At the marriage of Gianluigi, his palace resumed its ancient gaiety, and the Sauli, surpassed by the Fieschi in magnificence, were filled with envy; and this was the first cause of those differences and rivalries which separated these distinguished families.
Louis XII., who had been the guest of the count’s grandfather, speaking of the sumptuousness of the palace in Vialata, said that it surpassed that of his own. And the palace of Fieschi was in fact a kingly residence. The annalists tell us that the hill of Carignano,[29] on which it stood, was adorned with fifty villas, houses and gardens. The principal of these were the palace of Madonna Marisla, the mother of Cardinal Sauli, those of Nicolò, Giovanni Battista and Giuliano Sauli, and the houses of Pietro Negrone and Rolando Ferrari.
From the summit of this hill you have a commanding view of the city, and of the port crowded with a forest of masts; the villas of Albaro are spread out before you; gardens and palaces cover the slopes of gentle declivities, or are scattered along the sides of the mountains which, swelling skyward, make at once a rampart and a diadem for Genoa. Valleys and slopes of marvellous beauty attract the eye towards the shore line, fringed with orange gardens, of Nervi and Recco, until Portofino, with its wave-washed rocks, closes on that side the charming basin of the gulf; while westward lie the bewitching shores of Voltri, Albissola and Savona, closed in the long prospective by Cape Noli standing boldly in the face of the sea; and throughout the wide horizon the waving surface is white with cities, castles and villages, which are garlanded round with orchards and olive groves, reflecting their verdure in the crystal mirror of the Mediterranean.
In the centre of this smiling scene, roofed with a sky yet more bewitching than the landscape, rose the palace of Count Fieschi, faced with alternate slabs of white and black marble, crowned with two grand towers, and decorated with emblems and statues on its front and sides.
In the Fogliazzi Notarili, which are preserved in the city library, there is an instrument dated March 30th, 1468 executed by Luca and Matteo Fieschi, sons of Daniel and Ginevrina Fieschi, from which we learn that in front of the palace there lay an open lawn extending towards the sea, that the villas and orchards of the estate covered the whole space as far as San Giacomo. On the east, west and south the grounds were bounded by public streets, and on the north lay the farms of Francesco del Monte and of the heir of Oberto Della Rovere. Subsequently to the date of this instrument, Bartolomeo Fieschi added villas and fields to this estate; but on the southern side it suffered some detriment from the opening of stone quarries by the government for which the Doge Battista Fregoso paid damages in 1479.
We also learn, from the records of Bailia della Moneta in the bank of St. George, that sixty citizens having, on the 21st of March, 1484 engaged, to extend the mole of the harbour twenty-five or thirty goe (a goe was ten palms or nine feet) the Doge and the elders authorized the rectors of the commune to quarry stone on private property, and for this purpose some lands were ceded by the same Bartolomeo Fieschi, thus decreasing the extent of his estate southward, though it did not reach the sea before this cession.
Behind the palace, lay a botanical garden which Sinibaldo had enriched with rare species of plants and beautified with little lakes and fountains making it, according to Spotorno, among the first of its kind in Italy.
Sinibaldo employed excellent architects and builders, whose names have not come down to us, to decorate and enrich his home, some time before Paul III., on his return from Nice, lodged here as Fieschi’s guest. The wrath of man, rather than the hand of time, has so completely destroyed these monuments that not even the ruins remain for our admiration. The reader will therefore receive with favour the results of our researches into the true position and boundaries of the Fieschi palace and gardens, which in their time were famed for their outward magnificence and for the sculptures, carved work and pictures within the palace. Of these works of art all but one have perished from the memory of man. This was a painting in the vestibule which treated the fable of the giants hurling thunderbolts at Jupiter and some enterprises of the Fieschi family. We think it just to inform our readers of its origin and character.
The wealthy citizens of Genoa were accustomed, like those of every part of Italy, to adorn their mansions with paintings allusive to the exploits of themselves or their families. For example, history has preserved the memory of an allegory given to Gerolamo Adorno by Paolo Giovio, which was sketched in colours by Titian, and wrought into a rich embroidery by Agnolo di Madonna, a Venitian embroiderer. Giovio, in his brief dialogue, speaks of three emblems which were painted in many places in the Fieschi palace. The bishop of Nocera writes that Sinibaldo and Ottobuono, with whom he was on familiar terms, asked him to execute an allegorical picture, representing the vengeance they had taken for the death of their brother, Count Gerolamo, whom the Fregosi had cruelly murdered. This revenge had removed from among the living the instruments of the deed, Zaccaria Fregoso, Signors Fregosino, Lodovico and Guido Fregosi. With this bloody reprisal the Fieschi satisfied their anger, saying that no Fregoso lived to boast that he had spilled the blood of a Fieschi.
Giovio represented this tragic vengeance by an elephant attacked by a dragon. The latter attempts to wind himself about the legs of his antagonist, so as to pierce his bowels and insert his deadly poison. But the elephant, knowing by instinct the danger to which he is exposed, turns himself round and round until he places a rock or a tree between himself and his enemy. Then he beats the dragon to death. This allegory was interesting, from the fine contrast of the two animals, and the Spanish motto, No vos allabareis—by which Fieschi would say to the Fregosi, “You cannot boast of your crime against our blood.”