THE SPANISH DOMINION IN LIGURIA.
The Fieschi at the court of France--Louis XIV supports their
claims--Bad effects of the law of Garibetto--Severe laws against the
Plebeians--Death of Andrea Doria--Estimate of his public services--New
commotions--Magnanimity of the people--The old nobles make open war on
the Republic--Treaty of Casale in 1576--The Spanish power in Italy,
particularly in Liguria--Aragonese manners corrupt our people--New
taxes and customs--The nobility accepts the fashions, manners and
vices of the Spaniards--Change of the character of the Genoese
people--Last splendours of Italian genius.
IT is not our purpose to follow Count Scipione in his wanderings;
we shall only speak of so much of his exile as is necessary to the
narration of the last of the Fieschi drama. He married Alfonsina,
daughter of Robert Strozzi and Maddalena de’ Medici, and obtained many
marks of esteem from the royal house of France, whom he and Strozzi
served. Elizabeth, wife of Charles IX., treated him with the same
familiarity as Catherine de’ Medici. He distinguished himself at the
siege of Rochelle, and Henry III. knighted him in the order of _Saint
Esprit_.
Scipione left a son, Francesco, Count of Lavagna and Bressuire, who
fell at the head of his troops in the siege of Monte Albano (1621), and
from whose marriage with Anna Le Veneur a noble family was born. The
eldest, Charles Leo, married Gillona de Harcourt, (1643), who bore him
Gianluigi Mario, a name which the Genoese Republic never forgot. Louis
XIV. took him under his protection, and demanded of the Republic the
restoration to Mario of his ancestral domains. The Senate refused, and
he sent a formidable fleet, commanded by Segnalai (1684), who bombarded
the city, and ruined churches, monuments and palaces. Innocent XI.
interposed without effect; the fierce monarch required that the Doge
and four senators should supplicate mercy in Paris; that the Republic
should disarm its galleys and pay a hundred thousand crowns to Count
Fieschi. The Republic abandoned by Spain, was forced to accept these
conditions, and Louis on his part promised no longer to support the
pretentions of the Fieschi. Count Gianluigi Mario died in 1708, without
offspring, and the counts of Lavagna in the line of primogeniture ended
with him.
We have spoken in another place of the addition to our statutes of the
law called in derision, _Garibetto_,[52] the effect of which was to
exclude the new nobles and the men of the people from political power.
The artifice was this: The old and new nobles in equal numbers filled
the public offices, and, the latter being the more numerous class, the
individuals of it held the highest office less frequently than the
individuals of the old nobility. The rule was distasteful for many
reasons: it was not made in a lawful way, but imposed by the authority
of Andrea Doria, when many of the nobles themselves (says Doge Lercaro)
were opposed to the measure; and it was contrary to the wishes of the
vast majority that a few patricians should have almost exclusive claims
upon the Dogate.
The people were little pleased that they were now totally excluded from
that office, to which formerly they alone were eligible, while the
plebeians[53] fretted at the insolence of the patricians and Spanish
gentlemen among us.
There were new conspiracies. The spies of the emperor learned that a
Fra Clemente of the order of St. Francis had brought back from France
some schemes for a revolution and Suarez communicated the information
to the Senate. The friar was arrested at Ceva and, having been
tortured, he declared that De Fornari was intriguing with the king
of France to promote a revolution in Genoa. De Fornari, the same who
had been elected Doge against the wish of the old nobles, and who was
therefore very obnoxious to that party and idolized by the people, was
captured and confined in Antwerp.
Such movements led the Senate to distrust the people more than ever
and to deprive them of the right to bear arms. In fact, when Agostino
Pinelli was Doge, Italian troops were no longer trusted with the
custody of the ducal palace; but the Republic enlisted Swiss, German
and Trentine mercenaries. Giocante Della Casa Bianca who had commanded
the guard for twenty-five years, gave up his sword to a German
adventurer and accepted a subordinate position.
Besides, though the plebeians did not revolt or renew the conspiracies
of Fieschi and Cybo, the Senate endeavoured to ruin all those who were
pronounced friends of the ancient popular system. Oberto Foglietta
having published in Rome, where he resided (1556), two books on the
Genoese Republic, in which he exalted the popular citizens over the
patricians, declaring that the first had served the country with
greater fidelity than the second, the government declared him guilty of
felony and punished him with banishment and confiscation of goods. Many
years after, Giovanni Andrea Doria, to whom he dedicated his eulogies
of illustrious Ligurians, procured the revocation of the sentence.
While the Senate banished Foglietta, it praised to the skies the
ignoble treatise of Pellegro Grimaldi, who, though a Republican, taught
us to beg the favour of princes, and the logic of Lovenzo Capelloni,
who, adhering consistently to the party of the victors, declared that
the Holy See owed its fame to the house of Borgia.
On the 25th of November, 1560, Andrea Doria died, having lived almost
one hundred and one years. The nobles called him the father of his
country; but Cosimo, the old, was equally flattered. The plebeians with
more sense surnamed Andrea _Good Fortune_, because except in a very few
cases, his plans were always successful. He was the first admiral of
his time and conquered everybody but himself; sad proof of which are
the misfortunes of Fieschi, Farnese, Cybo and a long list of exalted
names. He bore arms against his country, to dissolve, he said, its
alliance with France; but the act was equally in his own interest after
he had deserted the French service.
If he emancipated us from France, he took away the popular franchises
and established the Spanish tyranny. He did not wish the office of
Doge; but being the minister of Charles V. in Italy and the lord
of the Main, it did not become him to descend to an office of less
rank. The magnanimity of his own heart and the temper of his fellow
citizens alike forbade him to assume the supreme power of a prince
in Genoa. That was probably destined in his mind for Gianettino, and
only the Fieschi conspiracy saved us from that fate. If Doria had
wielded his sword and shed his blood for Italy as he did for foreign
masters, he might perhaps have saved us three centuries of humiliation.
Foglietta proposed to him a more generous service; to despoil himself
of galleys, giving them or selling them to the Republic--an example
which other citizens would imitate--so that Genoa, having fifty ships
in her service, could hold French and Spaniards at bay and use the
seas for her commerce. Such a course would have given Andrea the
glory of Ottaviano Fregoso, who by destroying the forts of the Faro,
showed that he loved his country better than his personal dignity and
interest. But the Republic saw in her waters a fleet which belonged
to her sons, while she lacked ships to protect her coasts from the
pirates of Barbary. The splendid scheme of Foglietta came to nothing;
Andrea spent his life in keeping the seas open for French and Spaniards
and in maintaining foreign powers. He preserved to Genoa the name of
independence, but it was a mockery. Though he put on our necks the yoke
of Spain, he was great and strong enough to be the only minister and
agent of that power.
A great soldier in the service of the enemies of Italy, he stripped
the Republic of her popular power, founded an oligarchy on the ruins
of liberty and closed the glorious epopee of Genoese conquests in an
endless succession of domestic conspiracies and political contentions.
Such is our estimate of Andrea. We believe that now that the angry
passions which his actions evoked have ceased to glow, the sentence of
history should be written with impassable justice. After his death,
the Fieschi party again took courage. They attempted to remove the old
nobles from power and in 1560 (writes Doge Lercaro) conferences were
openly held in many places, especially in the house of Basadonne, so
that it was necessary to refer the matter to the Senate. Finally, the
nobles of San Pietro, headed by Matteo Senarega, a man of much legal
learning and political experience whom the arrogance of Doge Gianotto
Lomellini had driven from the secretaryship of state, resolved to renew
the Fieschi movement, humble the patricians and destroy the Spanish
power. The contest began in the election of Doge, each party wishing
to elect one of their own number, and they came to blows. The Porch of
St. Luca was supported by its large army of vassals, by the arms of
Spain and by the galleys of Prince Giovanni Andrea Doria. The porch of
St. Pietro had the support of the populace who hoped to regain their
old place in the political system of the Republic. In the midst of the
quarrel (1572) Galeazzo Fregoso arrived with two large triremes, and
after an enthusiastic reception by the people announced that the king
of France would give support to the popular cause.
Scipione Fieschi also repaired two ships in order to support the
revolution. But both found an invincible repugnance in the people
to a revolution supported by foreign arms, and relinquished the
enterprise. The people trusting in their own stout arms, revolted under
the leadership of Sebastiano Ceronio, Ambrosio Ceresa and Bartolomeo
Montobbio, sons of the people. However, the life and soul of the
insurrection was Bartolomeo Coronato, who though noble by birth,
patriotically espoused the popular cause. They occupied the city,
closed the streets with barricades and shut up the patricians in their
houses. These movements lasted for a month, the deputies of the people
demanding that the laws of 1547 be abolished and the most worthy of
the citizens inscribed in the book of gold. The Doge trembled at the
audacious demand and the Senate saw no escape from its perplexity until
Giovanni Battista Lercaro entered the hall and said:--“Since you have
not been able to save the country from its peril and are ignorant of
the art of governing, yield your places to better men. Elevated to your
offices by the spirit of faction and personal interest, you are unfit
to rule.”
These words of Lercaro, a man of great dignity and a noble of the
porch of San Luca, frightened the Senate who promptly declared their
willingness to follow his advice. But the plebeians always generous to
their own hurt, answered:--“We have not taken arms for political power.
We only want the law of Garibetto revoked.” Whereupon the Senate took
fresh courage, annulled the odious law, added three hundred families to
the nobility, abolished an unpopular excise duty upon wine and raised
the daily wages of the weavers three soldi. The populace were satisfied
and returned to their daily duties, while the nobles of San Pietro who
had feared a popular tempest managed the movement with so much address
that they obtained complete control of the state.
But the noblemen of San Luca, as indignant after, as pusillanimous
before the peril, refused to recognize the new laws and, abandoning
the city, retired first to their castles and afterwards collected
at Finale, then in the power of Spain. Here they declared open war
against the Republic, and failing to obtain assent to their demands by
the mediation of princes and even of the Pope, they invoked foreign
arms to desolate the country. A powerful fleet commanded by John of
Austria, brother of king Phillip, sailed into our waters. The old
nobles, knowing the hatred of our people to Spain, required that the
expedition should sail under Ligurian colours; but this did not secure
the success of the enterprise. Meanwhile Giovanni Andrea Doria, heir
of the political opinions of his Grandfather as well as his riches and
rank, stormed the castles of Spezia, Porto Venere, Chiavari, Sestri and
Rapallo; and without listening to proposals of peace proceeded to the
conquest of the western Riviera, capturing Noli and Pietra.
The nobility, whose remittances from Spain came in very slowly, was
reduced to such extremities as to be unable to continue the war.
Giacomo Durazzo was Doge. Prospero Fattinanti took his place and a
compromise was effected through the ambassadors of the Pope, the
emperor and the king of Spain assembled in Casale in 1576. The accord
of the two parties of the nobility excluded the people from all
political power. The plebeians were enraged at this new betrayal of
their cause, and Matteo Senarega who had laboured so hard to promote
popular rights, prophesied that the bondage of the plebeians would
be eternal. He wrote:--“He who is oppressed by a prince yields to
necessity and to destiny, with the consolation that a change of masters
may lighten his burdens; but he who sinks under the despotism of a few,
assuming the name of a Republic, loses his disgust at the tyranny in
the sound of a word and under a sweet delusion wears his chains for
ever.”
The old and new nobles now intrigued with such success as to destroy
the spirit of popular liberty; and Coronato, whom Lercaro though of the
opposite faction praises so highly, lost his head on the scaffold. On
the other hand, Prince Giovanni Andrea Doria, who had dyed his sword
so often in the blood of his fellow citizens, was called, “_Preserver_
of the liberties of his country.” To this day he holds that rank in
history; but our history must be re-written.
We have seen that the reforms of Andrea destroyed the popular
constitution, placed all political power in the hands of the
patricians, and opened the doors of the Republic to Spanish supremacy.
When the city of Finale, exasperated by the lust and avarice of Alfonso
Del Caretto, shook off his yoke, the dispossessed lord appealed as
an imperial vassal to the Diet of Augusta; and the emperor, far from
favouring the Republic, which had taken part in the fall of Alfonso,
decided that the marquis should be restored to his feud, compelled
Genoa to pay him for the damage he had suffered. The Republic clamoured
against the sentence, it is true; but when a few years later Gabrielle
Della Cueva, duke of Albuquerque, and governor of Milan, garrisoned
Finale, Genoa had not courage to oppose the measure, and suffered a
foreign power to intrench itself in the very heart of Liguria. At the
death of Marquis Francesco (1598), the line of Carretto became extinct,
and the Senate allowed Finale to pass into the possession of Spain,
who, not content with this, assassinated Ercole Grimaldi, in order to
become master of the principate of Monaco, (1614.)
Conquests and wars were finished, and Genoa had scarcely strength to
keep down domestic revolt, and resist the aggressions of immediate
neighbours. The greater part of the conspiracies which for almost a
century disturbed the dreams of our masters, had no other object than
to restore the popular constitution. The free systems were falling
throughout the Peninsula. The people hoped when the council of Trent
was opened that it would not only correct the gross abuses of the Papal
court, but restore the church itself to its ancient democratic forms.
But when the council closed, it was found that no innovation had been
effected, that a few vices had been forbidden; but the Church remained
a monarchy, as Gregory VII. and Innocent III. had left it. Not content
with this, the Papacy, with its famous bull _In cœna domini_ (1567),
endeavoured to attach all the powers of the world to its triumphal car.
The fall of the communes was complete, and the Latin principle was
strangled by the monarchial and foreign element.
The Italian states, for the most part subject to foreign powers, were
changing into monarchies. Italy was a province of Spain; and yet so
detestable was that power that Navagero tells us, Paul IV. never
spoke of the emperor or the Spaniards without calling them “heretics,
robbers, accursed of God, children of Moors and Jews, offscouring of
the earth,” and bewailing the fate of Italy compelled to serve such
vile masters. Spain left such fierce antipathies behind her that the
interjection “Cursed be Spain,” came down to our times. A wise Pope,
Sixtus V., who tried to oppose the imperial power, died by poison
(1590). For two centuries, the decrees which regulated Italian
politics came from Madrid. Naples and Milan groaned in chains; the
lords of Mantua, Ferrara, and Parma, gloried in their shameful bondage.
Venice herself purchased peace by ignoble sacrifices. Of Rome I do not
speak. That she was badly governed, witness the incessant revolts of
her people, the conspiracy of Benedetto Accolti, and the obsequies of
Paul IV.
Emanuele Filiberto, who won for Austria the battles of San Quintino
and Gravelines, consolidated with his victories the foreign dominion;
and, educated in the school of Phillip II., he extinguished liberty in
Savoy by abolishing his states general, and bathed his valleys with the
blood of the Vaudois. The Republics of central Italy saw their last
days in the same terrible period; Florence was in the grasp of Cosimo,
Pistoia under the guns of a fortress; Arezzo paid with her liberties
for favouring the imperial army; Lucca bought with money and the blood
of Burlamacchi a short reprieve; Siena more generous than all others
fought to the last extremity and perished, like Saguntum, among her
own ruins. Thus while in the middle of the sixteenth century the great
nations were consolidated which now control Europe, Italy was dying
and dying by the fault of her own sons. The treaty of Castel Cambrese
recognized and sealed the foreign dominion.
From that moment, the love of letters ceased to be a worship. The form
was polished; but the spirit was stifled. Our most illustrious artists,
forced to live upon the patronage of foreign princes, preferred the
security of servile ease to the dignity and modesty of true art. The
money of the great seduced them to abandon truth and the people without
whom genius is neither great nor productive. Pleasure for courtiers
was their only aim. The country was dying, but no voice sang the hymn
of death; no one gave history those pages of heroism which save the
dignity of vanquished nations. On the contrary, Giovio with unblushing
brow eulogized his golden pen; Casa sang in honour of the Charles V.
whom he had once satirized. Alamanni apologized to the emperor for his
famous verse saying that it is the poet’s office to lie, and Cellini
himself could write:--“I work for pay.”
In this general decline, the ideas of Fieschi did not utterly die. Some
generous souls continued to protest. Let it suffice to cite Tassoni
and Campanella, the last of whom in his conspiracy against Spain was
supported not only by many barons but also by the Visir Cicala, a
Calabrian renegade (though of Ligurian descent) who promised to land
Turks in the kingdom. Nor would we forget that some of our nobles in
Genoa tried to tear up the poisonous plant which had taken root in the
Republic; as, for example, Agostino and Francesco, Pallavicini, Nicolò
Doria, who married a sister of Gianluigi Fieschi, and Agostino Vignolo
who during the Piedmontese wars intrigued with lord bishop Brissac to
aid the French arms.
But the Spanish government, which was destroying letters and arts,
struck its roots more deeply every day and we reached such depths
of degradation, we tremble in writing it, that the Senate issued a
decree in the Spanish language and consented that it should be used in
lectures and sermons. The plebeians, groaning under a double slavery,
sometimes appealed to Spain against the arrogant despotism of the
patricians; but the appeal reacted against the petitioners and Doctor
Ligalupo, a man of much learning and great virtue, was imprisoned for
life.
In the reports of the Venitian ambassadors to the Senate, the condition
of Genoa is described in a few fit words; Badoero writes:--“They hate
the Spanish nation as strongly as possible and matters stand thus:--the
people see only France; those in power see only Spain, and none seem to
think of the common weal.”
With the loss of liberty our manners became dissolute. Courtesans
were held in honour. Imperia in Rome. Tullia in Venice were courted
by men of genius. Catarina da S. Celso, Vanozza, Borgia and Bianca
Capello married into illustrious houses. To speak of Liguria alone, a
brief of Pope Clement VII. to the archbishop of Genoa and the prior
of S. Teodoro, exhorts these prelates to unite with the government in
reforming the cloisters, because the nuns have become utterly dissolute
from contact with every sort of persons. The Genoese nuns had infamous
repute throughout Italy. Bandello says:--They go where they please
and when they return to the cloister say to the abbess “Mother, by
your permission, we have been to divert ourselves.” It seems that
subterranean passages were opened between the cloisters of nuns and
friars. In our times, when the convent of S. Brigida was torn down, in
the open walls were found skeletons of children who had been buried
there as soon as born. Cardinal Bembo justly said that “all human
vices and crimes were perpetrated in the cloisters under cover of a
diabolical hypocrisy.”
On the fourth of September 1551, another brief on the corrupt morals
of the convents was issued by Julius III., but it produced no effect.
Gregory XIII., in a third brief of the first of July, 1583, made a
new attempt to correct the gross immoralities of the cloister and
the fruitlessness of his efforts is shown by the fact that he issued
another soon after. The Aragonese license, penetrating the palace
and the sanctuary, corrupted everything exalted or sacred; and then
gradually diffused itself among the people, who had hitherto been so
virtuous that the magistracy of Virtue, instituted in 1512, had no
occasion to make regulations in regard to popular morals.
Before the Fieschi insurrection extraordinary imposts and forced loans
were unknown. The customs were collected on principles of equity. It
was wonderful to see the finances in healthful equilibrium, while
the strife of faction raged so fiercely. The city added a fleet and
an army to its forces at the cost of only four hundred and seventeen
thousand lire, and the entire income of the government was only four
hundred and thirty-five thousand lire. Love of country and not private
interest ruled the hearts of the citizens; public services were either
gratuitous or very slightly paid. In 1461, the annual pay of the Doge
was less than twelve thousand lire, with three thousand more for office
and secret expenses; that of the commander of the city guards was only
four thousand lire; and other salaries were in proportion.
But purity of manners disappeared when the foreign power was
consolidated, and the mechanism of the State was altered to suit
the character of our masters. To pervert the plebeians, the Senate
established the lottery (the first in Italy) in 1550, under the name
of _Borse della Ventura_ and it was so profitable to the treasury that
an impost of sixty-thousand lire was collected from it, and the sum
was increased year by year until it reached three hundred and sixty
thousand.
Genoa, like Venice, committed the great error of oppressing her
dependencies with heavy imposts instead of treating them with generous
liberality. As early as 1539, a tax of four denari was levied on
every pint of wine and it soon after increased to eight soldi on each
mezzarola. Later, that is in 1588, the duty on salt was raised to a
crown per mina. Three per cent. was imposed on incomes, and a tax
was levied on fruits, and also on paper of which a large amount was
exported to foreign countries. These taxes were light in comparison
with the murderous taxation of our times, but they were none the less
annoying to citizens unused to the visits of tax-gatherers. It had not
been customary to drain the money of the poor, but the rich paid in
proportion to their splendid fortunes or new columns were opened in the
bank of St. George.
The governors of this bank, seeing the Republic restricted to a few
families and the Ottoman power becoming master of the seas, wisely
returned to the state (1562) Corsica, the cities of Ventimiglia and
Sarzana, with its strong castles, the burgh of Levanto and the populous
valley of Teico.
Our rich citizens lent their fortunes at high interest to the
government of Spain; but the industries which had been the life of the
people gradually declined.
In the first years of the century, Liguria was in its most flourishing
condition. The smallest hamlets had profitable industries and trade.
On the Western Riviera, Taggia was famous for its Muscatelle wines
which Alberti says were not inferior to those of Candia and Cyprus.
The trade in them was very active. Oneglia was prosperous, and Diana
sometimes produced twenty thousand barrels of oil in a single year.
Albenga, though its air was unwholesome (whence the proverb of the
time,) “Albenga piana, se fosse sana si domanderebbe stella Diana,” was
rich in the produce of its fruitful soil. There was universal movement,
industry, wealth. But it was of short duration; the new system of
government dried up all the fountains of our riches. In 1597, Genoa
was reduced to sixty-one thousand inhabitants; Savona which had once
counted thirty-six thousand citizens, in 1560 numbered only fourteen
thousand, and in 1625, the number had fallen to eight thousand. The
decrease was in this proportion throughout the Republic. Campanella
had good cause to say to Genoa:--“Leave your markets, your gains, your
barren glories! Blush for the riches of your citizens which contrast so
terribly with the misery of the Republic.”
The foreign influence slowly killed the manly virtues of the Genoese.
Italy no longer existed. We had a corrupt people in a corrupt state.
All care was given to externals; every free thought was a crime; we
were vile and called our vileness love of peace, and our indolence,
moderation; religion had become a superstition, and the rites of the
church merely a ladder to worldly preferment. Luxury and parade were
unparalleled; but poverty was seen through the pompous vestments. The
first born was rich, but his brothers were usurers or celibates in the
cloisters. In their vanity and degradation, the great forgot that they
had a country. Trade seemed ignominious to our princes and nobles,
and they believed that their names at the foot of a bill of exchange
would make a bad figure in history. This beggared many families to whom
false pride closed the paths by which their fathers had become great.
Knightly virtues disappeared; noble blood alone opened the paths to
eminence, and this was carried to such extremes that our patricians
refused to have for archbishop Belmosto, only because his name was not
in the book of gold. They were at once proud and ridiculous. In 1576,
a Nicolò Doria became Doge and first took the title of _Serenissimo_
and severe penalties forbade even the notaries to call other persons
than nobles--however illustrious and wealthy they might be--by the
title _Magnifico_. The notarial profession[54] itself was pronounced
in certain cases ignoble and mechanical. In the smaller towns the same
folly prevailed. In Ventimiglia and Finale, there were streets, porches
and walks to which the plebeians were not admitted. Genoa was only a
shadow, a pretence of a Republic.
Our wars and intestine struggles, our magnanimous enterprises abroad,
were succeeded by a servile tranquility. Our masters preferred their
gilded saloons to the dust of honourable fields; they lent their money
at usurious interest, and got titles and degrading premiums for their
baseness. There were, it is true, some naval engagements, but there
were no real wars. And this was the supreme misfortune; for long peace
wastes the strength of peoples and destroys both the habit and the
courage of noble enterprises. There lingered among us arts, letters,
wealth and trade; but the manly virtues were extinct.
The foreign leprosy gradually changed the character of our plebeians;
they began to tremble before the powerful from whom they were separated
by an immense interval. The two classes had nothing in common but vices
and the habit of servility. Universal corruption produced great crimes
and long catalogues of malefactors were often published. Nor was this
in Liguria alone; all the provinces of the Peninsula were involved in
a common demoralization. Assassins and robbers collected, not merely
in bands, but in armies, and desolated the country and even the
cities. They were led by trained warriors such as Alfonso Piccolomini,
Corsietto del Sambuco--who ventured to the very gates of Rome--and
Marco Sciarra who in Calabria took the title of king. Let no one
suppose that the numerous altars, crucifixes and images of Mary prove
the piety of our ancestors. They are witnesses for quite the contrary;
in the midst of innumerable crimes perpetrated in open day, these
religious emblems protected the citizen from the knife of the assassin
who was too superstitious to smite him at the foot of the altar.
Religion was then only a superstition and a terror. A multitude of
books appeared full of the wildest vagaries that fanaticism ever
produced. For example, there were the prophecies of S. Brigida
threatening the city with destruction! and through such follies the
cunning generation of men, who live upon hypocrisy, mystery and the
dead, amassed large fortunes. Their instructions were idle speculations
and appeals to human fears. In those days, patrician and jesuit
intrigues collected their followers in a little church situated in the
_Corsa del Diavolo_ and bound themselves by an oath to support for
public offices only those of their own faction. An opposite faction
organized, and from their standard--a black crucifix--were called _Moro
delle Fucine_. This was the origin of those pagan saturnalia which
survive in our times under the name of _Casaccie_.
Duplicity, fraud and treachery took the place of frank and fearless
honesty. Entire towns were infected with these vices like a species
of leprosy. The inhabitants of Borsonasca acquired a wide reputation
for shrewd frauds and deceptions. They understood every sleight of
hand, learned foreign tongues and imitated them with admirable skill;
they had cunning artifices for getting other people’s purses, and they
travelled in every country in Europe. Though born in the woods, they
entered boldly the palaces of nobles and even of princes, dressed
as physicians, merchants, bishops and cardinals. They sold charms,
medicines, false titles and privileges with such perfect art that they
often acquired extravagant wealth and high rank.[55]
Italy, sore wounded, did not die at once. Latin virtue and civilization
were so tenacious of life, that whereas nations usually grow barbarous
with the loss of liberty, Italy, trodden by foreign and domestic
tyrannies, preserved a remnant of her culture, and, though barren of
political genius, adorned her sunset with the splendours of science and
art.
It was then that speculative philosophy achieved its greatest triumphs
among us. Pomponaceo, Telesio, Cardano, Bruno and Campanella,
precursors of Cartheusius and Bacon, opened new roads for the progress
of the sciences. Strange, too, but true, when Italy was perishing, she
produced her greatest soldiers--soldiers who led every other people
but their own to victory. The age of our prostration and servitude
produced Trivulzio, Medici, Gonzaga, Farnese, Colonna, Doria, Spinola,
Strozzi, and Orsini.
But Genoa, perhaps the last to die, was the first to rise; the day
came when, purified by suffering, she found strength to avenge
in a tempestuous uprising of her people the shame of her long
humiliation.[56]
INDEX.
Abbatelli, the, conspirators in Palermo, 87
Adorno, Antoniotto, retires from the Dogate in 1527, 43;
raised to the Dogate by the Fieschi, 92
----, Barnaba, Lord of Silvano, 94, 165
----, Maddalena, Countess of Silvano, 95
----, Prospero, conquers the Fieschi in 1476, 7
Alba, Duke of, sails with Doria to Spain, 246, 250, 281
Albenga, Jacopo di, distinguished jurist, 195
Alberti, Leandro, quoted, 30, 67, 136, 332
Alcibiades, Fieschi compared to, 66, 127
Alessi, Galeazzo, architect of the church of Carignano, 202
Alexander VI., Pope, 97, 107, 108
---- VII., Pope, 298
Anguissola Giovanni, 236, 237, 239;
his death, 240
Ariosto, Lodovico, praises the verses of Panza, 82
Aristotle taught in Genoa by public lectures, 300
Assereto, Tommaso, co-conspirator of Fieschi, 154, 160, 166, 168, 193,
209, 218;
executed by the government, 220, 223
Balbi, inscription to his infamy, in a rear wall of the Ducal palace,
199
Bandello, Matteo, quoted, 83, 121, 173, 252, 329
Barbarossa, Barbary corsair, 50, 287
Bastelica, Sampiero, Corsican revolutionist, 285, 287-98
Bavaria, princes of, 2, 10
Belcœur, French ambassador in the Grisons, 239
Belmosto, Archbishop of Genoa, 333
Boccanegra, Guglielmo, Captain of the People, 38, 41
----, Maria, 171
----, Simone, first Doge of Genoa, 39
Bona, Duchess, 7
Bonfadio, historian, 25, 66, 91, 92, 93, 113, 126, 156, 177, 207, 234,
299
Boniface IX., pope, 12, 97
Bonnivet, French general, invades Italy, 25
Borgia, Cæsar, intrigues of, 41-2, 106
Borgognino, Scipione, storms the arsenal of Doria, 161, 167
Borganasca, village in the Apennines, craftiness of its people, 336
Bourbon, Constable of, 29
Bourbons, the, 153
Bourgogne, Dukes of, 2
Braccialina, Gentilina, murdered by her husband, 279
Braculli, historian, 82
Brutus, Gianluigi Fieschi compared with, 146
Burlamacchi, Francesco, his revolutionary schemes, 104
Caffaro, first Genoese annalist, 299
Calcagno, Vincenzo, co-conspirator of Fieschi, his origin and
character, 116;
at first opposed the conspiracy, 117;
his part in it, 143, 158;
supports the attack on S. Tommaso, 160, 162, 166;
sails with other conspirators to Marseilles, 183;
condemned to banishment, 192;
killed by Spinola after the surrender of Montobbio, 220
Calvi, Annina, touching history of, 252
----, Antonio, 166
Calvin, guest of the Duchess of Ferrara, 309
Cambiaso, Luca, painter, 202, 315
Campanaceo, historian, 25, 169
Campanella, writer and conspirator of Spain, 328, 333, 336
Capello, Bianca, famous courtesan, 329
Capelloni, Lorenzo, historian, 26, 319
Capponi, family of, in Florence, 126, 268
Capuano, Gianluigi, victim of Toledo in Naples, 260
Caracciolo, Giano, Governor-General of Piedmont, 115
Caraffa, an Italian reformer, 27
Cardano, Italian author, 303, 306, 336
Caretto, Marquis of, 16, 325
Carnesecchi, writer of the sixteenth century, 268, 312, 313
Caro, Annibale, author, 132, 137, 236, 237
Casoni, Genoese annalist, 27, 236, 301
Castelvetro, Lodovico, reformer, 309
Castiglione, 269, 270, 312
Catando d’Arimini, friend of Fieschi, 137, 174
Catilini, Fieschi compared with, 17, 23
Cato quoted by Fieschi, 140
Cellini, Benvenuto, artist, 29, 235, 328
Centurione, Prince Adamo, 67;
promises his daughter in marriage to Fieschi, 68, 101, 149, 153,
166, 185, 254, 261
----, Benedetto, 188
----, Gianetta, daughter of Prince Adamo, 67;
espoused to Gianettino Doria, 69
----, Grimaldi Nicoletta, authoress, 84
----, Manfredo, 183, 211
Charlemagne, 35
Charles III. of Savoy, 33
---- V., Emperor, 20;
his election, 24;
great only in the extent of his dominions, 31;
the humiliation of Italy dates from his reign, 36;
his acquisition of Milan, 109, 111, 119, 146, 185, 230, 231, 234,
237, 242, 245, 254, 262, 266, 279, 281, 283, 328
---- IX. of France, 322
Clement V., Pope, 11
---- VI., Pope, 96
---- VII., Pope, 26, 32, 329
---- VIII., Pope, 43, 99, 297
Colonna, Roman patricians, 28, 42
----, Stefano, 206
----, Vittoria, supposed to have been a Protestant, 309
Columbus, Christopher, 39
Conspiracies prevalence of, 36
Conte, Giacobbe, commander of Fieschi’s galleys, 142, 192
Coreggio, Fulvia, Countess of Mirandola, 298
Corsairs, Turkish and Barbary, 282, 283
Cosimo, Duke, 68, 104, 105, 169, 187, 206, 226, 229, 245, 265, 269,
284, 293
Cybo, Cardinal, 74, 187, 250, 264, 265
----, Caterina, Duchess of Camerino, 74, 85, 280
----, Eleonora, her marriage with Count Fieschi, 74, 265;
her literary accomplishments, 85;
her second marriage, 279;
retires to a convent, 280
----, Prince Giulio, 144, 148, 150, 188;
his conspiracy and misfortunes, 263 et seq.
----, Maddalena, received the profit of the sale of indulgences, 23
----, Ricciarda, 74, 264, 265, 266
Dandolo, Francesco, Doge of Venice, 14
Della Casabianca, Giocante, suspects the plot of Fieschi, 153, 318
---- Rovere, Bartolomea, 19
---- Rovere, Francesco Maria, 41, 59
---- Rovere, Maria, mother of Count Fieschi, 20;
masculine vigour of her character, 64, 65;
her last days, 278
---- Torre, Giovanni Battista, his passion for a sister of Fieschi,
121;
attempts violence to gain his end, 122;
killed by the Fieschi, 124
Di Negro, Arcangela, her character and literary accomplishments, 15,
83, 194
Doria, Andrea, 19;
account of his family and services, 38 et seq.;
his desertion of the French standard, 47;
his relations with the Barbary pirates, 50;
his vengeance against the Fieschi, 188;
quenches revolt in Naples, 261;
his death, and estimate of his character, 41, 228, 317
----, Antonio, 59, 197, 226, 230, 261, 277
----, Ceva, 167, 196, 198
----, Domenico, 41, 69, 166, 188, 197, 209, 220, 248
----, Filippino, 43, 44, 59, 169
---- Francesco, 59, 209
---- Cardinal Gerolamo, 65, 166, 178
---- Gianettino, adopted son of Andrea, his early life, 58;
ostentation and insolence, 69;
naval successes, 70-1;
captures the Pope’s vessels in Genoa, 111;
his death, 163
---- Giorgio, 59, 71
---- Giovanni Andrea, 191, 272, 319, 325
---- Lamba, 208
---- Nicolò, 328, 333
---- Pagonio, 277
---- Princess Peretta, 148, 169, 250, 266
---- Tommaso, 128, 222
Dragut (Torghud Rais), Barbary pirate, conquered and taken by
Gianettino Doria, 71;
flogged after capture, 73;
released by Andrea Doria, 73, 287;
Genoese bankers lend him the ransom money, 73;
pillages Rapallo, 281
Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, his narrow escape from the pirate
Occhiali, 282, 295, 309, 327
Embriaco, Guglielmo, hero of the first crusade, 129
Erasmus, reformer, 260
Farnese, Alessandro, 107, 111
---- Cardinal, 157, 217, 271
---- Clara, mistress of Pope Alexander VI., 107
---- Orazio, 102, 103, 214, 237
---- Ottavio, 109, 212, 231, 239, 267
---- Pierluigi, Duke of Piacenza, 93, 209, 230;
enters into the Fieschi conspiracy, 101;
his disputes with feudatories, 131;
conspiracy instigated against him by Doria, 233;
murdered by Giovanni Anguissola, 237, 263, 275, 337
Ferrara, Cardinal of, 225, 283
Ferrero, Besso, 97, 297
Fieschi, Adriano, Cardinal, 9
---- Angela Caterina, 65, 221
---- Antonio, 96
---- Bardoni, 201
---- Bartolomeo, 77, 78
---- Beatrice, 17, 97
---- Camilla, 65, 278
---- Carlo, 12, 17, 126
---- Claudia, 65;
insulted by Della Torre, 122
---- Cornelio, brother of Gianluigi, 65;
kills Della Torre, 124;
captures the gate of the Archi, 160;
retires into France, 183, 191, 209, 214, 224, 229, 268
---- Danielo, 13, 77
---- Emanuel, 195
---- Ettore, 14, 112, 230, 277
---- Francesco, 13, 112, 316
---- Gerolamo, brother of Gianluigi, 65, 92, 102, 160, 162;
attempts to carry on the revolution, 177;
treats with the Senate, 177;
retires to Montobbio, 183;
defends Montobbio against Genoa, 205;
is executed as a traitor, 220, 223
---- Giacomo, 12, 13, 17, 112
---- Gianluigi, compared with Catilnie, xvii.-xxiii.;
his family, 8, 9, 13, 38;
his character and early life, 19, 65 et seq., 145;
his tragic death, 168;
estimation in which he was held in Italy, 173-5
---- Innocenzo, 97, 112
---- Lorenzo, 201
---- Luca, Cardinal and General, 11, 13
---- Ortensia Lomellina de, poetess, 85
---- Ottobuono, brother of Gianluigi, 65, 80, 101, 132, 143, 160, 162,
181, 183, 189, 209, 216, 224, 229, 268, 277-8, 285;
executed by order of Doria, 287
---- Ottobuono (Pope Hadrian V.), 10, 17
---- Scipione, brother of Gianluigi, 64, 65;
writes to the Senate for pardon, 195, 214, 224, 229;
his litigation against Genoa, 274, 290
---- Sinibaldo, father of Gianluigi, 13, 64, 78
---- Sinibaldo (Pope Innocent IV.), 9, 13
Figuerroa, Gomez Suarez, Spanish minister in Genoa, 149, 152, 165,
197, 226, 243, 276, 318
Finale, Marquises of, 19
Foderato, Nicolò, 115, 120
Foglietta, Oberto, Genoese historian, xxvi., 40, 41, 307, 319, 320
Fornari, Antonio de, 225
---- Francesco de, 296, 318
Forteguerra, Laudomia, Sienese heroine, 286
Francis I. of France, 25, 26, 34, 43, 115, 210, 215, 231
Fregosi, family of, hostile to the Fieschi, 19, 79, 92;
its power in Genoa, 39;
driven from power by the Adorni, 42
Fregoso, Aurelio, 285, 287
---- Cesare, 19, 43, 62, 83, 91, 208
---- Cornelio, 293
---- Frederico, 49, 311
---- Galeazzo, 322
---- Giano, Doge, 92
---- Ottaviano, 19, 49, 80, 276, 320
---- Pietro, 208
Gad Ali, Barbary pirate, 42
Gianotti, Donato, 88, 268
Giovio, Paolo, 79, 80, 328
Giustiniani, family of the, 75, 129, 257
---- historian of Genoa, 2, 137
---- Ansaldo, 178
---- Fabrizio, 44, 46
---- Giovanni Battista, 157, 193
Gonzaga, Cagnino, 62, 98, 115, 152
---- Ferrante, Spanish governor of Lombardy, 132, 140, 169, 187, 197,
198, 206, 212, 216, 230, 237, 238, 240, 245, 266, 321
---- Giulia, her escape from the corsair Barbarossa, 50;
embraced reformed opinions, 309
Gregory VII., Pope, 326
---- XIII., Pope, 297, 330
Grimaldi, family of the, 12, 38, 40, 54, 60, 82, 272
---- Ercole, 325
---- Francesco, 166, 197
---- Giovanni Battista, 177, 196, 301
Guercio, Enrico il, 5
Guicciardini, the historian, 52, 144
Harcourt, Gillona di, 316
Henry II. of France, 74, 215, 242, 262, 276
---- III. of France, 316
---- VII. of France, 11
---- VIII. of England, report of his ambassadors on the state of
Lombardy, 33
Huss, 35
Imperiali, family of the, 110, 178, 193, 194
Innocent III., Pope, 326
---- IV., Pope, 17
---- VIII., Pope, 264
---- XI., Pope, 317
Julius II., Pope, 39, 97, 230, 262
---- III., Pope, 330
Laudi, Agostino, 121, 212, 214, 230 236, 240
Lasagna, Pier Paolo, 96, 165
Lautrec, Odo, 30, 43
Lavagna, Counts of, 1-21
Leo X., Pope, false praises of, 22;
not the Reviver of Letters, 23
Lercaro, Cristoforo, 229, 241
---- Doge, 256, 317, 321, 324
---- Sebastiano, 159, 162, 183
Leyva, Antonio, 31, 233, 262
Lomellini, Agostino, 178
---- Bernardo, 208
---- Gerolamo, 290
---- Nicolò, 44
Louis XII. of France, 18, 40, 76
---- XIV. of France, 317
Luther, Martin, 35, 259, 312, 313
Macchiavelli, Nicolò, 24, 29, 82, 88, 144, 146, 284
Malaspina, family of the, 3, 14, 68, 264, 285
Mami Rais, pirate, 72
Manufactures, prosperity of, in Genoa, 128
Marini, Tommaso, 240, 245, 301, 303
Mario, Gianluigi, 200
Martinengo, family of the, 312
Martire, Pietro, reformer, 309
Mascardi, Agostino, xxvii., 58, 221
Medici family, 24, 25, 32, 36, 248, 256, 264, 337
---- Giulio, 24
---- Lorenzino, 36, 268
Melanchthon, reformer, 259, 313
Mendoza, Bernardino, 92, 184, 254
Mendoza, Don Diego, 284
---- Don Rodrigo, 198
Michelangelo, artist, 22
Mirandola, Galeotto, 137, 262, 269, 283
---- Paolo, 227
Monaco, Lords of, 249
Moncada, Hugo, 43-4
Monferrato, Marquises of, 5, 13, 16, 25, 32
Montorsoli, artists, 58, 170
Morato, Olimpia, embraced reform, 309
Nardi, Jacopo, historian, 268
Navagero, 27, 326
Occhiali, pirate, his singular treaty with the Duke of Savoy, 283
Ochino, Bernardino da Siena, reformer, 259, 309, 313
Olgiato, Milanese conspirator, 149
Orange, Prince of, 31
Ornano, Vannina, wife of Sampiero, 289;
attempts to go to Genoa, 291;
her tragic death, 293
Orsini, family of the, 28, 234, 246, 285, 337
Paleario, Aonio, reformer, 310, 314
Pallavicini family, 16-17, 84, 132, 166, 290, 301, 328
---- Camillo, 236, 238
---- Gerolamo, 131, 236, 238, 240
---- Maddalena, 84
---- Placida, 84
---- Tobia, 290
Panza, Paolo, tutor of Gianluigi Fieschi, 2, 65, 74, 82, 113, 140,
158, 173, 180, 205, 278
Partenopeo, Ugo, author, 20, 300, 315
Paul III., Pope, 34, 78, 85, 88;
shameful manner of his elevation, 107;
his character and ambition, 110;
his enmity to Doria, 111;
encourages the Fieschi conspiracy, 114, 120, 230, 232, 234;
his brief to Andrea Doria on the death of Giannettino, 239;
the revenge of Doria, 240, 241, 289, 310, 311
---- IV., Pope, 326, 327
Perenoto, Nicolò, 243
Pescara, Marquises of, 24, 42, 87
Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, 104
---- II. of Spain, 245, 249, 255, 276, 279, 286, 295, 327
Piccolomini, Faustina, Sienese heroine, 286
Pojano, Giulio, 103, 137, 298
Pompanaceo, author, 336
Ponzio, Camillo, author, 67, 153, 271, 272
Renée, Duchess of Ferrara, 134, 309
Retz, Cardinal, 144
Romano, Giulio, 58
Sacco, Raffaele, fellow conspirator with Fieschi, 93, 116, 143, 151,
183, 192, 202, 224
Salvaghi family, 75, 194, 225
Sauli family, 75, 76, 140, 201
---- Azzolino, 301
---- Marcantonio, 75, 82
---- Stefano, 202
---- Tommaso, 62
Savonarola, Gerolamo, 146
Savoy, Dukes of, 25, 32, 297, 309
Scarampi, Antonia, literary lady, 83
Sciarra, Marco, brigand chief, 335
Segni, author, 34, 109
Sforza family, 6, 7, 26, 103, 231, 280
Sicames, 44
Siena, brave defence of, 286
Sigonio, Carlo, author, xxvi., 149
Sismondi, historian, 90, 228
Sixtus IV., Pope, 7
---- V., Pope, 326
Soderini, Pietro, 146
Sodoleto, Jacopo, 27
Soliman, Sultan, 34, 92, 258, 291
Sopranis, 73, 75
Spinola family, 12, 38, 39, 125, 126, 165, 172, 194, 337
---- Agostino, 207, 290
---- Benedetta, poetess, 84, 250
---- Livia, poetess, 84
---- Paolo, 268, 269, 270, 273
---- Tommaso, 226
Spinosa, 315
Strozzi family, 104, 137, 228, 268, 279, 337
---- Alfonsina, wife of Scipione Fieschi, 316
---- Leone, 286
---- Pietro, 92, 101, 229, 284, 286
---- Roberto, 316
Tacitus, 82, 305
Tassino, Leone, 45
Tassoni, Alessandro, 328
Tasso, Faustino, 85, 249
---- Torquato, 315
Telesio, 336
Toledo, Don Pietro, 259
Torghud Rais (Dragut), pirate, 71, 73, 281
Tornone, Cardinal of, 99, 225, 283
Trissino, 82, 310
Trivulzio family, 90, 131, 236, 337
---- Agostino, 114, 120
---- Teodoro, 43
Tuano, author, 301, 303
Urban VIII., Pope, 297
Urbino, Dukes of, 28, 32, 59, 64, 287
Usodimare, Gerolamo, 193
Vaccari, Vincenzo, 183
Vaga, Pierino, artist, 58, 249
Valdimagra, Marquises of, 137, 144, 150
Varchi, Benedetto, 48, 233, 235, 268
Vasto, Del, Marquises, 46, 49, 67, 91, 109, 132
Vega, Giovanni, 140
Vergerio, Pier Paolo, 235, 309
Verrina, co-conspirator of Fieschi, 116, 143, 148, 154, 158, 160, 183,
193, 202, 209, 220, 223, 225
Vinci, Leonardo da, 309
Visconti family, 14, 74, 208
Vistarino, Lodovico, 206, 212
Vitelli, Allessandro, 109, 206
---- Chiappino, 279, 286
---- Giovanni, 285
---- Lucrezia, 287
Wicliffe, reformer, 35
Women, literary, in Genoa, 83
Zaccaria family, 129
Zanchi, Gerolamo, 310, 312
Zeno, Apostolo, 235
Zino, Ottaviano, 269, 272
Zuingle, 259
END.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] I refer to the letter of Count Persigny on the Roman questio
[2] The author alludes to Guerrazzi’s life of Andrea Doria.--Translator.
[3] Purgatorio, Canto XIX.
[4] Federico Federici, Della famiglia Fieschi, p. 2.
[5] Et quod obedissent Comuni Genuæ, et sponderent in Genua
habitaturos.--_Archives of Genoa._
[6] Federico Federici, Della famiglia Fieschi, p. 7.
[7] Paolo Panza, Vito d’Innocenzo IV.
[8] Dante, Purgatorio, Canto XIX.
[9] Federici, Della famiglia Fieschi.
[10] The gold crown referred to was worth about eleven francs.
[11] Bernardo Segni. Istorie Fiorentine. Lib II.
[12] Istorie Florentine, Lib. XI.
[13] Oberto Foglietta. Discorso sul governo, Popolare di Genova, p. 35.
[14] Istorie Florentine, Lib. II.
[15] Oberto Foglietta. Discorso, etc., p. 156.
[16] Molini. Documenti di Storia Italiana, vol. ii., p. 54.
[17] Bernabo Brea. Documenti sulla congiura del Fiesco.
[18] Molini. Documenti di Storia Italiana, Vol. ii., p. 60.
[19] A pun was circulated by the wits to the effect that henceforth
only that kind of bread would go to the oven. Casoni, Annali. Fornari,
root Forno, an oven.--_Translator._
[20] Archives of Genoa.
[21] Conguira di Luigi Fieschi. Naples, 1836, p. 5.
[22] Guazzo. Istorie. Venice, 1545, p. 329.
[23] Jacomin Basio. Dell’Istoria della sacra religione di S. Giovanni
Gierosolimitano. Parte III. Lib. VIII, p. 150.
[24] Annali di Geneva. Capslago, p. 135.
[25] Dell’Istoria d’Italia dell’anno, 1547, p. 24.
[26] Casoni. Annali della Republica di Genova, Lib. V. p. 250.
[27] Casoni. Annali, etc. Lib V. p. 158.
[28] Porzio ut sopra, p. 206.
[29] See Giustiniani, annali di Genova.
[30] Novelle, passim.
[31] The reader will hardly fail to notice the identity of this
language with that used by Cavour in 1859. See Hilton’s Brigandage in
South Italy. Vol. ii, p. 7.
[32] Discorso delle cose d’Italia e Papa Paolo III.
[33] Storia della liberta in Italià, Milano, tomo II., p. 122.
[34] Annali, p. 136.
[35] Annali, p. 138.
[36] Scarabelli, Guida di monumenti artistici di Piacenza. Lodi, p. 83.
[37] Istorie Fiorentine, Lib. XI.
[38] Bandello, Novelle. Parte II., xxxviii.
[39] Annali, p. 135.
[40] See Canale. Storia di Genova, vol. ii., p. 167. Edition of Le
Monnier.
[41] Congiura del Conte Fieschi.
[42] Archives of Genoa.
[43] Archives of Genoa.
[44] Porzio. Dell’Istoria. etc. p. 218.
[45] Bonfadio, anali p. 152.
[46] Bandello, Novelli. Parte II, XXXVIII.
[47] The palm referred to is equal to ten inches.
[48] The curious tourist will find on a rear wall of the Ducal palace
in Genoa two marble slabs bearing inscriptions to the infamy of Della
Torre and Balbi.--Translator.
[49] Documents in the archives of Massa and Carrara.
[50] Bonfadio, though Italian, was not Genoese--Translator.
[51] The annals of Bonfadio were written in Latin--Translator.
[52] A Genoese word, derived from _Garbo_, polished, courteous,
polite,--usually applied to manners.--Translator.
[53] This is enumerative of _three classes_, the nobles, the people,
and the plebeians; is common in Italian histories.--Translator.
[54] Notaries still constitute professional class in Genoa.--Translator.
[55] I find an euphemism current in Genoa which confirms the text.
A doubt respecting a man’s honesty is expressed thus: “_He is of
Borsonasca._”--Translator.
[56] The author refers to the expulsion of the Austrians in 1746, of
which revolution he has also written the history.--_Translator._