[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.