, and Fabricius, where he runs into the contrary
extreme, and gives ancient names to disputed rem
nants, is to be admfred only for the boldness of his
conjecture. J Donatus and Nardini are indeed of a
very superior quaUty, and the last is to this day the
most serriceable conductor. The exception made in
thefr favour by the more modern -writers is not, how
ever, unqualified. § Montfaucon, in the end of the
17th century, found them, and many others who
had passed nearly thefr whole hves in attempting a

¦* De Antiq. urb. Eomse. ap. Sallengre. Nov. Thesaur., &o., tom. i.
p. 217.
t Diarium ItaUcum, edit. Paris, 1702, cap. 20, p. 279. "Se-
quitur Onuphrius Panvinius, qui omnes quotquot antea scripserunt
eruditis suis lucubrationibus obscuravit." He is given in the third
vol. of GrJEvius.
X They are both to he found in the third vol. of Grsvius. De
scriptio urbis Eomae, p. 462. George Fabricius wrote in 1550.
Panvituus dedicated his description of Eome, which he added to the
old regionaries, to the Emperor Ferdinand, in 1558. Fabricius
liimself mentions some early writers in his first chapter, and lays
down a useful canon — " In cognoscendis autem urbis antiquitatibus
sermo vulgi audiendus non est."
§ " E quibus (that is, aU the early topographers), si hos binos pos-
teriores exceperis, nemo est, qui in turpes errores non incident,
quamquam nee isti quidem immunes sint." — Jul. MinutuU, Disser-
tatio III. de .urbis Eomse topographia. Syllabus auotorum, ap.
SaUengre Supp., Sec, p. 40.
0 3

298 GUIDES FOE EOME, Chap. VII.
description of the city, far from satisfactory,* and
neither he nor his contemporaries suppUed the defi
ciency. A hundred years have not furnished the de-
sfred plan of the city. Detached monuments have
been investigated -with some success; and whenever
Visconti has shone out, we have had reason " to
bless the useful Ught." But whoever should attempt
a general -riew of the subject would have to brush
away the cobwebs of erudition with which even the
modern discoveries are partiaUy obscured. Venuti
hardly deserves the praise conferred upon him by our
most inteUigent modern traveUer.f His style and ar
gument are in many places such as not to aUow of
his being dirined, and he generally leaves us, even
when most positive, to balance doubts and choose be
tween difficulties. If the Abb6 Barthelemy had pur
sued his original plan of writing an Italian Anacharsis
for the age of Leo X., he might have been more
useful at Eome than he is in Greece. As it is, the
Abbe's cursory but learned observations are distin
guished by the quotation of a very singular document.

* Montfaucon says of Donatus, " Quamvis plura prjetermittat
quam scribit." Of Nardini, " Laudatum opus a laudatis viris," but
" videturque sane nihil pensi habere, dum dubia et diffioultates per
petuo injioiat, ubi ne vel umbra diflicultatis fuerit." — Diarium Ita
Ucum, Sec, cap. 20, p. 281, edit. Paris, 1702.
t Mr. Forsyth, after touching on the inadequacy of former topo
graphers as general guides, says, " Venuti has sifted thisfarrago."
Bemarks, &c., on Italy, p. 129, sec. edit. If he has, the chaff flies
in our eyes.

Cuap. VIL GUIDES FOE HOME. 299
the original of wliich has never been found ; * and
his ingenious countrymen had not extended their lite
rary empfre to the Ulusfration of sites and monuments
in thefr rival Italy untU thefr poUtical dominion had
embraced the soU itself. Our o^vn -writers, with the
exception of Mr. Forsyth, -\vhose sketch makes us re
gret the loss of the taste and learning he might have
brought to bear on a regular survey, have done nothing
in this laborious line, absolutely nothing. The last of
them seems to have thought it of little importance
that the Capitol was ever inhabited by any others than
the monks of Ara-coeU, or that the court of Augustus
preceded that of the Popes. The insufficiency of all
latter labours, and the necessity of some new guide,
may be coUected from the expedient at last adopted
of republishing Nardini. f What has been said of the

* It refers to the Coliseum, and will be remarked in its proper
place. See M^m. de PAcademie des Belles Lettres, tom. xxviii.
pp. 519, 599. A separate volume has been printed.
Mr. MiUin has pubUshed four volumes on Upper Italy (Voyage
en Savoie, en Pigment, a Nice, et a Gfenes, 1816 ; and Voyage dans
le Milanais a Plaisance, Parme, &c., 1817), and is to continue his
work down to the Straits of Messina, and into Calabria. He should
be warned that he is charged by the Italians with never having been
in some of the spots he describes as a spectator. His compilation
does not apply to present appearances. It is as clear that he never
has been at Parma as that Bonaparte was at the battle of Lodi,
which, by the account given by this conserver of the king's medals,
it would appear he was not. — See Voyage dans le Milanais, Sec,
pp. 57, 58, chap. xvi.
t It has been undertaken by Mr. Nibby, a respectable young man,
one of the professional antiquaries of Eome, who is likewise employed

300 GUIDES FOE EOME. Chap. VI.
embarrassment of a stranger at Eome must appear
more singular when it is recollected that besides the
casual efforts of natives and foreigners there is an
archEeological society constantly at work upon the an
tiquities of the city and neighbourhood, and that not
a few persons of Uberal education are in the exercise
of a lucrative profession, haring for object the instruc
tion and conduct of fraveUers amidst the -wrecks of
the old town and the museums of the new.

on a translation of Pausanias. The volume on the Basilica of St.
Paul, under the name of Monsignor Niecolai, is by this gentleman.
Nibby afterwards pubUshed his edition of Nardini, a volume on
the Forum, and a work in four volumes called ' Eome in 1838,'
divided into Ancient Eome and Modern Eome, besides other topo
graphical essays. He became ofBcial antiquary to his Holiness, and
acquired other honours, the titles of which stretch through several
lines in the title-page of his last work.
Dr. Smith's article " Eome," by Mr. Dyer, gives a short sketch
of recent writers.

CH.VP. VIII. EEMAINS OF EEPUBLIC.VN EOME. 301

CHAPTEE VIIL
Few remaros of Eepublican Eome — Uncertainty of Eoman anti
quities — The walls of Eome — Their ancient and modem mear
surement — Various names at different times given to the same
remains — Tomb of the Scipios — Destruction of ancient
sepulchres.

Few Eemains of Eepublican Eome.
It was one of the complaints of Poggio * that he saw
almost nothing entfre, and but very few remains, of
the free city; and, indeed, the principal disappoint
ment at Eome arises from finding such insigmficant
vestiges of the first ages and of the repubhc. Some
thing, perhaps, might be added to the lists of them
•given by Mr. Forsyth ; but not much. We have seen
how soon those works disappeared ; but we might stUl
have expected to find something more than a sewer,
a prison, a row of vaiUts, a foundation waU, a pave
ment, a sepulchre, a haff-buried fragment of a theatre
and cfrcus. The artist may be comparatively indiffer-

• " Nam expubliois aut privatis operibus Uberae quondapi civitatis
interrupta qujedam et ea parva vestigia visuntur." — De Varietate,
Sec

302 EE'W EEMAINS OF Chap. VIII.
ent to the date and history, and regard chiefly the
architectural merit of a structure ; but the Eome which
the EepubUcan Florentine regretted, and which an
Englishman must wish to find, is not that of Augustus
and his successors, but of those greater and better
men of whose heroic actions his earUest impressions
are composed.
We have heard too much of the turbulence of the
Eoman democracy and of the Augustan virtues. No
ci-ril tranquiUity can compensate for that perpetual
submission, not to laws but persons, which must be
requfred from the subjects of the most Umited mo
narchy. The citizens of the worst regulated repubUc
must feel a pride and may indulge a hope superior
to aU the blessiugs of domestic peace, and of what
is caUed estabUshed order, another word for durable
servitude. The struggles for supreme though tempo
rary power amongst those of an equal condition -give
birth to all the nobler energies of the mind, and find
space for thefr unbounded exertion. Under a mo
narchy, however weU attempered, the chief motive for
action must be altogether wantiug, or feebly felt, or
cautiously encouraged. Duties purely ministerial, ho
nours derived from an indiridual, may be meritoriously
performed, may be gracefuUy worn ; but, as an object
of ambition, they are infinitely below the independent
confrol of our feUow-citizens, and, perhaps, scarcely
furnish a compensation for entfre repose. The natural
love of distinction on any terms may push us into

Cuap. VIII. EEPUBLICAN BOME. 303
pubUo Ufe; but it palsies our efforts, it mortifies our
success, perpetually to feel that in such a career, al
though a faUure is disgraceful, a rictory is inglorious :
" Vincere inglorium — atteri sordidum."
These are the sentiments of Agricola and the words
of Tacitus, and bespeak the real value of the subor
dinate digiuty which is all that can be obtained under
a Donutian or under a Trajan, under the worst or
under the best of princes.
As those glorious institutions which subdued and
civilized the world have long seemed incompatible with
the altered condition of mankind, we recur with the
greater eagerness to every memorial of thefr former
existence; and hence our regret at finding so Uttle of
-the early city. The courtiy and melodious muses that
graced the first age of the monarchy have, indeed,
affixed an imperishable interest to every site and object
connected -with thefr pafrons or thefr poetry; and in
default of repubhcan rehcs we are content with look
ing on the fioorings of the EsquiUne palace and at the
fabric dedicated to him who has found a more durable
monument in the verses of VfrgU. The house of Mae
cenas and the theafre of MarceUus can boast no other
attraction. It is not to be deiued but that by good fortune the
most -rirtuous of the Eoman sovereigns have left the
most conspicuous monuments, and that we are thus
perpetuaUy recalled to an age in which mankind are

304 EEMAINS OF EEPUBLICAN EOME. Chap. VIII.
supposed to have been more happy and content than
during any other period of history. We may look at
the Coliseum, the temples of Vespasian and Antoninus,
the arch of Titus, and the historical columns, without
cursing the usurpation of Augustus.
But it is not to worship at the shrine of the Flarian
princes, nor to do homage to the forbearance of Trajan
(the word is not used at random),* or to the phUosophy
of AureUus, that we undertake the pUgrimage of Eome.
The men whose fraces we would wish to discover were
cast in another mould, and belonged to that order of
beings whose superior qualities were, by the -wisest of
thefr immediate successors,! as weU as by the slaves
of the last emperors,j acknowledged to have expfred
with the repubUc. It is with the buUders, and not the
dUapidators, of the Eoman race that we would hope to
meet in the Capitol. Our youthful pursuits inspfre us
with no respect or affection for this nation independent
of thefr repubhcan -vfrtues. It is to refresh our recol
lection of those virtues that we explore the ruins of

-* NBi/ Se ToC TE 0I.V0V SiaKopws emvf, Kai vri<j>a>v r/v, €v T€ Tois
rraiSiKols ov&€va ikvTrrja-ev. — Dion. Hist. Bom., lib. Ixviii; tom. ii. p.
1125, edit. Hamb., 1750. It may be recollected why Julian ex-
eluded Trajan from the banquet of the Csesars.
X " Postquam bellatum apud Actium, atque omnem potentiam
ad unum eonferri pacis interfuit ; magna ilia ingenia cessere." —
Tacit. Hist., lib. i. cap. i.
X " Postquam jura ferox in secommunia C»sar
Transtulit ; et lapsi mores ; desuetaque priscis
Artibus, in gremium pacis servile recessi."
. — Claud, de Bello Oildonico.

Chap. VIII. UNCEETAINTY OF EOMAN ANTIQUITIES. 305
the city which gave them bfrth ; and, absorbed by an
early devotion for the pafriots of Eome, we are indff-
ferent to the records of her princes. We feel no sym
pathy -with the surrivors of PhUippi. We would prefer
a single fragment of the Palatiue house of Hortensius
or of Cicero to all the lofty ruins which fringe the
imperial hill.
As it is, we must visit a sepulchre or a museum ;
must trust to one amongst a range of suspicious busts ;
must unravel an inscription, to exfricate ourselves fiom
antiquarian doubts, before we are recaUed to the city
of the Scipios, whUst everything around us attests the
might and the magnificence of the Csesars.*
UXCEBTAINTY OF EOMAN ANTIQUITIES.
THE WAUS, 'I Hklk ANCIENT AND MODEBN MEASUREMENT 
VAKIOTJS NAMES AT DIFFEEENT TIMES GIVEN TO THE SAME
EUINS  TOMB OF THE SCIPIOS DESPOILED  TIME OF DE
STRUCTION OF ANCIENT SEPULCHRES.
The greater share of satisfaction at Eome wiU come
to the portion of those fraveUers who find, Uke Dante,

* Some writers of our time, and, amongst them, a few deservedly
popular, have found out that the world has hitherto been sadly
deceived with respect to the character and manners of the ancient
Greeks and Eomans. " C'etait une bien vilaine race," says M.
Simond, who thinks the modems have improved wonderfully
upon their predecessors, not only in their own persons, but in the
breed of their horses, which in the days of Bucephalus were only
" bons gros limoniers ;" but whether this is true or not, M. Simond's
volume is very amusing.

306 -WALLS OF EOME. Chap. VIII.
a pleasure in doubting. The stranger, when he has
entered the modem city, would, at least, wish to assure
himseff that he knows the site of ancient Eome. He
has, however, to clear his ground of some of the con
jectures of the learned even before he can persuade
himseff thoroughly of this fact. He soon -wiU beUeve
that the cfrcuit of the present waUs is somewhat bigger
than the region of 4he old Esquihae, and more than
a two hundredth part of the Augustan city.*
But he -wiU not find it quite so easy to reconcUe
the various measurements -with the actual appearance
of the waUs, or to understand how, as Gibbon teUs
us, "thefr cfrcumference, except in the Vatican, has
been invariably the same, from the triumph of AureUan
to the peaceful but obscure reign of the Popes." -f- If
so it was the same, first, when Alaric took Eome;
secondly, when the dominion of the Popes was esta
blished ; thfrdly, at this day.
The cfrcuit, diminished from the fifty miles of Vo-
piscus, " is reduced by accurate measurement to about

* " Vel sola3 Esquilise majores erant, quam sit totum illud quod
hodiemis includitur muris spatium." — ^Isa. Vossii, De Magnit. Bom.
Veteris, p. 1507, ap. Grtev., tom. iv. To have a perfect notion of
the logic of learning, it is sufiicient to read this insane treatise,
which spreads the walls to 72 miles, and the inhabitants to 14
millions. There is scarcely an incontrovertible position in all his
seven chapters. Lipsius is not quite so paradoxical in his conclu
sions, and he is much more ingenious in his array of authorities —
his Eome is 23 miles.
t Decline and Fall, cap. xii. vol. vii. oct. p. 228.

Chap. Vffl. "WALLS OF EOME. 307
twenty -one mUes," says Gibbon in his eleventii
chapter.* This gives liis measurement for the first
period. But when Poggio saw them, " they formed a
cfrcumference of ten mUes, included 379 turrets, and
opened into the country by thu-teen gates.f This serves
for the second date. Lastiy, "whatever fancy may
conceive, the severe compass of the geographer defines
the cfrcumference of Eome -within a line of twelve
mUes and three hundred and forty-five paces." + These
words of the same historian apply to the thfrd point
of time.
Now it is quite clear that aU these measurements
differ, and yet it is equaUy clear that the historian
avers they are all the same. He says, in another
place, speaking of them in the age of Pefrarch, the
walls " stiU described the old cfrcumference." § It is
true he cites authorities; but he speaks -without re
serve, and has not attempted to account for the differ
ence between the three above-given dimensions. We

* DecUne and FaU, vol. ii. oct. p. 28. See also another place.
" 'When the capital of the empire was besieged by the Goths, the
circuit of the walls was accurately measured by Ammonius the
mathematician, who found it equal to 21 miles."— Cap. xxxi. tom.
xii. oct. p. 287.
t Ibid., cap. Ixxi. tom. xii. oct. p. 398.
X Ibid., cap. xU. p. 227.
§ Ibid., cap. kxi. p. 411, tom. xii. Gibbon has failed to observe
that the walls were dilated after AureUan and Probus, by Constan
tine, who took dovm one of the sides of tSe Prsetorian camp and
made the remaining three serve for the fortifications of the city,
whose circuit thereby became necessarily somewhat enlarged.

308 -WALLS OF EOME. Chap. VIII.
shaU find no help, therefore, from the DecUne and Fall
of the Eoman Empfre, unless we foUow only one of
these various accounts, and beUeve in the third com
putation, which is that assigned by D'AnvUle from
NoUi's map, and which coiucides -with the experience
of two of our countrymen, who made a loose calcula
tion of the cfrcuit by walking round the walls in the
wmter of 1817. *

* The following is a note of their walk. They set out from the
banks of the Tiber, near the Flaminian gate (Porta del Popolo) ;
their rate of walking was 592 paces in five minutes, and they noted
the time from gate to gate. To the Porta Pinciana (shut), 18
minutes; Porta Salara, 8; Porta Pia, 3; a shut gate (Querquetu-
lana), 12 ; St. Lorenzo, 8 ; Maggiore, 7^ ; Lateran, or Porta St.
Giovanni, 12J ; Porta Latina (shut), 17^ ; Porta Capena, or St.
Sehastiano, 4^ ; a shut gate, 3^ ; Porta di St. Paolo (Ostian), 144 ;
delay, 44 ; -within tbe wall, tbe outer circuit not being accessible,
4i ; delay, 7 ; withia tbe walls down to the Tiber, 64 ; delay, 4 ;
bank of the Tiber within ruined wall, lOf ; delay occasioned by
going across the Tiber to the opposite corner, 38i ; from bank of
the Tiber to Porta Portese, 4 ; Porta Aurelia, or S. Pancrasio, 184 ;
Porta Cavalli Leggieri, 14i; a shut gate (Porta delle Fornaci), 24 ;
Porta Fabbrica (shut), 6 ; Porta Angelica, 144 ; Porta Castello (a
shut gate), 5J ; round to the corner of the bastion of St. Angelo, on
bank of the Tiber, 7| ; along the bank of the Tiber, where there are
no walls, to the ferry at the Eipetta, 7i ; delay, lOJ ; crossing the
Tiber and walking along the bank to the corner of the walls whence
they set out, 64. The time employed in walk was 4 hours 38
minutes ; the delays amounted to 1 hour 44 minutes. The time
taken walking round the actual circuit of the city was 3 hours
331 minutes. Supposing the rate of walking to be about 34 miles
an hour, the measurement is 124 miles.
This measurement agrees with that of several persons who have
made the same walk ; but, trying the distance in 1843 with a pedo
meter, I found it considerably less. The most detailed work on the
"Walls of Eome, by Nibby, written to illustrate the designs of Sir

Chap. VIII. WALLS OP EOME. 309
Poggio's measiu-ement was probably nearly exact, for
he did not reckon the ramparts of Urban, and, per
haps, not the Vatican ; but it is singular that the
pflgrim of the thirteenth century, who undoubtedly saw
the same waUs, and enumerates very nearly the same
quantity of turrets, should* give to them a cfrcumference
double that of the Florentine, and nearly coinciding
with that of ihe time of Alaric, that is twenty-one mUes.
K, however, they were so accurately measured at that
time, the present walls caimot possibly stand on the site
of those of AureUan ; for, suice the Vatican has been
included, and also the ramparts of Urban VHI. which
Gibbon has overlooked, or falsely confounded with the
Vatican, the modem cfrcuit being larger on one side
the Tiber, and the same on the other, it is evident that
the whole cfrcumference at present must be greater than
it was under Aurehan. That is to say, twelve mUes,
three hundred and fifty-five paces, are more than twenty-
one mUes — " which is absurd."

William Gell, seems to give the circuit of the modem walls from
eleven to twelve miles (see cap. vi. p. 235, note 358, edit. 1821) ;
but Nibby, in order to reconcile the number of Ammonius with the
modem walls, is obUged to suppose that the historian Cassiodorus,
who reports the calculation, ought to be corrected : — " II numero
KA di Cassiodoro si deve corrigere in IA o IB, onde vada in accorda
col fatto."
* " Murus civitatis Eomae 'habet turres 361. CaateUa id est
meralos 6900, portas 12, posteralas (portse minores) 5. In circuitu
vero sunt milUaria 22, exceptis Transtiberim et civitate Leonina id
est porticu St. Petri." — Mb. de Mirabilihus Bomoe, in loc. citat., p.
283.

310 "WALLS OF EOME. Chap. VIII.
The present waUs may touch at points and take in
fragments, but they cannot include the same cfrcum
ference as the twenty-one mUes accurately measured by
the mathematician Ammonius. Some assistance might be
expected from the examination of the waUs themselves :
but here again it maybe necessary to warn the reader in
what manner he is to understand an assertion which he
-wUl find in another work, subsequently published, of the
same author.* " Those who examine with attention the
" waUs of Eome, stUl distinguish the shapeless stones of
"the first Eomans, the cut marbles with which they
" were constructed under the emperors, and the Ul-burnt
" bricks with which they were repafred in the barbarous
"ages." Now the whole of the modern waUs are of
brick, -with the foUowing exceptions. There are some
traces of the arched work on which the waUs of AureUan,
perhaps, were raised, about the Porta Pia and the Porta
Salara. There are buttresses of travertine, and, in one
case (the Porta Capena), of marble about the gateways,
which are of the same imperial date. There are single
shapeless fragments of marble here and there, mixed up
with the more modem work, and occasionaUy laid upon
the top of the waUs. This is aU that can apply to

* " Ceux qui examinent avec attention les murailles de Rome
distinguent encore les pierres informes des premiers Eemains, les
marbres bien travailMs dont on les construisit sous les Empereurs,
et les briques malcuites dont on les r^paroit dans les sieoles bar-
bares." — Nomina gentesque Antiquce Italice, p. 209, in Gibbon's
posthumous works.

Chap. VIII. "WALLS OF EOME. 311
Gibbon's description ; for as to the shapeless stones of
the fii-st Eomans, they cannot be discovered, except in
those scarcely distinguishable momids which are within
the walls, a Uttie beyond the Thermss of Diocletian, and
are usuaUy thought part of the TulUan rampart.* It
must be remarked also that there is no eridence that
the walls of the emperors were of cut marble. The
authority of Cassiodorus has been foUowed by MarUanust
and others, as affording a proof that they were composed
of square blocks. But it has been noted by Nardini, J
on another occasion, that the Gothic minister, in making
use of the word mcenia, does not always aUude to the
walls of the city, but of other structures ; and in that
sense I have interpreted, in a preceding notice, what he
says of the square stones of the ruins. The same topo
grapher justly remarks the confrary fact, that the oldest
work now apparent is of brick.^ The three sides of a
square from near the Porta Pia to the Porta Querque-
tulana, a shut gate, seem to be the Praetorian ramparts
included by Constantine, and not materiaUy defaced by
repairs. II The amphitheatre for the Praetorians is also

* The plan in the last edition of Venuti lays down the Agger
Tarquinii in the space between the Lateran and Santa Croce in
Gerusalemme : repeated search may fail in finding any trace of this
Agger. Donatus positively says there is none. — Lib. i. cap. xiii.
t Urbis Eomje Topographia, lib. i. cap. ix.
X Eoma Vetus, lib. i. cap. viii.
§ " Nam vetus ilia substructio e lateribus est." — Ibid.
II Donatus has observed that the words of Zosimus will not justify
this inference, but that the present appearance of this part of the
walls -will. — Lib. i. cap. xv. Fabricius (Descriptio urbis Eoma3,

312 "WALLS OF EOME. Chap. VIII.
in the AureUan circuit, near the church of Santa Croce
in Gerusalemme; and some large stones, laid one on
another, without cement, contiguous to that amphitheatre,
are only to be ascribed to the hasty preparations of
Behsarius before the second siege. The strange reti
culated hanging waU, opposite to the gate of the -rilla
Borghese, was another ancient structure which made
part of the defences of the city before the time of that
general. All these three portions of the cfrcuit are of
brick, and the comparative antiquity of other parts
is easUy ascertained by those accustomed to such investi
gations. Some of the fragments of the next date are to
be attributed to Honorius,* a considerable restorer, or
rather rebuUder, of the walls. In the interval between
his reign and that of Theodoric repafrs had become
requisite, and were undertaken by that monarch. Beh
sarius made them capable of defence, and in the subse
quent occupation of the city partly rebuUt that thfrd
portion which TotUa had thrown down, and then helped
afterwards to repafr. Narses was also a restorer of the
walls; and some work resembling that of the "Am
phitheatre of the Camps" has been ascribed to his
imitation of that more ancient construction.!

cap. V. and vi.) has given a plate in which the castra prcetoria are
put without the walls, to correspond with the old appearance.
* See Claudian in VI. Cons. Honor., and an inscription over a
shut gate at the Porta Maggiore. Nardini, ibid. A similar in
scription was over the Porta Portese, which was thrown down hy
Urban VIII. See Donatus, lib. i. cap. xv.
t Nardini, ibid.

Chap. VIII. -WALLS OF EOME. 313
It appears that the cfrcuit followed by each of these
restorers must have been very nearly, ff not exactly,
that of AureUan, or at least Honorius.* No vestiges of
foundations which could have belonged to those older
walls can be discovered beyond the present cfrcum
ference ; and the same fact has been ably deduced from
many concurrent arguments, especially by Donatus,
who tries to prove that the Popes who subsequently
rebuUt and repafred them, also adopted the ancient
line, and did not at all contract the space occupied by
the old imperial fortifications.-f
How then are we to reconcUe the measurement, as it
is stated to have been accurately taken by Ammonius,
-with the present cfrcuit, which, except on the Transti-
berine side, where it is larger, is eridently nearly the
same as it was under the emperors? There seems no
expedient but to reject the authority of that mathema
tician, or rather his reporter Olympiodorus, and to
beUeve that PUny's older measurement of thirteen
mUes, two hundred paces, J was not so much dUated by

* Nardini thinks they were made to shrink backwards a little
towards the Amphitheatrum Castrense, when Belisarius repaired
them the second time. — Ibid.
t De Urbe Eoma, lib. i. cap. xviii. xix. xx.
J "Moenia ejus coUegere ambitu Imperatoribus Censoribusque
Vespasianis, anno conditce ncccxxvin. passuum xm. m.co. complexa
montes septem." This is the celebrated passage which has puzzled
Lipsius and the commentators and topographers. I am pleased to
coUect from the article in Dr. Smith's Dictionary that the writer
thinks the circumference of the AureUan walls corresponded with
VOL, L P

314 "WALLS OF EOME. Chap. VIII.
AureUan as is generaUy thought ; * and that it included
every suburban district which was surrounded with a
waU, such as the Praetorian camp, and the Transtiberine
region, and might therefore possibly extend itself to
spots where no traces of it have been found or sought
for. In that case the discrepancy between the present
and the ancient cfrcuit -wiU be much diminished, ff not
altogether annUulated. To this it may be added, that
as the works of Narses, and, indeed, of the Emperors,
were of brick, they might, when once decayed, very
easUy be graduaUy lost; and that, when the Popes
commenced thefr repafrs, the diagonal of an irregular
projection might here and there have been taken,
instead of the former line, by which means a partial
reduction, sufficient to account for the above difference,
may be aUowed to have taken place.
It should seem that during the troubles of the Ex
archate the walls had faUen down in many parts, and
that the city was left naked on some points, particularly
towards the gate of St. Lorenzo. The terms in which
the rebuUding by the Popes, in the eighth century, is

that of the walls when measured in the reign of Vespasian, as re
corded by PUny. Mr. Dyer considers that he has got rid of the
difficulty which embarrassed previous writers (1858).
* Nardiai, ibid., has shown where the additional ground was
taken in by AureUan ; and Donatus was almost inclined to think
that that Emperor had not enlarged the circuit. Cassiodoras and
Eusebius do not talk of the walls being increased, but fortified.
Vopisous, by mentioning fifty miles, has taken away all credit from
himself or from his text. — Donat., lib. i. cap. xix.

Chap. VEL "WALLS OF EOME. 315
recorded, would imply almost a totaUy new construc
tion. After Sisinnius, and Gregory II. and III., had
made some progress in this useful labour, Hadi-ian I.
convoked the peasants from Tuscany and Campania,
and -with thefr help and that of the Eomans rebuilt
from their foundations, in many places, the walls and
towers in all thefr drcuit. Such are the strong expres
sions of the papal biographer.* Leo IV. in 847
included the Borgo, that is, the BasiUca of St. Peter's,
and the contiguous quarter of the Vatican : and from
his reign untU that of Urban VHL nineteen pontiffs
have been specified as contributing to the repafrs. It is
not at aU surprising, therefore, that an early topographer
should have declared that the walls were indubitably

* " Verum etiam et muros atque turres hujus Eomanae urbis quse
dirutse erant et usque ad fundamenta destructse renovavit atque
utiliter omnia in circuitu restauravit." — Anast., de Vit. Bom.Pcmtif.,
Script. Ber. Italic., tom. iu. p. 188.
" Ipse vero deo, ut dicitur, protectus Praesul conspiciens muros
hujus civitatis Eomanse per oUtana tempora in ruinis positos, et per
loca plures turres usque ad terram eversas, per suum solertissimum
studium totas civitates tam Tuscis, quamque Campanise congregans
una cum populo Eomano, ejusque suhurbanis, nee non et toto eccle-
siastico patrimonio omnibus prijedicans, et dividens ex sumptibus
dapibusque Apostolicis totam urbem in circuitu restaurans universa
renovavit, atque decoravit." — Ibid. p. 194.
Anastasius flourished under Hadrian II. and John VIII. He
¦writes only to Nicholas I. The remainder of the lives were written
by WiUiam, another librarian, under the name of Damasus. See
Bianchini's Prolegomena to the Liber PontificaUs. Both one and the
other were compilers, not composers, of the Lives. The edition in
Muratori and that of Bianehini have been used.
p 2

316 "WALLS OF EOME. Chap. VEI.
not ancient.* The antiquaries profess to see a hundred
different constructions in thefr mixed composition.
Urban VIIL completed them as we now see them, by
running his rampart along the accUrity of the Janicu
lum, from the AureUan gate (St. Pancrazio) to the
angle of the Vatican, commonly caUed the Porta d£
Cavalli Leggier i.\ He entfrely rebuUt them from the
same AureUan gate to the Porta Portese, on the banks
of the Tiber. Since that period other Pontiffs have
been active in repafrs, but no change has taken place vn,
the circuit ; concerning which we may finaUy conclude
that it is equal, very nearly, ff not quite, to the largest
cfrcumference of the ancient city, and, except on the
Transtiberine side, generally foUows the line of AureUan,
It is equaUy clear that the exact ancient line could not
always be foUowed. We see this from the bastion of
Paul III. at the foot of the Aventine, which, ff it had
been finished, would have probably been considered as
upon that ancient Une.
If from the walls themselves we retire into the interior
of thefr vast cfrcuit, we shall be stUl more confounded.
The names given to the monuments perpetuaUy vary,
according to the fancy of some predominant antiquary.
At one period aU vaulted ruins belong to baths, at
another they are portions of temples; BasUicas are

-* " Moenia urbis nunc extantia non esse antiqua sicut nulli est
dubium, ita multis argumentis apparet." — Martian., TJrb. Bam,
Tcrpog., lib. i. cap. ix.
t Donatus, Ub. i. cap. xx.

Chap. VIII. PNCEETAIXTY OF EEMvUXS. 317
at times the favourite denomination; The consequence
of this varying nomenclature is the embarrassment of
those who put themselves under the guidance of the best
ancient or modem topographers ; and we are often apt
to reduce the monuments of aU the regions to the cha
racter given by Nardini to those of the Aventine, which
he dirides into "sites not altogether uncertain, and sites
evidentiy uncertain." *
The antiquarian disputes began at an early period ;
and where nothing but a name was left, there was stUl
some pleasure found in the struggles of conjecture.
The mica aurea has not been seen since the ninth
century; but it afforded an opportunity of quoting
Plutarch, Ammian, and Martial, to show that it might
have been a (jfreek girl, or a bear, or a supper'house.f
The actual remains were soon found to be no less un-
certaim The two vaults of the church of St. Maria
Nuova were beUeved, by Pomponius Lastus, the frag
ments of a temple of .^culapius and Health ; by Mar
Uanus, of the Sun and Moon ; by Blondus, of -3]sculapius
and ApoUo ; by Poggio, of Castor and PoUux. J They

* " Situs non omnino incerti et situs plane incerti." — Lib. viii.
cap. vi. The choice of Eemus is pecuUarly deserted. Victor alone
has left any account of the Aventine. In all the twelfth region,
between the Circus Maximus and the Baths of Caracalla, the latter
was the only monument recognisable by the eyes of the above topo
grapher. t Nardini, Ub. ui. cap. viii.
J Fabricii Descrip. Urb. Eom. cap. ix. ap. Graev. Ant., tom. iii.
Attached to it is the church now caUed S. Francesca Eomana ; and

318 UNCEETAINTY OF EEMAINS. Chap. VHL
are now caUed the Temple of Venus and Eome, accord
ing to the opinion to which Nardini seemed to incline.*
See also the many names given to the temple of Santa
Maria Egizziaca.t Some thought it a chapel of Patrician
Modesty, some a BasUica of Cains and Lucius, some a
temple of Good Fortune, others of Manly Fortune. It is
now come back to Modesty.^ The temple attributed to
Vesta, on the banks of the Tiber, was once thought that
of Hercules Victor, and also of the Sun. , Pomponius
Laetus § called it that of Juno Matuta, others named
the goddess Volupia.|| Hercules was recovering his
rights during the winter of 1817. The Patrician Mo
desty is transferred, by an inscription, to the church of
Santa Maria in Cosmedin, commonly caUed the Schola
Graeca; and the same inscription asserts that St.
Augustine taught rhetoric in this school.T[
Other examples of uncertainty wUl occur in the sub
sequent notices of indiridual monuments. It would be

If the stranger goes for information to the modem inscription, he -will
find these words : " In questo pietre pose le ginochia S. Pietro
quando i demonj portarono Simone Mago per aria."
* Nardini, Ub. iii. cap. 2.
X Donatus, lib. ii. cap. 18. — Nardini, Ub. vii. cap. iv.
X In the time of Fulvius this tract about the Patrician Modesty
was solely inhabited by prostitutes. — ^Nardini, Ub. vu. cap. iv.
§ Donatus, Ub. ii. cap. xxv.
II " AUi Herculis, alii Vestse, aUi dese Volupi^." — Montfaucon,
Diarium ItaUcum, p. 188.
^ No trust is to be put in modem inscriptions, and sometimes not
in those which have every appearance of antiquity. Doubts have
been entertained even about the inscription on the tomb of Bibulus,
by Augustinus, in his dialogue on ancient coins.

Chap. VIIL TOMB OF THE SCIPIOS. 319
hazardous to give a Ust of thpse which can suggest no
reasonable doubts. The Cohseum ; the three Triumphal
Arches, those of Drusus, of DolabeUa and SUanus, of
GaUienus ; the Baths of Diocletian, of CaracaUa, of Con
stantine, a part of those of Titus ; the Theatre of
MarceUus, the few remains of that of Pompey ; the two
bridges of the Tiberine island; the mausoleums of
Augustus and Hadrian; the two historical columns;
the tomb of Cestius, the tomb of Bibulus, the tomb
of the Scipios ; the Pantheon ; the column of Phocas ;
the Septimian arch in the Velabrum ; the inscribed
obelisks ; the eastellum of the Claudian aqueduct ; two
or three of the city gates ; the arcades of the Cloaca ;*
the -33ian bridge: these seem the most secure from
scepticism; and it would be difficult to name another
monument -within the walls of an equaUy certain cha
racter. Tomb op the Scipios.
The handsome though plain sarcophagus of Barbatus
may, by those of a certain taste, be thought more
atteactive than any of the masterpieces of the Vatican.
The eloquent simple inscription becomes the virtues and
the feUow-countrymen of the defunct, and instructs us
more than a chapter of Livy in the style and language
of the repubhcan Eomans. -f-

* But the antiquity of these arcades has been called in question
by Mr. Duppa.
t COENELIUS . LXrCIUS . SCIPIO . BARBATUS . QNAIVOD . PATBB 
PROGNATUS . FOBTIS . VIE . BAPIENSQUE . QVOIVS . FORMA . VIRTU-

320 TOMB OF THE SCIPIOS. Chap. VIII.
The vault itseff has been emptied of the slabs and
inscriptions ; and the copies fixed in the spot where they
were found may . be thought Ul to supply the place of _
the originals. The local impression would have been
stronger, but the preservation of the precious reUcs
would have been less sure, in the vault than in the
museum. The discovery of the tomb of the Scipios was
not an unmingled triumph for the Eoman antiquaries.
It would not be easy to exempUiy more strongly than
by this instance the error and uncertainty of thefr re
searches. A fragment of peperine, eridentiy detached
from this vault, with an inscription to Lucius, son of
Barbatus Scipio, had been discovered in the year mdcxvIj
near the Porta Capena, and was neglected as bad
grammar and an erident forgery.* The objectors

TEI . PARISUMA . FUIT  CONSOL . CENSOR . AIDILIS . QUEI . FUIT .
APVD . VOS . TAURASIA . CISAUNA  SAMNIO . CEPIT . BVBIGIT .
OMNE . LOVCANA . OBSiDESQUE . ABDOvciT. This inscription is in
four lines, and is in ancient verse.
Nine other inscriptions were discovered in this family tomb ; they
are copied into the new edition of Venuti, published in Eome, 1803,
parte Ui cap. i. p. 5 et seq.
* HONC OINO PLOIRVME COSENTIONT. R.
DVONORO . OPTVMO FVISSE VIKO
LVCIOM . SCIPIONE . FILIOS BABBATI
CONSOL CENSOR . AIDILIS . HIC FVET . A
HEO CEPIT . CORSICA . ALERIAQVE . VRBE
DEDET TBMPBSTATBBVS AIDE HERETO.
Hunc unum plurimi consentiunt Eomse
Bonomm optimum fuisse virum
Lucium Scipionem Filius Barbati
Consol, Censor, .ffidiUs hie fuit
Hie cepit Corsicam, Aleriamque urbem
Dedit Tempestatibus sedem merito. Se

Cuap. VIII. TOMB OF THE SCIPIOS. 321
quoted Cicero to prove that the tomb of the Scipios
must be icithout the Porta Capena, and forgot that the
AureUan walls had brought forward that gate beyond
the Ciceronian sepulchre. The authenticity of the in
scription was not without protectors, ^ but the error
balanced the fact, and the epitaph was occasionaUy
quoted as apocryphal,* untU the accident which un
covered the actual tomb in 1780. Those who had not
supported the mistake could not but be gratified by a
discovery so precious both to the phUologist and the
antiquary, and the happy accident was. consigned to
immortality in the very eloquent but rather dull Dia
logues of the Dead, whom the Conte Verri evoked ia
those sacred vaults.
The pyramid which once stood in the Une from the
castle of St. Angelo to the Vatican was called the tomb
of Scipio Africanus, on the authority of Acron, a schoUast
on Horace,"!* and the Pine in the Belvedere was thought
to belong to that monument.]:
Those who visit the tomb of the Scipios, as now shown,
ought to be aware that the site alone can lay claim to
undoubted authenticity. The primitive form of the

See AntiquiB Inscriptionis Explanatio, ap. Grtev. Antiq. Eom., tom.
iv. p. 1835, Eomje, 1616. 'Winckelmann quotes it as authentic.
 Storia, &c., lib. viii. cap. viii. tom. ii. p. 153, edit, citat.
* The padre Echinard and his editor Venuti placed the tomb with
out the modem Porta Capena, opposite to the chapel called " Domine
quo Vadis," and gave a long description of it. See Descrizione di
Eoma e dell' Agro Eomano, corretto dall' Abate Venuti in Eoma,
1750. Echinard and his editor are full of gratuitous applications.
t Nardini, Eoma Vetus, lib. viii. cap. xiii,
X G. Fabricii Descriptio Eomae, cap. xx.
P 3

322 DESTEUCTION OF SEPHLCHEES. Chap. VIII.
sepulchre as discovered in 1780 has not been preserved.*
The tomb of Barbatus, and aU the inscriptions, are copies
of the originals in the Vatican; nor is one of these
copies in the place in which the originail was found : add
to this, that the inscriptions caimot be reUed upon, inas
much as the word " Samnio " has been rashly prefixed to
the fourth Une ofthe inscription on ComeUus Lucius Scipio
Barbatus. It has been recorded, and I presume is true,
that the ashes or bones which were found in the tombs
were scattered about, and would have been utterly lost,
had they not been saved by the Senator Quirini, who
carried them to Padua and deposited them in a modest
monument at his yiUa AUicchiero. It has been remarked
by Arnold that "no one action recorded in Scipio's
epitaph is noticed by Livy, whUe no action which Livy
ascribes to bim is mentioned in his epitaph."-f- It would
not be easy to produce a more complete specimen of the
uncertainty of the antiquities, and those the most inte
resting, which are -visited by traveUers at Eome.
Destruction of Sepulchres.
The period at which the ancient sepulchres were
emptied of thefr ashes must have been that in which
the Christians prowled about in every quarter for rehcs,
and thought a church could not be consecrated -without

* Si S fatta deir area del sepolcro una specie d'imitazione piu b
meno alterata di quello che fu trovato. — See Professor Nibby's Eoma
nel Anno 1838, parte U. Antica, p. 566, edit. 1839.
X Hist. Eome, chap, xxxiii. vol. ii. p. 326, edit. 1844.

Chap. VIII. DESTEUCTION OF SEPULCHEES. 323
such a recommendation.* Eight-and-twenty cartloads
of reUcs could not be procured for the Pantheon without
some dihgence and damage to the repositories of the
pretended saints ;-t* and we know that the eagerness of
the search extended to sepulchres where the symbols of
martyrdom were very equivocal, or not to be discovered
at aU.| Astolphus the Lombard, when he besieged
Eome in 755, dug into the cemeteries of many saints,
and "carried away thefr bodies, to the great detriment
of his own soul," although from the most pious motives ;
and these saints were doubtless supposed to be found in
any of the thousand tombs in the neighbourhood of
Eome.§ Either this motive, or the expectation of find-

• See the letter of St. Ambrose on the discovery of St. Gervais
and St. Protais, in which he says he sent his audience, who begged
a church of him ("respondi, faciam si martynim reliquias inve-
nero "), to look for reUcs. St. Paul appeared to Ambrose, and told
him to build a church in honour of these martyrs. — Epist. segregatce,
ep. ii. p. 484, edit. 1690. In the porch of the church of Sta. Bibiena
mention is made of eleven thousand two himdred and odd martyrs,
besides a bishop, who -were buried there.
t See a note on the Pantheon.
X " Era dunque incredibUe in que' secoli di ferro l' aviditi delle
sacre reliquie." — See Dissertazione 58, sopra le Antichita Italiane,
tom. iii. p. 245, edit. Milan, 1751. Theodoric, bishop of Metz, a
•relation of Otho the Great, when he came to Eome, took a liking to
the chain of St. Peter. He happened to be present with the coiirt
and Emperor when Pope John XII. held out the chain to a sick
courtier to bite and be cured. " Di buone griffe avea questo prelate,"
observes Muratori ; the bishop snatched at the chain, and declared
they might cut his hand off, but he would not give it up. A struggle
ensued, and the Emperor compounded with the Pope for a link.
P. 246.
§ " Multa corpora sanctomm, efifodiens eorum cemeteria ad mag
num animjB suae detrimentumabstuUt." — Anastas. in Vit. Stephan.,
ii. aut. iii.

324 EESTEUCTION OF SEPULCHEES. Chap. VIII.
iug the omaments frequently buried -with the dead, had
encouraged a crime which it was found necessary to
check by laws in early times, some of which are extant
in the codes. The practice was continued to the reign,
and it is doubtful whether it was not connived at by an
edict, of Theodoric,* who -wished to discourage the practice
of impoverishing the Uving for the decoration of the deadi
At the faU of the empfre of Charlemagne, and the rise
of the feudal lords of Italy, the size of some of the tombs
must have made the occupation of them a mihtary object,
as in the case of the two great mausoleums, and of
CecUia MeteUa ; and in the subsequent periods of repafr,
the marbles -with which they were decorated would
expose them to easy spoUation. The urns and sarco
phagi, when of precious materials, were, -without scruple,
transported from thefr site and emptied for the reception
of purer ashes. Two of the Popes, Innocent II. j' and
Clement Xn-.,J repose in the marbles which, ff they did
not before receive the bones of Hadrian and Agrippa,
were certainly constructed for heathen tenants ; and the
examples are innumerable of meaner Christians whose
remains are enveloped in the symbols of paganism. It
should be recoUected that the mythological sculpture on
• Cassiod. variar. lib. iv. epist. 34.
t Pietri Manlii Opuseulum HistoriEe Saorse ad Beatiss. Pat.
Alexand. III. Pont. Max. ap. Acta Sanctorum, tom. vii. partii.
p. 37, edit. Antw. 1717. This doubtful author (see notice of the
Castle of St. Angelo) mentions that the porphyry sarcophagus in
which Hadrian was buried was transferred to the Lateran for the
service of Innocent II.
% Clement XII. is buried in the Lateran in a beautiful porphyry
sarcophagus, which was taken from one of the niches under the
porch of the Pantheon.

Chap. VIII. DESTEUCTIOX OF SEPULCHEES. 325
sarcophagi was continued long after the infroduction of
Christianity, and that, when the relations of a defunct
went to a repository to select a tomb, they were not
scrupulous about the emblems, or were ignorant what
they represented. A bishop, whose stone coffin is seen
in the BasiUca of »S^. Lorenzo, without the walls, is
enclosed in bas-reUefs representnig a maniage ; this
probably belonged to some Pagan body before it held
the bishop ; but the Christians were sometimes the first
tenants of these heathen-sculptured tombs.
Humbler tombs were appUed to other serrices : many
are now cisterns. The church of St. Paul, without the
walls, was paved -with gravestones taken from the Ostian
Way. A name was no protection in the days of igno
rance ; and the deposits of the mausoleum of the Caesars,
when they could not be converted to profit, were apphed
to vulgar uses. Some respect might have been paid to
a stone thus inscribed : — The Bones
Of Agrippina, the daughter of M. Agrippa,
I'he grand-daughter of the divine Augustus,
The wife
Of Germanicus Csesar,
The mother of C. Caesar Augustus
Germanicus, our prince.*

AgrippinjB . M. Agrippae .
Divi . Aug. Neptis. Uxoris .
Germanici . Csesaris .
Matris . C. Caesaris . Aug.
Germanici . Principis.
There is an exact representation of this sarcophagus in Santi Bartoli,
QU Antichi Sepolcri,' &c , published in Eome, 1697.

326 SPOLIATION OF SEPULCHEES. Chap. VIII.
But with these letters in large characters staring them m
the face, the Eomans used this stone as a measure for three
hundred weight of corn, and the arms of thefr modem
senate are sculptured upon one of its sides, in a style worthy
of the " rude age,"' to which a modest mscription ascribes
the misapphcation. The sarcophagus, a huge cubic
stone, is standing in the court ofthe Conservators' Palace
in the Capitol, and is at this time perhaps scarcely pre
served with so much care as might be claimed by a
memorial of the only -rirtuous female of the JuUan race^
The pUgrim of the thirteenth century teUs us that he
saw these words over one of the ceUs of the mausoleum
of Augustus : " These are the bones and ashes of Nerva,
the Emperor''*
The bones and ashes of Emperors have been dispersed
in the ruins of this great sepulchre, -which, from being
choked up as a fortress, was hoUowed out for a rine
yard, f and, having at last become a cfrcus, serves for
the buU-feasts of the summer festivals. Some less
iUustrious ashes have been preserved or suppUed in
the columbaria of the two famiUes whose vaults are
shovm in the garden in which stands the ruin caUed
Minerva Medica. + But when the tombs were above
ground^ the ceUs were soon rifled and stripped of their
* "Haac sunt ossa et cinis Nervaj' Imperatoris." — Liber de Mira-
bUibus Eomse, ap. Montfaucon, Diarium Itcdicum, p. 292.
t There is a picture of the mausoleum, as it appeared when in
this state, in Santi Bartoli, plate 72.
X The freedmen of Lucius Arruntius, consul in the reion of
Tiberius, and those of some nameless or unknown family.

Chap. VIII. SPOLIATION OF SEPULCHEES. 327
ornaments. In later ages the pyramid of Cestius was
broken and ransacked for gold."" The tombs of the
" happy dead " are become the huts of the wretched
Uving, and the Appian Way may now humble the
pride, but wUl hardly contribute to the consolations,
of phUosophy. -f*
The museums have stripped these populous ceme
teries of thefr memorials. The six thousand freed-
menj of the Augustan household have been transferred,
at least some of thefr obscure names, to the Capitol.
A more judicious plan has lately been adopted at the
instance of the Marquis Canova, who has adjusted
some of the fragments and the inscription of the se
pulchre of the ServUian famUy, and raised them where

"¦ Aringhi, Eoma Subterranea, lib. iii. cap. i. num. 7, tom. i.
p. 405, tells the story as a fact, or a conjecture, from Bosius, who
has also made a thick volume on subterranean Eome. That volume
and the two folios of Aringhi, connecting the history of Eome with
that of martyrdom, may serve to show what was Ukely to become of
tbe monuments in the hands of those who thought all that was
worth looking for was under ground, and, spuming the triumphal
arches and columns of Pagan heroes, dived into cemeteries and cata
combs in search of the founders of the city of God.
t " An tu egressus Porta Capena cum Calatini, Scipionum, Ser-
-viliorum, Metellorum sepulchra vides, miseros putas illos ? " —
Tuscul. Qu., lib. i.
X The three sepulchral chambers containing the urns of the
household of Augustus were discovered opposite the first milestone
on the Appian Way, and that of the family of Livia was opened in
1726, a little beyond. See Ant. Franc. Gori, de Libertor. Columbaria,
ap. Poleno, tom. iii. The Vatican corridors abound with sepulchral
inscriptions — short, but sufiSoient for such names. One stone tells
us, " Here Tiberius, the son of Drusus, was burnt " — nothing
more.

328 APPEOACHES TO CITIES, Chap. VHI.
they were found.* It may be observed that the great
approaches to the cities were not marked by tombs
alone, but partly by suburban vUlas, and tradesmen's
houses, and semicfrcular seats. Thus they were fre
quented as pubhc walks ; and the beauty of the sepul
chres, together with the religion of the people and
the -wisdom of the higher orders, prevented any melan-
<;holy reflections from being suggested by the recep
tacles of the dead. Those who have seen the Street
of the Tombs at Pompej -wUl feel the truth of this
observation. The Appian sepulchres extend, at short
intervals, for several mUes ; let us fill the intermediate
spaces with handsorue edifices — ^restore the despoUed
marbles to the tombs themselves — ^then imagine that
the same decorations adorned all the other thirty great
roads -f" which branched off from the capital; add to
this also the banks of the Tiber, shaded with viUas
from as far as Otricoli, on the Sabine side, to the
port of Ostia ; and, -with these additions, which it ap
pears may fairly be suppUed from ancient notices, we
shaU be able to account for the immense space appa
rently occupied by the city and suburbs of Old Eome.

"' M. SBRVILIVS QVABTVS
DE SVA PEOVNIA FECIT.
" Fragmenta ad sepulc. hoc. an. d. 1808, a canova. reperta ac
donata . pivs. vii. p. m. ita in perpet. servanda consuluit." See
further notice, in these volumes, of the Appian 'Way.
t There were twenty-nine according to one account, and thirty-
one according to another, — Fam. Nardini, Boma Vetus, lib. viii.
cap. i.

Chap. VIII. THEOUGH SEPULCHEES. 329
Some doubts may be entertained whether Eome,
even within the walls, was ever very densely inha
bited in all its regions. How could Sallust have had
his vast gardens — how Caracalla and Diocletian their
enormous baths? Despotism may depopulate the
country, but could hardly dislodge the inhabitants of
an extensive quarter in a populous capital: and that
there was Uttie room for additional tenants we know,
because we are told that, in the days of Juvenal, the
people complained of being squeezed too tightly to
gether.

330 DESTEUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. IX.

CHAPTEE IX.
Causes of Destruction of Eoman Structures.
I SHALL now proceed to make some remarks on the
various causes of the destruction of the buUdings of
ancient Eome, a subject on which, it is said with the
utmost deference, the last chapter of our great histo
rian Gibbon has furnished a hasty outline rather than
the requisite details.* The inqufry has partaken of

"' Let it not be thought presumptuous to say that this last chapter
should have been his first composition, written while his memory
was freshly stamped with the image of the ruins which inspired his
immortal labours. In the present case his researches do not bear
the mark of having been at all corrected by his Italian travels ; and
indeed, in more than one instance, his erudition has completely effaced
his experience. It is not meant to attach undue importance to trifles ;
but an author whose accuracy was his pride, and who is generally
allowed to have descended to the minutest details, particularly in
topography, might hardly be expected to have made the mistake
before alluded to : — " The Eoman ambassadors were introduced to
the tent of Attila as he lay encamped at the place where the slow
winding Mincius is lost in the foaming Benacus, and trampled with
his Scythian cavalry the farms of Catullus and Virgil ;" and below,
note 63, " The Marquis Maffei (Verona lUustrata, part i. pp. 95,
129, 221 ; part ii. pp. 2-6) has illustrated with taste and learning
this interesting topography. He places the interview of Attila and
St. Leo near Ariolica or Ardelioa, now Peschiera, at the conflux of
the lake and the river." — Decline and Fall, cap, xxxv. p. 131, tom.

Chap. IX. THE BAEBAEIANS. 331
the fate of all disputed points. The exculpation of
the Goths and Vandals has been thought prejudicial
to the Christians, and the praise of the latter regarded
as an injustice to the barbarians ; but, forgetting the
controversy, perhaps we shall find both the one and
the other to have been more active despoUers than
has been confessed by thefr mutual apologists. To
begin with
The Barbarians.
A learned Tuscan, the friend of Tasso, wrote a
freatise expressly on this subject, and positively as-

vi. oct. Extraordinary ! The Mincius flows from the Benacus at
Peschiera, not into it. The country is on a descent the whole way
from the Veronese hills, according to the quotation from Virgil cited
by Mr. Gibbon himself : —
 qua se suhdueere coUes
Incipiunt.
More strange still is the reference to Maffei, who, so far from
aUuding to a conflux of the river and lake, says, at the close of the
very sentence respecting the interview between Attila and St. Leo,
'.' Chi scrisse il luogo di coa memorabil fatto essere stato ooe sbocca
il Mincio nel Po, d' autore antico non ebbe appoggio." — Verona
Illustrata, part i. p. 424, Verona, 1732. The other references
(part ii. p. 3, 1 0, 11) of the same edition say nothing of the course
of the river. It is just possible Mr. Gibbon thought Maflfei meant
to deny that the Mincio feU into the Po : but at aU events he might
have seen at Peschiera that it runs through sluices out of the
Benacus. Maffei, however, in another place actually mentions the
outlet of the lake into the Mincio, — " Peschiera .... aU' esito del
lago sui Mincio." — Veron. Illust., par. iii. p. 510, edit. cit.
For another error of Gibbon, see p. 112 ; for an oversight, p. 130 ;
for more blunders, see p. 154 et seq., p. 181 and 272, and p. 300
and following, and p. 308 of ' Illustrations of Childe Harold.' They
will be noticed subsequently in these volumes.

332 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. IX.
sorted that from Alaric to Amulphus no damage waS
done by the Barbarians to any of the pubhc edifices
of Eome.* He owned that such an opinion would
appear paradoxical, and so indeed -wiU it be found
after a cursory survey, and even as he treats the in
quiry. It is certain that Alaric did bum a part of
Eome. Orosius,-f- by making the comparison between
the former great fires and that of the Goths, shows
that such a comparison might be . suggested by the
magnitude of the latter calamity. He adds also, that
after the people were returned the confiagration had
left its traces; and, in relating the partial destruction
of the Forum by Ughtning, makes it appear that the
brazen beams and the mighty structures which were
then consumed would have faUen by the hands and
flames of the Barbarians had they not been too massive
for human force to overthrow.! It should be remem-

* Angelio Pietro da Barga, de Privatorum Publicorumque .^Idifi-
ciorum Urbis Eomse eversoribus Epistola ad Petrum Usimbardum,
&c., ap. Gr£ev. Antiq. Eoman., tom. iv. p. 1870, edit. Venet. 1732.
" Sed tamen quod ad publicorum sedificiorum et substructionum
riiinas pertinet nihil omnino incommodi passa est."
t " Tertia die Barbari, quam ingressi fuerint urbem, sponte disce-
dunt, facto quidem aliquantarum aedium incendio, sed ne tanto
quidem, quantum septingesimo conditionis ejus anno casus effe-
cerat." He compares the Gallic and Neronic fires, and says they
were greater than the Gothic. Hist., Ub. vii. cap. xxxix. :— " Cujus
rei quamvis recens memoria sit, tum si quis ipsius popuU Eomani et
multitudinem videat et voeem audiat, nihil factum, sicut ipsi etiam
fatentur, arbitrabitur, nisi aUquantis adhuc existentibus ex incendio
ruinis forte doceatur." — Lib. -vii. cap. xl.
X " Quippe cum supra humanas vires esset, incendere £eneas

Chap. IX. ALAEIC. 333
bered that the supposed piety redeemed the actual
riolence, of the Goths, and that respect for the vessels
of St. Peter's shrine made Orosius almost the apolo
gist of Alaric.
The lamentations of St. Jerome are too loud to allow
us to suppose the calamity did not affect the buUd
ings.* He calls the city " the sepulchre of the Eoman
people," and particularizes that " the waUs were haff
destroyed."f More confidence might be attached to his account
of the ruin and restoration of Eome ff he had not
atfributed the latter to the profession of -vfrginity by
a single noble lady.J
In subsequent times we find the strongest expres
sions appUed to the sack of Eome by Alaric. Pope
Gelasius, in a letter to the senator Andromachus

trabes, et submere magnarum moles structurarum, ictu fulminum
Forum cum im!^;inibus variis, quae superstitione miserabili vel deum
vel hominem mentiuntur, abjectum est : horumque omnium abomi-
namentorum quod immissa per hostem flamma non adiit, missus e
coelo ignis evertit." — Lib. ii. cap. 15.
* See Epist. cxxvii. ad Principiam ; Epist. cxxiii. ad Agruchiani,
pp. 953-909, tom. i. Hieron. Opera, Veron. 1 734.
t " Urbs tua quondam orbis caput Eomani popuU sepulchrum est.
— Semimta urbis Eomans moenia." — Epist. exxx. ad Demetriadem,
p. 974, tom. i.
X He says the victory of MarceUus at Nola did not so raise the
spirits of the Eomans, afiBicted by the battles of Trebia, Thrasy
mene, and Cannae, as this vow of chastity :— " Tunc lugubres vestes
Italia mutavit, et seminita urbis moenia pristinum ex parte recepere
fulgorem." — Epist. exxx. ut sup.

334 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. IX.
(a.d. 496), has the words " when Alaric overturned the
city." *
Procopius -[- confines the fire to the quarter near the
Salarian gate; but adds that the Goths ravaged the
whole city. The despoiling edifices of ornaments, many
of which must have been connected with thefr stnic-
ture, could not faU to hasten thefr decay.
MarceUinus mentions that a part of Eome was burnt,
and delays the departure of the Barbarians to the sisth
day.t Cassiodorus,§ a much better and earUer authority
in every respect than the three last writers, assures
us that " many of the wonders of Eome were burnt."
Olympiodorus talks only|| of the infinite quantity of
wealth which Alaric carried away ; but we may col-

* " Cum urbem Alaricus evertit." — See Baronii, Annales Ecdesi-
ast. cum critice Pagi, ad an. 496, tom. viii. p. 605 ; Lucas, 1740.
-j* Ot §e ras re oIkius eveirprjtrav, al rTJs ttuXt;? ay^Lora ^crav' ep
ais rjv Kai r] ^aXovoriov, Tov Patp.aLOLs to iraKaiov ttjv laropiav ypd-
¦\jravTOS' ^s 8^ Ta jrXeTora fifiiKavra Kai es efif eoTrjKe' rrjv T€ rroKiv
o\t]U Xrficra^evoi, Kai Ftofiaiav rovs TrXeiarovs hia^Bcipavres, Trpdcra
ixapovv. — Procop., BeU. Vand., Ub. i. p. 93, edit. HoescheUi.
Aug. t " Alaricus trepidam urbem Eomam invasit, partemque ejus
crema-vit incendio, sextaque die quam ingressus fuerat depredata
urbe egressus est." — Clironic. ap. Sirmond Opera Varia, tom. ii. p.
274, Venet.
§ " Eomam venerunt, quam vastantes, plurima quidem miracu-
lorum ejus igne concremaverunt." — Hist. Ecclesiast. Tripar., lib. xi.
cap. 9, p. 368, tom. i. ; Eothomagi, 1679.
II 'E| §9 XPW"™ " Hircipa e^eKopna-c. — Ap. Phot. Bibliot., edit
Eothomag,, 1653, p. 180. Albinus wished to restore the city, but
people were wanting, p. 188.

Chap. IX. ALAEIC. 335
lect from him also how great was the disaster when
he teUsjus that on the repeopUng of the city fourteen
thousand returned in one day.
The Gothic historian, who says that fire was not
put to the to-wn, is no eridence, being directly con-
fradicted by the above quoted and other authorities.*
The words of the ecclesiastical historians are of
sfrong import : one of them talks of fire and the city
lying in ruins ; f another repeats the expression of
Cassiodorus, that many of the wonders were de
stroyed ; :j: and a thfrd, that the BasUica of St. Peter's
was alone spared from the universal rapine. §
That the city partiaUy recovered itseff is of course
to be allowed. Albinus was active in his attempts at
restoration, and the poet EutUius, who was prefect in
417, not only extols the uninjured remains of antiquity,
but prophesies the repafr of every ruin, jj But the

* " Ad postremum Eomam ingressi Alarico jubente spoliant
tantum, non autem, ut solent gentes, ignem supponunt, nee locis
sanctorum in aliquo penitus injuriam irrogari patiuntur." — Jor-
mandes de Beb. Oct., cap. xxx. p. 85, 86 ; Lugd. Bat., ] 697.
-j* Kat TO ivrevOev Trjs Toa-aimjs do^s to fieyedos, Kai to t^s dvvd-
paas irepLainifwv, aXKotfnAov nvp kuI ^i(j)os irokefuov, Kai al-jota-
XixTia KaTfiupi^fTO ^dp^apos. iv ipeimois 8c rqs TTokfas Kfififvris
'AXdpiKos. — PhilostorgU Eccl. Hist., lib. xii. ap. Phot. Bibliot.,
num. 3, p. 534, tom. ii. edit, ut sup.
X TfXoy re ttjv 'Paiijjv KariKafiou Kai jropdrja'avTes aiir^v ra fiiv
rroXKa twv Bavp.acTav cKfivcov Bea/iaTav KareKavcrav. — Socrat., Hist.
Ecclesias., lib. -vii. cap. x. p. 283.
§ Sozomen, Hist. Ecclesias., lib. ix. cap. 9.
II " Astrorum flammae renovent occasibus ortus
Lunam finiri cemis ut incipiat."
— CI. But., Num. Iter.

336 DESTEUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. IX.
whole of his beautfful verses are an hyperbole. He
says that Brennus only delayed the chastisement that
awaited him, that Pyrrhus was at last defeated, and
that Hannibal wept his success; therefore, the down
faU of Alaric might be safely foretold. The blazing
temples of the Capitol, the aerial aqueducts, the
marble sheltered groves, might stUl be praised ; but he
confesses that Eome had suffered that which would
have dissolved another empire ; * his prophecies of re
pafr were those of a poet, and the ruins of the palace
of SaUust remained to contradict them in the time
of Procopiiis.-f-
The injury done by Genserick (a.d. 455) was not so
great as that of the Goths, and Da Barga despatches
his invasion in a few sentences. Jornandes, however,
appUes the expression devastation to his entry. J' All
the writers § are of accord that the Vandals in thefr

* " Illud te reparat quod csetera regna resolvit
Ordo renascendi est crescere posse malis."
— Claud. Eutilii, Num. Iter., ver. 140.
X Bell. Vandal, in loc. cit.
X " Quod audiens Gizericus rex Vandalorum, ab Africa armata
classe in Italiam venit, Eomamque ingressus cunota devastat." —
Jornand. de Beb. Get., cap. xiv. p. 417, sub fin. Cassiod. oper., foi.
1679. § " Conscenderat arces
Evandri massyla phalanx, montesque Quirini
Barbarioi pressere pedes, rursusque revexit
Quffi captiva dedit quondam stipendia Barche.''
— Sidon. Apollin. carmen vii. Paneg. Avit., vers. 441.
" Gizericus soUicitatus a reUcta Valentiniani, ut malum fama dis-
pergit, priusquam Avitus Augustus fieret, Romam ingreditur, direp-

Chap. IX. GEXSERICE. o.')7
fourteen days' residence emptied Eome of her wealth ;
and as we are informed of the robbery of haff the tiles
of the temple of the Capitoline Jupiter, and of all
the freasures of the Temple of Peace and the }ialaoe
of the Csesars,* it is reasonable to suppose that the
precious metals were extracted and torn down from
all the sfructures, pubUc and private, a riolence which,
-without the use of fire or engines, must have loosened
many of the compact masses, and been totaUy de
structive of smaUer edifices. An ecclesiastical histo
rian twice mentions that Genserick set fire to Eome,
but the sUence of other writers has discredited his
authority.i" The sack of Eome by Eicimer (a.d. 472) is generally
overlooked by the apologists of the early invaders ;
but it should not be forgotten that the "Barbarians,
Arians, and Infidels" were indulged by the patrician
in the plunder of all but two regions of the city. J
Considerable stress has been laid upon the gran-

tisque opibus Eomanorum Carthaginem redit." — Idatii Episcop.
Chronic, ap. Siiinond. Opera varia, A'^enet., p. 239, tom. ii.
" Gensericus rex .... invitatus ex Africd Romam ingressus est
eaque urbe rebus omnibus spoliate," &c. — MarcelUni Chronic, ap.
Sirmond., tom. ii. p. 274.
* Bell. Vandal., p. 97, edit, citat. Ot/Tt xoXkov oike SWov
OTOOVV ev rots ^airiKeiots ^ei.(rap.evos.
X 'AXXa TTiv noXiv irvprroKijaas rravTore 'Krjitrdp.evos Tr]V 'P<i)p.riv efine-
TTprja-dat. — ^Bvagrii Hist. Eccl., Ub. n. cap. vii. p. 298.
X Annali d' ItaUa, vol. iii. p. 222 ; Milan, 1744. " Ed ecco
T amaro frutto dell' aver gl' Imperadori voluto per lor guardie, o per
ausiUarj, gente Barbara, Ariana, e di niuna fede."
VOL. I. Q

338 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. IX.
deur of the stmctures which stUl remained, after the
above calamities, to be admfred by Theodoric; but
the praise of what is left does not include a proof
that little has been lost : were it so, Eome would ap
pear to have not suffered much even in the middle
ages, when her fragments were the wonder of the
pUgrims of every nation. It must, besides, be re
marked that the larger monuments, the Forum of
Trajan, the Cfrcus Maximus, the CoUseum, the Capitol^
the Theatre of Pompey, the Palace of the Caesars,
are those particularly recorded by the minister of the
Gothic monarch, and of those the two latter were in
want of repafr.* A palace partly in ruins -f- on the
Pincian mount, marbles and square blocks everywhere
lying prostrate,]: the desertion and decay of many
houses, must, partiaUy at least, be attributed to the
fire of Alaric, the spoUation of the Vandals, and the
sack of Eicimer. To Vitiges, who came do-wn on
Eome like a raging Uou, § must be ascribed the de-

* Cassiodori Variar. epist. li. Ub. iv. ; epist. v. lib. -vii.
t " Ut marmora quse de domo Pinciana constat esse deposita ad
Eavennatem urbem per catabulenses vestra ordinatione dirigantur."
— Epist. X. ad Festum, lib. iii. tom. i. p. 43, edit. cit.
X " Et ideo illustris magnificentia tua mai-morum quadrates qui
passim diruti negliguntur . . . . et oment aliquid saxa jaeentia post
ruinas." — Epist. vii. lib. i. p. 26, tom. i. edit. cit. In another
place he says, " Facilis est sedificiorum ruina incolarum subtracta
custodia," &c.
§ " Quod audiens Vitiges, ut leo furibundus omnem Gothorum
exeroitum . . . Eavennaque egressus Romanas arces obsidione longa
fatigat." — Jornand, de Bebus Geticis, cap, Ix. p. 178, edit. 1697.

Chap. IX. VITIGES — TOTILA. 339
sfruction of tlic aqueducts, which rendered useless the
immense thermre ; and as these appear never to have
been frequented afterwards, their dilapidation must
be partially, but only partially, ascribed to the Goths.
Vitiges burnt everything without the walls, and com
menced the desolation of the Campagna. * TotUa t
is known to have burnt a thfrd part of the waUs ;
and, although he desisted from his meditated destruc
tion of every monument, the extent of the injury in
flicted by that conqueror may have been greater than
is usually supposed. Procopius affirms that he did
burn "not a small portion of the city," especiaUy
beyond the Tyber. I An author of the Chronicles re
cords a fire and the§ total abandonment of the city
for more than forty days : and it must be mentioned
that there is no certain trace of the palace of the

* St. Anastasii, de -vitis Pontific. Eom. edit. Bianehini ; Eomse,
1731, in vit. S. Silvern, p. 84.
X Tvovs 8e Tavra 6 TcoTikas, eyv<o fiev 'Pwfirjv KadeXelu is eda<j)os. . .
TOV fiev ovv nept^oXov iv xa>piots iroWois too'Ovtov KaBeTKev, oaov is
TpiTTjaopiov TOV jravTos ^aXtoTO, efimirpav he re tS>v oiKohoiiiav rd
KoXXto-Ta Te Kai d^t.o\oyd>TaTa, efieWe 'Pafirjv fie p.7]X6^0TOV Karaarri-
a-ecrdat. — Bellum Gothic, fj i, p. 289, edit. cit.
X Ibid., Ub. iv. cap. xxii. and xxxiii.
§ " Totila dole Isaurorum ingreditur Eomam die xvi. kai. Janu-
arias, ac evertit muros, domes aliquantas comburens, ac omnes Eo
manorum res in prjedam accepit. Hos ipsos Eomanos in Campaniam
captivos abduxit; post quam devastationem xl aut amplius dies
Eoma fuit ita desolata ut nemo ibi hominum nisi bestise morarentur.
Hinc veniens Belisarius murorum partem restaurat, venienteque
Totila ad pugnam resistit." — MarcelUni Chronic, ap. Sirmond., p.
295, edit. cit.
Q 2

340 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. IX.
Cfesars having surrived the irruption of TotUa.* It
must have been at his second entry that this monarch
" Uved with the Eomans as a father with his chUdren,"
and not at the first, as might be thought from the
annals of Italy.-j* In the five captures of Eome (from
536 to 552), in which she was both attacked and de
fended by Barbarians, it is impossible but that many
of the architectural ornaments of the city must have
been utterly destroyed or. partially injured; and the
particular mention made by Procopius of the care
taken by Narses to restore the capital is an eridence
of the previous injury.^
"With TotUa, the dUapidation of Eome by the Bar
barians is generally aUowed to terminate. The incur
sion of the Lombards in 578 and 593 completed the

•' See notice of the Palatine in a subsequent chapter.
f Muratori seems to confound the two cap tures. — Annali d^ Italia,
tom. iii. pp. 410, 411, ad an. 546, and p. 420, ad an. 549. As the
Isaurians were the traitors on both occasions, the confusion was the
more natural ; but it certainly was of the second capture that
Anastasius spoke in the following words : — " Die autem tertia de-
cima Totila introivit in civitatem Romanam indict. 14. (13) per
portam sancti PauU. Tota enim nocte fecit buccina clangi usque
dum cunctus populus fugeret, aut per ecclesias se celaret ne gladio
Eomani vitam finirent. Ingressus autem rex habitavit cum Eo-
manis quam pater cum fiUis." In vit. VigiUi. edit, citat., p. 89.
Muratori mentions that the Isaurians opened the Asinarian gate at
the first capture, and the gate of St. Paul at the second, and yet he
appUes the clemency of Totila to his entry by the first, not, as
Anastasius says, by the second gate.
X De Bell. Gothic, lib. iv. cap. xxxiv. The bridges of Narses
over the Anio remain to attest his dUigence.

Chap. IX. TOTILA. 311
desolation of tho Campagna, but tUd not affect tlic
city itself. Thefr king, Liutprand, in 741 hns been
absolved from Ins supposed violence ;* but Astolphus,
in 754, did assault the city furiously, and whatever
sfructures were near the waUs must be supposed to
have suffered from his attack.t From that period
Eome was not forcibly entered, that is, not after a
siege, until the fall of the Carlovingiau race, when
it was defended by Baxbarians in the name of the
emperor Lambert, and assaulted and taken by Bar
barians, commanded by Amulphus, son of Carloman
of Bavaria (a.d. 896). It has been agreed not to
give this in-ridious name to the Germans under the
Othos, the Henries, and the Frederics, or to the Nor
mans of Guiscard ; but it is hoped that, without in
cluding these spoUers, enough has been said to show
that the absolution of the earUer Barbarians from all
charge of injury done to the pubhc edifices of Eome
is only one of the many paradoxes which are to be
cleared from the surface of Italian literature.!

* AnnaU d' Italia, tom. iv. p. 284.
t AnnaU, &c., tom. iv. p. 312.
J " In cib nondimeno che appartiene a' pubbUoi edifioj di Eoma,
dobbiam confessare a gloria de' Barbari stessi, che non troviam
prova alcuna che da essi fossero rovinati o arsi." — Tiraboschi, Storia
della Lett., Sec, tom. ii. par. i. lib. i. p. 74. After such an asser
tion the learned Ubrarian need not have been surprised that the
author of the Memoires pour la vie de Petrarque ' (p. 514) ex
claimed, " H faut avouer qu'il y a dans votre Uttdrature des choses
singuUeres et tout a fait inconcevables." — See Storia, &o., tom.- v.
par. 11, Ub. iii. p. 460.

342 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. IX.
We next come to —
The Christians.
The injuries done by the Christian clergy to the
architectural beauty of Eome may be divided into
two kinds : those which were commanded or connived
at by the Popes for useful repairs or constructions,
and those which were encouraged or permitted from
motives of fanaticism. It wiU be easy to make the
distinction -without the dirision, and very different
feelings wUl be excited by dilapidations for the ser
rice of the city and for that of the church.
The conversion of Constantine cannot be denied to
have changed the destination of many pubhc buUd
ings, and to have excited a demand for the omaments
of the baptised BasUicas, which, we have ocular proof
at this day, was satisfied at the expense of other edi
fices. If an arch of Trajan was despoiled to adorn
his triumph, other structures were robbed to contri
bute to the splendour of his conversion.* The figure
and the decorations of buUdings appropriated to the
new religion necessarUy were partially changed, and
that such a change was detrimental to thefr archi
tecture the early BasUical churches still exist as an

* Nardini, lib. vi. cap. xv., seems to doubt or not to determine
this, but owns the sculpture is of the time of Trajan. A part of
this arch was dug up near the column of Trajan in the time of
Vacca. See a subsequent chapter.

Chap. IX. , THE CHEISTIANS. 343
evidence.* The temples of Eome were not univer
saUy shut until the edict of Honorius (a.d. 399) ; but
an Italian writer t has shown, with some success, that
Christianity had been actively employed before that
period in destroying the symbols and haunts of the
ancient supei-stition.
A law of Theodosius the Great ordered the destruc
tion of the temples at Alexandria ; | and though it
has been triumphantiy quoted in favour of Christian
forbearance that St. Ambrose § found the baths, the
porticoes, and the squares of Eome full of idols in 383,
yet another saint boasts that in 405 all the statues
in the temples were overthrown. || The sale of the

* Look at the church of St. Agnes -without the walls. Tbe
Christians took or imitated omaments of all kinds from the temples.
In that church the pomegranates of Proserpine, the emblem of mor
tality, are on the balustrades of the high altar. A thousand years
afterwards Leda and the Swan were stUl thought appropriate figures
for the bronze doors of St. Peter's.
+ Pietro Lazeri, Discorso della consecrazione del Panteone fatta da
Bonifazio IV. Roma, 1749, pp. 39, 40.
X Socrat. Hist. Ecclesias., Ub. v. cap. xvi. The bishop Theo-
philus marched about the town caiTying in triumph the phalli taken
from the Serapeon.
§ "Non illis satis sunt lavacra, non porticus, non platen occu-
patje simulacris ? " — D. Ambros. Epist. cont. Symmach. Lugd. Bat.,
1653, p. 455. "Eversis in urbe Roma omnibus simulacris."- —
Serm. de verb, evang., cap. 10, n. 13, in fin. oper. tom. v. par. 1,
col. 547.
II Dissertazione sulle rovine di Eoma, dall' Abate Carlo Fea,
Storia delle Arti, &c., tom. ui. p. 267 to 416, edit. Rom. 1784.
The Abate strangely quotes St. Ambrose against St. Augustine,
who talks of Eome eighteen years afterwards.

344 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. IX.
idols in Greece had begun with Constantine. * The
law of Honorius which forbade the destruction of the
edifices themselves, proves, ff anything, that such an
outrage had been perpetrated, and was to be appre
hended. A prohibitory edict must suppose an offence.
It is not easy to interpret in more than one way the
foUowiJig words of St. Jerome : " The golden Capitol
has lost aU its splendour; the temples of Eome are
covered vrith dust and cobwebs ; the very city is moved
from its foundations, and the overflowing people rush
before the half torn up shrines to the tombs of the
mai-tyrs."-f- The squaUd appearance of the Capitol is
mentioned in another passage of the same -writer, J
where the temples of Jove and his ceremonies are
said metaphorically, or actually, to have faUen down.
In the year 426, Theodosius the younger ordered the
destruction of the temples and fanes. A commenta
tor § has endeavoured to reason this away, and another

* ''Ert fie Kat tS>v ''E.XXTjva>v vaovs Kkeioiv Kai KaOaipav Kai 8j]^o-
a-tevav rd iv avTols dyd\p.aTa. — Socrat., Hist. Eccles., lib. i. cap. iii.
t "Auratum squalet Capitolium. Fuligine et araueorum telis
omnia Eomse templa cooperta sunt. Movetur urbs sedibus suis, et
inundans populus ante delubra semiruta currit ad martyrum tumu-
los." — Epist. cvii. ad Lcetam, Hieron. opera, tom. i. p. 672. Veron.,
1734. Yet this was before Christianity could be traced back two
generations in Eome. " Fiunt non nascuntnr Christiani," says the
same saint in the same place.
X " Squalet Capitolium, templa Jovis et caaremoniae conciderunt."
— Lib. ii. advers. Jovinian. tom. ii. p. 384.
§ Godefroy [Gottofredus.'\ — Dissertazione sulle Rovine, Sec,
p. 284, note (C). The words are, " cunctaque eorum fana, templa,
delubra, siqua etiam nunc restant Integra, prajcepto magistratuum

Chap. IX. THE CHRISTIANS. 345
writer has been eager to show that the mandate \\as
addressed to the eastern lUyricum. To this it may
be repUed, that it is to be inferred that province
was thought most attached to paganism, and that the
temples had been preserved there when in the capitals
they had been overthi-own. An ecclesiastical writer,
only twelve years after this law, talks of the order,
or of the effect of it, as being general; saying, that
" the destruction of the idolatrous fanes was from the
foundation, and so complete that his contemporaries
could not perceive a vestige of the former supersti
tion." * The same author has a much stronger ex
pression in another passage : " Thefr temples are so
desfroyed that the appearance of thefr form no longer
remains, nor can those of our times recognise the shape
of thefr altars ; as for thefr materials, they are dedi
cated to the fanes of the martyrs."*!- The opinion of
the Cardinal Baronius is positive to the zeal and the

destrui, conlocationeque venerandae Christianae religionis signi expiari
praecipimus." — Codex Theod., lib. xvi. tit. 10, de Pagan, sacrif. et
templis leg. 18.
* TovTov Sfj eveKa Kai airrd t&v elSaiKiKSiv ar]KS)V Ta Xemofuva iK
^ddpcov dvacnraaSfivai Trpoa^era^ev ware tovs fieff fjiids iaojievovs
ItTjdev t;(i'OS rfjs irporepas i^airdTTjs Bedaacrdai. — Theodoriti Episcop,
Cyri. Ecclesias. Hist., Ub. v. cap. xxxvii. p. 243, edit. Amstelod.
1695. He published his history about 439. See the preface by
Valesius. X " Horum namque templa sic destrncta sunt ut ne figurarum
quidem permansit species, nee ararum formam hujus saeculi homines
sciant: harum autem materia omnis martyrum fanis dicata est.''
From Theodoret's eighth discourse on the martyrs. The translation
of Sirmond is quoted, the original not being before the writer.
Q 3

346 DESTEUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. IX.
destruction : " As soon as this long-desfred permission
of breaking the idols was obtained from the Christian
prince, the just zeal of the Christian people broke out
at last in the throwing down and breaking of the
pagan gods." And he before exclaims : " It is in
credible with what animosity the Faithful at Eome
leapt upon the idols."*
After this law no mention is made in the codes of
temples or thefr materials, and if these edifices were
legally protected up to the time of Justinian they
must be supposed to be included under the head of
pubUc buUdings. Thefr protection is, however, very
doubtful. Temples are not found amongst the won
ders admfred by Theodoric, except the haff-stripped
CapitoUne fane is to be enumerated: and Procopius
confines his notices to the Temple of Peace, which he
aUudes to cursorUy, as being ia the Forum of that
name,-f and to the Temple of Janus, J whose doors
there was stUl enough of pleasantry or paganism left

¦* " Hko semel a christiano principe idola frangendi impetrata diu
optata licentia, exarsit christiani populi Justus zelus in desturbandis
confringendisque deorum gentiUtium simulacris  vix credi
potest quanta animositate Fideles Eomas in idola insilierint." — An
nales Ecclesias. cum critice Pagi, tom. vi. p. 51, Lueae, 1740. The
cardinal talks of a period rather prior even to the date of Theodoret.
Temples, in certain precincts, were perhaps saved from violence.
" Claudian boasts that Honorius was guarded in the Palatine by the
temples of the gods." " Tot circum delubra videt," &o. See sub
sequent notice of the Palatine.
t Lib. iv. Bell. Goth. cap. xxi. Maltrito interprete.
X Lib. i, cap, xxv, ibid.

Chap. IX. THE CHEISTIANS. 347
in Eome to attempt to open during the distress of
the Gothic siege. StUicho* found no law to prevent
him or his wffe from partiaUy stripping off the orna
ments of the Capitoline Temple ; and the burning of
the Sibylline books by tiie same Christian hero evinces
the temper of the times. In the reign of Justinian a
widow was in possession of the ruins of a temple on
the Qufrinal, and made a present of eight columns to
the Emperor for his metropohtan St. Sophia, -f- The
temples then were partly in private hands, and there
fore not universally protected as pubUc edifices. The
pagan structures would naturally suffer more at the
first triumph of Christianity than afterwards, when
the rage and the merit of desfruction must have di
minished. And after the danger of a relapse was no
longer to be feared, it is not unlikely that some of
the precious vestiges of the ancient worship might
be considered under the guard of the laws. In this
way we may accoimt for the permission asked in one
instance to despoU a temple for the ornament of a

"' " Nam Zosimus tradit cum Theodosius Eomam venit, hoe scilicet
anno, StiUconem ducem utriusque mUitiae e foribus CapitoUi laminas
aureas abstuUsse, ejusque uxorem Serenam nomine, detraxisse e collo
Ehe<E deorum matri mundum muUebrem suoque ipsius ilUgasse
collo." — Baron. Ann. Eccl. ad an. 389, in loc. et edit, citat. For the
burning the Sibyllioe books, see the same place, and the Iter of
EutiUus. t 'WinckeUnann, Osservazioni sull' architettura degU antichi,
cap. u. sec. 4, p. 88, note (B). Dissertazione, &o., p. 302, note (D )
tom. iu. of Fea's translation.

348 DESTEUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. IX.
church ; "* a cfrcumstance which is quoted to show the
care of those structures, but which is surely as fafr a
proof of thefr neglect.t The consecration of the Pan
theon did not take place until the year 609 or 610,
two hundred years after the shutting of the temples ;
and that event is aUowed to be the first recorded in
stance of a simUar conversion. If many of the immense
number of fanes and temples had been preserved entfre
until that time it is probable that the example would
have been foUowed in more cases than we know to
have been adopted. The Christians found the form
of the BasiUca much more suitable to thefr worship
than that of the temple. They did not consecrate a
single sacred edifice for more than two hundred years
after the triumph of thefr reUgion. They cannot be
proved to have ever taken the entfre form of more
than four or five, j What was the fate of the remain
der ? We hear of fifty-six churches buUt upon the

* " Hie cooperuit ecelesiam omnem ex tegulis asneis quas levavit
de tempio, quod appellatur Eomse [Eomuli] ex consensu piissimi
Heraclei imperatoris." — Anastas. in vit. Honorii I., p. 96, tom. i.
edit, citat. The temple is called the temple of Eomulus in Via
Sacra, in the Life of Paul I., p. 175, tom. i., &o. The church which
gained by the robbery -svas St. Peter's. Nibby (Foro Eomano,
p. 214) supposes the temple to have been that of Venus and
Rome. t Dissertazione, &c., p. 286.
X The Pantheon, Cosmas and Damianus, St. Theodore, St. Ste-
phano in Rotundis (perhaps), St. Maria, Egizziaea (doubtful), the
supposed temple of Vesta on the Tiber, St. Hadrian (the faf ade torn
off). Can any other be mentioned?

Cn.<p. IX. TIIE CHRISTIANS. 34!)
sites, or supposed sites, of temples.* Is it then too
rash to believe that so many structures, whicli we
know to have disappeared at an early period, which
were abandoned, which were regarded as an abomina
tion, and which tradition declares to have stood upon
the sites of churches, were despoUed, for the most part,
by the zeal of the early Christians, and' their mate
rials employed to the honour of the triumphant re
ligion? It is particularly told of Gregory HI. that
he finished a chapel to certain martyrs in ruins.f
Most of the lives of the early Popes iu Anastasius
consist of Uttle else than the buUding of churches.
Those of Hadrian I., Leo HI., and Gregory IV., oc
cupy many pages -with the mere enumeration of thefr
names.:!: Both piety and economy would prompt the
spoUation of the nearest ancient stmctures connected
-with the old superstition; and the only indulgence
sho-v\-xi to the pagan deities was when their baptism
might, by a Uttle distortion, entrust thefr fanes to
the protection of a simUar saint. §

* See De tempUs gentiUtium in templa divomm. mutatis, cap. ix.
Georg. Fabricn, Descriptio Romje ap. Grsv. Antiq. Roman., tom. iii.
p. 462.
+ " Ccemeterium beatorum martyrum Januarii, Urbani, Tiburtii,
Valeriani et Maximi, et eorum tecta in ruinis posita perfecit." —
Anastas. in vit. Gregor. III., p. 145, tom. i. edit, citat. 'We find
Pope John III. afterwards U-ving in this cemetery.
X See an account of the rapid building of churches by the Popes
after Gregory III. in Donatus. Boma vetus, lib. iv. cap. vin.
§ Thus Romulus and Remus became Cosmas and Damianus.
Eomulus, a foundling and a warrior, and a healer of young children,

350 DESTEUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. IX.
The more prominent symbols of the ancient reUgion
would hardly be suffered to stand after the temples were
shut. Da Barga asserts as a fact, that there were marks
on the obelisks of their having been aU overthrown with
the exception of one, which was not dedicated to any ofthe
false gods of antiquity.* However, Constantius erected
one of these monumentsf and two were standing in the
niath century, ff we are to credit a barbarous regionary
of that period.^ Da Barga extends his praise of the
pontiffs to the destruction of the theatres and cfrcuses,
the frequenting of which, dedicated as they were to false
gods, Lactantius and TertuUian thought equaUy nefarious
with sacrifichig to Jove or Serapis. We know that an
attempt was made to put the Cfrcensian games at Eome
under new patronage, but that they were entfrely discon
tinued in the year 496, when the people declared they
would not have Jesus Christ in the place of Mars, and the
provision for the festival was distributed to the poor.§

was changed for St. Theodore, a foundling and warrior, and also
healer of children. Mars had not a violent metamorphosis to re
appear as St. Martina ; but there is some doubt of the latter con
version. ¦* That of the Vatican. See de privatorum publicorumque, &e.,
p. 1891, in loco citato. " Neque enim existimare possumus CEeteros
obeliseos vel terrre motu vel fulmine dejectos esse, cum vectium et
ferramentorum vestigia, quibus eversi sunt, adhuc extant infimse
partis lateribus quse basim spectant."
t That now standing before the Lateran.
X The pyramid of Sallust, and the pyramid near St. Lorenzo in
Luoiana. The regionary is quoted afterwards.
§ Baronius, Annal. Ecclesias. ad an. 496, p. 606, tom. viii. edit.
citat. One of the obelisks of the Cu'cus Maximus was lying on the

Chap. IX. THE CHEISTLVNS. 351
The same -writer, after a dUigent study of the fathers,
and having commenced -nith the contrary opinion, is
convinced that Gregory the Great was the chief instru
ment of tliis destruction, and notably of the Cfrcus
Maximus. near which he buUt a church.* The Cfrcus,
however, is recorded by the regionary of the ninth
century.-j- The baths, a greater abomination, he is
also convinced owed thefr destruction to the same piety,
and those of Diocletian and Caracalla showed in his
time evident marks of human -riolence. He adds that
there is no proof of these immense structures ha-ring
been ruined by earthquakes, and to this it may be sub
joined, that when the Eoman famUies of the middle
ages had occupied the Coliseum and other ancient
monuments, they did not take possession of the baths,
-with the exception of those of Constantine on the Quiri-

ground -svhen the regionary Victor -wrote ; and it is a very curious
fact, as any one may see, though it has not been previously remarked,
that the " CasteUum," at the Porta San Lorenzo, was already buried
within a foot and a half of the spring of the arch, when that gate
was made by the Emperor Honorius — a decisive proof of the early
ruin and accumulation of soil in the ancient city.
The same remark appUes to the clearing of the Porta Maggiore
and tbe discovery of the Baker's tomb, in 1838, when, says Cardinal
"Wiseman, " an excrescent bastion at the outside of the gate was
subjected to excision " (Four Popes, p. 459) — rather a singular mode
of telling a simple fact, and sounding more like an operation on the
human body than on stone and mortar (1858).
* De privatorum publicorumque, &c., p. 1889.
t The last vestiges of the Circus Maximus were carried away
about the time of Paul V. See Vedute degli Antichi Vestigj di
Roma di Alb Giovannili, in the plate representing those ruins.

352 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. IX.
nal. The last mention of them in any way that can
make us suppose them entfre, is in the regionary of the
ninth century. Thefr precious materials, statues^ and
marble coatings and columns, would naturaUy be carried
away when the baths had ceased to be frequented ; but
some -riolence must have been necessary to throw down
so large a portion of thefr masses : nor could this be done
for the sake of grinding down thefr materials, which are
of brick. So early as the tenth century, there were
three churches buUt in the Alexandrine baths,* which
must therefore have been preriously in ruins. It must
be confessed, at the same time, that the eridence against
the Christians is not equaUy strong when appUed to the
theatres and thermae, as it appears to be referring to the
temples. As the defence of Gregory the Great has been
successfuUy undertaken against his principal accuser, it
is of Uttle moment to mention that a Monsignor Segardi,
in a speech which he recited in the Capitol, -f in 1703,
was bold enough to state and enforce his beUef of aU the
charges made against the saint, none of which can be
traced higher than nearly sis centuries after his death. |

* Roma ex ethnioa sacra. Martinelli, cap. is. p. 167, quoted in
Dissertazione, Sec, p. 358.
t Prose degli Areadi, tom. i. p. 126. Dissertaz., p. 287. Note(H.)
X Jacob. Brueker, Historic criticas philosophias, from p. 633 to
p. 672, edit. Lips. 1768, sect. in. de nat. et indole et modo Phil.
Schol. in appendice. Do what he will, Brueker cannot trace any
of the stories, the suppression of mathesis, the statue-breaking, or
library-burning, higher than .lohn of Salisbury. He made a great
mistake in calling Gregory the master of John Diaoonus, who Uved

Chap. IX. THE CHEISTLVNS. 353
The discouragement of mathew, whether it meant magic
or profane learning in general, would be only a pre
sumptive proof of the tasteless ignorance or creduUty of
the pontiff; and a more satisfactory argument than the
sUence of his biographers may be deduced from the
belief that Gregory had but Uttle time or means for
the buUding of churches, and consequently for the
spoUation of ancient edifices. He is not to be suspected
of wanton -riolence, for the destruction of buUdings is
the subject of one of the complaints with which he
bewails the -wretchedness of the times.* A large column
was, however, fransferred in those days (608), from some
other structure to the Forum, and dedicated to the
murderer Phocas. The successors of Gregory were less
scrupulous, it should seem, than himseff. We have
seen that Honorius I. removed the gUt tUes from the
temples of Eomulus. Gregory III. employed nine
columns of some ancient buUding for the church of
St. Peter.f The rebuUding of the city walls by four

two centuries afterwards, and is reproved by Tiraboschi. Storia,
&c., tom. iu. lib. ii. p. 99 to p. 114, edit. Venet., 1795. The story
of his throwing down the statues can only be traced to Leo of Or-
vietto, a Dominican -writer of the 14th century. See Testimonia
quorundam veterum scriptorum de St. Gregorio Papa, at the end of
the Venice edition of St. Gregory's works ; and St. Gregorius
Magnus vindicatus, by Gian Girolamo Gradenigo, in the sixteenth
volume. * "Ipsa quoque destrui sedificia videmus." — Homilia in Eze-
chiekm, Ub. ii. hom. vi. p. 70, tom. v. Opp. omn., Venet. 1776.
t Anastas. in Vit. St. Greg. II.

354 DESTEUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. IX.
popes in the same century (eighth), Sisinius, Gregory II.
and in., and St. Adrian I., was an useful but a destructive
operation.* Thefr lime-kilns must have been suppUed
from the ancient city. It is to a presumed necessity,
and not to superstition, that the succeeding spoliation of
the ancient works of art by the popes must chiefly be
attributed ; but it -wUl be observed that the embellish
ment of the Christian churches was the chief motive for
this desfruction, and consequently ranks it in the class at
present under examination. Pope Hadrian I., by the
infinite labour of the people employed during a whole
year, threw down an immense structure of Tiburtine
stone to enlarge the church of St. Maria in Cosmedin.-f-
Donus I. (elected in 676) had before stripped the marble
from a large pyramid between the Vatican and the
castle of St. Angelo, -vulgarly kno-wn by the name of the

* " Qui et calearias pro restauratione murorum jussit decoquere."
— -Anastas. in vit. Sisinii, p. 127., tom. i. edit, citat. He was Pope
in 708. " Hie exordio Pontifloatus sui calearias decoqui jussit, et a
Porta sancti Laurentii inchoans hujus civitatis muros restaurare
decreverat, et aliquam partem faoiens emergentibus incongruis,
variisque tumultibus, prjepiditus est." — Ibid, in vit. St. Gregorii IL,
who was Pope from 714 to 731. " Hujus temporibus plurima pars
muronim hujus civitatis Romanas restaurata sunt." — Ibid, in vit.
Gregorii III, p. 145. See also the same in vit. St. Hadriani,
p. 210. Gregory was Pope from 731 to 740 — Hadrian from 772 to
794. + " Nam maximum monumentum de Tibertino tufo super eam
dependens per anni circulum plurimum multitudinem populi con-
gruens multorumque lignorum straem incendens demolitus est." —
— Anastas. in vit. St. Hadriani I., p. 214, edit, citat. : he repeats it
in the next page.

Chap. IX. THE POPES. 355
tomb of Scipio.* The spoU was laid on the floor of the
atrium of St. Peter. The history of the middle ages
cannot be supposed to have preserved many such precise
records; but the times after the retum of the popes
from Avignon are sufficientiy eloquent. Paul Il.-f- em
ployed the stones of the Coliseum to build a palace.
Sixtus IV. took down a temple, supposed by Pomponius
Laetus that of Hercules, near St. Maria, in Cosmedin ; J
and the same pontiff desfroyed the remains of an ancient
bridge to make 400 cannon balls for the castle of St.
Angelo. § He also pulled down the remains of the
Domitian tomb, near where the Porta del Popolo now
stands, and employed the marble in buUding bastions
near that gate. Alexander VI. || threw down the pyramid
which Donus had stripped to make a way for his gaUery
between the Vatican and the castle of St Angelo.
Paul m. and his nephews laboured incessantly, at the
quarry of the Cohseum. This pope appUed himseff to

* Nardini, Roma Ant., Ub. vn. cap. xiu.
t See Donatus, Roma Vetus, Ub. iv. cap. ix. for Paul IL, who
reigned from 1464 to 1470.
X Donatus, &c., Ub. ii. cap. xxv.
§ Stephen. Infessura, Diar. Urb. Rom. says this happened in
1484. The bridge was called that of Horatius Codes, " e le dette
palle forono fabricate a marmorata dove fu finite di distruggere un
ponte di travertine rotto, il quale si chiamava il ponte di Orazio
Codes." Scriptores Ber. Italic, tom. iii. part ii. p. 1178.
II The pyramid was bigger than that of Cestius, was mentioned
by Blondus, Fulvius, and MarUanus, and is seen on the bronze
doors of St. Peter's. Nardini, lib. vii. cap. xui. Alexander reigned
from 1490 to 1503.

356 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. IX.
the Theatre of MarceUus, to the Forum of Trajan, to a
temple usuaUy caUed of Pallas, opposite the temple of
Faustina, to that temple itseff, to the Arch of Titus, and
to a large mass of ancient work which he leveUed to the
ground in the Piazza del Popolo,* and had not the
excuse of piety for this wide devastation.-
Sixtus V. carried away the remains of the Septizonium
of Severus for the service of St. Peter's, and a contem
porary positively mentions that he threw down certain
statues stUl remaining in the Capitol.t The remauis of
two temples, one near St. Lorenzo in pane perna, and
the other near the Porta Pia, were discovered in the
time of this pope, and no sooner discovered than de
stroyed. Urban VIII. took off the bronze from the
portico of the Pantheon| to make cannon for the
castle of St. Angelo, and to construct the confessional
of St. Peter. He took away also" some of the base of
the sepulchre of CecUia MeteUa for the fountaiu of

* Venuti, Roma Moderna. Rione X. p. 353, tom. ii. Donatus,
lib. iv. cap. ix. Dissertazione sulle rovine, &o., p. 399. Paul III.
began to reign in 1533, and died in 1549.
t Da Barga. Commentarius de Obelisco, ap. Grjev. Antiq. Roman.
in loc. citat., p. 1931. He mentioned this to the honour of Sixtus,
to whom he dedicated his commentary, and he beUeved it an imi
tation of the conduct of Gregory the Great and others. " Quorum
pietatem, Pius V. et Sixtus V. Pontifices Max. sic imitati sunt, ut
eorurh alter ex sedibus Vatieanis hujusmodi omnes statuas alio
amandare cogitaverat, alter e turre capitolina incredibiU sua cum
laude dejici jusserit." — See his Treatise on the Destroyers of Rome,
&e., p. 1887, in loco citat.
X See subsequent notice of the Pantheon.

Chap. IX. THE POPES. 357
Trevi.* Paul V. removed tho entablature and iicdiment
of a structure in the Forum of Xorva for lus fountain
on the Janiculum, and transported the remaining
column of the Temple of Peace to decorate the place
before St. Maria 3Iaggiore.-f- Lastly, Alexander VH.
took down the- arch commonly caUed " di Portogallo "
in order to widen the Corso.+ A Uttle more taste and
ingenuity might surely have preserved the monument
and yet improved the modern street. The inferior

* Echin.ird, Agro Eomano, p. 295, edit. 1750. Yet Gibbon says
he has nothing else to allege against this pope than the punning
saying, " Quod non fecerunt barbari fecerunt Barbarini." — Cap. Ixxi.
p. 424, tom xii.
t Venuti, Eoma Moderna. Eione I. p. 47, tom. i.
X The remains of this arch are seen in Donatus, fig. 32. He
(lib. ui.) thought it of Drusus, but without reason. See Nardini
(Ub. vi. cap. ix.). Alexander VII. was so proud of this destruction
that he chose to record it by an inscription, which is here given,
because it is esteemed the best specimen of lapidary -writing in
Eome : — Ales. VII. Pontif. Max.
Viam latam feriatae urbis hippodromum
Qua inteijectis aedificiis impeditam
Qua procurrentibus deformatam
Liljeram reetamque reddidit
PubUoas commoditati et ornamento.
Anno Sal. mdc. lxv.
The bas-reliefs on the arch are now in the Capitoline palace of the
Conservatori. A large volume has been devoted to the labours of
Alexander "VIL, -with plates of some merit. It is called II koovo
Teatbo delle Fabbeiche et Edificii in peospettiva di Eoma
MoDBKNA sotto IL Pelice Pontificato di N. S. Papa Alessandro
VII. : Date in luce da Gio. lacomo Bossi alia Pace. The date ,is
1665.

358 DESTRUCTION OF ROMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. IX.
clergy were, it is probable, much more guUty than the
pontiffs, and a volume of no inconsiderable bulk has
been composed by one of thefr own order to enumerate
the pagan materials appUed to the use of the church.*
As long as the ancient monuments were considered the
property of that church, it does not appear that any
protection was granted to them, and a writer, who is in
some degree an advocate for the clergy, has been obhged
to confess that when the ruins were in possession of the
modern senate and people, they were less subject to
spoliation than in preceding periods, t The superstition
of the clergy and the people at large prevented them
from attributing a proportionate value to objects not
connected with thefr ecclesiastical legends ; and when
the relics of the ancient city had begun to be regarded
-with somewhat less indifference, they seem to have been
respectable from some pious fablej attached to thefr
sites rather than by any antiquarian importance. Even
the great Sixtus Quintus could not restore an obeUsk
without affixing an inscription devoted to the purposes

* Marangoni, Delle Cose Gentilesohe e Profane transporte ad Uso
e Ornamento delle Chiese ; see also Pioravante Martinelli, Roma ex
Bthnica Saora.
t The Abate Pea in his dissertation.
X See the above-cited collection of designs, entitled ' Vedute degli
Antichi Vestigj di Roma, di Alo Giovannili,' dra-wn in the time of
Paul V. : every picture is enlivened by a massacre of martyrs, or a
miracle, or a dedication of a church. The Vestal with her sieve,
and Curtius leaping into the gulf, are the only heathen fictions or
facts honoured with any notice.

Cuap. IX. THE CLERGY. 359
of reUgious imposture* The very study of the ancient
rehcs is perverted, and rendered subservient to church
fable. Cardinal Baronius, for the sake of finding St.
Peter's prison at St. Niccolo^ in carcere, distorted the
position of the Eoman Forum: and Nardini himself,
in other respects so incredulous, afBrms that there is a
certain tradition of the confinement of that apostle in the
Mamertine dungeon, and of the fountain springing up
for the baptizement of his jailer. -f- What were the
merits of the latter pontiffs in the preservation of the
ancient fabrics -will be seen in another place : the above
remarks may have served to show how far thefr prede
cessors and the reUgion of which they were the chiefs
are to be taken into account in treating of the ruin and
neglect of these venerable monuments.

* Christum Dominum
Quem Augustus
De Virgine
Nasciturum
Vivens adoravit
Seque deinceps
Dominum
Dici vetuit
Adore.

t Nardini, Ub. v. cap. xi. See a notice of the Temple of the
Eoman Piety.

360 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. X.

CHAPTEE X.
Continuation of Causes of Dilapidation.
The agency of the barbarians and of the catholic reU
gion is far from being an adequate cause for so Uttle
being left of that city, which was called the epitome of
the whole world.* It is proposed, therefore, to take a
cursory riew of the general progress of decay arising
from other causes of desfruction.
A tremendous fire in the year 700 or 703, of the city,
had made it necessary to rebuUd the greater part of
Eome.t This was undertaken by Augustus, and the
famous eulcgium on the grandeur of his restoration^
shows what materials were a prey to the fire of Nero,
from which only four regions escaped untouched, and

* ''EniTop.r) T^s olKovp.evr]s is an expression of Atheneeus, quoted
in one of the topographers, Julius Minutulus.
X Orosii, Hist., lib. vi. cap. xiv., and lib. -vii. cap. u. Fourteen
vici were consumed.
X " He found it brick, he left it marble ;" or, as Dion says, Tijv
'Pa>iiJ]V yrjtvriv TrapaKa^av XiBivrjv vfuv KaraXeirra. — Hist. Bom., lib.
Ivi. p. 829, tom. ii., edit. Hamb. 1750. What is said of Themis
tooles is a much finer eulogium : — "Os iir6ir)a-ev rrjv iroXiv r]p.a)V fiecrTipi
evpav imxeCXr). — Aristoph., Equit., v. 811 : " He made our city full,
having found it empty."

Chap. X. POPUL.iE TUMULTS. 361
which was fatal to the most venerable fanes and trophies
of the earUer ages.* We may conclude from a passage
of Tacitus, that so early as the reign of ViteUius a work
belonging to the time of the repubUc was a rare object.!
The fire and ci-ril war which destroyed the Capitol
during that reign, that which raged for three days and
nights under Titus, J the conflagration in the thfrteenth
year of Trajan which consumed a part of the Forum
and of the golden house of Nero,§ must have contributed
to the obUteration of the ancient city; and ff there
was scarcely any reUc of repubUcan Eome when Tacitus
wrote, it may be suspected that the capital even of the
first Caesars had begun to disappear at an earlier period
than is ^ usually imagined. The temples mider the
Capitol bear witness to the falls and fires which had
requfred the constant attention and repafr of the senate, ||
and became more common after the transfer of the seat
of government to Constantinople. Popular tumults

" Sueton. in vit. Neronis. Tacit. Annal., lib. xv. cap. xxxviii.-xli.
X " Lutatii Catuli nomen inter tanta Cjesaiiim opera usque ad
Vitellium mansit." — Hist., lib. iii. cap. Ixxii.
X Sueton. in vit. Titi.
§ G. Syncellus in Chronog., p. 347, quoted in Dissertazione, &c.,
p. 293.
II D. N. Constantino . Maximo . Pio . Felici . ac . Triumphatori .
semper . Augusto . ob . amplificatam . toto . orbe . rem . publicam .
tactis . consiliisque . S. P. Q. R. Dedicante . Anicio . Paulino . Juniore .
C. V. Cos. ord. Pi-cef. urbi. S. P. Q. E.
S. P. Q. E. .^dem . Concordiae . vetustate . coUapsam . in . meli-
orem . faciem , opere . et . cultu . splendidiore restituerunt.
This inscription was found near the ruins under the Capitol, and
transferred to the Lateran, whence it has disappeared.
VOL. I. I? The

362 DESTEUCTION OP EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. X.
were then more frequent and injurious. In one which
occurred in the year 312 the Temple of Fortune was
burnt down.* The Palace of Symmachus,t that of the
prefect Lampadius, in 367, and it is probable the Baths
of Constantine, each suffered by the same violence ; and
an inscription which records the repair of the latter,
informs us also how smaU were the means of the senate
and people for restoring the ancient structures.^ The
destruction must not be confined to one element. The

The words now remaining on the frieze of the Temple with the
eight columns are Senatus Populusque Eomanus
Incendio consumptum Eestituit.
The other temple of three columns, called Jupiter Tonans, has the
letters estitvbh.
This was the name given to them in 1817 ; but Jupiter Tonans
is dethroned now, and authorities are divided between Vespasian and
Titus and Saturn. — See Dr. Smith's Diet., art. Roma, p. 182, &o.
* Annali d' Italia, ad an. 312, tom. ii. p. 312. Muratori quotes
Zosimus, lib. ii. c. 13, and would make us put this fire to the charge
of religion.
t Amm. MarceUinus, lib. xxvii. cap. in. p. 523, edit. Lugd. Bat.
1693. " Hie prasfectus [Lampadii] exagitatus est motibus crebris,
uno omnium maximo cum coUeeta plebs infima, domum ejus prope
Constantinianum lavaorum injectis facibus incenderat et malleoUs,"
&c.— Ibid.
X Vid. Nardini, lib. iv. cap. vi. " Petronius Perpenna magnus
Quadratianus V. C. et Inl. Prsef. Urb. Constantinianas thermas
longa incuria et abolendae civilis vel potius feralis cladis vastatione
vehementer adflictas ita ut agnitione sui ex omni parte perdita de-
sperationem cunetis reparationis adferrent deputato ab amplissimo
ordine parvo sumptu quantum publicje patiebantur angustise ab ex
treme vindicavit oceasu et provisione largissima in pristinam faciem
splendoremque restituit.''

Chap. X. EISE OF CONST.VNTINOPLE. 363
Tiber, which Augustus* cleansed, which Trajan deepened,
and AureUan endeavoured to restrain by a mound, f
rose not unfrequentiy to the -naUs, and terrified the
pious cruelty of the Eomans into persecution,:]: The
repeated notices of inundation wUl be seen to form part
of the melancholy annals of the decUning capital ; but
the decay of the city was hastened not only by these
natural e-rils and by the riolence of hostile conflicts
within the walls, § but by the sUent dUapidation of ancient
stmctures, both private and pubUc, which appears to
have been a delinquency as early as the beginning of
the fourth century, and to have been prohibited after
wards by successive imperial laws. The removal of the
emperors to Constantinople encouraged the spoUation,
and ff it were possible to ascertain the list of all the
omaments of Eome which were transferred to the seat
of empfre, there might be a better justification for those
who attiibute the ruin of the old to the rise of the new
capital. II The departure of many of the principal

* Sueton. in Vit. Augusti, cap. xxx.
t " Tiberinas extruxi ripas. Vadum alvei tumentis effbdi." —
Vopisc. in Vit. Aureliani, p. 215, Aid. edit. 1519.
X " Tiberis si ascendit ad mania ; si Nilus non ascendit in aiva :
si ccelum stetit, si terra movit, si fames, si lues, statim Christianu.s
ad Leones." — TertuU. Apolog., cap. xUi.
§ A battle was fought on the Cselian hill in the reign of Aureliaii.
— Decline and Fall, cap. xi. tom. ii. oct., p. 51.
II " Ut non immerito dixeris, non a barbaris, sed prius a Constan
tino eversam fuisse Eomam." — Isa. Vossii de Magnitudine Jtomu-
Veteris. ap. Grcev. Antiq. Boman., tom. iv. p. 1507, p. 1516,
cap. vii,

364 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. X.
families for the banks of the Bosporus had emptied a
portion of the patrician palaces. The public structures
we know were not entfrely spared, when it was requisite
to record the triumph of Constantine ;* and the debase
ment of the arts ha-ring left the Eomans no other
resource than the apphcation of former trophies to thefr
present sovereign, the same flattery which robbed an
arch of Trajan may have despoUed many other monu
ments to decorate the chosen, city of the conqueror.
The laws of the codes-j- speak of ruins and edifices in
decay, which, we may coUect from prohibiting clauses,
it was the custom not to restore but to pillage for the

* See notice of Arch of Constantine.
t XI. Impp. Valentinianus et Valens A A ad Symmaehum P. U.
" Intra urbem Eomam eternam nuUus Judicum novum opus in-
formet : quotiens serenitatis nostrje arbitria cessabunt : ea tamen
instaurandi quse jam deformibus ruinis intercidisse dicuntur uni-
versis licentiam damns."- — Dat. viii. kalend. Jun. Philippis. Dive
Joviano et Varroniano Coss. (a.d. 364), lib. xv. tit. 1, Codex Theo-
dos., edit. Mant. 1768, p. 261. The law is repeated the next year.
The next law mentions the seizure of the granaries. By several
other laws of the code under the same title, it appears that the
public buildings in the provinces were also falling to decay. The
following law speaks more strongly of the decay and the spoliation
at Rome : —
XIX^ Impp. Valens, Gratiantis, et Valentinianus A A A ad Se-
natum. Nemo praifeotorum urbis aliorumve judicum, quos potestas
in excelso looat, opus aliquod novum in urbe Roma inclyta moliatur,
sed excolendis veteribus intendet animum. No-vum quoque opus
qui volet iu urbe moliri, sua pecunia, suis opibus absolvat, non con-
tractis veteribus emolumentis, non elfossis nobiUum opei-um sub-
structionibus, non redivivis de publico saxis, non marmorum frustis
spoliatarum ajdium reformatione convulsis. Leota in Senatu. Va
lente V. et Valentiniano. A A. Coss. (a.d. 376.) Read deformatione,
according to three editions, p. 269. The laws xxvii. and xxix. of
the same title are to the same purpose.

CuAF. X. REMOVAL TO CAMPUS MARTIUS, 3G.J
sendee of new buUdings. Such was the disorder ui the
reign of Valens and Valentinian that private individuals
had seized upon the pubhc granaries: columns and
marbles were transported from one city to another, and
from one service to another. A law above referred to
for the year 364, when quoted in the Justinian code,
contains a singular expression not before remarked, by
which it would appear that at an early period there was
an old distinct from a new Eome.* The regionaries do
not notice the distinction, and the commentators object
to the phrase; but it seems very probable that the
migration from the mounts to the Campus Martins had
commenced after the repeated sack and sieges of the
city, and the causes of decay before commemorated, had
encumbered the ancient site -with ruins. The Campus
Martins had been surroimded by the waU of AureUan,
and from that time it may be supposed that the vast
fields, the groves of the Augustan mausoleum, the in
numerable porticoes, the magnificent temples, the circus,
and the theatre of that district,! were graduaUy displaced,
or choked up by the descending city. As late as the
reign of Valentinian IH. we find mention made of the
Campus Martins as ff it were stiU an open place.j Tet
* Vid. Cod. Justin., lib. viii. tit. xii. tom. u. p. 471, edit. Got-
tiuf. 1797, which repeats the law above, beginning " Intra urbem
Romam veterem et novam," and inserts " nisi ex suis pecuniis hujus
modi opus constmere voluerit."
¦f- See a beautiful description of it in Strabo, lib. v.
X He was killed in the Campus Martins, according to Cassiodorus
and Victor Tutonensis ; but Prosper, in his Chronicle, names another
place called the two Laurels. — Annali d' Italia, ad an. 455, tom. iii.
p. 163.

366 DESTEUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. X.
it is possible that the quarter preserved the name, as at
present, long after it had lost its original appearance
and destination.
It is not to be overlooked, that in the reign of Con
stantius, the architectural wonders of the city were still
sufScient to astonish a stranger ; * that when the
regionaries -wrote under Valentinian,t a pompous list
of public monuments might stiU be coUected for the
admfration and confusion of posterity ; ^ that when
Alaric took the to-wn, the private houses contained the
buUdings of a whole city;§ and that even after that
calamity the old age of Eome was more attractive than
the youth of any other capital. There was, doubtless,
stUl enough left to confer the palm upon the ancient
metropoUs, II whose ruins at this day form a striking
contrast with the few relics of the second capital. The
stranger could not perceive what was lost : the native

* " Deinde intra septem montium culmina, per acclivitates plani-
tiemque posita urbis membra collustrans et suburbana, quiquid
viderat primum, id eminere ante alia ciincta sperabat," &e. &o. —
Amm. Marcel., lib. xvi. cap. x. p. 145, Lugd. Bat. 1693.
t He was elected emperor in 364, and died in 375.
X The two regionaries, Rufus and Victor, occupy twelve pages, in
double column, ofthe folio Thesaurus of Graevius, tom. iii.
§ Ort eKaoTos rav ^eydKav o'lKOiv Trjs *Pa)jLtTyff, &s (f>r]a'iv diraVTU
el^ev ev eavra, ojrdo-a TroXis (Tip.p,eTpos rjhvvaTO e^eiv. — Olympiod, ap.
Phot. Biblioth., edit. 1653, p. 198.
Eis Bojios doTV weXei, irdKis ao'Tea p,vpia Keidei.
II Manuel Chrysoloras made a comparison between Eome and
Constantinople : he did not believe what he had heard of Rome, but
found that her very ruius were a sufBcient proof of her former supe
riority. This was in 1464, — at least his book has that date. — See
Museum Italic, p. 96, tom. i., 1724.

Chap. X. ABAXDOXMEXT. ;)G7
stiU flattered himseff that every injury might be repaired ;
and such was the stabUity of the larger monuments, that
to the poet and consul Ausonius, at the end of the
fourth century, Eome was still the golden, the eternal
city.* In the panegyrics, however, of her last admirers,
we may trace her decay. The private palaces, which
are celebrated by Olympiodorus, have no encomium
from the poet who surrived the ravage of Genserick,
and who stUl extols the baths of Agrippa, of Nero, and
of Diocletian.! The care and admfration of Theodoric
were dfrected to those objects whose soUdity or whose
position protected them from sudden dissolution, but
which were stUl shaken by riolence and age.| Cas
siodorus confesses that his master, the lover of architec-
ture,§ the restorer of cities, could only repafr decently
the tottering remnants of antiquity. || He o-wns, also.

* Epigrammata quatuor, &c. Auson. Op., pp. 78, 80, edit.
Burdigal. " Prima urbes inter Divum domus, aurea Eoma."
— Clarce Urbes, p. 195.
t " Hinc ad balnea non Neroniana
Nee qua; Agiippa dedit, vel ille cujus
Bustum DalmaticsE vident Salona;," &c.
— Sidon. ApolL, Carmen ad Consentium, 23, written 466. Dis
sertazione, &c., p. 271.
X The Palatine had been occupied by the troops of Genserick, the
theatre of Pompey had been injured by fire, and was in decay — quid
non solves, 0 senectus, quae tam robusta quassasti ? — Cassiod. Var.,
Ub. iv. Epist. U.
§ " Amatorfabricarum, restaurator civium." — Excerpta de Tlieod.
auctoris ignoti in fine Amm. Marcel.
II " Et nostris temporibus videatur antiquitas decentius innovata."
— Var. Epist. li. Ub. iv.

368 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. X.
the partial abandonment, whUst he laments the rapid
decay and faU of the ancient habitations.* In the in
terval between the encomiums of Cassiodorus and the
notices which Procopius has left of the mfracles of
Eome,-f- the aqueducts had been broken;! t^e thermse,
the amphitheatre, the theatres, had aU been abandoned,
and the admfration of the historian is confined to the
tomb of Hadrian, § to the infinite number of statues, ||
the works of Phidias, Lysippus, and Myron, and to the
solicitude with which the Eomans preserved as much
as possible the more stable edifices of thefr city, and
amongst other objects, a venerable reUc of thefr Trojan
parent.lT Even these detached ornaments must have
been much diminished during the Gothic sieges. The

* " Facilis est Eedifioiorum ruina incolarum substracta custodia et
cito vetustatis decoctione resolvitur, quod hominum praesentia non
tuetur." X De Bello Gothico, lib. i. cap. xix.
X The population must have been much diminished, since the
Tiber was esteemed insalubrious, and the wells of Eome had been
found insufficient for the people of Rome since the year 441 a. tr. c.
— See Jul. Frontin. de Acquxduct., lib. i. ap. Greev. Antiq. Roman.,
tom. iv.
§ De Bello Gothico, lib. i. cap. xxu.
II Ibid., lib, iv. cap. xxiii.
^ Oi ye Kai TToXiv nva ^e^ap^apiOjievoL alava, rds re TroXtws Stea-m-
(ravTo olKoSop,las, Kai rSiv iyKaWamoiidTaiv rd TrXeiara Soa otov re
nv' ;^p6yo) Te tooovtco rd firJKos, Kai r^ aTrrjp.eXe'la'dat, St' dpeTrjv tS)V
ireTTOirjixevcov dvrexei.' en jxev toi Kai Soa fivijfieLa tov •yei'ous iKeXenzTO
en' iv Tois kol tj vavs Alvelov, tov ttjs irdXecos oIkiotov, Kai els Tooe
Kelrat, Seajxa navTeXas arvia-rov, TotBikcov ti 8'. p. 353, edit. 1607,
cap. xxii. of the translation. The due weight must be given to these
words ; but the solidity of the structure seems, after all, the chief
protection of the buildings.

Chap. X. USE OF AXCIEXT M.VIEEIALS. 369
Greek soldiers were not restrained from flinging down
the statues of the mole of Hadrian on the heads of their
assaUants ;* and Belisarius must have demolished not
only such smaUer materials, but many a contiguous
sfructure, for his repeated rebuilding of the walls. We
have other decided proofs of the early desertion and
decline of the Caesarian city. An edict of Majorian
specifies as a common offence, that those who buUt
houses had recourse to the ancient habitations, which
could not have been dUapidated in the presence of a
resident population, and which we know by the same
edict to have been abandoned to the feeble protection of
the laws.f The same fact is deducible from another
prohibition, which forbade the extraction of precious
metals from the ancient structures, a crime noticed
before the end of the fourth century,! and one of the
evils which the regulations of Theodoric were intended
to prevent.§ This rapine supposes a soUtude. In the

* De Bello Gothico, lib. i. cap. xxii. The Faun was found when
Urban VIII. cleansed the ditch of the castle.
X Majorian reigned from 457 to 461. " Antiquarum cedium dis-
sipatur speeiosa constructio ; et ut aUquid reparatur, magna diru-
untur. Hinc jam oceasio nascitur ut etiam unusquisque privatum
aedificium constmens, per gratiam judicum .... praesumere de pub-
licis locis necessaria, et transferre non dubitet." This is quoted in
the Decline and Fall, &c., cap. xxxvi. p. 175, vol. vi. oct. note 3.
J In 367 Lampadius, the prsefect, took all the lead, and iron, and
brass, so collected, without any remuneration to the plunderers. —
Amm. MarcelUni, Ub. xxvii. cap. ui. p. 524, edit. 1693.
§ Prseterea non minimum pondus, et quod faoillimum direptioni
est molUssimum plumbum de omatu maenium referuntur esse sub-
lata. — Variar. Epist., lib. in. cap. xxxi. p. 50, edit. 1679.
K 3

370 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. X.
subsequent periods of distress, when every precious
object had been removed from above ground, the plun
derers searched for subterranean treasures, and tore up
the lead of the conduits.* The mere necessities of
existence became the only care of a wretched population,
from whom it would be unreasonable to expect either
taste or attachment to the trophies of their former
grandeur. That many of the works of sculpture feU
where they stood, has been proved by the spots where
they were found, after centuries of neglect. The same
indifference which aUowed the baths of Titus to be
graduaUy buried beneath the soU, prevented the Laocoon
from being removed from the niche which it originaUy
adorned.-|- The Tore, the Hercules, the Flora, the
CaUipygian Venus, were aU found in the baths of
CaracaUa, of which most probably they had been the
ornaments. The condition of the Eomans may account for thefr
neglect of monuments, which the elements themselves
conspired to destroy. An earthquake shook the Forum
of Peace for seven days in the year 408 ; % but such

* " Et confestim centenarium illud, quod ex eadem forma in atrio
eoclesise Beati Petri deourrebat, dum per nimiam neglectus incuriam
plumbum ipsius centenarii furtim jam plurima ex parte exinde ab-
latum fuisset." — Anastas. in Vit. S. Hadriani I. He is talking of
the repair of the aqueduct and pipe of the Acqua Sabbatina.
¦f Pliny (Nat. Hist., Ub. xxxvi.) says, the Laocoon was in the
house of the Emperor Titus. " . . . . Laocoonte qui est in Titi Im
peratoris domo." They show the red cellular niche in the baths or
palace of Titus, in which this group is said to have been found.
X " Eomaj in foro pacis per dies septem teii-a mugitum dedit." —
MerceUini Comitis, Chronic, ap, Sirmond,, tom. U p. 274. It may

CH.AP. X. PESTILENCE AND FAMIXE. 371
were the conviUsions of natiu-e in the succeeding cen
tury that Gregory the Great * naturally supposed the
e-rils of which he had lumseff been witness to be the
principal cause of the ruin around him. To these
earthquakes, tempests, and inundations, he attributed
not only the depopulation of the city but the faU of
her dwellings, the o'umbling of her bones.-f The rise
of the Tiber is specified as having overthrown many
of the ancient edifices.! PestUenee and famine within
the walls, and the Lombards without, had reduced her
to a wUderness, and it is to be beUeved that the popula
tion shrunk at that period from many spots never after
wards inhabited. An important notice, hitherto never

be too strong an interpretation to call this bellowing an earth
quake. * St. Gregory, in his Dialogues, lib. ii. cap. xv., reports and con
firms a prophecy of St. Benedict : — " Cui vir Dei respondit : Boma
gentibus non exterminabitur, sed tempestatibus coruscis, turbinibus,
ac terrce motu fatigata marcescet in semet. ipsa. Cujus prophetiae
mysteria nobis jam facta sunt luce dariora, qui in hac urbe dissoluta
mEenia, eversas dombs, destructas ecclesias turbine cemimus ; ejusque
aedificia longo senio lassata quia ruinis crebrescentibus prostei-nantur
-videmus." The reader may recollect how Gibbon has disposed of
the prophecy.
t " Quid autem ista de hominibus dicimus cum ruinis crebres
centibus ipsa quoque destrui sdificia videmus .... quia postquam
defecerant homines, etiam parietes cadunt .... ossa ergo excocta
sunt, vacua ardet Roma." — 18 Homil. in Ezechiel., lib. ii. hom. vi.
p. 70 ; tom. v. opp. omn. Venet. 1776. This was in 592.
X " Tanta inundatione Tiberis fluvius alveum suum egressus est
tantumque excrevit, ut ejus unda per muros urbis influere atque in
ea maximam partim regionis occupavit ita ut plurima antiquarum
aedium ma;nia dejiceret." — St. Gregor., Vita per Paul. Diacon,,
tom. XV. p. 253, opp. S. Greg. See also Paul, Diacon, de gestis
Lcmgob,, Ub. iii. cap. xxiii., for the pestis inguinaria.

372 DESTEUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. X.
cited for the same purpose, informs us that, at the
second siege of Eome by TotUa, there was so much
cultivated land witlun the waUs that Diogenes, the
governor, thought the com he had sown would be
sufficient to supply the garrison and citizens in a pro
tracted defence.* The district of the Forum, how
ever, had not yet become a soUtude. A column, erected
to the emperor Phocas, is an evidence that the ancient
ground-plan had not been buried in the year 608 ;
and the same may be said of the Forum of Trajan,
upon evidence not quite so precise.-f- The accretion
of soU in the vaUeys, and even the mounts of Eome,
could not have taken place under the foot of a popu
lation which was never entfrely lost, and it is only
from the total desertion of these buried sites that
we must date the formation of the present level.!

* Procop. de Bello Gothico, lib. iii. cap. xxxvi. Nardini, lib. i.
cap. viii., has made the remark, but with another object, in treating
of the walls.
t The biographers of St. Gregory mention the Forum. " Idem
vero perfectissimus et acceptabilis Deo sacerdos, cum quadam die
per forum Trajani, quod opere magnifico constat esse extructum
procederat." — Paul. Diacon., in lee. cit., p. 262. " Quod Gregorius
per forum Trajani, quod ipse quondam pulcherrimis sedificiis venus-
tabat," &o. — Joan. Diacon., in loc. cit., p. 305. Paul "Warnefrid was
a Lombard of Forli, and taken prisoner by Charlemagne ; the other
deacon wrote in 872. Vid. de Triplici S. GregorU magni Vita, in
loc. cit., p. 246.
X Gibbon, cap. Ixxi. p. 405, tom. xii., singularly gives Addison
the merit of a discovery, which any one who had seen a picture of
the half-buried ruins under the Capitol, and the hole in which the
column of Trajan was sunk, might, and must, have anticipated.
Yet the soil had been raised considerably, as before remarked, at the
Purta St. Lorenzo, in the time of Honorius.

CH.iP. X. ELEVATION OF LEVEL. 373
It appears that, in 825, there were within Eome itself
cultivated lands of considerable extent.* The con
tiguity of the immense ancient fabrics, when once in
decay, must have been dangerous during earthquakes,
which might shake them do-wn ; or in inundations,
when the water might be confined and prevented from
retiring by the walls of buUdings as large as provinces.'^
Such open spots as were decorated by single monu
ments were likely to be first overwhelmed by the de
posit left by the water and coUected round those mo
numents. On this account the Forums, and even
the Palatine, although an eminence, being crowded
with sfructures, appear to have been buried deeper
than the other quarters under the deposit of the river
and the materials of the crumbling edifices. The latter
accumulation must be taken into the account when it
is recoUected that the broken pottery of the old city

* The monastery of Farfa in 825 obtained from the Emperor
Lothaire I. the confirmation of a grant of Pope Eugenius of two
farms. " De duabus massis juris monasterii Sanctse Bibianae, quod
est positum infra nobilissimam urbem Eomanam, vel quae ad easdem
massas pertinere dignoscitur, quarum una Pompejana, et alia Balagai
nuncupata." — Chronicon Farfense, ap. Script. Ber. Italic, tom. ii.
par. ii. p. 383, edit. 1727. We know S. Bibiana to have been in
Eome. Muratori says, " Dalla Chronica Parfensa apprendiamo,
avere Papa Eugemo donate al monastero di Farfa due masse, appel
late r una Pompeiana, e 1' altra Balagai, poste infra nobilissimam
Urbem Bomanam : il che ei fa conoscere, che entro Roma stessa si
trovavano de' Buoni Poderi coltivabili." — Annali d' Italia, ad an.
825, tom. iv. p. 533. Perhaps his translation and conclusion are
rather Ucentious.
f " Lavacra in modum provinciarum structa " astonished Con
stantius. — Amm. Marcell., lib. xvi. cap. x.

374 DESTEUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. X.
has, at some unknown period,* been sufficient to form
a mount 150 paces high and 500 paces in length.
The population was too languid to dig away the ob
structions, and employed thefr remaining strength in
transporting the smaller materials to the more mo
dern and secure quarter of the town.
It is impossible to assign a precise date to the total
desertion of the greater portion of the ancient site;
but the calamities of the seventh and eighth centuries
must have contributed to, ff they did not complete, the
change. A scarcityf in the year 604, a violent earth
quake ! a few years afterwards, a pestUenee § in or
about the year 678, five tremendous inundations of

¦* De eo perpetuum apud antiques silentium. — Donati Bom, Vet,,
lib. iii. cap. xiii. The most reasonable account of the Testacean
Mount seems to be that of Lucius Faunus, lib. iii. cap. iii. de Anti-
quit. Urbis RomEe, ap. Sallengre, tom. i. p. 248. There was a college
of potters established by Numa. The vicinity of the water made
them fix themselves in the meadow on the banks of the Tiber. It
was strictly forbidden to fling any obstructions into the river. The
mound rose by degrees, and therefore unnoticed. It is strange,
however, that the regionaries should not mention it,
t " Eoque tempore fuit fames in civitate Romana grandis." —
Anastas., in Vit. Sabiniani, p. 134.
X " Eodem tempore factus est terrse motus magnus mense Au
gusti indictione undecima." — Ibid., in Vit. 8. Deusdedit. He was
pope from 614 to 617.
§ " Similiter mortalitas major, atque gravissima subsecuta est
mense suprascripto, Julio, Augusto, et Septemb. in urbe Roma,
qualis nee temporibus aUorum Pontificum esse memoratur." — Ibid.,
in Vit. S, Agathon., p. 142. Paul. Diaoonus says, " Tantaque fuit
multitudo morientium ut etiam parentes cum filiis, atque fratres
cum sororibus apud urbem Romam ad sepulchra deducerentur." —
De Gestis Langob,, lib. vi. cap. v.

Chap. X. ASSAULT OF THE LOilBAEDS. 375
the Tiber* from 6S0 to 797, a second famine in the
pontificate of Pope Constantine,-]- which continued for
six-and-thirty months, a pestilence in the last year of
the seventh century, and the assault of the Lombards
for three months under Astolphus in 755, — these are
the events which compose the Eoman history of this
unhappy period.
The fabrics of the old town could receive no pro
tection but from thefr soUdity. The lawful sovereigns

* In 68o, 715, 717, 791, 797. Of that in 717 it is mentioned,
" Per dies autem septem aqua Eomam tenebat perversam.'' — Anas
tas., in Vit, S. Gregor., u. p. 155. Paul. Diaconus tells, " His
diebus Tiberis fluvius ita inundavit, ut alveum suum egressus multa
Eomanae fecerit exitia civitati ; ita ut in via Lata ad unam et semis
staturam excresceret, atque a porta S. Petri usque ad Pontem Mil-
vium acquae se distendentes conjungerent." — De Gestis Langob,, Ub.
-vi. cap. xxxvi. From the mention made of the Corso being damaged,
the descent of the city into the Campus Martins seems to be proved .
At the same time the English inundated Eome. — Ibid., cap. xxxvii.
The inundation of 791 tore down the Flaminian gate, and carried
it as far as the arch called Tres FacicellEe (the Arcus PortogalU), and
rose to the height of two men. " Per triduum ipsum flumen, quasi
per alveum, per civitatem ourrebat." — Anastas., in Vit. S. Hadriani,
p. 194. The river kept the city imder water for many days, and S.
Hadrian was obUged to send provisions in boats to those living in
the Via Lata, " per naviculas morantibus Via Lata cibos advexit."
The inundation in 797 is not in Anastasius, where Fea (Disserta
zione, p. 309) finds it, but is in the Index Vetustissimus Ducum
Spoletonatorum et Abbatum Farfensium. — Ap, Script. Ber. Ital,,
tom. ii. par. ii. p. 295. " dcoxcvii. Inundatio aqu» fit Eomse in
Via Lata ad duas staturas." It may be suspected that, as both rose
to the height of two men, there is some confusion, and that they
were the same.
t Constantine was elected in 708. " Vir valde mitissimus, cujus
temporibus in urbe Roma fames facta est magna per annos tres." —
Anastas., in Vit, Constant,, p. 152. There seem,"! a full stop wanting
after mitissimus : his misfortunes follow his virtues too quickly.

376 DESTEUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. . Chap. X.
had degraded the capital of the world to the head of
a duchy, and the only visit which an emperor of the
east deigned to make to Eome was not to protect but
to despoU her of aU her valuable ornaments.* The
recorded plunder of Constans has affixed to that re
creant name a greater share in the ruin of Eome than
the concurrence of other calamities -wUl aUow : his
robbery was confined to the bronze tUes of the Pan
theon, and to whatsoever quantity of the precious
metals could be coUected in a residence of twelve
days.-f- He had the gleanings of Genserick, but he
stiU left the bronze of the portico to be plundered
by Urban VIIL, and many other metallic decora
tions, to be melted into beUs for the churches in
the subsequent rise of the modern town, and for other
pious uses of the Popes.!

* " Omnia quae erant in sere ad ornamentum civitatis deposiiit,
sed et ecelesiam beatae Marise ad martyres, quae de tegulis asreis erat
cooperta, discoperuit." — Anastas., in Vit, St, Vitaliani, tom. i. p. 106.
X " Sed manens Eomse dies duodeeim omnia qus fuerint anti
quitus instituta ex aire in ornamentum urbis abstuUt : in tantiim ut
etiam basilicam Beatte Marise quae antea Pantheon vocata fuerat
(vocabatur) .... discooperiret." — Paul. Diaconi De Gestis Lango-
bard, lib. v. cap. xi. Fabricius says that Constans took away more
in seven days than all the barbarians had done in 258 years. — De
scriptio Bomoe, cap. ii.
X The Abate Fea (Dissertazione, p. 407 et seq.) allows that wha1>
ever was saved was saved by miracle, and probably because buried
under some heavy ruin, as the gilded Hercules, the 'W^olf, the Belve
dere Pine. The bronze doors of Cosmas and Damianus were saved
because they belonged to a church ; those of St. Hadrian were carried
away to the Lateran. There was a statue of bronze, a bull, in the
Foi-um Boarium in the time of Blondus. " A foro Boario ubi aereum
taurum aspicimus." — Bomoe Inst., Ub. i. fo. 10.

Chap. X. PERIOD OF THE EXARCHATE. 377
The period of the exarchate and of the Lombard
domination is that of the lowest disfress of Eome.* The
most diUgent inqufry has been imable to discover who
were her acknowledged masters, or what was the form
of her domestic govemment.-|- Subsequently to the
extinction of the exarchate by Astolphus in 752 she
had been abandoned, but was never formaUy resigned
by the Greek Caesars. After Gregory JI. in 728 or
729, aud Gregory IH. in 741, had sohcited the aid
of Charles Martel against the Lombards,! and against
the iconoclast tyrants of Constantinople, it might be
thought that the supremacy of the Greek empfre had
ceased to be recognised. Yet a certain respect, at
least, for the successors of Constantine, not only from

* " Ipsa urbium regina Eoma, quamdiu Langobardorum Regnum
viguit, summis calamitatibus exagitata, atque in pejus mens ex an
tique splendore decidebat." — Antiq. Med. 2Evi, tom. ii. p. 148,
Dissertatio 21.
t Annali d' ItaUa, tom. iv. p. 304.
X Ibid., p. 281, 286.
Gibbon has observed that " the Greek writers are apt to confound
the times and actions of Gregory II. and III." (cap. xlix. p. 132,
note 20, vol. ix. octavo), and by some accident the following extra
ordinary error has been left in his text. " In his distress the first
Gregory had implored the aid of the hero of the age — of Charles
Martel " (cap. xlix. p. 147, vol. is. octavo). The first Gregory had
been dead more than a century. The historian could hai'dly mean
the first of the 2nd and 3rd, which would be too equivocal an ex
pression ; besides which, there was but a letter -written, and there
are some doubts as to the embassy of Gregory II. to Charles Martel ;
and the decided, perhaps repeated, supplication to him was from
Gregory III. (See Muratori, tom. iv. p. 286, ad an. 741.) Nor
does the mistake look Uke an error of the press, to be read, " Gregory
had first implored," &c., since the application to Pepin was made by
Stephen II.

378 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS, Chap. X.
the Eomans but from thefr new patricians, Pepin and
Charles of France, may be shown to have endured
within two years of the coronation of the latter hero,'""
in the year 800. It is certain, however, that about
this period the Eomans had recurred to the memory
of thefr former institutions, and had composed a cor
poration of uncertain form and number, advised rather
than commanded by the Pope, who had sUently usurped
the sovereign title of our Lord. By this senate or tlus
spfritual master had the Byzantine title of Consul or
Patrician been offered to Charles Martel and conferred
on Pepin. A letter is stUl preserved from the Senate
and People to Pepin, Patrician of the Eomans,-|- and
the reply of the Frank monarch, recommending a defer
ence to thefr bishop, Paul I., must imply that the do
mestic sovereignty was divided between the pastor and
the community at large. This mixed government,
which must have sometimes assumed the appearance
of anarchy, and at others degenerated into despotism,
was contemplated with horror by those who recaUed

¦* " Viene a fortificarsi la conghiettura proposta di sopra, cioe che
durava tuttavia in Eoma il rispetto all' Imperador Greco, ed era
quivi riconosoiuta la sua autorita." — Annali d'ltalia, ad an. 798,
tom. iv. p. 492. Gregory III. is usually called the first of the inde
pendent popes, but he certainly acknowledged the superiority of
Butychius, exarch of Ravenna, to whom, as Anastasius tells us, he
applied for permission to use six columns of some structure for St.
Peter's church.
t The thirty-sixth letter of the Codex Carolinus, " scritta da
tutto il senato e dalla generalita del Popolo Romano al re Pipptno
Patrizio de' Romani."— See Annali d' Italia, ad an. 763, tom. iv.
p. 331.

Chap. X. MIXED GOVERXMENTS. 37i»
the lawful imperial sway of the Cicsars, * and either
to the people or the popes was applied the opprobrious
regret that Eome was subject to the slaves of slaves and
to a barbarous populace drawn together from aU the
corners of the earth. The twelfth hne of the following
verses is the same read backwards as forwards, and is
quoted from Sidonius ApolUnaris to denote the retro
grade fortune of Eome : " e dovette," says Muratori,
" una volta parere qualche meravighosa cosa : " —
" XobiUbus fueras quondam construofa patrouis
Subdita nunc servis. Heu male Eoma ruis
Deseruere tui tanto te tempore reges :
Cessit et ad Griecos nomen honosque tnum
In te nobilium rectonim nemo remansit,
Ingenuique tui rura Pelasga eolunt.
Vulgus ab extremis distractum partibus orbis,
Servorum servi nunc tibi sunt domini.
ConstantinopoUs florens nova Eoma vocatur,
Mcenibus et muris Roma vetusta cadis.
Hoc cantans prisco praedixit carmine vates,
Boma tibi subito motibus ibit amor.
Non si te Petri meritum Paulique foveret.
Tempore jam longo Roma misella fores.
Mancipibus subjecta jacens macularis iniquis,
Inclyta quas fueras nobiUtate nitens." f

* St. Gregory himself made the distinction between the repub
lican subjects of an emperor and the slaves of a king. " Hoc
namque inter reges gentium et reipubUcaj Imperatores distat, quod
reges gentium, domini servorum sunt, Imperatores vero Eeipublica;
domini liberorum." — Lib. xiii. Epist. xxxi.
t See Antiq. Med. ^vi, edit. 1739, tom. ii. p. 148, 149, Dis-
sertat. xxi. Muratori warns us not to think that the servorum servi
alludes to the popes. The title may not yet have been used, but to
whom do the words allude ? The phrase is singular, and has been
applied to only one character of antiquity, to Sextus Pompey :
" Libertonim suorum libertus, servorumque servus." — Veil. Pater-

380 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. X.
A boasted descendant of CamUlus was stUl left at the
beginning of the fifth century ; * but the unknown au
thor of the above complaint would lead us to believe
that the last relics of the Eoman race had in his time
disappeared. When the history of the pontiffs becomes all the -
history of Eome, we find each moment of peace and
prosperity employed in rebuilding the waUs, ia burn
ing lime, in constructing churches and shrines of
martyrs, the materials of which must, it is erident,
have been supphed from the deserted ruins. The re
pafr of former damages, and the increasing population
after the establishment of the Carlovingiau princes, aug
mented the apphcation to the same common quarry.
The reconstruction of an aqueduct to convey the oi'qua
Vergine to the Vatican by Hadrian I., at the end of
the eighth century, seems to prove that the Campus
Martins and the quarter about St. Peter's were then
chiefly inhabited, f The altar of the apostles had ga
thered round it a crowd of votaries who became settlers,
and for whose protection Leo IV. % surrounded -with a

cul., Hist., lib. ii. cap. Ixxiii. The slave of slaves had become the
king of kings, when a dedicator to Sixtus Quintus told him
" Ingentes si facta decent ingentia reges
Te regum regem, Sixte, quis esse neget."
— Da Barga, Comm. de Obelisco, ap. Groev,, tom. iv. p. 1931.
* St. Jerome had a female correspondent who was a descendant
of Camillus ; and St. Gregory was of the patrician family of the
Gordians. — See Bayle's Dictionary, art. Camillus.
t Anastas. in Vit. Had., p. 189.
X He was pope from 847 to 855.

Cm.\p. X. NOTICES IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 38 1
waU the suburb of the Vatican. Eespect for tbe niotber
of the churches, and the supposed scene of the baptism
of Constantine, had preserved the inhabitants in the
other extremity near the Lateran, * and the greater
was the population at these opposite points the more
complete must have been the desertion of many inter
mediate quarters within the vast cfrcuit of the walls.
It has been already observed that some of these spots
had become cultivated lands in the beginning of the
ninth century.
The edifices of old Eome are lost for more than two
hundred years, but reappear in a regionary of the
eighth or ninth century, who might make us suspect
that the abandonment had not yet reached the Forum.
His notice includes the foUo-wing monuments, which
he dirides amongst the regions after the example of
former itineraries : t the Thermse of Alexander, of
Commodus, of Trajan, of SaUust, with his pyramid, of
Diocletian, of Constantine, and some baths near St.
SUvestro in capite, a temple of Minerva, the temple

* Another aqueduct, the Claudian, was repaired for the service
of the Lateran. The Marcian water was also again brought to
Rome by Hadrian I. It seems that these streams and the Acqua
Trajana had been before partially recovered, it is uncertain by whoni,
and had again fallen into decay.
t See Bianchini's edition of the Lives of the Popes. Opuseulum
XV. prolegomena ad Vitas Roman. Pontificum, tom. ii. p. cxxii.
Bianehini calls him a regionary of the eighth or ninth century. The
date 875 has been assigned to bim. — See Dissertazione sulle Bovine,
Sec, p. 326. •

382 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. X.
of Jupiter,* the Eoman Forum, the Forum of Trajan,
the three Circuses, Maximus, Flaminius, and AgonaUs,
the Arch of Drusus called recordationis, the Arch of
Severus, that of Titus and Vespasian, and of Gratian,
Theodosius, and Valentinian, the Flavian Amphitheatre,
that caUed Castrense, the Capitol, the Septizonium of
Severus, a palace of Nero, another attributed to Pontius
Pilate, and a thfrd near Santa Croce in Gerusalemme,
the Theatres of Pompey and of MarceUus, the Pantheon,
the Mica Aurea, the Antonine and Trajan Columns, a
Nymphseum, an obeUsk near S. Lorenzo in Lucina, the
Horses of the Baths of Constantine, the Horse of Con
stantine, the elephant caUed Herbarium, a statue of
the Tiber, several aqueducts, and nameless porticoes.
It is worth while to observe how many of these monu
ments have been partially preserved up to this day,
so that one might suspect that those of a slighter con
struction had afready yielded to violence and time,
and those only had remained which were to be the
wonder, perhaps, of many thousand years. It is im
possible to determine in what state were these monu
ments, although they might be supposed entire from
the epithet broken being appUed to the aqueducts.-f
At the same time we know that the Theatre of Pompey
had been in decay three hundred years before, and

* Bianehini calls this the temple of the CapitoUne Jupiter without
giving any reason.
t The aqueducts are called Formoe, a name which Cassiodorus
gives them, Variar., Ub. vii.. Form vi. tom. i. p. 13. .

Cuap. X. NOTICES IN THE MIDDLE AGES. ;!83
that the Therma; had been altogether disused for the
same period, and must therefore have been in ruins.*
The Baths of SaUust were, it may be thought, partiaUy
destroyed when the fire of ^\Jaric was fatal to his palace.
It is probable that many of the above objects served
merely as land-marks amongst the many churches which
form the chief memorabilia of this ecclesiastical pilgrim,
who adorns the tweffth region with the head of St. John
the Baptist. In the same manner the Forum of Trajan
is noted by two authors of the tweffth and thirteenth
centuries, although it must, have been in ruins previous
to either of those dates.-f-

* 'W'e find mention of baths in the lives of the popes, as in that
of St. Hadrian, " In balneis Lateranensibus ; " but the ThermiB had
never been frequented since the siege of Vitiges. The total change
of manners in modem Eome has left it -without a single bath open
to the public ; nor is this a usual commodity in private houses.
t Benedicti Beati Petri Canonici, liber PoUieitus, ad Guidonem
de Castello, -svritten, says Mabillon, ante annum mc.xmu. quo Guido
iste ad pontificatus assumptus est, dictus Celestinus II. See Ordo
Romanus XI. ap. Mabill. Museum ItaUcum, tom. ii. p. 118, edit.
Paris, 1724.
See Liber de Mirabilihus Romae ap. Montfaucon. Diarium ItaUcum,
cap. XX. p. 283 to p. 301, edit. Paris, 1702.
In the year 1162 there -n-as a, church -with gardens and houses,
called St. Xiccolo alia Colonna Trajana. (Dissertazione sulleBovine,
p. 355.) Flavins Blondus, without mentioning his authority, says
that Symmachus I. built two churches there. Symmaohus was
Pope in 500, " In ejus fori excelsis mirabilibusque ruinis Sym
machus primus Papa ecclesias S. Basilii et item S. Silvestri et
Martini estruxit." — Rom. instaurata, lib. ii. fo. 38, edit. Taurin.
1527.

384 DESTRUCTION OF ROMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.

CHAPTEE XL
Continuation of Causes of Dilapidation.
The rising importance of the new city accelerated the
ruin of the old. From the time that Eome again be
came worth a contest, we find her citizens in arms,
sometimes against each other, sometimes against the
pretenders to the imperial crown. The spirit of feud
alism had distracted her inhabitants. Adalbert and
Lambert, the Dukes of Tuscany and Spoleto, were
in-rited to inflame the ci-ril furies,* and in the begin
ning of the tenth century, Alberic, Marquis of Came
rino, had obtained the dominion of Eome, and the hand
of the famous Marozia.! The expulsion of Hugo, king
of Burgundy and Italy, the last of the three husbands
of that "most noblg patrician," by Alberic the son of
the first, and the repeated assaults of the city by the
expelled tyrant, are not to be forgotten amongst the
causes of dUapidation.! The assumption of the im-

* A.D. 878, according to the Annali d' Italia.
t A.D. 910 to 925.
X Muratori calls Marozia " Nobilissima Patricia Romana," and
appears to disbelieve a part of the " laidezze e maldicenze " charged
to her by Luitprand, the repository of all the pasquinades and dc-

Chap. XI. REVOLUTIONS. 385
perial crown by the first Otho, in 962, and the revolts
of the Eoman captains, or pafricians, with that of
Crescentius, against Otho the Second and Thfrd,* had
renewed the wars in the heart of the city, and it is
probable had converted many of the larger structures
into ruins or strongholds.
The next appearance of the monuments is when they
had become the fortresses of the new nobihty, settled at
Eome since the restoration of the empfre of the west.!

famatory libels of the times. — Annali d'ltalia, ad an. 911, tom. v.,
p. 267. Marozia had one lover a Pope, Sergius III. ; and her
son by him, or more probably by her first husband, Alberic, was
John XI., Pope from 931 to 935. Guido, her second husband,
Duke or Marquis of Tuscany, was master of Rome from 925 to 929 ;
and Hugo, her third husband, from 929 to 932. Alberic, her son,
reigned as patrician and consul from 932 to 954 ; beat away Hugo
from Rome in 932, in 936, and perhaps 941, and although he had
married the king's daughter, contributed to his expulsion from Italy
in 946. His son Octavian reigned as patrician, or as Pope John XIL,
until 962.
* Romani capitanei patriciatus sibi tyrannidem vindicavSre. — See
Romuald Salem. Chronic. Muratori. annali, tom. v., p. 480, ad an.
987. The Romans revolted m 974, 987, 995, 996. Crescentius
stood a siege against Otho IIL, and was beheaded in 998 ; and
another revolt took place in 1001, at the coronation, of Conrad II.
In 1027, the Germans and Romans again fought in the city.
t The Frangipani, the Orsini, the Colonni, were certainly foreign,
and perhaps German families, although they all pretended a Roman
descent. The first when reduced, in the beginning of the seventh
century, to Mario, a poor knight, Signor of Nemi, published their
tree to identify their family -with that of Gregory the Great, " del
quale si prova il principio e il fine ma vi fe una largura di 200
anni in mezzo." — See Bdation di Boma del Aimaden, p. 139, edit.
1672, which may be consulted for some short but singular notices
respecting the Roman families.
VOL. I. S

386 DESTEUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
Some of these monuments were perhaps entfre, but it is
erident that some of them were in ruins when they first
served for dweUings or forts : such must have been the
case with the theatres of MarceUus and of Pompey.
How they came into the hands of thefr occupiers,
whether by grant of the Popes, or by seizure, or by
vacancy, is unknown ; one instance has reached us in
which Stephen, son of HUdebrand, consul of Eome in
975, gave to the monks of St. Gregory on the Csehan
mount, an ancient edifice caUed the Septem solia minor,
near the Septizonium of Severus, not to keep, but to
pull down.* The character of those to whom the pre
sent was made, and the purpose for which it was
granted, wUl account for the ruin of the ancient fabrics
in that period. The monks were afterwards joint
owners of the CoUseum,! and the columns of Trajan
and Marcus Aurelius were put in the possession of re
Ugious communities, who abandoned them to total
neglect.! Whatever were the means by which they

* Mittarelli, Annali Camaldolesi, tom. i. Append, num. xii. Coll.
96. " Donatio tempU de Septem solus minoris facta a Stephano
filio quondam Ildebrandi oonsuUs et ducis eidem Johanni abbati.
Id est illud meum templum, quod septem solia minor dicitur, ut ab
hac die vestrae sit potestati et voluntati pro tuitione turris vestrae
quiE septem solia major dicitur ad destruendum et sumptus depri-
mendum quantum vfibis placuerit." — p. 96, edit. 1755.
¦t See notice of the CoUseum.
X The AureUan column was made over to St. Silvestro in capite,
and a singular inscription is to this day seen under the porch of that
church, in which those who should alienate the column, and the
offerings, are excommunicated by the authority of the bishops and

CH.VP. XI. TE-\NSFER TO PRIVATE HAXDS. 387
obtained possession, the Orsini, in the Xlth and Xllth
centuries, had occupied the mole of Hadrian, and the
theatre of Pompey; the Colonna, the Mausoleum of
Augustus, and the baths of Constantine. The Conti
were in the Quirinal. The Frangipani had the Coli
seum and the Septizonium of Severus, and the Janus of
the Forum Boarium,* and a corner of the Palatine.
The SaveUi were at tiie Tomb of MeteUa. The Corsi
had fortified the Capitol. If the churches were not
spared, it is certain the pagan monuments would be pro
tected by no imagined sanctity, and we find that "the
Corsi famUy had occupied the BasUica of St. Paul,!
without the walls, and that the Pantheon was a fortress
defended for the Pope.!

cardinals, and "multorum clericorum, atque laicorum qui inter-
fuerunt." I saw it on the spot in 1817. A copy of it is given in Dis
sertazione, &c., p. 349. The date is 1119. There was a keeper
of the column in 193, shortly after it was built. The column
of Trajan was in the care of St. Niccolo, and the new senate and
people, in 1162, ordered that it should not be wantonly injured
vmder pain of death and confiscation. See Dissertazione, pp. 355,
356. Yet the Antonine column threatened to fall when repaired by
Sixtus Quintus. See De Columna Triumphali Commentarius,
Joseph! Castalionis ad Sixtum V. ap. Grtev. tom. iv. p. 1947.
" Erat valde confracta et multis in locis non rimas modo verum et
fenestras ampUssimas, vel portas discussis marmoribus duxerat ; "
and the base of the column of Trajan was under ground until the
time of Paul III.
* This was called Turris Ceneii Frangipani, and the remains of a
fort are still left upon the summit.
t Annali d' ItaUa, ad an. 1105, p. 344, tom. vi.
X See notice of the Pantheon.
s 2

388 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
When, in the eleventh century,* the quarrels between
the Church and the Empire had embroUed the whole of
Italy, Eome was necessarUy the chosen scene of com
bat. Within her walls there was space to fight, and
there were fortresses to defend. We read accordingly,
in the annals of those times, of armies encamped on
the Aventine, and moving from the Tomb of Hadrian
to the Lateran, or tuming aside to the CoUseum or the
Capitol, as if through a desert, to the attack of the
strong posts occupied by the respective partizans of the
Pope or the Empire. Gregory VII. may have the
merit of haring founded that power to which modem
Eome owes aU her importance, but it is equaUy certain,
that to the same pontiff must be ascribed the final ex
tinction of the city of the Csesars ; a destruction which
would have been classed with the havoc of reUgious zeal,
did it not belong more properly to ambition.! The
Emperor Henry IV., the troops of the Pope's nephew,
Eusticus, and the Normans of Eobert Guiscard, were
more injurious to the remains of Eome, from 1082 to
1084, than aU the preceding Barbarians of every age.
The first burnt a great part of the Leonine city, and

* It is the opinion of Mr. Nibby (Mura di Roma, p. 125) that the
great changes in the topography of Rome did not take place till the
eleventh century ; up to that period the streets had the ancient
directions. The gates were the same as in the old times, and the
houses were built upon the edifices of the imperial city.
X Annali d' Italia, ad an. 1082, 1083, 1084, tom. vi. p. 273 to
282.

Chap. XI. FOREIGN ARMIES. 389
ruined the portico of St. Peter : he destroyed also the
long portico from the Ostian gate to the church of St.
Paul. In his last frruption he leveUed a part of the
Septizonium to dislodge Eusticus, razed the fortresses of
the Corsi on the Capitol,* and battered the mole of
Hadrian. The Normans -j- and Saracens of Guiscard's

-* " Domes Corsorum subvertit, dehinc septem solia, quibus Eus
ticus nepos pKedicti Pontificis continebatur, obsidere cum multis
maehinis beUicis attentavit, de quibus quamplurimas columnas sub
vertit." — Baronii Annales Ecclesiast. ad an. 1084, tom. xvii. p. 551.
Luc«, 1740.
t " Eobertus autem dux Romam cum exercitu nootu ingressus,
dum ad ecelesiam Sanctorum Quatuor Coronatorum advenisset, ex
consiUo Cincu Romanorum ConsuUs ignem urbi injecit: Romani
igitur rei novitate perculsi, dum extinguendo igni toti incumberent.
Dux ad areem St. AngeU continuo properans." .... Leo Ostiensis
(a contemporary) ap. Baron., p. 553, in loc. cit.
Bertholdus has these stronger words : " Robertus Guiscardus,
Dux Northmannorum in servitium Sancti Petri post kai. Mail
Romam armata manu invasit, fugatoque Henrico totam urbem
Gregorio Papae rebeUem penitus expoUavit, et magnam ejus partem
igni consumpsit, eo quod Romani quondam ejus militem vulnera-
vemnt." — Ap. Baron, loc. citat. p. 552. A poet, Hugo Flavinia-
censis, says only, " Quibusdam aedibus incensis." Another author,
" Immo ipse cum suis totam regionem illam, in qua Ecclesia Sancti
Silvestri, et Sancti Laurentii in Lucina sitae sunt, penitus destruxit,
et fere ad nihil redegit  Eegiones illas circa Lateranum, et
Colisaeum positas igne comburere." — Cardin. de Aragonia et alior.
Vit^ Pontif. Eom. ap. Script. Ber. Ital., tom. iii. p. 313. And
other %vriters, " Per diversa loca civitatis miscere jubet incendia
. . . Ipsis ergo superatis, et ci-vitate in magna sui parte eollisa." —
Anonymi Vaticani. Historia Sicula. ap. Scriptor, Ber, Ital., tom.
viii. p. 773. It is not known when he lived.
"Dux itaque Eomam ingressus cepit maximam partem urbis,
hostiliter incendens et vastans a Palatio Laterani usque Castellum
S. Angeli, ubi Papa Gregorius oppugnabatur." — Romualdi Salerni
tani Chronicon, ap. Script, Ber. Ital., tom. vU. p. 175. He was

390 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap, XI.
army, with the papal faction, burnt the to-wn from the
Flaminian gate to the Antonine column, and laid waste
the sides of the EsquUine to the Lateran ; thence he set
fire to the region from that church to the Coliseum and
the Capitol, or, according to some authorities, to the
Tiber. He attacked the Coliseum for several days, and
finished the ruin of the Capitol. It is reasonable to
believe that the flames were arrested by the -wilderness
which had before existed to the south of these positions,
and, indeed, in other quarters. Besides the former
notice of farms in Eome, we find that there were
lands cultivated and uncultivated in the ninth region of
the city, about the Thermse of Alexander, so early as the
year 998.*

archbishop of Salerno from 1153 or 1154 to 1181. " II che forse non
merita molta credenza : " so Muratori thinks, Annali ad an, 1084.
"Urbs maxima ex parte incendio, vento admixto accresoente,
oonsumitur." — Gauferdi Malaterrae, ibid., tom. v. p. 588. Hist,
Sicula, Landulfus Senior, the Milanese historian, whom the writers aU
attack, because he declared against the mad ambition and celibacy
of Gregory VII., and for the introduction of whom in his coUection
Muratori thought himself obliged to make an apology, has these
strong expressions on Guiscard's fire : " Quid multa ? tribus civitatis
partibus, multisque palatus Regum Romanorum adustis, Gregorius
demum filiis male crismatis filiabusque pejus eonseoratis, cui jam
spes uUa vivendi in civitate non erat, ab urbe exiliens cum Roberto
Salernum profeotus est. Ubi per pauca vivens tempora tamquam
malorum ipcenam emeritus est." — Hist. Medial,, lib. iv. cap. in.
Script. Ber, Ital,, tom. iv. p. 120. Landulphus was a contemporary
writer. * There were three churches also in these precincts rising amongst
crypts and fragments of columns — a sign to whom the destruction
should be referred.-^See Dissertazione, &o., p. 357.

Chap. XL EOBERT GUISCARD. 391
The conflagi-ation of Giuscard created or confirmed a
sohtude much more extensive than is embraced by that
"spacious quarter between the Lateran and the Coli
seum," to which it is confined by our own lustorian.
From that period at least must be dated the desolation
of a great part of the EsquUine, and all the Viminal,
and much of the CoeUan bill, including the irretrievable
ruin perhaps of the Coliseum, and certainly of many of
the remaining sfructures of the Forums and the Sacred
Way.* A contemporary -writer ! says, that all the regions
of the city were ruined ; and another spectator, who
was in Eome! twelve years afterwards, laments, that

* There was a proverb, even in this day, which speaks the
beauty of the Eoman edifices : " Unde in proverbium dictum est :
Mediolanum in clericis, Papia in deliciis, Eoma in aedificiis, Ravenna
in ecclesUs." — Landulfl, Sen., lib. iii. cap. i. p. 96.
Flavins Blondus quotes the epistles of Gregory VIL, and his bio
grapher Pandulphus, above cited, for the battles of the Coliseum,
¦but they are not mentioned in the first, they may be in the second.
He attributes the desolation of Rome, as he saw it, to Guiscard ;
this however was not Caesarean Rome, but that restored by the
Popes. " Ea nos et alia Henrici quarti temporibus gesta conside-
rantes, conjicimus urbem Eomanam quae Pontificum Romanoi-um
beneficio imminutas longe supra vires non parum instauraverat,
tunc prima ad hanc quae nostris inest temporibus rerum exiguitatem
esse perductam.'" — Quoted in Dissertazione, &c., p. 342. Query
instaurata erat.
X Boninzone, Bishop of Sutri, in Dissertazione, p. 340.
X Hildebert, Archbishop of Tours, was in Rome in 1106. 'William
of Malmesbury, De gestis Rer. Angl., lib. iii. p. 134, gives the fol
lowing elegy : —
Par tibi Roma nihil, cum sis prope tota ruina
Quam magna fueris Integra fraeta doees.
Proh dolor ! urbs cecidit cujus dum speeto ruinas
Penso statum, solitus dicere ; Roma fuit. Non

392 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
although what remained could not be equalled, what
was ndned could never be repafred. What chiefly
excited his astonishment was the beauty of the statues,
which the gods themselves might survey with en-yy, and
which, in his opinion at least, were worthy of being
worshipped on the sculptor's account. WiUiam of
Malmesbury, who reports the elegy of the latter writer,
also informs us, that, comparatively speaking, Eome was
now become a Uttle town. In those times the rage of
the conflicting factions was often vented against the
houses of thefr enemies, and thefr destruction must
have involved that of the neighbouring monuments, or
of those in which the towers of the Eoman nobles were,

Non tamen annorum series, non flamma, nee ignis
Ad plenum potuit hoc abolere decus.
Tantum restat adhuc, tantum ruit, ut neque pars stans
.^jquari possit, diruta nee refici.
Confer opes, ebur, et marmor, superumque favorem
Artificum -vigilent in nova facta manus.
Non tamen aut fieri par stahti fabrica muro
Aut restaurari sola ruina potest.
Cura hominem potuit tantam componere Romam
Quantum non potuit solvere cura deum.
Hie superum formas superi mirantur et ipsi,
Et cupiunt fictis vultibus esse pares.
Non potuit natura deos hoe ore oreare
Quo miranda deum signa crea-vit homo
Vultus adest his numinibus, potiusque coluntur
Artificum studio quam deitate sua.
Urbs felix si vel dominis urbs ilia oareret
Vel dominis esset turpe carere fide.
George Fabricius gives a part of this elegy in his Epistola Xuncu-
patoria prefixed to his Descriptio Eomae, ap. GriBv., tom. iii.

Chap. XI. ROBERT GUISCARD. 393
in many instances, buUt. In 1 1 16, the citizens, revolting
against Pope Paschal II. , threw down * several of the
dweUings of the Piefro Leone famUy. The Emperor
Lothafre II. in 1133 or 1134, pitched his camp on the
Aventine. Innocent II. was in possession of the
Lateran, the Coliseum, and the Capitol ; and the parti
sans of the antipope, Anaclete, had the Vatican, the
castie of St. Angelo, and many other strong places of
the city.! In the annals of the twelfth century these
sfrong places of Eome are mentioned as ff they stood
not in a city, but in a pro-vtnce.! The struggles between
the pontiffs and the people, the revolution of Arnold of
Brescia,§ renewed the contests of ViteUius and Sabinus
for the Capitol, from which were alternately driven the
adherents of the new senate and the friends of the
Pope. The BasUica of St. Peter's was fortified for the

* Annali d' ItaUa, tom. vi. p. 384.
t Mr. Gibbon says, " I cannot recover in Muratori's original Lives
of the Popes (Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. p. 1) the passage
that attests this hostile partition," namely, "whilst one faction
occupied the Vatican and the Capitol, the other was entrenched in
the Lateran and Coliseum,^ cap. Ixxi. p. 420, vol. xu. The division
is mentioned in Vita Innoeentii Papae II. ex Cardinale Aragonio,
Script. Rer. Ital., tom. ui. part i. p. 435 ; and he might have found
frequent other records of it at other dates.
I In the time of Innocent IH., from 1195 to 1216, there were only
35,000 inhabitants within the walls.
§ It began in 1143, and was matured in 1145. Niccolini, in the
Life of Arnold, prefixed to his tragedy of that name, defends his
hero against the charge of destroying the palaces of the nobles,
excepi those which were turned into fortresses. See Vit. d' Arnoldo.
in Firenze, 1843.
S 3

394 DESTEUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
people, and in those commotions (in 1145) it is recorded
that many of the towers and palaces of the Eoman
nobles were levelled with the ground.*
Antiquaries have been able to catch a glimpse of the
ruins fifty years subsequently to the fire of Guiscard, in
some account of the ceremonials and processions of the
papal court, written by a canon and chorister of St.
Peter's,! who, besides those monuments whose names

¦* Annali d' Italia, tom. vi. p. 481.
t Benedicti. Beati. Petii. Canonici, &c, quoted before. He men
tions the Arch of Gratian, Theodosius, and Valentinian, near the
jElian bridge ; the Obelisk of Nero ; the Circus of Alexander, in the
Piazza Navona ; the Temple of Concord, near the Arch of Severus ;
the Arch and Temple of Nerva (Nerviae) ; a Temple of Janus ; the
Forum of Trajan ; the Forum of C^sar ; the Arch of Titus and
Vespasian, called Septem Lueernarum ; the Arch of Constantine ;
the Coliseum ; the Theatre of Pompey ; the Pantheon, which he is
thought to have called Porticus Agrippinas, though in fact he calls
it Sancta Maria Eotunda, Militiae Tiberianae, on the Quirinal ; the
Arch of Piety ; the Memoria, or Temple, or Castle of Adrian ; the
Templum Fatale, near the Temple of Concord ; the Pine, near the
Palatine ; the Arcus Manus Carneae ; the Mamertine dungeon ; the
Asylus, through the flinty road (Silicem) where Simon Magus fell,
and near the Temple of Romulus ; the Meta Sudans ; the Sepulchre
of Romulus, near the Vatican ; a Portico of the Gallati before the
Temple of the Sibyl ; the Temple of Cicero ; the Portico of the
Comori, or Crinori ; the BasiUca of Jupiter ; the Areh of Flaminius ;
the Portions Severinus ; the Temple of Cratieula ; the island Milioena
and the Draconorium ; the island of the Tiber, and the Temple of
the Epidaurian Serpent ; the Via Arenula ; the Theatre of Anto
ninus ; the Palace of Cromatius, where was the Holomitreum, or
Oloritreum ; the Macellus Lunanus, or Eumanus (an arch, probably
that of GaUienus) ; the Temple of Marius, called Cimber ; the
Merulana ; the arcus in Lathone ; the house of Orpheus. — See
Museum ItaUcum,, tom. ii. p. 118 to 157, edit. Paris, 1724.

Chap. XI. FORTRESSES OF EOM.VN NOBLES. 395
are recognisable, mentions sevend objects disfigured by
the barbarism of the times.
The caution before given must be repeated. There is
good reason to suspect that many of the monuments
which he mentions were not entfre, but were noted as
landmarks, as they might be at this day. The same
canon gives us to understand, that the roads in the city
were then so bad, that in the short days the Pope was
obliged to conclude his procession before he came to
the station prescribed by the ritual* The language in
which these ceremonies are described, is as barbarous as
the ceremonies themselves; of which a cardinal, who
transcribed another ritual belonging to the same cen
tury, has also preserved an exfraordinary specimen. It
would be difficult to find a more deplorable picture of
human ricissitude than that afforded by the contrast of
the friumph of Pompey through repubUcan Eome, and
the progress of a Pope of the tweffth century, on the
day of his coronation, preceded by his subdeacon with a
spitting-towel, foUowed by the new senators -with thefr
provision of wine, meat, and towels, and picking his way.

* "Sed propter parvitatem diei et difBcultatem viae, facit sta-
tionem ad Sanctam Mariam Majorem, et vadit in secretarium." —
Ibid., num. 17, p. 126. The triumph of AureUan lasted so long
that it was dark before he reached the palace, but from a very dif
ferent reason. " Denique vix nona hora in capitolium pervenit.
Sero autem ad palatium." — Vopisc. in Vita AureUan.

396 DESTEUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
amongst faUen fragments, from shrine to shrine, and
ruin to ruin.*
The monuments are occasionally mentioned in the
struggles between the pontiffs and the emperors of the
house of Suabia, and the intestine factions of the nobles,
in which the strong places, the CoUseum, the Septi
zonium, the Mole of Hadrian, the Palatine castle of the
Frangipani, were repeatedly assaulted and taken. In
1150 the people attacked and took certain towers be
longing to the adherents of the Pope and WiUiam of
SicUy. We find, in the' Annals for 1167, that the Germans of
Frederic Barbarossa assaulted the Vatican for a week,
and the Pope saved himseff in the Cohseum.! The
Colonna were driven from the mausoleum of Augustus.
After the Popes had begun to yield in the unequal con-

* " Ante dominum Papam aliquantulum sequestratus incedit
prior subdiaconus regionarius cum toalea, ut cum voluit dominus
Papa spuere possit illo gausape os suum mundare." Ordo Romanus
XII. by Oricius de SabelUs, cardinal and chamberlain to Celestine
III. He was afterwards Honorius III. The ritual was used before
the year Moxoii. — See Museum ItaUcum, tom. ii. p. 165 to p. 220.
" Senatores, quando eomedunt, habere debent lavinam mediam
vini et mediam elareti in unaquaque die coronationis. Eiisdem
etiam datur toalea, ubi eomedunt, a panetaiiis, et postmodum red-
ditur ipsis. Pro quadraginta comestionem recipiunt unaquaque die
coronationis." Onufrius Panvinius renders lavinam " psalmam, or
salmam, quo nomine sagina sen onus ae sarcina equi aliusque ani-
maUs oniferi intelUgitur." — Ibid,, num. xxxvi. p. 202. As the new
senators had food for forty allowed them, we may guess at their
usual number, which has been so uncertain.
t Annali, tom. vi. p. 576 et seq.

Chap. XI. "WAES BET'V\'EEN POPES AND EMPERORS. 397
test with the senators and people, and had ceased to be
constantiy resident at their capital, the field was left
open for the wars of the senators, that is, of the nobles
themselves. The Colonna and Ursini then appear
amongst the desfroyers of the city ; and when, to arrest
thefr violence, the people elected the senator Branca-
leone (in 1252), the expedient of the Bolognese magis
trate was to throw down not only 140 of the towers
of the refractory nobles,* but, ff we are to beheve the
Augustan history -j- of Henry ATIL, " many palaces of
kings and generals, the remains of ages since the buUd-

* " Brancaleo interim senator Romanus, turres nobilium Roma
norum diruit et eonmdem dominos incarceravit." — Mat. Paris.
Henric. Ill, p. 972, edit. London, 1640.
" Eodem quoque anno senator Eomanus Brancaleo videns inso-
lentiam et superbiam nobilium Eomanorum non posse aliter reprimi
nisi castra eorum, qui erant quasi spoUatomm carceres, prosteme-
rentur, dirui fecit eorundem nobilium turres circiter centum et qua-
drs^inta, et solo tenus complanari." — Ibid,, p. 975.
" Fuerat enim superborum potentum et malefactomm urbis mal
leus et extirpator, et popuU protector et defensor, veritatis et jus-
titije imitator, et amator." — Ibid,, p. 980.
t " Nee hactenus subsistit viri audentis [Jacob-Joannis Arloti
degli Stephanisci] acerbitas ut si quidem Brancaleonem, Bononiensem
(qui regum, ac ducum per tot ab urbe condita sacula palatia, thermas,
fana, columnas, verterat in ruinas) ipse memorabiUter supererat." —
Alberti Mussati, Historia Augusta, de gestis Henrici VIL, lib. xi.
rubrica xii. ap, Scriptores Eerum Italicarum, tom. x. p. 508, edit.
Mediol., 1727. Mussatus was a Paduan, bom about the year 1260,
a laureate poet, and an historian. See the preface by Muratori,
prefixed to the collection, tom. x. &c.
Gibbon (cap. Ixix. p. 286 to 288, vol. xu. 8vo.), who has copied
the eulogy of Matthew Paris, does not seem at all aware that Brancar
leone applied his hammer to the ancient fabrics, Mussatus, how
ever, was a contemporary.

398 DESTRUCTION OF ROMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
ing of the city, the thermse, the fanes, and the columns,"
of the old to-wn. If this was the case, the tumults and
the repose of Eome were aUke destructive of her
ancient fabrics. This record must, however, be be
Ueved -with some reserve ; and, indeed, the same his
tory informs us, that there were reUcs which escaped the
vigour of this adminisfration, and which a rival of the
fame of Brancaleone (in 1313) intended to desfroy.
But his labours were confined to a single tower, which
impeded the passage of the people across the Tiber, at
the bridge of Santa Maria.
There were intervals between the death and choice of
the Popes, when the city seems to have been unprorided
with any recognised authorities, and the senate itseff
had no representative. Such an interregnum occurred
after the death of Nicholas IV. in 1291, and six months
of civU war* are described by a spectator as haring

* " Assumpti populi capitoUa jussu
Ascendunt : sed morte ducis vis annua mense
Clauditur Ursini, timidoque furentis in arma
Descensu, dum scripta petit, dum fossa sigilla.
Quo gradior ? quid plura sequor, quae texere longum ?
Hoc dixisse sat est ; Romam caruisse senatu.
Mensibus exactis, heu 1 sex, belloque vocatum
In scelus, in socios, fratemaque vuUiera patres.
Tormentis jecisse viros immania saxa
Perfodisse domes trabibus, fecisse ruinas
Ignibus, incensas turres  "
See Vita Celestini Papx V. opus metrioum. Jacobi Cardinalis S.
Georgii ad velum-aureum. Coasvi et in Papatu familiaris. Script.

Chap. XI. CIVIL WAR IN 1291. 399
reduced Eome to the condition of a town besieged, bom
barded, and burnt. The petrarice, or engines for dis-
charguig stones, which unfortunately surrived the loss
of other ancient arts, had arrived, in the twelfth and
thfrteenth centimes, to the pernicious perfection of dart
ing enormous masses, perhaps of 1200 pounds weight.
They are noted amongst the insfruments of destraction
employed at Eome in this and the subsequent period,
and were erected on the basiUcas and towers.*
A year preriously to the attempt of the second Bran-
caleone,"!- the Emperor, Henry VII. had found that all
the towers had not been thrown down by the Bolognese
senator, for he was obUged to drive the Annibaldi from
the Torre de' MiUtii, from the tower of St. Mark, and
from the Coliseum ; and, so late as the reign of Martin
V. there were forty-four towers in one borgo of the
city.!

Rer. Ital., tom. iu. p. 621, cap. iu. This classical cardinal chooses
to correct velabro, the actual old word, into velum-aureum. The
trabes were battering-rams, caUed gatti, cat's-head.
* Antiq. Med. ^vi. Dissert. 26, p. 432, tom. i. ItaUan edition.
The Romans used them in the ninth century.
t His name was James-John-Arloti-Stephanisci. The Abate
Fea, Dissertazione, &c., p. 361, 362, seems to overlook that this
Stephanisci and his adherents did not succeed. " Sed secus ac
praemeditati sunt, fortuna, successusque vota eorum distraxere,"
says Mussatus, in loc. citat. The Abate believes he discovers
signs of modem work on the portico ofthe temple of Faustina,
and above the arch of Pantani, which he thinks were thrown down
by Branealeone.
X Dissertaizione 26, sopra le Antichita Italiane, p. 446, tom. i.,
edit. Milan, 1751.

400 DESTRUCTION OF ROMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
The coronation of the Emperor Henry VII. was
attended -with battles fought in every quarter of the
city from the Vatican to the Lateran;* and whilst he
received the ensigns of universal empfre in the latter
church, his rival John, the brother of Eobert of Naples,
was in possession of the fortress (the church) of St.
Peter's, and of several other posts in the heart of Eome.
The faU of houses, the fire, the slaughter, the ringing of
the beUs from aU the churches, the shouts of the com
batants, and the clanging of arms, the Roman people
rushing together from aU quarters towards the Capitol —
this universal uproar was the strange, but not unusual,
prelude to the coronation of a Csesar. A spectator of
these disasters records,! that they continued after the
Emperor had retfred from Eome to TivoU, and that
the cardinals apprehended the total destruction of the
city. It is doubtful to what period to assign an account of
the ruins which a pUgrim saw and described before this
last calamity. The book on "the Wonders of Bome"
which has been before cited, would appear to have been

* " Historia Augusta, Albert. Mussati, in loo. citat., lib, viii.
Rubrica IV. Conversatio Caesaris cum Romanorum principihus, et
cohortatio ad dandas fortilitias." Henry made a speech to these
princes, and called them " Quirites," — See Rubrica V.
X See Iter ItaUcum Henrici VII. Imperat. Nicolai episcopi Bo-
trontinensis ap. Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom. ix. p. 885.
" Rebus quas narrat interfuit." Muratori says, in his preface, —
" Deinde Cardinales videntes commotionem populi et urbis con-
tinuam destructionem." — Ibid., p. 919.

Chap. XI. CORONATION OF HEXRY VII. 401
written before Brancaleone had' commenced his opera
tions against the towers of the nobles, for there are a
great many of such objects noticed by the pUgrim.
The eyes and ears of this " barbarous topographer "*
are not so valuable to us as Gibbon appears to have
supposed; for notwithstanding his use of the present
tense, he speaks certainly of many objects either partiaUy
ruined or totaUy overthrown. The number of the
theafres and arches seen by him is nearly equal to that
in the plan of old Eome : he talks of an imperial palace
in the Palatine, of a palace of Eomulus, and, in other
respects, is ambitious of telling what he had heard,
rather than what he had seen.! Of his antiquarian lore
our historian has given a specimen in his account of the
Capitoline bells and statues ;! and to this may be added,
that he calls the Fasti of Ovid the martyrology, because
it contains mention of nones and kalends. The pUgrim
was perhaps as learned as the people of Eome, some of
whom, in the next century, behoved that the sports of
the Testacean mount, and the roUing cartloads of Uve

* Decline and Fall, &c.,,cap. Ixxi. p. 399, vol. xxi. oct.
t " Palatia magna imperatorum ista sunt, palatium majus in Pa-
lentio monte positum." — See Montf., Diar, Ital,, in loc. citat., p.
284. " Palatium RomuU inter S. Mariam novam et S. Cosmatem ubi
sunt dus sedes pietatis et concordiae, ubi posuit Romulus statuam
suam auream dicens." " Non cadet nisi virgo paret ; statim ut
parturit virgo, statua ilia corruit." — Ibid.
X Decline and Fall, cap. Ixxi. p. 395, tom. xii. octavo.

402 DESTEUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
hogs down that hUl, were the festal amusements of Cato
and Cicero.*
The absence of the popes from the year 1306 to 1376,
has been esteemed pecuUarly calamitous to the ancient
fabrics ; but this supposition is founded upon the appa
rentiy false conception, that the bishops of Eome pro
tected the monuments, and that the integrity of many,
even of the larger structures, was protracted to the
fourteenth century. The only protection of which the
remains of the old town could boast, during the middle
ages, proceeded from the popular government, which on
one occasion prohibited the injury of the column of
Trajan under pain of death, f The senate and the people
were invested with the nominal guardianship of the
edifices not occupied by the nobles, and in much later
times may be discerned to have shown some respect
to the memorials of thefr ancestors. A northern Ger
man, who came to Eome in the pontificate of Pius IV.
and whom Flaminius Vacca caUs a Goth, appUed to the
apostoUc chamber for permission to excavate at the base
of some of the ancient structures, in search of freasure,
which his barbarous ancestors were supposed to have
left behind them in the precipitancy of a three days'
plunder. The German was told that permission must

* " Ludi fiunt agonales, aut in campo quem Testaceum appel
lant, quem nonnulU hodie ex vulgo putant veterum senatorum
gestamen extitisse." — See Frederici III, advent. Bom. ap. Museum
ItaUcum, tom. i. p. 258, edit. 1724.
t See previous notice of this in Chap. IX.

Cuap. XI. ABSEXCE OF TIIE POPES. 403
be obtained from the Eoman people, to whom the
monuments belonged. It seems that he procured leave
to commence his labours; but having been observed
to dig deeply, the populace alarmed at his progress,
which endangered thefr arch, and indignant that the
Goths should return to complete the spoliation of jilaric,
drove the excavator from his labours, with a riolence
which proved nearly fatal to him.*
Had it been possible to establish the popular govern
ment which was the aim of Eienri, during the absence of
the popes, the Eomans, whose love of Uberty was to be
kept alive by a constant reference to the institutions of
thefr ancestors, would have been taught to venerate,
though blindly, the toophies of thefr former glory. The
tribune would not have partaken with Colonna alone
the pride and pleasure to be derived from the study of
those eloquent remains. Notwithstanding thefr pastor
had deserted them, and they were a prey to the disorders
occasioned by the struggles of thefr ferocious nobles, the
period of the exUe at Arignon is distinguished for the
decency and magnificence with which thefr pubUc func
tions were performed.! In proportion as they shook off

" * Memorie di Flaminio Vacca, p. xvi. num. 103. The Memoirs
are at the end of one of the Italian editions of Nardini.
t " Veniva la persona del Senatore con maesta a cavallo sopra
bianca chinea, &c.
" Veniva il Gonfaloniere del Popolo Romano : e questo dignita
si in pace, come in guerra porta lo standardo grande della liberta
Romana, il quale era di tabi cremesino con le lettere + S. P. Q. R."

404 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
the papal yoke, they appear to have recovered some
portion of thefr ancient splendour, and a change has
been observed to have taken place in thefr manners so
early as the middle of the thfrteenth century. They
received the unfortunate Conradin* in 1268, with a
state which surprised his suite. The desolation of the
city during the papal residence at Arignon has been
selected from ages of more rapid destruction, because it
has been transmitted to us in aU the colours of eloquence.
Petrarch, however, has been unfafrly quoted as a proof
of what Eome suffered by the absence of the popes.! It
should be remembered that his first -wish was the estab
lishment of the repubhc of Eienri, and the second, the
reign and presence of an emperor at Eome : whUst the
reconciUation of the shepherd with his flock was only
the last resource which remained for a patriot and a
Eoman who had lost aU hope of Uberty or empire.! One
of those shepherds. Innocent VL, thought Petrarch a

— See Ordine e Magnifkenza de i Magistrati Bomani nel tempo che
la Corte del Papa stava in Avignone, — Antiq. Med. JEvi, tom. ii.
p. 855, Dissert. 29. The -writer praises not only their scarfs and
velvets, but their justice and virtue and republican pride.
* Antiq. Med. ^vi. Dissert. 23, tom. U. p. 313. Muratori,' ac
cording to the old way of thinking, talks of " quel ladro del lusso."'
t By the Abate Fea in his dissertation.
X Decline and Fall, c. Ixx. p. 363, tom. xii. oct. See also Me
moires pour la Vie de Petrarque, liv. iii. tom. ii. p. 335, for Rienzi ;
also, Uv. iv. tom. iii. p. 66, for the Emperor Charles. For what
Petrarch thought of the ohurch, see liv. iv. p. 277, tom. iii. edit.
Amsterdam, 1747.

Ch.\p. XI. ABSEXCE OF THE POPES. 105
sorcerer. The poet of the Capitol* was overwhelmed
first with delight and then with regret. He complained
that the very ruins were in danger of perishing ; that
the nobles were the rivals of time and the ancient
barbarians ;! and that the columns and precious marbles
of Eome were devoted to the decoration of the slothful
mefropoUs of thefr NeapoUtan rivals. Yet it appears
that these columns and marbles were talvcn from palaces
comparatively modem, from the thresholds of churches,
from the shrines of sepulchres, from structures to which
they had been conveyed from thefr original site, and

* For the surprise of Petrarch, when he first came to Eome, see
his letter to John Colonna, de Eeb. FamiUarib. Epist. lib. ii. Ep. xiv.
p. 605, edit. Basil, 1581, " ab urbi Eoma quod expectat," &e. Co
lonna, however, had told him not to expect too much. " Solebas
enim, memini, me veniendo dehortari hoc maxime praetextu, ne
minosae urbis aspectu famae non respondente atque opinioni meae, ex
libris conceptse, ardor mens ille lentesoeret." Colonna's evidence is
better than Petrarch's, who would be astonished now, as we are, at
what stiU remains.
¦j- " Nee te parva manet servatis fama ruinis.
Quanta quod Integra; fuit olim gloria Eomae
Eeliquiae testantur adhuc ; quas longior aetas
Frangere non valuit ; non vis aut ira cruenti
Hostis, ab egregiis franguntur civibus, heu ! heu !
Quare rabies occurre malis, hoc scilicet unum.
Quod ille (Hannibal) nequivit
Perfecit hie aries — tua fortia pectora mendax
Gloria non moveat," &c.
— Carmina Latina, 1. ii. Epist. Paulo Annibalensi, xii. p. 98.
Petrarch presumed that the ruins around him had been occasioned
by the mischiefs which he saw, and which were partly the cause of
dilapidation.

406 DESTRUCTION OF ROMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
finaUy from faUen runis.* The solid masses of antiquity
are not said to have suffered from this spoliation, and the
edifices, whose impending min affected the laureate, were
the sacred BasUicas then converted into fortresses, f The
great earthquake of 1349 may have been more pernicious
than human violence, and would appear, from Pefrarch!

* The distinction is carefuUy to be observed. The words of
Petrarch are, — " Denique post vi aut senio coUapsa pallatia, quae
quondam ingentes tenuerunt viri, post diruptos arcus triumphales
(unde majores horum forsitan cormerunt) de ipsius vetustatis ac
propria? impietatis fragminibns vilem questum turpi meroimonio
captare non puduit." — See Epistola Hortatoria ad Nichol, Lauren-
tium, Trib. P, Q, B, de Capessenda Libertate, p. 536.
" Sed quo animo, da quaeso misericors Pater temerariae devotioni
meae veniam, quo, inquam, animo, tu ad ripam Rhodani sub auratis
teotorum laquearibus somnium capis, et Lateranum humi jacet et
ecclesiarum mater omnium tecto carens, et ventis jjatet, ao pluviis,
et Petri ae Pauli sanctissimae domus tremunt, et apostolorum quae
nunc aedes fuerat jam ruina est." Petrarch -wrote this to Urban V.,
who began his reign in 1352. — Epist. Ber, Sen,, lib. vii. Epist. i.
opera, p. 815, tom. ii.
+ " Quod templa celeberrima, et sanctissima in Christianitate,
augusta ilia monumenta pietatis Constantini Magni, ubi Summi
Pontifices, cum insignibus supremae suae dignitatis capiunt posses
sionem Sedis Apostolicae penitus neglecta maneant, sine honore, sine
omamentis, sine instauratione, et omni ex parte ruinas minentur."
This was the complaint of a deputation from the senate and Roman
people to the cardinals in 1378. — Dissertazione sulle Bovine, &c.,
p. 369.
X " Cecidit aadificiorum veterum neglecta civibus, stupenda pere-
grinis moles," says Petrarch, lib. x. Epist. u. He confines, how
ever, his individual mention to the Tor de' Conti, to the fall of a
good part of the church of St. Paul, and of the roof of the Lateran.
" Turris ilia toto orbe unica, quae Comitum dicebatur, ingentibus
ruinis laxata dissiluit, et nunc velut trunca caput superbi verticis
honorem solo eflfusum despicit," Ub. x. Epist. ii. oper.
It may be s-aspected Petrarch did not distinguish exactly between

Chap. XI. RETURX OF THE POPES. 407
^d from another authority,* to have thrown down
some of the ancient monuments; and an inundation
of the Tiber iu 1345 is faithfuUy recorded amongst
the afflictions of the times. The summits of the hiUs
alone were above the water, which converted the lower
grounds to a lake for eight days.-f-
The absence of the popes might have been fatal to
the modem city, and have reduced it to a sohtude;!
but such a sohtude would have protected many a frag
ment, which thefr retum and the subsequent rapid
repopulation have for ever annihilated. Thefr retum §
was the signal of renewed riolence. The Colonna and
Orsini, the people and the church, fought for the Capitol
and towers ; and the forfress of the popes, the refitted
mole of Hadrian, repeatedly bombarded the to-wn. |1

the old Roman remains and the buildings of the papal to-wn. The
Tor de' Conti was buUt in 1203.
* " In urbe vero cecidit quaedam columna de marmore qu» sus-
tinebat ecelesiam Sancti PauU cum tertia parte vel circa cooperti
ipsius ecclesiae, et multae alias ecclesije ibi et aedificia mirabiliter ee-
ciderunt." — See Chronicon Mutinense auctore Johanne de Bazano,
Script, Ber. Ital., tom. xv. p. 615.
t Historiae Romanae fragmenta, cap. xv. de lo grandissimo dilu-vio
e piena de acqua de lo Fiume Tevere. — See Antiq. Med, .^'vi, tom.
iii. J). 392.
X " Perche Roma senza la presenza de' Pontefici fe piuttosto simile
a una solitudine che a una citta," says Guicciardini, on the occasion
of Adrian VI.'s entry into Rome. — See DeW Istoria d' Italia, lib.
XV. p. 1015, foi. There were, in fact, only 17,000 inhabitants in
1377, as stated by CancelUeri in his letter on the cUmate of Rome.
§ In 1378, in the reign of Urban VL, the great schism began.
II In 1404, after the death of Boniface IX. — also in 1405— and
again in the civil war between Innocent VII. and the Romans.

408 DESTRUCTION OF ROMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
During the great schism of the West, the hostUe
entries of Ladislaus of Naples,* and the tumultuary
government of the famous Perugian, Braccio Montone,-f"
are known to have despoUed the Tomb of Hadrian. !
Perhaps they were fatal to other monuments.
Yet that violence was probably less pernicious than

" E in quello subito lo castello di Sant' Angelo si ruppe eo i Eomani
e commincib a bombardare per Eoma." — See Stephan. Infessura,
Scriba del Senato e Popolo Bomano, Diario della citta di Boma, ap.
Script, Eer, Ital., tom. iii. p. 1115.
* Ladislaus came peaceably into Eome on the 15th of Sejjtember,
1404 : on the 20th of August, 1405, three thousand of his horse
entered Rome, and a battle was fought in the streets near the castle.
In April, 1408, Ladislaus besieged the city by sea and land, and
was put in possession of aU the strong places. The Colonnas and
other banished nobles attacked the to-wn in June. The Duke of
Anjou and Paul Orsini, -with 23,000 troops, endeavoured in 1408 to
expel Ladislaus, but retired. Orsini, however, returned in Decem
ber, and Ladislaus was driven out. In 1413 Ladislaus returned,
broke down the walls at the gate of the Lateran, and got possession
of the city and castle. He died in 1414 : his title was, " hujus
almae Urbis Illuminator illustris." Fieri, in his diary, relating his
death, says, " Cujus anima henedieatur per contrarium." — See Ven-
dettini, Serie Cronologica de' Senatori di Boma, p. 75, edit. Roma,
1778. t The exploits of Braccio di Montone are contained in six books,
a biography written by John Antony Campano, bishop of Temi.
He fiourished from 1368 to 1424. — See Script, Ber. Ital,, tom. xix.
In 1417 he entered Rome with his troops, and attacked the castle of
St. Angelo, which was in possession of the queen of Naples, Joanna,
and was obliged to retreat. — Ibid. p. 545. He was captain of the
people for seventy days, and when forced to retire, out of spite to
the Romans, broke the banks of the lake Pedelupo (pie di Lup), in
the Reatine territory, which caused a tremendous inundation of the
Tiber in 1422. According to Step. Infessura, Diar,, &o., p. 1122,
loc. citat., Braccio was killed in battle on the 2nd of June, 1424.
X See notice of the Castle of St. Angelo.

Chap. XI. SUPERSTITION. 409
the peaceful spoUation wluch succeeded tiie extinction
of the schism in the person of Mai-tin V. in 1417, and
the suppression, in 1434, ofthe last revolt of the Eomans
by his successor, Eugenius IV. From this epoch must
be dated the consumption of such mai-ble or travertine
as might either be sfripped with facUity from the stable
monuments or be found in isolated fragments. A broken
statue, a prosfrate, or even a standing column, in the
habitable part of the to-wn, and the larger structures
yet remaining in the vineyards, were considered by
the owners of the land, -within and -without the walls,
as thefr own property, and to be apphed to thefr o^vn
use. The repairs commenced by Martin V., and carried
on more rigorously by Eugenius,* requfred a supply of
materials and of cement, which was obtained from the
ruins. The triumph of superstition conspfred -with the igno
rance and indiridual necessities of the Eomans to ren
der them more indifferent to the rehcs of pagan anti
quity. Whatever nationahty and patriotism they had
evinced in the times of turbulence were degraded into
a bUnd veneration for the shrines of the aposties and
for the person of thefr successor. A secretary of the
Popes, an antiquary, and one who may be surely cited
as a favourable specimen of the better class of citizens.

* " Sed coUapsa deformataque edificia multis in locis maximo
instauras reficisque impendio." — Prof alio ad Eugenium IV, Pont,
Max, Flavii Blondi, Boma Instaurata, edit. Taur. 1527.
VOL. I. T

410 DESTRUCTION OF ROMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
modestly confesses that there was some difference be
tween the Eome of Eugenius IV. and that of Pompey
and the first Caesars. "At the same time," says he,
" our Pontffex is indeed a perpetual dictator, not the
successor of Csesar, but the successor of the fisherman
Peter, and the vicar of the Emperor Jesus Christ.*
Besides," he adds, " there are stiQ at Eome most high
and admfrable objects which can be seen nowhere else.
For this very city has the threshold of the aposties
and the earth purple mth the blood of the martyrs.
It has the handkerchief of St. Veronica; it has the
place caUed ' Domine quo vadis,' where Christ met
St. Peter and left the marks of his feet in the stone.
It has the heads of Peter and Paul, the mUk of the
Vfrgin, the cradle and foreskin of our Saviour,"! the

* Flavii Blondi, Roma Instaurata. " Dictatorem nunc perpe
tuum, non Caesaris sed Piscatoris Petri suocessorem et Imperatoris
prajdieti Vicarium Pontificem," &c. — Lib. iii. fo. 41, edit. Taurin.
1527. ¦t" This relic was shamefully neglected whilst the popes were at
Avignon. At last the Virgin appeared to St. Brigith, exclaiming,
" 0 Eoma, Roma, si scires, gauderes utique, immo si scires fieres
iucessanter, quia babes tbesaurum mihi carissimum, et non honoras
ilium." " E forse," says Marangoni, -writing in the middle of the
eighteenth century ! " che la madre di Dio stessa indirizzb questo
lamento agli ultimi secoli, e specialmente alio scorso XVI. nel quale,
essendo quasi che spenta la venerazione, e memoria di questa Divina
ReUqiiia in Roma, questa Citta ricevette il castigo di esserne pri-
vata." The relic was stolen by one of the heretics and hose livers
of Bourbon's army, forse il piu ardito e facinoroso degli altri, but
was found in an underground cell at Caleata, twenty miles from
Rome, by a noble lady, Maddelena Strozzi, after Pope Clement VII.

Cu.vr. XL SUPERSTITION. 411
chains of St. Peter, the spousal-ring sent from heaven
to the maideu Agnes. To see, to touch, to venerate
all which, and many more things, more than fifty thou
sand strangers fi-om aU parts of the world come to
Eome iu the time of Lent."
These rehcs certainly may have preserved the exist
ence of Eome, but were no protection to her ancient
structures. The same -writer notices the daily destruc
tion of monuments, which he avers to be so visible as
to make him loathe the abode at Eome.* The fatal
lime-burning awakened the indignation of a poet,!* to
whom it appeared a new offence ; and the testimony
of Blondus and ^iEneas Sylvius shows that there was
some ground for the exaggeration of the angry Floren
tine, who, ha-ving -witnessed the destruction of some

had in vain given evei-y order to recover it. The discovery was
attended -with repeated miracles, of all which an authentic account
may be seen in the Istoria della Capella di sancta sanctorum di
Boma, cap. xxxix. edit. 1747, by the famous Marangoni, the author
of the Memoir on the CoUseum.
"* " Cujus rei tanta singulos dies videmus exempla ut ea solum
modo causa nos aliquantum Romae fastidiat hahitatio. Multis enim
in locis vineas -videmus ubi superbissima aedificia vidimus quorum
quadrati lapides tiburtini in ealcem sunt cocti." — Lib. ni. foi. 33.
f " Oblectat me, Eoma, tuas spectare ruinas.
Ex cujus lapsu gloria prisoa patet.
Sed tuus hie populus muris defossa vetustis
Calcis in obsequium marmora dura coquit.
Impia tercentum si sic gens egerit annos.
Nullum hinc indicium nobili tatis erit."
—Mabillon. Mus. Italic, p. 95, tom. i., written by Picolomini to
Bartholomeus Eoverella.
T 2

412 DESTRUCTION OF ROMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
monuments, wonders that any remnant of antiquity
should have escaped the fury and cupidity of the
Eomans.* Of repubUcan Eome, Poggio reckoned the double
row of vaults in the Capitol, constructed by Catulus,
then converted into a public magazine for salt; the
Sepulchre of PubUcius ; the Fabrician bridge over the
Tiber; an arch, over the road beneath the Aveptine
mount, made and approved by P. Lentulus Scipio and
Titus Quintius Crispinus; the monuments called the
Trophies of Marius (they belong to the time of Tra
jan) ; and the Cestian Pyramid (which is hardly of
the time of the repubhc).
Of Imperial Eome nothing was entfre but the Pan
theon. The fi-agments were, three arches and one
column of the Temple of Peace ; the Temple of
Eomulus, dedicated to Cosmas and Damianus ; a few
vestiges of the double Temple of Castor and Pollux,
at Sta. Maria Nuova ; the marble columns of the Portico
of Antoninus and Faustina ; the peripteral Temple of
Vesta on the Tiber ; a portion of the Temple of Mi
nerva; a part of the portico of the Temple of Concord;
the Temple of Saturn, or church of St. Hadrian; A
portico of the Temple of Mercury at the Pescaria; a
Temple of ApoUo, converted into a part of St. Peter's ;

* " Quas saepe miror insaniam demoUentium effugisse." He is
talking of two arohes in the Flaminian way. — De Fortunes Varie
tate, &e., ap. SaUengre, tom. i. p. 500.

Cuap. XI. REMAINS IX TIME OF POGGIO. 413
a very ancient temple of a single vault at the roots of
the Tarpeian, called the Church of St. Michael, in
Statera, falsely supposed of Jupiter Stator ; the Baths
of Diocletian and Severus Antoninus, stiU so caUed,
most perfect, with many columns and marbles ; the
smaUer remains of the Constantine Baths in the Qui
rinal ; the Baths of Alexander Severus, near the Pan
theon (pulchra et praeclara vestigia) ; the Domitian
Thermae (perpauca rudera), which were the Baths of
Titus ; the Arches of Severus, of Titus, of Constantine,
almost entfre ; a part of one of Nerva ; a part of one
of Trajan, near what he calls the Comitium ; two in
the Flaminian way, one caUed Triopolis (the Arcus
PortogalU or Tres FaciceUse, the other without a name ;
another Arch of GaUienus in the Via Numentana ; *
one alone of all the nine aqueducts (fourteen he should
have said) entfre ; this was the Acqua Vfrgo, and had
been repafred; the Coliseum, the greater part of it
desfroyed for lime ; a portion of a theatre, caUed of
JuUus Csesar, between the Tarpeian and the Tiber,
together -with many marble columns opposite to it;
part of a portico of a round temple, built upon, with
gardens -within, caUed of Jupiter (this seems the
Theatre of MarceUus) ; an amphitheatre of square

* Gibbon, cap. Ixxi. p. 398, vol. xii., has made a careless blunder
for the sake of a period by putting this ia the Flaminian way ; the
words are positive — " Duo insuper via Flaminia  est alter prae-
terea GalUeno Principi dicatus ut suprascriptio indicat Via Nu
mentana,"

414 DESTRUCTION OF ROMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
brick, near Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, mixed with
the city waU ; * a large open place where the people
met ad venationem et spectaculum, called agonis,'\ the
Mole Divi Adriani et Livce Faustince, in great part
destroyed by the Eomans ; the Sepulchre of Augustus,
a mound with a vineyard in the inside; the Column
of Trajan, with the inscription ; the Column of Anto
ninus Pius (AureUus), -without the inscription; the-
iSepulchre of Cecilia MeteUa, the greater part destroyed
for lime ; the Sepulchre of Marcus Antius Lupus, two
mUes in the Ostian way, composed of three large
stones with an inscription.!

¦ * Gibbon, equally careless as before, says, " After the wonder of
the Coliseum, Poggio might have overlooked a small amphitheatre
of briok, most probably for the use of the Prsetorian camp ;" but he
did not overlook it ; here it is.
! Gibbon unaccountably also reckons this amongst the objects not
seen by Poggio, together with the Theatres of MarceUus and Pompey,
and the Circus Maximus, whose remains, it is true, he does not men
tion, and therefore prevents us from saving his credit by thinking
the phrase, he might have overlooked, capable of a double construc
tion : our historian evidently meant he had overlooked them.
X No more is found in the treatise as published in Sallengre,
tom. i. p. 501 to 508. Gibbon consulted the quarto edition, pub
lished in Paris 1723 ; but the strangest contradiction has crept
into his text. In cap. Ixxi. he opens thus — " In the last days of
Pope Eugenius IV. two of his servants, the learned Poggius and a
friend, ascended the Capitoline hill :" the note to this runs thus —
" I have already (note 50, 51, in chap, lxv.) mentioned the age,
character, and -wi'itings of Poggius, and particularly noticed the date
of this elegant moral lecture on the varieties of Fortune." Turn to
the cited note, 51, cap. lxv. p. 33, tom. xii. Svo. "The dialogue
do varietate Fortunae was composed a short time before the death of
Pope Martin V., and consequently about the end of the year 1430."

Chap. XI. REMAINS IX TIME OF POGGIO. 415
In the uiterval between the two visits of Poggio
to Eome, the cell and a part of the Temple of Con
cord, and of the base of the Tomb of MeteUa, had
been ground to Ume. A portico near the Minerva
was also demoUshed for the same purpose. The
Eomans had discovered that mortar made -with white,
and more particularly oriental marble, was more ser
viceable than that of common stone.* The other scat
tered reUcs, particularly the columns strewed about
the quarter between the Tarpeian rock and the Tiber,
must have quickly disappeared in the subsequent re-

How are the two to be reconciled ? In fact, Poggio himself says,
" Xuper eum Pontifex Martinus paulo antequam diem suum obiret,
ab urbe in agmm Tusculanum seeessit valetudinis causa," &c. &c.
* Some years back some kilns -n-ere discovered near Ostia full of
broken marbles. Dissertazione sulle Bovine, 'p. SU, note A. "Es
sendosi provato coUa esperienza che la calce fatta col marmo
bianco e coll' orientale in ispecie era maravigliosa." — Ibid. See
also Flam. Vacca, Mem., No. 12, 13, 14. In certain exca
vations made in his time, it was seen that the " Antichi mo
derni," as he calls them — the " middle-age barbarians," looked upon
a statue or a frieze as so much marble to be used either as lime or
broken to fill up holes in walls, or laid down to level pavements.
Many fragments of statues were found near the ruins of kilns before
the church of SS. Quatro Coronati. The hospital of St. John of
Lateran was supported by a large massive foundation -wall, all com
posed of pieces of statues of the finest workmanship, evidently
Greek, and of the style of the Belvedere Laocoon. In a modern
antique structure in front of St. Lorenzo without the walls, the walls
and foundations were made up of similar materials — amongst them
were eighteen or twenty heads of Eoman emperors. "Well might
Vacca exclaim, " 'What becomes of all the labours of us poor sculp
tors ? " He finished his Memorie in 1594.

416 DESTRUCTION OF ROMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
form and decorations of the new capital. Poggio's
description of the ruins is, it may have been observed,
not sufficiently minute or correct to supply the defi
ciency of his contemporary Blondus; but we may
distinctly mark that the site of ancient Eome had
arrived at the desolation in which it is seen at this
day. The labours of succeeding topographers have
enabled us to account for the loss of the monuments
which he enumerates, and which are no longer to be
seen. The fabrication of churches and other buUdings
was continued -with so pernicious an actirity during
the reign of Nicolas V. (elected in 1447), the modem
Augustus, that Pius II. enforced the complaints which
he had uttered as a poet by issuing a buU in 1462
de Antiquis oedijiciis non diruendis.* This prudence
was but a feeble check against the renewed demand
for materials which ensued upon the total reform of
the city by Sistus IV. m 1480. The Eome of the
EepubUc had soon been lost, the capital of the early
Csesars had been afterwards abandoned. But isolated
structures of the latter city were found not only in
the ancient site but in the Campus Martins. The
Eome of the lower and middle ages was a mass of
irregular lanes, buUt upon or amongst ruins, and sur
mounted by brick towers, many of them propped on
ancient basements. The streets were as narrow as these

Dissertazione, p. 373.

Chap. XL REFOEMATION OF SIXTUS IV. 417
of Pompeu or old Eome ; * two horsemen could with
difficulty ride abreast. Two hundred houses, three
towers, and three churches choked up the Forum of
Trajan.! The reformation of Sixtus IV., and the em
bellishments of his successors, have completely oblite
rated this town, ! and that which we now see is a
capital which can only date fi-om the end of the fifteenth
century. This reformation has been justly fixed upon as the

* Vicinus mens est manuque tangi
De nostris Novius potest fenestris.
Mart., lib. i. epig. 77. '
Does this mean contiguous or opposite ?
+ They -were removed by Paul III. on the occasion of Charles V.'s
entry into Eome in 1536, April 5.
X The origin of this reform is attributed by Infessura in his diai-y
(tom. iu. par. ii. p. 1145, Script. Ber. Italic.) to Ferdinand of
Naples. " E parlando con Papa Sisto disse, che esso non era Signore
di questa terra, per amore de i Porticali, per le vie strette, e per li
mignani, e ehe bisognando di mettere in Eoma gente d' arme le
donne coi mortari da i detti mignani li fariano fuggire." The motive
was as irresistible as the improvement was desirable, and Sixtus IV.
foUowed the advice of Ferdinand. The Abate Fea (dissert. 372), to
prove that the plan originated -with Sixtus himself, says that the
Pope makes no mention in his bull of having received the hint from
any one. Nor does the Abate tell us that he borrowed his Greek
knowledge from Latin translations, nor does that omission make us
attach less value to his excellent dissertation on the ruins of Eome.
The -writer of this note -will be more ingenuous than either Sixtus
or the Abate ; he -will confess that the dissertation has been con
stantly open before him during the progress of his researches, and
that, after disencumbering it of its leaming, and arriving in many
cases at conclusions entirely different, he has resorted to it freely,
though never without acknowledgment, for such materials as could
not be consulted -without a reference to the Roman Ubraries.

418 DESTEUCTION OF ROMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI
epoch of the final destruction of whatever portion of
the old city might have been confounded with the
Eome of the middle ages. The enlargement and the
straightening of the streets removed every obstacle,
and must have consumed the bases of many ancient
structures which had been buried under modern fabrics,
and had escaped the notice of Blondus and Poggio.
The practice before remarked continued during the
succeeding pontificate of JuUus II. : statues and mar
bles were stiU burnt for lime, and the antiquarian
taste which arose -with the rerival of letters despoUed
rather than protected the fabrics of Eome. Paradoxical
as such an assertion may appear, it is indubitable that
in the golden reign of Leo X. the barbarism of deface
ment and destruction was at its height. It was during
the pontificate of another of the Medici, Clement VIL,
that one of the same famUy, Lorenzino, carried off the
heads of the captives on the Arch of Constantine. The
spohation was only impeded by the plague of 1522,
and by the disfresses of the reign of the same Clement.
The sack of Eome by the troops of Charles V. has
been loudly proclaimed* more detrimental than that
of the Goths. The complaint, however, comes from
those who thought no hyperbole too extravagant to

* Da Barga says, " Atque utinam qui nostra aetate eandem urbem
hostes ab se expugnatam depopulati sunt, hujusmodi exemplum sibi
ante ooulos posuissent." — De cedificior. urb. Bom. eversor., p. 1816,
loc. itat.

Chap. XI. SACK OF EOME BY CHARLES V. 419
heighten the picture of that calamity. The churches
and palaces were piUaged,* and the chambers of the
Vatican, the frescoes of Eaphael, stUl bear witness to
the barbarity of the Spanish, German, and Itahan in
vaders. "Statues, columns, precious stones, and many
monuments of antiquity," are noted amongst the spoU ; j
but no memory is preserved of the attack of the stand
ing fabrics, except of the Mole of Hadrian, afready a
modern fortress. The nine months' ravage of -the Im
perialists! was preceded by the three hours' sack of
the Colonnas § in 1526, and was foUowed by that of

* " Pero sarebbe impossibile non solo narrare, ma quasi imaginarsi
le calamita di quella citta, destinata per ordine de' cieli a somma
grandezza, ma eziandio a spesse distruttioni ; perche ero 1' anno novo
cento e ottanta, ch' era stata saecheggiata da' Gotti ; impossibile a
narrare la grandezza della preda essendovi accumulate tante richezze,
e tamte cose pretiose e rare di cortigiani e di mercatanti." — Guicciard.
ddf Istoria d' Italia, Ub.' xviu. p. 1266, edit. Ven. 1738.
" Non avendo rispetto non solo al nome de gli amici, e all' au
torita, e dignita de' prelati, ma eziandio a'templi, a' monasterii, alle
reUquie, mirate dal eoncorso di tutto il mondo e delle cose sacre." —
Ibid., p. 1265.
t " Restb Roma spogliata dell' esercito non solo d' una parte
grande de gli abitatori con tante case desolate, e distrutte, ma ezi
andio spogliato di statue, di colonne, di pietre singulari, e di molti
ornamenti d' antichita." — Ibid,, pp. 1302, 1303.
X Rome was assaulted by Bourbon, the 5th of May, 1527, and
the Imperialists left it the 17th of February, 1528. Guicciard.
p. 1302.
§ " Saccheggiavano il palazzo, e le cose e ornamenti sacri della
chiesa di San Pietro : non avendo maggiore rispetto alia maesta di
reUgione e all' orrore del sacrilegio, che avessiuo avuto i Turchi nelle
hiese del regno d' Ungheria." — Lib. xvu. p. 1218.

420 DESTRUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI
the Abate di Farfa and the peasantry of the Orsini
famUy. In 1530 a tremendous inundation of the Tiber
is said to have ruined edifices both pubUc and pri
vate, and to have been equally calamitous with the
sack of Eome.* Yet these disasters seem chiefly to
have affected the houses and a few churches, and were
soon repafred in the splendid pontificate of the suc
ceeding Popes. So rapidly did they proceed with the
embellishment of the new capital that the city of
Paul III. was hardly to be recognised in the time of
Urban VIII. f The former desfruction was renewed.
The buU of Paul IIL, issued in 1534, which made it
a capital and unpardonable offence to grind down
statues! 0^ pieces of marble, and appoiated an anti
quarian commissary to enforce the law, extended nomi
naUy to the architectural remains ; yet we know that
portions of the ruins were employed in modem buUd
ings by that Pope himseff, and were afterwards con
sumed for the same purpose. The Farnese, the Mattel,
the Borghese, and the Barberini, searched for and col-

* Annali d' Italia ad an. 1530, tom. x. p. 242. There was another
terrible inundation in 1557, and another still more dreadful in
1598. t It is Donatus who says, that if Charles V. were to come back
to Eome in Urban VIII.'s time, he would not recognise the city
which he had seen from the top of the Pantheon. — Eoma Vetus,
lib. i. cap. xxix.
X Dissertazione sulle Rovine, p. 375. The edict is there given,
addressed to the commissary Lucio Manetti.

Chap. XI. SUBSEQUENT EMBELLISHMENT. 421
lected the statues, * and inscribed marbles, to adorn
thefr museums ; but thefr palaces either levelled or
consumed many fi-agments which could not be pre
served as the walls of modem buUdings. The stu
pendous vaults of the Diocletian thermse were con
verted into churches,! the walls of those of Constantine
were adjusted into the EospigUosi palace.! The Alex
andrine thermse suppUed with columns the repafrs of
the Pantheon.§ A circus was graduaUy cleared away
for the opening of the piazza Navona. The summer-
house of the Farnese rose from the ruins of the Pala
tine. The marble threshold and broken columns from
which Poggio || had contemplated the vicissitudes of
fortune were removed, and probably employed in the
construction of the new capitol of Michael Angelo.
The marble of a temple on the Quirinal was cut into

¦* There were a great many portable antiquities dispersed in the
time of Fabricius (1550) — bas-reliefs and other pieces of sculpture,
scattered about in various parts of the city, and exposed to injury.
Yet there were five antiquarian museums then in Eome. — Descriptio
Bomce, cap. xx. and xxi. ap, Grcev. Antiq. tom. iii.
t S. Maria degli Angioli, by Pius IV., who employed M. Angelo ;
and S. Bernardo alle terme, changed into a church by a private
individu.al, Catherine Sforza, Countess of S. Fiora, in 1598.
J Great remains of the Baths of Constantine were seen in the age
before Donatus. Lib. iii. cap. xv.
§ By Alexander VII.
11 " Consedimus in ipsis Tarpejis arcis ruinis, pone ingens portae
cujusdam marmoreum Umen, plurimasque passim confractas co
lumnas." .... De Fortunae Variet. Ap. 501, loc. citat.

422 DESTEUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
the 124 steps which ascend to the church of AracseU.*
We have before noticed the destruction of ancient
monuments by the Popes, and it is equaUy erident
that the Pontiffs were, on the restoration of Eome,
powerfuUy seconded by the luxury and taste of the
prelates and princes. Flaminius Vacca! leads us to
beUeve, that m his tune, the latter half of the six
teenth century, it was usual for the sculptors to cut
thefr statues from columns ; and he narrates that Car
dinal Cesi fitted up a chapel in Santa Maria della
Pace with statues and prophets, worked from the pi
lasters found behind the conservators' palace on the Tar
peian rock, and behoved to be a part of the Temple
of Jupiter Stator. The great palace of the Cancel
laria of Eiario! had before robbed a part of the
Coliseum, and leveUed some remains of baths, or of
an arch of the Emperor Gordian. The infinite quan
tity of precious marbles which adorns the churches of
Eome must have been chiefly extracted from the an
cient rehcs ; and, with the exception of those belonguig
to edifices converted to sacred purposes, or to pontifical
buUdings, the greater part of the superb columns of
these churches must have been removed from thefr

* By gift of Otto the Milanese, Senator of Eome. This was at
an earlier period, about 1348.
t Memor., num. 64, p. xi. in fin. Nardini.
X It was begun by Cardinal Mezzarota, and finished by Cardinal
Raphael Riario. The architect was Bramante Lazari. — Boma mo
derna, da Venuti, &o. torn. i. p. 203, Rione vi.

Chap. XI. DISAPPEAKAXCE OF STRUCTURES. 423
ancient site. We are obhged to the designs of Eaffael
and PaUadio for the appearance of some fabrics now
desfroyed; and those who peruse the topographers
from Blondus to Nardini wUl assign to the latter
half of the fifteenth century, and the succeeding 150
years, a greater activity of desfruction than to those
immediately preceding ages in which we have no
authentic -svi-iters to teU us what was left or what was
lost. Besides the devastation before noticed, it may be
remarked, that Donatus gives an account of remains
of Therm/B Olympiadis, Thermce Novatiance, on the
Viminal bill ; * that the same topographer saw some
thing of the Thermse of Agrippa, and also of those of Nero
or Alexander ; that the fragment of a temple, supposed
of the Sun, buUt by AureUan, now in the Colonna
gardens, was then raised upon a portion of the waU
of that buUding; that MarUanus had seen the arch
dedicated to Gratian, Valentinian and Theodosius ; that
the cfrcus caUed Flaminius had very determinable
vestiges when seen by Lsetus, Fulvius, and Marlianus,
but is talked of by Nardini as no longer in existence ;
that the same writers had observed many more rehcs of
the theafre of Pompey than could be traced in the next
age, although they were so smaU, even before thefr time,
as to be overlooked by Poggio ; that a huge fragment
behind the Pantheon, called by some Templum Boni

* Lib. iU. cap. xi.

424 DESTRUCTION OF ROMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
Eventus, has disappeared since Nardini -wrote ; that the
remains of the Minerrium, distinctly seen by Fulrius
and MarUanus, and not altogether lost in the middle of
the last century,* are also consumed ; that the vaulted
ceU of a structure in the Vatican, caUed a temple of
ApoUo, or^of Mars, and seen in the pictures of the
Vatican hbrary, has been incorporated or lost in the
baptistery of St. Peter's.
The embelUshment of the rising city, rigorously pur
sued tUl the middle of the seventeenth century, was
the first object of the pontiffs : the preservation of the
architectural remains appears to have been a rare and
secondary design. When that embelUshment had ceased
to be the passion of the popes, the dUapidation may be
supposed to have been discontinued. The last recorded
destruction was that before mentioned of the arch in the
Corso, by Alexander VII. No other ancient fabric can
perhaps be proved to have been purposely thrown down
or defaced since that period. A fragment of the Coh
seum, which was shaken to the ground in the earthquake
of 1703, was laudably employed in constructing the
stafrs of the Eipetta.
The frequent repafrs of the Pantheon, those of the
Antonine and Trajan columns, the erection of the
obeUsks, the restoration of the Cestian pyramid, and
the late protection of the Flarian amphitheafre, -with

* See Venuti Roma Moderna, tom. i. p. 272, Eione ix.

Chap. XI. MODERN REPAIRS. 425
that of the arch of Constantine,* seem to compose the
sum of all the merits of all the popes, as far as respects
the stable fabrics of antiquity. The Eomans of the
present day are not the last to allow, that untU the late
usurpation, either the wUl, or the means, or the method,
had been wanting effectuaUy to oppose the ravages of
riolence and time. The taste and magnificence of the
popes must be sought, and -wiU be found in the museums
of the Vatican and the Capitol. It was reserved for the
conquerors who plundered those noble repositories to
recompense Eome for her losses, by clearing away the
offals and dirt, which had accumulated for ages round the
buried temples at the foot of the Capitol, aild under the
-windows of the Senate House, by cleansing the base, and
propping the porches of the Coliseum, by remoring the
soU in front of the Temple of Peace, by re-opening the
Baths of Titus, and finaUy by excavating the Forum of
Trajan, a work of itseff superior to aU the meritorious
exertions of Sixtus Quintus and Braschi. The impulse
given by the government of Napoleon! continued the

* In 1733, by Clement XIL, to whom, in the interior of the wall,
sunk round the arch, is the following inscription. Clementi XII.
Pont. Max. quod arcum Imp. Constantino Magno erectum, ob re-
latam salutari crucis signo victoriam, jam temporum injurns fatis-
centem veteribus redditis omamentis restituerit. Anno D. 1733.
Pont. iu. S. P. Q. E. Optimo Principi ac pristine majestatis urbis
adsertori, Pos. — The senate and people took care to record their
credulity as well as their gratitude.
f For a detailed account of the efforts made by tbe French go
vernment to restore and preserve the ancient monuments of Eome,

426 DESTEUCTION OF EOMAN BUILDINGS. Chap. XI.
labours in the Forum, and the repafrs of the CoU
seum ; and the attention of the pontiffs being at last
dfrected to the preservation of relics, which have suc
ceeded to the atfraction once possessed by thefr spfritual
treasures, it may be hoped that the ruins of Eome have
no more to dread from outrage or neglect. The inun
dations of the Tiber have of late years been either less
violent, or are more easily reduced, than in the days of
ignorance and distress.* With the exception of the cell
of the temple, now caUed Minerva Medica, which was

I would refer to the Count de Tournon's second volume. His tenth
and last chapter shows howmuoh was done in four years, from 1810
to 1814, for that purpose. There is no doubt that, in that short
period, more was planned and executed by the French administra
tion than by all the Popes and other successive masters of the
Eternal City, from the fall of the Empire to the beginning of the
present century. (See Etudes Statistiques sue Eome, et la partie
occidentale des Etats EoMAiNS,-par le Comte db Touenon, Pair de
France, Sec 2me edit. 1855, vol. ii. p. 258 et seq.) But it would
be unjust not to acknowledge that recent Popes have not forgotten
their duties in this respect. Gregory XVI. in particular, whose
political policy has been denounced as cruel and unjust, cannot be
said to have neglected the arts of peace ; and Cardinal 'Wiseman is
almost justified in saying that " scarcely any pontificate has their foot
steps more deeply or more widely impressed in it than his" (Four
Popes, p. 455). An affectionate tribute is paid to the memory of this
Pope by the Cardinal, who, however, is somewhat afraid of being
charged -with forgetting the merits of the other three pontiffs, and
concludes with saying that " he calls to mind the -virtuous Gregory,
not with deeper veneration than he entertains for Pius VIL, not
with warmer gratitude than for Leo XIL, not with sineerer respect
than for Pius Ylll."—Ibid,, p. 531.
* AU the latter inundations of the Tiber are noted on the columns,
which serve as hygrometers at the Eipetta.

CH.4.P. XL MODERN REPAIRS. 427
thrown down in 1812, no earthqualce has, since the
beginning of the last century, materiaUy injm-ed the
ancient fabrics. What remains of them so nearly re
sembles the earUest authentic account of the ruins, that
we may indulge a pei-suasion that they wiU still resist
for ages the unassisted assaults of time.

END or VOL. I.

LOITDON; PRINTED BT w. CLOWES AKD SOKS, SIAaJFOKD STREET,
AtTD CUAUIXG CKOSS.