Donati,[47] a physician, his advice being to take a light dinner
and a good supper; and, from my experience after drinking the water
for another day, I decided that his view was the correct one.
Franciotti, another doctor, controverts him in this and in divers other
particulars. That same day I had a feeling of heaviness about the
back, which I feared might be caused by the stagnation in that region
of the water I had drunk, but the outcome of the day’s treatment did
not justify this suspicion. On the Friday I took no water at all,
but bathed in the morning and washed my head, acting thus counter
to the approved usage of the place. Another local custom is to aid
the action of the water by mixing therewith some such drug as sugar
candy or manna, or some medicine still stronger; others mix with the
first glass they drink a certain quantity of the water of Tettucio,
which I tasted and found it salt. I suspect that the apothecaries
here, instead of fetching this water from Pistoia, where it is said
to rise, make an imitation thereof out of ordinary water, for I found
it had, in addition to its saltness, a very strange flavour. It is
warmed and one, two, or three glasses of it taken to begin with, but
I never knew that it had any effect. There are those who put salt in
the first, or the second, or even the third glass of water they take;
moreover, they hold that to sweat or to go to sleep after drinking,
points almost surely to a fatal crisis. In my case I found the water
strongly sudorific. [48] Let me now try to discourse a little in
another language, especially as I am now in that district where meseems
I may listen to the most refined Tuscan accent, particularly amongst
the country-folk, who have not corrupted or changed their idiom through
intercourse with neighbouring peoples. Early on Saturday morning I
went to take some of the spring of Bernabo[49] which lies on the other
side of these mountains and gives a marvellous abundance of water,
both hot and cold. The hill is of no great height, and may be about
three miles in circumference. The only water that is drunk is that of
the principal spring and of this one, which came into use a few years
ago. A certain leper named Bernabo, after having drunk and bathed at
all the other springs, betook himself to this abandoned bath and was
straightway cured, whereupon it came into vogue. There are no houses,
only one little shed and stone benches around the spout of the spring,
which is made of iron. This spout, though it was fixed not long ago, is
almost entirely eaten away from below, its destruction being caused, as
the people there declare, by the action of some property of the water,
which I can easily believe. These springs are somewhat hotter than the
others and are commonly supposed to be at the same time less digestible
and more violent in action, the water being slightly more sulphurous;
where it drips, the ground is whitened as if ashes had been strewn
there. The water of our own springs has this same property, but only
slightly. This spring is a little less than a mile from my lodgings by
going round the foot of the hill, its site being much lower than that
of any other hot spring, and distant one or two pikes’ length from the
river.
The day previous I had taken a long walk of three miles or so after
dinner in the hot sun, and again after supper. The effect of this
water upon me was an increase of strength, and I began to digest it
half-an-hour after taking it; moreover, I made a good round of two
miles on the way back to my lodgings. Perhaps this abnormal exercise
may have made me feel young again. Every other morning I had gone
straight back to my room to avoid the chill of the morning air, my
house not being more than thirty paces from the spring. In my walks
over the slopes of these hills, I came upon many sources of hot water,
and the country-folk declare furthermore that in the winter certain
places give out steam, a proof of the existence of still more hot
springs. The samples of these which I tasted seemed, in comparison
with my particular spring, about equally hot and without either smell
or taste or vapour. I observed at another place in Corsena, some way
below the baths, a great number of douches much better arranged than
the others I have named, the pipes thereof being supplied by a number
of springs, eight or ten, so the people say. Over each pipe is written
the name of its peculiar spring: La Saporita, La Dolce, La Innamorata,
La Coronale, La Disperata, &c., and a description of the effects
thereof. I can say for certain that some pipes give out hotter water
than others.
The surrounding hills are almost all productive of corn and grapes,
whereas fifty years ago they were covered with thicket and chestnut
woods. A few bare mountains with snow on the summits may be seen, but
they are a long way off. The common people eat what they call _pane di
legna_, which is the expression they use in speaking of chestnut-bread,
this fruit being the great crop of the country, and the cake they make
therewith is something like French gingerbread. I never saw elsewhere
so many snakes and toads; indeed, through fear of the snakes, the
children do not dare to gather the strawberries, which grow most
abundantly on the hills and amongst the hedges.
Some of the people here take three or four grains of coriander in every
glass of water they drink, as a remedy for wind. On the Easter[50] of
May 14th I took more than five pounds’ weight of the water of Bernabo,
my glass holding somewhat more than a pound. Here the four chief feasts
of the year are all called Easter. The Italian pound contains only
twelve ounces. Living is very cheap in this place. The best and most
delicate veal can be bought for three French sous a pound, and the
trout are abundant, though small. Here are made excellent sunshades,
which everybody uses. The country round is hilly, and level roads are
scarce; nevertheless, many of them are very pleasant, and they are for
the most part paved until they become mountain paths. After dinner the
country people danced together, and I joined in the sport so as not
to seem over ceremonious. In certain parts of Italy, and everywhere
in Tuscany and Urbino, the women make salutation in French fashion by
bending the knees.
Close to the outflow of the Della Villa spring is a marble tablet,
which was put up a hundred and ten years ago, dating from the first day
of May last, inscribed with an account of the healing powers of the
water. I omit this, as it may be found in divers printed books dealing
with the baths of Lucca[51]. At all the baths they provide plenty of
hour-glasses for public use. I had always on my table two, which were
lent to me. This evening I ate nothing but three slices of toasted
bread with a little butter and sugar, and did not drink at all.
On the Monday, deeming that I had been enough purged by the water
from the Bernabo spring, I returned to the Della Villa and took five
pounds thereof. This spring seemed to me cold in comparison with that
of Bernabo, which indeed is only moderately hot, and much cooler than
the water at Plombieres or the average of the springs at the Bagneres
de Bigorre. Both of the springs did me much good, wherefore I feel
that I have been a gainer in refusing credence to those physicians who
recommend their patients to give up drinking at once, supposing that
a cure be not effected the first day. On Tuesday, May 16th, according
to the local custom, which seems to me an excellent one, I gave over
drinking the water and remained in the bath an hour or more, having
settled myself right under the conduit-pipe, because in the other
parts of the bath the water seemed somewhat chilly. Being troubled
continually with wind in the _epigastrium_ and the intestines, and in
less degree in the stomach--albeit without pain--I suspected that this
discomfort was caused by the water, wherefore I gave up drinking it.
This morning I found the bath particularly agreeable, and could easily
have taken a nap there. It did not produce perspiration, but I had
myself well rubbed, and then went to bed for a while.
In each district it is the custom to hold a military assembly every
month. The colonel commanding this district, from whom I have received
a world of courtesy, held his assembly here, having a gathering of
some two hundred pikemen and arquebusiers. He let them engage in a
sham fight, and it seemed to me they were, for peasants, very expert;
but his principal duty is to instruct them in military formation and
discipline. The people here are divided into the French and Spanish
factions, and weighty questions with regard to this matter were
constantly arising; moreover they make public profession of their
party. In these parts the men and women of our party wear bunches of
flowers, and their caps and their locks of hair down over the right
ear, while those who favour the Spaniards wear them on the left. The
peasants and their wives all go clad like gentle-folk. You never see
a woman who does not wear white shoes, fine-thread stockings, and a
coloured sarcenet apron. They dance and cut capers and twirl about
marvellously well.
In this country when they talk of the prince they mean the Council
of one hundred and twenty[52]. The colonel aforesaid could not get
married without leave of this “prince,” and he only gained permission
with great difficulty, because the authorities were loth that he should
make friends or connections in the country; moreover, he cannot buy
any property. No soldier can leave the country without leave. In the
mountainous parts are many people who beg for money, and out of what
they gather thus they buy their arms.
On the Wednesday I went to the bath and remained there more than an
hour. I sweated a little, bathing my head at the same time, and I saw
how handy the German fashion was in winter time for warming clothes and
other things at the stoves they use, for there the bathman, having put
a little coal into a chafing dish, the lid of which was raised by a
brick inserted so as to admit air to ventilate the fire, managed to dry
the bath clothes expeditiously and well, much more conveniently than at
a fire like ours here, which is made in one of our basins. Here they
call the girls and boys children till they are ripe for marriage. The
boys are always lads till their beards are grown.
On Thursday I was a little more on the alert and bathed somewhat
earlier. In the bath I sweated fairly well and gave my head a douche
under the spout. The bath left me rather weak, with a feeling of
heaviness about the reins, and I voided gravel continually and some
phlegm likewise as if I had drunk of the spring, indeed it struck me
that this water used in the bath produced the same effect as when
drunk. I bathed again on the Friday. Vast quantities of the water of
this spring and of the other one, the Corsena, are despatched every day
for sale in various regions of Italy. These people are not the great
meat-eaters that we are, and they use nothing but the common sorts of
flesh, upon which they set but little store, that is to say, while I
was there I bought a choice leveret for six of our sous without any
bargaining. They do not hunt or bring game hither, because no one
would buy it. On the Saturday, because the weather was bad, and the
wind so high that I felt the want of casements, either of linen or
glass, I neither bathed nor took the waters. Here I observed a marked
result of the use of this bath, forasmuch as my brother,[53] who had
never passed any gravel either in common way or while drinking the
water at any other bath in my company, now passed a large quantity.
On the Sunday morning I took another bath, without bathing my head, and
after dinner I gave a ball, with presents for the guests, according
to the custom of these baths. I was anxious to give the first ball of
the season. Five or six days before this date I had caused notice of
my entertainment to be given in all the neighbouring villages, and on
the day previous I sent special invitations to all the gentle-folk then
sojourning at either of the baths. I bade them come to the ball, and to
the supper afterwards, and sent to Lucca for the presents, which are
usually pretty numerous, so as to avoid the appearance of favouring one
lady above all the rest, and to steer clear of jealousy and suspicion.
They always give eight or ten to the ladies, and two or three to the
gentlemen. Many ventured to jog my memory, one begging me not to forget
herself, another her niece, another her daughter.
On the day previous Messer Giovanni da Vincenzo Saminiati, a good
friend of mine, brought me from Lucca, according to my written
instructions, a leathern belt and a black cloth cap as presents for the
men. For the ladies I provided two aprons of taffetas, one green and
the other purple (for it must be known that it is always meet to have
certain presents better than the bulk, so as to show special favour
where favour seems to be due), two aprons of bombazine, four papers of
pins, four pairs of shoes--one pair of which I gave to a pretty girl
who did not come to the ball, a pair of slippers, which I put with one
of the pairs of shoes to form one prize, three head-dresses clear
woven, and three netted, which together stood for three prizes, and
four small pearl necklaces. Thus I had altogether nineteen gifts for
the ladies, the cost of which was six crowns; little enough. I engaged
five pipers, giving them their food for the day, and a crown amongst
the lot, a good bargain for me, seeing that they will rarely play here
at such a rate. The prizes aforesaid were hung up on a hoop, richly
ornamented, and visible to all the company.
We began the dance on the piazza with the people of the place, and
at first feared we should lack company, but after a little we were
joined by a great number of people of all parties, and notably of the
gentle-folk of the land, whom I received and entertained to the best of
my powers; and I succeeded so far that they all seemed well content.
As the day waxed somewhat warm we withdrew to the hall of the Palazzo
Buonvisi, which was excellently suited for the purpose. At the decline
of day, about the twenty-second hour, I addressed the ladies of the
greatest consequence who were present, and said that I had neither
wit nor confidence enough to give judgment between these young ladies
so richly endowed with beauty and grace and politeness, wherefore I
begged them to undertake the duty of deciding, and to award the prizes
according to the deserts of the company. We had long discussion over
this formal matter, as at first the ladies refused to accept this
office, deeming that I had offered it to them merely out of courtesy.
At last we agreed to add this proviso, to wit, that they might, if they
were so minded, call me into their council to give my opinion. The end
was that I went about, glancing now at this damsel and now at that,
never failing to allow due credit for beauty and charm, but at the
same time determining that graceful dancing meant something else than
the mere movement of the feet; that it necessitated also appropriate
gestures, a fine carriage of the whole body, a pleasant expression, and
a comely charm. The presents, great and small, were distributed on
this principle according to desert, one of the ladies aforementioned
presenting them to the dancers on my behalf, while I disclaimed all
merit thereanent, and referred them to her as the Lady Bountiful. My
entertainment passed off in the usual fashion, except that one of the
girls would not take her present, but sent to beg me that I would give
it with her love to another girl; but this I would not permit to be
done, as the damsel in question was not over well favoured. The girls
were called one by one from their places to come before the lady and
myself, sitting side by side, whereupon I gave to the signora the
gift which seemed appropriate, having first kissed the same. Then the
signora, taking it in her hand, gave it to the young girl, and said
in friendly fashion, “This is the gentleman who is giving you this
charming present, thank him for it.” I added, “Nay, rather your thanks
are due to the gracious signora who has designated you out of so many
others as worthy of reward. I much regret that the offering made to
you is not more worthy of such merit as yours.” I spoke somewhat in
these terms to each according to her qualifications. The same order was
followed in the case of the men.
The ladies and gentlemen had no part in this distribution though they
all joined in the dance. In sooth it was a rare and charming sight to
us Frenchmen to look upon these comely peasants dancing so well in the
garb of gentle-folk. They did their best to rival the finest of our
lady dancers, albeit in a different style. I invited all to supper,
as the meals in Italy are like the lightest of our repasts in France,
and on this occasion I only provided a few joints of veal and a pair
or two of fowls. I had as guests also the colonel of the Lieutenancy,
Signor Francesco Gambarini, a gentleman of Bologna, who had become to
me as a brother. I also found a place at table for Divizia, a poor
peasant woman who lives about two miles from the baths, unmarried,
and with no other support than her handiwork. She is ugly, about
thirty-seven years of age, with a swollen throat, and unable either
to read or write; but it chanced that in her childhood there came to
live in her father’s house an uncle who was ever reading aloud in her
hearing Ariosto and others of the poets, wherefore she seemed to find a
natural delight in poetry, and was soon able, not only to make verses
with marvellous readiness, but likewise to weave thereinto the ancient
stories, the names of the gods of various countries, of sciences and
of illustrious men, as if she had received a liberal education. She
recited divers lines in my honour, which, to speak the truth, were
little else than verses and rhymes, but the diction was elegant and
spontaneous.
I entertained at my ball more than a hundred strangers, albeit the time
was inconvenient for them, seeing that they were then in the midst of
the silk harvest, their principal crop of the year. At this season they
labour, heedless of all feast days, at plucking, morning and evening,
the leaves of the mulberry for their silkworms, and all my peasant
guests were engaged in this work.
On Monday morning I went somewhat late to my bath, as I was shaved and
had my hair cut, and I bathed my head for more than a quarter of an
hour by holding it under the principal spout.
Amongst others at my ball was the deputy-judge, who holds legal office
here. The work of the district is done by a judge appointed for six
months--such as the government appoints in all other places--who
adjudicates in the first instance in civil cases which involve small
amounts only. Another official attends to criminal business. I made
to the deputy-judge a suggestion, which I deemed only reasonable,
that the government should make certain regulations--of which I gave
him an example, easy to carry out, and admirably fitted for the end
in view--to be enforced with regard to the vast crowd of traders who
resort hither to carry away the water of these springs into all parts
of Italy. These regulations would oblige them to show a voucher for
the genuine character of the water they retail, and thus put an end to
knavery, an instance of which I gave him from my own experience. One of
these hawkers came to my landlord, a private citizen, and begged him
to write a certificate to the effect that he (the hawker) was taking
away twenty-four mule loads of this water, the fact being that he had
only four. At first my landlord refused to do anything of the kind, on
account of this discrepancy, but the fellow went on to declare that in
four or six days’ time he would return to fetch the other twenty loads.
I informed the judge that this muleteer had never come back. He took my
suggestion, and he tried his best to learn from me what my authority
was, who was the muleteer, and what he and his beasts were like, but I
told him nothing. I also informed him that I was minded to begin here
a custom prevalent in all the famous baths of Europe, to wit, that
all persons of a certain position should leave behind a copy of their
coat-of-arms as a testimony of the efficacy of the waters. In the name
of the government he thanked me for this suggestion.
In certain places they now began to cut the hay. On the Tuesday I
remained two hours in the bath, and held my head under the douche for a
good quarter of an hour.
At this time a Cremonese merchant living at Rome came to the bath. He
was afflicted with divers strange infirmities, nevertheless he could
talk and walk about and seemingly enjoyed his life. His chief infirmity
lay in the head, his memory having perished, so he said, through some
weakness thereof; for instance, after a meal he would not be able to
say what dishes had been put before him. If he happened to leave the
house on any business he must needs always come back ten times to
inquire where was the place to which he was bound. He could hardly ever
get through the paternoster. When he did get to the end of it he would
begin it again a hundred times, never perceiving at the end thereof
that he had begun, or at the beginning that he had finished. He had
suffered from blindness, deafness, and toothache, and had, moreover,
such an access of heat in the reins that he always wore a piece of lead
over that region. For many years he had observed most strictly the
rules laid down by his physicians in his case.
It diverted me to consider the various prescriptions given by
physicians in different parts of Italy, so great was their antagonism,
and this was especially marked in the matter of these baths and
douches; indeed, out of twenty opinions no two were found to agree,[54]
but, on the other hand, the authors accused each other of murders of
all sorts. The aforesaid patient suffered great trouble through the
strange action of wind, which was wont to issue from his ears with such
force that he could not sleep, and when he yawned great volumes of wind
would burst out from the same place. He declared that he could best
ease his stomach by using as a clyster four large coriander comfits
after moistening and softening them in his mouth, the relief being sure
and speedy. He was the first person I ever saw wearing one of those big
hats of peacock’s feathers and covered with light taffetas; the crown,
a good palm’s height, was thick, and had within-side a coif of sarcenet
made to fit the head so that the sun might not strike upon it. It was
surrounded by a curtain a foot and a half wide, to serve the purpose of
our parasols, which indeed are very inconvenient to use on horseback.
Seeing that I have often repented that I did not more particularly note
down details of other baths I have used, I am now minded to enlarge
somewhat on this subject and to gather together certain rules for the
benefit of my successors. On Wednesday, when I finished bathing, I
was hot and sweated more than usual. I felt weak, with a dry, harsh
sensation in my mouth and a certain giddiness akin to what befell me
through the heat of the water at Plomieres, Banieres, and Preissac.
I never felt it at Barbotan nor at these baths until this occasion,
and it might have arisen because I went earlier than was my wont, or
because the water was hotter than usual. I remained in the bath an
hour and a half, and used the douche to my head for a quarter of an
hour. I broke the rules by thus using the douche in the bath, for the
prescription particularly declares that first one and then the other
is to be used; and again by having a douche of this water at all, for
almost all take the douche at the other bath. There they have it from
this or that spout, some from the first, others from the second, and
others from the third, according to the physician’s order. I used to
drink and bathe on alternate days, while others would drink several
days together and then take a spell of the bath. I paid no heed to
periods of time, while others would drink for ten days at the most, and
bathe twenty-five, though not perhaps in succession. I bathed but once
a day, while all the rest bathed twice. I used the douche a very short
time, while the others used it an hour at least in the morning and the
same in the evening. And as to shaving the head, the custom here with
all was to be shaven, and then put a piece of satin on the head, held
only by a sort of net, but my smooth pate had no need of this.
This same morning I received a visit from the deputy-judge and the
other chief personages of the State, an attention equivalent to that
which had been paid to me in other baths where I had sojourned. Amongst
other matters he told me a singular story about himself, how, through
pricking the ball of the thumb with an artichoke some years ago, he
had like to have died from inanition, how on this account he fell into
such a wretched state that he lay in bed five months without moving. As
he lay all this time on the reins, they became so inordinately heated
that a discharge of gravel was produced from which he had suffered
for more than a year and from colic as well. At last his father, the
governor of Velitri, sent him a certain green stone, which he had got
from a friar who had been in India, and while he had this stone about
him he suffered neither from gravel nor pain. He had been in this state
for two years. As to the prick aforementioned the thumb and the greater
part of the hand were useless, and besides this the arm was so much
weakened that he came every year to the baths of Corsena to treat the
arm and thumb with the douche, as he was now doing.