FOOTNOTES:
[1] Montaigne evidently refers to the Roman theatre situated between the Castello San Pietro and the river. Its destruction began early, as it is described as ruined in a decree of King Berengarius dated 895. Much of it remained up to the sixteenth century.
[2] Coryat, who saw it in 1608, describes it as greatly ruined and put to base uses. Much of the marble had been taken away to other buildings; but the damage was being repaired by the Veronese noblemen, who had already spent sixty-six thousand crowns over the restoration. To build it in England, he estimates, would cost two million pounds.
[3] Modern measurements are 502 feet by 401, and 98 feet high.
[4] Madonna di Campagna, one of the finest works of Sammicheli.
[5] Palladio had died a short time before Montaigne’s visit, i.e. August 19, 1580. Vicenza was at this time at the height of its beauty, all the noteworthy buildings, except the Teatro Olimpico, having been completed.
[6] The fairs of Vicenza were amongst the largest in Italy, and were instituted in the thirteenth century. During their continuance all the shops in the city had to be closed. Fairs were held up to the middle of the present century.
[7] The founder was the chief magistrate of the city, and is said to have been moved to religious enthusiasm by reading the life of S. Mary of Egypt. Montaigne is wrong in giving 1367 as the date of the foundation of the order; it was the year of Colombini’s death. The members of the order were originally laymen, and chiefly occupied in preparing drugs. Urban V. placed them under the Augustinian rule. In 1606 they were allowed to be ordained, and in 1660 were suppressed by Clement IX.
[8] It is singular that Montaigne makes no mention of the University. Italy was then the great school of fencing, as he notices in the Essais, ii. 27.
[9] Coryat notices this bust, and gives the inscription written by Paolo Giovio: “Petri Bembi Cardinalis imaginem Hieronymus Quirinus Ismerii filius in publico ponendam curavit: ut cujus ingenii monumenta æterna sint, ejus corporis quoque memoria ne a posteris desideretur. Vixit annos 76, M. 7, D. 29. Obiit 15 Calend. Februarii anno 1547.” Writing of the other tombs Coryat says: “Amongst others in the Cloyster I observed one that made me even lament, the monument of a certaine English Nobleman, namely, Edward Courtney, Earle of Devonshire, who was buried here in the time of Queen Mary; he died there in his youth, and was the sonne of Henry, Earle of Devonshire and Marquesse of Exceter, who was beheaded in the time of King Henry the Eighth. This Edward Courtney was afterward restored by Queen Mary. Truely it strooke great compassion and remorse in me to see an Englishman so ignobly buried, for his body lieth in a poore woodden Coffin placed upon another faire monument, having neither epitaph nor any other thing to preserve it from oblivion, so that I could not have knowne it for an Englishman’s Coffen, except an English gentleman, Mr. George Rooke, had told me of it.”—Crudities (1776), vol. i. p. 176.
[10] Coryat says: “He is represented according to his olde age: for his face is made very leane and shaved.” The inscription under it, “Ve T. Livius Liviæ I. F. Quartæl. Halys concordialis Patavi sibi et suis omnibus,” has probably no reference to Livy at all. It was discovered in 1363 near the church of San Giustina and removed to the Sala della Ragione. This is the one which Montaigne mistakes for Livy’s epitaph. Another inscription records the gift of Livy’s arm-bone to Alfonso the Magnanimous in 1450. Coryat mentions a second statue of Livy, made of freestone, and says that this was the effigy brought, together with an inscription underneath, “from Saint Gustinae’s Church.” The monument at the end of the hall was erected in 1547.
[11] Julius Paulus, who wrote in the time of Alexander Severus.
[12] Henry III. He fled secretly from Cracow on hearing of the death of Charles IX. in 1574, but once clear of Poland he was in no hurry to get back to France. He spent two months in traversing Lombardy, and was regaled sumptuously by all the petty princes and nobles. The Emperor Maximilian and the Doge of Venice gave him much excellent advice, but he was only impressed by the processions and dances and fine dresses, which he proposed to reproduce in France.
[13] Fusina.
[14] Arnaud du Ferrier was a distinguished French jurisconsult. Henry II. made him President of the Chambre des Enquêtes. He represented France at the Council of Trent, and by a violent anti-Roman speech he raised a great uproar and was sent as ambassador to Venice in quasi disgrace, and there Montaigne met him. According to Brantôme he used to repair to Padua and there lecture on law. The king was greatly displeased at this and recalled him. Henry of Navarre invited him to his court and he became a Protestant. He died in 1585.
On the margin of the MS. Montaigne has written: “Ce viellard, qui a passé septante cinq ans, à ce qu’il dit, jouit d’un eage sein & enjoué. Ses façons & ses discours ont, je ne sçay quoi de scholastique, peu de vivacité et de pouinte. Ses opinions panchent fort evidamment, en matiere de nos affaires, vers les innovations Calviniennes.”
[15] A decree of the Council of Ten, July 12, 1380, ordains: “Si quis nobilis vel civis acciperet literas ab aliquo de extra de re spectante ad statum nostrum, illas capitibus Consilii tenerentur subito presentare, et Capita debeant inquirere diligenter principium talis praticæ, ut nostri cives omnino starent separati ab omni pratica et commercio dominorum et comunitatum, et ab omni pratica rei spectantis ad statum.”
[16] Fynes Moryson writes (Part iv., ed. 1903, p. 128): “I find the generall Revenue of this State valued at two millions of gold yearly, though Monsr. Villamont attributes so much to the citty of Venice alone ... and for particular cittyes these relations record, that Padoa brings yearly into the Treasure of Venice thirteene thousand Ducates; Vicenza thirtye two thousand; Verona nyntye thousand; Brescia (besydes many extraordinary Subsidyes) one hundred thousand four hundred and fyfty; Bergamo fyfty thousand; Vdane twenty fyve thousand; Trevigi fourskore thousand.” But farther on he says: “A late writer hath published in print that the generall Revenue of Venice amounts yearely to two millions of gold crowns: that the Townes yield yearely eight hundred thousand Crownes.”—A great disparity. Montaigne probably refers to the share of Venice alone.
[17] There is a life of this lady by Tassini—Veronica Franco celebre letterata e meretrice veneziana. She was married in her youth to one Paniza, a physician, but she left him to take up the career of a courtesan. Her name appears in that extraordinary document which the late Earl of Orford printed for private circulation in 1870: “Catalogo di tutte le principal et piu honorate Cortegiane di Venetia, il nome loro, et il nome delle loro pieze, et le stantie ove loro habitano, et di piu ancor vi narra la contrata ove sono le loro stantie, et etiam il numero de li dinari che hanno da pagar quelli gentil homini, et al che desiderano entrar nella sua gratia.” Her description runs: “204, Veronica Franca, a Santa Maria Formosa, pieza so mare 2 scudi.” In 1574 she gave up her profession, and by her wit and beauty gained a status not unlike that of her forerunners in Athens. She certainly enjoyed the friendship of divers men of note, Domenico and Marco Veniero, Marcantonio della Torre and Tintoretto. Henry III. visited her when passing through Venice and took away her portrait. In middle life she devoted herself to religion and good works, and tried to induce the Signoria to found an asylum for penitent women. She died in 1591, aged forty-five. The book she sent to Montaigne was probably Lettere famigliari a diversi, dedicated to Cardinal Luigi d’Este. Lord Orford evidently had not read Tassini’s book or Montaigne’s Voyage, otherwise he would have been able to give a more precise date to the Catalogo, which he puts down vaguely to the sixteenth century. According to Fynes Moryson, “the tribute to the State from the Cortizans was thought to exceede three hundreth thousand Crownes yearely.”
[18] “Il me semble avoir veu en Plutarque rendant la cause du souslevement d’estomach, qui advient à ceux qui voyagent en mer, que cela leur arrive de crainte: après avoir trouvé quelque raison, par laquelle il prouve, que la crainte peut produire un tel effet. Moy qui y suis fort sujet, sçay bien, que cette cause ne me touche pas. Et le sçay, non par argument mais par nécessaire expérience. Sans alleguer ce qu’on m’a dit, qu’il en arrive de mesme souvent aux bestes, specialement aux porceaux hors de toute apprehension de danger.... Or je ne puis souffrir longtemps ny coche, ny littière, ny bateau, et hay toute autre voiture que de cheval. Mais je puis souffrir la lictière moins qu’un coche; et par même raison plus aisément une agitation rude sur l’eau, d’où se produit la peur, que le mouvement qui se sent en temps calme. Par cette legère secousse, que les avirons donnent, desrobant le vaisseau sous nous, je me sens brouiller, je ne sçay comment, la teste et l’estomach: comme je ne puis souffrir sous moi un siège tremblant. Quand la voile ou le cours de l’eau, nous emporte esgalimët, ou qu’on nous rouë, cette agitation unie, ne me blesse aucunement. C’est un remuëment interrompu, qui m’offence: et plus, quand il est languissant. Je ne sçaurois autrement peindre sa forme. Les medecins m’ont ordonné de me presser et sangler d’une serviette le bas du ventre, pour remedier à cet accident: ce que je n’ay point essayé, ayant accoustumé de lucter les defauts qui sont en moy, et les dompter par moy-mesme.”—Essais, iii. 6.
[19] These baths were famous in Roman times—Fons Aponus. Livy, Valerius Flaccus, and Pietro d’Abano, the great mediæval physician, were born here. The baths have been restored, and are now crowded in the season.
[20] This statement helps to account for the curious brevity of Montaigne’s stay in Venice. The abbey in question is Praglia, a Benedictine house of great repute for its wealth and liberality.
[21] Nicola di Cusa, a learned mathematician, a German by birth. His work deals chiefly with statics, or rather with the weight of bodies in water. He also put forth an ingenious hypothesis as to the motion of the earth. His works were published at Basel in 1565.
[22] San Pietro Montagnon, a bath still in use. There is another San Pietro in Bagno near Cesena.
[23] Probably Prèchac, a bath much frequented, lying near Dax in Navarre. Munster, Cosmog., i. 375, commends the baths of this region.
[24] Luigi d’Este, brother of Alfonso II. of Ferrara. He was one of Tasso’s earliest patrons, and took him to Paris in 1570. He was only in deacon’s orders, and, from Montaigne’s remarks, was evidently a free liver. In 1561 he was made cardinal, and died in 1586.
[25] Battaglia, about five miles beyond Abano.
[26] Frassine, a canalised river, which joins the Fratta and runs parallel with the Adige to the sea.
[27] The secretary.
[28] The baths of S. Elena. They were probably known to the Romans, but their modern use dates from the middle of the fifteenth century, when they were brought to notice by Giov. Dondi. Later on, in the seventeenth century, Il Dottore Selvatico restored the bath-houses, and greatly increased the repute of the place.
[29] San Pietro Montagnon, near Abano.
[30] The secretary seems to have been still absent at this point, as the narrative is written in the third person, but for the sake of coherence it seems better to keep to the first.
[31] Adige.
[32] Luigi Ricchieri, one of the first of the Humanists.
[33] Alfonso II., son of Ercole II. and Renée of France. D’Estissac was the bearer of letters of commendation from Henry III. and the Queen Mother to the Duke of Ferrara.
[34] In the church of S. Benedetto. It is now removed to the library.
[35] Margherita Gonzaga, whom Alfonso married in 1579. She was the daughter of Guglielmo, Duke of Mantua.
[36] It is strange that Montaigne should have made no allusion in his journal to a visit which he paid to Tasso, who had been imprisoned the year before in the hospital of S. Anna at Ferrara. In Essais ii. 12 he writes: “Platon dit les mélancholiques plus disciplinables et excellens; aussi n’en est-il point qui ayent tant de propension à la folie. Infinis esprits se treuvent ruinez par leur propre force et soupplesse. Quel saut vient de prendre de sa propre agitation et allegresse, l’un des plus judicieux, ingenieux, et plus formez à l’air de cette antique et pure Poësie, qu’autre Poëte Italien aye jamais este? N’a-il pas de quoy sçavoir gré à cette sienne vivacité meurtrière? à cette clarté qui l’a aveuglé? à cette exacte et tenduë apprehension de la raison, qu’il a mis sans raison? à la curieuse et laborieuse queste des Sciences, qui l’a conduict à la bestise? à cette rare aptitude aux exercises de l’ame qui l’a rendu sans exercise et sans ame? J’eus plus de dépit encore que de compassion de le voir à Ferrare en si pitieux estat, survivant à soy mesme, mescognoisant et soy et ses ouvrages; les quels sans son sçeu et toutefois à sa veuë, on a mis en lumière incorrigez et informe.”
[37] Bologna.
[38] The Collegio di Spagna, the only separate college which still exists, was founded by Cardinal d’Albornoz in 1364. There was doubtless a French college for students at the time of Montaigne’s visit.
[39] This fountain was built while Cardinal Borromeo was legate. It was designed by Lauretti, a Sicilian, the statues being the work of Gian Bologna.
[40] Spoleto and the Bolognese territories as well were greatly overrun with brigands at this period. Large bands of armed ruffians ranged the country, nominally fighting one another, but really robbing and murdering the helpless peasants. One band, that of Sassomolari, was estimated to number four or five hundred men. Brigandage was not put down till the pontificate of Sixtus V.
[41] Lojano.
[42] I fuochi di Pietramala. There are emanations of coal gas from the rocks. At Acqua Buja, about a mile distant, the gas rises through the water of a small lake and ignites if fire be applied to it.
[43] Pratolino, a villa built in 1573 by Francesco dei Medici, Grand Duke of Florence. Little now remains of it save some out-buildings, the colossal statue of L’Appennino, and some of the waterworks in which Montaigne found so much to admire. It was built from the design of Bernardo Buontalenti, but some portions—not the statue aforesaid—were the work of Gian Bologna. The villa seems to have been in existence at the beginning of the present century. The park now belongs to Prince Demidoff.
[44] This alley is still in existence.
[45] L’Appennino, erroneously attributed to Gian Bologna. It was repaired in 1877 by Prince Demidoff.
[46] These were in the Piazza S. Marco. They were built by Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, in 1515. In 1550 Cosimo transferred to an adjoining site the wild animals which had been hitherto kept in the Palazzo Vecchio. The Grand Duke alluded to was Francesco, son of Cosimo I.
[47] This was the Strozzi whose tomb Montaigne had recently visited at Epernay (vol. i. p. 31). He was defeated by the Spaniards and Imperialists at Lucignano in 1554.
[48] The statues in the Medici Chapel.
[49] In Essais, iii. 5, he writes in a more charitable strain: “Ceux qui connoissent l’Italie, ne trouveront jamais estrange, si pour ce sujet je ne cherche ailleurs des examples. Car cette nation se peut dire regente du reste du Monde en cela. Ils ont plus communément de belles femmes, et moins de laides que nous: mais des rares et excellentes beautez, j’estime que nous allons à pair.”
[50] “L’hostelerie de l’Ange,” probably now “L’albergo dell’ Agnolo” in the Borgo S. Lorenzo.
[51] Members of both these families had migrated to France.
[52] The battle of Marciano. The great hall in the Palazzo Vecchio was painted by Vasari to celebrate the triumphs of Cosimo I.
[53] The notorious Bianca Capello. The Grand Duke had married her the preceding year. The almost simultaneous death of these two at Poggio a Cajano in 1587 is one of the mysterious crimes of history.
[54] De ma taille. Although the secretary is writing the comparison is evidently with Montaigne himself.
[55] Ferdinando, son of Cosimo I. He renounced his orders and succeeded his brother in 1587. He also was at Poggio when the tragedy happened, and it was commonly believed that Bianca intended to poison him, but Duke Francesco inadvertently drank the poisoned wine. The younger brother was probably Giovanni, a son of Cosimo I. by Eleanora d’Albizzi, born in 1562. The tragic fate of this prince and of his brother Garcia is one of the mysteries of Italian family crime.
[56] Petraja.
[57] The image of the Chimera, now in the Etruscan Museum. It was dug up at Arezzo in 1559.
[58] Catherine dei Medici.
[59] This is probably one of those traveller’s hasty generalisations which Montaigne occasionally lets drop. In his second visit he modified several of his earlier statements, and a very slight inquiry would have served to show him that letters still flourished in Florence, though not so freely as in the golden time of the earlier Medici. The Accademia Fiorentina was founded in 1540, and the year following his visit saw the beginning of the Della Crusca.
[60] During the mediæval wars Siena always favoured the French party. Villani (i. 43, 56) gives the legendary French origin of the place: how in the eighth century Charles Martel marched against the Lombards in Apulia, and left those of his troops who were old and unfit for service at this place. Two refuges were built, and the name Senæ given to them, on account of the old men who dwelt therein. Villani calls it, for this reason, one of the most modern of Italian cities, ignoring Julius Cæsar’s foundation altogether.
[61] The Fonte Gaja, which was completed in 1343. The sculptured reliefs were added by Jacopo della Quercia, 1412-1419. The sculptor subsequently enjoyed the epithet “della Fonte.” It was well restored by Signor Sarocchi in recent times. Dante’s eulogy of the market-place is well known:—
“Quando vivea pui glorioso, disse
Liberamente nel Campo di Siena,
Ogni vergogna deposta, s’affise.”
Purg., xi.
[62] These names all belong to the ancient Sienese nobility, and it is almost certain that Montaigne is referring to palaces and not to streets.
[63] He was one of the most celebrated captains of the age. He fought in almost every country in Europe, and was equally distinguished as a man of affairs and a courtier, as he managed to retain to his death the favour and confidence of successive Grand Dukes of Tuscany. His son, Ottavio, was the well-known general of the Thirty Years’ War. He died in 1614, and is buried in the church of S. Agostino at Siena.
[64] This house is probably No. 32 in what is now the Via Cavour. It was an hotel as late as 1852.
[65] A town near Bordeaux.
[66] After the capture of Siena by the Spaniards in 1555 a number of the people of Siena, nobles as well as burghers, withdrew to Montalcino with the intention of founding there a new republic. With them went the French mercenaries who, under the Marshal de Monluc, had helped to defend the city. Montaigne was, no doubt, inquiring after the tombs of these men.
[67] This bridge crosses a stream called La Paglia, to which Montaigne probably refers when he speaks of the village of La Paille.
[68] Ronciglione. The Farnesi had one of their finest seats here.
[69] A piece of money first coined by Julius III., worth about sixty centesimi.
[70] Montaigne evidently feared the effect of the dew. Just before he reached Roveredo (vol. i. p. 187) he writes to the same effect.
[71] This inn still exists at the corner of the Via di Monte Brianza and the Via dell’ Orso.
[72] In the Via di Monte Brianza.
[73] He makes the same complaint of Padua.
[74] Gregory XIII. Ugo Buoncompagni di Bologna.
[75] Alessandro Farnese, nephew of Paul III.
[76] Ferdinando dei Medici, the cardinal whom Montaigne had recently met at the Grand Duke’s table in Florence.
[77] This Caraffa was first advanced by his kinsman, Paul IV., but banished on the accession of Pius IV. Pius V. restored him to his offices, and Gregory XIII. made him librarian of the Vatican. In Essais, i. 51, Montaigne writes “d’un Italien, que je vien d’entretenir, qui a servy le feu Cardinal Caraffe de maistre d’hotel jusques à sa mort.”
[78] The fistula, or pipe, through which the Pope drinks the consecrated wine. It would hardly give, as Montaigne suggests, any security against poison; this would be compassed by “pregustation” on the part of the sacristan and the butler.
[79] Louis Chasteignier de la Roche Posay, seigneur d’Abain. He went with Henry III. into Poland, and was subsequently sent by Henry as ambassador to Rome. He was afterwards charged by the Pope to carry the papal absolution to Henry IV.
[80] The text from which the passage within brackets is translated was written by Montaigne himself on the margin of the MS.—Querlon’s note.
[81] Giacomo Buoncompagni, the illegitimate son of the Pope. His mother was a servant in the house of Girolamo, the Pope’s brother, in Bologna, where Giacomo was born in 1548. He was brought up by his father, and his mother was afterwards dowered by Girolamo and married to a Milanese mason. After his education was finished he was appointed to numerous offices, his father having been made Pope in 1572, and the lordships of Vignola, Sora, Arce, Arpino, and Aquino were purchased for him. He was a soldier and a patron of letters, and a favourable example of his kind. He died in 1612.
[82] Montaigne is probably referring to the Pope’s banishment of Giacomo to Perugia in 1576, on account of an attempt made by his son to protect a servant from the due operation of the law. With regard to nepotism Gregory was moderate. He made two of his nephews cardinals, but the well-known story tells how he ordered his brother back to Bologna when he heard he was on his way to Rome to ask for preferment. Ranke, i. 290.
[83] Probably Montaigne and the ambassador. The Cardinal de Sens was Nicolas de Pelvi, afterwards Archbishop of Reims.
[84] Essais, ii. 11: “Je me recontray un jour à Rome, sur le poinct qu’on defaisoit Catena, un voleur insigne: on l’étrangla sans ancune émotion de l’assistance, mais quand on vint à le mettre à quartiers, le bourreau ne donnoit coup, que le peuple ne suivist d’une voix plaintive, et d’une exclamation, comme si chacun eust presté son sentiment à cette charongue.” Catena was thirty years of age, and was charged with fifty-four murders.
[85] “Je conseillerois que ces exemples de rigueur, par le moyen desquels on veut tenir le peuple en office: s’exerçassent contre les corps des criminels. Car de les voir priver de sepulture, de les voir bouillir et mettre à quartiers, cela toucheroit quasi autant le vulgaire, que les peines qu’on fait souffrir aux vivans.”—Essais, ii. 11.
[86] The employment of fowls in this connection was generally curative. Pepys writes, in describing the treatment of a half-drowned man (vol. vii. p. 288, ed. 1896), “and they did lay pigeons to his feet while I was in the house, and all despair of him and with good reason.” In the case of these criminals the remedy may have been applied to revive them for the next stage of the torture.
[87] Probably the Sala Ducale, painted by Mattheus Bril.
[88] There had been considerable activity in the reconstruction of the city under Pius IV. The reigning Pope had continued this work as far as the disorder in the finances would permit. The most important building operations were carried out a little later under Sixtus V.—operations which were accompanied unfortunately by the destruction of many interesting remains of antiquity.
[89] Monte Testaccio. Gurson was a village in Périgord, the seat of the Marquis de Foix, an intimate friend of Montaigne.
[90] This is incorrect: the present position and aspect of the Temple of Janus indicate very little alteration of the level of the surface.
[91] Eugenius IV. laid a fine of 1130 scudi on the Jews of Rome, which was spent in Carnival festivities and sports, of which Jew-baiting was one of the most popular. The Jew races began under Paul II. in 1468, and became more and more barbarous till their abolition by Clement IX. in 1668.
[92] Exorcism is still a portion of the baptismal rite in the Roman Church.
[93] Sent by Ivan the Terrible.
[94] This was not the Athenian, but Ælius Aristides, a rhetorician of Smyrna, who lived in the time of M. Aurelius. The inscription on the pedestal is ΑΡΙΣΤΙΔΕΣ ΣΜΥΡΝΕΟΣ.
[95] The polyglot version printed by the famous Antwerp Press in 1569.
[96] Assertio septem sacramentorum. It was presented to the Pope by the English Ambassador in 1521. The scansion of the couplet is not perfect.
[97] Cardinal Sirleto, one of the most learned and benevolent men of the age. He was the tutor of Carlo Borromeo. He died in 1585, and lies buried in S. Lorenzo. Ranke, i. 347.
[98] Probably the Codex Romanus of the fifth century.
[99] Marc-Antoine Muret, a learned Frenchman, who passed many years in Italy. Montaigne mentions him, Essais, i. 25: “Et Nicolas Grouchi, qui a escrit De Comitiis Romanorum, Guillaume Guerente, qui a commenté Aristote; George Bucanan, ce grand Poëte Escossois; Marc-Antoine Muret (que la France et l’Italie recognoist pour le meilleur orateur du temps), mes precepteurs domestiques....”
[100] This is almost certainly an allusion to Claude Mangot, a French jurisconsult, who died in 1579, and left two sons. (A.)
[101] Ὁρος. The passage runs: Ὁρους ἀνειλε πολλαχὴ πεπηγότας πρόσθεν δὲ δουλεύουσα νῦν ἐλεύθερα. Amyot’s rendering is, “Car il se vante & glorifie en ses vers d’avoir osté toutes les bornes qui paravant faisoient les separations des heritages en tout le territoire de l’Attique laquelle il dit avoir affranchie au lieu que paravant elle estoit serue.”
[102] Maxima pars novis tabulis aiunt semel fuisse pacta conventa universa circumducta quibus consonare citius carmina Solonis. Gloriatur etiam in his agri se ante pignori nexi fixos passim terminos removisse, quæ pridem serviebant, nunc libera esse.
[103] Montaigne’s frank acceptance of this censure on Amyot, whom he held in the highest esteem, is a remarkable instance of his liberality of mind.
[104] The Sala Regia adjoining the Sistine Chapel. The frescoes representing the fleet of Don John and the battle of Lepanto are by Vasari; who likewise painted the scenes of the massacre of S. Bartholomew and the murder of Coligny. The meeting of Pope Alexander and Frederic Barbarossa is by Giuseppe Porta.
[105] There is some uncertainty as to the identity of this person. The Marshal Blaise de Monluc, Montaigne’s friend, died in 1577, his brother Jean in 1579, and in the Essais, ii. 8, he notices the death of Pierre, a son of the Marshal, in 1568. The passage may refer to a son of the Marshal.
[106] An obvious misprint for the Port of Claudius.
[107] At Porto. Fulvio della Cornia, a native of Perugia, and a nephew of Julius III. He was deprived and imprisoned by Paul IV., who suspected him of favouring the Spanish interests; but the reigning Pope had advanced him to the bishopric of Porto.
[108] Ostia, though already in decay, was not in Montaigne’s time the wretched place it is at present. La Rocca is possibly the castle built by San Gallo for Julius II. At Castel Fusano, a mile to the south, is one of the watch-towers alluded to, with stone figures of soldiers on the roof.
[109] The salt works of Ostia are said to go back to the time of Ancus Martius.
[110] On the death of Henry the Cardinal, in 1580, there was a disputed succession in Portugal, and Philip II. of Spain succeeded in taking possession of the kingdom. The states alluded to are, no doubt, the Low Countries. The name of the ambassador was Don Juan Gomez de Silva.
[111] Sono stati presi undeci fra Portoghesi et Spagnuoli, i quali adunatisi in una chiesa ch’è vicina San Giovanni Laterano, facevano alcune lor cerimonie, et con horrenda scelleragine bruttando il sacrosanto nome di matrimonio si maritavano l’un con l’altro, congiongendosi insieme come marito con moglie. Vintesette si trovavano et più insieme, il più delle volte: ma questa volta non ne hanno potuto coglier più che questi undici, i quali anderanno al fuoco et come meritano.—Tiepolo, Relazioni Ven., August 2, 1578.
[112] The pilgrimage churches: S. Giovanni in Laterano, S. Pietro, S. Paolo, S. Lorenzo, S. Maria Maggiore, S. Croce in Gerusalemme, and S. Sebastiano. The first five were the original patriarchal churches.
[113] Essais, i. 33, has for title, La fortune se rencontre souvent au train de la raison.
[114] Essais, ii. 19.
[115] Essais, i. 25.
[116] Probably, La république des Suisses, by Simler: Paris, 1578.
[117] Filippo Buoncompagni, a nephew of the Pope. He was born in 1548, died in 1581, and lies buried in S. Maria Maggiore.
[118] Paul de Foix. He began his career in the magistracy; and, having fallen under suspicion of favouring the Huguenots, was imprisoned by Henry II. He was released by the influence of Catherine dei Medici, and sent on diplomatic missions to England and Venice. Under Henry III. he entered the Church and became archbishop of Toulouse. He died in Rome in 1584. There is mention of him in Essais, iii. 9. “Cette perte (of M. de Pibrac) et celle qu’en mesme temps nous avons faite de Monsieur de Foix, sont pertes importantes à nostre couronnes. Je ne sçay s’il reste à la France de quoy substituer une autre couple, pareille à ces deux Gascons.”
[119] The romantic story of this Pope is well known. Gerbert was an Auvergnat, a youth of great promise, and after studying at the Cluniac school of Avrillac, and under the Arabic teachers at Cordova, he became a teacher in the school at Reims. He became archbishop in 991 and for a time enjoyed the favour of Hugh Capet, but in 996 he fled to the imperial court and accompanied Otho III. to Italy in 998, being created archbishop of Ravenna at once, and elected Pope as Silvester II. in the following year. He died in 1003.
The myths which gathered round Silvester’s personality are fully set forth by William of Malmesbury, and by Vincentius Bellovicensis in the Speculum Historiale. Having won the heart of his Arabian master’s daughter, he stole his books and fled, helped on, it is hinted, by the devil, who was anxious that he should be preserved and sit in the chair of Peter. Like Friar Bacon, he made a brazen head with power of speech, and besides this a clock and a musical instrument which worked by steam. The head aforesaid prophesied that he would become Pope, and would die in Jerusalem, a prediction which was held to be fulfilled by the fact that he died after performing mass at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. The belief in his unlawful knowledge was widespread and persistent, and in the Vitæ Pontific. Ravennat. it is written, Homagium diabolo fecit et male finivit.
It is strange that Montaigne, with his mind always sceptical of the marvellous, should have been led to regard Silvester’s character in a sinister light. He had evidently read the laudatory epitaph in S. John Lateran written by Sergius IV., but he seems to have been inclined rather to credit the fables of the inscription in Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. The epitaph of Pope Sergius runs as follows:—
♰ IS̅E̅ LOCUS MUNDI SILVESTRI MEMBRA SEPULTI
VENTURO DOMINO CONFERET AD SONITUM
QUEM DEDERAT MUNDO CELEBRE DOCTISSIMA VIRGO
ATQ. CAPUT MUNDI CULMINA ROMULEA
PRIMUM GERBERTUS MERUIT FRANCISGENA SEDE
REMENSIS POPULI METROPOLIM PATRIÆ
INDE RAVENNATIS MERUIT CONSCENDERE SUMMUM
ÆCCLESIÆ REGIMEN NOBILE SITQ: POTENS
POSTANNUM ROMAM MUTATO NOMINE SUMPSIT
UT TOTO PASTOR FIERET ORBE NOVUS
CUI NIMIUM PLACUIT SOCIALE MENTE FIDELIS
OBTULIT HOC CÆSAR TERTIUS OTTO SIBI
TEMPUS UTERQ: COMIT CLARA VIRTUTE SOPHIÆ
GAUDET ET OMNE SECLUM FRANGITUR ROM̅E̅ RE̅U̅
CLAVIGERI INSTAR ERAT CÆLORUM SEDE POTITUS
TERNA SUFFECTUS CUI VICEPASTOR ERAT
IS̅E̅ VICEM PETRI POSTQUAM SUSCEPIT ABEGIT
LUSTRALI SPATIO SECULA MORTE SUI
OBRIGUIT MUNDUS DISCUSSA PACE TRIUMPHUS
ÆCCLESIÆ NUTANS DEDIDICIT REQUIEM
SERGIUS HUNC LOCULUM MITI PIETATE SACERDOS
SUCCESSORQ. SUUS COMPSIT AMORE SUI
QUISQUIS ADHUC TUMULUM DEVEXA LUMINA VERTIS
OMNIPOTENS DOMINE DIC MISERERE SUI
OBIIT ANNO DOMINI CE INCARNATIONS M̅III INDI̅C̅
I. M̈́AI. Ð. XII.
The inscription in S. Croce in Gerusalemme has been removed. It seems to have been in situ in 1592, as it is referred to in Schrader’s Monumentorum Italiæ Descriptio, published that same year.
[120] Essais, ii. 15: “Voyez en Italie, où il y a plus de beaulté à vendre, et de la plus fine, comment il fault qu’elle cherche d’aultres moyens estrangiers et d’aultres arts pour se rendre agréable.” Also Essais, iii. 5: “Ils font les poursuyvants en Italie et les transis de celles mesmes qui sont à vendre; et se deffendent ainsi: Qu’il y a des degrez en la jouissance, et que par des services il veulent obtenir pour eulx celle qui est la plus entière: elles ne vendent que le corps: la volonté ne peult estre mise en vente, elle est trop libre et trop sienne.”
Madame Le Brun writes of a similar fashion at the end of the eighteenth century: “On les voit à leur fenêtres coiffées avec des fleurs, des plumes, fardées de rouge et de blanc: le haut de leur corsage, que l’on aperçoit, annonce une forte grande parure; en sorte qu’un amateur novice, qui veut faire connaissance avec elles, est tout surpris, quand il entre dans leurs chambres, de les trouver seulement vêtues d’un jupon sale.”—Souvenirs (Paris).
[121] Essais, i. 11. “Mais ne veoid on encores touts les jours, au vendredi sainct, en divers lieux, un grand nombre d’hommes et de femmes se battre jusques à se deschirer la chair et percer jusques aux os? Cela ay je veu souvent et sans enchantement: et disoit on (car ils vont masquez) qu’il y en avoit qui pour de l’argent entreprenoient en cela de garantir la religion d’aultruy, par un mépris de la douleur d’autant plus grand, que plus peuvent les aiguillons de la dévotion que de l’avarice.”
[122] An account of these relics may be found in Cancellieri, Memorie istoriche delle sagre teste dei SS. Apostoli P. e P. (Roma, 1806), and in the Dictionary of Moroni, Teste dei SS. Pietro e Paolo.
[123] Montaigne met Maldonat at Epernay, vol. i., p. 32.
[124] Of these gardens the Villa d’Este is now covered by the palace and gardens of the Quirinale. The Orsini possessed gardens or vineyards on Monte Cavallo, on the Pincio, and on the Aventine. The Sforza had one garden near Monte Testaccio and one near the Barberini Palace. The Farnese, Medici, Madama, and Papa Giulio exist at present. The Farnese a Trastevere is now the site of the Villa Farnesina.
[125] This function was the charge of the Confraternity of the Annunziata, founded in 1460, and attached to the church of S. Maria sopra Minerva by Pius II. Pius V. and Urban VII. left thereto large benefactions.
[126] Essais, iii. 9: “Et puis cette mesme Rome que nous voyons, merite qu’on l’aime: confederée de si longtemps, et par tant de tiltres à nostre Couronne: seule ville commune et universelle. Le Magistrat souverain qui y commande, est recognu pareillement ailleurs: c’est la ville Métropolitaine de toutes les nations Chrestiennes. L’Espagnol et le François chacun y est chez soy: pour estre des princes de cet Estat, il ne faut estre que de Chrestienté où qu’elle soit. Il n’est lieu ça bas que le Ciel ait embrassé avec telle influence de faveur et telle constance: sa ruine mesme est glorieuse et enflée.”
[127] Montaigne writes at length over this event in Essais, iii. 9.
[128] The Villa d’Este was built by Pirro Ligorio for the Cardinal Ippolito d’Este, son of Alfonso II. of Ferrara, in the middle of the sixteenth century. Eustace, who visited it in 1801, describes it as fallen to decay.
[129] The statues which Montaigne saw were all found in Hadrian’s Villa. In 1780 a certain number of them were taken by Duke Ercole III. to Modena, and the remainder removed to Rome and added to the Capitoline Museum. The last-named statue was covered with a bronze robe by Bernini in deference to current notions of propriety.
[130] This is all the mention he makes of Hadrian’s Villa.
[131] Montaigne notes his first interview with this official and the objections taken to his writings on page 139.
[132] 4 A.M.
[133] Stanislaus Hosius or Hozyusz was a native of Cracow, and was educated at Padua, where he was a fellow-student with Reginald Pole, and at Bologna. He introduced the Jesuits into Poland in 1569, and was charged with many confidential missions between Pius IV. and the Emperor Ferdinand during the sittings of the Council of Trent. He founded the hospital of S. Stanislaus for his countrymen in Rome. He died at Capranica in 1579. Possibly the Pole mentioned by Montaigne was Stanislaus Reskke, who has left a life of Cardinal Hosius, Stanislai Hosii Cardinalis Vita, Roma, 1587.
[134] She was the daughter of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who, according to the current saying in Rome, had made the three most beautiful things in the city: the Palazzo Farnese, the Church of the Gesù, and La bella Clelia. After the death of her husband in 1585, she gave occasion for scandal on account of her connection with the Cardinal dei Medici and Alfonso Vitelli. Her father ultimately compelled her to marry Marco Pio of Savoy, who was ten years her junior. The marriage was an unhappy one.
[135] Probably a misprint for Noirmôutier.
[136] Orte. The foundations of the present bridge are the work of Augustus; the more recent portions having been built by Sixtus V.
[137] He had invited Montaigne to dine with him at his villa near Porto. See page 128.
[138] It is strange that Montaigne, with his partiality for artificial waterworks, should leave the Falls of Terni unnoticed.
[139] L’Angeloni, in his Storia di Terni (Pisa, 1878), describes a figure of Neptune found in some excavations near Lago Velino with the following inscription:—
Neptuno Sacrum
L. Valerius Nigri Lib. Menander
Portitor Ocrisiva.
He also gives the inscription mentioned by Montaigne:—
A. Pompejo A. F.
Clu. Q. Patrono
Municipi Interamnat.
Nahartis quod ejus
Opera universum
Municipium ex summis
Periculis et Difficultatibus
expeditum
et conservatum est ex
Testamento L. Licini T. F.
Statua statuta est.
[140] Petrino was one of the most celebrated brigands of the cinquecento. He began his career about 1577, and for several years afterwards kept in terror the duchy of Spoleto and the south of Umbria. He was active in these parts as late as 1581. His death and capture were several times reported, but he seems to have escaped to Spain, where he lived until 1640, and returned under the favour of the Farnesi. He died at an advanced age in 1650.
Brigandage was rife throughout the papal territories at this time. Gregory XIII. was on bad terms with all his neighbours on account of his arrogance and extortions, and the Florentines and Venetians allowed the bandits to take refuge in their dominions when pressed by the papal forces. It is strange that Montaigne should have had so little to say about it.
[141] Sainte Foix, in Périgord, close to Montaigne’s home.
[142] Now the department of Lot-et-Garonne. Matteo Bandello had held the bishopric of Agen until a few years before this time.
[143] The Palazzo dei Diamanti, now the Pinacoteca, built for Sigismondo d’Este in 1493. The building alluded to by Montaigne is probably the Palazzo Mignardi.
[144] In the time of Leo X. the neighbouring city of Recanati had been burnt by the Turks.
[145] The Santa Casa is built of stone and not of brick.
[146] Montaigne’s offering had probably disappeared before the shrine was pillaged by the French, as there is no mention of it in a catalogue of the ex votos by Murri, printed in 1792.
In 1802 Eustace visited Loreto and found the treasury empty. “No vestige now remains of this celebrated collection of everything that was valuable; rows of empty shelves and numberless cases only enable the treasurer to enlarge on its immensity and curse the banditti that plundered it. ‘Galli,’ he adds, ‘semper rapaces, crudeles, barbarorum omnium Italis infestissimi.’”—Classical Tour, i. 166.
[147] The marble casing of the Santa Casa was designed by Bramante and the sculptures executed by Sansovino, Girolamo Lombardo, Bandinelli, Giovanni da Bologna, Guglielmo della Porta, Raffaele da Montelupo, Sangallo, and others. It was begun under Leo X. and finished under Paul III.
[148] Louis d’Amboise was born in 1479, and made cardinal by Julius II. He died at Ancona in 1517.
[149] Georges d’Armagnac was born in Gascony in 1500, and became a Spanish ecclesiastic. He subsequently was made archbishop of Toulouse, and died at Avignon in 1585.
[150] The principal works now in the church are by Luca Signorelli, and Melozzo da Forli. Montaigne does not notice the bronze doors by Girolamo Lombardo, which rival Ghiberti’s at Florence. The church was begun in 1468 on the site of an ancient one which, according to Vasari, was adorned with frescoes by Domenico Veneziano and his pupil Piero della Francesca.
[151] According to Querlon, there is no record of any such person in the Nomenclature alphabétique des nobles de Paris et provinces voisines, a list made at the end of the sixteenth century. Neither does the Abbé Lebœuf, in his Histoire de la ville et du diocese de Paris, find the name of Marteau in connection with any one of the four places called La Chapelle described in his book.