which academical degrees were conferred. It was founded in 1119 by
Irnerius. Numerous schools were established in the West after Byzantine
authority had faded away. Among the first was that of Bologna, where
Pepo began to expound the law in 1075. Irnerius followed him
five-and-twenty years later and introduced the Justinian code. His
followers became known as Glossatori, a word derived from the Greek
[Greek: glôssa], originally meaning a _tongue_. The last of these
glossators was Accursius, who compiled the _glossæ_ known as the "Glossa
ordinaria," a work which soon became the acknowledged authority. The
visitor who wanders through the city and finds himself in the
market-square will there see outside the church of S. Francesco three
canopied tombs. The sarcophagi which rest on a platform borne by pillars
are those of three Glossatori, and one of them contains the remains of
Accursius. The canopies of these tombs are covered with green tiles. S.
Francesco is a fine Gothic church with two elegant _campanili_. It is
undergoing extensive restoration, and, though of some architectural
interest, does not compare in other ways with that of S. Domenico.
This church, wherein repose the remains of the founder of the Order of
Preaching Friars or Dominicans, was begun with the intention of
following the prevailing fashion of the day and constructing another
Gothic fabric. Except for the pointed windows in some of the chapels, S.
Domenico bears no traces of this intention. The interior of white
marble, in a medley of styles in which poor Renaissance predominates, is
very cold. The exterior has a very heavy frieze of white marble; the
commencement of its outer covering carried no further than this. It is
seen in the sketch, which also shows the canopied tomb of the
learned jurist, Rolandino Passageri, who was selected by the city to
frame the reply to the letter in which the Emperor Frederick II.
demanded the release of his illegitimate son Enzio. In the church lie
Guido Reni, whose tomb is in the chapel shown with the heavy frieze, and
his talented fellow-artist Elisabetta Sirani, King Enzio, Taddeo Pepoli,
Captain of the People in 1334, and the great S. Dominick.
[Illustration: S. DOMENICO, BOLOGNA]
Born in Old Castile in 1170, S. Dominick was ordained priest in 1198.
His fiery zeal against "heretics" and his extraordinary preaching powers
soon brought him into great prominence. He was instrumental in
establishing courts for trial and punishment of obstinate "heretics."
The commissioners, who were invested with a jurisdiction that gave them
powers of torture, and life and death, were known as "Inquisitors," and
their conclaves paved the way for the dreaded Inquisition. S. Dominick's
tomb is one of the finest in North Italy. It is one of the earliest
works that the genius of Niccolò Pisano produced, having been completed
thirty years before his masterpiece at Pisa was begun. A magnificent
iron grille separates the chapel from the nave. On the top rail are four
very charming little figures in bronze of saints. The tomb is adorned by
bas-reliefs illustrating the chief events in the life of the saint.
Below these is a very delicately carved set of smaller ones by Alfonso
Lombardi, which form a sort of _predella_, and are nearly three hundred
years later. The urn which contains the saint's remains is behind the
upper set. A small statue of S. Petronio in front is by Michael Angelo,
and the best of the beautiful little angels at the corners claims the
same hand as its sculptor. Cherubs at the top of the monument hold two
very heavy festoons of flowers, which somewhat mar the fine composition
of the whole. From this it is evident that the exuberance of Pisano's
youth had yet to learn the reticence which comes with age.
No description of Bologna would be complete without mention of its
wonderful towers. The graceful Torre Asinelli rises to a height of three
hundred and twenty-one feet, and, although nearly four feet out of the
perpendicular, tapers upwards so imperceptibly that the inclination is
not noticeable. Close by it stands the Torre Garisenda, built by the two
brothers Garisenda. It leans ten feet in one direction and three in
another, and rises to a height of one hundred and sixty feet. Although
the guide-books tell one it was thus constructed, it has undoubtedly
sunk into its position, as the different stages inside slope with the
inclination of the tower. These two are not the only towers of Bologna,
but, being situated in the centre of the oldest quarters of the city,
are those that are best known.
PARMA
Parma is very much like any other of the smaller cities of Italy. It can
however boast of a prehistoric lake-dwelling settlement, unearthed in
1864, and a still later, though very early origin as an Etruscan colony.
To-day it is a bright little place pleasantly situated on the broad
stream that gave it its name. If it were not, however, for its
cathedral, its ancient baptistery, and its inseparable connection with
the art of Correggio, there would be but little to interest the stranger
or even call for a halt at its railway station. Four bridges span the
river Parma, and from each the blue line of the Apennines may be seen
stretching away over the tops of the orchards until lost in the distant
haze. The old Roman road, the Via Æmilia, which we have already seen
started out of Rimini, bisects Parma from east to west, and crosses the
river by a fine old bridge, the Ponte de Mezzo. This is the only
structure of the four which can lay claim to any age. It has a narrow
roadway inclining up to the centre with high parapets on either side,
and partakes very much of the character of a Roman edifice. Except for
a few inscribed slabs there is nothing of any consequence left to remind
one that the pleasant little city of to-day was once a flourishing
colony of Imperial Rome. In the Guelph and Ghibelline feuds it espoused
the Pope's cause and successfully withstood a siege by Frederick II. In
1341 it came into the hands of the Visconti, Dukes of Milan, and was
associated with that duchy for two hundred years. Pope Julius II.
incorporated it with the Papal States, and thirty years after this the
reigning Pope, Paul III., gave it to his natural son Pietro Luigi
Farnese. This family supplied seven dukes to Parma where they reigned
until the male line became extinct in the year 1731. The Bourbons came
into possession of the duchy through Marie Louise, and with the
assassination in the public thoroughfare of Duke Charles III., its
history may be said to have come to an end.
The cathedral and baptistery, with the ecclesiastical buildings which
form the square in which they stand, make a group of much interest. The
first named is a very fine example of Romanesque work. It was commenced
in 1058, but not consecrated until fifty years later, nor really
completed till the middle of the thirteenth century. The façade is
however entirely the original design.
[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL AND BAPTISTERY, PARMA]
Two rows of arcades traverse its length; the lower is on a level with
and carried through the upper portion of the central porch. A third
follows the line of the gable under a heavy cornice. The porch is
similar to the one illustrated of Verona's cathedral. Two colossal lions
bear the burden of the double canopies and were the work of Bono da
Bisone. The sun is sculptured on the keystone of the arch, and in the
soffits the months are illustrated by a series of reliefs of
agricultural pursuits, as in S. Mark's at Venice. A good many Roman
tablets have been used as decoration and for building material along the
whole façade. Two other doors, as well as the central portal, give
entrance to the church. The only other feature of the exterior worth
mention is the beautiful red brick _campanile_ with its green tiled
spire.
The first impression one receives of the interior is that of extreme
solemnity and great majesty. It never wears off. The high altar, a blaze
of silver and gilt, stands well placed eighteen steps above the nave.
The transepts also are thus situated, and there is enough length in the
seven bays that separate the aisles from the nave to put the choir well
back from the spectator as he enters at the west door. From the high
altar the eye instinctively travels upwards to the spandrils in the drum
of the dome where part of Correggio's grand frescoes are seen. The
fourteen fluted columns of the nave are quadrangular. Seven have
Corinthian capitals and seven are Romanesque with traces of Byzantine
origin in the figures, beasts and birds which form the volutes. Some of
these are peacocks with curling outstretched necks; others are the heads
and upper limbs of human figures. The triforium gallery has elegant
pillars in pairs, that support round arches. The clerestory is placed
very high. The vaulting of the nave is peculiar, it is elliptical. The
whole of the walls are covered with frescoes by Lattanzio Gambara and
Girolamo Mazzuola, who was a pupil of Parmigianino. A frieze is above
the capitals of the fluted pilasters that support the arch of the choir
and runs on into the transepts. It is symbolical of the strength of the
Church. Lions are seen here hunting antelopes, deer, and other animals;
that is, the Church is chasing away all evil doers.
The crypt under the choir is architecturally interesting, as it shows in
some of the capitals of its thirty-eight columns the evolution from pure
Byzantine to Lombardo-Romanesque work. But perhaps it will be the
frescoes in the dome that draw visitors to this fine church rather than
its architectural features. In the decoration of this Correggio
surpassed himself in his mastery of _chiaroscuro_ and the foreshortening
of the human figure. The "Assumption of the Virgin," though very
adversely criticised when finished, and now greatly injured by damp and
neglect, is still one of the grandest paintings of its sort extant.
Almost adjoining the south-west corner of the cathedral, and built on
sloping ground, stands Parma's celebrated baptistery. It was begun in
the year 1196, from designs by Benedetto Antelami. The construction was
for many years very spasmodic, and wholly ceased when the bloodthirsty
Ezzelino da Romana governed North Italy for Frederick II. in the
thirteenth century, and forbade the inhabitants to quarry any more
marble. At his death it was pushed on, and in the end finished towards
the close of that century, a date which accounts for the pointed arches
at the top of the interior. It is built of Verona marble, and is an
octagon with three arched portals, on which are some very interesting
sculptures of Old Testament history. Jacob, out of whom grows a tree in
the branches of which are his brothers with Moses at the top, is on one
side of the north door. Another tree, with David and Solomon and the
Prophets, is a pendant on the other. The south doorway is decorated in a
similar style, but the trees are full of all the birds apparently then
known. Barn-door fowls, storks, parrots, eagles, ducks, and peacocks,
&c. &c., find a place in this extraordinary aviary in stone. Signs of
the Zodiac form a sort of frieze on the lower portions of the eight
sides of the exterior. Four tiers of columns forming open galleries
support a continuous architrave, which, whatever the architectural
merits, is not artistically a pleasing arrangement. The interior is
sixteen-sided. Between each division a long marble shaft is carried from
its base on the floor right up to the converging ribs of the pointed
vaulting. The whole of the walls and vault are covered with frescoes.
The upper are early, and appear to be almost contemporaneous with the
finishing of the building. The lower bear the names of Niccolo da Reggio
and Bartolino da Piacenza, and are of fourteenth-century date. The Life
of John the Baptist naturally takes precedence in these interesting
examples of mural decoration. The huge font in the centre of the
baptistery is cut out of a single block of marble. It has a centre
compartment like that already described in S. Giovanni in Fonte, in
Verona. The registers of the baptistery go back as far as the year 1459,
since when it is known that all the babies born in Parma have been
received into the Faith within its walls.
The church of S. Lodovico, also called S. Paolo, was formerly attached
to a Benedictine nunnery. Correggio's celebrated series of pagan
frescoes cover the walls of the "parlour" of the nunnery. They were
executed to the order of the abbess, Giovanna da Piacenza, and are more
fitted for a "Trianon" than a convent. Minerva, Juno, Bacchus, and other
heathen gods and goddesses, with Cupids, and such-like profanities, are
most charmingly arranged amidst a lattice pattern of flowers and
foliage. At the period, the beginning of the sixteenth century, when
this dainty scheme was painted, great licence and irregularities
prevailed in some of these conventual establishments. The abbess and her
nuns often entered into all the gaieties of the outside world and
indulged in the vices pertaining to it. In this case the wrath of the
austere Adrian VI. was visited on Giovanna and her flock, and S. Paolo
was closed, the abbess dying within a month after this humiliation.
GENOA
The poet Tasso in his "Jerusalem Delivered" sings of the exploits of the
great commander of the First Crusade; and although Godfrey de Bouillon
had little to do with Genoa, it was from its port that his fleet spread
sail in 1096 and disappeared over the southern horizon on its way to the
Holy Land. Nearly three years had passed in hard fighting before Godfrey
and his army found themselves before the walls of Jerusalem. Meanwhile
the Second Crusade had started from Genoa, under the command of
Guglielmo Embrianco. He joined forces with De Bouillon, and the Holy
City fell to their arms on July 15, 1099. Embrianco covered himself with
glory; and on his return, among other treasures, brought home the
celebrated Sacro Catino, which he presented to his native city. This
dish of green glass is in the Cathedral. For centuries it was supposed
to have been fashioned from a single emerald, and tradition has it as
the very dish, the Holy Grail, which held the Paschal Lamb at the Last
Supper.
The port of Genoa is very different now to what it was in those early
days. Ships of all nationalities and every sort of build find refuge
behind the numerous breakwaters which protect them from every gale that
blows. The Molo Vecchio is the oldest of these shelters, and built upon
half its length is an old quarter that is one of the fast-vanishing
slums of the city. On the sea-ward side of this mole the Mura della
Malapaga frowns on incoming craft, just as when in days gone by it bid
defiance to the enemies of Genoa whose temerity had led them thus far in
attacks on the city. It is terminated by a grand sea-gateway of very
massive construction. At the end of a subsequent extension the old
lighthouse rises, now well within the port. The house still stands in
the old quarter in which Marco Polo was imprisoned after the defeat of
the Pisans at the battle of Curzola, when he was taken captive. The Molo
Nuovo stretches from the west side of the port near the tall Pharo, and,
running outwards, bends back and covers the Molo Vecchio from the
southerly gales.
[Illustration: AN OLD STREET, RAVENNA]
Genoa's quays present a busy picture with the endless traffic that makes
her the premier port of Italy. Strings of heavily laden carts drawn by
teams of great mules are continually passing to and fro. Cabs rattle on
the pavements, their drivers cracking their whips, the horses'
heads decorated with the long tail feathers of the Amherst pheasant that
dance about to the music of the harness-bells. Groups of boys play pitch
and toss with coins, and still cry "Croce e Griffo" ("Cross or
Gryphon"), a cry as old as the wars with Pisa. Itinerant pedlars pester
folk to buy what no one seems to want. Under the arcades that face the
sea-front shops of all sorts exhibit everything the seafarer can
possibly require, and a lively business goes on in restuffing the
emigrants' mattresses with dry sea-weed or hay. Up, behind all this,
narrow streets wind through the old parts of the city and form an
intricate maze wherein it is not difficult to miss one's way. Many of
the houses here are seven, eight, or nine storeys high. All the day's
washing--and every day is washing day--hangs out from the windows on
long bamboos, or flutters from a cord stretched across the confined
thoroughfares. Fowls, in their inquisitive endeavours to find food, try
to satiate an appetite which is never satisfied. They are all scraggy.
Dark courtyards at the bottom of these tall dwellings teem with
screaming children and scolding women who are engaged at the fountain
troughs with the washing. The ear-splitting cries of hawkers hasten
one's footsteps down the steep descents, and one dodges out of their way
only to lose oneself in vain attempts to leave the picturesque but
squalid quarters of old Genoa.
However fascinating these slums may be--and they can hold their own from
the painter's point of view with those in any other Mediterranean
port--it must be acknowledged that the palaces for which Genoa is justly
famous have hardly a rival. Historically the most interesting is the
Palazzo di S. Giorgio, which stands close to the quayside at the east
end of the Piazza Caricamento. It was erected in 1261 by Guglielmo
Boccanegra, Captain of the People, for his own residence. At his death
it was taken over as the government office for the registration of
public loans, or _compere_, and named the Palazzo della Compere. In 1407
the Banking Company which practically ruled commercial Genoa acquired it
as their headquarters, and its name was changed to that of the city's
patron saint. This bank was the oldest in the world. It originated after
the Genoese had driven the Venetians out of Constantinople, and so
crippled the trade of their great Adriatic rival that for a time they
were masters of nearly all the Eastern commerce that flowed westwards.
This increase in prosperity was to a great extent the cause of the
formation of a trading company, which accepted deposits and advanced
loans to others than its own members. Thus was founded a bank that
carried on its business successfully until the last Doge of Genoa was
unseated and the mushroom Republic of Liguria proclaimed. The bank's
property was then confiscated, and Genoa, governed by time-servers and
place-hunters, fell upon evil days.
The Palazzo has been much altered and restored, but retains some of the
original Genoese Gothic of Boccanegra's building. The Grand Hall on the
first floor contains many statues of the city's benefactors and
prominent men, and is an interesting epitome of their charities, which
are commemorated on tablets attached to each. Some of these statues are
seated, others are standing. The former are of men who purchased their
niche in this Temple of Fame by payment of one hundred thousand livres
to the state; while those who wished to be handed down to posterity at a
cheaper rate had to content themselves with effigies that for ever are
on two legs. The building is now the Customs House, and so once more
money passes through different hands within its walls.
There are no other streets in Italy which can boast such an array of
noble houses as the renamed Strada Nuova, now the Via Garibaldi, and the
Via Balbi. The Palazzo Rosso has a magnificent _sala_ that has a roof
decorated with the armorial bearings of the Brignole family and those
they intermarried with. The Municipality is now lodged in the Palazzo
Doria Tursi. It has a grand façade flanked by open arcades with gardens
on top, and was built for one of the Grimaldi by Rocco Lurago, a Como
architect. Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, and a bust of him
stands in the great hall of the palace, the Sala della Giunta. In its
pedestal are some of his autograph letters to the Banco di S. Giorgio.
His family came from Piacenza, but at the time of his birth his father
was warden of the Porto dell' Olivella, one of the city gates. The
Palazzo Ducale, a huge building of mixed styles, was begun in the
thirteenth century but not finished until the sixteenth. The Palazzo
Durazzo has a grand vestibule and the finest staircase of all. The
Palazzo Doria, standing alone in a delightful garden which extends
towards the harbour, is beautified by a good _loggia_ with arcades. Many
are the palaces built by the great families of Genoa, the Spinola,
Pallavicini, Balbi, Fieschi, Cambiasco, and others, as well as those
already mentioned. They all contain large collections of pictures and
other treasures, and it can certainly be said that the old nobility have
left a hall-mark on their city. The earlier buildings all possessed
towers, and during the Guelph and Ghibelline feuds, when street
fighting was ever recurrent, these vantage positions were of immense
strategic value--it was so pleasant to put the opposing faction _hors de
combat_ by pouring boiling pitch and molten lead on to the heads below!
Street fighting became at length such a nuisance to the peaceable
inhabitants that the order went forth that all towers were to be
demolished, with one exception, the tower that Guglielmo Embrianco
attached to his house. This alone was spared. And it is due to the
veneration in which his name was held that it stands to-day the solitary
defensive relic of Genoa's family feuds. It will be noticed that some of
these palaces are faced, like the Cathedral, with bands of black and
white marble. This distinction was granted to the four noble houses of
Doria and Spinola, who were adherents of the Pope, and Fieschi and
Grimaldi, who took the Emperor's side in all wars.
The Cathedral is a good example of what may be termed Genoese Gothic. It
is dedicated to S. Lorenzo, and was consecrated by Pope Gelasius II. in
1118. The façade, separated into three unequal parts, is a good example
of thirteenth-century Gothic. The _piazza_ on to which it faces slopes
sharply downhill--all Genoa is up and down hill--and the Cathedral rises
well on its tier of steps. Bands of black and white form the exterior
wall of the whole building, and are effectively carried through the
recesses of the portals. The centre porch has twisted columns, which are
carried round the splay of the arch. The columns themselves alternate
with others that are circular. The bases and pedestals are covered
either with carving or inlaid chequer and lozenge patterns. The two
flanking porches are similar, and assist very greatly to increase the
pleasing effect of this somewhat elaborate treatment, which is
heightened by the two detached spiral columns on either side and those
that terminate the façade at each end. In the tympanum over the central
doorway is a figure of S. Lawrence lying nude on a gridiron. The fire
beneath is stoked and kept alive by bellows handled by those who
assisted at his martyrdom. Above is a figure of the Almighty surrounded
by an angel, a lion, a peacock, and a deer. The detached column at the
south-west angle of the façade, seen in the illustration, carries a
figure of the patron saint under a canopy. It rests on the back of a
lion; four smaller beasts of the same species encircle the base. The two
huge _couchant_ lions at either end of the steps are of much later date
than these. From the south-west angle a fine turreted tower rises
upwards from the square, and with its copper dome forms a great feature
of the Cathedral as one walks up the Strada Carlo Felice. This
street is narrow and full of traffic, so much so that it is with
difficulty one makes out the many mutilated tablets with Roman
inscriptions, built haphazard into the south wall of the Cathedral, and
the canopied mediæval tombs let in above.
[Illustration: FAÇADE OF THE CATHEDRAL, GENOA]
The interior of the building is disappointing. One expects to find more
space. A gallery at the west end, under which you find yourself directly
upon entering, forms a sort of atrium. It is supported by very massive
clustered columns which carry a good groined vault with heavy ribs. This
was originally the _cantoria_, or organ-loft. Nine small bays on either
side separate the nave from the aisles. The single columns of the arches
are of red and purple marble from the renowned quarries at Tortosa, in
Spain. At each corner of the black marble bases, and touching the
_torus_ of the column, the head of a bird or animal has been carved. The
arches of the bays are pointed. Above them is an open triforium formed
by rows of small stunted arches that are carried by single and clustered
columns in banded black and white. The clerestory is of small narrow
single lights. The transepts are Renaissance, and the choir a mixture of
styles.