ROMAN PRINCELY FAMILIES
To be a patrician of Rome is to possess one of the proudest of titles,
and from the senator of the ancient city to the prince of to-day the
aristocracy of Rome has been one of its most vital and characteristic
institutions.
Though the Roman cardinal as a prince of the Church has always been
admitted, whatever his origin, within the pale, the Roman nobility
with the rarest exceptions has never swelled its ranks with newcomers
owing their tides to acquired wealth or successful public life, but,
conservative and exclusive, preserves the traditions of the past and
forms a society unlike any other in Europe.
The greater number of the princely families whose names are familiar
to every sojourner in Rome date their connection with the city from
the fifteenth century and onwards, when the popes ceased to be chosen
from among the Romans, and a new aristocracy grew up, the creation of
successive pontiffs, who, themselves reigning but not hereditary
sovereigns, wished to raise their relatives to a rank second only to
their own.
Others trace their descent from some mediaeval chieftain, or are feudal
in origin, and these alone are indigenous to the city and its
surroundings, and their history is indissolubly woven into the records
of Rome's past. For many dark centuries, during a barbarous period of
bloodshed crime and cruelty, the history of Rome was what her great
nobles made it; and they in their turn rose to fame and power or sank
into oblivion, leaving no traces or but the scantiest records of their
fate. The great mediaeval family of Conti, Counts of Segni, whose race
gave four popes to Rome, among them the great Innocent III., have
disappeared from history, leaving as a magnificent monument to their
greatness the huge tower which bears their name.
In the twelfth century, the Sabine Savelli and the Jewish Pierleoni
were great and prominent. Streets and piazzas called after them in the
region near the crowded little Piazza Montanara testify to their
importance. The Savelli dwelt in a castle in the Via di Monserrato. It
was afterwards turned into a prison, the _Corte Savella_, and here for
a time the unhappy Beatrice Cenci and her accomplices were confined.
Both Savelli and Pierleoni successively occupied a stronghold erected
within the ancient walls of the theatre of Marcellus, and a fortified
palace which stood against it, now Orsini property. One of the Savelli
popes, Honorius IV., built himself a castle on the Aventine, and at
one period the whole of the hill was entrenched and fortified, the
ancient temple of _Libertas_ on its summit being transformed into a
citadel. These immense buildings have crumbled away, and the sole
monuments that remain to record the past greatness of this family are
the tombs of Pope Honorius, of his father and mother, and of other
Savellis in their chapel in the church of Ara Coeli on the Capitol.
The Pierleoni, a rich and prolific race, descendants of a learned Jew
convert of the time of Pope Leo IX., filled important posts and made
alliances with the great houses of Rome, and in 1130 a member of this
Jewish family was elected and reigned several years in the Vatican as
the antipope Anacletus--an event unparalleled in history. After the
thirteenth century this name also slips out of historical records and
is heard of no more.
The ancient consular race of the Frangipani have left to Rome some
fine monuments in the church of San Marcello in the Corso, and the
name is still borne by a Marquess in Udine, but they are no longer
numbered amongst the princely houses. They earned their appellation of
_bread-breakers_ from having distributed bread in a great famine, but
in the middle ages their name spelt terror rather than benevolence.
They were a power not lightly to be reckoned with. Great allies of the
papal party, they more than once gave sanctuary to fugitive popes in
their strong _Turris Cartularia_, the ruins of which can still be seen
near the church of S. Gregory. In the thirteenth century this tower
fell into the hands of the Imperialists, and was utterly destroyed
with all the archives which had been stored there for safety. It
formed an outpost in a chain of fortifications with which the
Frangipani and their allies the Corsi enclosed a large portion of the
city. Their main stronghold was built amongst the ruins of the
Palatine, with flanking towers on the Colosseum and on the triumphal
arches of Constantine, Titus, and Janus. From this dominating position
they could take the field or rush upon their foes in the city at the
head of hundreds of armed retainers. Another mediaeval family, the
Anguillara, has been merged in the Orsini, leaving a solitary tower in
Trastevere to commemorate a once great and powerful race.
[Illustration: THE COLOSSEUM IN A STORM]
But of all the feudal princes of Rome none played so conspicuous a
part as the Orsini and Colonna, and this not alone in the history of
their own city, for their names were famous throughout Europe for many
centuries. These two great families were hereditary enemies and
belonged to rival factions. The Colonna were Ghibellines,
Imperialists, the Orsini Guelphs, supporters of the papacy, and when
they were not fighting in support of their political parties they were
engaged in private feuds on their own account. While in other cities
of Italy feudal tyranny was gradually giving way before the more
enlightened government of independent republics, Rome was too weak to
struggle against her oppressors. Deserted and neglected for nearly a
century by her lawful sovereigns the popes, at best ruled by a
vacillating and disorderly government, the city lay at the mercy of
her great barons who scorned all law and authority and asserted and
maintained their complete personal independence at the point of the
sword, while they swelled the ranks of their retainers with bandits
and cut-throats to whom they gave sanctuary in return for military
service. Great and prosperous Rome had become a small forsaken town
within a desolate waste, surrounded by a girdle of ancient walls far
too large for the city it protected. Amphitheatres, mausoleums of
Roman Emperors, temples, theatres, were converted into strongholds.
Such of the churches as were not fortified were crumbling into ruin,
and everywhere bristled loop-holed towers from which the nobles could
defy one another, and which commanded the entrances to dark filthy and
winding streets. At frequent intervals the despondent apathy of the
citizens would be rudely disturbed by a call to arms, and to the sound
of hoarse battle-cries, the clashing of weapons upon steel corslet and
helmet, and the waving of banners with the rival Ghibelline and Guelph
devices of eagle and keys, bands of Orsini and Colonna would rush
fighting through the narrow streets and across the waste spaces of the
city, would fall back and advance to fight again until, with the
darkness, they would retire behind their barred gateways, leaving
their dead as so much carrion in the streets.
These two families divided the greater part of Rome between them. The
Orsini held the field of Mars and the Vatican district from their
fortress in the ruins of the theatre of Pompey and their castle on
Monte Giordano. This is now Palazzo Gabrielli, and it retains its
portcullis and much of its mediaeval appearance. Tor di Nona and Tor
Sanguigna were flanking towers to the Orsini stronghold. The Quirinal
hill was occupied by the Colonna, their great castle standing almost
on the same ground as their present palazzo, and they had an outlying
fortress in the mausoleum of Augustus near the river.
Occasionally a truce was patched up between the two families that they
might unite against a common enemy, and for a period they agreed that
two senators, one from each family, should be appointed to govern Rome
in the pope's absence. But these peaceful intervals were short lived.
On the slightest provocation, barricades would be run up, new
entrenchments dug, and civil war would break out afresh.
Again and again in their conflict with the Church the Colonna were
worsted in the struggle, their estates confiscated, and themselves,
root and branch, beggared and exiled; but there was a strength and
vitality about the race that no adversity could subdue. Pope Boniface
VIII., whose displeasure they had incurred, oppressed them for a
while. Six Colonna brothers were exiled, and their ancestral town of
Palestrina was razed to the ground by the Caetani, Boniface's
relatives and adherents, and a plough was driven over the site to
typify its permanent devastation. But a few years later the reckless
Sciarra Colonna broke into the Pope's castle at Anagni, and made him
prisoner with bitter taunts and reproaches. Later, Sciarra played a
conspicuous part in the coronation of Lewis the Bavarian, and in
gratitude for his services the Emperor allowed the single column of
the family coat of arms to be surmounted by a golden crown.
Greatest amongst the six brothers of this period was Stephen,
Petrarch's friend, an able man and good soldier who met prosperity and
adversity, poverty banishment and danger, throughout a long troubled
life, with the same calm resolution and intrepid courage. This Stephen
survived the last of his line--his two sons Stephen and Peter with two
grandsons being massacred after an unsuccessful skirmish against
Rienzo.
After Boniface's death, the Colonna came into their own again and
received one hundred thousand gold florins in compensation for their
losses, but Palestrina, which was later rebuilt, suffered again the
same fate and was torn down by order of Eugenius IV. within one
hundred and fifty years.
In the reign of Sixtus IV. Rome was again distracted by faction feuds.
The Pope, aided by the ever-ready Orsini, pursued the Colonna with
relentless hatred. Protonotary Lorenzo Colonna fell through treachery
into the hands of his enemy, and his friend Savelli was captured and
murdered on the spot for refusing to rejoice with the captors. Lorenzo
was tortured and beheaded, and the Orsini sacked and burnt all the
Colonna property in the town.
Other distinguished members of this distinguished family of a later
epoch were Vittoria Colonna, the poet-friend of Michael Angelo, and
Marc' Antonio, who commanded the papal fleet at Lepanto, and who was
given a triumphal entry into Rome after his victory.
Nothing is known of the origin of this famous race though it is
believed to have come originally from the banks of the Rhine. It first
appears in history in 1104, when the Lords of Colonna and Zagarolo
characteristically incurred the displeasure of Pope Paschal II. They
also owned part of Tusculum and were probably related to the Counts of
that place. Later, Palestrina became their principal stronghold and
they possessed Marino, Grotta Ferrata, Genazzano, and Paliano in the
Sabines, the last giving them their princely title. The family
produced many distinguished churchmen, but only one pope, Martin V.
Many daughters of the house took the veil, and in the year 1318 as
many as twelve had entered the convent of S. Silvestro in Capite,
which had been founded by the cardinal members of the family.
In 1490 a Colonna was appointed for the first time to be constable of
the kingdom of Naples, and it was popularly believed in Rome that the
Pope excommunicated the King of Naples every vigil of S. Peter (28th
June) because he had failed to proffer the tribute of his investiture.
The formula ran: "I curse and bless you," and as the curse was uttered
the Colonna palace trembled. This palace stands on the slopes of the
Quirinal; it is entered from the Piazza dei SS. Apostoli, but the
gardens cover the slopes of the hill as far as the Via del Quirinale,
bridges connecting palace and gardens crossing the Via della Pilotta
at frequent intervals. It was built by Martin V. for his personal use,
and contains a fine picture gallery and magnificent suite of state
rooms. After nearly eight centuries of life this family is still among
the greatest and most distinguished in Rome. One prince of the name is
now Syndic of the city, another shares the peaceful office of
Prince Assistant at the Pontifical throne with the descendant of his
ancient enemies, Filippo Orsini.
[Illustration: ARCH OF TITUS FROM THE ARCH OF CONSTANTINE
The arch which records the plenitude and the arch which records the
decadence of Roman power. See page 162, interleaf, pages 38, 234,
and pictures 12 and 66.]
The career of the Orsini race has been no less eventful, but this
family has now died out in many of its branches. In a metrical account
of the coronation of Boniface VIII., written by Cardinal St. George
and quoted by Gibbon, the Orsini are said to come from Spoleto. Other
writers believe them to have been of French origin, but at an early
date they became identified with the history of Rome, and in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries two members of the family became
popes, Celestin III. in 1191, and Nicholas III. in 1277. The last
Orsini pope was the Benedictine monk Benedict XIII. (1724).
In the sixteenth century the Orsini fell under the Pope's displeasure,
the head of the family was banished and his estates were confiscated.
This individual, Giordano Orsini Duke of Bracciano, became enamoured
of Vittoria Accoramboni, wife of Francesco Peretti, Sixtus V.'s
nephew. Vittoria was beautiful fascinating and unscrupulous, and
Giordano, no less unscrupulous, did not hesitate to rid himself of the
obstacles to his desires. His own wife he strangled in his castle at
Bracciano, and Francesco was set upon and murdered in the streets of
Rome by his orders and with the connivance of Vittoria and her
brother. Orsini and Vittoria were married, but their union was of
short duration. Sixtus V. had been meanwhile elected to the papacy,
and he lost no time in disgracing and banishing Giordano whose end in
exile is shrouded in mystery. Vittoria was shortly afterwards
surprised and brutally killed by her husband's relatives for the sake
of the Orsini inheritance.
The Orsini estates were at Bracciano, Anguillara, and Galera, but the
Bracciano property with the ducal title that went with it now belongs
to the Odescalchi. In Rome the Orsini still own and inhabit their
great palace near the portico of Octavia. It was designed by
Baldassare Peruzzi and was built within the ruins of the theatre of
Marcellus, the high ground upon which it stands being merely a heap of
fallen debris. It is approached through a gateway flanked by stone
bears, the emblem of the Orsini race.
Another mediaeval family, the Gaetani or Caetani, Dukes of Sermoneta
and Princes of Caserta and Teano, is of Neapolitan origin. One of its
members became pope as Gelasius II. in 1118 and the first of the name
was military prefect under Manfred, King of Sicily, but the close
union of this family with Rome only dates from the reign of the
Gaetani pope, Boniface VIII. It was at this period also that the tomb
of Cecilia Metella on the Appian Way was disguised with turrets and
battlements to serve the Gaetani as an outlying stronghold against
their enemies.
Of all the princely names which figure in the records of mediaeval
Rome, none can claim a more venerable antiquity than the Annibaldi,
the Massimo, and the Cenci. The first, of the race of the great
Hannibal, are no longer extant. The Massimi, who derive their name
from the ancient family of Maximus, are Dukes of Rignano, Princes of
Roviano, and heirs to many other titles; they are still amongst the
greatest of Rome. The present prince lives in the family palace in the
Corso Vittorio Emanuele familiar to every tourist from its curved
facade and rows of columns, and still keeps up much of the princely
state and ceremony of a past age. The Cenci have become extinct in the
male line and the name is carried on by a distant branch as
Cenci-Bolognetti.
This family is first heard of in the person of Marcus Cencius, Prefect
of Pisa in the year 457 of Rome; and in 914 Johannes Cencius was
elected Pope as John X. In 1692 the Cenci were created Princes of
Vicovaro, a little mountain town in the Sabines, and in 1723 they
acquired the title and estates of Bolognetti by the marriage of
Virginius with an heiress of that name. With her came into the family
the dower-house, the graceful Palazzo Bolognetti-Cenci still standing
in the Piazza Pantaleone. The Bolognetti palace in the Piazza di
Venezia was sold to Prince Torlonia, and has just been destroyed to
make way for the colossal monument to Victor Emmanuel which is to
preside over Rome from the Capitol hill. The old Cenci palace, a few
years ago empty and deserted, but now government property, stands in
what was once the Jews' quarter of Rome, a forbidding pile eloquent of
its owner's tragic history. The family chapel close to it, San Tommaso
a' Cenci, dates from 1113 and was built by a Cenci who was Bishop of
Sabina at that time.
As these old families, "pure Romans of Rome," have died out, their
place has been taken by the aristocracy of papal origin, and though as
a rule natives of northern provinces, these newcomers have become
Roman in sympathies and have inherited the privileges and traditions
of the Roman patrician. Not only did each new pope bring his own
relatives to Rome in his train and grant them titles, but he also
gathered round him followers from his own province among whom he
distributed the great papal offices. Sometimes the period of greatness
thus bestowed was short-lived, in other cases a permanent aristocracy
was created and the papal offices became hereditary. Thus the Ruspoli
from father to son are Masters of the Sacred Hospice; the Colonna are
Assistant Princes; the Serlupi are Marshals of the Pope's Horse; the
Sforza have the hereditary right to appoint the standard-bearer of the
Roman people; the Chigi are Marshals of Conclave, replacing the
Savelli in this office who had held it for nearly five centuries.
Some of these families were nobles in their own province. The
Boncompagni were a noble family of Bologna. Coming to Rome with
Gregory XIII. in 1572, they were created Dukes of Sora and later
Princes of Piombino and of Venosa.
[Illustration: MEDIAEVAL HOUSE AT TIVOLI]
The Ludovisi were nobles of Pisa, the Borghese patricians of Siena.
This great family came to Rome with Paul V. in the early seventeenth
century, and was granted princely rank with the title of Sulmona. In
the middle of the eighteenth century, Marc' Antonio Borghese
married a Salviati heiress and at that period was owner of the
beautiful Villa Borghese with its museum and priceless collection of
statues, of the great palace by the Tiber, of the villas Mondragone
and Aldobrandini at Frascati, and of thirty-six estates in the
campagna, building and endowing at the same period the rich Borghese
chapel in S. Maria Maggiore. At a later date, Camillo Borghese married
Pauline Bonaparte and was appointed governor of Piedmont by Napoleon
I. Of late years this family has been almost ruined by reckless
building speculations, and the greater portion of their magnificent
possessions has been sold and alienated. The Aldobrandini and Salviati
are both off-shoots from this family.
The Barberini and Corsini are Florentines, and came to Rome with Urban
VIII. and Clement XII. The Barberini villa at Castel Gandolfo and the
palace in Rome are familiar to all visitors. The grounds of the
Corsini villa on the Janiculum have been recently converted into a
public drive; the Corsini palace in Trastevere on the river bank is
famous for its library and picture galleries. Opposite to it is the
Farnesina palace built in the sixteenth century by the rich banker
Agostino Chigi. Here it was that he gave a famous banquet and,
desiring to make a display of his enormous wealth, bade his lackeys
throw the silver dishes into the river at the end of each course under
the eyes of his astonished guests who did not guess that nets had been
cunningly laid to catch them as they sank.
The Albani kinsmen of Clement XI. came from Urbino; the Rospigliosi
from Pistoja with Clement IX.; the Odescalchi from Como with Innocent
XI.; the Doria Pamphili from Genoa.
This papal aristocracy occupied a unique position. Relatives of popes,
who were at the same time reigning princes, they assumed royal rank
and lived with a magnificence and luxury unsurpassed in Europe. In
addition to the titles of Roman nobility bestowed upon them with a
lavish hand, many of them became grandees of Spain and their names
were inscribed in the "golden book" of the Capitol.
They bought country estates and suburban villas and built great
palaces in the town. These stately Renaissance buildings, some of them
larger than many royal dwellings, are grouped at the base of the
Capitol and along the Corso, the most important and at one period the
only great street in Rome. The Palazzo di Venezia, the home of the
Venetian Paul II., the Altieri, the Grazioli, and the Bonaparte
palaces, the latter originally the property of the Rinuccini, stand, a
stately group, on the Piazza di Venezia and the Via del Plebiscito.
The series is continued along the Piazza dei SS. Apostoli with the
Colonna, the Balestra, the Odescalchi, and the Ruffo palaces.
Greatest among those in the Corso is the Palazzo Doria Pamphili. Here
also are the Ruspoli, Fiano, Chigi, Sciarra, Salviati, Ferraioli, and
Theodoli palaces, and before its demolition to enlarge the Piazza
Colonna, the Piombino. The Costaguti in the Piazza Tartaruga, the
Antici-Mattei, the Longhi and the Gaetani palaces, the latter in the
_Via delle Botteghe Oscure_, "the street of dark shops," are grouped
at the foot of a further slope of the Capitol. More to the west, stand
the huge Farnese palace the present seat of the French embassy and the
Cancelleria built by Cardinal Riario nephew of Sixtus IV. and still
papal property. The Simonetti and Falconieri palaces are built upon
the banks of the Tiber close by, and face Via Giulia.
Latest of all the great papal families to settle in Rome were the
Braschi, Pius VI.'s kinsmen, and they built a palace in the Piazza
Navona. Not far off are the Patrizi and Giustiniani palaces near the
French church of San Luigi in the street of the same name. The
Giustiniani are Earls of Newburgh in the peerage of Scotland through
the marriage in 1757 of the heiress of the title and estates to the
Prince Giustiniani of that date.
Great was the opulence and magnificence of the Roman princes. When
they issued forth into the city they were attended by mounted grooms
with staves while running footmen cleared a way before them. An army
of servants waited upon their needs, their stables were filled with
horses, and their coaches were wonderful equipages of gilding glass
and painting, costing thousands of francs. Powdered flunkeys in silk
stockings stood behind on the foot board, three on a prince's coach,
two on a cardinal's. One of these men carried an umbrella and a
cushion. For if during his drive the prince chanced to meet his
Holiness the Pope or a religious procession in which the Host was
carried, he would instantly stop his coach, and alighting would kneel
upon the ground, the cushion being placed by his servants under his
knees and the umbrella held over his bared head to protect it from the
sun.
Many of the Roman nobles had private theatres in their houses; they
were great collectors of books, bronzes, tapestries, and mosaics, and
the Roman private galleries of pictures and statues are unsurpassed.
The Borghese alone possessed four Raphaels as well as their famous
collection of statues. At the same time they were generous to the city
of their adoption. They threw open their beautiful parks and villas to
the people, they admitted the public to their galleries museums and
libraries, and they endowed hospitals asylums and orphanages. The
Roman ladies had always patronised and promoted works of charity.
Nevertheless the later custom, which persists to this day, of
personally visiting the poor and the hospitals began with Gwendoline
Talbot, the daughter of the last Catholic Earl of Shrewsbury, who as
the wife of Prince Borghese was the first of the Roman ladies to walk
alone at all hours, intent on her errands of mercy. The wit which made
her present a gold coin to a man who on one occasion followed her, was
the talk of the city. Her name is still a household word in Roman
mouths, and her tragic death when only twenty-four years old, leaving
four little children, one only of whom, the present Princess Piombino,
survived the infection which killed their mother, moved an entire
population.
[Illustration: ILEX AVENUE AND FOUNTAIN (_Fontana scura_), VILLA
BORGHESE]
Many of the Roman palaces are as big as barracks. The Palazzo
Pamphili-Doria can accommodate a thousand persons; but this was none
too large for a patriarchal style of living which in a modified form
survives to the present day. Much space was taken up by the great
libraries, museums, picture galleries and reception and state
banqueting halls. A small army of officials were housed within the
walls--steward, bailiff, major-domo, secretaries, accountants, all the
underlings necessary to the management of great and distant estates. A
wing would be set entirely apart for the Prince Cardinal, a cadet of
the house; the domestic chaplain would require a set of rooms; he
would say the daily mass in the private chapel of the palace but would
not dine with the family. The sons of the house would require tutors,
the daughters governesses and companions.
The great double gates of every Roman palace which are securely locked
and barred at night, lead into a central court. Round it are open
colonnades, sometimes in two stories, and in the centre a fountain
splashes amidst ferns and palms. A porter presides over the palace
gates, magnificent in a cocked hat knee breeches and long coat trimmed
with coloured braid into which are worked the heraldic devices of the
family. His rod of office is a long staff twisted with cord and
crowned with an immense silver knob. This personage is the descendant
of the janitor who in ancient Rome watched the house door day and
night and whose fidelity was ensured when necessary by chaining him to
his post.
A grand staircase leads to the first floor and this, the _piano
nobile_, was and still is occupied in Roman houses by the head of the
family whose rule is more or less absolute and tyrannical. The second
floor is given up to the eldest son upon his marriage for his own use,
and similarly the second son is given the one above, while beneath the
roof accommodation is found for an immense retinue of servants and
attendants. It is still the custom for the whole family, married sons
and their families included, to dine together, and elaborate accounts
are kept of the allowances given to each son, of the quota contributed
by each to the general expenses, of the dowry of each daughter-in-law,
as to whether she is enjoying the number of dishes of meat per meal
and the number of horses and carriages stipulated for in her marriage
settlement. In the case of an English wife, a carpet used to be among
the stipulations.
Though the state coaches, the running footmen, much of the pomp and
ceremony have disappeared, some curious relics remain of an order of
things fast passing away. Every Roman prince has the right, should he
wish it, to be received at the foot of the great staircase of any
house he honours with his presence by two lackeys bearing lighted
torches; and these should escort him to the threshold of his hostess's
reception room. This ceremony is still observed for cardinals on state
occasions.
Again every prince has the right to, and in fact still has, a throne
room and throne in his palace. This is not for his own use, but for
that of the Pope should he elect to pay him a visit. In the hall of a
Roman palace a shield emblazoned with the family arms may be seen
affixed to the wall. In a prince's house it will be surmounted by a
canopy, beside it should stand the historic umbrella and cushion. Four
marquesses and these only the marquesses Patrizi, Theodoli, Costaguti
and Cavalieri enjoy the princes' right to the canopy above their
shield and are hence called the _marchesi di baldacchino_.
A good deal of natural confusion exists in the mind of the foreigner
with regard to the different ranks and the distribution of titles in
the Italian peerage. These in fact follow no general rule but depend
in each case upon the patent of creation. Princely titles conferred by
the Holy Roman Empire affect every member of the family equally;
titles conferred by the Pope, on the other hand, are as a rule
restricted to the head of the family only. Thus in the Colonna family
every member is a prince or princess; amongst the Ruspoli, a papal
creation, only the head of the eldest branch is legally a prince. In
these latter cases however it is usual to give the eldest son one of
the other family titles upon his marriage, and the same with the
second son. Such an act is in the father's option, but he is obliged
to notify the assumption of the title to the civil authorities. In the
same way a certain amount of latitude is allowed him as to the title
he uses himself or grants to his sons. Prince Gaetani, for example,
prefers to be known by the older title in his family, that of Duke of
Sermoneta, bestowing that of Prince di Caserta upon his eldest son.
The titles _Don_ and _Donna_ are only correct for the sons and
daughters of princes and of the four _marchesi di baldacchino_, though
they are often used for all the children of marquesses.
In the same way, the distribution of the other titles of Marquess,
Count or Baron amongst the various members of the family depends upon
the terms of the original patent. In some cases every member bears the
title, in others the head of the family only. Collaterals of a house
often take the style _Giovanni dei Principi N----_, or _dei Conti
N----_ as the case might be; "John of the Princes So-and-so," or "of
the Counts So-and-so."
The distinction again between the patrician and the noble is one that
is not understood by the foreigner. A patrician belongs by ancestral
prescriptive right to the governing class of his province. The names
of the patricians are balloted annually, and one of the number is
chosen as Prior or Governor of the province. He is in fact and history
of senatorial rank. Among the districts of Italy some have and some
have not a patriciate. Spoleto possesses one, but Todi, next to it,
has never had one.
In Rome the patrician families are called "_Coscritti_" in allusion to
the _Patres conscripti_ or senators of the city. Their number was
limited and defined by a constitution of Benedict XIV. but later popes
have added new names. There are now sixty patrician families.
[Illustration: "HOUSE OF COLA DI RIENZO," BY PONTE ROTTO
The architecture of this supposed dwelling of the last of the Roman
Tribunes is a _bizarre_ mixture of styles and epochs. It has been
suggested that a series of initial letters which surmount a doggerel
inscription are those of the many titles which Rienzo bestowed upon
himself. The people know the house as that "of Pontius Pilate."]
The nobles, on the other hand, often owed their titles not only to the
Pope but to their respective Communes, which, until the one fount
of honour was defined to be the sovereign, frequently bestowed titles
on their citizens. This privilege was enjoyed by the abbots of Monte
Cassino in the thirteenth century. The popes have always conferred
titles of nobility, as did the Holy Roman Empire, whose heir in this
matter the Pope claims to be. At present an Heraldic Commission is
sitting in Rome to regulate the use of titles, many of which have been
assumed for generations without any warrant. Henceforth every one will
be called upon to prove his right to the title he bears, and it will
be illegal for the Communes to describe any one who has not done so
with "a handle to his name." Foreign titles, and among them papal
titles, will in all cases have to be ratified and allowed by the
sovereign of Italy.