with brigands at this period. Large bands of armed ruffians ranged
the country, nominally fighting one another, but really robbing and
murdering the helpless peasants. One band, that of Sassomolari, was
estimated to number four or five hundred men. Brigandage was not put
down till the pontificate of Sixtus V.
[41] Lojano.
[42] I fuochi di Pietramala. There are emanations of coal gas from the
rocks. At Acqua Buja, about a mile distant, the gas rises through the
water of a small lake and ignites if fire be applied to it.
[43] Pratolino, a villa built in 1573 by Francesco dei Medici, Grand
Duke of Florence. Little now remains of it save some out-buildings, the
colossal statue of L’Appennino, and some of the waterworks in which
Montaigne found so much to admire. It was built from the design of
Bernardo Buontalenti, but some portions--not the statue aforesaid--were
the work of Gian Bologna. The villa seems to have been in existence at
the beginning of the present century. The park now belongs to Prince
Demidoff.
[44] This alley is still in existence.
[45] L’Appennino, erroneously attributed to Gian Bologna. It was
repaired in 1877 by Prince Demidoff.
[46] These were in the Piazza S. Marco. They were built by Lorenzo,
Duke of Urbino, in 1515. In 1550 Cosimo transferred to an adjoining
site the wild animals which had been hitherto kept in the Palazzo
Vecchio. The Grand Duke alluded to was Francesco, son of Cosimo I.
[47] This was the Strozzi whose tomb Montaigne had recently visited
at Epernay (vol. i. p. 31). He was defeated by the Spaniards and
Imperialists at Lucignano in 1554.
[48] The statues in the Medici Chapel.
[49] In _Essais_, iii. 5, he writes in a more charitable strain: “Ceux
qui connoissent l’Italie, ne trouveront jamais estrange, si pour ce
sujet je ne cherche ailleurs des examples. Car cette nation se peut
dire regente du reste du Monde en cela. Ils ont plus communément
de belles femmes, et moins de laides que nous: mais des rares et
excellentes beautez, j’estime que nous allons à pair.”
[50] “L’hostelerie de l’Ange,” probably now “L’albergo dell’ Agnolo” in
the Borgo S. Lorenzo.
[51] Members of both these families had migrated to France.
[52] The battle of Marciano. The great hall in the Palazzo Vecchio was
painted by Vasari to celebrate the triumphs of Cosimo I.
[53] The notorious Bianca Capello. The Grand Duke had married her the
preceding year. The almost simultaneous death of these two at Poggio a
Cajano in 1587 is one of the mysterious crimes of history.
[54] _De ma taille._ Although the secretary is writing the comparison
is evidently with Montaigne himself.
[55] Ferdinando, son of Cosimo I. He renounced his orders and
succeeded his brother in 1587. He also was at Poggio when the tragedy
happened, and it was commonly believed that Bianca intended to poison
him, but Duke Francesco inadvertently drank the poisoned wine. The
younger brother was probably Giovanni, a son of Cosimo I. by Eleanora
d’Albizzi, born in 1562. The tragic fate of this prince and of his
brother Garcia is one of the mysteries of Italian family crime.
[56] Petraja.
[57] The image of the Chimera, now in the Etruscan Museum. It was dug
up at Arezzo in 1559.
[58] Catherine dei Medici.
[59] This is probably one of those traveller’s hasty generalisations
which Montaigne occasionally lets drop. In his second visit he modified
several of his earlier statements, and a very slight inquiry would
have served to show him that letters still flourished in Florence,
though not so freely as in the golden time of the earlier Medici. The
_Accademia Fiorentina_ was founded in 1540, and the year following his
visit saw the beginning of the Della Crusca.
[60] During the mediæval wars Siena always favoured the French party.
Villani (i. 43, 56) gives the legendary French origin of the place: how
in the eighth century Charles Martel marched against the Lombards in
Apulia, and left those of his troops who were old and unfit for service
at this place. Two refuges were built, and the name _Senæ_ given to
them, on account of the old men who dwelt therein. Villani calls it,
for this reason, one of the most modern of Italian cities, ignoring
Julius Cæsar’s foundation altogether.
[61] The Fonte Gaja, which was completed in 1343. The sculptured
reliefs were added by Jacopo della Quercia, 1412-1419. The sculptor
subsequently enjoyed the epithet “della Fonte.” It was well restored by
Signor Sarocchi in recent times. Dante’s eulogy of the market-place is
well known:--
“Quando vivea pui glorioso, disse
Liberamente nel Campo di Siena,
Ogni vergogna deposta, s’affise.”
_Purg._, xi.
[62] These names all belong to the ancient Sienese nobility, and it
is almost certain that Montaigne is referring to palaces and not to
streets.
[63] He was one of the most celebrated captains of the age. He fought
in almost every country in Europe, and was equally distinguished as a
man of affairs and a courtier, as he managed to retain to his death the
favour and confidence of successive Grand Dukes of Tuscany. His son,
Ottavio, was the well-known general of the Thirty Years’ War. He died
in 1614, and is buried in the church of S. Agostino at Siena.
[64] This house is probably No. 32 in what is now the Via Cavour. It
was an hotel as late as 1852.
[65] A town near Bordeaux.
[66] After the capture of Siena by the Spaniards in 1555 a number of
the people of Siena, nobles as well as burghers, withdrew to Montalcino
with the intention of founding there a new republic. With them went
the French mercenaries who, under the Marshal de Monluc, had helped to
defend the city. Montaigne was, no doubt, inquiring after the tombs of
these men.
[67] This bridge crosses a stream called La Paglia, to which Montaigne
probably refers when he speaks of the village of La Paille.
[68] Ronciglione. The Farnesi had one of their finest seats here.
[69] A piece of money first coined by Julius III., worth about sixty
centesimi.
[70] Montaigne evidently feared the effect of the dew. Just before he
reached Roveredo (vol. i. p. 187) he writes to the same effect.
[71] This inn still exists at the corner of the Via di Monte Brianza
and the Via dell’ Orso.
[72] In the Via di Monte Brianza.
[73] He makes the same complaint of Padua.
[74] Gregory XIII. Ugo Buoncompagni di Bologna.
[75] Alessandro Farnese, nephew of Paul III.
[76] Ferdinando dei Medici, the cardinal whom Montaigne had recently
met at the Grand Duke’s table in Florence.
[77] This Caraffa was first advanced by his kinsman, Paul IV.,
but banished on the accession of Pius IV. Pius V. restored him to
his offices, and Gregory XIII. made him librarian of the Vatican.
In _Essais_, i. 51, Montaigne writes “d’un Italien, que je vien
d’entretenir, qui a servy le feu Cardinal Caraffe de maistre d’hotel
jusques à sa mort.”
[78] The fistula, or pipe, through which the Pope drinks the
consecrated wine. It would hardly give, as Montaigne suggests, any
security against poison; this would be compassed by “pregustation” on
the part of the sacristan and the butler.
[79] Louis Chasteignier de la Roche Posay, seigneur d’Abain. He went
with Henry III. into Poland, and was subsequently sent by Henry as
ambassador to Rome. He was afterwards charged by the Pope to carry the
papal absolution to Henry IV.
[80] The text from which the passage within brackets is translated was
written by Montaigne himself on the margin of the MS.--_Querlon’s note._
[81] Giacomo Buoncompagni, the illegitimate son of the Pope. His mother
was a servant in the house of Girolamo, the Pope’s brother, in Bologna,
where Giacomo was born in 1548. He was brought up by his father, and
his mother was afterwards dowered by Girolamo and married to a Milanese
mason. After his education was finished he was appointed to numerous
offices, his father having been made Pope in 1572, and the lordships
of Vignola, Sora, Arce, Arpino, and Aquino were purchased for him. He
was a soldier and a patron of letters, and a favourable example of his
kind. He died in 1612.
[82] Montaigne is probably referring to the Pope’s banishment of
Giacomo to Perugia in 1576, on account of an attempt made by his son
to protect a servant from the due operation of the law. With regard to
nepotism Gregory was moderate. He made two of his nephews cardinals,
but the well-known story tells how he ordered his brother back to
Bologna when he heard he was on his way to Rome to ask for preferment.
Ranke, i. 290.
[83] Probably Montaigne and the ambassador. The Cardinal de Sens was
Nicolas de Pelvi, afterwards Archbishop of Reims.
[84] _Essais_, ii. 11: “Je me recontray un jour à Rome, sur le poinct
qu’on defaisoit Catena, un voleur insigne: on l’étrangla sans ancune
émotion de l’assistance, mais quand on vint à le mettre à quartiers,
le bourreau ne donnoit coup, que le peuple ne suivist d’une voix
plaintive, et d’une exclamation, comme si chacun eust presté son
sentiment à cette charongue.” Catena was thirty years of age, and was
charged with fifty-four murders.
[85] “Je conseillerois que ces exemples de rigueur, par le moyen
desquels on veut tenir le peuple en office: s’exerçassent contre les
corps des criminels. Car de les voir priver de sepulture, de les
voir bouillir et mettre à quartiers, cela toucheroit quasi autant le
vulgaire, que les peines qu’on fait souffrir aux vivans.”--_Essais_,
ii. 11.
[86] The employment of fowls in this connection was generally curative.
Pepys writes, in describing the treatment of a half-drowned man (vol.
vii. p. 288, ed. 1896), “and they did lay pigeons to his feet while I
was in the house, and all despair of him and with good reason.” In the
case of these criminals the remedy may have been applied to revive them
for the next stage of the torture.
[87] Probably the Sala Ducale, painted by Mattheus Bril.
[88] There had been considerable activity in the reconstruction of the
city under Pius IV. The reigning Pope had continued this work as far as
the disorder in the finances would permit. The most important building
operations were carried out a little later under Sixtus V.--operations
which were accompanied unfortunately by the destruction of many
interesting remains of antiquity.
[89] Monte Testaccio. Gurson was a village in Périgord, the seat of the
Marquis de Foix, an intimate friend of Montaigne.
[90] This is incorrect: the present position and aspect of the Temple
of Janus indicate very little alteration of the level of the surface.
[91] Eugenius IV. laid a fine of 1130 scudi on the Jews of Rome, which
was spent in Carnival festivities and sports, of which Jew-baiting was
one of the most popular. The Jew races began under Paul II. in 1468,
and became more and more barbarous till their abolition by Clement IX.
in 1668.
[92] Exorcism is still a portion of the baptismal rite in the Roman
Church.
[93] Sent by Ivan the Terrible.
[94] This was not the Athenian, but Ælius Aristides, a rhetorician of
Smyrna, who lived in the time of M. Aurelius. The inscription on the
pedestal is ΑΡΙΣΤΙΔΕΣ ΣΜΥΡΝΕΟΣ.
[95] The polyglot version printed by the famous Antwerp Press in 1569.
[96] Assertio septem sacramentorum. It was presented to the Pope by the
English Ambassador in 1521. The scansion of the couplet is not perfect.
[97] Cardinal Sirleto, one of the most learned and benevolent men of
the age. He was the tutor of Carlo Borromeo. He died in 1585, and lies
buried in S. Lorenzo. Ranke, i. 347.
[98] Probably the Codex Romanus of the fifth century.
[99] Marc-Antoine Muret, a learned Frenchman, who passed many years
in Italy. Montaigne mentions him, _Essais_, i. 25: “Et Nicolas
Grouchi, qui a escrit _De Comitiis Romanorum_, Guillaume Guerente,
qui a commenté Aristote; George Bucanan, ce grand Poëte Escossois;
Marc-Antoine Muret (que la France et l’Italie recognoist pour le
meilleur orateur du temps), mes precepteurs domestiques....”
[100] This is almost certainly an allusion to Claude Mangot, a French
jurisconsult, who died in 1579, and left two sons. (A.)
[101] Ὁρος. The passage runs: Ὁρους ἀνειλε πολλαχὴ πεπηγότας πρόσθεν
δὲ δουλεύουσα νῦν ἐλεύθερα. Amyot’s rendering is, “Car il se vante
& glorifie en ses vers d’avoir osté toutes les bornes qui paravant
faisoient les separations des heritages en tout le territoire de
l’Attique laquelle il dit avoir affranchie au lieu que paravant elle
estoit serue.”
[102] Maxima pars novis tabulis aiunt semel fuisse pacta conventa
universa circumducta quibus consonare citius carmina Solonis. Gloriatur
etiam in his agri se ante pignori nexi fixos passim terminos removisse,
quæ pridem serviebant, nunc libera esse.
[103] Montaigne’s frank acceptance of this censure on Amyot, whom he
held in the highest esteem, is a remarkable instance of his liberality
of mind.
[104] The Sala Regia adjoining the Sistine Chapel. The frescoes
representing the fleet of Don John and the battle of Lepanto are
by Vasari; who likewise painted the scenes of the massacre of S.
Bartholomew and the murder of Coligny. The meeting of Pope Alexander
and Frederic Barbarossa is by Giuseppe Porta.
[105] There is some uncertainty as to the identity of this person. The
Marshal Blaise de Monluc, Montaigne’s friend, died in 1577, his brother
Jean in 1579, and in the _Essais_, ii. 8, he notices the death of
Pierre, a son of the Marshal, in 1568. The passage may refer to a son
of the Marshal.
[106] An obvious misprint for the Port of Claudius.
[107] At Porto. Fulvio della Cornia, a native of Perugia, and a
nephew of Julius III. He was deprived and imprisoned by Paul IV., who
suspected him of favouring the Spanish interests; but the reigning Pope
had advanced him to the bishopric of Porto.
[108] Ostia, though already in decay, was not in Montaigne’s time the
wretched place it is at present. La Rocca is possibly the castle built
by San Gallo for Julius II. At Castel Fusano, a mile to the south, is
one of the watch-towers alluded to, with stone figures of soldiers on
the roof.
[109] The salt works of Ostia are said to go back to the time of Ancus
Martius.
[110] On the death of Henry the Cardinal, in 1580, there was a disputed
succession in Portugal, and Philip II. of Spain succeeded in taking
possession of the kingdom. The states alluded to are, no doubt, the Low
Countries. The name of the ambassador was Don Juan Gomez de Silva.
[111] Sono stati presi undeci fra Portoghesi et Spagnuoli, i quali
adunatisi in una chiesa ch’è vicina San Giovanni Laterano, facevano
alcune lor cerimonie, et con horrenda scelleragine bruttando il
sacrosanto nome di matrimonio si maritavano l’un con l’altro,
congiongendosi insieme come marito con moglie. Vintesette si trovavano
et più insieme, il più delle volte: ma questa volta non ne hanno potuto
coglier più che questi undici, i quali anderanno al fuoco et come
meritano.--Tiepolo, _Relazioni Ven._, August 2, 1578.
[112] The pilgrimage churches: S. Giovanni in Laterano, S. Pietro, S.
Paolo, S. Lorenzo, S. Maria Maggiore, S. Croce in Gerusalemme, and S.
Sebastiano. The first five were the original patriarchal churches.
[113] _Essais_, i. 33, has for title, _La fortune se rencontre souvent
au train de la raison_.
[114] _Essais_, ii. 19.
[115] _Essais_, i. 25.
[116] Probably, _La république des Suisses_, by Simler: Paris, 1578.
[117] Filippo Buoncompagni, a nephew of the Pope. He was born in 1548,
died in 1581, and lies buried in S. Maria Maggiore.
[118] Paul de Foix. He began his career in the magistracy; and, having
fallen under suspicion of favouring the Huguenots, was imprisoned by
Henry II. He was released by the influence of Catherine dei Medici, and
sent on diplomatic missions to England and Venice. Under Henry III. he
entered the Church and became archbishop of Toulouse. He died in Rome
in 1584. There is mention of him in _Essais_, iii. 9. “Cette perte (of
M. de Pibrac) et celle qu’en mesme temps nous avons faite de Monsieur
de Foix, sont pertes importantes à nostre couronnes. Je ne sçay s’il
reste à la France de quoy substituer une autre couple, pareille à ces
deux Gascons.”
[119] The romantic story of this Pope is well known. Gerbert was an
Auvergnat, a youth of great promise, and after studying at the Cluniac
school of Avrillac, and under the Arabic teachers at Cordova, he became
a teacher in the school at Reims. He became archbishop in 991 and for
a time enjoyed the favour of Hugh Capet, but in 996 he fled to the
imperial court and accompanied Otho III. to Italy in 998, being created
archbishop of Ravenna at once, and elected Pope as Silvester II. in the
following year. He died in 1003.
The myths which gathered round Silvester’s personality are fully set
forth by William of Malmesbury, and by Vincentius Bellovicensis in the
_Speculum Historiale_. Having won the heart of his Arabian master’s
daughter, he stole his books and fled, helped on, it is hinted, by
the devil, who was anxious that he should be preserved and sit in the
chair of Peter. Like Friar Bacon, he made a brazen head with power
of speech, and besides this a clock and a musical instrument which
worked by steam. The head aforesaid prophesied that he would become
Pope, and would die in Jerusalem, a prediction which was held to be
fulfilled by the fact that he died after performing mass at Santa Croce
in Gerusalemme. The belief in his unlawful knowledge was widespread
and persistent, and in the _Vitæ Pontific._ _Ravennat._ it is written,
_Homagium diabolo fecit et male finivit_.
It is strange that Montaigne, with his mind always sceptical of the
marvellous, should have been led to regard Silvester’s character in a
sinister light. He had evidently read the laudatory epitaph in S. John
Lateran written by Sergius IV., but he seems to have been inclined
rather to credit the fables of the inscription in Santa Croce in
Gerusalemme. The epitaph of Pope Sergius runs as follows:--
♰ IS̅E̅ LOCUS MUNDI SILVESTRI MEMBRA SEPULTI
VENTURO DOMINO CONFERET AD SONITUM
QUEM DEDERAT MUNDO CELEBRE DOCTISSIMA VIRGO
ATQ. CAPUT MUNDI CULMINA ROMULEA
PRIMUM GERBERTUS MERUIT FRANCISGENA SEDE
REMENSIS POPULI METROPOLIM PATRIÆ
INDE RAVENNATIS MERUIT CONSCENDERE SUMMUM
ÆCCLESIÆ REGIMEN NOBILE SITQ: POTENS
POSTANNUM ROMAM MUTATO NOMINE SUMPSIT
UT TOTO PASTOR FIERET ORBE NOVUS
CUI NIMIUM PLACUIT SOCIALE MENTE FIDELIS
OBTULIT HOC CÆSAR TERTIUS OTTO SIBI
TEMPUS UTERQ: COMIT CLARA VIRTUTE SOPHIÆ
GAUDET ET OMNE SECLUM FRANGITUR ROM̅E̅ RE̅U̅
CLAVIGERI INSTAR ERAT CÆLORUM SEDE POTITUS
TERNA SUFFECTUS CUI VICEPASTOR ERAT
IS̅E̅ VICEM PETRI POSTQUAM SUSCEPIT ABEGIT
LUSTRALI SPATIO SECULA MORTE SUI
OBRIGUIT MUNDUS DISCUSSA PACE TRIUMPHUS
ÆCCLESIÆ NUTANS DEDIDICIT REQUIEM
SERGIUS HUNC LOCULUM MITI PIETATE SACERDOS
SUCCESSORQ. SUUS COMPSIT AMORE SUI
QUISQUIS ADHUC TUMULUM DEVEXA LUMINA VERTIS
OMNIPOTENS DOMINE DIC MISERERE SUI
OBIIT ANNO DOMINI CE INCARNATIONS M̅III INDI̅C̅
I. M̈́AI. Ð. XII.
The inscription in S. Croce in Gerusalemme has been removed. It seems
to have been _in situ_ in 1592, as it is referred to in Schrader’s
_Monumentorum Italiæ Descriptio_, published that same year.
[120] _Essais_, ii. 15: “Voyez en Italie, où il y a plus de beaulté à
vendre, et de la plus fine, comment il fault qu’elle cherche d’aultres
moyens estrangiers et d’aultres arts pour se rendre agréable.” Also
_Essais_, iii. 5: “Ils font les poursuyvants en Italie et les transis
de celles mesmes qui sont à vendre; et se deffendent ainsi: Qu’il y a
des degrez en la jouissance, et que par des services il veulent obtenir
pour eulx celle qui est la plus entière: elles ne vendent que le corps:
la volonté ne peult estre mise en vente, elle est trop libre et trop
sienne.”
Madame Le Brun writes of a similar fashion at the end of the eighteenth
century: “On les voit à leur fenêtres coiffées avec des fleurs, des
plumes, fardées de rouge et de blanc: le haut de leur corsage, que
l’on aperçoit, annonce une forte grande parure; en sorte qu’un amateur
novice, qui veut faire connaissance avec elles, est tout surpris, quand
il entre dans leurs chambres, de les trouver seulement vêtues d’un
jupon sale.”--_Souvenirs_ (Paris).
[121] _Essais_, i. 11. “Mais ne veoid on encores touts les jours, au
vendredi sainct, en divers lieux, un grand nombre d’hommes et de femmes
se battre jusques à se deschirer la chair et percer jusques aux os?
Cela ay je veu souvent et sans enchantement: et disoit on (car ils vont
masquez) qu’il y en avoit qui pour de l’argent entreprenoient en cela
de garantir la religion d’aultruy, par un mépris de la douleur d’autant
plus grand, que plus peuvent les aiguillons de la dévotion que de
l’avarice.”
[122] An account of these relics may be found in Cancellieri, _Memorie
istoriche delle sagre teste dei SS. Apostoli P. e P._ (Roma, 1806), and
in the Dictionary of Moroni, _Teste dei SS. Pietro e Paolo_.
[123] Montaigne met Maldonat at Epernay, vol. i., p. 32.
[124] Of these gardens the Villa d’Este is now covered by the palace
and gardens of the Quirinale. The Orsini possessed gardens or vineyards
on Monte Cavallo, on the Pincio, and on the Aventine. The Sforza had
one garden near Monte Testaccio and one near the Barberini Palace. The
Farnese, Medici, Madama, and Papa Giulio exist at present. The Farnese
_a Trastevere_ is now the site of the Villa Farnesina.
[125] This function was the charge of the Confraternity of the
Annunziata, founded in 1460, and attached to the church of S. Maria
sopra Minerva by Pius II. Pius V. and Urban VII. left thereto large
benefactions.
[126] _Essais_, iii. 9: “Et puis cette mesme Rome que nous voyons,
merite qu’on l’aime: confederée de si longtemps, et par tant de tiltres
à nostre Couronne: seule ville commune et universelle. Le Magistrat
souverain qui y commande, est recognu pareillement ailleurs: c’est la
ville Métropolitaine de toutes les nations Chrestiennes. L’Espagnol et
le François chacun y est chez soy: pour estre des princes de cet Estat,
il ne faut estre que de Chrestienté où qu’elle soit. Il n’est lieu ça
bas que le Ciel ait embrassé avec telle influence de faveur et telle
constance: sa ruine mesme est glorieuse et enflée.”
[127] Montaigne writes at length over this event in _Essais_, iii. 9.
[128] The Villa d’Este was built by Pirro Ligorio for the Cardinal
Ippolito d’Este, son of Alfonso II. of Ferrara, in the middle of the
sixteenth century. Eustace, who visited it in 1801, describes it as
fallen to decay.
[129] The statues which Montaigne saw were all found in Hadrian’s
Villa. In 1780 a certain number of them were taken by Duke Ercole
III. to Modena, and the remainder removed to Rome and added to the
Capitoline Museum. The last-named statue was covered with a bronze robe
by Bernini in deference to current notions of propriety.
[130] This is all the mention he makes of Hadrian’s Villa.
[131] Montaigne notes his first interview with this official and the
objections taken to his writings on page 139.
[132] 4 A.M.
[133] Stanislaus Hosius or Hozyusz was a native of Cracow, and was
educated at Padua, where he was a fellow-student with Reginald Pole,
and at Bologna. He introduced the Jesuits into Poland in 1569, and
was charged with many confidential missions between Pius IV. and the
Emperor Ferdinand during the sittings of the Council of Trent. He
founded the hospital of S. Stanislaus for his countrymen in Rome. He
died at Capranica in 1579. Possibly the Pole mentioned by Montaigne was
Stanislaus Reskke, who has left a life of Cardinal Hosius, _Stanislai
Hosii Cardinalis Vita_, Roma, 1587.
[134] She was the daughter of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who,
according to the current saying in Rome, had made the three most
beautiful things in the city: the Palazzo Farnese, the Church of the
Gesù, and La bella Clelia. After the death of her husband in 1585,
she gave occasion for scandal on account of her connection with
the Cardinal dei Medici and Alfonso Vitelli. Her father ultimately
compelled her to marry Marco Pio of Savoy, who was ten years her
junior. The marriage was an unhappy one.
[135] Probably a misprint for Noirmôutier.
[136] Orte. The foundations of the present bridge are the work of
Augustus; the more recent portions having been built by Sixtus V.
[137] He had invited Montaigne to dine with him at his villa near
Porto. See page 128.