* * * * *
"QUOD NON FECERUNT BARBARI," ETC.
(Vol. v., p. 559.)
Your correspondent MR. BREEN is mistaken in supposing this "epigram" to
refer to the Barberini spoliation of the Coliseum; it was an equally
important and more sacrilegious theft that aroused Pasquin's satire and
indignation.
Urban VIII. (Matteo Barberini), 1623-44, had just stripped the dome of the
Pantheon of the bronze that adorned it, to construct therewith the
baldacchino over the high altar in St. Peter's. The amount of metal
obtained, says Venuti, was upwards of 450,250 pounds weight; and upon the
principle of robbing Peter to pay Paul, the material thus stolen from the
Madonna was dedicated to the service of San Pietro. Bernini was the artist
employed, from whose taste, perhaps, little better was to be expected; and
the baldacchino, though highly ornamented, richly gilt, and of imposing
dimensions, certainly makes the beholder regret that the metal was moved
from its original position. It was costly enough too, upwards of 20,000l.
having been expended upon its production.
Urban evidently had a practical turn for warfare by no means unusual to the
possessors of the "holy see," for we find that the surplusage of the metal
was cast into cannon for the defence of St. Angelo.
This pope certainly was _one_ of the most unsparing despoilers of the
Coliseum, inasmuch as the huge pile of the Palazzo Barbarini was erected by
him with stone supplied solely from that convenient and inexpensive quarry.
If, however, we reflect that he did but follow the example of many of his
predecessors (Paul II. built the Palazzo di Venezia, and Paul III. the
Farnese, from the same exhaustless supply), and that the Coliseum was not
only much ruined by the "barbarians" during the various sieges of Rome, but
was used as a fortress by the Frangipani in the Middle Ages, the pasquinade
quoted by MR. BREEN would hardly have been applicable to Urban's misdeeds
in that quarter. Nor was the Coliseum at that time consecrated ground, as
it was not till the year 1750 that Benedict XIV., with a view to protect it
from future depredation, dedicated it to the memory of the Christian
martyrs who had perished in its arena. But the Pantheon, consecrated as
early as A.D. 608, under the name of S. Maria Rotonda, had been respected
and spared by all, whether Arian or barb-"arian;" and it was reserved for a
"Santo Padre" of the seventeenth century to despoil a Christian Church, and
himself set an example of sacrilege to the Christian world. Urban was the
sole member of the Barberini family (of Florentine extraction) that ever
attained the papal tiara. The amount of wealth stated to have been amassed
by him during his pontificate appears almost fabulous.
The author of the pasquinade in question is, I believe, unknown.