We do not know how Pier Luca died; but the manuscripts we consult speak of his end as miserable. Almost all the Fieschi patrimony in Piedmont fell into the power of the Ferrero, who treated their subjects with a severity which strikingly contrasted with the paternal government of their old masters and led to many seditions and revolts. Urban VIII., moved by the loud complaints of the people, deprived Prince Filiberto, son of Basso, of his entire state, and his son, also named Basso, was only permitted to assume the government through the interposition of Duke Feria and Victor Amedeus II. We have before us a letter of the latter, dated January 23rd, 1632, urging the people of Crevacuore to accept Basso “who is not responsible for the faults of his brother and father.” But the new Basso was no better than the old. Alexander VII. removed him from the government and ordered the destruction of the two fortresses of Masserano and Crevacuore. Here we pause; for the history of these feuds is no longer within the range of our subject.
The Doria and imperial faction did not rest while one of the Fieschi conspirators breathed the vital air. Even Giulio Pojano, who commanded the galleys of Gianluigi, fell into snares set for him by that party. He was accused of plotting against the life of Fulvia da Coreggio, wife of Count Lodovico Mirandola, arrested by her orders and strangled in prison.
[CHAPTER XVI.]
JACOPO BONFADIO.
Bonfadio executed in prison and his body burned—Errors in regard to the year of his death—The causes of his arrest and punishment—He was not guilty of the vices ascribed to him—The true cause of his ruin was his Annals—The pretence for his condemnation was his Protestant opinions.
A Painful episode of literary history is closely connected with the Fieschi conspiracy, and it has not yet been fully described. If that Bonfadio, with whose name the reader of these pages has grown familiar, the Bonfadio who was condemned for infamous crimes to an infamous punishment, was indeed an innocent man, the fact is one of great importance. We are able to add something to the history of this foreign[50] writer of Ligurian story whose fate illustrates that maxim which affirms:—The causes of great events are always imperfectly known; because those who are close at hand know only so much as persons whose interests require concealment of the truth choose to tell; and those who are distant interpret facts by passion, interest, caprice or previously formed opinions.
Genoa was the first Italian commune in which history was written by persons whom the government appointed for that purpose. As early as 1157, the great Caffaro wrote the annals of his country for that period in which he had been a witness of her acts, and read them to the elders, who ordered that his writings should be deposited in the archives of the city and commissioned the chancellor of the commune to continue the history. This was done down to 1264, and special additions were subsequently made embracing a period of thirty years. The increasing rudeness of the times, civil commotions in the city and frequent changes in the form and personnel of the government, arrested the progress of the annals near the close of the thirteenth century. Paolo Partenopeo revived the work in 1528. The senate appointed him to read rhetoric, especially the works of Aristotle on government, “because,” says Partenopeo, “politics should be publicly taught in a free city.” He wrote the annals of Genoa, and Bonfadio succeeded him in the same office.
Bonfadio was born in Gorzano, near Brescia, and led a life of vicissitudes and suffering. He was secretary to Cardinal Bari in Rome and afterwards served Cardinal Ghinucci. Beset with many misfortunes, which are unconnected with our subject, he wandered to Naples, Venice and elsewhere, and finally through Count Martinengo was invited to Genoa as a public reader of Aristotle. In Genoa his fate seemed to change, and he wrote cheerfully of his pleasant sojourn and especially of the gentle dames of our city. “It seems to me,” he says, “that even the Turkish female slaves entitle Genoa to be called the city of love.”