[14] Cronaca Matarazzo, p. 75.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Fratini, Storia della Basilica di San Francesco, p. 287.
[17] Cronaca di Matarazzo, p. 75.
[18] For a true picture of the condition of Italian towns, torn by strife, decimated by famine, and suffering from leprosy brought by the crusaders, see Brewer's admirable preface in vol. iv. of the Monumenta Franciscana.
[19] The first tournament took place at Bologna in 1147.
[20] Folgore di San Gimignano, translated by D. G. Rossetti.
[21] These were the first troubadours to visit the Italian courts, driven from Provence by the crusades against the Albigenses.
[22] A certain Bernardo Moriconi, leaving his brother to carry on the business at Lucca, then famous for its manufacture of silk stuffs, came and settled at Assisi where he got the nickname Bernardone—the big Bernard. Whether in allusion to his person or to his prosperity, we cannot say, but the family name was lost sight of and his son was known as Pietro Bernardone.
[23] Celano. Vita I. cap. 1.