1. _Title-page_ (p. 1). The manuscript title-page of the _Book_ is
closely paraphrased by Browning, _R.B._ 1. 122-31, the word "position"
being used as the equivalent of Italian _posizione_.
2. _The Index_ (p. 3) (Italian, _indice_) is a manuscript table of
contents, evidently supplied by the original collector.
3. _A Transcript of the sentence against Pompilia_ (pp. 5-7) in the
Criminal Courts of Arezzo, dated February 15, 1697 (for 1698).
Parallel with the Process of Flight (_see_ Note 18) in Rome, the
Franceschini family evidently instituted criminal proceedings in
Arezzo against the fugitive Pompilia, charging her with theft and
adultery. Signor Guillichini and the driver Borsi were included in the
action as accessory to the crime. The Franceschini were able to secure
the condemnation here which was not obtainable in Rome. Under security
of this sentence, granted in December 1697, Guido could safely go on
with the assassination of his wife, so far as Tuscan law was
concerned. The transcript in the _Book_ is dated February 15, while
the murder trial was at a crisis, and was probably sent to Rome by
Signor Cencini to assist Guido in his peril. It is noteworthy that
Guido did not include Caponsacchi in his accusation in Arezzo.
4. _Romana Homicidiorum._ The frequently repeated designation of the
case--_Romana causa homicidiorum_--Roman trial for murders.
5. _Hyacinthus de Archangelis_ (Italian, _Giacinto Arcangeli_),
_Procurator Pauperum_, was Guido's chief defender, not an attorney
employed privately by the defendant, but an official States' attorney
for the defence. The Roman court procedure in all cases assumed the
right and obligation of the State to conduct both sides of a criminal
case.
6. _Desiderius Spretus, Advocatus Pauperum_, was the co-defender of
the accused. Humphrey's _Urbs et Orbis_, p. 428, makes plain the
respective functions of the two attorneys: "The advocate is a man
skilled in civil and canon law, who defends causes in writing or by
word of mouth, on the point of law, setting before the judges that
which is true in law, or best founded in law, or the principles of law
which ought to be applied in a particular case. His is the scientific
part of the cause, and he speaks only to the point of law. Matters of
fact are to be established by the procurators, and it is upon these
established facts that the advocate develops his judicial
conclusions."
7. _Joannes Baptista Bottinius, Fisci et Cam. Apost. Advoc._ (Advocate
of the Fisc, or Treasury, and of the Reverend Apostolic Chamber), the
chief prosecutor of the criminals, with functions equivalent to those
of the prosecuting or States Attorney in the Common Law. Browning
continually used the clipt form, Fisc.
8. _Franciscus de Gambis, Procurator Fisci_, was the coadjutor in the
prosecution, opening the case in Pamphlet 5, but thereafter playing
little part in the case.
9. _Antonius Lamparellus, Procurator Charitatis_, the attorney who, in
Pamphlet 17, defended the memory of the dead Pompilia for her heir and
against both the Franceschini family and the Nunnery of Convertites
(_see_ Note 10), both of whom were accusing her memory to gain her
estate. This trial in the criminal court of the Governor, took place
between the death of Guido, February 22, and May 17, 1698. The
decision "for absolution" was made _definitive_ by the decree of
court, September 9, 1698 (Pamphlet 18).
10. _The Nunnery of the Convertites._ Within a month after the death
of Pompilia the Nunnery of _Sta. Maria Maddalena delle Convertite al
Corso_ (founded 1520 _pro mulieribus ab inhonesta vita ad honestam se
convertentibus_) laid claim to the whole of Pompilia's property on the
ground of their privilege of receiving the property of women of evil
life who died in Rome.
11. _Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Governor._ All the
arguments and the summaries of evidence in the murder case are
addressed to the Governor of Rome, but the Vice-Governor, Judge
Venturini, seems to have presided in his stead.
12. The title and imprint on the right half of the final page of each
of these official pamphlets was evidently for convenience in filing
the documents when folded into bundles. The imprint _Typis Rev. Cam.
Apost._ (Type of the Reverend Apostolic Chamber), is the official
imprint of the Papal press.
13. _The Deposition of Angelica_ (pp. 49-53). Angelica, a domestic in
the Franceschini home during January 1697, while the Comparini were
living in Arezzo with their son-in-law, was probably carried back to
Rome by the Comparini on their return to Rome that she might serve as
a witness to the poverty and parsimony of Guido. She makes her
affidavit at Rome, June 24, 1694, evidently for use in the suit
brought by Comparini to recover the dowry paid with Pompilia. How far
it is true and how far it is the prejudiced and bitter word of a
resentful servant who had been kicked out of doors, we cannot say. But
its publication through court procedure must have been bitterly
humiliating to the Franceschini. What was worse, the Comparini
probably used this as a part of the slanderous stories they took pains
to print and circulate in Rome (p. 181).
14. _Diverse Attestations_ (p. 53). These attestations, made June 17,
1697, nearly seven weeks after the arrest of Pompilia at Castelnuovo,
were evidently secured by her lawyers for her defence in the Process
of Flight (Note 18).
15. _The letters of Signori Romani and Albergotti_ are undated, but
were probably written soon after the departure of the Comparini from
Arezzo in 1694.
16. _Pompilia's Letter to Abate Paolo_ (pp. 56-7). The much discussed
letter of Pompilia to Abate Paolo, dated June 14, 1694, full of
calumniation of her parents, who had left Arezzo only three months
before, could not have been written by the fourteen-year-old girl
voluntarily. Guido must have composed it as a counter attack on the
Comparini, who were bringing suit against him at Rome, and were
loading him with shame.
17. _The Attestations of Fra Celestino and Others_ (pp. 57-60), dated
January 10, only four days after the death of Pompilia, was given at
the instance of Pompilia's executor, Tighetti. It is a most important
piece of evidence, and is cited repeatedly during the trial. Its
genuineness and sincerity are beyond question, and Browning gained
from it most of his faith in the innocence and saintly patience of
Pompilia.
18. _Process of Flight._ After the arrest of Pompilia and Caponsacchi
at Castelnuovo they were taken to Rome and lodged in prison. They were
soon brought to trial on the criminal charge of adulterous elopement.
The case seems to have been in the same court which tried Guido for
murder eight months later, and probably continued in a desultory
fashion all summer. In this case both of the accused made the
deposition later included in the _Book_. In this trial also, Guido
tried to introduce the testimony of the harlot-servant, Maria
Margherita, and the love-letters. The case was never decided so far as
Pompilia was concerned.
19. _The Deposition of Pompilia_ (pp. 90-5), dated May 13, 1697, two
weeks after her arrest at Castelnuovo, giving the causes of her flight
from her husband's home, was made by Pompilia for her own defence in
the Process of Flight. The marginal comments, adverse to her, are, of
course, the prejudiced comments of Guido's lawyers.
20. _The Deposition of Caponsacchi_ (pp. 95-8), made about the same
time and under the same circumstances for the Process of Flight, was
reintroduced as evidence in the murder case, but there is no reason to
think that Caponsacchi was brought into the latter case in any other
way.
21. _The Love-Letters_ (pp. 99-106). These letters are one of the most
elaborately discussed pieces of evidence in the _Book_. Guido claimed
to have found them at the inn of Castelnuovo after the arrest of the
fugitives, and he offered them in court during the Process of Flight,
as a proof of adultery in his wife, but they were thrown out by the
court. Their conventional fine-letter-writing, their studied innuendo
and finesse, were quite beyond the capacity of an illiterate girl like
Pompilia. They were probably composed by Guido, and if so, they prove
that he was basely scheming to drive his wife into dishonourable
flight that he might disgrace her and cast her off. The eighteenth
letter was specifically denied by Caponsacchi in his cross-examination.
22. _The Sentence of Relegation_ (p. 106) for three years in Civita
Vecchia was decreed against Caponsacchi at the close of the Process of
Flight in September, 1697. It is commensurate with priestly
indiscretion rather than with crime.
23. _The Account of Fact_ (Pamphlet 10). This anonymous Italian
pamphlet is not at all a part of the official record of the murder
case. It has no imprint and is in entirely different face of type, and
must have been printed privately for circulation outside the courts.
While much less technical and formal than the arguments of the
lawyers, and much more studious of popular effects, it slips back
repeatedly into the thought and the language of Arcangeli, the
defender of Guido. It probably suggested Half-Rome in _The Ring and
the Book_.
24. _The Response_ (Pamphlet 15) is a highly rhetorical, but
effective, retort to the anonymous writer. It was written during the
later stage of the murder trial, and was probably the work of Signor
Bottini. It likewise is without imprint and signature, but may have
been broadly scattered throughout Rome.
25. "_To keep to this home of Pietro ... as a prison_," _Domus pro
Carcere_ (p. 159). For a month after the sentence against Caponsacchi,
Pompilia was kept prisoner in the refuge called the _Scalette_--a
provision for her safekeeping, not a punishment. On October 12, she
was permitted to give bond to keep the home of her foster parents, the
Comparini, as a prison, _Domus pro carcere_, sentence against her
being suspended.
26. _The Scalette._ The _Conservatorio di S. Croce della Penitenza
alla Lungara_ was an institution for penitent women, founded 1615, and
popularly called _Scalette_, because of the two adjoining stairways.
Browning confuses this institution with the Convertites (Note 10).
27. _Baptismal Record of Pompilia_ (p. 159). This note, taken from the
parish record of San Lorenzo, in Lucina, enables Browning to make the
exact statement of Pompilia's age and her full name, as given in the
opening lines of her monologue.
28. _Pompilia's Letter_ (p. 160) to her foster parents, written from
prison at Castelnuovo only two days after her arrest, is her plea to
them for assistance. It was probably cited as evidence in the Process
of Flight.
29. _The Will of Pietro Comparini_ (pp. 160-1), evidently drawn up
after he had learned Pompilia was not his own daughter, and before her
return to Rome, aimed to prevent her being disinherited for that
reason. Its personal tone is good, and it is almost the only
first-hand evidence of the character of Pietro to be found in the
_Book_.
30. _Power of Attorney_ (p. 162). Under date of October 7, 1694, Guido
grants full power of attorney to Abate Paolo, who was representing him
in the lawsuits in Rome and in other matters of business.
31. _Arcangeli's Manuscript Letter_ (pp. 235-6). On February 22, 1698,
only a few hours after the execution of Guido, Signor Arcangeli, his
legal defender, announces the end of the case to Signor Cencini, the
Florentine lawyer who collected the _Book_, and who seems to have been
professionally related to the Franceschini family, as he had sent
certain "proofs" to assist the cause of Guido, probably including the
report of the criminal condemnation of Pompilia in the Tuscan courts.
(_See_ Note 3). This letter is reproduced by Browning, _R. B._ XII.
239-98.
32. _The Other Letters_ (pp. 237-8), written on the same day and to
Signor Cencini, give a few additional details. The writers seem to
have been professionally associated with the Franceschini family.
33. _Francesca Pompilia_, foster daughter of the Comparini, _b._ July
17, 1680; was married to Guido Franceschini, December 1693; fled from
her husband's home in Arezzo, April 29, 1697; arrested at Castelnuovo,
May 1; wrote to her foster parents from her prison at Castelnuovo, May
3; made deposition in Rome concerning her flight, May 13; was on trial
for flight and adultery during the summer of 1697; was placed in the
convent of the _Scalette_, September 1697; removed to the home of the
Comparini as prison, October 12, 1697; gave birth to a son, Gaetano,
December 18, 1697; was assassinated January 2, 1698; died January 6.
34. _Giuseppe Maria Caponsacchi_, _b._ May 26, 1673, was invested
Canon of the Church of Santa Maria della Pieve, November 26, 1693, and
resigned "of his own accord," May 15, 1702. He is referred to in the
_Book_ as a man of courage, and his words as he faced Guido at
Castelnuovo are significant: "I am a man, and have done what I have
that I might save your wife from death." His affidavit is convincingly
straightforward, in spite of certain discrepancies with Pompilia's
statements, and there is evident moral indignation in his replies
under cross-examination. His participation in the dangerous flight in
mere amorous intrigue seems unbelievably foolish, and could hardly
have been carried through save on the motive he assigns, courageous
"Christian compassion." In September 1697 he went to Civita Vecchia
under sentence of three years' relegation.
35. _Canon Conti_, called the "mediator in the flight," was brother of
Count Aldobrandini, who had married Guido's sister, and Conti is
accordingly spoken of as a "relative and frequenter of the
Franceschini home." He had been invested Canon of the Pieve, August
14, 1692. He must have been fully informed of Pompilia's sufferings,
and to him she turned at last for help. Deeming it improper for
himself to afford her relief, he urged his friend Caponsacchi to
accompany her. No criminal procedure was instituted against him in
Arezzo when Pompilia and Guillichini were accused. He died January
1698, and the Second Anonymous Pamphleteer hints that this was due to
foul play.
36. _Guido Franceschini_, _b._ January 24, 1658, the youngest son of
an impoverished, second-rate, noble family of Arezzo, had sought his
fortunes in Rome, where he became secretary of Cardinal Nerli. He
dropped out of this service in middle life, with hardly a dollar in
his pocket, and planned to recoup his fortunes by marriage with
Pompilia, the heiress of the well-to-do Comparini. After the marriage
in December 1693, the Comparini accompanied him back to Arezzo. He
seems to have been unattractive and saturnine, and later on proved
himself both crafty and brutal.
37. _Abate Paolo Franceschini_, _b._ October 28, 1650, the older,
shrewder, and more able brother of Guido, was more successful in
seeking his fortunes in the official world of Rome. He became
secretary of the powerful Cardinal Lauria, and on the death of the
latter, November 30, 1693, obtained the lucrative office of Secretary
of the Order of St. John of Malta. He assisted Guido in effecting the
marriage with Pompilia, and was his active agent in Rome during the
lawsuits which followed. In 1697 he lost his secretaryship because of
the ignominy which had come upon him in Guido's shameful troubles, and
left Rome, possibly, as he is accused by the Second Anonymous
Pamphleteer, to assist in planning the murder of the Comparini.
38. _Honoris Causa._ As the fact of the murders by Guido and his
cut-throats was subject to no dispute, the whole law case turns on the
question whether these murders had been _for the sake of honour_, the
ever repeated plea of the unwritten law for the right of the husband
to slay a wife sinning against her wifehood. The lawyer's devote
themselves to ascertaining the limitations and privileges of this
plea.
39. _Incontinenti, Ex Intervallo._ There is much argument on the
justification for honour's sake in murder done _immediately_ after the
insult, or _after an interval_ of time has elapsed. In the latter
case, the murder becomes premeditated, and is not justifiable on the
ground of excusable heat of passion at an insult.
40. _The Aggravating Circumstances._ The prosecution makes much of the
attendant criminal circumstances which surrounded the main crime of
murder. These are first, the assembling of a band of armed men,
constituting the crime of rebellion; second, the murder of a prisoner
while under the care of the courts, Pompilia being technically a
prisoner detained in the Process of Flight; third, the assault upon
opponents in a pending lawsuit, the Comparini then being at law with
Guido; fourth, the violent breaking into a private home; fifth, the
commission of crime under cover of disguise; sixth, the use of certain
types of barbarous weapon, the very possession of which was a capital
offence. The first three of these were _laesa majestas_, criminal
insult to the majesty of the law.
41. _San Lorenzo in Lucina._ This church in the heart of Rome just off
the Corso, and not very far from the home of the Comparini at the
corner of Via Vittoria, and Strada Paolina, was evidently the parish
church of the Comparini, as both the birth and death of Pompilia are
entered in its register.
42. _Castelnuovo._ A village of but a few houses, fifteen miles north
of Rome. The inn and posthouse where Pompilia and Caponsacchi were
overtaken by Guido thus became one of the most important scenes in the
tragedy.
43. _Torture of the Vigil._ Guido and his companions were tortured
thus, to get fuller testimony from them. This torture consisted
originally in merely keeping the victim awake until he told his crime.
Later on his confession was accelerated by auxiliary devices for
intensifying the suffering of the subject.
44. Browning has taken the peroration used in the first lawyer's
monologue, _R. B._ VIII. 1637-1736, directly from the peroration of
Arcangeli in Pamphlet 8, p. 130.
45. The description of the execution as given in _R. B._ XII. 113 _et
seq._, is taken from the additional Italian pamphlet, pp. 265-6.
46. In like manner _R. B._ VIII. 587-683, is closely drawn from the
_Book_, pp. 153-4, with an interpolation in lines 640-57 from page
226. More than fifty of such word to word borrowings from the _Book_
are made in this monologue.