Sinibaldo had another allegory executed in the palace of Vialata. He and Ottobuono were forming an alliance with the Adorni and many of their partisans urged them to protract the negotiations, since the army of the king of France was near at hand and Ottaviano Fregoso, supported by his party, had a very firm hold on the government and would be able to make a spirited defence if assailed at that moment.
To this the Fieschi replied that they well knew the time for action, and on this incident they asked Giovio to execute an allegory. The artist remembering what Pliny says of the halcyons who await the spring solstice to make their nests and lay their eggs when the waves are tranquil, painted a calm sea and a serene sky with a nest extending from the prow to the poop of a vessel with the heads of the halcyons raised over the prow and a motto in French—nous savons bien le temps—meaning to say we well know when to make war on our adversaries; and the chronicler adds, they thus foreshadowed their triumph over their rivals.
The Fieschi palace had other allegorical paintings treating various subjects. Some of them described tender love passages in the lives of the Fieschi. In one was told the story of a gentlewoman loved by Sinibaldo. It would seem that she grew jealous and reproached him with want of fidelity, because he mingled much in the company of other dames. Sinibaldo, in order to excuse and justify himself with his mistress, demanded of Giovio an appropriate representation in allegory. The artist represented a mariner’s compass lying on a chart with the needle fixed; overhead a blue sky spangled with golden stars, and underneath the motto, aspicit unam. The sense of this allegory being that, though the heaven is full of beautiful stars, the needle points to one alone, that is, the North star. The offended dame was cured of her jealousy. The allegory was much praised, says Giovio, by many persons, including Fieschi’s secretary, Paolo Panza. We have already said that the elect of the city came to congratulate Gianluigi on his return to Carignano, and that the luxury displayed by him on the occasion of his marriage surpassed all bounds. Some conception of this luxury may be formed when we remember that Genoa was at that time the richest city in Italy, and that its wealth found expression in a prodigality of money so excessive, that Partenopeo in an assembly, at the time Giovanni Battista Sauli entered upon the magistracy, prayed the government to impose restrictions on the waste of the national wealth. In fact, on the 16th of December, 1500, the elders issued a proclamation forbidding wives to spend on their personal attire more than a third part of their dowers, and ordained other sumptuary prohibitions.
The flower of the Genoese youth frequented the Fieschi palace, not merely for amusement and pastime, but they cultivated there letters and polite studies. Liguria had at that period some erudite scholars, who employed themselves in teaching youth the sciences and eloquence. The Fieschi did not rank last in these pursuits; and it had become a family tradition for the sons to cultivate letters, and acquire the doctorate in law. Gianluigi was versed in every branch of learning, and, though it has been written that he never had other books in his hands than the life of Nero and the conspiracy of Catiline, it is certain that he studied the Latin and Italian masters, especially Tacitus and Machiavelli.
Paolo Panza, who wrote the lives of the pontiffs of the Fieschi family, and graceful Latin and Italian verses of such merit that Ariosto compared them to those of Trissino and Molza, lived in the house of Gianluigi, and aided him in his literary pursuits. Through his instructions the young count acquired a love for learning, and was led to open his doors to the most cultivated men of his time. And these were more numerous than might be expected in a city immersed in commerce and maritime enterprises. Braccelli and Antonio Gallo had acquired repute as historians: Giacobo de’ Fornari, as a Greek scholar: Geronimo Palmaro, Bartolomeo Guistiniano, Nicolò da Brignali and Bartolomeo were men of great learning, and Grimaldi Rosso, who reached the dogate in 1535, was equally master of medicine, mathematics, and philosophy.
These noble examples were followed by Nicolò Senarega Gentile, a renowned lawyer, Marcantonio Sauli, and P. Ilarione, who wrote learnedly on the subject of exchanges. We omit Ansaldo Ceba, who was both a warrior and a poet, because he lived somewhat later; but we must mention Emanuele Grimaldi, whose pleasing rhymes were published in 1549; Captain Alessandro Spinola, whose literary merits were eclipsed by his fame in the field, and particularly that obtained at Golletta, where he was the first to mount the hostile ramparts. Among our warrior poets we should not pass by the brave Cesare Fregoso, though he had been killed a few years earlier by the Spaniards. He wrote Latin songs which were highly praised, but have unfortunately been lost. He was a man truly great in everything. Matteo Bandello, who took shelter in his palace, and received from him both protection and honour, bears testimony which is alike honourable to both protector and protected. But it would be beyond our province to enumerate all the learned men of that period.
Perhaps the reader will be pleased to know something of the famous women who surrounded the countess Eleonora. She was herself, instructed in letters, as well as in all those accomplishments which became a lady of her time.
Among her friends were Arcangela di Negra, and also the venerable Battista Vernazza, daughter of the great Ettore, from whose pen we have treatises, songs and epistles.
Among the latter her answer to Doctor Tomaso dal Moro, who had endeavoured to win her to the doctrines of Luther, then being secretly diffused through Liguria, is singularly charming. Bandello mentions with praise an Antonia Scarampi,[30] and we may add Peretta Scarpa-Negrone, whom her contemporaries commend for her skill in poetry, calling her a new Corinna. Livia Spinola has left us good rhymes; Maddalena Pallavicini, wife of the marquis of Ceva, wrote verses which are not without merit, and Placida Pallavicini won the encomiums of Paolo Foglietta. The first rank in the Pallavicini sisterhood is due to Argentina, who became the wife of Guido Rangone, and whose literary accomplishments were the theme of the wisest men of that period.