[1] See Gerald Campbell, _Edward and Pamela Fitzgerald_ (1905).
GENNA, a word of obscure origin borrowed from the Assamese, and used
technically by anthropologists to describe a class of social and
religious ordinances based on sanctions which derive their validity from
a vague sense of mysterious danger which results from disobedience to
them. These prohibitions--or system of things forbidden--affect the
relations, permanent and temporary, of individuals (either as members of
a tribe, village, clan or household, or as occupying an official
position in the village or clan) towards other persons or groups of
persons and towards material objects which possess intrinsic sanctity.
The term is extended to the communal rites performed by the village,
clan or household, either as magical ceremonies or as prophylactics on
special occasions when the social, commensal, conjugal and alimentary
relations of the group affected are subjected to temporary
modifications. These practices and beliefs are observed among the hill
tribes of Assam from the Abors and Mishmis on the north to the Lusheis
on the south, all linguistically members of the Tibeto-Burman group,
and among the Khasis, members of the Mon-Khmer group. Genna and taboo
(q.v.) are products of an identical level of culture and similar
psychological processes, and provide the mechanism of the social and
religious systems.
_Permanent Gennas._--The only universal _genna_ is that which forbids
the intermarriage of members of the same clan. In some cases in Manipur
animals are _genna_ to the tribe--i.e. they must not be killed or
eaten--but tribal differentiation is, in practice, based on dialectical
distinctions rather than on tribal _gennas_. The village as such
possesses no permanent _gennas_, but the clans, as the units of marriage
under the law of exogamy, have distinct elementary _gennas_, especially
the clan to which the priest-chief belongs. The most important
individual _gennas_ are those which protect the priest-chief from
impurity or contact with "sacred" substances such as the flesh of
animals used in sacrifices. He may neither eat in a strange house, nor
utter words of abuse, nor take an oath in a dispute, except in his
representative capacity on behalf of his village. The first-fruits are
_genna_ to the village until he eats, thus establishing an opposition
between him and his co-villagers. Married and unmarried women are
subject to alimentary _gennas_; thus unmarried girls are forbidden the
flesh of any male animal or of any female animal dying gravid.
_Ritual Gennas._--Ritual _gennas_ are held annually to foster the rice
crops, all other industries and activities being _genna_ (forbidden)
during the cultivating season, to secure good hunting, to avert
sickness, especially epidemics, to take omens, and to lay finally to
rest the ghosts of all that have died within the year. The village gates
are closed, men and women eat apart, and conjugal relations are
suspended. Special village _gennas_ are held when rain is needed, when a
villager dies in any manner out of the ordinary, as women in childbirth,
when an animal gives birth to still-born offspring, and when any
permanent genna has been violated. Clan _gennas_ are held for all
ordinary cases of death. Household _gennas_ are held on the occasions of
birth (when the aliment and conduct of the father are specially
regulated), naming, ear-piercing, the first hair-cutting, sickness, and,
in certain areas, tattooing. Individuals are subjected to temporary
_gennas_ as warriors both before and after a head-hunting raid, pregnant
women, married persons at the beginning of their married life, the wives
of the priest-chief, and those who from ambition or pride of wealth seek
to perpetuate their names by erecting a stone monument, an act which
confers the right to wear the distinctive clothes of the priest-chief
which otherwise are _genna_ to the whole village. Ritual _gennas_ are of
varying duration. Some last for a month while others are complete in two
days. As religious or magical rites, they prevent danger or establish
and restore normal relations with powers which are potentially harmful
or require placation.
AUTHORITIES.--Official records of the government of India, Nos. 23
(1855), 27 (1859), 68 (1870); Colonel T.H. Lewin, _Hill Tracts of
Chittagong; Report on the Census of Assam_ (1891), vol. i. Report,
note by A.W. Davis, p. 237 seq.; Major P.R.T. Gurdon, _The Khasis_
(1907); T.C. Hodson, _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_,
vol. xxxvi. (1906). (T. C. H.)
GENNADIUS II. [as layman GEORGIOS SCHOLARIOS] (d. c. 1468), patriarch of
Constantinople from 1454 to 1456, philosopher and theologian, was one of
the last representatives of Byzantine learning. Extremely little is
known of his life, but he appears to have been born at Constantinople
about 1400 and to have entered the service of the emperor John VII.
Paleologus as imperial judge or counsellor. Georgios first appears
conspicuously in history as present at the great council held in 1438 at
Ferrara and Florence with the object of bringing about a union between
the Greek and Latin Churches. At the same council was present the
celebrated Platonist, Gemistus Pletho, the most powerful opponent of the
then dominant Aristotelianism, and consequently the special object of
reprobation to Georgios. In church matters, as in philosophy, the two
were opposed,--Pletho maintaining strongly the principles of the Greek
Church, and being unwilling to accept union through compromise, while
Georgios, more politic and cautious, pressed the necessity for union and
was instrumental in drawing up a form which from its vagueness and
ambiguity might be accepted by both parties. He was at a disadvantage
because, being a layman, he could not directly take part in the
discussions of the council. But on his return to Greece his views
changed, and he violently and obstinately opposed the union he had
previously urged. In 1448 he became a monk at Pantokrator and took the
name Gennadius. In 1453, after the capture of Constantinople by the
Turks, Mahommed II., finding that the patriarchal chair had been vacant
for some time, resolved to elect some one to the office, and the choice
fell on Gennadius. While holding the episcopal office Gennadius drew up,
apparently for the use of Mahommed, a lucid confession or exposition of
the Christian faith, which was translated into Turkish by Ahmed, judge
of Beroea, and first printed by A. Brassicanus at Vienna in 1530. After
a couple of years Gennadius found the position of patriarch under a
Turkish sultan so irksome that he retired to the monastery of John the
Baptist near Serrae in Macedonia, where he died about 1468. About one
hundred of his alleged writings exist, the majority in manuscript and of
doubtful authenticity.
The fullest account of his writings is given in Gass, _Gennadius and
Pletho_ (Berlin, 1844), the second part of which contains Pletho's
_Contra Gennadium_. See also F. Schultze, _Gesch. der Phil. d.
Renaissance_, i. (1874). A list of the known writings of Gennadius is
given in Fabricius, _Bibliotheca Graeca_, ed. Harles, vol. xi., and
what has been printed is to be found in Migne, _Patrol. Gr._ vol. clx.
GENOA (anc. _Genua_, Ital. _Genova_, Fr. _Gênes_), the chief port of
Liguria, Italy, and capital of the province of Genoa, 119 m. N.W. of
Leghorn by rail. Pop. (1906) 255,294 (town); 267,248 (commune). The town
is situated on the Gulf of Genoa, and is the chief port and commercial
town of Italy, the seat of an archbishop and a university, the
headquarters of the IV. Italian army corps, and a strong fortress. The
city, as seen from the sea, is "built nobly," and deserves the title it
has acquired or assumed of the Superb. Finding only a small space of
level ground along the shore, it has been obliged to climb the lower
hills of the Ligurian Alps, which afford many a coign of vantage for the
effective display of its architectural magnificence. The original
nucleus of the city is that portion which lies to the east of the port
in the neighbourhood of the old pier (Molo Vecchio). In the 10th century
it began to feel a lack of room within the limits of its fortifications;
and accordingly, in the middle of the 12th century, it was found
necessary to extend the line of circumvallation. Even this second
circuit, however, was of small compass, and it was not till 1320-1330
that a third line took in the greater part of the modern site of the
city proper. This presented about 3 m. of rampart towards the land side,
and can still be easily traced from point to point through the city,
though large portions, especially towards the east, have been
dismantled. The present line of circumvallation dates from 1626-1632,
the period when the independence of Genoa was threatened by the dukes of
Savoy. From the mouth of the Bisagno in the east, and from the
lighthouse point in the west, it stretches inland over hill and dale to
the great fort of Sperone, i.e. the Spur, on the summits of Monte
Peraldo at a height of 1650 ft.,--the circuit being little less than 12
m., and all the important points along the line being defended by forts
or batteries.
A portion of the enclosed area is open country, dotted only here and
there with houses and gardens. There are eight gates, the more important
being Porta Pila and Porta Romana towards the east, and the Porta
Lanterna or Lighthouse Gate to the west. The main architectural features
of Genoa are its medieval churches, with striped façades of black and
white marble, and its magnificent 16th-century palaces. The earlier
churches of Genoa show a mixture of French Romanesque and the Pisan
style--they are mostly basilicas with transepts, and as a rule a small
dome; the pillars are sometimes ancient columns, and sometimes formed of
alternate layers of black and white marble. The façades are simple,
without galleries, having only pilasters projecting from the wall, and
are also alternately black and white. This style continued in Gothic
times also. The oldest is S. Maria di Castello (11th century), the
columns and capitals of which are almost all antique. S. Cosma, S.
Donato (with remains of the 10th-century building) and others belong to
the 12th century, and S. Giovanni di Prè, S. Agostino (with a fine
campanile), S. Stefano, S. Matteo and others to the 13th. The famous
painting of the martyrdom of S. Stephen, by Giulio Romano, carried off
by Napoleon in 1811, was restored to S. Stefano in 1815. S. Matteo, the
church of the D'Oria or Doria family, was founded in 1126 by Martino
Doria. The façade dates from 1278, and the interior of the edifice dates
in the main from 1543. In the crypt is the tomb of Andrea Doria by
Montorsoli, and above the main altar hangs the dagger presented to the
doge by Pope Paul III. To the left of the church is an exquisite
cloister of 1308 with double columns, in which a number of inscriptions
relating to the Doria family and also the statue of Andrea Doria by
Montorsoli are preserved. The little square in front of the church is
surrounded by Gothic palaces of the Doria family. Of the churches the
principal is the comparatively small cathedral of S. Lorenzo. Tradition
makes its first foundation contemporary with St Lawrence himself; and a
document of 987 implies that it was even then the metropolitan church.
Reconstructed about the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th
century, it was formally consecrated by Pope Gelasius II. on the 18th of
October 1118; and since then it has undergone a large number of
extensive though partial renovations. The façade, with its three
elaborate doorways, belongs to the 14th century and is a copy of French
models of the 13th. The two side portals with Romanesque sculptures
belong to the 12th-14th centuries. Some pagan reliefs are built into the
tower. The interior was rebuilt in 1307, the old columns being used. The
belfry, which rises above the right-hand doorway, was erected about 1520
by the doge, Ottaviano da Campofragoso, and the cupola was erected after
the designs of the architect Galeazzo Alessi in 1567. The fine Early
Renaissance (1448) sculptural decorations of the chapel of S. John the
Baptist were due to Domenico Gagini of Bissone on the Lake of Lugano,
who later transferred his activities to Naples and Palermo, and other
Lombard masters. An edict of Innocent VIII. forbids women to enter the
chapel except on one day in the year. In the treasury of the cathedral
is a magnificent silver monstrance dating from 1553, and an octagonal
bowl, the Sacro Catino, brought from Caesarea in 1101, which corresponds
to the descriptions given of the Holy Grail, and was long regarded as an
emerald of matchless value, but was found when broken at Paris, whither
it had been carried by Napoleon I., to be only a remarkable piece of
ancient glass. The choir-stalls are a very fine work of the 15th century
and later, with intarsias. Near the cathedral is a small 12th-century
(?) cloister.
Of older date than the cathedral is the church of S. Ambrose and S.
Andrew, if its first foundation be correctly assigned to the Milanese
bishop Honoratus of the 6th century; but the present edifice is due to
the Society of Jesus, who obtained possession of the church in 1587. The
interior is richly decorated and contains the "Circumcision" and "St
Ignatius" by Rubens, and the "Assumption" of Guido Reni. The Annunziata
del Guastato is one of the largest churches in the city, erected in
1587. It is a cruciform structure, with a dome, and the central nave is
supported by fourteen Corinthian columns of white marble. To the
otherwise unfinished brick façade a portal borne by marble columns was
added in 1843. The interior is covered with gilding and frescoes of the
17th century, and is somewhat overloaded with rich decoration, while a
range of white marble columns supports the nave. Santa Maria delle Vigne
probably dates from the 9th century, but the present structure was
erected in 1586. The campanile, however, is a remarkable work of the
13th century. Adjoining the church is a ruined cloister of the 11th
century. San Siro, originally the "Church of the Apostles" and the
cathedral of Genoa, was rebuilt by the Benedictines in the 11th century,
and restored and enlarged by the Theatines in 1576, the façade being
added in 1830; in this church in 1339 Simone Boccanera was elected first
doge of Genoa. Santa Maria di Carignano, or more correctly Santa Maria
Assunta e SS. Fabiano e Sebastiano, belongs mainly to the 16th century,
and was designed by Galeazzo Alessi, in imitation of Bramante's plan for
S. Peter's at Rome, as it was then being executed by Michelangelo. The
interior is fine, harmonious and restrained, painted in white and grey,
while the colouring of the exterior is less pleasing. From the highest
gallery of the dome--368 ft. above the sea-level, and 194 ft. above the
ground--a magnificent view is obtained of the city and the neighbouring
coast.
Buildings of the 15th century do not occupy an important place in Genoa,
but there are some small private houses and remains of sculptural
decoration of the Early Renaissance to be seen in the older portions of
the town. The palaces of the Genoese patricians, famous for their
sumptuous architecture, their general effectiveness (though the
architectural details are often faulty if closely examined), and their
artistic collections, were many of them built in the latter part of the
16th century by Galeazzo Alessi, a pupil of Michelangelo, whose style is
of an imposing and uniform character and displays marvellous ingenuity
in using a limited or unfavourable site to the greatest advantage.
Several of the villas in the vicinity of the city are also his work. The
Via Garibaldi is flanked by a succession of magnificent palaces, chief
among which is the Palazzo Rosso, so called from its red colour.
Formerly the palace of the Brignole-Sale family, it was presented by the
duchess of Galliera to the city in 1874, along with its valuable
contents, its library and picture gallery, which includes fine examples
of Van Dyck and Paris Bordone. The Palazzo Municipale, built by Rocco
Lurago at the end of the 16th century, once the property of the dukes of
Turin, has a beautiful entrance court and a hanging terraced garden
fronting a noble staircase of marble which leads to the spacious council
chamber. In an adjoining room are preserved a bronze tablet dating from
117 B.C. (see below), two autograph letters of Columbus, and the violin
of Paganini, also a native of Genoa. Opposite the Palazzo Rosso is the
Palazzo Bianco, a palace full of art treasures bequeathed to the city by
the duchess of Galliera upon her death in 1889, and subsequently
converted into a museum. The Roman antiquities here preserved belong to
other places--Luna, Libarna, &c. The Adorno, Giorgio Doria (both
containing small but choice picture-galleries), Parodi and Serra and
other palaces in this street are worthy of mention. The Via Balbi again
contains a number of palaces. The Durazzo Pallavicini palace has a noble
façade and staircase and a rich picture-gallery. The street takes its
name, however, from the Palazzo Balbi-Senarega, which has Doric
colonnades and a fine orangery. The Palazzo dell' Università has an
extremely fine court and staircase of the early 17th century. The
Palazzo Reale is also handsome but somewhat later. The Palazzo Doria in
the Piazza del Principe, presented to Andrea Doria by the Genoese in
1522, is on the other hand earlier; it was remodelled in 1529 by
Montorsoli and decorated with fine frescoes by Perino del Vaga. The old
palace of the doges, originally a building of the 13th century, to which
the tower alone belongs, the rest of the building having been remodelled
in the 16th century and modernized after a fire in 1777, stands in the
Piazza Umberto Primo near the cathedral, and now contains the telegraph
and other government offices. Another very fine building is the Gothic
Palazzo di S. Giorgio, near the harbour, dating from about 1260,
occupied from 1408 to 1797 by the Banca di S. Giorgio, and now converted
into a produce exchange. The Campo Santo or Cimitero di Staglieno, about
1½ m. from the city on the banks of the Bisagno, is one of the chief
features of Genoa; its situation is of great natural beauty and it is
remarkable for its sepulchral monuments, many of which have been
executed by the foremost sculptors of modern Italy. The university,
founded in 1471, is a flourishing institution with faculties in law,
medicine, natural science, engineering and philosophy. Attached to it
are a library, an observatory, a botanical garden, and a physical and
natural history museum. Genoa is also well supplied with technical
schools and other institutions for higher education, while ample
provision is made for primary education. The hospitals and the asylum
for the poor are among the finest institutions of their kind in Italy.
Mention must also be made of the Academy of Fine Arts, the municipal
library, the great Teatro Carlo Felice and the Verdi Institute of Music.
The irregular relief of its site and its long confinement within the
limits of fortifications, which it had outgrown, have both contributed
to render Genoa a picturesque confusion of narrow streets, lanes and
alleys, varied with stairways climbing the steeper slopes and bridges
spanning the deeper valleys. Large portions of the town are inaccessible
to ordinary carriages, and many of the important streets have very
little room for traffic. In modern times, however, a number of fine
streets and squares with beautiful gardens have been laid out. The
Piazza Ferrari, a large irregular space, is the chief focus of traffic
and the centre of the Genoese tramway system; it is embellished with a
fine equestrian statue of Garibaldi, unveiled in 1893, which stands in
front of the Teatro Carlo Felice. Leading from this piazza is the Via
Venti Settembre, a broad, handsome street laid out since 1887, leading
south-east to the Ponte Pila, the central bridge over the Bisagno. The
street is itself spanned by an elegant bridge carrying the Corso Andrea
Podesta, a modern avenue on the heights above. Adjoining the church of
the Madonna della Consolazione is the new market, a building of no
little beauty. The Via Roma, another important centre of traffic which
gives on to the Via Carlo Felice near the Piazza Ferrari, leads to the
Piazza Corvetto, in the centre of which stands the colossal equestrian
statue of Victor Emmanuel II. To the left is the Villetta Dinegro, a
beautiful park belonging to the city, decorated with cascades and a
number of statues and busts of prominent statesmen and citizens. To the
right is another park, the Acquasola, laid out in 1837 on the site of
the old ramparts. In the west of the city, in front of the principal
station, is the Piazza Acquaverde. On the north side, embowered in palm
trees, is a great statue of Columbus, at whose feet kneels the figure of
America. Opposite is the Palazzo Faraggiana, with scenes from the life
of Columbus in relief on its marble pediment. Among other modern
thoroughfares, the Via di Circonvallazione a Monte, laid out since 1876
on the hills at the back of the town, leads by many curves from the
Piazza Manin along the hill-tops westward, and finally descends into the
Piazza Acquaverde; its entire length is traversed by an electric
tramway, and it commands magnificent views of the town. A similar road,
the Via di Circonvallazione a Mare, was laid out in 1893-1895 on the
site of the outer ramparts, and skirts the sea-front from the Piazza
Cavour to the mouth of the Bisagno, thence ascending the right bank to
the Ponte Pila. Genoa is remarkably well served with electric tramways,
which are found in all the wider streets, and run, often through
tunnels, into the suburbs and to the surrounding country on the east as
far as Nervi and to Pegli oh the west. Three funicular railways from
different points of the city give access to the highest parts of the
hills behind the town.
Though its existence as a maritime power was originally due to its
port, it is only since 1870 that Genoa has provided the conveniences
necessary for the modern development of its trade, the duke of
Galliera's gift of £800,000 to the city in 1875 being devoted to this
purpose. A further enlargement of the harbour was necessitated upon
the opening of the St Gotthard tunnel in 1882, which extended the
commercial range of the port through Switzerland into Germany. The old
harbour is semi-circular in shape, 232 acres in area, with numerous
quays, and protected by moles from southern and south-westerly winds.
An outer harbour, 247 acres in area, has been constructed in front of
this by extending the Molo Nuovo by the Molo Duca di Galliera, and
another basin, the Vittorio Emanuele III., for coal vessels, with an
area of 96 acres, is in course of construction to the west of this,
between it and the lofty lighthouse which rises on the promontory at
the south-west extremity of the harbour. This basin is to be entered
from both the east and the west, and allows for a future extension in
front of San Pier d'Arena as far as the mouth of the river Polcevera.
The port administration was placed under an autonomous harbour board
(_consorzio_) in 1903. The largest ships can enter the harbour, which
has a minimum depth of 30 ft.; it has two dry docks, a graving dock
and a floating dry dock. Very large warehouses have been constructed.
The exports are olive oil, hemp, flax, rice, fruit, wine, hats,
cheese, steel, velvets, gloves, flour, paper, soap and marble, while
the main imports are coal, cotton, grain, machinery, &c. Genoa has a
large emigrant traffic with America, and a large general passenger
steamer traffic both for America and for the East.
The development of industry has kept pace with that of the harbour.
The Ansaldo shipbuilding yards construct armoured cruisers both for
the Italian navy and for foreign governments, The Odero yards, for
the construction of merchant and passenger steamers, have been
similarly extended, and the Foce yard is also important. A number of
foundries and metallurgical works supply material for repairs and
shipbuilding. The sugar-refining industry has been introduced by two
important companies, and most of the capital employed in
sugar-refining in other parts of Italy has been subscribed at Genoa,
where the administrative offices of the principal companies and
individual refiners are situated. The old industries of macaroni and
cognate products maintain their superiority. Tanneries and
cotton-spinning and weaving mills have considerably extended
throughout the province. Cement works have acquired an extension
previously unknown, more than thirty firms being now engaged in that
branch of industry. The manufactures of crystallized fruits and of
filigree silver-work may also be mentioned. The trade of the port
increased from well under 1,000,000 tons in 1876 to 6,164,873 metric
tons in 1906 (the latter figure, however, includes home trade in a
proportion of about 12%). Of this large total 5,365,544 tons are
imports and only 799,319 tons are exports, and, comparing 1906 with
1905, we have a decrease of 34,355 tons on the exports, and an
increase of 436,123 tons on the imports. The effect upon the railway
problem is of course very great, inasmuch as, while the supply of
trucks required per day in 1906 was from 1000 to 1200, about 80% of
these had to be sent down empty to the harbour. Of the four main lines
which centre on Genoa--(1) to Novi, which is the junction for
Alessandria, where lines diverge to Turin and France via the Mont
Cenis, and to Novara and Switzerland and France via the Simplon, and
for Milan; (2) to Acqui and Piedmont; (3) to Savona, Ventimiglia and
the French Riviera, along the coast; (4) to Spezia and Pisa--the first
line has to take no less than 78% of the traffic. It has indeed two
alternative double lines for the passage over the Apennines, but one
of them has a maximum gradient of 1 : 18 and a tunnel over 2 m. long,
and the other has a maximum gradient of 1 : 62, and a tunnel over 5 m.
long. A marshalling station costing some £800,000, connected directly
with the harbour by tunnels, with 31 m. of rails, capable of taking
2000 trucks, was constructed at Campasso in 1906 north of San Pier
d'Arena (through which till then the traffic of the first three lines,
representing 95% of the total, had to pass). It is computed that some
40% of the total commerce of Italy passes through Genoa; it is indeed
the most important harbour in the western Mediterranean, with the
exception of Marseilles, with which it carries on a keen rivalry.
Genoa has in the past been somewhat handicapped in the race by the
insufficiency of railway communication, which, owing to the mountains
which encircle it, is difficult to secure, many tunnels being
necessary. The general condition of the Italian railways has also
affected it, and the increased traffic has not always found the
necessary facilities in the way of a proper amount of trucks to
receive the goods discharged, leading to considerable encumbrance of
the port and consequent diversion of a certain amount of trade
elsewhere, and besides this to serious temporary deficiencies in the
coal supply of northern Italy.
The imports of Genoa are divided into four main classes: about 50% of
the total weight is coal, grain about 12%, cotton about 6%, and
miscellaneous about 34%. Of the coal imports the great bulk is from
British ports: about half comes from Cardiff and Barry, one-tenth from
other Welsh ports, one-fifth from the Tyne ports. The amount shows an
almost continued increase from 617,798 tons in 1881 to 2,737,919 in
1906. The total of shipping entered in 1906 was 6586 vessels with a
tonnage of 6,867,442, while that cleared was 6611 vessels with a
tonnage of 6,682,104.
_History._--Genoa, being a natural harbour of the first rank, must have
been in use as a seaport as early as navigation began in the Tyrrhenian
Sea. We hear nothing from ancient authorities of its having been visited
or occupied by the Greeks, but the discovery of a Greek cemetery of the
4th century B.C.[1] proves it. The construction of the Via Venti
Settembre gave occasion for the discovery of a number of tombs, 85 in
all, the bulk of which dated from the end of the 5th and the 4th
centuries B.C. The bodies had in all cases been cremated, and were
buried in small shaft graves, the interment itself being covered by a
slab of limestone. The vases were of the last red figure style, and were
mostly imported from Greece or Magna Graecia, while the bronze objects
came from Etruria, and the brooches (_fibulae_) from Gaul. This
illustrates the early importance of Genoa as a trading port, and the
penetration of Greek customs, inhumation being the usual practice of the
Ligurians. Genoa is believed to derive its name from the fact that the
shape of this portion of the coast resembles that of a knee (_genu_).
We hear of the Romans touching here in 216 B.C., and of its destruction
by the Carthaginians in 209 B.C. and immediate restoration by the
Romans, who made it and Placentia their headquarters against the
Ligurians. It was reached from Rome by the Via Aurelia, which ran along
the north-west coast, and its prolongation, which later acquired the
name of the Via Aemilia (Scauri); for the latter was only constructed in
109 B.C., and there must have been a coast-road long before, at least as
early as 148 B.C., when the Via Postumia was built from Genua through
Libarna (mod. Serravalle, where remains of an amphitheatre and
inscriptions have been found), Dertona, Iria, Placentia, Cremona, and
thence eastwards. We also have an inscription of 117 B.C. (now preserved
in the Palazzo Municipale at Genoa) giving the text of the decision
given by the _patroni_, Q. and M. Minucius, of Genua, in accordance with
a decree of the Roman senate, in a controversy between the people of
Genua and the Langenses or Langates (also known as the Viturii), the
inhabitants of a neighbouring hill-town, which was included in the
territory of Genua. But none of the other inscriptions found in Genoa or
existing there at the present day, which are practically all sepulchral,
can be demonstrated to have belonged to the ancient city; it is equally
easy to suppose that they were brought from elsewhere by sea (Mommsen in
_Corp. Inscr. Lat._ v. p. 884). It is only from inscriptions of other
places that we know that it had municipal rights, and we do not know at
what period it obtained them. Classical authors tell us but little of
it. Strabo (iv. 6. 2, p. 202) states that it exported wood, skins and
honey, and imported olive oil and wine, though Pliny speaks of the wine
of the district as the best of Liguria (_H.N._ xiv. 67.)
The history of Genoa during the dark ages, throughout the Lombard and
Carolingian periods, is but the repetition of the general history of the
Italian communes, which succeeded in snatching from contending princes
and barons the first charters of their freedom. The patriotic spirit and
naval prowess of the Genoese, developed in their defensive wars against
the Saracens, led to the foundation of a popular constitution, and to
the rapid growth of a powerful marine. From the necessity of leaguing
together against the common Saracen foe, Genoa united with Pisa early in
the 11th century in expelling the Moslems from the island of Sardinia,
but the Sardinian territory thus acquired soon furnished occasions of
jealousy to the conquering allies, and there commenced between the two
republics the long naval wars destined to terminate so fatally for Pisa.
With not less adroitness than Venice, Genoa saw and secured all the
advantages of the great carrying trade which the crusades created
between Western Europe and the East. The seaports wrested at the same
period from the Saracens along the Spanish and Barbary coasts became
important Genoese colonies, whilst in the Levant, on the shores of the
Black Sea, and along the banks of the Euphrates were erected Genoese
fortresses of great strength. No wonder if these conquests generated in
the minds of the Venetians and the Pisans fresh jealousy against Genoa,
and provoked fresh wars; but the struggle between Genoa and Pisa was
brought to a disastrous conclusion for the latter state by the battle of
Meloria in 1284.
The commercial and naval successes of the Genoese during the middle ages
were the more remarkable because, unlike their rivals, the Venetians,
they were the unceasing prey to intestine discord--the Genoese commons
and nobles fighting against each other, rival factions amongst the
nobles themselves striving to grasp the supreme power in the state,
nobles and commons alike invoking the arbitration and rule of some
foreign captain as the sole means of obtaining a temporary truce. From
these contests of rival nobles, in which the names of Spinola and Doria
stand forth with greatest prominence, Genoa was soon drawn into the
great vortex of the Guelph and Ghibelline factions; but its recognition
of foreign authority--successively German, Neapolitan and Milanese--gave
way to a state of greater independence in 1339, when the government
assumed a more permanent form with the appointment of the first doge, an
office held at Genoa for life, in the person of Simone Boccanera.
Alternate victories and defeats of the Venetians and Genoese--the most
terrible being the defeat sustained by the Venetians at Chioggia in
1380--ended by establishing the great relative inferiority of the
Genoese rulers, who fell under the power now of France, now of the
Visconti of Milan. The Banca di S. Giorgio, with its large possessions,
mainly in Corsica, formed during this period the most stable element in
the state, until in 1528 the national spirit appeared to regain its
ancient vigour when Andrea Doria succeeded in throwing off the French
domination and restoring the old form of government. It was at this very
period--the close of the 15th and commencement of the 16th century--that
the genius and daring of a Genoese mariner, Christopher Columbus, gave
to Spain that new world, which might have become the possession of his
native state, had Genoa been able to supply him with the ships and
seamen which he so earnestly entreated her to furnish. The government as
restored by Andrea Doria, with certain modifications tending to impart
to it a more conservative character, remained unchanged until the
outbreak of the French Revolution and the creation of the Ligurian
republic. During this long period of nearly three centuries, in which
the most dramatic incident is the conspiracy of Fieschi, the Genoese
found no small compensation for their lost traffic in the East in the
vast profits which they made as the bankers of the Spanish crown and
outfitters of the Spanish armies and fleets both in the old world and
the new, and Genoa, more fortunate than many of the other cities of
Italy, was comparatively immune from foreign domination.
At the end of the 17th century the city was bombarded by the French, and
in 1746, after the defeat of Piacenza, surrendered to the Austrians, who
were, however, soon driven out. A revolt in Corsica, which began in
1729, was suppressed with the help of the French, who in 1768 took
possession of the island for themselves (see CORSICA: _History_).
The short-lived Ligurian republic was soon swallowed up in the French
empire, not, however, until Genoa had been made to experience, by the
terrible privations of the siege when Masséna held the city against the
Austrians (1800), all that was meant by a participation in the
vicissitudes of the French Revolution. In 1814 Genoa rose against the
French, on the assurance given by Lord William Bentinck that the allies
would restore to the republic its independence. It had, however, been
determined by a secret clause of the treaty of Paris that Genoa should
be incorporated with the dominions of the king of Sardinia. The
discontent created at the time by the provision of the treaty of Paris
as confirmed by the congress of Vienna had doubtless no slight share in
keeping alive in Genoa the republican spirit which, through the
influence of a young Genoese citizen, Joseph Mazzini, assumed forms of
permanent menace not only to the Sardinian monarchy but to all the
established governments of the peninsula. Even the material benefits
accruing from the union with Sardinia and the constitutional liberty
accorded to all his subjects by King Charles Albert were unable to
prevent the republican outbreak of 1848, when, after a short and sharp
struggle, the city, momentarily seized by the republican party, was
recovered by General Alfonzo La Marmora.
Among the earlier Genoese historians the most important are
Bartolommeo Fazio and Jacopo Bracelli, both of the 15th century, and
Paolo Partenopeo, Jacopo Bonfadio, Oberto Foglietta and Agostino
Giustiniano of the 16th. Paganetti wrote the ecclesiastical history of
the city; and Accinelli and Gaggero collected material for the
ecclesiastical archaeology. The memoirs of local writers and artists
were treated by Soprani and Ratti. Among more general works are
Bréquigny, _Histoire des révolutions de Gênes jusqu'en 1748_; Serra,
_La Storia dell' antica Liguria e di Genova_ (Turin, 1834); Varesi,
_Storia della repubblica di Genova sino al 1814_ (Genoa, 1835-1839);
Canale, _Storia dei Genovesi_ (Genoa, 1844-1854), _Nuova istoria della
repubblica di Genova_ (Florence, 1858), and _Storia della rep. di
Genova dall' anno 1528 al 1550_ (Genoa, 1874); Blumenthal, _Zur
Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte Genua's im 12ten Jahrhundert_
(Kalbe an der Saale, 1872); Malleson, _Studies from Genoese History_
(London, 1875). The _Liber jurium reipublicae Genuensis_ was edited by
Ricotti in the 7th, 8th and 9th volumes of the _Monumenta historiae
patriae_ (Turin, 1854-1857). A great variety of interesting matter
will be found in the _Atti della Società Ligure di storia patria_
(1861 sqq.), and in the _Giornale Ligustico di archeologia, storia, e
belle arti_. The history of the university has been written by Lorenzo
Isnardi, and continued by Em. Celesia (2 vols., Genoa). (T. As.)