TIAM
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, THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
BEQUEST
OF
Marian Hooker
/<:^^t:;^:^-.*«c; ^''»^«-*^^^*^
VENETIAN STUDIES
By the same Author.
LIFE ON THE LAGOONS.
WITH TWO ILLUSTRATIONS AND A MAP.
Crozvn Svo, cloth ^ ds.
"A thoroughly readable book, which cannot fail to afford entertain-
ment to those who take an interest in the people of the old Queen of
the Sea." — Spectator.
" Contains a considerable amount of curious and entertaining in-
formation not easily accessible elsewhere in any compact form." —
A thenaiini.
" The volume is a real and solid contribution to Venice literature. It
is full of poetry and full of heart. We feel that it is written by one who
has a passion for his subject, by one who knows how love-impelling
Venice is, who knows how genial, frank, and winning are her people,
and who desires others to accept his belief." — Academy.
" We could spare half a dozen of the ordinary books of travel for it."
- Saturday Review.
London : Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.
VENETIAN STUDIES
BY
HORATIO F. BROWN
LONDON
KEG AN PAUL, TRENCH & CO., i, PATERNOSTER SQUARE
1887
Of the following Studies, No. 5 appeared, in a slightly-
different form, in the Quarterly Review, and No. 11 in
the English Illustrated Magazine, To the proprietors and
editors of these thanks are due for permission to reprint.
LOAN STACK
JIFT
(The rights <?/ translation and ofrtf>rodnction are reserved:)
TO
MY MOTHER.
282
CONTENTS.
PACK
The City of Rialto ... ... ... ... ... i
Bajamonte Tiepolo and the Closing of the Great
Council ... ... .. ... ... ... 56
The Carraresi ... .. .. ... ... 90
Carmagnola, a Soldier of Fortune ... ... ... 145
The State Archives and the Constitution of the
Venetian Republic ... ... ... ... 178
Cardinal Contarini and his Friends ... ... 230
Marcantonio Bragadin, a Sixteenth-Century Cag-
LiosTRO ... ... ... ... ... .. 259
Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus ... ... 291
The Spanish Conspiracy ... ... ... 334
Oliver Cromwell and the Venetian Republic ... 364
Venice of To-day ... ... ... ... 396
VENETIAN STUDIES.
THE CITY OF RIALTO.
" Quid est mare ? refugium in periculis." — Alcuin.
The origin of Venice is one of the most obscure
points in Italian history. Tradition marks the incur-
sion of Attila as the birth-moment of that republic,
which was destined to grow in silence, fed from the
East, during the Middle Ages ; to embark upon the
troubled waters of Renaissance politics ; to put forth
the blossom of a glorious art ; to stand as a bulwark
for Europe against the Ottoman power ; to flame in
sinister splendour down the road of corruption, and
to be extinguished at last, the oldest state in Europe,
by the convulsions of the French Revolution. But
long before Attila came with his Huns, before the
Goths or the Lombards or the Franks seized on the
plains of Northern Italy, those mud islands of
the lagoon must have had their population — a race
of fishermen, poor, hardy, independent, sea-bred and
sea-nurtured. Cassiodorius, secretary of Theodoric
the Great, writes to the Venetians of the Lagoons
as to a people who had already achieved a certain
B
2 VENETIAN STUDIES.
amount of unity and self-government. From his
famous epistle of A.D. 523,* we gather the impres-
sion of a community simple, industrious, republican,
and we obtain our earliest view of the Venetian
villages ; the houses rising on the shoals, saved from
destruction in the ever-shifting waters by the frail
palisade twisted from withes of osier. There is a
breath of the salt, free air in the secretary's phrase,
" Hie vobis, aquatilium avium more, domus est." But
no eye noted the first low huts, built of mud bricks,
nor measured those light and shallow boats which
stood, stabled like horses, at the door of every house ;
no historian traced the internal growth of these fishing
stations ; and we have been left to suppose what has
often been stated, that the refugees from the mainland,
flying before the frequent foreign occupations, found
the islands, where they sought shelter, deserted mud-
banks out at sea. This could not have been the case.
Venice was not peopled solely by exiles from Aquileia,
Oderzo, Concordia, or Padua. Through the obscurity
of the records which have reached us, we can trace
a long-continued struggle raging inside Venice,t
before a thorough fusion of the original and the
immigrant populations could be brought about.
There were years of quarrelling between Malamocco,
where the older race predominated, and Heraclea,
* See Hazlitt, " Hist, of Venetian Republic" (London : i860),
vol, iv. doc. i. : " Viminibus enim flexilibus illigatis, terrena illis
soliditas aggregatur . . . proinde naves quas, more animalium,
vestris parietis illigastis, diligenti cura reficite."
+ Throughout this essay I shall use the name " Venice " for
the whole lagoon district, reserving " Rialto " for the city we now
call Venice,
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 3
peopled chiefly by refugees from Feltre and Odcrzo.
The union was not effected until the city of Rialto,
the city we now call Venice, rose to pre-eminence on
the ruins of Heraclea and of Malamocco, as the
monument of Pipin's attack and defeat. The choice
of Rialto as the seat of the government is the starting-
point of sequent Venetian history. Around Rialto
we gather all those memories which are chiefly
associated with the name of Venice — the wealth, the
splendour, the pride of the Adriatic's Queen ; Rialto
floating on the water, a city that is "always just
putting out to sea." A discussion, therefore, of the
causes which led to the final selection of Rialto as
the capital of Venice will form a fit prelude to any
studies in the history of the Venetian republic.
Rialto was the city of compromise and of survival,
— of compromise between those internal and discordant
elements which constituted the population of the
fishing villages ; of survival between two great
external and antagonistic powers, the East and the
West. On one side of Venice lay the mythic
splendour, the dim grandeur, the august name of
" the Golden Emperor ; " on the other the barbaric
power, the juvenile force, the mighty hand and out-
stretched arm of the Frankish king. Constantinople
displayed the civilization of the world, the long-in-
herited lordship of the Caesars ; while the court of
Charles the Great seemed instinct with the might of
some unmeasured natural force, eruptive and volcanic.
The Eastern Empire was old * and mythical through
* "t^Ji/ ypavv t^v fiaffiXfiav, as KSprjv xP^f^offirdToKov, us fiapyapocpo-
povaav." Manasses in Constant., vii.
4 VENETIAN STUDIES.
age ; but it still retained some of its pristine vigour,
though the hand of sovereignty began to fall, here
and there, from the government. The Prankish
power, on the contrary, bounded forward with the
impetuosity of youth ; yet destiny reserved for it too,
although so young, only a brief life in Italy. It fell to
pieces on the death of its creator ; and " Charlemagne,
with all his peerage," faded away into the shadowy
region of poetical myth — the only region where their
mark remained as conquerors. Between these two
forces Italy, and with her Venice, pursued their task
of developing themselves as states. The action and
reaction of East and West determined the evolution
of Venice ; and Rialto emerged as the result of their
operation on that portion of the Roman world.
The Eastern Empire, though surely settling to-
wards dissolution, still presented the greatest power
in existence. Its longevity, its centuries of vigorous
old age, were continually proving how massively the
structure of the Roman constitution had been framed.
The repeated recovery of vital force, the re-organiza-
tion of the whole system, the new leases of life
effected by Constantine, by Heraclius, by Leo the
Isaurian, by Nicephorus, and by Basil, demonstrated
the solid ribwork of the Roman body politic. Under
the protection of the law we may believe that the
subjects of the Eastern Empire were well governed.
Its chroniclers have chosen to dwell upon the ex-
ceptions, recording, chiefly, instances of imperial
caprice; but the enormous wealth of the merchants
would rather prove that property was secure, com-
merce active, and justice strictly administered. Ni-
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 5
cephorus I. could never have incurred such a torrent
of obloquy for his alleged extortions, nor could
Theodora have bequeathed so vast a treasury to her
son Michael the Drunkard, had the people been
impoverished, or the country ruined, by years of
fiscal oppression. The gigantic scale of the imperial
operations for the encouragement of agriculture
shows at once the power of the emperors and their
earnestness in good government. We have only to
call to mind the colony of two hundred thousand
Sclavs transferred by Constantine V. to Bithynia,
and the corresponding establishment of Asiatic agri-
culturists on the borders of Sclavonia, to perceive
that the Roman emperor was both the successor of
the Great King and the ruler bred in the political
principles of the early Caesars. And the same
profundity of resource appeared in the military, no
less than in the financial administration. Constantine
Copronymus found no difficulty, after the loss of an
army and fleet numbering two thousand transports,
in taking the field against the Bulgarians the follow-
ing year with a new army of eighty thousand men
and two thousand vessels.*
During the eighth and ninth centuries the Eastern
Empire was, on the whole, prosperous. Nor could the
continual dynastic changes upset, or even seriously
shake, the solid strength of the constitution. The
emergence of successful soldiers like Leo, of feeble
princes like the Amorian family, of pure adventurers
like Basil I., left the general lines of government
See Finlay's "History of Greece" (Oxford: 1877), vol.
li. p 230.
6 VENETIAN STUDIES.
unchanged. That policy of careful finance and vigor-
ous military administration, initiated by Augustus,
and laid down by him as the basis of imperial autho-
rity, was maintained, for the most part, by those who
subsequently bore the title of emperor. The maxims
of Caesarship were held by them as something hardly
dependent upon their personal character. The prince
was not to be confounded with the administration ; that
was hereditary and traditional, the expression of the
Roman idea. No doubt the vigour and efficiency of
the government varied with the qualities of the
Augustus, but the substantial principles never altered.
And so, distinct from the national life, severed from
the interests of the people and almost unobserved by
them, there existed the life of the Great Palace, the
private economy of Caesar as sovereign of a court, not
as minister of finance or emperor of the Roman
armies. We know more of this palace life than we
know of the imperial executive, for the chroniclers
have busied themselves over the details of it. We
see it sumptuous and fantastic under Theophilus, the
emperor who played the Paris to the virgins assembled
in his stepmother's house, and chose his wife by the
gift of a golden apple.* He is the Augustus whose
chief glory lay in building the Palace of Bryas,t an
imitation of the caliph's home in Bagdad. The
* Symeon Mag., Ann. Corpus Script. Hist. Byz. (Bonn:
1838), torn. 46, p. 415.
t Sym. Mag, op. cit., p. 421 ; Theophanes, " Contin." Corp.
Hist. Byz. (Bonn), torn. 46, pp. 86-91 ; Leo, Gram. Script.
Hist. Byz. (Venetiis : 1729), torn. vi. p. 362; Gibbon, "Dec.
and Fall," capp. 52, 53.
THE CITY OF RIALTO, 7
porphyry chamber for the lying-in of empresses ;
the long colonnades with tessellated floors and marble
pillars made for cool promenades ; the sleeping-
rooms arranged to suit each season of the year ; the
dining-halls named Eros and Margarite ; the golden
tree with artificial birds that piped and fluttered in
the branches ; the organs hidden in the ceilings that
played soft music while the emperor passed below ;
the system of sun telegraphs that flashed their messages
from the borders of the empire and wrote them on a
disc inside the council hall; the telephone and whisper-
ing gallery that joined one corner of the gardens to
another — these and a hundred other such toys and
curious inventions occupied the leisure and amused
the fancy of Theophilus the Unfortunate. Or we
may see the court bigoted and fanatical, ruled by
monks, clamorous with arguments in favour or in
condemnation of image-worship ; settling the nature
of the Trinity by blows and blood ; engrossed by no
more actual care. Constantine VI. lost his throne for
a breach of the canon law in divorcing his wife to
marry Theodota ; and earlier still, in the year 669,
the troops of the Orient Theme, catching the religious
infection from their chief Constantine IV., claimed that
the emperor's two brothers should also be crowned,
and thus a Trinity would reign on earth, the counter-
part of that in heaven. Leo V., the Armenian, owed
his death partly to a scruple about Christmas Day
which forbade him to slay his enemy, Michael, before
receiving the sacrament, and partly to the military pre-
cision with which he attended matins and joined in
the psalms. The assassins recognized the emperor by
8 VENETIAN STUDIES.
his deep, sonorous voice, and stabbed him before the
altar in the chill grey Christmas morning. Or once
again, and in opposition to this passionate earnestness
in matters of dogmatic dispute, we may see the court
scurrilous and ribald under Michael the Drunkard,
the emperor who made Gryllus, his buffoon, ride in
procession through the streets of Constantinople, robed
in the patriarch's vestments, seated on a white mule,
and attended by eleven mimic metropolitans chosen
from among Augustus's boon companions.* Michael
himself followed in the train, and the rout sang
profane songs and obscene psalms to popular hymn
tunes ; while, in mockery of the sacred cup, they
administered a loathsome draught of vinegar and
mustard to any among the crowd whom they could
catch and compel to drink it.
But whatever the personal character of the prince
may have been, frivolous or passionate or profane,
affected the well-being of the people very remotely.
The stories which crept out from the palace helped to
fill their minds with curious astonishment and wonder
as for something heard in a dream ; they helped to
create that atmosphere of mystery and fascination
which made the private life of their emperors take
place side by side with that of Haroun al Raschid
and the caliphs of Bagdad.
And the almost superhuman greatness of the im-
perial title, coupled with the number of adventurers
who attained to it, gave the popular imagination
ample food for the construction of myths. The popular
version of the facts alone was often romantic enough.
* Theophanes, '' Continuat.," p. 124 ; Sym. Mag., p. 437.
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 9
Leo the Isaurian, while yet a poor lad, known by the
name of Conon, determined to leave his native hills
to try his fortune in the richer lands below. One day,
as he was journeying across the plain, he rested from
the noontide heat in a grove of ilex, near a spring of
water, and turned his pack mule loose to graze. As
he lay upon the turf he found that he was not alone,
but that two other travellers were also resting in the
shade. From their talk he learned that they were
Jews and astrologers, and the two strangers, taken by
the beauty and grace and strength of Conon, readily
satisfied his desire to know what the future might
have in store for him. To his astonishment he heard
that he was destined to rule the Eastern Empire ;
and in return for their brilliant forecast, the Jews
exacted a promise that when Conon should come to
the throne, he would root out the idolatrous worship
of images that now disgraced God's Church. The
prophecy was fulfilled ; and Conon became the second
refounder of the Roman Empire.
The legend of Basil I., though more closely related
to the truth, is hardly less picturesque. Born a poor
groom, but gifted with beauty, great strength, and
a singular magnetic power which made the most
intractable horses quiet at his merest touch, Basil
determined to leave his father's farm to push his way
in the large world. His wanderings brought him to
Patras, where he fell under the notice of a rich widow
named Danielis. Through her kindness he accumu-
lated money enough to purchase estates in Macedonia,
and he became a member of the family by the religious
ceremony of " adelphosis " with the widow's son. But
lo VENETIAN STUDIES.
Patras offered too narrow a field for Basil's growing
ambition. He quitted the Peloponnese for Constanti-
nople. Another tradition of his life, but one which
hardly accords with the story of his Macedonian
properties, represents the young groom entering the
capital alone one evening, with a wallet on his back
and nothing in his pockets. He went to sleep on the
steps of a church near the gate. That night the
priest of the church was troubled with a dream which
told him to go out and bring the emperor in, for he
lay sleeping at the door. Twice he obeyed, but found
no emperor, only a young man lying on the church
steps asleep. The third time, to exorcise the dream,
he roused up Basil, brought him into the house, and
gave him supper and a bed. The young groom rose
rapidly into favour through his skill in horse training,
till he at length attracted the notice of the court.
His fortunes were secured when one day, in the
presence of the Emperor Michael, he wrestled with a
Bulgarian champion and overthrew him. Michael
made him his prime favourite, and never took his
riotious pleasures but with Basil at his side. At last
two successful murders, first of Bardas Caesar and then
of Michael himself, placed Basil on the throne. He
founded the great Basilian dynasty and reigned him-
self for nineteen years.
There are many other stories from the lives of
emperors, patriarchs, and generals to be met with
in the Byzantine chroniclers. They are half real,
picturesque, and all deeply tinged with Eastern fancy ;
but they have little connection with the movement of
the government. They appealed to the imagination
THE CITY OF RIALTO. il
in the distant provinces of the empire — in Venice or in
Naples, for example — making Constantinople a place
where men desired to go, a city of dreamland wonders.
They created a strong bias of curiosity, of attraction,
of sympathy in favour of Byzantium, as opposed to
the repulsion exercised by the nearer and more
positive power of the Lombards or the Franks. The
doge's sons sought Constantinople when they could ;
the doges themselves coveted honorary titles * con-
ferred by the emperor ; the people answered Pipin's
summons to surrender with the cry, "We choose to
be the subjects of the Roman king, and not of you."
But, in spite of the emotional bonds which bound
the distant members of the empire to Constantinople
as their head, the hand of government began to fall
away from many provinces. Italy was lost. Venice
and Naples, though they acknowledged the suzerainty
of Constantinople, enjoyed an independence virtually
complete. Venice was in a position to ignore Byzan-
tium when it suited her to do so ; to continue unin-
terruptedly her own line of development, and yet to
make use of her nominal dependence as a bulwark
against invasion from the west. Only in the extreme
east the great empire still stood firm, keeping the
Saracens always at bay. Under the shelter of its
unconscious protection the nations of modern Europe
found leisure to ferment, to seethe and settle down ;
taking slowly that form under which we recognize
them now.f This is the eternal benefit conferred by
the Byzantine Empire. Venice, when her day of
* Armingaud, " Venise et le Bas Empire*' (Paris : 1868).
t See Rambaud, " L'Empire Grec" (Paris : 1870).
12 VENETIAN STUDIES.
power arrived, performed, though on a smaller scale,
a similar service for civilization by her almost single-
handed opposition to the Turk.
The forces at work upon the other side of Venice,
towards the west, operating upon her in such a way
as to determine the evolution of her independence and
the creation of Rialto, were the powers of the Lombard
and the Frank. But Italy herself modified the action
of these powers that came in contact with her. And
perhaps the most powerful, the most Italian factor in
all Italy, was the Church of Rome. It is, therefore, by
observing the policy of the Church and of the popes,
that we obtain the most accurate view of the part
played by the foreigners in the development of the
peninsula.* When the suppressive weight of the empire
was lifted from Italy, partly through the decay of the
imperial power, partly by the removal of the emperor
to Constantinople and the consequent accentuation of
the Roman See, a rebound towards individuality and
self-government manifested itself. In isolated por-
tions of Italy, in Venice, in Rome, in Naples, Amalfi,
and Bari, the people became conscious of a passionate
desire for self-realization, for separation, for the
assertion of their own peculiar qualities, which the
empire had so long suppressed. But these frag-
ments were scattered and weak. Byzantium was not
dead ; an exarch still ruled in Ravenna ; Lombardy,
Beneventum, and Spoleto were in the power of a
foreigner who would not be sorry to extend his
borders. Politically, and quite apart from any religious
* I must acknowledge my debt to Ferrari's brilliant essay,
*'Storia delle Rivoluzioni d'ltalia" (Milan : 1870).
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 13
considerations, salvation could come from the Church
alone. The Goths had respected the Eternal City;
the Lombards never effected a thorough conquest.
Round the See of Rome the democratic impulse,
an impulse by no means foreign to the essence of the
Church, might crystallize and grow solid. A front of
resistance might be offered to their foes if the pope
would consent to become the core of a federation of
states that aimed, first and foremost, at individuality,
but who were forced to seek some central support
upon which to lean until their own position should
be secured. The Church itself, however, no less than
the other fragments of Italy, obeyed the state-making
appetite and sought a temporal dominion. The
opportunity seemed favourable to its designs. But
one imperative condition lay behind, tacitly implied
by all who demanded assistance from the Church :
the condition that the Church itself should not
endeavour to become sovereign at the expense of its
confederates ; that the pope should never attempt to
make himself doge or prince or emperor ; in fact,
that the Holy See should allow its spiritual authority
to be used, as long as it might be required, for a
bulwark against Byzantium, Pavia, or any other
absorbing power, so that behind it Venice, Naples,
Amalfi might pursue their own self-chosen course of
development. The Church accepted the position.
Italy stood with the Church or against it as it
showed readiness to satisfy the imperious desire of
the people, or gave signs that it, too, was seeking a
temporal power for itself. So long as the pope con-
sented to act as a shelter to the embryonic communi-
14 VENETIAN STUDIES.
ties and shared the struggle for individual preservation,
now against the Lombards, and now against the
Eastern Empire, he commanded the sympathy of
Italy. But the moment he manifested the least dis-
position to yield for his own advantage to either of the
regnant powers, or on the slightest suspicion that he
was aiming at sovereignty, the people threw their pas-
sions and their action violently into the opposite scale.
The popes accepted the position ; but the con-
dition imposed upon them was just one they could
not fulfill. For, while undertaking the duties of con-
federate chiefs, while consenting to be no more than
" primus inter pares," they could not escape the spirit
of the age acting upon them in their narrower political
capacities as heads of the Church and individual men.
They embraced the policy of creating a temporal
dominion, and Italy swayed in obedience to the
fluctuations of their course. The danger that beset
the popes from the Lombards and from the East
determined their action as continual see-saw. They
stood now with Pavia, achieving a little more liberty
as they saw Byzantium weak ; now with Constanti-
nople, bolstering up the imperial authority if the
Lombards showed a tendency to encroach. All
the time their conduct was eagerly scanned by con-
federate Italy. The iconoclasm of Leo the Isaurian,
condemned as a heresy by the Western Church, and
dividing the East into two furious and hostile camps,
presented a favourable opportunity to deal a blow at
the emperor's ascendency in Italy. Accordingly,
Gregory 11. bound himself in close alliance with
Luitprand, king of the Lombards. The pope preached
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 15
the enormity of iconoclasm, and the king lent him the
secular arm wherewith to give weight to his words.
The Lombard troops entered the exarchate and drove
the exarch Paul out of Ravenna to seek refuge in
Venice. But the pope immediately found himself
compelled to undo his own work. For Luitprand
claimed the Pentapolis as his own, by right of con-
quest. This extension of Lombard power disclosed
a danger to the independent growth of papal authority.
A rapid backward sweep took place. The restoration
of Paul to his exarchate, at the instance of the pope
and by the help of Venice, marked the extent of the
reaction against the Lombards.
The head of the Church was now placed in
difficulties. His struggles to keep the balance
adjusted between the two forces which dominated
Italy, a struggle from which he hoped to emerge
sovereign, had raised up for the Church an enemy,
both in Pavia and in Constantinople. Luitprand's
vigour infused new life into the Lombards, and his
conquest of Ravenna reawakened the desire for
enlargement ; his successors were sure to follow the
lines laid down by him. On the other hand, Byzantium,
though by no means strong, had gained considerable
weight in Italy, thanks to the reaction in her favour
which sent the exarch Paul back to Ravenna. Venice
experienced a shock of alarm at the results of the
pope's Lombard policy. The capture of the Penta-
polis threw her into the arms of Constantinople, and
there she was held by the commercial privileges
granted to her on the restoration of the exarch. For
the moment she stood isolated from the Church and
i6 VENETIAN STUDIES.
suspicious. The pope had shown his hand a little
too openly. Under these circumstances the Church
was forced to look for support elsewhere. To restore
the equation between itself, Pavia, and Byzantium, the
introduction of a fourth factor became necessary.
The victory of Charles Martel, saving Western
Christendom as it did, drew all eyes to the race of the
Franks. The popes selected them as their champions
for the next move in the game. Zachary sanctioned
— as far as such sanction had any meaning — the
substitution of the Carolingian for the Merovingian
dynasty. The house of Charles Martel became the
defender of the Church ; and Pipin I.'s coronation
by Stephen, at Paris, sealed the alliance.
The results of this union were at once felt in the
peninsula. The Lombards now learned the quarter
whence danger threatened. The Church pointed
clearly to the Franks as the new race that was girding
itself behind the Alps, to try its fortune too in battle
for that phantom Helen of the Middle Ages, the
crown of Italy. The Lombard kingdom grew rest-
less under the presentiment of death. Astolfo, Luit-
prand's successor, by his decided enmity alarmed the
pope, and warned him to precipitate the ruin of his
foes. In 755 Pipin came to Italy. He is said to have
made a gift of the Pentapolis and the exarchate,
which he took from Astolfo, to his ally of the Holy
See. But though Astolfo was humbled, the Lombards
were not annihilated. No sooner had Pipin left
Italy, than Desiderius, the last king of Pavia, prepared
himself to recover the lost cities and to chastise the
pope. The Lombards made their final effort to retain
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 17
their kingdom. Desiderius occupied Comacchio, the
Pentapolis, the city of Ferrara. He pressed on to
Gubbio and Urbino ; he even threatened Rome itself.
But at Viterbo he hesitated before the excommunica-
tion hurled against him by the Holy See.* The
Lombards had made the fatal mistake of becoming
orthodox ; they could not worship the pope and
fight him too. Desiderius recoiled and was lost. In
the year 774 Adrian sent for his ally, Charles the
Great, who had succeeded his father, Pipin. Charles
crossed the Cenis, blockaded Desiderius in Pavia, and,
after a protracted siege, captured both the city and
the king.
The pope had advanced rapidly towards the
object which the Church desired. By the help of the
Franks it now seemed probable that a temporal
dominion would be added to the spiritual empire of
the Holy See. Though the donation of Pipin never
took effect, yet its suggestion marked in unmistak-
able characters the ambition of the pope. He was
violating the tacit understanding upon which alone he
enjoyed the political sympathy and support of Italy.
Everywhere appeared signs of reaction against the
Church. In Venice, in Ravenna, in its own city of
Rome, the people protested against the political
direction which the Church threatened to impose on the
country. The popes passed through stormy years of
hostility from their own subjects, until at length Leo
HI. was assailed by the mob, beaten, imprisoned,
and only escaped the loss of his tongue by a secret
flight to Charles the Great at Paderborn.
* Muratori, " Annali d'ltalia," ad. ann. 772.
C
l8 VENETIAN STUDIES.
And now the consummation was almost reached.
Charles brought back the pope to Rome, and there he
himself was crowned Emperor of the West, King of
the Franks and Lombards. On the other hand, Leo
received the temporal sovereignty over Parma, Reggio,
Mantua, the exarchate, Istria, Venice, Beneventum,
and Spoleto.* The Church and the Franks con-
cocted the pact and donation between them. Leo
believed that he had restored the Augustan Caesars
in the person of Charles ; Charles believed that he
could confer a veritable kingdom upon his ally the
pope. But both beliefs were groundless, and proved
to be so almost on the day of their birth. Charles
never was a Roman emperor ; he did not so much as
reside in Italy. The pope never could be a reigning
prince ; he could not so much as levy a tax. This
country which they were partitioning so lightly had
never been consulted, and its voice was of paramount
importance. The pope and the emperor had no
sooner conceived the idea of an Italy based upon
their double power than their mutual gifts began to
prove themselves unsubstantial. The emperor made
a present of that which was not his to give ; the
pope committed treason against the passions and
the instincts of the people. He sought to become a
king where no kings were to be. The country swung
around in violent contradiction to the Church and to
the Franks. In every direction rose the cry of " Save
the country," and the pope was left standing alone,
deserted by those upon whom he endeavoured to
impose himself. But the pact and donation, though
* Anastasius, quoted by Ferrari, op. cit.^ vol. i. p. 122.
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 19
wanting in solid reality, stood over Italy with all
the force and potency of an idea ; always in evidence ;
passing from lip to lip ; fixed in the imagination ;
a permanent threat against the desire for self-effectu-
ation, the state-forming appetite which was swaying
the peninsula. Their effect remained as a determining
factor in the course adopted by such communities
as Venice ; their power to affect the political imagi-
nation endured just because they were an idea and
not a reality, therefore more difficult to refute, to
negative, to destroy.
The early history of Venice illustrates accurately
the movements of an Italian state labouring towards
independence, between the triple forces of the East,
the West, and the Church. For Venice lay, in a
certain sense, at the heart of the struggle ; she formed
a part of the Byzantine Empire, and she had been
included in Charles's donation to the Church ; she felt
the full stress of the conflict. It has been well said
that " Venice on her lidi stood exposed to every wind."
The interest of her earliest development depends on
the courage and determination with which she resisted
all conquest, Gothic, Lombard, Byzantine, or Frank.
Venice enjoyed a position both peculiar and ill defined.
She acknowledged a titular allegiance to the court of
Byzantium, and yet by her acts she recognized the
supremacy of the barbarian kingdoms on the main-
land of Italy. Her tribunes received orders from
Cassiodorius, and, later on, her first doge paid tribute
to Luitprand in return for certain privileges of com-
merce. On the other hand, her public deeds were
superscribed with the name of the Eastern Emperor.
20 VENETIAN STUDIES.
Yet neither Byzantium nor Ravenna nor Pavia could
claim the lagoons as an undisputed portion of their
empires. The twelve confederate islands * were in
fact attempting to steer a difficult course towards
independence of any power. These twelve islands,
lying close together along the shore of the Adriatic,
formed the nucleus of what was to be the state of
Venice. It is probable that, originally, they were
little more than fishing stations and salt-pans belong-
ing to the wealthier towns of the mainland. And
the famous document, recounting the despatch of the
three Paduan consuls t sent to govern the village of
Rialto, though in all likelihood a forgery, yet represents
the facts of the case — that the islands were under the
charge of the rectors or consuls appointed by the
neighbouring cities, Monselice, Padua, Oderzo, and
Aquileia.
But in the stillness of the lagoons, in the freshness
* Sagornino, " Cronacon Venetum," edit. Zanetti ( Venetiis :
1765). Sagornino probably lived at the beginning of the eleventh
century. He is therefore one of the earliest authorities we
possess. He gives the names of the twelve islands — Grado,
Bibbione, Caprule, Eraclea, Equilio or Jesolo, Torcello, Poveglia,
Murano, Rivvalto, Malamocco, Chioggia, Cavarzere. This last
is not an island, but is on the mainland, not far from Chioggia.
We miss the names of Mazzorbo and Burano.
t Romanin, " Storia documentata di Venezia " (Venezia :
1858), ignores the story. Romanin's history is a work full of
scholarship and learning, accumulated by long and patient
research. It is the most complete and accurate history of Venice.
I shall have to refer to it constantly. For the Paduan document
see Daru, " Histoire de la Rep. de Venise," and Hodgkin, " Italy
and her Invaders" (Oxford, 1880), vol. ii. ; Andreae Danduli,
"Chronicon," ap. Muratori, "Rer. It. Scrip.," torn. xii. lib. v.
cap. i. p. X.
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 21
and freedom of the sea air, those germs of individuality
and liberty which began to quicken as the pressure
of imperial Rome was lightened, found a congenial
soil and fitting nutriment. The islands, unorganized
and disconnected as yet, gained two solid advantages
from the sufferings of the mainland under foreign
invasion : their population increased through the in-
flux of refugees, and the ruin of the mainland cities
prompted them to claim their freedom. In 466 the
twelve islands drew together in federation ; each
governed by its own tribune, elected by itself, but
all meeting in parliament for the consideration of
points affecting the common weal.* This was the
first organic movement of the lagoon villages ; the
bursting of the seed destined to ripen into such a fruit.
About a century later the results of their consolida-
tion became apparent when Narses arrived in Italy.
The Paduans in vain appealed to the imperial general,
begging him to restore to them their rights over the
mouths of the Brenta and the Bacchiglione which fall
into the lagoon. The islanders argued that the outlets
of these streams belonged to the lagoon-dwellers in
virtue of the labour, which kept them open. Narses
refused to decide either way, and the mainlanders were
too weak to enforce their will without his aid. The
general, by this conduct, distinctly acknowledged the
twelve islands as an element in the empire, and they
gained a solid standing ground. The people, by the
realization of a portion of their desire, became con-
* Dandolo, op. cit., lib. vii. cap. i. p. i ; Janotii, " Dialogus
de Rep. Venet.," cum notis Crassi (Lugd. Bat. 1722), ap. Groev.
*' Thesaur. Antiquit. It.," p. 40.
22 VENETIAN STUDIES.
scious of the whole of it. The sequence of Venetian
history from this point, down to the estabHshment
of Rialto as the capital, is governed by a series of
actions and reactions rapidly initiated and as rapidly
exhausted, by a process of attraction and repulsion,
now towards Byzantium, now away from it. It is
the people who move ; throwing their weight now
into this scale, now into that, as they saw that the
dreaded danger of absorption threatened from Italy
or from the East. Always with the passion for
independence alight in them, they were not Roman
or Prankish with their bishops, nor Byzantine with
their doges, but Venetian, with a strong resolution
to make themselves recognized as such. They
stretched ever forward to the object of their desire,
and rejected all that might prove inimical to their
hopes of attaining it.
But this very desire for self-realization, while it
wrought in the core of the state as a whole, quickened
a similar appetite in each individual member. If
Venice craved to stand sole and independent in Italy,
each tribune also craved to rule sole and alone in
Venice. Jealousy between Malamocco and Heraclea,
rivalry for the leadership inside Venice, summed itself
up in feuds and quarrels between the tribunes of the
principal towns, until the federation seemed in danger
of falling to pieces through the intensity of its own
passion. Only one solution offered itself — to waive
individual claims and to create a personal head of the
state, to concentrate the functions of government in
his hands. The Venetians elected their first doge,
Luccio Paolo Anafesto, in the year 697.* Internal
* Dandolo, loc. cit.
'THE CITY OF RIALTO. 23
discord necessitated this change in the constitution ;
the antagonism of minute particles inside Venice had
brought about the revolution. It followed, therefore,
that the colour first given to the dukedom would
depend upon the character of the city which chanced
to be in the ascendant at the moment, of the sym-
pathies of that tribunate which succeeded in imposing
itself upon its federate brothers. Anafesto was a
Heraclean, and his election proclaimed the leader-
ship of Heraclea. That city had always been aristo-
cratic in sympathy, with a strong leaning towards
Byzantium. This quality in Heraclea was deter-
mined in part by opposition to its rival Malamocco,
the very kernel of the democratic factor. And so
the doges first emerged tinctured with aristocratic
proclivities, leaning towards autocracy and ready to
court Byzantium and the emperor.
Though the creation of a doge had been a
voluntary act and clearly necessary for the salvation
of the state, yet it concentrated and intensified the
internal oppositions it was designed to allay. For the
doges and Heraclea stood there now as the embodi-
ment of the danger from Byzantium, and drew upon
themselves all that popular jealousy which was only
appeased by the ruin of the reigning city. The solution
that Venice had chosen placed her in the same diffi-
culty as that which the action of the popes imposed
upon the whole independent movement in Italy.
Like the popes, the doges might either lean too
much upon one or other of the external forces
which were threatening to absorb their state, or, by a
skilful manipulation of internal discords, they might
24 VENETIAN STUDIES.
succeed in making themselves sovereign. The
people desired their doge to be a bulwark against
any encroachment by the Church upon civil liberty ;
prince of themselves, but not agent for Byzantium.
The least swerving from the prescribed line, the
slightest suspicion of an ambitious policy, the first
note of a servile submission to any dominant power,
sufficed to rouse the people, who deposed, blinded,
tonsured, or even slew their dukes. In the same
light the people regarded their bishops. They de-
sired them to be the safeguards of their faith against
heretical Byzantium ; but they would not tolerate
that their spiritual pastors should act as political
agents for the Church or for the Church's allies. In
fact, the people submitted to their doges and their
bishops solely with a view to their one engrossing
object, the evolution of their own independence. The
attempt of either bishop or doge to impose his will
upon the state was sufficient to insure his ruin.
Resuming the course of Venetian history, we find it
obeying the impulses just noticed. In the year 728
the pope, for his own purpose of aggrandizement, had
united with Luitprand against Leo the Isaurian. But
the results of this policy, the capture of Ravenna by
the Lombards, proved so alarming to Venice, that
when the pope discovered his mistake and desired to
undo his work, he had little difficulty in persuading
Orso, the doge, to restore the exarch Paul to his
capital.* For the moment Venice, obeying the impulse
given by her doge, held with Byzantium. In reward
the Venetian merchants obtained from Constantinople
* Dandolo, op. at., lib. vii. cap. iii. pp. 2, 3, 4.
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 2$
large commercial privileges in the Pentapolis ; while
Orso himself received the honorary title of " hypatos "
or consul. The sympathies of Venice set towards
the East, in alarm at the danger from the Lombards.
But, while the state was in process of formation,
any movement implied a counter movement. The
stronger the action showed itself the more rapid
and positive the reaction was sure to be. To the
people it seemed that they had gone far enough
with their doge. He had achieved one object of his
desire ; he might reckon himself a noble of the
empire, within a measurable distance of the Augustan
majesty. The people whom he governed, however,
were intensely sensitive. These dignities bore too
much the character of a pledge committing the duke
and Venice to dependence on Byzantium, A doge of
Venice should not wear that title as a lesser one, nor
think it honourable to hold a subordinate office of the
Eastern cour:. The knowledge of their own weakness
forced the Venetians into violence. They murdered
Orso, and abolished the dukedom in favour of a
yearly magistracy, called the " mastership of the
soldiery." * They revolted fiercely from Byzantium,
whither their doge seemed to be leading them.
The reaction had, of necessity, been excessive ;
part of its effect required to be undone. Experience
proved that the dukedom was essential to the
coherence of the state. The mastership of the
soldiery recalled the evils of the tribunate. Another
current of feeling, opposed to the violence which had
abolished the dukedom, set in, and Heraclea profited
* Dandolo, op. at., p. 13 ; cap. iv. p. i.
26 VENETIAN STUDIES.
by it. She desired to resume the prestige she had lost
through the suspension of the dukedom. In the year
742 a Heraclean victory over its democratic neighbour
Jesolo brought back the doges, in the person of
Deodato, a noble of the victorious city.* But the
permanent result of the whole revolution made itself
felt in the removal of the government from Heraclea
to Malamocco, the democratic centre. This was a step
towards the thorough compromise of Rialto. A Hera-
clean, an aristocrat, a Byzantine in sympathy, still
reigns, but reigns at Malamocco, democratic and anti-
Byzantine. Both the factors of the future Rialto were
modified towards the point where union became
possible. The restoration of the dukedom, however,
in spite of this modification, was the work of Heraclea
— a proof of its ascendency regained, and therefore a
sign that the state had taken a swing towards Byzan-
tium again.
And the course of Italian politics generally
determined Venice, for a while, in her present
direction. For the reciprocal attraction between
the Church and the Franks had just begun. The
two powers hostile to Constantinople, and standing
together for the attainment of their respective objects,
the mastery of Italy and a temporal sovereignty,
were becoming solid. The results of this union were
felt at once by Venice. The Venetians had saved
the exarchate from the Lombards ; Charles now
desired to see these protectors of Byzantium ex-
pelled from the Pentapolis, in order to pave the way
for his own occupation of that district. Accordingly,
* Dandolo, op. cit., cap. ix. p. i.
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 27
under the direction of Pope Hadrian, an organized
attack upon the Venetian merchants took place,
and the pope was able to write to his ally informing
him that his will had been done, and that Venice no
longer held a single garrison or factory in the
Ravennate.*
This action of the pope awakened the greatest alarm
in Venice; an alarm which resulted in the accentu-
ation of Byzantine sympathies, and in strengthening
the hands of the doges, to whom the state looked for
protection from the imminent danger. How close the
peril had come the Venetians learned when they dis-
covered that the pope, not content with his attack upon
them in the Pentapolis, had actually negotiated with
Giovanni, patriarch of Grado, for the creation of a
Papal and Frankish party inside Venice itself.f The
materials ready to the patriarch's hand were, naturally,
the democratic faction, who still eyed Heraclea and
the Heraclean doges with bitter jealousy. A crisis
could not be long delayed. The questions which
now agitated the whole of Italy were faithfully
reflected in the lagoons. Like a sensitive flame,
Venice responded to the least movement on the
mainland. She was not yet strong enough to declare
her indef>endence between two such powers as the
Franks and the Eastern Empire ; therefore, for the
moment, her perception of her own aims, her intuition
of the political problem, became confused. The
question appeared to be submission to East or West ;
the parties of Frank and anti- Frank seemed to express
* " Codex Carolinus" (Romae : 1761), Epist. 84, ad. ann. 785.
t Ibid., Epist. 52.
28 VENETIAN STUDIES.
her central difficulty. But in reality the desire for
individual freedom remained in the background, as
the vital and motive force inside the state. How
long a crisis could be delayed depended largely upon
the character of the doge. Maurice Galbaio had
succeeded in guiding Venice clear of embroglios on
the mainland, though he could not fence her round
from infection by the general turbulence of the
political atmosphere.* His son Giovanni succeeded
him ; a man of very different temperament, violent
and headstrong, and moreover placed in a position
of greater difficulty, for the crisis was ripening to the
acuter phase of its progress. The pact, the donation,
the crowning of Charles, were all notorious now;
hung out like a danger signal for those communities
who felt the impulse towards self-government, leaving
no doubt as to the intentions of the emperor and the
pope. Venice had to look to herself By a violent
deed of blood she wrote her refusal to be included
in the donation. She repelled the assumption that
she belonged to Charles and was his chattel to gift
away. She denied her allegiance to a pope who
could presume to claim the imperial title, and then
to sell it ; to that head of the Church who dared
to prove a traitor to the passions of his country.
In this fervour of opposition to the Church events
centred round two ecclesiastics. The bishopric of
Olivolo, in Venice, fell vacant, and, at the request of
the Emperor Nicephorus, the doge appointed to that
* Dandolo, op. cit., cap. xii. p. i ; cap. xiii. p. i ; Filiasi,
"Veneti Primi e Secondi " (Padova : 1822), torn. v. cap. xxi.
p. 265..
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 29
See a young Greek, named Christopher, a mere boy,
sixteen years old at most.* Giovanni, patriarch of
Grado, seized the opportunity to test the strength of
himself and his party against the doge and the By-
zantine element. He believed that he was powerful
enough to show a mastery which would determine
the waverers, and hasten the subjection of Venice to
Charles and to the pope. Giovanni refused to con-
secrate Christopher. The doge remained firm in the
support of his appointment. Giovanni replied by
excommunicating not only the young Greek, but all
his adherents, including the doge. The heat of party
fury and his own violent nature determined Galbaio s
action. He sent his son Maurice with a fleet to Grado.
The patriarch was besieged in his palace, pressed closer
and closer, and finally thrown from the highest tower.
Giovanni had shown himself a traitor to the in-
stincts of Venice, as his master, the pope, had proved
a traitor to the desires of Italy. Yet the vengeance
which overtook the patriarch savoured too strongly
of tyranny. It came as a culminating point to a long
series of masterful deeds on the part of the Galbaij.
But Venice was no sooner relieved from a danger
threatened by her bishop and the Church than she
found herself face to face with the opposite danger
from her doge relying on Byzantium, whose triumph
seemed secured by the murder of Giovanni. True,
Venice would not allow her patriarchs to act as agents
and procurers for the Church and for the Franks, but
neither did she desire her doges to become tyrants
* Sagomino, op. at., p. 18 ; Dandolo, op. cit., cap. xiii. p. 23 ;
Filiasi, op. cit., cap. xxii.
30 VENETIAN STUDIES.
of the state. The murder of Giovanni was an act
of excessive violence, and warned her of that ever-
present menace. The sympathy of the people swerved
from the Galbaij and claimed the elevation of Fortu-
natus, nephew of the murdered patriarch and a man
of the same political complexion, to the See of Grado,
as a check to the tyrannical tendency of the doge, and
as an expiation for the sacrilege he had committed.*
A crisis such as that which was agitating Venice
could not fail to produce men of strong personality.
Of all who appear upon the scene at this moment^
none is more remarkable than Fortunatus, the new
patriarch of Grado. In page after page of that populous
chronicle bequeathed to us by Andrew Dandolo, we
meet him again and again — here borne high upon
some wave of reaction, there sunk deep in that
troublous sea of politics, but always present, active,
restless, intriguing ; now at Venice, leading his party,
the party of Charles and of the Church ; now in exile,
flying from his country, hurriedly crossing " the white
Alps alone." In Germany, in France, in Istria, at
Constantinople, we find him ; anywhere but at Grado
and his episcopal seat. He is courtier, merchant,
virtuoso, engineer, and architect ; anything but pastor
of that quiet church among the still lagoons. Rest-
lessness, movement, diplomacy, were passions with
the man. It is almost impossible to follow him
closely through his journeys or his intrigues ; yet
around him are grouped the chief actors and the
principal events that contributed to the emergence of
Rialto. The intimate friend of Charles the Great,
* Dandolo, op. cit.^ cap. xv. p. 24 ; Sagornino, loc. cit.
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 31
known only too well to the popes, dreaded by
Nicephorus, and counsellor of Pipin, Fortunatus moves
about among these great personages, the outward and
visible sign of the spirit which was troubling them.
The appointment of Fortunatus to the See of
Grado was made in obedience to a reaction against
ducal tyranny. His politics were known to be
decidedly in favour of the Church and the Franks.
Pope Leo at once sent him the pallium and his
blessing on the work he should do for the Holy See.
That work was to carry on his uncle's course of
action ; to establish and strengthen the party that
sympathized with Charles ; to pave the way for the
reduction of Venice as a province of the West. But
Leo knew the shifty nature of the man, and thought
it necessary to urge upon him the duty of strenuous
action. " Remember," he writes to Fortunatus, " that
the place you have now undertaken is not a place of
rest, but of labour." * So it proved to the patriarch —
a place of labour, indeed, from the beginning to the
end. The pope, however, need have felt no such fears.
Fortunatus had not occupied his See more than three
months when a conspiracy against the doges was dis-
covered and stamped out.f The author of the con-
spiracy proved to be the patriarch, who, relying on
the enthusiasm which had raised him to his dignity,
concerted the measures of the plot with Obelerio,
tribune of Malamocco and chief of the democratic
party. But the treason took wind. Obelerio and
* See Ughello, "Italia Sacra" (Venetiis : 1720), torn. v. pp.
1075 et seq., for the history of the See of Grado.
t Dandolo, op. ctt.^ cap. xv. p. 26 ; Sagornino, op. cit.^ p. 19.
32 ^ VENETIAN STUDIES.
his brother conspirators retired to Treviso, while
Fortunatus experienced his first exodus. He fled
across the Alps to Charles the Great, whose court
he found at Salz. *
His reason for taking so long a journey and
seeking such a distant asylum was his hope to move
Charles to active measures which should render the
donation of solid effect — to urge him to undertake
the reduction of the lagoons. Fortunatus never
showed himself less than whole hearted in his service
of the Church and of the Franks as its ally. He
brought to bear upon the emperor many cogent
arguments.! Setting aside his own faithful adherence
to the cause of Charles, the proof of which lay patent
in his exile, Fortunatus dwelt upon the strong Byzan-
tine sympathies of Venice. Here was a small province
which the emperor claimed as his own and had given
away to his friend the pope ; yet that province, so
far from acknowledging the Emperor's authority or
bowing to his will had expelled his partisans and pro-
fessed allegiance to a court which scorned his imperial
title and laughed at his pretensions to the lordship of
Italy. % But more than that ; Fortunatus insisted on
the wisdom of subduing Venice, and so establishing
a naval power upon the Adriatic ; for it was through
those waters that Constantinople must be attacked,
* Dandolo, loc. cit.; Sagornino, loc. cit.j " Monumenta German .
Hist," edit. Pertz (Hanov. : 1826J, torn. i. ; Einhard, " Annales,"
p. 191, ad ann. 803.
t " Cod. Carol.," torn. ii. p. 47 ; Dandolo, op. cit.., cap. xvi. p. 3.
X See Baronius, " Annales Eccles. cum crit. Pagii " (Luca :
1743), torn. xiii. p. 379.
THE CITY OF R I ALTO. 33
should Charles ever find the leisure to prosecute a
dream of his ambition, the union of East and
West in his own person. The emperor listened to
the patriarch, and the advice then given bore fruit
seven years later in Pipin's attack upon Venice.
Fortunatus's success at the Prankish court was very
great. Charles not only felt the political value of the
man who had made himself the leading spirit of the
anti-Byzantine party in Venice, but he was also con-
ciliated by the presents Fortunatus had brought with
him to Salz. The emperor's cathedral at Aachen was
occupying much of his attention, and the patriarch's
presents came most timely. They consisted of hang-
ings of tapestry and silk, church ornaments in gold
and silver, and, above all, two ivory doors of exquisite
workmanship.* We are curious to know how the
patriarch carried all this heavy luggage with him, in
his hurried flight over almost pathless mountains ;
but here the chronicle fails us, as on many another
point. In return for his gifts Fortunatus received an
imperial diploma,! granting him the full use of all his
ecclesiastical emoluments in Istria and Romagna,
together with freedom to trade untaxed in any port
of the new empire. His exile, however, prevented
him from actually realizing the revenues of his
Church, and to meet his present wants Charles made
him abbot of Moyen Moutier,J near Bordeaux, The
* Monum, Germ. Hist. ; Einhard, loc. cit.
t Baronius, op. cit., torn. xiii. p. 389 ; Ughello, op. et loc. cit. ;
Dandolo, op. cit., cap. xvi. p. 4.
X Mabillon, " Annaies Benedictini " (Luca : 1749), torn. ii.
p. 316.
D
34 VENETIAN STUDIES.
patriarch's treatment of his abbey was characteristic
of the man. He could not endure to live away from
the court and active politics near the person of Charles.
Nevertheless, he demanded that the whole income of
Moyen Moutier should be paid to him for his private
use ; intending to let the brothers fare as best they
might, while he remained an absentee. The corpora-
tion protested. After litigation, appeals, and arbitra-
tion, in all of which the restless spirit of Fortunatus
took a keen delight, the matter was arranged by
compromise. The new abbot received half the revenues
of the monastery, and remained at Charles's court,
where we must leave him for the present.
When Fortunatus concerted his measures for the
overthrow of the Galbaij, he counted on that reaction
against the doges which he perceived had set in
after the murder of the patriarch Giovanni. His own
impetuosity of spirit, however, misled him ; he acted
too precipitately and failed. But his failure did not
stay the course of popular feeling in Venice, nor
prove that it was weak and transitory. Obelerio, the
partner in the plot, who had sought refuge at Treviso,
reaped the benefit of waiting. From his hiding-
place he continued his antagonism to the doge.
When he saw that hatred of the Galbaij had reached
its highest point, he made a sudden entry into
Malamocco,* his native town ; the people welcomed
him with enthusiasm and proclaimed him doge.
The Galbaij were forced to fly from Venice, whither
they never returned. As a result of Doge Giovanni's
high-handed action in murdering Fortunatus's uncle,
* Dandolo, op. cit.^ cap. xv. p. 26 ; Sagornino, loc. cit.
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 35
and in consequence of the apparent tyranny of his
conduct, the state, forgetful for the moment of the
ever-present danger from the Church and from the
Franks, swept violently away from Heraclea and
Byzantium into the arms of Malamocco and of
Charles. Malamocco, in the person of her tribune,
Obelerio, assumed the leadership, and a further step
towards the union and fusion at Rialto was effected.
For Obelerio reigned as the first Malamoccan, or
democratic, doge. Heraclea no longer absorbed the
governing functions ; they were becoming common to
all inhabitants of Venice. But stability was not yet
secured ; nor could it be until both Heraclea and
Malamocco, with all the internal jealousy and discord
which they represented, had been still further sub-
dued and toned away.
The political sympathies of the new doge were
well known. There could be no doubt as to the
direction in which he would endeavour to lead Venice,
if allowed to work his will freely and unrestrained.
His devotion to the cause of Charles and of the
Church admitted no question. But, by the law
which was governing the development of Venice, this
very outburst of popular feeling, that had raised
Obelerio to the dukedom and given the leadership to
Malamocco, implied a reaction. An undercurrent of
opposition to the doge set in, slowly and barely
perceptible at first, but gaining power as it went
on. The impulse, however, that had carried Obelerio
to the head of the state was not exhausted by its
first effort. It still possessed force enough to enable
the doge to accomplish a deed personally grateful
36 VENETIAN STUDIES.
to himself, and infinitely important in paving the
way for the appearance of Rialto as the capital —
the destruction of Heraclea. The Heracleans them-
selves supplied the pretext for their own annihilation.
When Fortunatus fled to Charles, the nobles of that
city seized on some of the patriarchal lands which lay
along the coast. The people of Jesolo, envious of
this extension on the part of their neighbours, and
under cover of a pious wish to restore to the Church
its due, attacked Heraclea and were themselves nearly
destroyed. In these straits Jesolo appealed to the
democratic centre, to Obelerio and Malamocco. The
doge convened an assembly which solemnly decreed
the destruction of Heraclea. The people of Jesolo
and Malamocco razed the aristocratic city to the
ground, and forcibly distributed its inhabitants among
the other townships of the lagoon.*
The overthrow of Heraclea marks the furthest
point attained by the wave of popular feeling which
had placed Obelerio and the Prankish party in power.
Hitherto Obelerio had carried the people with him.
But this deed seemed to derange the balance in the
state. The tide of sympathy began to recede from the
doge, and he was left to continue his course towards
Charles and the Franks, alone. Each step that he
took showed the distance between himself and his
people to be growing steadily greater; proved more
and more clearly that ruin lay in his path. For
* Cronaca Veneta delta "Altinate," ap. Archivio Storico
Italiano (Firenz : 1845), torn. viii. lib. iii., with a commentary
by Prof. Rossi. The author lived about A.D. 12 10. Dandolo,
op. cit.j cap. xvi. p. 10.
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 37
him there was no alternative and no hope. He
may have heard the waters sinking away behind him,
and foreseen that he must be stranded and deserted
before his policy could bear its fruit ; yet to fall back
with the tide was impossible. He could not stay
its inevitable sweep towards Byzantium again. He
might not put off the pre-eminence he had won, and,
by sinking into obscurity, escape the vengeance of
the opposite faction. Nothing remained for him but
to press on towards an unattainable goal, to face
the impossible task of carrying his country with him
into the arms of Charles.
When Fortunatus heard of Obelerio's success, and
of his elevation to the dukedom, he left the court of
the emperor and hurried down to Venice. But the
hopes he entertained of sharing in the victory of his
friends and returning to his See at Grado were not
realized. After the discovery of Fortunatus's plot,
the Galbaij had created a new patriarch, and Obelerio
deemed it prudent to leave that appointment undis-
turbed. Fortunatus was so restless an intriguer, that
the doge rightly declined to place him in his
See again. Obelerio felt that the patriarch would
only be a source of danger to his newly established
authority, and that his presence would needlessly
exasperate the defeated party of Byzantium. So
Fortunatus received no encouragement and no in-
vitation to Malamocco. He wandered like an un-
quiet spirit round the borders of the lagoon ; now
at Campalto near Mestre, now at Torcello ; always
revolving some scheme for his return. Fortune
favoured him so far, that one day John the Deacon,
38 VENETIAN STUDIES.
bishop of Olivolo, fell into his hands, and he carried
him prisoner to Mestre.* But, while he was con-
sidering the best method of turning this advantage to
account, John slipped through his fingers and escaped
to Malamocco. Fortunatus saw that his game was
ruined for the present. He abandoned all hope of re-
covering Grado, and betook himself to Istria, to make
what profit he could out of the privilege that had
been granted him by Charles. There he established
himself as a merchant, owning four large vessels and
accumulating a vast fortune from the cargoes which
they carried. Some of this wealth he invested poli-
tically in buying interest at the Frankish court, and
in securing connections among the chiefs of the
Dalmatian seaports which still belonged to the
Eastern Empire.f Some, again, he stored up in
works of art, in silks, in hangings, in silver and
gold ornaments. He filled the high office of imperial
judge,{ and kept a little court of dependents about
him. He formed a company of military engineers,
for whom he acted as impresario ; ready to hire them
out to the best bidder. In his capacity of political
agent for the Frankish emperor he endeavoured to
sap the allegiance of the Dalmatian towns, and
seduced them to acknowledge a dependence on the
Emperor of the West. Ceaselessly active, plotting,
governing, amassing money ; all the while intent
* Ughello, loc. at. J Sagornino, loc. cit.j Dandolo, op. at.,
cap. xvi. p. 14.
t By the treaty of 802, between Charles and Nicephorus.
See Filiasi, op. at., cap. xxii.
X Dandolo, op. dt.j cap. xvi. p. 8.
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 3^
Upon his return to Venice and to Grado, where
his heart really lay. The bishopric of Pola fell
vacant, and, at the request of Charles, Leo most
reluctantly conferred it upon Fortunatus, stipulating
that should he ever recover his patriarchal See, he
should be bound to relinquish that of Pola, with all
its emoluments. The pope dreaded Fortunatus's rapa-
city. In a letter to Charles he begged the emperor
to be moderate in his favours to the patriarch. " I
pray you," he says, " while you are labouring for the
temporal well-being of this man, think of his im-
mortal soul ; that through the fear of you he may
the better fulfil his ministry. For we have heard no
good report of him, such as becomes an archbishop,
neither from these parts, nor yet from France, where
you have lent him such powerful support. But,
thank God, all is not unknown to you. Ask men
whom you can trust ; for those who praise him to
you do so for a purpose and bought thereto." *
But Charles still remained the patriarch's firm friend,
and Fortunatus still retained sufficient weight to
influence Venice and the Adriatic. Fortunatus may
possibly have been the cause of that explosion which
ruined Heraclea. In any case, he heard of it in
Istria and rejoiced over the triumph of his friends.
Its importance to him proved great. For Obelerio
now believed himself strong enough to invite the
patriarch to return to Grado. He hoped that the
reappearance of Fortunatus in his See would add
life and vigour to that party, whose victory he
deemed secure upon the wreck of Heraclea.
* " Cod. Carol.," torn. ii. p. 47.
40 VENETIAN STUDIES.
But reaction was active in the air of Venice, and
the presence of Fortunatus served to stimulate it.
Obelerio had steadily pursued his Prankish policy,
and as steadily the temper of the people set against
Charles and towards Byzantium once more. The
conduct of their doge offered a continual subject for
alarm ; and the growing power of the Franks, the
consolidation of Pipin's kingdom in Italy, all tended
to heighten that sentiment. Obelerio married a
Frankish wife ; and, still further to parade his union
with the conquerors, in the year 806 he left his
capital to attend the court of Charles. While there
he received, with all the submission of a subject,
instructions as to the government and policy of
Venice.* The Venetians could not accept in quiet the
position of dependence which Obelerio designed for
them. It seemed to them that their doge proposed
to make Venice a fief of the Western Empire. The
people felt that their ruler had proved once more
unfaithful to the permanent instinct of his race.
The pressure upon them was becoming severe. Their
doge and their patriarch acted no longer as checks
and counterpoises to each other ; on the contrary,
they were at one, and both were working towards a
consummation to which the whole instincts of the
people were opposed. The ferment of popular feeling
* Mon. Germ. Hist, torn. i. p. 193 ; Einhard, ad ann.
?o6 ; Cod. DLL alia Marciana ap. Romanin., op. cit.^ cap. iv.
Chronicon Reginonis, ap. Mon. Germ. Hist., loc. cit., p. 558.
The Marcian manuscript says, " De Obelerio alii scripserunt
quo tum Gallicamquidem nobilem haberet uxorem, promissioni-
bus allectis ad regem perexit offerens dominium sibi contradere."
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 4I
manifested itself in a revolution against Obelerio and
his party.* The Doge, however, was still strong
enough to retain his hold upon the reins of govern-
ment. The presentiment of the final crisis, which
was clearly now approaching, accentuated all political
passions, and while it raised a violent opposition to
the doge, it forbade any one to stand aside, and
confirmed all those who had originally held with
Obelerio. The revolution failed in its object.
Hitherto the Empire of the East had hardly been
an active agent in the development of Venice.
Byzantium had not interfered directly with the politics
of the lagoons. But the idea of the Great Roman
Empire was ever present to the imagination of the
people — a rock to which they could cling for support
in any reaction against aggression from the West.
Now, however, East and West were about to clash over
Venice. Byzantium began to be an active factor in
the movement of Venetian politics. The causes which
immediately led to the awakening of the East were
due to Fortunatus's conduct while an exile in Istria.
His intrigues among the Dalmatian towns had resulted
in the creation of a party favourably inclined towards
Charles. The loyalty of the Dalmatian seaports was
seriously shaken. Their attitude alarmed Nicephorus,
the Emperor of the East ; for at this moment the
whole Italian policy of the Franks pointed to their
desire to establish a fleet in the Adriatic. Nicephorus
was a man of vigorous character, an able financier,
and a brave, though unsuccessful, soldier. He
had deposed Irene, and ascended the throne as the
* Chronicon Reginonis, loc. cit.
42 VENETIAN STUDIES.
professed defender of the Imperial majesty against the
new-fangled Empire of the West. It was therefore
impossible for Nicephorus to neglect the ominous
signs along the Dalmatian coast. He despatched
the patrician Niceta to the Adriatic with the imperial
fleet, and Venice, as a vassal of the East, received a
summons to furnish a contingent.* Obelerio would
gladly have refused ; but the Franks, his allies, were
not prepared to support him at the moment, and the
temper of the people he governed had been steadily
setting towards Byzantium ever since the fall of
Heraclea. The Venetian squadron joined the fleet
under the command of Niceta, and, after awing
the Dalmatian towns, the patrician sailed to Venice.
The policy of Obelerio and of Fortunatus, their
intentions and actions as regards Venice and Dal-
matia, were well known to the Eastern court. Niceta
had been instructed to destroy their authority and to
exact guarantees for the loyalty of the lagoons. The
patriarch did not wait his coming, but fled again to
Charles. An assembly convened by Niceta declared
his See vacant and himself an outlaw. The patrician
sailed to Constantinople, taking with him Beato,
Obelerio's brother, as hostage for the doge's future
conduct, t
The pressure upon Venice was growing more severe.
Both East and West were beginning to put the
question whose she meant to be ; nor would they
* Mon. Germ. Hist. ; Einhard, loc. cit.; Finlay, op. cit.;
Filiasi, op. cit.., cap. xxiii. ; Romanin, op. cit.., cap. ix. ; Dandolo
op. cit.., cap. xvi. p. i6.
t Einhard, op. cit., p. 194; Sagornino, loc. cit.j Dandolo,
ioc. cit., p. 18.
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 43
wait long for an answer. It would soon become
impossible for Venice any further to conceal her hand,
to continue that outward play between the policy of
loyalty to the East and obedience to the West, while
inwardly pursuing the problem of her own individual
preservation. Inside Venice the respective power of
the Frank. and Byzantine factions had not yet been
fairly tested. In the scene which had just been
enacted under the guidance of Niceta, the presence
of the imperial fleet and the absence of the Franks
had terrified the followers of Obelerio into silence.
But the doge declined to accept the action of Venice
as a proof that his policy had lost the support of the
people. He believed that the balance yet hung
undetermined.
The question of their allegiance was again put to
the Venetians the following year, and this time in
more categorical form, requiring a more decisive
answer. The result proved Obelerio's supposition to
be correct ; the balance had not yet finally dipped
towards Byzantium and against Charles. The doge,
living in the heat of the struggle, could not see
that the conduct of Venice was in reality prede-
termined by the weakness of the East and the greater
proximity of the Franks. He was not aware that
the people, always bent on independence, would
certainly declare their allegiance to that power which
was least able to enforce it. Nicephorus again sent
the imperial fleet into the Adriatic ; * this time for
the purpose of recovering Commacchio and the
exarchate, in retaliation for Fortunatus's attempt to
• Einhard, op. cit.^ p. 196 ; Romanin, loc. at.
44 VENETIAN STUDIES.
seduce the Dalmatian towns. Venice again received
orders to furnish a contingent to the admiral Paul.
To obey meant war on Pipin ; to refuse m.eant
defiance to Nicephorus. The critical moment for
the future of Venice was at hand ; while for the
present either course was dangerous, perhaps fatal.
A decided step either way would at least have secured
to the Venetians an ally, Frank or Byzantine. But
the balance of parties prevented the state from
taking any positive line of action. Out of three
possible issues, Venice pursued the most perilous, and
by her conduct she severed herself both from East
and West The result, however, proved only fortunate,
for it threw the state upon its own resources, and com-
pelled Venice eventually to save herself by her own
unaided energy. The party opposed to Obelerio
forced the doge to supply the contingent to Paul's
fleet. The expedition sailed to Commacchio and
was defeated. This check roused the spirits of the
Frankish faction ; and when Paul returned with the
remnants of his squadron to Venice, he encountered
every kind of opposition. Obstacles were thrown in
the way of his signing a treaty with Pipin, and his
life was in such danger that he found himself obliged
to fly.* This, then, was the result of the momentary
balance between parties in Venice, apparently dis-
astrous, but really propitious for the aspirations of
the people. Pipin was now their enemy, for they had
fought against him at Commacchio ; Nicephorus had
been alienated by the insults offered to his admiral
Paul. Venice was face to face with the crisis.
* Einhard, op. cit.^ p. 196 ; Filiasi, loc. cit
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 45
Pipin did not long delay his action.* The advice
given by Fortunatus seven years before, when he was
at the court of Charles, had fallen on no unfruitful
soil. The son of Charles was young, vigorous,
courageous, eager to increase and consolidate his king-
dom of Italy. The reduction of the lagoons offered
an enterprise at once productive and glorious. The
affair of Commacchio determined him to subdue those
islanders who so stubbornly refused to acknowledge
his sovereignty. But first his policy required the
reduction of Dalmatia. He sent to ask Venice to
join him in the undertaking.! For Venice there could
be now no rest, no quiet, no standing aside. The
forces which were determining her formation required
this repeated and intensified pressure; she had reached
the moment of fusion and fiery heat which precedes
crystallization. Obelerio exerted every power at his
disposal to induce his compatriots to accept the
offered alliance with the king. He urged that the
state could look for nothing from Nicephorus ;
that here was presented an opportunity to repair the
error of the previous year, an occasion to obliterate
animosity and secure her safety by union with the
Franks. But the instincts of the people told them
that salvation lay only in their own exertion, not in
reliance on the power of any prince. The wave of
reaction set in motion by the overthrow of Heraclea
had gathered volume enough to claim its way. The
Venetians declined to follow Obelerio ; he found
himself stranded and alone, the ruler of a people
who refused to obey.
^ Dandolo, op, cit.^ cap. xvi. p. 23. t Romanin, loc. cit.
46 VENETIAN STUDIES.
Venice rejected Pipin's invitation, and prepared
to defend herself, trusting to no other aid than the
courage of her men and the intricacy of her lagoon
channels. The king made ready for an immediate
attack. His fleet lay at Ravenna, and in Friuli an
army was at his disposal. From north and south he
could concentrate his forces upon Venice. Victory
seemed easy to him. But he left out of his calcula-
tion the natural defences of those sea-born cities ; he
did not know the shoals and deeps of their sea home.
By the advice of Angelo Participazio, a Heraclean
noble, who assumed the lead as Obelerio's influence
waned, the people removed their wives, their children,
and their goods from Malamocco to a little island in
the mid lagoon, Rialto, inaccessible by land or sea.
The fighting men took up their post at Albiola, now
Porto Secco, a village between Pelestrina and the
port of Malamocco. There they awaited the attack
of the Franks. Pipin seized on Brondolo, Chioggia,
and Pelestrina. He endeavoured to press his squad-
rons on towards the capital, but the shoals opposed
him. His vessels ran aground ; his pilots missed the
channels ; the Venetians from the further shore plied
him with darts and stones. He could not force a
passage to Malamocco, and even then Rialto was
not reached ; it lay in view, but far away across seven
miles of winding canals and undiscovered banks.
For six months, through the winter of 809-810, Pipin
and his Prankish chivalry wasted their energy in the
struggle to advance. At length the summer heats
drew on, and rumours of the approach of an Eastern
fleet warned Pipin of his failure. He ventured on
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 47
one last appeal. " Own yourselves my subjects," he
cried to the Venetians, " for are you not within the
borders of my kingdom ? " " No ! we are resolved
to be the subjects of the Roman emperor, and not of
you." * The king was forced to retire. He signed
a treaty with the cities of the lagoons, whereby they
consented to pay the nominal tribute formerly due
to the Lombard kings, whose heir Pipin claimed to
be. The debt was never discharged. Pipin left
Venice filled with the bitterest mortification, and
died the same year at Milan.f
Venice emerged from her trial an independent
state. She had attained the object of her long desire.
Byzantium owed her a deep debt for having checked
the progress of the Prankish arms eastward. The
empire of the West would trouble her no more. The
agony and the victory completed her spiritual self-
consciousness and the union of her various parts.
Venice was homogeneous now, a whole, undivided,
liberated from internal discord, and at peace. And
not only was there fusion between her rival elements,
but her people also became one with the place of
* Our most trustworthy authorities for this episode of Pipin's
attack are Sagornino, loc. cit., and Constantine Porphyrog.,
" De Adminis. Imp.," cap. xxviii. They are both of the following
century. Einhard, a contemporary, is suspect through his
Prankish sympathies and the manner in which he hurries over
the event. The later Venetian historians, including Uandolo,
are anxious to magnify the victory, and fill their accounts with
legends and myths.
" xnth T^v i/JL^v X^^P'"' f *' •irp6voiav ylvtade iireLSr] airh ttjs 4firjs x^P°^^
'Pufialuv Kol oi/xl o-oO" (Constantine, /oc. at.).
t Einhard, op. at., p. 197.
48 VENETIAN STUDIES.
their habitation. Venetian men and Venetian lagoons
had made and saved the state. The spirit of the
waters, free, vigorous, and pungent, had passed in
that stern moment of struggle into the being of
the men who dwelt upon them ; now the men were
about to impose something of their spirit too, and
build that incomparatively lovely city of the sea.
Venice, in this union of the people and the place,
declared the nature of her personality ; a personality
so infinitely various, so rich, so pliant, and so free, that
to this day she wakens, and in a measure satisfies,
a passion such as we feel for some life deeply beloved.
The island of Rialto had proved the advantage of
its situation, and established a claim for gratitude as
the asylum of Venice in her hour of need. The raids
of Attila demonstrated the insecurity of the mainland ;
the attack of Pipin showed that the sea-coast was
not more safe. Experience led to the final choice of
this middle point. In the year 813 the seat of the
government was removed to Rialto, under Angelo
Participazio as doge.* Rialto became the capital of
Venice — a city of compromise between the perils of
terra firma and the banishment of the extreme lidi,
Malamocco had destroyed Heraclea ; she now re-
nounced her supremacy in favour of Rialto, founded
by a noble of the city she had ruined. Rialto became
as it were a sacrament of reconciliation between
Heraclea and Malamocco. Venice, battling blindly
inside herself to win her freedom, found herself
and achieved a unity with qualities which belong
to her alone. It was the singular glory of Venice
* Dandolo, op. cit., lib. viii. cap. i. p. i ; Sagornino, loc. cit.
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 49
that, of all Italy, she alone remained unscathed alike
by the foreign ravages of the fifth century and the
conquest of the eighth. The seed sown during
the incursions of Attila bore fruit, and came to the
birth when the Franks overthrew the Lombard king-
dom. Venice was the virgin child of Italy's ruin ;
conceived in the midst of anguish and distress, born
to the very manner of invasion, and from invasion
she alone escaped, pure and undefiled. The achieve-
ment of Venice, the repulse of the Franks and the
creation of herself, requires the embellishment of no
fables to render it more glorious ; yet we cannot
wonder that the Venetians have loved to gather round
this central victory a whole mythology of persons
and events. The cannon-balls of bread, fired into the
Frankish camp in mockery of Pipin's hopes to starve
Rialto to surrender ; the old woman, king of council
{rex consilii)^ who lured the invader to that fatal
effort where half his forces were lost, the bridge across
the lagoon ; the Canal Orfano, that ran with foreign
blood and won its name from countless Frankish
homes that day made desolate ; above all, the sword
of Charles, flung far into the sea when the great
emperor acknowledged his repulse and cried, " As this,
my brand, sinks out of sight, nor ever shall rise again,
so let all thought to conquer Venice sink from out
men's hearts, or they will feel, as I have felt, the heavy
displeasure of God ; " * — all these are myths, born of
* See Sanudo, " Vite dei Duchi," ap. Murat. Rer. It. Script.,
torn, xxii.; Cronaca Veneta da Canale, ap. Archiv. St. It., torn,
yiii. par. 7 ; Cron. Altinate, bk. viii. p. 219; Dandolo, op. cit.^
cap. xvi. p. 23.
£
50 VENETIAN STUDIES.
a pardonable pride ; but Venice still remains her
own most splendid monument.
The limit of this essay has been reached. Its
course has shown the impulse of federal Venetia
effecting itself in the creation of Rialto. Yet it is
hardly possible to come to a full stop without a word
about two principal actors in the drama, Fortunatus
and Obelerio. Venice had attained to rest ; for these
two restless souls there was no longer any place in
her. Their mission was fulfilled, their epoch passed
them by, and they had not been blessed in dying
with it. They were not born, but they had the equal
misery to live, out of due season. The doge faded
out of Venetian politics from the moment when he
failed to carry the people with him to an alliance with
Pipin. The victory of the Venetians and the creation
of the new capital were achieved under the auspices
of a Byzantine reaction and the guidance of a
Heraclean noble. A nuncio from the court of Con-
stantinople formally deposed Obelerio, and banished
him.* From his place of exile he yearned ever
towards his native waters, and nursed delusive hopes
of restoration. But his influence died when he was
deposed. He made one fruitless descent on Mala-
mocco, hoping to waken the city by the outworn cry
of democracy and hatred of Heraclea, still vital in
the person of the Doge Participazio. He failed
miserably. Party feuds and watchwords were old
and meaningless for the Venetians now, merged in
the new fact of Rialto. Participazio dispersed the
» Dandolo, op. cit.^ lib. vii. cap. xvi. p. 24 ; Sagornino, loc,
cit.
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 51
handful of revolutionists, and Obelerio forfeited his
head. With him the last sparks of Malamoccan
supremacy were quenched for ever.
Fortunatus, who had fled before the presence of
Niceta and the imperial fleet, returned to Grado for
a brief space under the wing of Pipin and the
Franks. But the king's repulse warned the patriarch
not to try the temper of the victorious Byzantine
party. For the third time he quitted his little island
for the Frankish court. When Angelo Participazio
had established the government securely in Rialto,
Fortunatus applied for a safe conduct and permission
to return. The doge believed that now, at least, there
could be no more danger from the patriarch's Frank-
izing policy, and permission was granted. Fortunatus
came back to Grado, and, at first, devoted himself with
his wonted vigour to the adornment of his church and
to the cultivation of the episcopal lands. We hear
of him at Grado, a small island, like Torcello as we
know it now, with a large brick church, and solid,
square, self-sustaining campanile shining rather redly
across the waters. A few straggling, low brick houses,
a winding canal, and banks trailing with creepers in
spring, over the tops of which rise the dusky red-
tipped leaves of the young pomegranate trees, or
blazing in autumn with the endlessly varied crimsons
of the dying tamarisk and sea-lavender. Behind
Grado the hills rise in the distance — sharp dolomite
peaks that catch the sunset lights and flame rosily
across the grey lagoon. Between the shore and the
hills the country is all broken and rough with lime-
stone rocks cropping out everywhere, so rugged and
52 VENETIAN STUDIES.
untilled that there is just sufficient herbage to pasture
some flocks of thin and meagre sheep. The land is
scarred with white ghiarre, the rubbish of stony desola-
tion swept down from the mountains every spring by
the Tagliamento and the Isonzo.
Here, then, Fortunatus busied himself with the
masons whom he called from France ; * pouring out
the treasures he had amassed in Istria, importing
precious marbles for his church's fagade, for the
colonnades and porticoes ; filling his cathedral with
altars of gold, altars of silver, pictures, purple
hangings, tapestries, carpets, panni d'oro, jewels,
crowns, " the like of which are not to be found in all
Italy," chandeliers of rare workmanship with branch-
ing lights. And the bishop in the midst of all this
growing magnificence, superintending the builders,
laying the beams, designing the patterns for the
inlaid stones. The care of his church was not
enough to occupy him. Agriculture, too, claimed.
a share of his inordinate activity, and at San Pele-
grino he established a stud farm for the breeding
of horses.t It would have been well for him if
he had rested there. But he could not keep his
mind from political intrigue ; a demon of restless-
ness pursued him to the end. He thought that the
Frankish party might still be revived in Venice ; he,
at least, never despaired of final success. The
Venetians more than suspected his influence in the
* " Feci venire magistros di Francia " (Fortunatus's will, ap.
Hazlitt, op. cit.^ Doc. II., and Marin, " Storia Civile e Politica
del Commercio d. Venez" (Venezia : 1798), torn. i. cap. vii.).
f See Filiasi, op. cit.t torn. vi. cap. i.
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 53
family feuds which tore the household of the doge in
two, and drove his younger son, Giovanni, into exile.*
The presence of Fortunatus was a never-failing source
of disquiet to the whole of Venice. At length a plot
against the life of Angelo Participazio himself roused
the extreme wrath of the people. The plot clearly
had its origin among the broken fragments of the
Prankish party, and as surely Fortunatus was its
prime instigator. The Venetians deposed, and for
the last time expelled the patriarch from his See.f
His own passion for intrigue, his own inability to
perceive that Venice had taken a new direction when
Rialto rose to be the capital, that the old formulae of
Frank or Byzantine had little import now, were the
causes of Fortunatus's ruin. He passed from the
sphere of Venetian politics, where he had played
so active and so perilous a part, into a region of
obscurity whither we can hardly follow him. Hence-
forth he ceased to exercise any considerable influence
on Venetian affairs. His name appears less and less
frequently in the chronicles ; yet we may be sure he
was not quiet nor at rest. Whenever he does appear,
it is always in connection with some plot or some
intrigue, each scheme wilder and more hopeless than
its predecessor, as the patriarch's authority dwindled,
as his strength failed, as he sank surely down the
decline of a life that had been so full and yet so
fruitless. On his expulsion from the lagoons, For-
tunatus crossed to Dalmatia, where he had already
secured connections, and applied himself to estab-
* Dandolo, op. cit., lib. viii. cap. i. p. 17 ; Sagornino, ioc. cit.
t Dandolo, Ioc. cit., p. 35.
54 VENETIAN STUDIES.
lishing these upon a firmer basis. His friend Charles
had died in the year 813, and the patriarch could look
for little help from the Prankish court, torn to pieces
by the feuds of the great emperor's successors. He
turned to seek for aid from Constantinople, from
that court whose persistent enemy he had always
shown himself His personal policy wavered omi-
nously ; the power had gone out of the man. He
sought to gain the favour of Byzantium, under whose
influence he hoped to be restored to Grado. With
that object in view,, he applied himself to harass the
Emperor Lewis, as far as in him lay. He sent into
the service of the rebel duke of Pannonia that band
of military engineers which he had raised in Istria,*
and thus materially assisted the duke in fortifying his
country. For this conduct Lewis cited the patriarch
to the Prankish court. Portunatus feigned obedience
and set out ; but on the way he turned aside and fled
to Zara, whence he took ship for Constantinople.!
There he remained three years, labouring, we may
believe, to secure support ; but in vain, as the sequel
proved. In the year 824 he left the capital in the
train of an embassy sent to treat with the Emperor of
the West. He trusted that his case would be men-
tioned among other points, and that so, at peace with
East and West, he might return to Grado, for which
he never ceased to long. But Lewis refused to pardon
or to listen to him. The ambassadors declined to
jeopardize the success of their mission by any un-
* Einhard, op. cit.^ p. 208, ap. ann. 821, " artifices et muria-
rios mittendo."
t Mabillon, op. cit.y torn. ii. p. 458 ; Einhard, loc. at.
THE CITY OF RIALTO. 55
welcome proviso in favour of Fortunatus ; they
repudiated and ignored him. Lewis ordered him to
Rome, under a kind of arrest, there to answer before
the pope for his share in the Pannonian revolt.*
Fortunatus commenced his journey, but never accom-
plished it. He died upon the way, a broken and a
failing man ; a restless end to a restless life. His
last thoughts were turned, with that indomitable
hope of his, to the quiet church among the lagoons,
whose bishop he had been for so many unquiet years.
The closing words of his will, bequeathing his vast
fortune to his See, have an almost pathetic ring
when we remember all the failure of his career, the
hope against hope deferred : " I will pay my debts
before God," he writes ; " and so it shall be when I
am come back to my own Holy Church, in peace and
tranquillity I will rejoice with you all the days of my
life."
* Einhard, op. cii., p. 212, ad. ann. 824; Dandolo, loc. ctt.f
p. 36.
BAJAMONTE TIE POLO
AND THE CLOSING OF THE
GREAT COUNCIL,
Among the many memorial stones of Venice, there
is one likely enough to escape notice. It is a little
square of white marble, let into the pavement of the
Campo Sant' Agostino ; and on it are these letters :
" LOG. COL. BAI. TIE. MCCGX." Right in the heart of
Venice, between the Frari and Campo San Polo, the
feet of strangers rarely bring them by it. Yet the
events, the closing act of which this stone commemo-
rates, are among the most important in the constitu-
tional growth of the city. This slab marks the place
of the colo7ina infame raised on the site of Bajamonte
Tiepolo's house to perpetuate the recollection of his
conspiracy and failure by this inscription —
" De Bajamonte fo questo tereno
E mo per suo iniquo tradimento
Posto in comun e per Taltrui spavento
E per mostrar a tutti sempre seno."
Time has come to cover this among other sore
places ; the column is gone ; it rests now, far away,
cracked and riven, in a quiet garden by the Lake
of Como ; the little marble slab is found only by eyes
BAJAMONTE TIEFOLO. 57
that look for it. But over Ticpolo's name has been
piled a cairn of obloquy more hard to move.
Chronicler after chronicler has flung his stone on
the heap, and Tiepolo still remains " Bajamonte
traditore."
Is this just ? The chronicles are too frequently
partial ; they are too readily and too often the mouth-
piece of success, which has won its privilege of open
and uncontradicted speech. They trumpet the fame
of victory ; the character and motives of the defeated
they leave —
"black
To all the growing calumnies of time,
Which never spare the fame of him who fails,
But try the Ciesar or the Cataline
By the true touchstone of desert— success."
We cannot accept the portraits which they draw
without reserve. Tiepolo, as they present him to us,
is a restless, ambitious, and turbulent noble, aiming at
the overthrow of an excellent paternal government
for the sole purpose of satisfying his individual
appetite for sovereignty. We are asked to believe
that his conspiracy was based on nothing but per-
sonal jealousy and ambition. It is hardly as such
that we can accept him. He was, very likely, no
single-minded hero ; his motives may not have been
unmixed ; but the question he raised was a question
worth raising — it touched the very core of Venetian
home politics. Her past history justified Tiepolo's
attempt ; his failure determined the course she was
to pursue. Tiepolo represented one of the essential
elements in the original composition of the Venetian
state. His conspiracy was the death-throe of an
58 VENETIAN STUDIES.
older order of government. We cannot look upon
him as a merely factious rebel and traitor.
In the earliest years of its life the vital spark had
been evoked in Venice by the friction between the
nobility of Heraclea and the primitive fishing popula-
tion of Malamocco. Under external pressure these two
elements had come together at Rialto and founded the
modern city of Venice. A rapid increase of wealth
was the result of the internal quiet obtained by
the fusion of discordant elements in Rialto. Venice
profited by her period of rest to apply her energies
to commerce and trade with the East. But this very
augmentation of prosperity prepared the way for new
internal difficulties. The old aristocratic factor, the
Heraclean party, still retained many of its character-
istics, claiming a superiority in virtue of its descent ;
while, on the other hand, from the people arose a class
of men who by commercial activity had acquired a
wealth far exceeding that of the old nobility. These
men were drawn together by the common desire to
assert themselves, to obtain the full value of their
wealth, and the recognition of themselves as a distinct
element in the polity. It was inevitable that they
should seek to develop themselves as an aristocracy.
No other course was open to them. But, as inevitably,
such a development brought them into collision with
the old hereditary nobility, already firmly rooted, and
also with the people from whom they wished to differ-
entiate themselves, but from whom they had really
sprung. The achievement of their object could only
tend to the creation of a plutocracy, absorbing in
itself the rights of the people and the powers of the
BAJAMONTE TIEPOLO. 59
doge, round whom the elder aristocracy gathered.
The apparition of this third party in the state gave
presage of internal rupture which was destined to
end in revolution ; and the epoch was marked by
the quarrels between the families of Dandolo and
Tiepolo.*
Neither the people nor the old nobility were as
powerful as this new party, and, accordingly, in the face
of their common and aggressive foe they displayed a
tendency to draw to one another. It was doubtful,
however, whether the bond which united them was of
sufficient strength to bear the strain of inherently
opposite impulses ; indeed, in the end it proved not to
be strong enough. But for the present, however,
they were at one ; and we shall see the people in
their last constitutional effort calling for a Tiepolo
rather than a Gradenigo as their doge.
The constitutional history of Venice, from 1084 to
the date of Tiepolo's conspiracy in 13 10, turns upon
the progressive movement of the new commercial
aristocracy and the various steps by which it made
itself paramount. This aristocracy had three primary
objects in view, and its development was regulated
accordingly. Its first desire was to crush the power
of the doge, for he was the crown and centre of the
old nobility, and frequently chosen from among them.
The new party intended to use the ducal title and
the ducal publicity as a cloak for their own tyranny ;
as a mask behind which they could shelter, and
through which they might, as through a mouthpiece,
issue their crushing and repressive edicts. They suc-
* Romanin, op. cit., vol. ii. lib. vii. cap. i. p. 288, note i.
6o VENETIAN STUDIES.
ceeded. Before the close of the thirteenth century,
the dukedom was no longer an office of real honour
or of power. The ducal palace was too often merely
a prison into which this cold and determined aris-
tocracy could thrust any one of their own number
who had the misfortune to incur their suspicion.
The head of the state was deprived of almost all
real weight, and left with empty dignities alone.
The tragedy of Francesco Foscari and his family
in the fifteenth century illustrates terribly the fate
in store for any prince who should try to resuscitate
the ducal authority.
The second object which directed the policy
of the commercial aristocracy was the constitu-
tional extinction of the people on the one hand,
and, on the other, the reduction of the old nobility.
So long as the people still retained their ancient
right to share in the election of the doge, so long
as the members of the more ancient families were
still the successful candidates for the dukedom, the
new party felt that it was not yet supreme, and
nothing short of supremacy would satisfy it. The
third determining object was its own consolidation.
While it repressed everything external to itself,
it was continually remodelling, rebuilding, reform-
ing, internally strengthening itself, so that when the
final struggle came, it was able to offer an impreg-
nable front to the attack of its foes. The new
aristocracy forced itself like a solid, irresistible
wedge, like the ploughshare of an alpine glacier,
into the living body of the Venetian constitution,
and,, in the end, froze the whole organism to that
BAJAMONTE TIEPOLO. 6i
rigidity which, for a time, proved strength, but,
in the end, was death. It tore its way between
the doge and the people, severing, annihilating, and
thrusting out the older aristocracy, the living matter
which bound the two together. It retained the
dukedom simply as a veneer upon its own solid
surface, structurally unconnected with it ; while the
people were ground down to a smooth bed upon
which it might rest.
The steps by which this third party, the new aristo-
cracy, worked towards its goal, destroyed all other
powers in the state, and emerged as sole lord of
Venice, must be noted, for they form the long pre-
lude to the closing of the Great Council and
Tiepolo's conspiracy, which resulted from that
revolution. For some time previous to the year
1172, the aristocracy had been curtailing the functions
and privileges of the dukedom. Its judicial attributes
had long disappeared ; they had been transferred
to the three Guidici del Palazzo, and even the
appeal from this court, which formerly lay to the
duke, had been vested in the supreme court of Venice,
the Quarantia. But it was not till the election
of the Doge Sebastian Ziani, in the year 1172, that
the aristocracy obtained a solid and independent
standing ground in the constitution. A gap of six
months intervened between the assassination of Doge
Michele II. and the election of Ziani. In those six
months the nobles drew together into a legislative
council, called henceforth by the name of the
Maggior Consiglio ; * the base of the pyramidal
• It is improbable that this was the first appearance of such
62 VENETIAN STUDIES.
Venetian constitution, the largest cylinder, out of
which all the lesser cylinders of the various executive
and legislative colleges were drawn. The immediate
object of this cohesion on the part of the aristocracy,
old and new alike, was to secure to themselves the
sole voice in the election of the doge ; to rob the
people of their share in appointing the head of
the state. And this they did ; the election of Ziani
was unconstitutional, for it lacked the seal of popular
acclaim.* But the robbery was veiled under the
specious formula with which the new doge was pre-
sented to the people, " Questo e il vostro doge si vi
piacera," and, siibaiiditur^ whether it please you or not.f
And now, from this solid basis of the Maggior
Consiglio, the aristocracy could thrust itself forward
and upward, until every office in the state was an
emanation from itself alone. But this operation re-
quired time. Owing to the mode of election, the
Great Council was not a- close body ; a seat in it
was still open to all citizens of Venice. The new
aristocracy were resolved to purge themselves of
this popular element, not because they had any
a council in Venice, but it is certain that its existence was
reckoned as an undisputed fact from this date. The manner
of electing was originally this : Twelve electors were appointed,
two from each sestieri, or division of the city ; each elector
named forty citizens, noble or plebeian ; these 480 formed the
Maggior Consiglio (Rom., op. cit., vol. ii. p. 89 ; Giannoti,
" Dialogus de Rep. Yen.," p. 40, and the notes of Crassus to
the same ; Ap. Groev. Thesaur. Anti. Ital.).
Bernardo Guistiniano, " Dell' Origine di Venetia," lib. xi.
t Marin, " Storia Civile e Politica del Com. dei Venez.," vol.
iii. lib. iii. cap. vii.
BAJAMONTE TIE POLO. 63
true aristocratic bias, but because, for the purposes
of such a government as they contemplated, they
felt that a body like theirs must be made a caste —
must become oligarchical. But as yet their party
was young, with many difficulties to overcome ;
notably the power of the doge, and the power of
the old aristocracy ; the one supporting the other
as integral portions of the same political system.
Nevertheless, the immense stride which the com-
mercial aristocracy had taken towards a real sove-
reignty in the state was soon shown by the establish-
ment of the college of six Consiglieri Ducal i,* in
some respects a sort of privy council board. The
creation of this office was a decided blow to the
ducal independence. It robbed the doge of his
power of initiative in the legislature ; it curtailed
his personal freedom of action ; for now constitutional
measures were proposed not by the doge alone, but
by the doge in council, and in council with the
aristocracy. Questions of foreign policy — especially
as regarded commerce — the audiences granted to
ambassadors, were entrusted no longer to the doge
alone, but to the doge in council. The invention
and development of this college placed two of the
most important ducal functions in commission, and
that commission was the appointment and the ser-
vant of the aristocracy. But while restricting the
real power of their doge, the aristocracy continued
to augment the outward pomp attendant on him.
* Originally this board had consisted of two councillors.
This was now held to be too weak a check on the doge, and four
more were added. See Roman., op. cit.^ vol. ii. p. 92.
64 VENETIAN STUDIES.
This could be of no danger to themselves ; it only-
added a splendour to the state and helped to flatter
their vanity. On the day of his election the doge
was carried round the piazza,* like the Eastern Em-
perors, scattering gold. He received an oath of alle-
giance from all the citizens every four years. He
never now left his palace without an escort of nobles
and citizens. His person was declared sacrosanct.
The ducal position was becoming defined — " Dux in
foro, servus in consilio ; " later on he was to be
"captivus in palatio " as well.
This first attack was soon followed by a further
restriction of the constitutional powers and privileges
pertaining to the dukedom. During the first thirty
years of the thirteenth century the College of the
Pregadi f (the invited), usually known as the Senate,
was established as a permanent branch of the legis-
lature. Formerly the doge, like the kings of England,
had been free to ask any citizen to assist him with
advice on matters of state. But now the Great
Council issued two decrees : the first,:]: that for the
future the members of the Pregadi should be elected
by the Great Council itself, and out of that body, as
the other members of the government were ; the
second, that the number of the Pregadi be fixed at
* Dandolo, " Chronicon," lib. x. cap. i ; Marin., op. cit.^
vol. iii. lib. ii. cap* vii. ; Sansovino^ "Venezia, cittk Nobili""' e
Singolare," lib. xiii. ; Vita di Seb. Ziani. Muazzo ; "St. d.
governo d. Rep. d. Venez ; " Roman., op. cit.^ vol. ii. p. 255,
note 5.
t Sandi., "I Principi di Storia Civ. d. Rep. d. Ven." (Venezia :
1755), lib. iv. p. 507, cap. ii.
X Sandi., loc. cit.
BAJAMONTE TIEFOLO. 65
sixty. Here, then, was the Senate constituted beyond
the power or the pleasure of the doge ; constituted as
a limb of the aristocracy. Undoubtedly this was a
curtailment of the ducal freedom, a further tying of
the doge's hands. For he was no longer able, by
choosing his council himself, to determine what kind
of advice he should receive, and to flavour it according
to his own liking ; but he was compelled to accept
such advice as the Great Council chose to give him,
and it was now seasoned to the palate of the aris-
tocracy. Advice, when not self-chosen, is frequently
a constitutional synonym for command. By the
election of his councillors from the Maggior Con-
siglio, the doge was rendered more than ever a
servant of the new aristocratic party.
But while the new party have been pinioning their
doge, they have also been advancing on their other
wing, pressing forward the other side of their attack
against the ancient nobility. On the abdication of
Pietro Ziani in the year 1229, two competitors for
the ducal chair presented themselves — Jacopo Tie-
polo, of the old conservative party,* and Marino
Dandolo, a member of a family which had declared
for the party of revolution. It was doubtless of
great moment to the new aristocracy, now that it
had succeeded in limiting the ducal power, to seat
one of its own number on the ducal throne. With
a man after their own heart established in the palace,
there was no reason why they should not succeed
in baffling the old aristocracy. The contest was
Tiepolo had been podestd, at Constantinople and duke of
Candia (Rom., op. cit.^ vol. ii. p. 212).
F
66 VENETIAN STUDIES.
therefore a keen one. At this period the number
of ducal electors was forty, and so close was the
voting that the forty were equally divided. The
election was decided by lot, and fell in favour of
Tiepolo. But this check to the new aristocracy only
served to call forth a vigorous display of their real
power. The Maggior Consiglio appointed the five
Correttori della Promissione Ducale,* or committee
for supervising the oath of allegiance tendered by
the doge on assuming office. The Correttori re-
ceived authority to alter and amend the oath in any
direction they might think fit, subject always to the
sanction of the Great Council. At the same time,
and with the same object, the new aristocracy ap-
pointed the three inquisitors,! whose duty it was to
review the life and actions of a deceased doge, and
to note where he had violated his oath. The in-
quisitors were armed with power over the heirs and
property of the late doge, in order that the fear of
them might weigh with him when alive. The
glory of the ducal office could not be much further
reduced. It only remained to add some vexatious
personal restrictions in order to render the possession
of the dukedom an honour not to be desired by any
man of high pride or sensitiveness.
There was, however, a second important result
* Rom., op. cit, vol. ii. p. 244. The earliest promissione
extant is that of the Doge Henry Dandolo, 1193. Th^ pro-
missione of Tiepolo is given as Doc. No. VI. in Mr. Hazlitt's
" History of the Venetian Republic," where it may be compared
with that of Dandolo, which precedes it (Sandi., op. cit.^ lib.
iv. cap. iii.).
t Sandi., loc. cit.
BAJAMONTE TIEPOLO. 67
arising from the election of Tiepolo. It became
obvious that if the electoral body could be divided
always, as it had been on this occasion, some reform
of the whole elective machinery was required. The
new party, with their special objects steadily in view,
determined to use the opportunity for their own
purposes. Accordingly they elaborated that extra-
ordinarily complex system of combined lot and ballot
which resulted in the appointment of the forty-one
electors to the dukedom.* They hoped that this
system would prevent any powerful group in the
Maggior Consiglio from ever being able to nominate
a doge at their own pleasure. This reform was
really a blow to the old aristocracy, who, up to this
time, had undoubtedly the larger experience in affairs
* The first election by the forty-one was that of Marin
Morosini in 1249. See Rom., op. cit.^ vol. ii. p. 249.
This was the process : —
1. All who sat in the Maggior Consiglio, and were above
thirty years of age, elected by ballot thirty members.
2. Thirty reduced themselves by lot to nine.
3. Nine elected by ballot, with at least six votes each, forty.
4. Forty reduced themselves by lot to twelve.
5. Twelve elected by ballot twenty-five.
6. Twenty-five reduced themselves by lot to nine.
7. Nine elected by ballot forty-five.
8. Forty-five reduced themselves by lot to eleven.
9. Eleven elected by ballot forty-one.
10. Forty-one elected doge with at least twenty-five votes.
See Rom., op. cit., vol. ii. pp. 289, 290, note 3 ; also the long
account of the election of Lorenzo Tiepolo in the "Cronaca
Veneta" of Martin de Canal, capp. 257-259 ; "Arch. St. It.," torn,
viii. ; Sandi., loc. at. Daru, " Histoire de la Rep. de Venise "
(Paris : 1819), vol. i. p. 378, gives some popular doggerels on
the mode of election.
68 VENETIAN STUDIES.
of state, and therefore the larger control in the
selection of the doge. Besides this result, the new
aristocracy possibly foresaw that when they had
succeeded in obliterating or swamping the old no-
bility in the Great Council, such a purely fortuitous
method of election as the one now created would
greatly help to prevent their own party from falling to
pieces through internal jealousies, when the day came
that they, and they alone, should possess the field.
After the year 1250 the annihilation of the ducal
authority was completed by a series of restrictions
on the personal private action of the doge. He was
no longer the real head of the state, above all offices,
and from whom all other branches of the govern-
ment fell away in descending and spreading lines.
The position was just reversed ; he was for the
future to be simply the ornamental apex of the
aristocracy, drawing all his existence from below
him, from the base of the constitutional pyramid.
A clause was added to the promissione by which
the doge pledged himself to execute the orders
of the Great Council, or of any other council, be
they what they might* Nor dared the doge exhibit
his portrait, his bust, or his coat-of-arms f anywhere
outside the walls of the ducal palace, that all might
* Sandi., op. cit.^ lib. iv. cap. iv. p. 2.
t On the death of Renier Zeno in 1268, the quarrels between
the two parties in the state, represented by the Dandolo and the
Tiepolo respectively, grew so dangerous and began to spread so
far, that a law was passed forbidding a citizen to display the
arms of any great house as a note of his politics — the first
warning of the constitutional struggle about to take place (Rom.,
op. cit., vol. ii. p. 288, note i).
BAJAMONTE TIEPOLO. 69
know that the essence of the dukedom was not
resident in the doge, but in the whole aristocratic
body. The doge was, in fact, to be the phenomenon
of the aristocracy, with no individual existence, but
living only as the outward and visible sign of the
inward aristocratic spirit* In this view he was held
to be incompetent to announce his accession to the
throne in any foreign court, except that of Rome.
No one was to kneel to him, kiss hands, make
presents, or render him any act of homage which
could possibly be construed as homage to the in-
dividual rather than homage to the spirit of the
aristocracy in which alone the doge lived and moved.
The elevation of a member of any family to the
supreme office barred all other members of that family
from holding posts under government either in Venice
or in Venetian territory. The sons of the doge were
ineligible as members of any councils except the
Maggior Consiglio and the Pregadi,t and in this latter
they had no vote. Finally, to complete the isolation
of the ducal throne, to close the doors of the princely
prison, it was decreed that no one who might be
elected to the office of doge should have the right to
refuse that appointment ; that no doge could of his
own choice resign his office, nor ever quit Venice. %
* He was not allowed to trade either in person or by proxy
(Rom., op. cit.^ vol. ii. p. 292, note i).
t Rom., op. cit.^ vol. ii. p. 250 ; Sandi., loc. cit. Neither the
doge, nor his sons, nor his nephews might contract a foreign
marriage without the consent of the Maggior Consiglio. See
the promissione of Jacopo Contarini, 1275 (Rom., loc. cit.., p-
305, note 2).
X Sandi., loc. cit.
70 VENETIAN STUDIES.
So far, thea, we have followed the advancing steps
of the new aristocracy. It had absorbed the ducal
authority, and had delivered two well-planted blows —
one at the old nobility, by introducing a mode of
election to the dogado which destroyed the ancient
influence of that body ; the other at the people, by
robbing them of their constitutional privilege of a
voice in the election of the doge. But complete
victory over these powers had not yet been won.
The new party had yet to establish and consolidate
itself internally, and in the process the final collision
was brought about — a collision which terminated
in the Tiepolo-Querini conspiracy. As long as a
seat in the Great Council was open to the people
there still remained a large and indefinite popular
element in the constitution ; from this element the
aristocracy determined to free themselves.
The tumultuous nature of democratic assemblies
will usually lend a handle to those who desire to estab-
lish a tyranny. It was upon the necessity for curbing
the jealousy, the ambition, the feud engendered by a
yearly struggle for a seat in the Great Council, that
the new party based their proposals of October 5,
1286. By these proposals it was intended to define
the right to a seat in the council for all future time.
Accordingly the three heads of the Quarantia
moved,* first, that none should be eligible for a seat
who could not prove that a paternal ancestor had
already sat ; second, that the doge, the majority of
* See Teuton, " II vero Caratere Polit. d. Baj. Tiep./' p. 74 ;
Romanin, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 342, note 3 ; Sandi., op. cit.^ lib. v.
cap. i. p. I.
BAJAMONTE TIEPOLO. 71
the Consiglieri Ducali, and the majority of the Great
Council should have the power to elect to a seat in
the council any who should be excluded by the
preceding clause. The doge opposed the motion,
and carried his opposition by eighty-two against forty.
Although the motion was thus lost, yet it was a
distinct declaration of programme, and to this pro-
gramme the new aristocracy devoted itself for the
next ten years. In this policy there were two in-
tentions visible : one was to make the aristocracy
a close body for the future, sharply defined, rigid,
capable of very little further expansion ; the other,
to make membership in this close body an indis-
pensable qualification to all officers of state. These
objects were the logical conclusion following from
the creation of the Great Council in the year 11 72;
though the realization of them would undoubtedly
be a violation of the constitution.
They were, however, to be realized ; the constitu-
tion was to be violated, but by another doge. In the
year 1289 Giovanni Dandolo died. He was buried in
the Church of San Giovanni e Paolo. As the crowd
of senators, councillors, procurators, and magistrates
issued from the great door of the church, after the
funeral service was over, they found the piazza
thronged by the people. They were there once
more, and for the last time, to assert their right to
be heard in the election of the doge.* Their cry was
not for a Dandolo or a Gradenigo, but for Jacopo Tie-
polo, a representative of the old nobility, and closely
connected with those families who were violently
* Rom., op. cit.j vol. ii. p. 323.
72 VENETIAN STUDIES.
opposed to the revolution which was silently going
on in the state. No choice could have been less
fortunate. Tiepolo was a man of good abilities ; he
had held many important posts under the govern-
ment. But he was certainly timid ; perhaps at heart
averse to bloodshed and filled with horror at the
prospect of civil war. He knew that his elevation to
the dukedom would exasperate the new party to such
a pitch as to render a violent explosion inevitable.
He was not the man to lead the people and the old
nobility at a crisis like the present ; he suffered
himself to be over-persuaded, and withdrew to his
villa on the mainland. A great occasion for the anti-
reform party was lost, and civil war became more
probable than ever.
The popular cries from the piazza of Zanipolo
rang in the ears of the new aristocracy, and warned
them that they were as yet far from success. Much
depended on the selection of a doge. It was neces-
sary to find a man who should be at once devoted to
their cause and yet of commanding powers. Their
choice was happily directed ; it fell upon a young
man, comparatively young for so high an honour,
Piero Gradenigo. He was thirty-eight years old at
that time, and podesta of Capo dTstria. In every
way he was suited to the occasion. From his birth
devoted to the new party, fully grasping their politi-
cal intentions, rapid and intrepid in action, he at
the same time possessed a coolness of judgment
which made him pre-eminently fitted to guide his
party through a crisis like the present. His unpopu-
larity with the people, which won for him the name
BAJAMONTE TIEPOLO. 73
of " Pierazzo," was only a further recommendation in
the eyes of the new aristocracy. He summed up in
his person the essence of the party he was now called
upon to lead.
Gradenigo arrived from Capo d'Istria, and was
received in ominous silence by the populace. The
new doge at once applied himself to the work that
was expected of him. The propositions of 1286 clearly
indicated the wishes of his party. Nothing remained
for him but to reformulate them and propose them
afresh in the council. In the year 1296 he moved
the famous measure which has since been known
as the Serrata del Maggior Consiglio, the closing of
the Great Council* The terms of this act were : —
" I. That all who have sat in the Maggior Consiglio
during the last four years shall present themselves
for ballot before the Forty, and, on obtaining twelve
votes, shall be members of the Maggior Consiglio for
one year.
" 2. That those who fail to present themselves now,
owing to absence from Venice, shall do so on their
return.
" 3. That three electors be appointed, who, on the
indication of the doge and his council, may nominate
certain citizens from among those who are excluded
by the first clause. That those nominated shall go
through the ballot before the Forty, and, on obtaining
twelve votes, shall sit in the Maggior Consiglio.
* The measure was not carried till February, 1297 (Rom.,
op. cit.^ vol. ii. pp. 343, 344, note 2 ; Tentori, op. cit., pp. 74, 7 Si
76, where the act is given in full ; Sandi., loc. cit. ; Gianotii, op.
cit., p. 53.
74 VENETIAN STUDIES.
"4. That the three electors shall be members of
the Maggior Consiglio.
" 5. That this statute may not be repealed except
on the vote of five out of the six Consiglieri Ducali,
twenty-five of the Forty, and two-thirds of the Great
Council.
" 6. That, within the first fifteen days of each year,
the Consiglieri Ducali shall move the question whether
the whole act is to stand or to be modified or repealed.
"7. That the heads of the Forty shall post the
names of those who are about to be balloted for
three days before the election takes place. That
thirty shall constitute a quorum of the Forty."
This measure was carried. But its terms were not
stringent enough to satisfy the new aristocracy. Their
body was not yet sufficiently close ; a seat in the
Great Council could be too easily obtained. In 1298
the act was amended ; a majority of the Forty, in
place of only twelve votes, became indispensable to
secure a seat. In the same year the list of selected
candidates was confined to those who could prove
that a paternal ancestor had at some time sat in the
Great Council. In the year 13 15 the government
opened the " Libro d'Oro" — an official record of all
those who possessed the requisite qualifications, and
whose names could be submitted to the ballot. A
rush of citizens to establish their nobility, to secure a
place in the governing class before it should be too
late, took place. Abuses soon appeared in the golden
book : parents entered the names of illegitimate
children, and the severe decrees of 13 16 and 13 19
became necessary to purge the list. The avvogadori
BAJAMONTE TIEPOLO. 75
del commun were entrusted with inquisitorial powers
to examine family history ; the duties of a herald's
office were added to their functions. If they admitted
a name to the " Libro d'Oro " that was taken as suffi-
cient proof of its qualification. The office of the three
electors was abolished. All whose names appeared
on the lists of the golden book were, on attaining the
age of twenty-five, considered eligible to a seat in the
Maggior Consiglio.
It would be a mistake to suppose that the closing
of the Great Council was in any sense a coup d'etat.
The constitutional history of Venice had been tending
in that direction for more than a century ; and the
actual measure was not passed at one stroke, or by
unconstitutional violence, but occupied several years
before it could be finally established. Nor was it an
absolute and rigid closing of the council ; a little
stream of fresh blood might still creep in through the
grace of the doge and the three electors, although it
is true that the free circulation from the people, the
heart of the state, was effectually choked. The decree
virtually cancelled family history previous to 1172,
the date when the Great Council was formally
established. It did not matter how old a family
might be, nor what services it might have rendered to
the state ; if, by some accident, none of its members,
during these hundred and twenty-four years, had sat
in the Maggior Consiglio, that family now became
disfranchised, unrepresented, robbed of all share in
ruling the state it may have helped to make. The
result of the statute was to divide the population into
two classes. The one, by an accident of parentage,
76 VENETIAN STUDIES.
had a right to claim a seat in the Great Council of
Venice ; the other had no such right, nor any hope
of obtaining it, but by the exceptional grace of men
who, before the passing of the act, were, constitu-
tionally, their equals. And these graces were rendered
more and more difficult to secure, till, in the year
1328, they seem to have ceased altogether ; nor
were they renewed till after the war of Chioggia, in
the year 1380, when an addition of thirty families
was made to the roll of the Venetian patriciate. To
be deprived of a seat in the Great Council was to be
doomed for life to silence in Venice. The way to all
honours, to all activity, lay through that assembly ;
those who were condemned to live outside it were, in
fact, disfranchised. The aristocracy had effected their
object ; they had robbed a free people of their rights
and converted them to their own sole use. When we
think of the injustice of the act we cannot wonder that
the closing of the Great Council caused a conspiracy
which shook Venice to her foundations ; nay, we are
almost tempted to regret that it did not succeed.
The new aristocracy triumphed ; but doubtless
they did not expect to be left in undisturbed enjoy-
ment of their victory. Nor were they, although their
opponents, the old aristocracy and the people, failed
to unite their forces, the only course which offered
any prospect of success against the victorious party.
The popular indignation was the first to make itself
felt. In the year 1300 Marco Bocconio, a man of
respectable but not of noble family, organized a
rising of the populace.* He was not equal to his
task. The doge was warned in time ; the conspiracy
* See Rom., op. cit.^ vol. iii. cap. i.
BAJAMONTE TIEPOLO. ' 77
never had the deadliness of secrecy. We may dismiss
this futile attempt almost as curtly as the chronicler
Sanudo does.* " It is written," he says, " that the
doge took good means to have the conspirators in his
hands, and had them." Good means truly. Bocconio
and his friends had determined on a physical assertion
of their right to enter the Great Council. Followed by
a mass of the people, they presented themselves at the
door of the chamber and knocked. Those inside were
ready ; the door was opened, and, in the doge's name,
the leaders were invited to enter, one by one, that
they might submit to the ballot and win their seat.
Bocconio and ten of his followers passed in ; they
were instantly seized and executed in the prisons ;
the voice of this revolt was stifled beneath the waters
of the lagoon that hid so many of Venice's secrets.
After the leaders were despatched, between five and
six hundred of their supporters are said to have suffered
death. "And so," to quote the chronicler again, " ended
this sedition, in such wise that no one dared any more
to open his mouth after a like fashion." f
Not after a like fashion, it is true ; for the people
had entered their protest, had struck their blow, and
had failed. It remained for the old conservative
party to make their attempt against the revolution
which had been effected. But they were not ready
yet, and were by no means unwilling to wait. Time
was all in their favour, for the foreign policy of
Gradenigo and his followers was daily deepening
* Sanudo, " Vite dei Duchi," ap. Muratori, Rer. It. Scrip.,
torn. xxii. p. 581.
t Ibid., loc. cit.
78 ' VENETIAN STUDIES.
the hatred against them. The doge's insistance on
the Venetian claim to Ferrara had involved the
republic in a disastrous war ; but worse than that,
it had brought Venice into collision with the pope.
The Holy See had revived an obsolete title to the
Ferrarese ; after repeated orders to the Venetians to
retire from before Ferrara, there came a sentence of
excommunication against the whole state of Venice.
The clergy left the city ; the sacraments were refused ;
burial, even, with religious rites was denied. The
sentence weighed heavily on the people. But worse
was to follow. The excommunication was supported
by the publication of a crusade ; liberty and indulgence
were given to any attack upon Venetian subjects or
property. In England, in France, in Italy, in the
East, the merchants were robbed. From Southampton
to Pera the Venetian counting-houses, banks, and
factories were forced, sacked, and destroyed. The
commerce of Venice trembled on the verge of extinc-
tion ; and all these evils were laid at the door of the
doge and the new aristocracy. But the party in
power never wavered ; their determination was the
result and the proof of their youth, their confidence,
their real capacity for governing. Though they
were surrounded by a people suffering intensely
from physical and spiritual want, as well as by a
nobility who openly declared their hatred of the
new policy and of its authors, yet they never de-
viated for a single moment from the predetermined
line. Everything was done to win the regard and
the support of the people. The doge instituted a
yearly banquet to the poor and the picturesque
BAJAMONTE TIE POLO. 79
ceremony of washing and kissing twelve fishermen
from the lagoons. Everything also was done to
humble, insult, and ridicule the old nobility. Marco
Querini was refused a seat among the ducal coun-
cillors, and the place was bestowed on Doimo, count
of Veglia,* in spite of a statute which forbade a Dal-
matian to hold that office. The law against carrying
arms in the streets was enforced with rigour. Marco
Morosini, a "signor of the night,"t met Pietro Querini
one evening in the piazza ; in spite of Querini's pro-
test Morosini insisted upon searching him; Querini
knocked him down, and was, of course, fined heavily.
It was clear that matters were coming to a crisis.
But the real difficulty of the old nobility lay in the
want of a leader. After holding several meetings at
the house of Marco Querini, they determined to invite
Bajamonte Tiepolo,t the son-in-law of Marco, to come
* Rom., op. cit.y vol. iii. p. 27.
t This was the picturesque name for the three heads of the
police patrol in Venice. " II diavolo che attendava alia rovina
di questo governo porse in animo a Marco Morosini, Signore di
Notte, di voler sapere se Pietro Querini della casa Grande, fra-
tello di Messier Marco, aveva armi ; et accostandosi a lui li disse ;
lasciati cercare ; percio lui irato getto per terra esso Morosini "
(Marco Barbaro, Chronicle, quoted by Rom., loc. cit.^ sup.).
\ Bartolo Tiepolo, 1062.
Marco, 1137.
I
Giacomo, doge, m. Gualdrada,
dr. of Tancred of Sicily.
Lorenzo, doge, m. Marchesina of Brienne.
Giacomo.
Bajamonte.
See Litta, " Famig. celebri Italiane," in voce " Tiepolo ; "
So VENETIAN STUDIES.
to Venice and lead the party. He was the grandson
of the Doge Lorenzo Tiepolo and Marchesina, daugh-
ter of Boemond of Brienne, king of Servia. He was,
therefore, great-grandnephew of John of Brienne, the
emperor of Constantinople and king of Jerusalem.
In the year 1300 he had been condemned for pecula-
tion in one of the governments he had held. But
execution of the sentence was postponed, and two
years later he was elected one of the Quarantia.*
But in the same year he withdrew to his villa of
Marocco,t near Mestre, w^here he remained until
1 3 10, when the invitation of his brother nobles reached
him. He readily answered their appeal, and his
arrival in Venice was of the greatest service to his
party. For Bajamonte was a man of strong, im-
petuous, and decided character, the owner of large
wealth and of an almost unbounded popularity with
the people, who called him the gran cavaliere ;%
while, on the other hand, he was connected with most
of the noble families who were strenuously opposing
the new aristocracy.
On the arrival of Bajamonte the ferment of dis-
content was precipitated. Meetings were held at the
house of Marco Querini, in which the hopes and
Laurentius de Monacis, " Chronicon," lib. xiv. p. 274 ; Roman.,
op. at., vol. ii. p. 294; "Cronaca Veneta, da Canal," cap. cclxiii.
note 351.
* Caresini, "Contin. Chron. And. Dand.," p. 492, ap. Murator.,
Rer. It. Scrip., xii. ; Vianoli, " Hist. Venet." (Venetia : 1680),
lib. xii.
t Rom., op. a't., vol. iii. p. 28.
X Navagero, "St. Venez.," ad ann. 1310, ap. Murat., Rer.
It. Scrip., xxiii.
BAJAMONTE TIE POLO. 8i
designs of the party were discussed, and steps taken
to achieve them. Marco himself led the way, dwelling
bitterly on the ruin which the new aristocracy had
brought upon the state, urging the dangers of the
Ferrarese war and the horrors of the excommunication.
But above all he insisted on the injustice of the act
that closed the Great Council, whereby many noble
and virtuous citizens were excluded from all share in
the government of the state. Bajamonte followed his
father-in-law, enforcing his argument and urging im-
mediate action. He concluded thus : " Let us leave,
let us leave words on one side now, and come to deeds.
Let us place a good prince at the head of this state ;
one who shall be acceptable to all classes, beloved
by the people, ready so to act that our city may
be restored to her ancient ordinances, that public
freedom may be preserved and increased." Tiepolo
expressed the general feeling. The party were
eager for action ; but Jacopo Querini, the oldest
and most cautious of their number, now rose to
counsel moderation. He implored them to move by
constitutional, not by revolutionary steps ; he warned
them not to trust the people for support ; * while,
fully recognizing the unendurable position in which
they were placed by the closing of the Great Council,
he insisted that this should be corrected by legal, not
by illegal and violent measures. But the nobles felt
that the advice of Jacopo Querini came too late.
* " Spcrate aver il popolo favorevole ? ma il popolo, come a
tutti e noto, h cosa vana ed instabile." A true warning as it proved.
See " Cron.ica del Barbaro," quoted by Rom., vol. iii. p. 3' 5
also Vianoli, " Hist. \'enet." (Venetia : 1680), lib. xii.
G
82 VENETIAN STUDIES.
Pacific measures were out of the question. The
speech of Tiepolo indicated the h'nes on which they
must act. Nothing remained but to develop the
plot. The conspirators agreed that the doge should
be attacked in his palace, and that he and as many
as possible of the new aristocracy should be slain.
One of their own party, Badoer Badoer, was sent to
Padua, with instructions to bring with him as many
men as he could induce to help in the attack. They
fixed on the 15th of June as the day for the execution
of their design. The associates were to meet in the
house of Querini on the evening of the 14th, a Sunday.
The evening came and the nobles assembled. So
far these meetings had been conducted with the
utmost secrecy. But now information was brought to
the doge * that there was an unusual and suspicious
stir about the houses of the Querini and in all the
quarter beyond the Rialto. Gradenigo at first refused
to believe that this movement had any significance,
but he thought it prudent to send three members
of the government to inquire into the meaning of the
report. The officials were met with drawn swords
whenever they crossed the Rialto, and were forced to
fly for their lives. The doge grasped the situation
at once, and lost no time. He sent messengers to
the podestd of Chioggia, and to the governors of
Murano, Burano, and Torcello, demanding their help.
The officers of state, the Consiglieri, the Avvogadori,
the Signori di Notte, were summoned to the palace
armed. The town on St. Mark's side of the canal
* The traitor was Marco Donato, who had at first joined the
conspiracy.
BAJAMONTE TIEPOLO. 85
was roused from its sleep — for the night had al-
ready far advanced towards morning — and all good
citizens were called upon to march to the piazza,
there to defend the doge and the state.* These
measures, rapidly as they were carried out, occupied
some time, and the day was already dawning. In the
dim twilight, and under a threatening sky, the doge
and his company left the ducal palace and descended
into the piazza. There guards were stationed at the
mouths of the different streets that opened on the
square, while the main body was drawn up in the
piazza itself, eagerly expecting help from Chioggia,
and waiting the event.
Meantime, on the other side of the canal, affairs had
nearly reached the climax. The piazza, then as now
the heart of the city, was the point at which Tiepolo
intended to aim his blow. The conspirators had deter-
mined to divide their forces. One body, under Baja-
monte, was to march through the Merceria, emerging
on the piazza by the street where the clock tower now
stands ; the other, under Marco Querini, was to find
its way to the same point by the Ponte di Malpasso.j
All was ready for the start, when a violent storm
broke over Venice ; wind, thunder, lightning, and
rain descending in torrents. The storm seemed
ominous and terrified Tiepolo's followers. He delayed
his departure, hoping that it might pass by, and, in
order to amuse and occupy his company, he gave
them permission to sack the offices of the police
magistrates and the Corn Exchange.
• Laurentius de Mon., op. cif., lib. xiv. p. 275.
t Now the Ponte de Dai.
84 VENETIAN STUDIES.
But the rain did not cease, and precious time could
not be wasted to an unlimited extent. Too much
had been lost already ; every instant lessened the
chances of success. The conspirators crossed the
Rialto. But they soon found, as they advanced,
that they had miscalculated in reckoning on the
support of the people. Each step towards the
piazza showed the temper of the populace to be
more and more hostile. The vigour and calmness
of the doge had overawed those who were imme-
diately within his reach, and had counselled them
to be on that side which their instinct told them
was the winning one. But more than that, the
present rebellion was the protest of the nobles
against the serratta^ as that of Bocconio had been
the popular protest. This latter had failed, and
the people were not prepared to try their fortune
again. Perhaps they were more than doubtful
whether the success of Tiepolo would really restore
to them their lost rights. However that might be,
the conspirators found no support, no signs of a rising
in their favour. In accordance with the plan agreed
upon, they divided into two companies. By some
miscalculation Ouirini arrived at the piazza first ; as
he debouched upon the square, the doge's troops
charged with the cry of " Ah ! traditore ; ammazza !
ammazza ! " Marco and his two sons were instantly
killed, and his followers routed before Tiepolo could
come to his assistance. A like defeat avvaited him.
As he passed along the Merceria, a woman hurled a
stone from a balcony, which slew Bajamonte's stan-
dard-bearer, who was marching foremost with a
BAJAMONTE 7IEF0L0. 85
banner on which was embroidered the word
"Liberty." A few moments later, Tiepolo himself
and his followers were flying from the piazza in
confusion, to seek safety on the other side of the
Rial to. They broke down the bridge and destroyed
the boats, and thus gained for themselves a breath-
ing space. They were still in considerable force ;
and if Badoer had arrived from Padua, it might yet
have been possible for them to make some head
against the doge. The news, however, that Badoer
with his boats had run aground in the lagoon,
where the podcstd of Chioggia had captured him
and all his men, dashed that hope. The game
had been played and lost. Nothing remained but
to make such terms as they could with Gradenigo
and his victorious party.
The leniency of the conditions offered by the
doge prove how unwilling the new aristocracy were
to push their victory too hard. All the citizens who
had followed Tiepolo were allowed to make their
peace by swearing allegiance to the doge and the
constitution. The heads of the conspiracy were
banished for four years to certain defined localities ;
but all of them, including their chief, broke their
confines.* This violation of their bounds resulted in
a decree of perpetual exile against Tiepolo, and the
confiscation of all his goods. The houses of the
Tiepolo and the Querini were razed, and their site
marked by a colonna infame, and the family arms of
both were cancelled.f
* Sanudo, " Vite dei Duchi," p. 586, ap. Murat., Rer. It.
Script., torn. xxii.
t The Querini bore parte per fesse azure and gules ; the
86 VENETIAN STUDIES.
Tiepolo was banished in perpetuity, and, for the
years that remained to him, he flitted like an unlaid
ghost round the borders of his native land. From
Dalmatia, from Padua, from Treviso, he looked to-
wards Venice, and sighed for the campi, the contrade,
the water-ways of that home no longer his. But each
sigh was a menace to the new party now consolidating
itself on the ruins of the older nobility. The govern-
ment was never at rest for a moment while the
spectral form of Tiepolo remained unburied. We find
proposals for an amnesty to be extended to him,
invitations to him to return. These may have been
ruses to get him into their power — we cannot tell ;
in any case, they were not accepted. Bajamonte is
the centre of innumerable plots, all doomed to failure ;
but he could not abandon them while he lived. He
was the spirit of the old aristocracy that would not
cease to hope as long as there was breath. In the
year 131 1 we find him conspiring at Padua;* later
Tiepolo, azure, a castle of three towers, argent. See Coronelli,
" Blazone Veneto," and Freschot, " La Nobilitk Veneta ; "
" Commem.," lib. i. No. 435, 448 ; Laurentius, op. cit., lib. xiv.
p. 277, where a list of the conspirators is given, together with
their places of exile ; And. Dand., " Chronicon," p. 410, ap,
Murat., Rer. It. Scrip., xii. ; Caresini, " Contin. Chron. Dand.,"
pp. 490, 491, 492, where the sentences are recorded ; also see
p. 483 for the letters of Gradenigo recounting the conspiracy.
* Laurentius, loc.dt.,^^. 277,278 ; " Commem.," lib. i. No. 476 ;
1876. Tiepolo tried to interest some of the family of Carrara in
his designs. Scrovegno, on their behalf, went so far as to promise
him eight hundred men. Venice was seriously alarmed, and
increased the guards on the lagoon shores at San Giuliano.
But the scheme fell through (Rom., op. cit., vol. iii. pp. 43, 44
Verci, " St. della Marca Trivigiana," vol. viii. Doc. 862, ann.
1318, Feb. 21),
BAJAMONTE TIEPOLO. 87
he is hunted from Treviso. In 1322 the Ten offer
a sum for his capture in Dalmatia. In 1328 the doge
is imperatively ordered to take steps to secure his
person, if possible ; but he escaped his enemies to
the very last, and, on the point of falling into their
hands, he died.
Tiepolo died, and with him died the old nobility
as a dominant party in the state. He and it were
killed by the new aristocracy. Tiepolo's object had
been to preserve the old constitution of Venice ; for
in it he and his order, by long prescriptive right of
birth and rule, were powerful. But this party failed to
make common cause with the people, they neglected
to win their confidence, and they went down before
the younger and stronger order. Had Tiepolo suc-
ceeded it is not impossible that Venice might have
developed a constitutional government based on the
three estates of prince, nobles, and people ; but it
was not given to her to escape the tendency which
was bringing all Italy under the power of individual
families of despots.
The new aristocracy triumphed and proceeded to
follow unimpeded the law of its growth. Externally
the government of the city was crystallized after the
fall of Tiepolo. A full police system was developed —
the patrols for the streets, the guards for the canals^
the piazza, and the Palazzo Ducale. A native militia
was raised by a levy of five hundred men from each
of the six quarters of the city.* But freedom was
* Rom., op. cit., vol. iii. p. 40 ; " Commem.," lib. i. July, 13 10,
No. 438, 439 ; Marin ., op. ctt.y vol. v. p. 320, Doc. II., "Provisions
for the Defence of Venice."
88 VENETIAN STUDIES.
not in the nature of the new aristocracy ; its essence
was opposed to Hberty, and so it was doomed in turn
to submit to itself as its own most tyrannous master.
The danger it had just escaped was so great that,
for its own immediate safety, it had recourse to a
dictator. But following the inherent bent in the
Venetian political constitution, that dictator was not
an individual, but a committee, a college. The Council
of Ten was appointed to examine the causes and to
trace the ramifications of the Tiepoline conspiracy.
Its tenure of office was first limited to a few days, then
extended to two months, then to five years ; finally it
was declared permanent, July 20, 1335, and became
the lord, the Signore, the tyrant of Venice * —
more terrible than any personal despot, because
impalpable, impervious to the dagger of the assassin.
It was no concrete despotism, but the very essence
of tyranny. To seek its overthrow was vain. Those
who strove to wrestle with it clasped empty air ;
they struck at it, but the blow was wasted on space.
Evasive and pervasive, this dark, inscrutable body
* Rom., op. cit.^ vol. iii. cap. iii. ; Giannotti, "Delia Rep. d.
Venez." (Firenze : 1850), pp. 122-124 ; Sanudo, op. at., p. 586 ;
Baschet, " Les Archives de Venise " (Patis : 1870), p. 514. It
is shown by the researches of Sig. Cecchetti that in all proba-
bility a Council of Ten did exist before the year 13:0. But it is
certain that that year saw the creation of the Ten as the power
which was destined to rule Venice. See " DelF Istituz. d. Magist.
d. Rep.," Cecchetti (Venezia : 1865). And popular tradition was
right when it fixed the date in the well-known rhyme —
" Del mille tresento e diese
A mezzo el mese delle ceriese
Bagiamonte passo el ponte (the Rialto).
E per esso fo fatto el consegio di diese."
BAJAMONTE TIE POLO. 89
ruled Venice with a rod of iron. For good or for bad
the Council of Ten was the very child of the new
aristocracy, which had won its battle against both the
people and the old nobility. The victorious party
breathed and their breath became the Ten, and it is
the Ten which determined the internal aspect of
Venice for the remainder of her existence.
Such is the reading of events which facts seem to
warrant. But, in the dense obscurity which hangs
over all that might indicate beyond a doubt the true
relations of the old aristocracy, the new party and
the people, it has to be admitted that a somewhat
different view is possible. It might be urged that the
struggle was nothing more than one between 2, prim
and a secondo popolo, in which the people, properly
so called, had little or no interest ; that the issue
lay between an old semi-feudal nobility and a wealthy
middle class, eager to seize the reins of govern-
ment ; that each party was running a selfish race
for the mastery in the state, and that a species of
tyranny was inevitable, whichever won. It would be
possible to urge that the apparition, the struggle, and
the victory of the new nobility was only one step in
a necessary evolution ; that the victory brought with
it not the element of death, but just that quality of
rigid stability which preserved Venice longer than her
sister Italian states. What remains, however, as im-
portant to Venetian history in this period is that
the Tiepoline conspiracy marks the point at which
the central element in the government was fixed.
From that moment Venice appears with the peculiar
constitution which, for better or for worse, was to
distinguish her from the rest of Italy.
777^' CARRARESI.
" Si trova sulla terra delle catastrofi." — Ferrari.
Italy, it has often been said, is not the country of
chivalrous romance. In 'nothing is the truth of the
observation more clearly shown than in the history
of her great families. There is no lack of adventure,
and often an excess of startling incidents ; but the
aroma of romance is not there, the peculiar charm
of chivalry is wanting ; there is no mystery. Italian
character is true to Italian landscape, " the little blue-
hilled, pastoral, sceptical landscape," perfect in form,
delicious and delicate in colour, but grand or myste-
rious seldom. Italy never had a feudal system ; and
people of Northern temperament miss that sympa-
thetic thrill that even now runs through us as we read
of actions gentle, loyal, knightly, or true.* No doubt
much of the charm in our family history is due to
its vague outline. We look at the deeds of our fore-
fathers that begat us through the obscurity of ages.
The lines grow mellowed and softened, toned to fit
subjects for a ballad ; the traditions of family history
* This whole category of words is wanting in ItaHan. They
are flowers of a foreign soil, and have to be transplanted from
the North. They pine and droop, as "/<?«/<?," or change their
nature altogether, as " virtu " and " onore"
THE CARRARESI. 91
live as sacred legends, of deep interest to the family,
but still legends, myths robbed of the cold clearness
of an historical outline. In Italy family story
emerges only to become at once an integral portion
of the country's history, to pass directly into the
cold light, to be immediately tested by the critical
standards of historical accuracy ; it has from the
moment of its birth that clearness and crudeness
which belongs to fact. The early deeds of the
Visconti, the Scala family, or the Carraresi live not in
ballads but in chronicles, our main fountain-heads for
picturesque Italian history' generally. Yet it would
be a mistake to suppose that these chronicles are
devoid of interest or of fascination. They have, after
all, many of the qualities of the ballad ; they make
their pictures, they touch the human passion with
that simplicity which is consummate art, and, almost
in spite of the deeds they relate, there is a tenderness
about them. No one can read the Perugian chronicle
of Matarazzo,* or the Paduan history of the Gattari,
without feeling that they have a charm and romance
of their own — not the clannish romance of feudalism,
steeped in mystery and weirdness, but the charm of
highly developed individualities in play with other
characters their like. The men of these chronicles are
beautiful as highly finished products of civilization ;
but we can never think of them as
" Beauty making beautiful old rhyme.*'
The family of Carrara, with whose intricate growth
* See the essay " Perugia " in Mr. Symonds' " Sketches in
Greece and Italv."
92 VENETIAN STUDIES.
and tragical death we have now to deal, lived in the
very heart of that curious period of Italian history
when the Signori rose to the height of their illegal
power. The Carraresi grew up side by side with the
Visconti, the Gonzaghi, the Estensi, the Polentani,
the Rossi, the Scaligeri, and with the last of these
they fell. Venice alone among all these prince-
lings pursued a steady policy. In common with
her neighbours she had passed through the crisis
of the Signori, those pangs which issued in the
birth of a despot for nearly every Italian town.
But with her the revolution took a complexion
peculiar to herself When the ferment of the Tiepo-
line conspiracy subsided, Venice found herself not
under the rule of a single tyrant, an individual who
might be assassinated and who was doomed, sooner
or later, to extinction with his whole race, but with
the permanent, unassailable Ten as her lord. She
was a republic only in name ; the Ten was her despot,
without the dangers of a despot's throne. Venice was
secure ; freed from the fatal need for incessant and
feverish action, that curse on all the other Signori,
she could bide her time and choose her moment to
strike her foes. That moment was never chosen
wantonly, but always with a distinct and reasoned
view to her own requirements. The Venetian
Republic was the one stable element in all North
Italy.
It was an age of exciting change, of deep and
riveting interest, and the Carraresi were typical of
their period, not only in their politics and in the vicissi-
tudes of their fortune, but in their private life as well.
THE CARRARESI. 93
The men of those days were " born to strange sights ; "
they sought them, courted them, delighted in them :
nothing could be too strange or bizarre for that
insatiable thirst for novelty with which they burned.
They rung the joy out of violent changes and con-
trasts. All they touched was embraced with ardour,
from a headlong debauch to a religious revival. At
one moment these men were tearing along in a mad
orgy, at the next they were covered with sackcloth and
ashes, marching in the rear of the Bianchi procession,*
joining fervidly in the cry, " Repent! repent!" swelling
the chorus of " Stabat Mater." Few were greater pro-
ficients in the invention of new arts, for public as for
private life, than the Visconti. But nothing could save
these men from the doom they dreaded ; they were
condemned to plagiarism, to repetition and sameness.
Each draught of pleasure or of power only intensified
the thirst that mocked their impotence to satisfy it.
The forty days' tortures of Galeazzo Visconti were
repeated by Francesco Carrara at Bassano ; j but the
master had at the same moment created and exhausted
the idea. All that human bodies are capable of en-
during he had forced them to endure. It was in vain
that Carrara cried for a fiftieth day ; the limit was
* " Chronicon Patavinum," ap. Muratori, " Antiquit. Ital.
Med. CEv.," torn. iv. ad. ann. 1399 (Milano : 1741).
t Azzari, " Storia di Milano," ap. Muratori, Rer. It. Script.,
torn. xvi. ; Galeazzo Gattaro, " Istoria Padovana," ap. Murat.,
Rer. It. Script., torn. xvii. ; Verci, " Storia della Marca
Trivigiana" (Venezia : 1789), bk. xvi. ad ann. 1373. The
enormous learning of this work is too well known to require
any praise from me, but I must here acknowledge my deep
debt to it throughout this essay.
94 VENETIAN STUDIES.
reached ; he was face to face with the impossible!
At another time the operation of diverting all
its rivers from an enemy's territory, or its converse
of drowning the foe by piercing the banks of a river
in flood, was devised. The labour was enormous,
but delightful, for there was a new power to contend
with, a new opposing element even more incalculable
than man, and that was Nature. But the ruse
became hackneyed at once, and we grow tired of
reading the story of works on the Brenta, the
Bachiglione,* the Mincio, unrelieved by any varia-
tion except that now and then Nature refuses to bow
to the whims of a Lombard lord, and, bursting out,
sweeps a Scala's or a Visconti's dams and embank-
ments to perdition. Again, Can Signorio della Scala
resolved to murder his brother — that was common
enough ; but coming from his mistress, there was the
new touch. The plan succeeded, and was soon after
adopted by Antonio Scala, who killed his brother
Bartholomew on his way home from a rendezvous ;
and certain of the Carrara family proposed a like
fate, under like circumstances, for the head of their
hojse. The idea was run to death in a moment, but
the honours remained with the inventor ; Can Signorio
alone put the finishing touch to his work by accusing
his brother's mistress of the murder and torturing her
till she died. The number of family murders was
enormous. In seven generations of the Scala house
we can count nine such treacherous deaths, an
allowance of one and two-sevenths of a murder to
* See Gattari, op. ctt., ad ann. 1387, and passim; Verci, op.
at., bk. XV. ad ann. 1368.
THE CARRARESL 95
each generation, and that inside their own walls.*
The heads of houses had this fate constantly before
their eyes, and yet they never seemed to have ex-
pected it to overtake themselves ; so Bernabo Vistonti,
when his nephew arrested him, cried, "O Gian
Galeazzo non esser traditor del tuo sangue ; " but he
might have known from his own experience the value
of such an appeal.
These men were " born to strange sights ; " per-
haps to no stranger one than the mixture of chivalry
and treachery in the story of so many noble houses.
Francesco Carrara the elder was dubbed by Charles
IV. on the field ; and no doubt he deserved it,
for he was a brave soldier : but he immediately
conferred a like honour on a number of Paduan
gentlemen ; among them, on one Zanibone Dotto,
who at that very moment had the poisons in his
pocket to give to Francesco, and money for doing
so from Jacopino Francesco's uncle.f We cannot help
feeling that these men looked upon life as a game to
be made as intricate as possible for the pleasure of
playing it. Anything which added a new colour to
life or imposed a new condition on the game was
at once adopted ; and so we find knighthood and
treachery side by side, accepted as facts and elements
to be manipulated. Anything, on the other hand,
which, like moral considerations, interfered with the
* See Litta, " Famiglie Celebri d'ltalia," in voce "Scaligeri."
t Cortusiorum, " Historia," ap. Mur., Rer. It. Script., torn.
xii. ad ann. 1354; Gattari, op. cit. ; Verci, op. cit.^ ad ann. ;
Cittadella, " Storia della Dominazione Carrarese in Padova "
(Padova : 1842), vol. i. cap. xxiv. — an excellent history of -the
Carrara family.
96 VENETIAN STUDIES.
development of the game, or crossed the path to the
end in view, must be left aside — " Si violandum est jus
regnandi gratia, violandum est ; " if virtue " like not
the play, why then she likes it not, perdy." All things
were pardoned to the man who played the game
successfully. Here it was not a soft but a witty answer
which turned away wrath. Ubertino Carrara invented
a grim amusement for himself, to while away the
time till he should succeed to the Signory. He and
his companions used to roam about Padua at night ;
if they met a citizen or a merchant going home, a
bag was slipped over the unfortunate man's head, and
he was dragged about, up and down the streets, until
he lost all sense of where he might be ; he was then
taken to some house, where the band mystified,
bullied, and frightened him, sometimes to death and
always until he had paid a large sum to his tor-
mentors. One day Ubertino caught a F'lorentine.
The man was treated in the usual way. When the
bag was taken from his head, Lappo — that was his
name — asked where he was. "In Trebizond," was
the answer. " A good wind and a fair passage,
gentlemen!" The company relished the wit of this
reply, and they allowed Lappo to go scot-free.*
It is not a pleasant picture ; but as these men
treated life like a problem in chess, so their lives
have the interest of a problem for us. If we referred
to the pages indexed as ejus mores in Muratori's
vast storehouse, we should find much that is terrible
and revolting, while making a large allowance for the
* Vergerius, " Vitas Carrariensium," in vit. " Marsilii," ap.
Murat. Rer. It. Script torn. xii.
THE CARRARESl. 97
exaggeration which not improbably exists ; but we
should also find an infinite variety of strongly de-
veloped characters, each one defining itself clearly
before us ; and this individuality seems to be the
real point of interest in that curious age. They were
people full of passion, which they obeyed unhesi-
tatingly — " Quando vienne il desiderio non c'e mai
troppo," said a modern Italian ; and so these elder
Italians felt and acted. But they paid dearly for
this loyal obedience to desire. They did not perceive
that this was not true liberty, that it landed them
in a ad-de-sac. The attainable was exhausted and
grew insipid, the unattainable alone had any attrac-
tion for them, and so they were condemned to an
endless heaven of hope and hell of realization.
As in private so it was in public life. Politics was
a game which no one wished to see ended. Wars
were dragged on to an interminable length without
one decisive blow, because, of the men who conducted
them, no two were pursuing exactly the same object.
Treaties public and secret crossed and recrossed each
other, covering the face of Italy with an intricate web.
Each new ruse of politics became irresistibly infec-
tious : only those at whose destruction it was aimed
felt any alarm ; the rest stood by to see and learn
how the move was played. We might almost draw
up a code of political maxims from the complicated
history of the time. A treaty or a peace was not
used to terminate disputes or to bind allies together;
they had definite and special uses other than these.
Treaty faith was unknown, and leagues were formed
for this purpose — that they enabled a prince, in times
H
98 VENETIAN STUDIES.
of pressure, to buy better terms for himself by selling
his allies. He either weakened the league by with-
drawing, or he turned his arms absolutely against
his former allies ; for the latter service the pay would
be higher. A peace might be concluded for ten years
or a hundred, though it was intended to observe it just
four months. Its real value was to gain breathing
time and to allow the universal bad faith to explode
a powerful and hostile combination. Another maxim,
and one which Bernabo Visconti was never tired of
applying, was — " Attack others before they attack you.
Choose a weak moment in your neighbour, and strike ;
if not, he will infallibly turn on you in your hour of
distress." The fatal necessity to extend in order to
prevent others from extending proved the ruin of the
Signori. Having once entered on the path of lord-
ship, only one course lay open to them : headlong they
must go or be lost ; and if they went on they were
equally doomed to destruction, but in pressing forward
lay their only hope of postponing the day of their ruin
as long as possible. Under such imperative compulsion
to restlessness and aggression, quiet in the neighbour-
hood of an Italian prince was absolutely unknown
and unenjoyed. The Signori were to the manner
born, it was one of the conditions of their life ; but for
the people this feverish atmosphere proved an endless
source of agony and torment. Again, experience soon
taught these politicians that to bend was not to break.
Suppleness was a quality they highly prized. Scala
and Visconti bowed before the whirlwind of John of
Bohemia's popularity, but they rose again behind
him like reeds. Francesco Carrara gave way before
THE CARRARESr. 99
Venice and saved himself for a time ; his son Novello
refused to do so and was lost. Venice herself yielded
to Hungary, and surrendered Dalmatia to avoid worse
loss ; but she never intended to forego that province
for ever. The constant kaleidoscopic changes in
Italian politics always gave a hope that what was lost
to-day might be regained to-morrow. There was,
however, a refinement on this maxim of momentary
cession under pressure. It became by no means
unusual for a prince to yield, not to the enemy who
was harassing him, but to some third party. By
this means he mortified his foe, he shifted the burden
of the war to other shoulders, and might fairly look
to recovering what he had lost some later day.
Venice, when in the agony of the Chioggian war,
handed Treviso to the duke of Austria ; she thereby
stole it from Carrara, who must inevitably have
captured it, and at the same time she entailed on
him a war with Austria which materially crippled
his power.
Under the Signori the townsfolk suffered terribly.
The government of the despots was the very incar-
nation of a sole and selfish monarchy. All the
resources, all the machinery of the state, were in
their hands, to be used for their own individual
ends. Milanese" interests, Veronese interests, Paduan
interests had no existence ; the salvation of a Visconti,
a Scala, or Carrara were the only purposes to which
the lives and wealth of all these unhappy citizens were
dedicated. It is true that, in the intervals of self-
protection or extension, Can Signorio might order his
tomb, and the other Scaligeri build up immortal
loo VENETIAN STUDIES.
monuments ; Gian Galeazzo might design and dedicate
the Certosa at Pavia, or Francesco Carrara endow the
university of Padua and foster the wool trade ; but
what could that do for people exposed to twenty years'
unceasing war and in daily danger of pillage ? Venice
alone, with singular wisdom, identified herself with her
subjects ; she did not exist apart from them ; all her
power was ready at any moment to protect her mer-
chants in England, in Italy, or the East. Venetian
interests did exist ; and for that reason we cannot
wonder at the joy with which the lion of San Marco
was hailed as, one by one, Treviso, Verona, Vicenza,
and Padua passed under the dominion of the Serene
Republic. Partly debauched, partly terrorized, the
spirit of the towns was crushed out of them, and they
suffered quietly agony on agony. They pass from
one master to another, each in turn glutting his avarice
or his cruelty with their wretched bodies. Feltre, Bel-
luno, Bassano, change hands, are thrown from the
Scala to Hungary, from the Hungarians to Carrara,
to Austria, to the Visconti, resting only and at last
under the wise rule of Venice. The Signori made a
point of holding as many towns as possible — not for
the glory nor the strength they gave, but because they
passed current as banknotes, or could be sold for
50,000, 70,000, 100,000 ducats, or even, as in the
case of Verona, for as much as 440,000 florins, and
therefore could be used to buy off a foe or to
purchase an ally. It was vain for the people to cry
with the citizens of Bologna, "Noi non vogliamo
esser venduti." They were sold whether they wished
it or not.
THE CARRARESL lOI
Looking at their history as a whole, we feel that
these Signori were men of singular force and power ;
capable of all things, of splendid action, no doubt, as
well as of that which they really achieved, ruinous
failure. But the spirit which filled them and drove
them was a fatal one ; it compelled them to the de-
struction of themselves and the annihilation of their
country. Their story is a tragedy.
It was among men like this and in such times
that the family of Carrara, nobles of Padua, emerged
and made themselves famous. Almost the first we
hear of them was a disastrous episode ; and a
Thyestean destiny dogged their steps unto the end.
Padua had always been strongly Guelf in sympathy ;
the Carraresi were by birth and gifts partisans of
the emperor, with imperial diplomas and privileges
dating back as far as the tenth century.* They
settled at a village about seven miles south of
Padua, said to have been famous for its wain-
wrights, and therefore called Carrara, but now Villa
del Bosco. The monstrous excesses of Ezzelino da
Romano threw the Carraresi into the arms of the
people, and it was owing to this change of politics
that they subsequently became lords of Padua ; but
at first it cost them dear. In A.D. 1240 the head
of the house was besieged by Ezzelino in his castle
of Agna. The tyrant pressed the siege so vigorously
that surrender became inevitable. Jacopo Carrara
determined to save as much of his inheritance as he
* Cittadella, op. cit., vol. i. cap. vii. ; Litta, in voce "Carraresi."
The family was probably Lombard, to judge by the early names
we find, as Gumbert and Litolf. See Vergerius, op. cit.
102 VENETIAN STUDIES,
could. The castle stood in the middle of a small
lake. A boat was made ready under the walls, and
one night all the ladies of the house, the jewels, the
gold, and the title-deeds were put on board and the
boat pushed off. But they had been anxious to save
too much, and so lost all ; for before the boat had got
half-way across the lake, it capsized, and everybody
and everything went down. The place afterwards
bore the name of the Lago delle Donne.*
Not only the Carraresi, but Padua also suffered
for her Guelfish sympathies. In the year 13 12 Can
Grande della Scala, as imperial vicar, took Vicenza
from the Paduans, and the next six years were spent
in fruitless efforts on the part of Padua to recover the
city. In one of the many assaults on Vicenza, Jacopo
Carrara t and his nephew Marsiglio were taken
prisoners and carried to Verona. There they in-
gratiated themselves with the Scala family, and
eventually effected a peace between Verona and
Padua. The Paduans hailed Jacopo, on his return, as
the saviour of his country ; and in gratitude for the
peace, and to put an end to the agony of the town,
which was being devoured by the rapacity of the
* Vergerius, op. cit.
t Jacopo seems to have been a man of violent temper. In
this assault he was wounded in the leg before surrendering. He
asked his captor to take off his greaves ; in doing so the man
hurt him, and received a smart box on the ear to teach him
gentleness. At another time he was hearing causes in Padua.
An importunate suitor annoyed him by his persistence ; Jacopo
leaned down and whispered in the man's ear, "I'll cut your tongue
out." The brutahty of the threat and its probable execution had
the desired effect. See Vergerius, op. at.
THE CARRARESL 103
usurers, the Ronchi and Alticlini* — of whom the
chronicler remarks, " In iis voluptas peccandi erat
summa" — they chose him captain of the people
(13 18). The relations between Padua and Verona
seemed amicably arranged, and at one of the last
diplomatic interviews which Jacopo held with Can
Grande an amusing incident occurred. Carrara and
Scala were walking in a garden under the walls of
Padua ; they came to a door too narrow to allow
them to pass through arm in arm ; neither would
take the precedence, and the grave matters under
discussion seemed likely to be indefinitely postponed,
when a court jester solved the difficulty by crying,
" Let the biggest fool go first ; " instantly both leaped
forward to claim that honour, and the obstructing
door was cleared.
Jacopo died and left the lordship to his nephew
Marsiglio, a man of ready resource and deep cunning —
" simulare et dissimulare facile doctus."t But all his
powers could not stop the approach of Can Grande,
who had resolved to possess Padua as well as Vicenza.
Marsiglio was pressed from without and threatened
from within by members of his own family ; Nicolo
Carrara was jealous of him, and was making a bid for
the support of Verona. In the year 1328 Marsiglio
• The three young Alticlini and the two Ronchi seem to have
tortured Padua to their heart's content. The account of their
dungeons and prisons, if true, is horrible, and their misdeeds
are thus summed up : " Furta, fraudes, adulteria, stupra quas
apud alios gravia videri solent nihili apud eos sestimabantur.
Ciedes non nisi per summam crudelitatem placebant, rapinas
non nisi per summam crudelitatem extortae" (Vergerius, op. cit.).
t Ibid., op. cit.
104 VENETIAN STUDIES.
found himself compelled to give his cousin Taddea in
marriage to Mastino, nephew and heir to Can Grande,
and with her the city of Padua for a dowry. Scala
became lord of Padua, and Marsiglio received it
back from him as his governor. From that moment
Marsiglio conceived a violent hatred for the whole
house of Scala ; but he had to bide the time for
his revenge. Next year an opportune death carried
off Can Grande at Treviso ; he died, and left his vast
princedom and his vaster designs to his nephew
Mastino. Marsiglio saw his opportunity and set to
work ; he inflamed the mind of Scala against Venice
- — the one power able to check the growing power
of the Scaligers ; he urged Mastino to defy and crush
the republic. Differences, chiefly on the subject of the
salt-pans,* were fostered and fomented ; and Mar-
siglio, blindly trusted by Scala, accepted an embassy
to Venice with full powers to arrange the difficulties.
He used his full powers to arrange matters after his
own mind. One day he sat at dinner next the doge,
and as the story goes, he said, " I wish to speak to
you." The doge dropped his napkin ; both stooped
to pick it up. Marsiglio whispered, " What reward for
the man who should give you Padua ?" "We should
make him Signore," was the reply. When the two
heads rose again above the table the terms had been
agreed on. Marsiglio was to seize Padua by the help
of Venice and in her name, and to receive in return
* See Romanin, "Storia documentata di Venezia," torn,
iii. pp. 1 18-120 (Venezia) ; " I Commemoriali " (Venezia : 1878),
lib. iii. p.384, ad ann. 1336 ; Verci, lib. x., where many documents
on the subject may be read.
THE CARRARESI. 105
the lordship of the city at the hands of the repubUc.
Whether the story is true or not, the meaning and
result of the episode appeared in that great league,
headed by Venice, against the house of Scala, which
for ever put a check to Mastino's ambition, and
in two years stripped him of Parma. Lucca, Padua,
Treviso, Feltre, Belluno, Cividale, and Brescia; leaving
him where his uncle had begun, bare lord of Vicenza
and Verona. Out of this struggle, which ended in
the year 1338, Treviso, her first solid land posses-
sion, fell to Venice, and Padua, Castelbaldo, Citta-
della, and Bassano to the prime mover in the league,
Marsiglio Carrara.
The story of the events in Padua which preceded
the recovery of the Signory by the Carraresi is
curious and picturesque. Albert Scala, brother to
Mastino, undertook the charge of Padua, and Ubertino
and Marsiglio Carrara, then unsuspected of hostility,
were invited to help him in the government. Albert
was a man addicted to pleasure ; he had wounded
Ubertino in his family honour. Carrara feigned in-
difference ; he laughed,* but he put a couple of horns
on his crest to keep his wrath warm, and to remind
him to exact vengeance some day. Mastino was
not without his suspicions of the Carraresi, and these
became confirmed after Marsiglio's visit to Venice.
He constantly wrote to his brother Albert, warning
him to keep an eye on the two Carraresi. But
Albert liked the complacent husband and thought the
Carraresi amusing companions ; so, by way of joke,
* Muratori, " Antiquit. Ital. Medii CEvi," vol. iii., dissert.
36 (Mediol. : 1741).
io6 VENETIAN STUDIES.
he showed his brother's letters to Marsiglio, saying,
"You see what he would have me do." Carrara
feigned to be hurt, and indignantly replied, ** Those
who tell your brother these stories of me never gave
him as much as a coop of hens, but I have given him
Padua." Albert thought the reasoning good, and
tried to soothe Marsiglio. Mastino Scala, however,
grew daily more alarmed. He sent an imperative
order to Albert to arrest and behead the Carraresi.
Albert did not relish the commission, but his brother
was not to be trifled with. He hired several assassins,
and, one evening, stationed them near the great door
that leads into the court of the Palazzo de' Signori,
on the inner side, under the arcade ; he then sent for
Marsiglio and Ubertino, and he himself waited out-
side in the moonlight to see the end. It was late,
and the brothers were going to bed when the message
arrived. They were surprised, and rather suspicious
when they heard that Albert wanted them at such
an hour of the night ; nevertheless they obeyed. A
horse was brought round, and just as they were, in
their night-shirts and caps, they set out, Marsiglio
in the saddle and Ubertino on the crupper, holding
on behind him. Albert, from his place under the
outer arcade, saw the brothers come trotting into
the piazza ; his heart smote him and his purpose
wavered. The Carraresi came towards him, and
in a cheery voice Marsiglio cried, '* What the devil
do you want with us now.^ We have only just left
you. We are sleepy, and wish to go to bed. What do
you want ? " Albert replied, " Oh, I want nothing ! "
" Well, since we are here we will go in with you,"
THE CARRARESI. 107
replied Carrara, making for the archway where the
assassins lay in ambush. " No, don't go in, don't go
in. Go to bed ; I want nothing," cried Albert ; and
the two brothers, with their worst suspicions con-
firmed, turned round and rode off to their own house.
A day or two later, Mastino Scala, seriously en-
raged, sent a further letter, threatening Albert if his
orders were not immediately obeyed. The despatch
contained explicit instructions as to the execution of
the brothers, and it reached Albert while he was
playing chess ; he, without looking at it, passed it to
Marsiglio, and went on with his game. When that
was finished, he turned to Carrara and said, " Well,
how is Messer Mastino, and what does he say } "
" I have not read the letter ; it is addressed to you,"
replied Marsiglio. "Take it and read it," said
Albert. Carrara opened the letter and read the
order for his own and his brother's instant execu-
tion. "Messer Mastino is very well," says he to
Scala, " and wishes to remind you to procure a
peregrine falcon for him, if any be on sale here."
"A very important affair indeed," laughed Albert.
The danger in which they were placed, however,
determined the Carraresi to act at once. Marsiglio
stayed with Albert all that day, while Ubertino
went to tell Rossi, the Venetian general, to advance
next morning, and he would find a gate open.
Albert was awakened by the uproar in the town.
He went out with Marsiglio to the piazza. When he
saw the Venetians he cried, " What troops are these t "
"These are the troops of Messer Piero Rossi, who
is very anxious to see you," says Marsiglio. " Shall I
io8 VENETIAN STUDIES.
be killed ? " asked Albert. " No. Go back to my
room and wait for me." Albert obeyed ; but the
result of his waiting was that the Carraresi arrested
him, and sent him to Venice, w^here he endured three
years' imprisonment, the ennui of which was not
relieved even by the dogs, apes, and buffoons so
liberally supplied him by the doge.*
Thus the Signory came back to the hands of the
Carraresi, after a lapse of ten years ; but Marsiglio
enjoyed the fruit of his labour one year only ; he
died in 1338. He was followed by Ubertino, and
then by five others of the house of Carrara, as lords
of Padua. The family was firmly established. They
had their share of political fluctuations, and per-
haps more than their share of violence and family
murders, three in fifteen years, besides many trea-
cheries and conspiracies which proved abortive. Only
one feature is particularly noteworthy ; that is the
dearth of children, and the erratic course the suc-
cession took in consequence. Ubertino was fourth
cousin of Marsiglio, and Jacopo third cousin once
removed oi Marsiglietto, whom he murdered and
succeeded.! But we cannot linger over details ; we
must press on to the catastrophe and tragedy of
the house in the reign of the last two princes. Only
one more story from the Hfe of Ubertino Carrara,
and that because it illustrates the touch of almost
Caligulan madness that must have existed in these
men.
* Gattari, ^/. cit.; Muratori, " Antiq. Ital. Med. CEvi," vol
iii. loc. cit.
t See Litta, op. cit.., in voce " Carraresi."
THE CARRARESI. 109
Ubertino lived, on the whole, in friendly relations
with Venice, though not without enemies in the
Senate and Great Council. It came to his ears that
one Venetian noble in particular was especially bitter
against him, and he resolved to revenge himself.
Ubertino sent several of his dependents to Venice ;
the senator was enticed to drink some wine which
had been heavily drugged, and fell into a deep swoon.
In this state he was carried to Padua, to the palace,
and put to bed in Ubertino's own room. When
he woke it was some time before he knew where
he was ; but gradually, through the dim light, he
saw, on the heavy hangings of the bed, the hateful
carro, the shield of the house he had lately attacked
so violently. It was all round him, on the pillars,
the tapestries, the ceiling. He leapt out of bed in
terror, and at that moment Ubertino rushed into
the room, crying, " What are you doing here } How
came you here t I know you for my foe. You are
here to seek my life ; but you shall pay for it." The
unfortunate Venetian fell on his knees and begged
for mercy. Ubertino's mood changed ; he burst out
laughing, and said, "Very well; I only wanted to
give you a lesson." The senator was royally treated
that evening, and sent home the next day.*
The family went on prospering till we come to
Francesco, the seventh prince. Francesco succeeded
in joint sovereignty with his uncle Jacopino. But
such a division of power never could be acceptable,
and almost invariably ended in violence. Jacopino
tried to poison his nephew, and Francesco replied by
* Vergerius, op. dt.y in vita Ubertini.
no VENETIAN STUDIES.
deposing and imprisoning his uncle. In the year 1355
he reigned sole lord of Padua. In his hands the policy
of the house of Carrara was altered with fatal results.
Hitherto the family had leaned much on Venice, and
had maintained friendly relations with her. This was
only natural ; for Venice had saved the Carraresi from
the Scaligeri and had replaced them in power. But
the dangerous ambition for extended territory and
lordship with which the family had been inoculated
from the first, now declared itself. Francesco deter-
mined to run the race with the Visconti and other
Signori. That could only be done by freeing himself
from the position of quasi-tutelage to Venice in which
he and his family stood. But in adopting this policy
he made an irretrievable mistake ; he looked for alli-
ance and support in Germany, in Austria, above all, in
Hungary — a power far removed from Italy, and with
few vital interests in the country. Perhaps no other
course was open to him, after once determining his line
of action. An alliance with the smaller princes around
him, the Estensi, the Gonzaghi, the Polentani, lacked
strength, besides being useless on account of the
universal bad faith. The Visconti were unscrupulous,
greedy, and least of all to be trusted. By union with
Venice alone in all Italy could he hope to live, and
he had decided against her ; for, while she protected,
she liked to be obeyed. But it is improbable or even
impossible that this could have saved him. He was
between two forces — Venice and the Visconti, who
were destined to plough their way through or over all
the small states of North Italy, to meet at last and
struggle for the mastery of Lombardy.
THE CARRARESI. iii
At any rate, Francesco chose his line, and the
results of his choice were seen the year after his
accession to sole power (1356). Lewis, the king of
Hungary, had long cast a greedy eye on the Venetian
province of Dalmatia. He attacked Venice there and
also in the Marca Trivigiana. Venice called on Carrara
to help her, as his family had often done before ; but
she was met by a refusal; and, more than that, Fran-
cesco supplied the Hungarians with food and forage,
supporting them where they most needed support,
in their commissariat, for they are said to have put
in the field an army of forty thousand men.* The
conduct of Carrara proved a bitter surprise to Venice,
all the more stinging because of the great straits in
which the republic then found herself She had lately
been defeated by Genoa at Sapienza ; she had just
come through the Faliero conspiracy ; money was
scarce ; the king of Hungary was before Treviso ;
Visconti and Can Grande H. had bought their own
immunity by supplying him with troops ; f Venice
virtually stood alone ; and now Carrara, on whom
she relied, had failed her. Her pronounced anger
showed itself by the withdrawal of her podesta from
Padua and the suspension of all commercial relations.^
This only served to throw Carrara more than ever
into the arms of Hungary. Venice could not forget
or forgive this desertion. But the wound was to
be made even more piercing. The Hungarian war
Romanin, op, cit., vol. iii. p. 199 ; Verci, op'cit., lib. xiv.,
ad ann.; Gattari, op. cit.
t See Verci, lib. xiv.
X See Romanin, op. cit., vol. iii. p. 200.
112 VENETIAN STUDIES.
moved disastrously for Venice ; Dalmatia was oc-
cupied and Treviso closely invested. The pope, how-
ever, had been watching with alarm the growing
power of the Turks, and now insisted that a peace
should be effected in Italy to leave room for a
crusade against Islam. No crusade was possible with-
out Venice ; and therefore the Hungarian war had
to be extinguished. It was Francesco Carrara who
was called on to bring this about. If anything could
have made this peace more unpalatable to Venice,
it was the mediation of Carrara, the man she hated
more than any other at the moment. By the terms
which he procured, Venice lost Dalmatia and was
compelled to respect the allies of the king of Hungary;
among them, of course, Carrara himself She could
not help herself, and, with her usual good sense, she
made the best of the present and awaited the future.
So when Carrara came to Venice in 1358, he was well
received, and was presented with a palace at San Polo.*
Thus closed the first rupture between Venice and the
Carraresi, peaceably as it appeared, but in the end it
proved disastrous for Carrara. Francesco had made
an immortal foe.
But Francesco himself was deceived by his ap-
parent success; his ambition grew, and he endeavoured
to secure an alliance by marriage with the Visconti.
Bernabo's wife, Beatrice Scala, called "Regina" for her
pride, discountenanced the match and eventually put
an end to the negotiations. This rebuff stung the
* Cittadella, op. cit., vol. i. cap. xxvi.; ^Verci, op. cit., lib. xiv.
Doc. 1572; Romanin, op. dt.,\o\. iii. pp. 206, 207; Gattari,
op. cit.
THE CARRARESL 113
self-esteem of Carrara, and he was not sorry to show
his hatred of the Visconti house soon after by assist-
ing the pope to hold Bologna against Bernabo. But
it was a fatal policy ; all he gained was a distant and
doubtful ally, the pope, while he made an enemy of
his near and powerful neighbour. He had, in fact,
placed himself in a vice, one iron of which was Venice,
the other Visconti. Though he could not see the end,
it was all the same inevitable — the total destruction of
his family. But if his pride was hurt in one direction,
it was soothed in another and his ambition encouraged.
P'or Francesco received the cities of Feltre, Belluno,
and Cividale from his good friend, the king of
Hungary.* This might flatter his vanity, but it proved
at best a doubtful gift, for it entailed on him a war
with Rudolf of Austria, who claimed these places in
virtue of his wife, Margaret Maultasch, the heiress of
the Tyrol.
For the next nine years, from 1360 to 1369,
Carrara lived in a constant state of covert hostility
towards Venice, upon the subject of some debatable
frontier territory and the right to work salt on
the lagoons. But he dared not come to open war,
for his hands were tied by fear of the Visconti on
the one side, and by his struggles with Rudolf on
the other. Matters at last came to a crisis when
Francesco built two forts on the Brenta and Bachi-
glione respectively, and opened a free market at one
of them to the considerable damage of Venetian
trade, and when he further confirmed the hatred of
the republic by tearing up the terminal stones which
* See Verci, op. ctt., lib xv.
I
J 14 VENETIAN STUDIES,
divided Valsugana from the Trevisan march and
planting them some miles nearer Venice. The repub-
lic felt that Carrara had recommenced his old policy
of annoying- her when she was in difficulties. She
had just escaped a serious danger, the loss of Trieste.
The duke of Austria had appeared before the walls to
help the rebel city, intending to make the place his
own, but he was repulsed and the town subdued.
Then Venice turned her attention to Carrara with con-
centrated fury. Francesco saw the imminent danger
and implored all his friends to pacify the republic.
Ambassadors from Hungary, Florence, Pisa, the pope,
Siena, and Este flocked to Venice ; their numbers and
names show the width and strength of Carrara's connec-
tions. But in Venetian councils there existed a steady
determination to punish the lord of Padua ; and the
various envoys made little way towards a peaceable
settlement. Their presence, however, suspended instant
action, and a delay of several months was granted to
try the effect of arbitration. Carrara made use of the
interval, as the Italian politicians usually did, in the
preparation and employment of treachery. In the
middle of the lull Venice was startled by some alarm-
ing discoveries. Three Venetians, women of the people,
unearthed a plot to murder several of Francesco's most
pronounced foes, and the threads of the scheme were
traced to Padua. The rumour gained currency that
the same hand had poisoned the wells, and it became
necessary to appoint a guard to watch them day and
night. Lastly, but most disturbing of all, it appeared
that Francesco had secret information concerning the
councils and intentions of the government, and that
THE CARRARESI. 1 15
from officials of no less rank than two chiefs of the
court of appeal and one of the Avvogadore.* Rela-
tions were at once suspended ; war became inevitable,
and each party looked to his alliances.
Carrara might count on support from the king of
Hungary, who sent the vaivode of Transylvania with
a large force into his service. By way of answer Venice-
tried to obtain the help of the duke of Austria, but
Carrara bought him off with Feltre, Belluno, and
Cividale;t only stipulating that he should never sell
those towns nor put an Italian in possession. Venice
secured Can Signorio Scala in a way even less credit-
able. Can Grande had deposited with the republic
twenty-six thousand ducats for the use of his illegiti-
mate children; this sum was now handed over to Can
Signorio, on condition that he should attack the Pado-
vano. Both parties took the field, but the campaign
was disastrous for Venice. The provveditori, the
government commissioners in the camp,| quarrelled,
as usual, with the captain-general, who retired in a huff
Gattari, d»/. «/., Daru, "Storia della Republica di Venezia,"
lib. viii. (Capolago: 1837); Vettor Sandi, ** Storia Civile della
Repub. di Venez.," par. ii. vol. i. (Venezia : 1755) ; Romanin,
op, cit.y vol. iii. pp. 241, 242 ; Marino Sanuto, " Vite de^ Duchi,"
ad ann. 1369, ap. Murat., Rer. It. Script., torn. xxi.
t Gattari, op. at.
X The Venetian government was represented in the camp of
their commander-in-chief, by two officers called provveditori
in campo. Their duties were analogous to those of the Spartan
ephors in the field. The general was supposed to consult
them, and they kept a watchful eye upon his political relations.
They were a necessity created by the mercenary system, and
their action was usually disastrous.
Ii6 VENETIAN STUDIES.
Taddeo Guistinian, his successor, was utterly routed
and made prisoner. In this battle Novello Carrara,
twenty-one years old, the eldest son of Francesco, dis-
tinguished himself by his bravery.* He was mounted
on a magnificent war horse, himself clad in armour of
shininof steel, and over it a white surcoat sown with
red carri. The defeat of Guistinian caused great alarm
ill Venice. The republic hired five thousand Turkish
archers and put a new force in the field. The full
power of both armies met at Lova, and, thanks to the
Turks, the Venetians won a complete victory. Among
their prisoners was the vaivode Stephen, nephew to
the king of Hungary.f
Carrara had tried treachery against Venice ;
Venice now replied in the same manner. The re-
public made terms with Marsiglio Carrara, offering him
every support and a large portion of Paduan territory
if he would murder Francesco. At the same time
certain Paduans also came to Marsiglio at Venice,
assuring him that the city would gladly welcome him
as lord in place of Francesco. The leader of these
was a cleric, one Giacomo Lione, who seems to have
borne no very good character ; for the chronicler says
of him, " Non avendo Dio ne i santi nel mento, ma il
Diavolo solo nel corpo." Giacomo " had tasted the
sweets of the Church," % and desired more ; he de-
manded the bishopric of Padua as the price of his
share in the murder. All the details were carefully
arranged ; Francesco was to be stabbed when leaving
* Gattari, op. cit. ; Verci, op. cit., lib. xvi., ad ann. 1373.
t Verci, loc. cit.
X " Avendo gustato la dolcezza della chiesa."
THE CARRARESI. II7
the door of his mistress's house. But two attempts
failed — one because a messenger opened a letter and
read it; the other, because the would-be bishop, anxious
to kill Novello as well as his father, urged a day's delay.*
Affairs were, however, tending towards a peace. The
king of Hungary was anxious to recover his nephew,
the vaivode ; Venice also was ready to treat, because
she stood in a position to dictate terms. Francesco,
alarmed at the prospect of losing his best ally, the
Hungarian, found himself compelled to submit ; and
peace was concluded in the year 1373.! Venice
intended to cripple Carrara, and to secure, by the
severity of the terms she imposed, quiet for some
time in that quarter. The war indemnity was
enormous — as much as two hundred and ninety
thousand ducats ; the offending forts and villages on
the Brenta were razed and their sites desolated, while,
as a scourge for Carrara's pride, the republic in-
sisted that either Francesco or his son must come in
person to Venice, kneel to the doge, confess their
fault, and beg forgiveness. Novello, who had a deep
affection for his father, would not allow the old man
to go. He went himself, and with him Petrarch, the
valued friend of the house, who made a long oration
in praise of peace. The part played by the great
laureate in the political movements of his generation
is not the least singular note of that curious, rich, and
diversified fourteenth century. This was the poet's
last political act, for he died the following year at
Arqua, July 18, 1374.
• Gattari, op. cit.
t See Romanin, op, cit.., pp. 245, 256 ; Verci, op. cit.^ lib. xvi.
1 1 8 VENE TIAN STUDIES.
The seventy of this defeat sobered Carrara, and
for the next few years he remained quiet. Not that
Lombardy was quiet ; Can Signorio, the last legiti-
mate Scala, died, and Bernabo Visconti claimed
Verona in virtue of his wife Regina. After a long
and disastrous war the two Scaligeri, Can Signorio's
illegitimate children, were forced to buy off Regina's
claim at the price of four hundred and forty thousand
florins. But this war had another result more
intimately connected with our subject — the league
between Scala, Genoa, Hungary, and Carrara, which
was destined to bring Francesco once more into
collision with Venice. Visconti made overtures to
Venice, inviting her to join him in an alliance which
should be a reply to the Scala league. Bernabo was
determined to absorb Genoa as well as Verona, if he
saw his opportunity ; he now perceived that a war
between the two maritime republics was imminent,
and, to further his own views, he determined to hold
with Venice.
The never-ending question of Eastern trade, so
fruitful of quarrels between Genoa and Venice, was
always open ; but at this moment it presented one of
its acuter phases in the difficulties which had arisen
as to the possession of Tenedos. War was ostensibly
brought about by the rivalry for precedence between
the consuls of the two republics, when Pierino Lusig-
nan, king of Cyprus, was being crowned at Famagosta.
At the coronation banquet the Genoese so far forgot
himself as to throw a loaf at the head of his brother
consul, and was expelled from the banquetting-hall.*
* Marino Sanuto, op. cit., ad ann. 1378.
THE CARRARESl. 119
The end of this fracas was the war of Chioggia, a
war disastrous not only to the states concerned but
to all Europe as well ; for, by exhausting Venice and
Genoa, it freed the Turk from the control of the
two naval powers which alone could have held him
in check.* This war concerns us now, however,
only in so far as it affected the history of the
Carrara family. Francesco saw with delight the
approaching struggle, for he was eager to shake
himself free from the peace of 1373- He joined the
Genoese, and at the siege and capture of Chioggia
he and his Paduans proved of great help. The
town was made over to him, his flag floated from
the palazzo, and he added " lord of Chioggia " to
his titles. He must have known how bitterly this
would sting Venetian pride ; but he flattered himself
that her days were numbered, that Genoa was about
to besiege and sack Venice herself. He indeed, more
than any other, urged an attack on the city ; and,
when the doge petitioned him to receive ambassadors
to treat of peace, he replied, "Not before I have
bitted the horses on Saint Mark's." f But in Italy no
alliance was long lived. The Genoese admiral was
greedy, and quarrelled with Francesco over the booty
of Chioggia. Carrara withdrew to the Marca, and
there joined the Hungarians, who, at his request,
were besieging Treviso. But Francesco's hatred of
Venice was a more pressing passion than his ill
* See Verci, op. cit.
t Gattari, op. cit.., p. 305; Cittadella, op. cit., cap. xxxviii.
Others, among them Chinazzo, put these words into the raout
of the Genoese admiral.
120 VENETIAN STUDIES,
humour against Genoa ; so when the fortune of war
changed, and the Genoese in their turn were shut
up in Chioggia, he continued his supply of provisions
and war material, until Brondolo fell and Chioggia
was cut off from the friendly support of Padua.
The siege of Treviso was pressed so vigorously under
Carrara's direction, that Venice, rather than see
it fall into his hands, made it and the whole of the
Marca Trivigiana over to Leopold, duke of Austria.
In fact, Francesco had left no stone unhurled which
might wound the Venetians, and it was by no means
an adequate retaliation that they thrust him into a
war with Austria, over the unhappy city of Treviso.
The peace of Turin put an end to the Chioggian
war. The terms, as far as they concerned Carrara,
were based on those of the year 1373. But Austria
did not appear among the signatories, and Francesco
remained free to urge the siege of Treviso, which was
only feebly defended by the duke. The town resisted
for three years, alone and unsupported, except by her
hatred of the Carraresi. But her bravery availed her
nothing. In the year 1384 Leopold, rather than
continue his feeble resistance, sold her, with Feltre,
Belluno, Cividale, and Valsugana, to Francesco. This
was a large increase to the lordship of Padua. But
the inflation brought its inevitable consequence of
jealousy on the part of neighbours, and an access,
not a diminution, of the thirst for territory. Antonio
Scala had set his heart on Feltre and Belluno ; he
now saw himself robbed of all hope to win them, and
became the covert foe of the Carraresi; while Francesco,
holding the important alpine passes commanded by
THE CARRARESI. 121
Feltre, Bclluno, and Valsugana, ardently coveted the
mastery of all the eastern outlets upon Italy. He saw
his opportunity when the pope made an unpopular
appointment to the patriarchate of Aquileia. The
Udinesi refused to accept Philip d'Alengon, the pope's
nominee, and Carrara was called on to compel their
obedience. He agreed to do so on condition that he
should receive Sacile and Monfalcone.* If Francesco
had succeeded in carrying out this project, his terri-
tory would have stretched in a semicircle from Padua,
round the head of the Adriatic, to within a very short
distance of Trieste. That would have been a great
danger for Venice ; and it was obvious that she could
not allow anything of the sort to take place.
The Udinesi were secretly encouraged to resist
D'Alen^on and Carrara ; a league of small towns was
formed for the purpose, and Venice supplied the funds
at the rate of twenty-five thousand ducats a month.
The war did not move rapidly, but it spread, as every
war inevitably did in those days, when each prince was
armed to the teeth and watching his neighbour hour
by hour. Venice abstained from openly taking part
in the campaign, but she induced Antonio Scala to
attack Francesco. Scala was only too glad to do so,
in retaliation for the loss of Feltre and Belluno. No
sooner did Scala take the field, than Gian Galeazzo
Visconti saw that the moment had come for him
to seize Verona, which he claimed through his aunt
and mother-in-law, Regina Scala.
The appearance of Gian Galeazzo on the scene
was decisive in the fate of the Carrara family. He
* Romanin, vol. iii. p. 318.
122 VENETIAN STUDIES.
was, without exception, the least scrupulous and the
most cunning of all the Lombard Signori. He had
the largest army and the longest purse. In him all
the restless ambition, as well as the deep calculating
faculties of his family were summed up. He was
perhaps the most powerful prince in Europe at that
moment, and as dangerous to the peace and freedom
of Italy as Napoleon subsequently was to the liberty of
the Continent. But Visconti never lived to win or lose
a Waterloo. Gian Galeazzo resolved to possess not
only Verona, but Padua as well ; the acquisition of
the first, however, was sufficient to employ him at
present. He proposed to Carrara an alliance by
which they should plunder the Scaligeri ; Verona to
fall to Gian Galeazzo and Vicenza to Francesco.
Carrara should have known how fatal it was to touch
a Visconti ; the bait, however, proved too tempting
and was swallowed. The joint forces of Milan and
Padua entered the Veronese. In battle after battle
Antonio Scala suffered defeat. In vain that he sent
to Venice imploring aid and urging that it was she
who had thrust him into the war.* The charge
might be true, but the interests of the republic did
not counsel her to move ; and she allowed the Scaligers
to fall. The battle of Castagnaro decided their fate.
Verona was lost by treachery, and Antonio fled to
Venice, from thence to Florence. He was poisoned
the following year (1388), between Cesena and Forli.
With him ended the house of Scala as lords of
* See Gattari, op. cit.; Cittadella, op. at., cap. xlviii. ; Ro-
manin, vol. iii. p. 320. "Voi m'avete promesso e ingannato con
isperanza d'oviare a questa lega, e hora rimaniamo ingannati."
THE CARRARESI. 123
Verona, after a reign of one hundred and twenty-seven
years. Visconti had taken one step forward ; only
the Gonzaghi and Carraresi now stood between the
mistress of the Adriatic and the master of Milan,
Francesco paid dearly for his madness in trusting
the faith of the count of Virtu. Visconti was not slow
to take a second step eastward. When Verona fell,
Gian Galeazzo's captain occupied Vicenza also, before
Carrara had time to seize it. Francesco still hoped,
however, that it would be handed over to him in accord-
ance with the terms of his treaty. But day after day
he was put off, and it began to dawn on him that he
had been duped and used as a tool by Visconti, who,
at that very moment, meditated his ruin. Beside him-
self, he turned, but too late, to the only power that
could help him. He went to Venice to ask her aid.
But it was to no purpose that he pointed out how
dangerous Visconti might become to the republic ;
the Venetians only remembered how dangerous and
troublesome Carrara himself had proved. They
recalled the poisoned wells, the lordship of Chioggia,
the siege of Treviso ; they hated him, and he had
nothing to offer, while Gian Galeazzo was there
promising them Treviso and the Marca back again
if they would join him in despoiling Carrara. Venice
accepted the league, and the marquis of Este joined
it ; bought by the bribe of the Castello d'Este, the
original home of his race, which had for long been
out of the family.*
Francesco Carrara stood on the brink of destruc-
* Romanin, vol. iii. p. 321 ; Gattari, op, at. ; Verci, op. cit.^
lib. XX. ad ann. 1388 ; Cittad., op. cit., cap. li.
124 VENETIAN STUDIES.
tion. He had sown the wind in the war of Chioggia ;
he now reaped the whirlwind of accumulated Venetian
hatred. He found himself alone ; his friend the king
of Hungary had died six years before, and arrayed
against him were the two great powers of North
Italy. Nothing could save him ; but he made one last
effort. He resigned the government into the hands
of his son Novello, and himself withdrew to Treviso.
He hoped by this act to appease Venice ; and Novello
wrote to the republic, urging that they had no quarrel
with him and his father no longer reigned.* But this
time Venice was under no external pressure ; her
hands were free, and she knew no more satisfactory way
of employing them than in chastising the Carraresi.
The Milanese and Venetian troops pressed towards
Novello's capital. After a brave resistance, and
chiefly compelled by dissent and faction inside the
walls, he yielded Padua and himself to the count of
Virtii. Treviso was occupied by Jacopo dal Verne,
the Milanese general, and Francesco, who was
captured with the town, reluctantly consented to en-
trust himself to Visconti, under promise that he should
have liberty to go where he chose.f He was invited
to Cremona. At Verona he found that the safe-
conduct was a blank paper in the eyes of the count
of Virtu, and that he was in reality a prisoner under
arrest. He never regained his liberty, but, after being
moved from one prison to another, each growing more
and more rigorous, from Cremona to Como, from
* The traditional reply of Venice is pithy and sums up the
situation : " He who is born of a cat can't help having fleas."
t Gattari, op. cit.
THE CARRARESI. 125
Como to San Colombano, he died in 1393 at Monza.
He died in misery and actual want, robbed of his
•last coin by Gian Galeazzo. Then, as so often
happened in Italy, as indeed happened a few years
later to Novello himself, all honours were lavished
on his lifeless body ; it was embalmed and sent
with great parade to a splendid funeral in Padua.
Treviso was handed to Venice ; Verona, Vicenza, and
Padua remained under the count of Virtii, and the
Carrarese dominion seemed at an end for ever.
Francesco had brought the ruin on himself by his
persistent hostility to Venice, and by his greed for
territory, which awakened the alarm of the republic.
Out of all the long embroglio which followed the war
ofChioggia, the result was this: that two noble houses
were destroyed, while Venice and Visconti remained
the gainers. But Francesco had spoken a true word
to Venice, though her hatred prevented her from
attending to it ; Gian Galeazzo was a great danger, and
Novello Carrara was destined to reap the benefit of
the jealousy which inevitably arose between him and
the republic.
The next two years in Novello's life belong to the
romance of history. If diversity of fortune were an
object to Carrara and his brother Signori, he must
have been well satisfied with the results of these
months. By the terms of his surrender he was
pledged to go wherever Visconti might direct. He
was ordered to Milan. There he began a double
game. Nursing in his heart the hope of returning
to Padua some day, he now gave all his attention
to allaying Gian Galeazzo's suspicions. He, in
126 VENETIAN STUDIES.
appearance, devoted himself to pleasure, to dancing,
to jousts ; mixing freely with the gentlemen of
Milan.* All was faithfully reported to Visconti ; but
one fox knew another, and the count of Virtii shrewdly
remarked, " Ogni animale si domesticha eccetto la
volpe." Novello went further in his efforts to con-
ciliate Gian Galeazzo. He made a formal and
voluntary surrender of all his rights over Padua and
its territory. But in the middle of all this courtship,
Carrara was planning the murder of Visconti. He
proposed to surround him one day when out hunting
and to despatch him. The lord of Milan, however,
was not so easily caught ; the plot was discovered,
and Visconti, behaving in a truly Viscontean fashion,
pretended that he did not believe in Carrara's com-
plicity. He made him a present of the castle and
territory of Cortusone, near Asti. This kindly deed
was only, in fact, a more intricate, and therefore a
preferable, way of securing Novello's murder ; for the
people of Asti were violently Ghibelline, and their
minds were inflamed against Carrara as a Guelf. They
were aware that to despatch him would be no crime in
Visconti's eyes. But Novello's acuteness saved him.
The moment he reached Cortusone he read the
situation. With consummate address he called the
peasants together, made a humorous speech f about
his Guelfish leanings and Ghibelline birth, and ended
* " Diedesi ad un altro modo di vivere ed ad un' altra regola
della vita sua, andando visitare le feste, le nozze, e davasi al
danzare, ed alle giostre ed ad altri piaceri " (Gattari, op. cit.).
t He began by assuring them that " lo parlo come gentil-
uomo cacciato e non come Signore."
THE CARRARESI. 127
by remitting for ten years all taxes due to him as
lord of Cortusone. He converted a fictitious hatred
into a real gratitude. In return for such liberality,
the peasants told Carrara that in almost every road
and lane an ambush lay concealed against his life.
It was clear that he must escape. He determined to
make for Florence, where the hatred cf Visconti, and
the alarm caused by his attitude towards Tuscany,
promised a welcome to any foes of his house. Novello
announced that he was vowed to a pilgrimage at the
shrine of St. Anthony of Vienne. He left Asti with-
out giving the news time to reach Gian Galeazzo.
Accompanied by his brave wife, Taddea d'Este — a
woman of nearly inexhaustible fortitude, as her
subsequent wanderings and sufferings proved — his
two sons, and two servants, he crossed the Cenis in
deep snow, for it was March, and made his way by
Vienne to Avignon, where he was well received by the
pope. From thence the whole family sailed down the
Rhone to Marseilles, and there, with some difficulty,
took ship for Genoa. But while they were off Hyeres
a violent storm swept down. Taddea, who was near
her confinement, implored to be landed. The whole
party disembarked, and, keeping along the shore in
sight of their ship, they toiled on to Frejus. There
the wind had fallen enough to allow them to go on
board once more, but only to be tossed about with
as much violence as ever. They were compelled to
put in under Turbia, and spent the night in a ruined
chapel, Taddea sleeping upon the broken altar.
Next morning the sea had hardly moderated, yet
they set out. At V^ntimiglia they stayed for food j
128 VENETIAN STUDIES.
but they were seen by some of the natives, who,
recognizing their quality, told the governor. He sent
soldiers to arrest them, and the party were forced
to withdraw to a wood and defend themselves with
stones. At length they v/ere close pressed and in
great danger of being killed, when Novello offered
twenty ducats to the captain of the band, at the
same time telling him that he was lord of Padua
and a friend to the king of France. After some
difficulty they were allowed to go. That night they
spent on shore, not far from San Remo, and next
morning, half starved for want of food, one of the
sons, Ugolino, set off to forage. He came back
with a kid, some bread, and a bottle of wine. The
whole party went into an olive grove, lighted a
fire, and roasted the kid. Two of their number kept
watch on the tree- tops while the others eat. In the
middle of their meal the watchers cried that some
one was approaching. Novello and his sons drew
their swords and waited. The alarm, however, proved
to be false. The men who now entered the wood had
been despatched in search of Carrara to tell him that
Adorno, doge of Genoa, had sent a ship to bring the
family on their way. The Carraresi were cheered by
this welcome help, and, embarking once more, they
purposed sailing straight to Genoa ; but again the
storm bore down on them, and they were driven into
Savona. There they found friends, the Florentine
Donati and others, who prepared a supper for them,
for it was now nightfall. The wanderers had not
sat down to the food they needed so much, when
a message came from Adorno telling them to leave
THE CARRARESI. 129
Savona at once, as Gian Galeazzo's emissaries were
in Genoa, threatening instant war if the republic
sheltered the Carraresi. Supperless, they went to
sea again, and in the early morning put into Genoa
disguised as hermits. They stayed in the city only
a few hours, and then sailed away down that fairy
coastland, past Nervi, Porto Fino, Santa Margherita,
Rapallo, till they came to Porto Venere. There
they landed and went to a small inn to procure
some food. They had hardly tasted the meat, when
Donati rushed in to say that Galeazzo Porro, a
captain of Visconti, was coming with forty horse,
on his way to Pisa in search for them. No-
where could they escape the lord of Milan. The
whole family rose in haste, and hid themselves in a
neighbouring wood. The strain became almost more
than Taddea could endure — she nearly succumbed ;
but, supported by Novello and her own high courage,
they both pushed on to Pisa, where they confidently
looked for help from their friend Gambacorta. It was
evening when they came under the walls of the town.
They found messengers from Gambacorta waiting
them, to forbid them to enter Pisa on any account,
as Porro was on the look-out for them. Almost
crushed, they turned aside to a little hostelry ; they
found that full, and were obliged to make their
lodging in the stables. Taddea went to sleep in
the manger, while Novello and Donati divided the
night into watches. It was near midnight, and
Donati was on guard, when he heard the trampling
of horses' feet ; his alarm, however, was banished
when the new-comer proved to be a servant of
K
t30 VENETIAN STUDIES.
Gambacorta, with horses and refreshments for the
party. Next day they pushed on, avoiding Pisa,
and reached Florence in safety at last.*
The hopes that Carrara had built on Florence and
her aid were soon dispersed. He received a cold
welcome and a hint that the Florentines would not be
sorry if he would betake himself elsewhere, as they were
now at peace with Visconti. But Novello knew that
any peace in which Gian Galeazzo had a part must
be a hollow affair, a pace volpina. Sooner or later
he believed his chance would come, when Visconti
attacked Tuscany. So for a season he bore the
cold looks and obvious dislike of his hosts. And
his patience met its reward. A change of feeling
took place in Florence, and she began to arm.
Carrara received the ofifert of a company under Sir
John Hawkwood ; but he preferred to play his part
nearer Padua, which was the sole object of his policy.
He set out from Florence, intending to go to Bologna
by way of Ancona and Ravenna, there to arrange an
attack on the Milanese. But his evil star pursued him.
The winds drove him past Ravenna to Chioggia, in
Venetian waters, where he was recognized and
forced to put to sea again, pursued all night by
the Venetian galleys. He escaped, however, and
reached Bologna safely ; from thence he returned
to Florence. There he found a state of things which
* The whole of this story is beautifully told by the Gattari,
loc. cii. Francesco, languishing in prison at Como, whiled away
the time by telling the tale in terza rima, which may still be
read among Lami's " Delitiae Eruditorum," torn. xiv.
t Gattari, op. at.
THE CARRARESI. 131
delighted him. The Florentines were now eager
for a league against Visconti, and Carrara was com-
missioned to start at once for Munich to persuade the
elector of Bavaria to join the allies. He sailed from
Leghorn to Monaco ; from thence he passed through
Geneva, Lausanne, Lucerne, and came to Zurich.
There he made friends with his landlord's son,
an Italian, young Massaferro, and from him he
learned that the emissaries of the ubiquitous Vis-
conti were even then in Zurich looking for him. He
left in haste, crossed the Lake of Constance, and
reached Munich. Novello found little difficulty in
persuading the elector Stephen to join the league
against Visconti ; and he was soon able to send
the news of the elector's adhesion to Florence. But
Gian Galeazzo was always well informed of what was
passing at foreign courts. When he learned that
Bavaria had joined his enemies, he sent for the Floren-
tine ambassadors, who were as yet ignorant of the fact,
and who were at his court trying to arrange a peace.
He apologized for keeping them waiting so long,
consented to their terms, and expressed himself
anxious to have the signatures at once. The courier
of the embassy reached Florence before Novel lo's
messenger, who conveyed the news of the elector's
adherence, could arrive, and peace was signed. When
Carrara's envoy from Germany reached the city, he
was told that the Florentines were sorry for the
trouble his master had taken, but that it was too
late. This news was a serious blow to Novello, who
was lying ill of a fever. It showed him how utterly
unsupported he was, how little he could rely on
132 VENETIAN STUDIES.
anything but his own courage. But the shifty policy
of Visconti again proved his best friend ; a rupture
soon occurred between Florence and Milan. Novello
left Segna in Dalmatia, whither he had gone to see
his sister, to whom he was devotedly attached. He
quitted Dalmatia with better hopes, for at Segna,
under his sister's care, he had recovered from his
fever. Moreover, he had paid a visit to a famous
witch who lived in the wild, mountainous country
above the Dalmatian coast, and from her he had
received a prophecy of good omen. With that
courage which never deserted him, he set out to
recover his principality. He entered Friuli, thanks
to the connivance of Venice, who was now thoroughly
awake to the count of Virtii's unbounded ambition.
At the head of a small army, recruited chiefly in
Germany, but swelled by numbers of banished
Paduans who flocked to his standard, he pushed
straight for Padua. There was something fascinating
in Novello himself, and still more so in this resolute
attempt to regain his city with a handful of men —
something attractive, which engaged the imagination
of the people. His advance was a triumphal pro-
cession. The month was June, and in every town
bands of boys and girls, crowned with roses, came out
to meet him, and bid him welcome back and good
speed in his effort for Padua. It was
" Roses, roses, all the way
And myrtle mixed in his path like mad."
The Paduans, thoroughly tired of Visconti rule, hailed
Carrara with joy. The town was assaulted, help given
THE CARRARESI. 133
from within, and to the cry of " Figliuoli, chi m'an)a
non m'abbandoni ! " answered by shouts of " Carro,
carro ! Carne, came ! " Novello entered the city. He
had fulfilled the witch's prophecy, given to him in
the mountains above Trieste. " In the month of
June he who went out by the gate came in over
the wall." So, after two years' absence — two years
of extraordinary adventure and wandering, of in-
cessant plot and counterplot — the Carraresi returned
to their own place (1390).*
The safety of the family became dependent once
again on Venice ; for this forcible occupation of Padua
entailed a war with Visconti, and Novello alone was
no match for the lord of Milan. But Venice was glad
to see Carrara once more established as an outwork
between herself and the count of Virtu, and she offered
Novello abundant though secret support from the
treasury of the republic. The league against Visconti
progressed favourably as far as Carrara was con-
cerned, and in 1391 his title to Padua was ac-
knowledged by Gian Galeazzo, though at a rather
large price — one hundred thousand florins. For the
next few years the Carraresi enjoyed almost the only
quiet they had ever known. Even so they were not
without family mishaps. Novello sent for his wife
from Florence ; but Taddea seemed doomed to mis-
fortunes on all the many voyages her fate compelled
her to take. While on her way to Padua she
fell into the hands of one of those robber chiefs who
lived by the ransoms paid for their prizes. Taddea,
however, reached Padua safely at last, and the family
* Gattari, op. cit.j Verci, op. cit.^ lib. xx. ad ann. 1388- 1390.
134 VENETIAN STUDIES.
hoped to enjoy rest and the fruits of their labour.
Novello seemed willing to adopt the right method to
secure this peace. He turned his attention to the
government of his city and to the encouragement
of her trade. But, above all, he drew closer to Venice.
He judged, and rightly, that her suspicions of Visconti
were the guarantee for his own safety. Gian Galeazzo
had ruined the Carraresi once ; but the security of
the family now depended largely on his existence,
and the prosecution of his ambitious schemes to rule
all Italy. Venice w^as compelled to protect every
bulwark between herself and the count of Virtu.
A clearer political insight would have warned Carrara
to persevere in his present line of conduct, and to
avoid all possibility of a rupture with the republic.
The next seven years witnessed the growth of the
Visconti dominion, and the various transmutations of
the league formed by the smaller princes of Lombardy
against him. Visconti had made up his mind to
absorb the lesser princes one by one. He began with
Gonzaga, probably because he was a relation of the
Visconti ; he interfered in the Este succession ; he
showed a desire to attack Florence. Everywhere it
was clear that he was preparing for a great stroke.
One of his chief and most pressing objects was to
break up the league in Lombardy, whose hostility
tied his hands. For that purpose he endeavoured
to win Carrara, the moving spirit of the league, to his
side. He proposed a double matrimonial alliance,
as a result of which Feltre, Belluno, Verona, and
Vicenza should be ceded to the lord of Padua ; he
courted the young Carraresi who were sent to
THE CARRARESI, 135
represent their father at Gian Galeazzo's coronation
as duke of Milan ; he remitted part of the sum due
to him by the peace of 1392. The bribe was
enormously large. But Novello had learned by
experience to mistrust the duke of Milan ; he had
unpleasant memories connected with Visconti and
Vicenza ; above all, Venice was opposed to the
alliance. Negotiations were broken off. Venice, and
indeed all Italy, were now thoroughly alarmed by the
advance of Gian Galeazzo. In the year 1399 Pisa,
Perugia, Assisi, and Spoleto were in his hands, and
he was drawing a cordon round Florence. The allies
invited the emperor Robert to cross the Alps and
crush the duke of Milan. Robert came, and with
him the duke of Austria. The Lombard princes
flocked to join him at Trent. But before Brescia
Visconti routed the imperial army, which was saved
from annihilation by the Carraresi alone. The duke
of Austria was taken prisoner, and three days later
he bought his liberty by a shameful promise that
when he returned to the emperor's camp he would
seize and send the two Carraresi to Galeazzo. The
plot was found out, and Novello withdrew to Padua.
The army melted away, leaving the emperor Robert
standing alone and deserted, without men or money,
a laughing-stock to all Italy.
The collapse of the emperor was a triumph for
Visconti, and he at once made an advance upon
Bologna. Jacopo and Francesco Carrara, the sons
of Novello, were sent to help the besieged city. But
the town fell, and the two young Carraresi were made
prisoners. Their escape was one of the last episodes
136 VENETIAN STUDIES.
in the family history. Francesco was entrusted to the
care of Gian Galeazzo's general, Facino Cane, to be
brought to Milan. At Parma a Paduan living in that
town told Francesco's barber of a secret way over the
city walls. The same evening young Carrara slipped
out of bed, and, putting on a blouse, sauntered out of
the house whistling ; he found the barber and the
Paduan ready, and the three dropping from the wall
escaped to a wood, and thence made their way to
Paduan territory.* Jacopo, the other son, waited
longer for his liberty. He was entrusted to the care
of Gonzaga, lord of Mantua. While at Mantua he
was in the habit of playing tennis under a wall, beyond
which lay the lake ; the balls frequently went over
the wall, and one day, on going out to fetch them,
Jacopo, who had been informed of the plan concerted
for his escape by a letter sent to him in the belly of
a fish he ate for dinner, found a boat ready and two
faithful Paduans disguised as fishermen. They rowed
him across the lake ; horses were waiting on the other
side, and he soon reached his native city.f
In the year 1402 the duke of Milan had matured
his plans, and was ready to attack Tuscany, but death
cut him short ; he fell a victim to the plague in
September. Though Italy breathed the freer, yet for
Carrara the death of Visconti proved one of the
greatest misfortunes that could have happened. As
long as Gian Galeazzo lived, Venice was bound,
whether she liked it or not, to maintain friendly
* Gattari, op. cit.
t See Vergerius, " Sapphics," for the return of Francesco
and Jacopo Carrara, ap. Muratori, Rer. It. Scrip., torn. xvi.
THE CAR RAREST. 137
relations with all the smaller princes of the mainland
whose existence Visconti threatened. But now that he
was dead, the republic was freed from that necessity ;
neither Carrara, nor Gonzaga, nor Este any longer
held a pledge for her support. But more than that,
the empire of Gian Galeazzo was not well cemented.
It had been held together merely by the personal
qualities of its creator ; on his death it fell to pieces,
and there followed a struggle for the fragments.
The universal quickening of ambitious hopes which
followed the death of Gian Galeazzo was perhaps
the greatest misfortune which he inflicted on Italy.
Every prince once again burned with a fatal desire to
extend his territory ; Venice felt the influence no less
than Carrara and the other Signori.
The relief which Carrara and all Italy felt, when
the count of Virtu was gone, made him forget that
Venice still remained a potent factor in the problem
of his existence. He believed that he might now
with safety resume the ambitious policy of his
father, and the opportunity to embark upon this
fatal course was ready to his hand. He and his
family were really foredoomed, escape was impos-
sible ; but it is part of their tragedy that they
were compelled to be agents in their own destruction.
Carrara accepted the offer of Feltre, Belluno, and
Bassano made to him by the duchess regent of Milan,
who desired, as Gian Galeazzo had desired, to weaken
the league against the Visconti by seducing Novello
to their side. More than that, Novello was believed
by the Venetians to entertain designs on Ferrara,
and was known to have gone there with an
138 VENETIAN STUDIES.
unnecessarily large troop of cavalry, to see the mar-
quis, who was reported to be dying. Further, he
allied himself with Guglielmo Scala ; and by their
joint efforts Verona was recovered from Milan. But
Scala died a few days later, not without grave sus-
picions of poison administered by Carrara, his two
sons were arrested and sent to Padua and Novello
proclaimed himself lord of Verona.
The whole of this sudden expansion and success
was fallacious. Novello stood on rotten ground.
He had no real strength, and was unsupported by
any alliance which could have justified him in
offending Venice. Yet he hurried on, each new
acquisition waking a deeper alarm in the mind of
the republic. The duchess regent of Milan, whose
government was weak and whose state was torn by
internal quarrels, had long been endeavouring to
win Venice to her cause against the league, and
chiefly against Carrara.* Her first overtures were
refused. She then raised the price offered by the
addition of Verona and Vicenza. Venice hesitated ;
not from any love for Carrara, but in deference
to the opposition of her older politicians, who
urgently dissuaded her from any course which would
embark the republic upon a land empire. At last,
after long debate, the proposals of the duchess were
accepted and war agreed on. This was Novello's
death-warrant. Affairs were precipitated in the
following way. When Carrara seized Verona he
claimed Vicenza also. But that city had always
displayed an invincible repugnance to the Carraresi ;
* Romanin, vol. iv. bk. x. cap. i.
THE CAR RAKES I. 139
she now yielded herself to Venice in order to escape
Novello. The republic accepted the dedication, and
sent a herald to require Francesco Novello's son
to raise the siege ; in an access of fury, Carrara
killed and mutilated the herald. The forces of
Visconti and Venice invested Verona and Padua in
1404. But for a year and a half the Carraresi held
out. Novello was indefatigable. He drilled a
militia, and himself superintended the watches on
the walls. No less vigorous and brave was Jacopo
at Verona ; but that city fell, Jacopo was sent a
prisoner to Venice, while the troops liberated from
the siege went to swell the numbers of those attacking
Padua.
• Novello's position was hopeless and terrible. He
was deserted by his sole ally, the Marchese d'Estc,
betrayed by his general Barbiano, his life attempted
by his kinsman, another Jacopo ; the plague* raged in
Padua, killing five or six hundred a day ; the waters
of the Bachiglione were diverted and the flour mills
stopped. Still Novello refused to yield. Terms were
constantly offered him by Venice — a large sum of
money was promised for the town ; but all efforts were
in vain. The reasons for this obstinacy were, first, that
Novello still entertained the hope of succour from
Florence ; false news from that quarter buoyed him
up ; further, he wished to give his secret schemes in
Venice time to fructify. He never abandoned the ex-
pectation that some revolution inside that city might
come to his aid ; and he knew that if he were captured
now, all his intricate and treacherous correspondence
* See Gattari for a graphic description of the plague.
I40 VENETIAN STUDIES.
with certain Venetian noblemen would come to light,
in which case his chances of mercy were small.
So he refused offer after offer ; each time the sum
proposed as the price of the city growing ominously
less, as the besiegers' mines and covered ways crept
nearer to the walls and the prospect of taking the
town by force increased. But at last the patience of
the Paduans was exhausted ; they would endure no
more. Novello's own hopes died away, and on the
23rd of November, 1405, he yielded Padua to the re-
public, and himself to Galeazzo Grumello, her general
He and his son, Francesco III., were sent to join his
other son, Jacopo, in prison at Venice.
We have now reached the end. The tragic fate of
the three Carraresi in the Venetian prisons excited
much comment at the time, and has given rise to
considerable dispute subsequently. As usual, there
is a large mythical element in the popular story
of their death. The secrecy and rapidity of the
Venetian government lent itself to all who were
Anxious to make a mystery or horror out of the event,
and this the Venetian people were eager to do. They
hated the Carraresi, and received their prisoners with
savage cries. They had not forgiven them the
poisoned wells, and were only too willing to believe
that the government inflicted tortures and agonies on
its unhappy foes. What really happened seems to
be as follows * : — Novello and Francesco were im-
prisoned in San Giorgio Maggiore until the Torresella
dungeon in the ducal palace could be prepared for
them. During this time they had an interview with
* Romanin, op. at., vol. iv. bk. x. cap. ii.
THE CARRARESI. 141
the doge, and the elder Carrara expressed his peni-
tence. The doge Steno replied that, if he wished to
show his contrition, he would induce Ubertino and
Marsiglio, two members of the family still at large, to
come to Venice: the republic was anxious to have the
whole of the race in their hands. The Council of Ten
proceeded to prepare the case against the Carraresi.
While thus engaged, two men came under their exa-
mination. The revelations which these men made as
to the information treacherously supplied to Carrara
by certain members of the government appeared
so grave, that the Ten asked for an addition to
their numbers, and sent to Padua for all Novello's
papers. Among these papers they seized his private
note-book, in which were registered the names of
those in his pay and an analysis of the infor-
mations he had received. These discoveries caused
a panic in the government. The Carraresi were
more closely imprisoned and treated with rigour,
only a prisoner being allowed to wait on Novello.*
The Ten asked for a further addition, and sat
day and night. The revelations, which continued,
grew graver and graver, and the alarm rose in pro-
portion. Compromising papers were found in a boat
" Et ad servendum eis deputetur unus de carceratis qui sit
confidens persona ; et dominus Franciscus tercius filius suus
remaneat in carcere Orba cum uno ex suis pagis, illo qui ei pla-
cebit, et alter pagius licentietur.'' — Misti, "Cons. X.," p. 112, ap.
Romanin, loc. cit.^ where we may read some curious instructions
as to the keys of the prisons. They were locked away in a box,
the key of which was enclosed again in another box, the key
of this last box being given to the doge every evening and
taken by him to his bedroom.
1 1 2 VENE TIAJSr STUDIES.
near San Basso, and several Venetian nobles became
implicated in the treason. The trial of the Carraresi
was postponed until the case of Pisani and Gradenigo
had been disposed of. In January, 1406, sentence
was pronounced on both. Pisani received five years'
imprisonment ; Gradenigo, three years of exclusion
from all offices. The process against the Carrara
family was resumed, and the Ten prepared the indict-
ment on the charge of secret machinations against
the state, which they and the whole court held to
be proved by the papers before them. They deli-
vered sentence as follows : — That all three Carraresi
should be strangled in their prisons ; and the execution
was carried out at once. Novello and Francesco are
said to have resisted to the end, struggling fiercely
with the executioners. Jacopo submitted quietly, only
asking leave to write first to his wife.* Novello was
* Andrea Gattaro writes in tears over Jacopo. This is his
description of the young Carrarese : " Era Messer Giacomo
da Carrara di eta d'anni 26. grande, e tutto bene formato,
quanto altro cavaliere che avesse Lombardia, bianco come la
Madre sapientissimo e grande amico di Dio, benigno, miseri-
cordioso ; il parlar suo dolce e mansueto, e I'aere suo AngeHco,
ardito ed animoso, fortissimo e virtuoso, che veramente se
avesse avuto vita, sarebbe riuscito un altro Scipione Africano ;
ma pure cosi hebbe fine il corso della vita sua " (Gattari, op.
cit., p. 941)- Here is his letter to his wife Belfiore : " L'infelice
tuo sposo Jacopo da Carrara del qual so che avrai piet^, perche
ti sempre sono stato grato ed amorevole, ed ora son private di
vita. Ti scrivo questa di mia propria mano, la quale quando
avro scritta subito saro morto. Sta sano, consolati, ne cesserai
di pregar Dio per me che in questa vita piu non mi potrai
vedere, forsi mi potrai vedere tra li martiri candidati appresso
Quello che regna in Cielo." I do not know whether this is
THE CARRARESI. 143
buried next day with great pomp in the Church of
San Stefano.* The people endorsed the judgment
of their government, and showed their own reUef by
crying, " Homo morto non fa guerra ! "
Undoubtedly the real reason for the execution of
the whole family was the discoveries made after the
fall of Padua. During the siege Venice had not been
excessively harsh ; she had again and again offered
terms which men in the position of Novello and his
sons might have been glad to accept. They might have
sold Padua for a large sum, and obtained permission
to go where they chose, provided that they did not
return to the Padovano. The repeated and apparently
irrational refusal of these terms naturally exasperated
Venice, who was at a loss to understand its motive
until the damning papers came into her hands. We
notice all through the proceedings a crescendo of
terror on the part of the Venetians. The government
were hurried into their severity by a panic. Nothing
terrified Venice so much as intrigue among her own
nobles, and here she found Pisani, Gradenigo, and
Carlo Zeno all seriously implicated in treason. She
had not forgotten either Tiepolo or Marino Faliero,
and her alarm made her hasty and harsh. The policy
pursued by Venice was so direct, showed so little
authentic, but it exists among the manuscripts of Count Robert
Papafava, and is given as genuine by Cittadella, op. cit.^ vol.
ii. p. 586.
* For long his grave was supposed to be marked by a slab
bearing the letters P. N. T., which were read as " Pro norma
tyrannorum." But Cicogna has shown that they really are the
initials of Paolo Nicolo Tinti, a merchant buried there. Sec
Romanin, op at., vol. iv. p. 41 ; Sanuto, op. cit.
144 VENETIAN STUDIES.
desire to finesse, that it startled the other Signori.
With them it was a point to keep their enemies as
prisoners ; their exact equivalent might appear in the
market, in which case they could be exchanged ;
while dead they were of use to no one. But Venice
was not a Signore of the true type ; she had never
hitherto desired to touch the complications of the
mainland ; when she did, when she found herself forced
into the midst of them, she was thorough. The re-
public was ready, where necessary, to adopt Machia-.
velli's maxim, that if compelled to kill a prince it
is wisdom to destroy his whole race along with him.
She was not brutal, but only cold ; with a constant
desire for that quiet which was so imperatively
demanded for her commercial prosperity.
The Carraresi died ; they had not the satisfaction
of foreseeing the day of reckoning in store for Venice.
But the enormous extension of territory which accrued
to her on the fall of the Carrara family awoke in her
that fatal greed for an empire on the mainland which
turned every man's hand against her and brought her
face to face with the League of Cambray. The
Carraresi were extinguished. Their fate was typical
of that which awaited almost all the other Signori,
There is something pathetic in the terrible nemesis
which pursued these men ; caught in the toils of a
hopeless passion, dragged on whether they would or
no. Theirs was a restless and unscrupulous ambition,
compelled to move forward, but foredoomed to failure
and death.
CARMAGNOLA, A SOLDIER OF
FORTUNE,
There is an observation which is continually forced
upon the student of Italian history. That country
has experienced an almost insurmountable difficulty
in achieving union. The fact that the difficulty is
being now overcome only emphasizes the length and
labour of the process. The history of Italy is the
history of highly organized but conflicting particles.
The episodes of her development depend upon the
mutual destruction of these particles, no one of
which possessed sufficient power to retain its own
vitality while absorbing that of its neighbour. We
may take this incapacity for unification as a sign
that the major force of the Italian nature has been
intellectual rather than practical ; that Italy's grasp
of understanding was complete, swift, and sure upon
the centre of each situation ; as the note of a character
intellectually occupied by the problem of movement ;
of a temper interested in the formation of many types
rather than in the selection of one ; of a life always at
the red heat of revolution, burning continually in the
fires of destruction and re-creation. Her acumen per-
ceived the antithesis too immediately upon the thesis
to allow of any pause. This speed of vision con-
L
146 VENETIAN STUDIES.
tributed to rescue the country from thorough conquest
by any foreigner. The invader was dazzled, confused,
and repulsed by the rapid changes. While he had
just begun to recognize a direction, Italy, the land he
supposed himself to be subduing and stamping, had,
as it were, altered its identity — was no longer the same
Italy ; had measured all that the conqueror could do ;
had reached the furthest point of its helix, and had
already commenced the backward sweep. But, though
this quahty helped to baffle those who attempted to
master the country, it exposed her, inside her own
borders, to unrest, to violent change, to warfare among
her vital self-asserting members, to torture from her
own too active self She became a land of contradic-
tions ; refusing to dwell on any one moment because
she saw that it was only a moment. Each statement
instantly met its contradiction, based upon that point
of falsity which is absolutely inseparable from all
human exposition of truth. The very power that en-
abled the nation to posit the obverse compelled it to
a consciousness of the reverse. It was condemned to
a perpetual demonstration of instability, as the result
of its too ardent desire to find the absolute stability.
The dynamics of balance were always potent enough
to destroy the statics. Therefore the people who had
dogmatized faith for the whole of Europe were them-
selves deeply sceptical. Those who had formulated
law presented a chaos of lawlessness. The Italian epic
is no sooner created than it offers its own body as the
food for parody and satire. Conviction and calm
belief were impossible for Italy. She could formulate
what the northern nations accepted with earnestness —
CARMAGNOLA, A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. 147
law, art, religion, the idea of freedom ; but the creator
could not receive its own creation as an article of
creed. Seldom before had a people devoted its whole
energies, in every department of life, to the illustra-
tion of the Heraclitean doctrine that all is in flux.
Among the many particular curses entailed upon
Italy by her fatal inability to unite, few were more
widely or more bitterly felt than the curse of mer-
cenary troops and wandering armies.* Philosophers
and historians, Machiavelli and Villani, are agreed in
lamentations over the decline of city militias and the
supremacy of hired arms. These wandering bands
were in their origin the children of disunion, and to
the end they retained the marks of their parentage.
They had their birth in that necessity which com-
pelled the despots to use foreign troops in their
various wars, either against their brother lords, or
against their native town whose tyranny they were
usurping. It was imperative that a tyrant's soldiers
should be men of no party ; purely fighting men, and
nothing more ; unfettered by any ties of politics or
blood. Therefore the Signori called to their service
Bretons, Gascons, English, Hungarians, and Germans.
Their armies were composed of men and officers who
spoke no Italian and whose sole glance was directed
to the purse-strings of their employers. But these
mercenary warriors, bound together by a common
interest which was antagonistic to that of their em-
ployers, were not slow to perceive that, in order to
make their own position entirely secure, they must
choose their leader from among themselves ; that he
* See " Archivio Storico Italiano," vol. xv.
148 VEN^ETIAN STUDIES.
must be a man whose sympathies and aims were
identical with their own ; that their head must be
structurally and vitally a portion of their organism.
In obedience to this instinct, the mercenary army
which Mastino della Scala was forced to disband
in 1338, when it found itself without a master,
elected Werner, duke of Wislingen, as its captain ;
and the Grand Company, the first fully developed
company of mercenaries, was let loose on Italy.
Under Duke Werner the Grand Company learned
self-discipline from the necessities of their case.
Beyond the circle of their camp the world was all
their enemy. But it was a world that had neither
unity nor force enough to crush them. So long as
the outermost line of their entrenchments remained
unbroken, they were as united, as potent, as an
undissipated poison germ floating in the blood of the
nation. On every hand they were secure. If war
failed them, the country lay open for them to pillage.
The burghers were wealthy and timorous, the peasants
unarmed. The soldier had only to put out his hand
and take the harvests of the one and the gold of the
other. In fact, the mercenaries discovered how to
rifle their masters ; and learned, moreover, that they
could do so with impunity. After Duke Werner's
death and the dispersion of the Grand Company, two
other leaders, Fra Moriale, a Provengal, and Count
Lando, a German, continued and developed the tradi-
tions of the foreign mercenaries. Fra Moriale es-
pecially was a born organizer. He attracted to his
standard all the evil humours of Italy, the bankrupts
in fortune or in fame. The nucleus of his band was
CARMAGNOLA, A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. 149
foreign, it is true ; but many of his soldiers and
most of his camp followers were the ruined outcasts
of Italian society. This is a fact of signal import-
ance, for it bore directly on the development of the
first company of native as distinguished from foreign
mercenaries. Moriale's work was a work of con-
solidation. His company was governed by one
fundamental maxim — absolute liberty outside the
camp, rigid discipline and justice within. The whole
band was drawn closer together, and taught to look
upon the camp as their city and their home. Through
his action the mercenary army became self-sustaining,
therefore more formidable and longer-lived. Moriale's
work had been too thoroughly accomplished to be
broken up at his death. The mercenaries elected as
their new captain Count Lando, and their life of rapine
and of plunder went on as before. They moved freely
from territory to territory, sweeping the harvests from
the fields, exacting what sums they chose from the
prince or the republic whose lands they occupied,
wearing the country barer and barer by their depre-
dations. The burden became intolerable, the military
occupation showed no signs of coming to an end, and
Italy at length prepared to make an effort to suppress
the mischief which was eating its way into her very
vitals.
The pope, Florence, and Venice joined in a league
against the adventurers. Though the curse of dis-
union, of jealousy and conflicting interests, broke up
the league and rendered it inefficient, yet out of this
effort came the purely native company of Alberico
da Barbiano, the first great Italian condottiere. Blessed
150 VENETIAN STUDIES.
by the pope and fired by St. Catherine of Siena,
Alberico won the victory of Marino, and from that
moment the nature of mercenary warfare in Italy
was changed. The foreigners disappeared, and ItaHans
took their place.
Italy, however, was not destined to escape the curse
entailed by her own sloth. All she succeeded in
achieving was the substitution of native adventurers for
the foreigners she had expelled. The change in their
aspect made little difference in their character ; the
one was the lineal descendant of the other, inheriting
and continuing the same traditions of war. Italy had
hoped to free herself from mercenary arms ; but she
failed. The triumph of the Guelfs and the insurgence
of the communes had destroyed the aristocracy,
the nucleus of the warlike element. The leading
politicians now were merchants or bankers — men who
clung to their money and believed that all was com-
passable by gold. From the ranks of these came the
Signori ; and they set themselves more or less delibe-
rately to debauch the citizens and to render them
effete. Their policy was only too successful. When the
townsfolk preferred a tax on silver and on salt — silver
for the rich and salt for the poor — to military service in
defence of their liberty, of what use was it that Boiardo
sang the praise of chivalry and arms ? The country
with its own voice declared itself a prey to the mer-
cenaries. The essence of the soldier-spirit was gone.
Italy turned willingly from the field to the counting-
house. She shrank from the constant proof of her
arms, and in the day of her need she was unable to
bear them.
CARMAGNOLA, A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. 151
The native companies of adventure present two
marked characteristics. They were united and solid
upon the basis of their profession, opposed as soldiers
to all other classes and professions in Italy ; they
were also mutually antagonistic and jealous of each
other inside the limits of their profession. The previous
existence of the Signori inevitably determined the
aspect assumed by the native mercenaries. The minute
partition of Italy among petty tyrants, swayed by
various and conflicting aims, prepared the way for the
minute divisions of the great army, and for the exist-
ence of the various condottieri, each serving his own
selfish ends and standing in rivalry with his fellows, a
rivalry which prevented them from ever becoming
masters of Italy in any permanent sense. But, though
cloven and broken among themselves, the mercenaries
were solid and cohesive against the world outside them.
The reason for this solidarity in their profession lay
deep in the spirit of the race. The Italians never
possessed the sense of nationality, except an ideal
nationality in Rome. They were therefore able to
experience within the borders of their own land the
effect and the fascination of cosmopolitanism, together
with its accompanying democratic tendency. An art
or a profession, not a city or a country, became the
bond of union. The true patria was a common
enthusiasm for war, for painting, for scholarship, for
religion. The bands of adventure are not a singular
phenomenon. Side by side with them there rose the
companies of religious fanatics, the school of John of
Ravenna, the workshops of Squarcione and Verrocchio.
Alberico's native company of St. George was the
152 VENETIAN STUDIES.
matrix of a hundred captains of adventure, "the Trojan
horse of Italian warfare," from whose entrails a breed
of soldiers was born, destined to cover Italy with their
arms, to make her theirs for a time, to serve their
purpose, and to pass away ; just as John of Ravenna's
lecture-room was the Trojan horse of Italian scholar-
ship, a hotbed for the growth of a hundred students,
destined to seize and hold the world of lost classics,
to recall Italy to Rome, to serve their purpose, and to
pass away. And the action of the condottieri and of
the Humanists is very similar. Both appear as inter-
ruptions — the one in the political, the other in the
intellectual process. Both are solvents. Humanism
proclaimed a doctrine of individual freedom ; adventure
destroyed the political system, breaking down the
despots and paving the way first for the conquest by
Charles VI 1 1., and then for the ultimate settlement
of death under Charles V.
The result of Italy's effort to shake the foreign
mercenaries from her throat was that Italians took
the place of strangers. But the gain to the country
was small. The chief difference between native and
foreign commanders lay in the systematization of
arms which the former efTected. The Italians made
an art of war, as they made an art of everything which
they touched. Obeying a common impulse, the cap-
tains of adventure turned campaigning into a game.
They laid down the rules and imposed the conditions
under which it must be played ; and few would have
ventured to violate these rules, for that would have
been to renounce the role of artist and to outrage the
national instinct for limitations and precision. In fact,
CARMAGNOLAy A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE, 153
war became an end in itself and not a means. The
attention of commanders was directed not so much to
victory as to a study and enjoyment of the moves by
which they achieved success or suffered defeat. Under
these conditions the art of war soon degenerated into
a pedantry that admitted such an anomaly as a
technical victory, and bore its fruits at Fornovo and
at Agnadella. And the laws of this game, drawn up
by professional soldiers, were framed to suit the soldier,
not the prince who employed him. The interests of a
general counselled him not to finish any campaign
too rapidly ; therefore no advantages were pressed to
the full, no decisive blows struck. As a point of
military etiquette, all prisoners were released imme-
diately after an engagement. To prolong a campaign
was to prolong the salaries of the commander and of
all who served under him. Nor were the leaders un-
willing to make service as light as possible for their
men. By general agreement night attacks were aban-
doned and piquet and outpost duty might be dis-
pensed with ; quarter was invariably given. The life
of the common soldier had no hardships after he had
mastered his drill and the routine of service. The
war he waged was not so much against the troopers
of the hostile army as against the unarmed peasants
of the place where he might be encamped. Wherever
found, they were his prey, to work his will upon in any
manner he chose. The democratic spirit of all true
vagabonds, whether students, friars, soldiers, or artists,
reigned in the camps. The soldier began life upon a
strict equality, the sole title to distinction being
excellence in his profession. Personal attachment
154 VENETIAN STUDIES.
helped to bind the men to one another in a union as
fraternal as that of a monastery. Beyond the lines a
soldier's freedom was unrestrained. " Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity" — the watchwords of democracy, of revolu-
tion, of socialism — were the motto of the camp. But
the democracy of arms, as it manifested itself in Italy,
concealed nothing formative within its breast ; it was
chaos come again. The camp, therefore, attracted all
the restless blood, the strong physical natures, the
coarser-fibred appetites of Italy; just as the wandering
religious companies attracted those of imaginative,
vague, ecstatic, and ardent temperament.
Circumstances rendered the position of the con-
dottieri powerful. The Signori were compelled, by
the pressure of their neighbours, to use these mer-
cenary captains ; but they were costly weapons, and
in using them the princes became bankrupt. On
one condition only were the Signori able to retain
the command of events. Their exchequer must be
full. But it was only the wealthiest states, such
as Venice or Milan, who could resist the drain of
war. The moment the despot failed financially, the
captains of adventure were masters of the situation ;
their ruined employer could not dismiss them unpaid,
nor could he hire other arms against them. There
was, however, a weakness in the position of the mer-
cenaries. They were not at one among themselves ;
they could not agree to conquer and divide ; they
were ready to take the field against one another, not
to destroy, but to supplant in the receipt of salary ;
they lacked width of ambition ; they were, in fact, for
the most part stupid. This weakness showed itself
CARMAGNOLA, A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. 15^
whenever the condottieri had to deal with solvent
masters. A full purse could play them against each
other, and store their labours for its own advantage.
This was their real danger. Their perilous war was
waged, not in the field against their brother captains,
but in the cabinet against the princes who had es-
caped financial ruin. How dangerous this conflict
might be received convincing proof in the tragic end
of so many of these adventurers : Gabrino Fondulo in
his iron cage ; Vignate executed at Milan ; Carma-
gnola beheaded at Venice ; these we must remember
as counterbalances when we think of Michelotti
lord of Perugia, or Sforza duke of Milan.
The story of Carmagnola illustrates these relations
between the Signori and the captains of adventure.
His career offers an example of the height to which
a condottiere might aspire, of the mistake he might
make, and of the fate that possibly lay in store for
him. The problem presented to Filippo Visconti,
the last of the Visconti dukes of Milan, when his
brother's death left him sole prince, was how to
recover the duchy, to which he had succeeded in name
alone. On his father Gian Galeazzo's death, the
dukedom had been partitioned among Galeazzo's
generals, who had each seized the part that lay
nearest to hand. Filippo determined to recover his
lost patrimony. But he had many difficulties to
contend with. He was without troops or generals,
and his own peculiar temperament offered a serious
obstacle. He suffered from a morbid timidity. A
painful sensitiveness as to his personal appearance
kept him in torture, and forced him to shrink from
156 VENETIAN STUDIES.
all publicity. He chose to live hidden away in the
seclusion of his palace, surrounded by guards whom
he distrusted, and over whose movements he set the
watch of other and more secret guards, upon whom
he himself kept a furtive and a timorous regard. He
never escaped from the nightmare of murder. He
daily changed his bedroom, and took his rest, as
it were, with one eye open, fixed upon the cubicn-
larii* who protected his most private chamber.
Filippo was possessed by the Visconti passion for
intrigue, heightened almost to the pitch of insanity.
In the recesses of his palace he spun from his restless
brain a web of plot and counterplot ; the one fore-
stalling, crossing, battling, defeating the other, till
his own perception of the object in view was some-
times in danger of being lost in the maze. His mind
presented a pandemonium of schemes, as though
the regulative faculty had been paralyzed, leaving
the designing powers alone in force. Nevertheless,
Filippo applied himself to his task. His marriage
with Beatrice di Tenda, widow of Facino Cane,
brought him the nucleus of her husband's army.
The duke turned to seek a general. His own timidity
prevented him from taking the field in person, and
his father's officers were now his enemies ; for each
of them held some fragment of the duchy which
Filippo intended to recover. At this time his eye
fell upon Carmagnola as the man he was in search
of A man undistinguished as yet, and therefore
likely to be subservient to his patron ; yet at the
same time a soldier who had shown sufficient promise
* See Candido Decembrio, " Life of Visconti," cap. xlvi.
CARMAGNOLA, A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. 157
to warrant Filippo in placing him at the head of
his troops.
Francesco Bussone was born of poor peasants, in
1390, at the village of Carmagnola, near Turin.* The
natives of Carmagnola are still a strong and hardy-
looking race, with thick necks and ruddy colours ;
as Francesco may have been when a boy, herding
swine, before he went to camp. There is a portrait
of him, painted as captain-general of St. Mark,t which
shows us what he subsequently became towards the
end of his career, when his profession had already
stamped his character and determined his fate. A
heavy face, with large and flabby cheeks, puffy and
fat ; coarse, thick lips and eyes, with a leer of lewd-
ness and cunning in them ; a pendulous nose, with
no strong marking. Altogether a dulled, amorphous,
and ignoble countenance, set upon an enormous,
wrinkled neck. The face of a man lazy and self-
indulgent, of appetites vulgar and cruel, with in-
tellect of most indifferent power, yet inclined to
believe his cunning to be wisdom. The face of a
man doomed to fail through poverty of intelligence ;
incapable of surviving between the tortuous diplo-
macy of Visconti, and the thoroughness and cold
determination of Venice.
Francesco left his swine-herding when only twelve
years old, and went to camp under Facino Cane,t
in the service of Duke Gian Galeazzo. He rose
See "Ritratti ed. Elogj di Capitani Illustri" (Rome :
1635), p. 63 ; also Tenivelli, " Biog. Piedmont," Dec. iii. p. 149.
t I am indebted to Prof. Villari for the courtesy with which
he sent me a photograph of this portrait.
X Ritratti, loc. cit.
158 VENETIAN STUDIES.
rapidly, thanks to his great strength and bull-dog
bravery, and before long obtained the command of
a division. He was barely thirty when he came
under the notice of Filippo and the last long act of
his life began. Filippo set him the task of winning
back the duchy of Milan from the usurping con-
dottieri. With extraordinary rapidity, Carmagnola
carried his work to a successful issue. Nor was his
reward inadequate. He was allied by marriage to
the ducal house,* and bore the Visconti arms upon
his shield. His fiefs in Lombardy and Milan brought
him a princely income, and he began to build a
palace suitable to his sudden fortune. But Filippo
had, in all his liberality, a further intention than that
of merely satisfying his victorious general. The
duke believed that he was binding Carmagnola
to his service by ties which the soldier's cupidity
would prevent him from breaking under any pressure
of neglect or disgrace. Visconti did not desire to
see this captain, whose value he had just discovered,
take pay from any other master than himself; yet
he was fully resolved that Carmagnola should never
become so powerful as to be a serious danger to his
own authority, or to play the part his father's general
had played during his own minority. Such an issue
seemed not improbable ; for the rapidity of Carma-
gnola's success had won for him an Italian reputation.
Filippo resolved to set him aside for a time, and to
employ some of the many other officers whom his
wealth placed at his disposal. He did not desire to
alarm Carmagnola, but only to allow the warmth of
* He married Antonia Visconti, widow of Barbavara.
CARMAGNOLA, A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. 159
his celebrity to cool. Visconti sent his general to
govern Genoa. Carmagnola's vanity soon opened his
eyes to the fact that he was virtually cashiered. He
refused to submit, even at the risk of losing his for-
tune, his palace, and his wife. After many fruitless
appeals by letter to Filippo, Carmagnola determined
to seek a personal audience of the duke. But what
he sought could never be granted. Filippo rarely
admitted his ministers to his presence ; much more
was he certain to shun an interview with an angry
soldier. Carmagnola was told that the duke would
not receive him. In a rage, and on the spur of the
moment, he left the Milanese territory, and betook
himself to the court of Savoy ; * but meeting with
a cold welcome from Duke Amadeo VIII., he set out
for Venice, where he arrived on the 23rd of February,
1425. His reputation had preceded him, and his
reception could not have been more flattering. He
had taken one decided step towards independence,
as he believed ; towards destruction, as it really
proved. His rupture with Visconti closes the first
scene of this last act.
Carmagnola owed the warmth of his reception not
solely to his fame as a general. The political con-
ditions of Venice were such as to make his arrival
peculiarly acceptable. The republic had already
begun to take her place as a factor in Italian politics.
She had lately acquired a large territory on the main-
land, and appeared for the first time as one of the
great Italian powers. She found herself now, however,
conterminous with Milan, and there were not wanting
* Romanin, op. at., iv. 105 ; Tenivelli, ioc. cit.
i6o VENETIAN STUDIES.
politicians who insisted upon the danger of the present
direction. They pointed out that aggression on the
mainland was a course that had no end, and that it
exposed the Venetians to that dilemma — so fatal to
the princes around them — of attacking or of being
attacked ; stability and peace would be impossible.
And the attitude of Visconti seemed to confirm these
warnings. The duke, like his father, cast his eyes
towards Tuscany, and would certainly before long
strike a blow for Verona, Padua, and the Lombard
plain towards Venice and the east. The question
before the republic was, should she assail Milan at
once, or hold her hand and wait upon events? The
doge, Mocenigo, led the conservative or anti-war
party ; and as long as he lived that party maintained
its policy. But the section of Young Venice was
all eager for military enterprise and a land empire.
Their moving spirit was Francesco Foscari, still in
the prime of a vigorous manhood, and so firmly
seated in the affections of the younger nobility that
no shadow of his tragic end could possibly have
crossed his path. The party of war determined to
secure, if possible, the election of their chief to .the
dukedom. Mocenigo was fully aware that the choice
of his successor would be a critical point in the
history of his country. On his death-bed he implored
the senate and council to throw Foscari aside ; but
in vain. The elevation of Foscari to the dukedom
virtually gave an affirmative answer to the question of
war with Milan. The conservative party were still,
however, of considerable weight ; and the new doge
was not sorry to find his hands strengthened by two
CARMAGNOLAy A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. i6i
events — the arrival of Carmagnola, and the presence
of an embassy from Florence to propose an alliance
of the two republics against the growing power of
Visconti. Foscari and the Florentines were at once
in accord, and the doge used all his influence to
recommend the league. But negotiations were moving
slowly when Carmagnola reached Venice, and Fos-
cari gladly seized the new instrument which fortune
had placed in his hand. He proposed that Carma-
gnola should at once be heard, in the Senate, on the
position of the duke's affairs.
Carmagnola was under the influence of a blind
fury against Filippo, and intent upon exacting some
revenge for the slights he had suffered. His judg-
ment was neither cool enough nor sufficiently intelli-
gent to read the situation as it stood. The reception
accorded him flattered his vanity, and induced him to
believe that he had the power to mould the action of
Venice. He did not see that the republic cared
nothing for his private wrongs, but intended to use
him for her own purposes if she were once convinced
that he was the best man to give them effect. He
failed to perceive that if Venice placed him at the
head of her armies, she would not be content with
such an injury done to the duke as might appease
his own desire for vengeance ; but rather that she
would require from him nothing short of the destruc-
tion of Milan — her only object in this war ; and any
failure to satisfy her would be fatal to himself. Venice
differed from the other Signori whom he and his
brother mercenaries had served. She was rich, not
bankrupt ; firmly based, not shivering towards de-
M
!62 VENETIAN STUDIES.
struction at the slightest shock. Carmagnola made a
fatal error in not perceiving the distinction. He could
not hope to inspire her with dread ; he might, with
greater justice, have mistrusted himself when face to
face with her cool diplomacy and determined purpose.
Carmagnola opened his speech before the Senate
with a long and bitter tirade against the perfidy of
the duke of Milan. Then, coming to matters of more
practical moment, he depreciated the power of the
duke, and insisted that the opportunity was favourable
for an extension of Venetian territory. His speech
had considerable weight with his audience ; and when
he had withdrawn, Foscari hastened to clinch the
favourable impression. After dwelling on the crisis
m Venetian affairs which the question of the Floren-
tine league presented, he continued to enlarge on the
necessity and the righteousness of the war, and con-
cluded : "Carmagnola's speech has laid before you the
power and the resources of Filippo. They are not so
great as rumour has represented them. Nor should we
be justified in looking for any other than a happy and
prosperous conclusion to our enterprise under Carma-
gnola as the captain of our arms. For he is versed
in war ; nor can all Italy show his equal this day in
bravery and proficiency in the military art. Under
such a general is offered us, beyond all doubt, the
certain hope of extending our borders. All these
considerations urge us to undertake the war with a
good courage ; a war, I repeat, which is necessary ;
for our enemy is powerful, neighbour to us, and
aspires to the sovereignty of Italy. Let us embark
upon this war, then, and avenge our wrongs by
CARMAGNOLA, A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. 1^%
trampling in the dust our common foe to the ever-
lasting peace of Italy."* Foscari carried his audience
with him. The last lingering suspicions about
Carmagnola's good faith, suspicfons awakened by
the recollection of the large stake he had left behind
him in Lombardy — his fiefs, his palace, and his wife —
were swept away on a wave of popular reaction when
it was discovered that Visconti had tried to poison
him at Treviso. The senate felt that the rupture was
sincere ; that Carmagnola might be trusted. In the
spring of 1426 the Venetians formally appointed
him captain-general of Saint Mark, and he received
the baton from the doge before the high altar of the
Basilica. In March he took the field against his old
master, the duke of Milan.
Filippo had miscalculated the strength of the
bonds by which he believed that he had bound
Carmagnola to himself He had set cupidity at too
high a reading, and allowed too low a figure for
vanity and pique. He had driven his ablest general
into the arms of his foes. He had failed in an
attempt to poison him. But Visconti was not a man
to abandon his efforts to ruin his enemy. The
difficulty merely enhanced the sweetness of success-
ful revenge. Carmagnola, on the other hand, was
now committed to a perilous course, with an exacting
and uncompromising mistress to satisfy. One way of
safety alone was open to him ; he must be faithful to
Venice. Success was his if he grasped this fact ;
failure and ruin if he missed it.
It is a tax upon the patience to follow the long-
* See Savina, cod. cxxxv. d. vii. alia marciana, p. 259.
i64 VENETIAN STUDIES.
drawn chronicles of Italian campaigning.* The slow-
movement of the armies, the result of the excessive
preponderance of the cavalry and the difficulty of
foddering the horses ; the indifference of commanders
who had no desire to conclude the war ; the formal
and technical openings of the game ; the marches
and countermarches ; the avoidance of pitched battles ;
the lengthened sieges — all form a wearisome labyrinth
through which to toil. The interest of events lies
chiefly in the curious contrast between the cabinet
and the field ; in the feverish impatience of the
employers and the sluggish indifference of the em-
ployed. The rewards and bribes held out by the
government to prick their generals to action were
accepted and consumed by the mercenary with
irritating imperturbability. It is only necessary to
dwell on Carmagnola's campaigns in order to note
the points which bear upon his final quarrel with
Venice, and to mark the steps by which he unwittingly
worked his own ruin.
The war opened with the siege of Brescia. But
the honours of that siege and capture do not belong
to Carmagnola. He almost immediately retired from
before the city, leaving his chief engineer to carry on
the works. After amusing himself for a few weeks
with a plundering expedition on the shores of the Lake
of Garda, he relinquished the field altogether, and
withdrew to the Baths of Abano. He alleged that
he was suffering from an old injury to his thigh, so
painful as to render him unfit for active duties. The
• See Sanuto, "Vitse Ducum,"ap. Muratori, Rer. It. Script.,
xxii. p. 983 et seq.
CARAfAGXOLA, A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. 165
Venetians had hitherto heard nothing of this injured
thigh, and now they decHned to consider this excuse
as a real one. They were practically aware of the
position in which they had placed themselves by
employing a captain of adventure, and they looked
upon Carmagnola's conduct merely as one of the
usual hints to administer a douceur. Nor were they
unwilling to obey such calls within reasonable limits.
The Great Council created their captain a noble of
Venice and Count of Castelnuovo.* They further
offered him a principality in the Cremonese if he
would quit Abano and push his arms across the
Adda. But there were more serious features than
the inactivity of their general in the case presented
to the Venetian government. The duke of Milan
had already begun that course of action whereby he
intended to ruin Carmagnola. He had resolved to
do all that lay in his power to make it appear that
there existed an understanding between himself and
his old commander-in-chief. His envoys were con-
stantly arriving at the camp to seek interviews with
Carmagnola. Filippo frequently proposed terms of
peace to Venice, and on each occasion he named
Carmagnola, the republic's own general, as his
plenipotentiary. Carmagnola was flattered by this
attitude of the duke, and by the rewards which
Venice had already bestowed on him. He saw the
two belligerents bidding for himself, and he easily
believed that his services were essential to both ;
that he was the real centre of the situation ; that from
* Sanuto, loc. cit.; Navagero, " Hist. Veneta,'' ap. Muratori,
op. cit. J xxiii. p. 1088 et seq.
1 66 VENETIAN STUDIES.
the Baths of Abano he might direct the destiny of
Venice and of Milan.
The fall of Brescia compelled the duke to sign a
peace, and put an end, for the present, to bribes and
to suspicions alike. By a clause in this treaty of San
Giorgio, the duke pledged himself to restore to Car-
magnola all his property in Lombardy. The Venetians
hoped in this way to sever all connection between
Filippo and their general. But Visconti was far too
wary to relinquish the advantage which he held. His
breach of faith, on this and other points of the treaty,
rendered war inevitable once more. In March, 1427,
Carmagnola obeyed a summons to Venice, and again
received the supreme command. This second campaign
presents the same features as that of the preceding
year — the same sluggishness on the side of the
general ; the same impatience, coupled with magni-
ficent offers, on the part of Venice ; the same intrigue
and pretended intelligence on the part of the duke.
It was rapidly becoming clear to the Venetians that
they had mistaken the capacity of Carmagnola and
the conditions of his temper ; that they had not
adequately reckoned the difficulty inseparable from
the employment of a mercenary general. The duke,
well pleased, saw that his enemies lost many oppor-
tunities of inflicting a loss upon him, while the man
he hated was walking surely to destruction.
The campaign opened disastrously for the Vene-
tians with the loss of Casal Maggiore, owing to the
inactivity of Carmagnola, who allowed the place to
fall without an effort to save it. At Venice the
disgust was deepened by the news that an emissary
CARMAGNOLA, A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. 167
from the duke had already found his way into the
camp, and that he was the bearer of terms of peace,
which the duke proposed, once more through the
mediation of the Venetian general. Angry letters
followed. But Carmagnola replied that he would
dismiss the envoy, and pledged himself to recover
Casal Maggiore in three days when the proper moment
arrived. He redeemed his pledge. But the Venetians
had little reason to rejoice at this success, for it brought
them into direct collision with their general. Carma-
gnola wished to set his prisoners at liberty, in accord-
ance with the custom of war. He informed the
government of his intention and asked their consent.
The republic cared nothing for the code of the
mercenary captains ; she desired to win and keep
every possible advantage, and saw, in the release of
the prisoners, only a ruinous prolongation of the war.
The reply was an order to retain the garrisons of the
captured towns. Carmagnola was not prepared to
disobey, and he submitted to what seemed to him a
disgraceful breach of military honour. The friction
of this episode increased the irritation at Venice, while
at the same time it threw Carmagnola into the sulks.
He allowed opportunity after opportunity to slip by.
The duke of Milan at this moment was sorely pressed
with war on both his borders ; Savoy attacking from
the west, and Venice from the east. Yet Carma-
gnola, instead of pressing into the Milanese, wasted
■the campaigning months in idleness on Iseo. The
complaints at Venice became loud voiced and popular ;
loud enough to reach the general's ears. Carmagnola
adopted a tone of indignation. He wrote to the
1 68 • VENETIAN STUDIES.
Senate accusing the republic of ingratitude, and
demanding on what points they found his conduct
amiss. Foscari had made himself in a measure
responsible for Carmagnola ; he did not now desire a
rupture between Venice and her general, which would
send him back to the duke of Milan charged with an
intimate knowledge of Venetian resources. Foscari
dictated the spirit of the answer which the Senate
returned to Carmagnola. Its tone endeavoured to be
soothing. The Venetians begged their general to
believe the republic fully satisfied, and to be assured
that the complaints, of which he had heard, represented
no real feeling on the part of the government. A false
statement of the case, and ruinous to Carmagnola, for
it helped to blind his eyes and to make him think that
Venice was in the same difficulty as the other Signori ;
that he was her master and might please himself in
his conduct towards her ; that he had only to hector
and she would give way. In truth, Venice found her-
self on the horns of Machiavelli's dilemma, the fate
of all who employ mercenary arms ; she could not
kindle her general to the glowing activity she desired
to see in him, nor yet could she shake him off. Out
of such a situation there was only one way of escape ;
but the season for taking it was not ripe yet.
From Lago Iseo Carmagnola returned to the
Lombard plain, and met Visconti's army at Maclodio,
where he fought the most important battle of this war
and was entirely successful. But, mindful of the
disgrace which had been forced upon him at Casal
Maggiore, without so much as consulting the govern-
ment he released the whole of his eight thousand
CARMAGNOLA, A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. 169
prisoners the day after his victory. And the Vene-
tians made no complaint ; on the contrary, Foscari
wrote a letter full of thanks to Carmagnola, and the
Senate bestowed a palace upon their victorious general.
The state was too thankful for this success to think of
any recrimination. At length they were about to sec
the superiority of Carmagnola's military skill, and to
reap the fruits of their expenses and their patience ;
for the battle of Maclodio had opened the way to
Milan, and no army intervened between the troops
of the republic and the capital of the duchy.
But they were bitterly disappointed. Carmagnola,
instead of taking any vigorous steps to follow up his
victory, closed the campaign on the plea that the
season was late. And when the government urged
him to take the field in the early spring of 1428,
they were met by a request for leave to retire once
more to the baths near Padua. Their disgust was
intense. Negotiations for peace, however, were al-
ready on foot, and the Venetians yielded a grudging
and ungracious consent At Abano the general found,
as he found wherever he went, an envoy from the
duke already waiting him. The presence of these
emissaries, constantly haunting his camp and dogging
his footsteps, encouraged Carmagnola to believe that
he might choose his own moment for returning to
Milan ; he did not surmise the peril that lay behind.
Like a true condottiere, he was playing his own
game, not fighting the battles of the republic. The
interests of this game dictated that he should not
press the duke too hard, but should rather, by a
moderate use of his advantages, seek to lay Visconti
170 VENETIAN STUDIES.
under obligations on which he might base a claim,
should he ever return to Filippo's service. And in
all probability he did intend to return when this war
should be concluded ; for at Milan he knew he would
find a wealthy paymaster whose wars were continuous,
and his half-finished palace still waited him.
Though Venice missed the full fruits of the victory
at Maclodio, the duke of Milan acknowledged the
weight of the blow, and peace was signed in April.
Carmagnola made a triumphal entry into Venice, and
the republic welcomed him with every circumstance
of pomp. He received publicly, in the piazza, the in-
vestiture of Chiari, and his father, now an old man,
came to see the honouring of his son. In less than
forty years Carmagnola had risen from a peasant herd
to be a knight and noble of one of the proudest states
in Italy. The contrast of fortunes was great. Never,
perhaps, has a career lain wider open to mediocre
talent than in Italy of the fifteenth century. Days
of pageantry followed, for Venice was liberal in her
rewards ; and, though disappointed of her fullest
hopes, yet a noble territory had been added to her
empire, in the Bresciano and the Bergamasco which
became hers by the peace of Ferrara.
A Visconti's peace, a pace Volpina, could not
be long lived ; and before a year was over Venice
saw that war was once more inevitable. The Vene-
tians watched the crisis with complacency, under the
impression that they were prepared and that they had
secured the services of Carmagnola ; for he had accepted
the retaining fee usually offered to a general on the
conclusion of a war. But at the very moment when
CARMAGNOLA, A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. 171
hostilities seemed on the point of breaking out, Carma-
gnola sent in his resignation. The Senate met to
consider this outrageous conduct, and declined to
accept the proposal. The general then stated his
terms with truly mercenary rapacity. He demanded
a permanent salary of twelve thousand ducats, in
peace or war. The position of the republic did not
allow her to hesitate long. With Visconti ready to
strike a blow, Carmagnola was her master for the
time being. The government signed the new contract.*
But Venice never forgot that for a single instant she
had lost her grasp on circumstances, and that her
general had held her at discretion. Jealousy and
suspicion of her own nobility exposed her to this
humiliation. We cannot help feeling how different
would have been the issue of the war had a Venetian
general, leading Venetian troops, been in the field.
Such an army, however, was rendered impossible by
the law which forbade a Venetian gentleman to
command more than twenty-five lances.j
When war actually broke out in 1430, this third
and last of Carmagnola's campaigns closely resembled
its predecessors, save that the details are all exagge-
rated point by point, the conduct of each actor is more
defined. The crisis of the drama approaches. There is
a superfluity of sluggishness on Carmagnola's part ;
the duke of Milan redoubles the number of messages
to the general, the Venetians show a steady crescendo
of impatience, till the balance dips at length against
* Romanin, loc. cit.
t A lance was composed of three men. See Contarini,
Delia rep. d. Veneza."
172 VENETIAN STUDIES.
their officer. The republic began by proposing the
largest bribes yet offered. She promised Carmagnola
a whole territory, or even the lordship of Milan, which
he had actually asked for, if he would crush the duke
and take his capital. Such offers were rapidly be-
coming a farce. Carmagnola refused to abandon his
inactivity, and the progress -of the war was marked
only by a series of checks with long intervals of
immobility between. All this while communications
from the duke were unceasingly maintained. Filippo
plied his messengers faster and faster as the climax
drew near ; each fresh arrival at Carmagnola's camp
shook the fabric of his tottering fortunes and under-
mined his credit and security at Venice. Yet he
never concealed a single event from the government.
His frankness was insultingly perfect. Now he writes
to the senate that such an one is with him from the
duke ; now he demands instructions how to treat
another.* He took no warning from the answers he
received, though they grew more and more sullen.
He was not intriguing with Filippo, but he was
trifling with Venice, and in his assurance he gave
himself no pains to conceal the fact.
At V^enice the animosity against Carmagnola
showed signs of becoming malignant. In October,
1 43 1, a motion had been made in the senate that
they should institute a secret inquiry into the con-
duct of their general, "et non stare in his perpetuis
laboribus et expensis." The proposal never came to
the vote, but was deferred while the government had
recourse once more to the old policy of bribes. Milan
* See Romanin, loc. cit.
CARMAGNOLA, A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. 173
was again offered to Carmagnola if he would act
with vigour and attack the duchy. Venice made
her ultimate appeal to the ambition and cupidity of
her general. She had no higher price to offer. Her
patience and her purse were at an end. This final
pause was of no avail. Carmagnola did not move ;
the duke's envoys did not cease to haunt his camp,
but rather followed one another faster than before.
The endurance of Venice was exhausted, and Car-
magnola's friends were forced to give way before the
cry for punishment.
On the 28th of March, 1432, the Ten took the
matter under consideration, and moved with their
accustomed rapidity and secrecy.* The same day the
council asked for the assistance of twenty assessors.
The court, therefore, which tried Carmagnola consisted
of thirty-seven members, including the doge, who
possessed only a casting vote. The court was bound
by oath to absolute silence on the matter outside the
council chamber. On the 29th a secretary was
despatched to Brescia with a letter inviting Car-
magnola to Venice, as the government desired to
consult him regarding the conduct of the war. At
the same time, to allay all suspicion, the council
issued similar invitations to the other captains in
the service of the republic. The precaution was
unnecessary ; Carmagnola never showed the slightest
alarm. He obeyed the summons with the perfect
alacrity of a clear conscience, and reached Venice on
the 7th of April. A guard of honour met him at
Mestre, and conducted him with all ceremony to the
* See Cibrario, *' Opuscoli Storici" (Milano : 1835).
174 VENETIAN STUDIES.
ducal palace. In the Sala delle Quattro Porte they
requested him to wait till the doge should be in-
formed of his arrival. Meanwhile his suite, who had
remained below, were ordered to go home, as the
general would stay to dine with the doge. Upstairs,
after a short interval, during which Carmagnola
chatted to the senators about him, one of the council
came with a message from Foscari, regretting that a
sudden indisposition prevented him from receiving
the count that day. Carmagnola turned to go down
to his gondola ; as he passed along the lower arcade
in order to reach the door upon the Molo, one of the
gentlemen about him said, " This way, if you please,
my lord count." " But that is not the way," replied
Carmagnola. " Pardon ; it is the right way." At
that moment he was surrounded and hurried to one
of the prisons of the palace. As the door closed on
him he cried, " I am a lost man." They tried to
console him, but he answered, " No, no ! We do not
cage the birds we mean to set at liberty again." For
the first time in his life he saw his position truly.
He knew now, when too late, that he had mistaken
long-suffering for feebleness, and his own insolence
for real power.
On the 9th of April the court appointed a com-
mittee of ten to draw up the charges against the
count. The committee received authority to torture
the prisoner and any other witnesses. Carmagnola
underwent the question of the fire and of the cord.
What confessions may have been wrung from him, or
what evidence from others, we do not know, for the bill
on which he was condemned no longer exists. What-
CARMAGNOLA, A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. 175
ever the confessions may have been matters little.
The Venetians were trying him for patent mis-
conduct during his whole service, and were now
resolved to close their account with an impracticable
servant. Holy Week and the festivities of Easter
came to interrupt the trial, and Carmagnola, tortured
in body and despairing in heart, languished in prison
while the city turned to its amusements. These cam.e
to an end on the 23rd of April, and the proceedings
against the count were resumed. The committee
sat day and night until the bill of attainder was
ready to present to the court. On the 5th of May
it was brought up to the council and read. Then,
in accordance with the custom which governed the
proceedings of the Ten, the vote to " proceed " was
moved in these terms, "that after what we have
heard and read we do now proceed against Count
Francesco Carmagnola, once our captain-general, on
the charge of injury wrought by him to our affairs
and against the honour and well-being of our state."
The votes fell : ayes, 25 ; noes, I ; for further consider-
ation, 9. On the announcement of the majority,
sentence was moved as follows : — " That the Count
Francesco Carmagnola, public traitor to our state,
shall to-day, in the evening at the usual hour, be led
with a gag in his mouth, and his hands tied behind
his back, as is customary, to the ordinary place of
execution between the two columns on the piazza of
Saint Mark, and there his head shall be struck off
with a sword so that he die." The doge proved
faithful to Carmagnola to the very last, and en-
deavoured to save his life by moving an amendment
176 VENETIAN STUDIES.
to substitute imprisonment for the capital sentence.
Foscari's motion found only eight supporters, while
for the original motion there were nineteen. The
sentence of death was at once carried to the count.
That same evening, about the hour of vespers, Car-
magnola's guards led him to the piazza. He was
dressed with great care and splendour in crimson
Velvet and a velvet cap alia Carmagnola. There,
between the two square columns at the south-west
corner of Saint Mark's, his head was severed from
his body at the third blow. He was buried with
considerable pomp in the Church of Santa Maria
Gloriosa dei Frari ; but shortly afterwards his body
is supposed to have been removed to San Francesco
in Milan.*
In less than six weeks Venice had taken a full
revenge for more than six years of disappointment.
The republic had opened the war against Milan with
a distinct object in view, and a belief that she had
found the man to carry it out. She made a mistake
in relying upon the continuance of Carmagnola's
first rage against the duke. She was baulked of her
* This church was destroyed in 1798 to make way for
barracks ; it is probable that the body of Carmagnola disappeared
then. There was a tradition that the count's head was placed
in an urn above the door leading to the cloisters of the Frari.
In February, 1874, this urn was opened, and not only a head,
but a whole body was found ; but the vertebrae of the neck had
not been severed, so that it could not be the body of Carmagnola.
I am indebted for the above information to the courtesy of Sig.
Guiseppe Rondani, secretary to the municipality of Carmagnola,
who most kindly placed at my disposal the correspondence of
that town with various societies in Milan and Venice, relating
to their search for the remains, of the count.
CARMAGNOLA, A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. 177
desire and placed in a dilemma, the inevitable result
of employing mercenary arms. She freed herself
by the only course open to her. Carmagnola, on
the other hand, acted as a true captain of adventure,
thinking chiefly of his own interests, holding his
employers and their desires in small account ; not
openly and positively a traitor to them, but traitorous
in so far that he cared but little for their success.
He had the misfortune to be stupid and to have
Venice for a mistress. He hardly knew his peril
between the republic and the duke of Milan, who
pursued and accomplished his ruin with a success
that did not always wait upon his dark designs. Car-
magnola, in short, took the chances of the perilous
game of adventure. He came very near to winning
the highest prize, but he forgot the one chance against
him, the power and the solvency of Venice. For his
mistake he paid the price with his head.
N
THE STATE ARCHIVES AND THE
CONSTITUTION OF THE VENE-
TIAN REPUBLIC*
In recent years a new tendency has been given to
historical studies by the avidity with which scholars
have investigated the masses of state documents
accumulated almost untouched, through centuries, in
the Record Offices of various nations. This tendency
has been in the direction of minuteness and accuracy
of detail. The finer shades of policy, the subtler
turns in the game of nations, have been revealed by
this intimate study of the documents which record
them. Among the archives of Europe there is none
superior, in historical value and richness of minutiae,
to the archives of the Venetian republic, preserved
now in the convent of the Frari at Venice. The
importance of these archives is due to three causes :
the position of the republic in the history of Europe,
* In this essay I am much indebted to the following, among
other works: — Baschet, " Les Archives de Venise" (Paris : 1870),
and "Souvenirs d'une Mission" (Paris: 1857); "II regio
Archivio Generale di Venezia " (Venice : 1875); "Calendar of
State Papers : Venice," vol. i. ; Sir T. Duffus Hardy's Report on
the Archives ; Giannotti, " Delia Rep. de Viniziani " (Firenze :
1850) ; St. Disdier, " La Ville et Rep. de Venise " (Paris : 1680) ;
Amelot della Houssaye, " Histoire du Gouvernement de Venise"
(Paris: 1667).
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION. 179
the fullness of the archives themselves, and the
remarkable preservation and order which distinguishes
them, in spite of the many dangers and vicissitudes
through which they have passed.
Venice enjoyed a position, unique among the states
of Europe, for two reasons. Until the discovery of
the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, she was
the mart of Europe in all commercial dealings with
the East — a position secured to her by her supremacy
in the Levant, and by the strength of her fleet ; and,
in the second place, the republic was the bulwark of
Europe against the Turk. These are the two dominant
features of Venice in general history ; and under both
aspects she came into perpetual contact with every
European power. The universal importance of her
position is faithfully reflected in the diplomatic
documents contained in her archives. The republic
maintained ambassadors and residents at every court
These men were among the most subtle and accom-
plished diplomatists of their time, and the govern-
ment they served was exacting and critical to the
highest degree. The result is that the despatches,
news-letters, and reports of the Venetian diplomatic
agents, form the most varied, brilliant, and singular
gallery of portraits, whether of persons or of peoples,
that exists. There is hardly a nation in Europe that
will not find its history illustrated by the papers
which belong to the Venetian department for foreign
affairs. Nor are the papers which relate to the home
government of the republic less copious and valuable.
Each magistracy has its own series of documents, the
daily record of its proceedings : in these we find the
i8o VENETIAN STUDIES.
whole of that elaborate machinery of state laid bare
before us in all its intricacy of detail ; and we are en-
abled to study the construction, the origin, development,
and ossification, of one of the most rigid and enduring
constitutions that the world has ever seen ; a constitu-
tion so strong in its component parts, so compact in
its rib-work, that it sufficed to preserve a semblance
of life in the body of the republic long after the heart
and brain had ceased to beat.
Admirable as are the preservation and order of
these masses of state papers, it is not to be expected
that each series, each magisterial archive, should be
complete. There are many broad lacunae, especially
in the earlier period, which must ever be a cause for
regret : for Venice growing is a more attractive and
profitable subject than Venice dying. During the
nine hundred and eighty-seven years that the govern-
ment of the republic held its seat in Venice, the state
papers passed through many dangers from fire, revo-
lution, neglect, or carelessness. When we recall the
fires of 1230, 1479, 1574, and 1577, it is rather matter
for congratulation that so much has escaped, than for
surprise that so much has been destroyed. The
losses would, undoubtedly, have been much more
severe had all the papers and documents been pre-
served in one place, as they are now. But the Vene-
tians stored the archives of the various magistracies
either at the offices of those magistrates, or in some
public building especially set apart for the purpose.
The secret chancellery, which was always an object
of great solicitude, containing as it did all the more
private papers of the state, was deposited in a room
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION. i8i
on the second floor of the ducal palace. Many of
the criminal records belonging to the Council of Ten
were stored in the Piombi under the roof of the
palace ; and the famous adventurer Casanova relates
how he beguiled some of his prison hours by reading
the trial of a Venetian nobleman, which he found
among other papers piled at the end of the corridor
where he was allowed to take exercise. Soon after
the fall of the republic, the following disposition of
the papers was made. The political archive was
stored at the Scuola di S. Teodoro ; the judicial, at
the convent of S. Giovanni Laterano ; the financial,
at S. Provolo. In the year 1815 the Austrian govern-
ment resolved to collect and arrange all state papers
in one place. The building chosen was the convent
of the Frari ; and the work was entrusted to Jacopo
Chiodo, the first director of the archives. The
scheme suggested by Chiodo has served as a basis for
the arrangement that has been already carried out,
or is still in hand.
Under the republic it was natural that access to
important diplomatic papers and to secrets of state
should be granted with reserve, and only to persons
especially authorized to make research. The directors
appointed by the Austrian government showed a
disposition to maintain that precedent ; and M.
Baschet relates that it was only by a personal appeal
to the emperor that he obtained access to the archives
of the Ten. The Italian government allow nearly
absolute liberty ; and nothing can exceed the courtesy
of the officials under their distinguished director, the
Commendatore Cecchetti.
1 82 VENETIAN STUDIES.
Any attempt to explain the archives of Venice
and to display their contents, must be preceded by
a statement of the main features of the constitution
oi the republic upon which the order and the arrange-
ment of the archives is based. The constitution of
Venice has frequently been likened to a pyramid,
with the Great Council for its base and the doge for
apex. The figure is more or less correct ; but it is
a pyramid that has been broken at its edges by
time and by necessity. The political body was origi-
nally constructed in four groups, or tiers — if we are
to preserve the pyramidal simile — one rising above
the other. These four tiers were the Maggior Con-
siglio or Great Council, the Lower House ; the Pre-
gadi or Senate, the Upper House ; the Collegio, or
the Cabinet ; and the doge. The famous Council
of Ten and its equally famous commission, the three
inquisitors of state, did not enter into the original
scheme ; they are an appendix to the state, an
intrusion, a break in the symmetry of the pyramid.
Later on we shall explain their construction and
relation to the main body of government. For the
present we leave them aside, and confine our attention
to the four departments of the Venetian constitution
above mentioned.
The Great Council, as is well known, did not
assume its permanent form and place in the Venetian
constitution till the year 1296. At that date the
famous revolution, known as the closing of the Great
Council, took place. By that act, which was only the
final step in a revolution that had been for long in
process, those citizens who were excluded from the
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION, 183
Great Council remained for ever outside the constitu-
tion ; all functions of government were concentrated
in the hands of those nobles who were included by the
council ; the constitution of the republic was stereo-
typed as a rigid oligarchy. Previous to the year 1296,
a great council had existed, created first in the reign
of Pietro Ziani(ii72); but this council was really
democratic in character, not oligarchic ; it was elected
each September, and its members were chosen from
the whole body of the citizens. Earlier still than the
reign of Ziani, the population used to meet tumult-
uously and express their opinion upon matters of
public interest, such as the election of a doge or a
declaration of war, first in the Condone under their
tribunes, while Venetia was still a confederation of
lagoon-islands ; and then in the Arengo under their
doge, when the confederation was centralized at
Rialto. But of these assemblies the latter was dis-
orderly and irregular, and the former was of doubtful
authority. It is from the closing of the Great Council
that we must date the positive establishment of the
Venetian oligarchy, and the completion of that con-
stitution which endured for five hundred years, from
1296 till the fall of the Republic in 1797.
The age at which the young nobles might take
their seats in the council, that is to say, might enter
upon public life, was fixed at twenty-five, except in
the cases of the Barbarelli, or thirty nobles between
the ages of twenty and twenty-five, who were elected
by ballot on the fourth of each December, St. Bar-
bara's Day ; and in the case of those who, in return
for money advanced to the state, obtained a special
l84 VENETIAN STUDIES.
grace to take their seats before their twenty-fifth
year.
The chief functions of the Great Council were the
passing of laws and the election of magistrates. But
in process of time the legislative duties of the council
were almost entirely absorbed by the Senate ; and
the Maggior Consiglio only retained its great and
distinguishing function, the election of almost every
officer of state, from the doge downwards. The large
number of these magistracies, and the various seasons
of the year at which they fell vacant, engaged the
Great Council in a perpetual series of elections. It is
not our intention to explain in detail the elaborate
process by which the Venetians carried out their
political elections ; such an explanation would carry
us beyond our scope, which is to state the position
and functions of each member in the constitution of
the republic. But, briefly, the process was this. The
law required either two or four competitors for every
vacant magistracy, and the election to that magistracy
was said to take place a due or a qitattro mani,
respectively. If the office to be filled required quattro
mani, the whole body of the Great Council balloted
for four groups of nine members each, who were
chosen by drawing a golden ball from among the
silver ones in the balloting urn. Each of these
groups retired to a separate room, and there each
group elected one candidate to go to the poll for the
vacant office. The names of the four candidates
were then presented to the council and balloted.
The candidate who secured the largest number of
votes, above the half of those present, was elected to
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION. 185
the vacant office. Thus the election to a magistracy
was a triple process ; first, the election of the nomi-
nators, then the election of the candidates, and finally
the election to the office.
The Great Council, as representing the whole
republic, possessed certain judicial functions, which
were used on rare occasions only, when the state
believed itself placed in grave danger through the
fault of its commanders. The famous case of Vettor
Pisani, after his defeat at Pola, in 1379, and the case
of Antonio Grimani, in the year 1499, were both sent
to the grand council, who passed sentence on those
generals. But, broadly speaking, the judicial functions
of the Maggior Consiglio hardly existed, its legislative
functions dwindled away, and were absorbed by the
Senate, and its chief duty and prerogative lay in the
election of almost every state official.
Coming now to the second tier in the pyramid of
the constitution, the Senate, or Pregadi — the invited —
we find that the Senate proper was composed of sixty
members, elected in the Great Council, six at a time.
The elections took place once a week, and were so
arranged that they should be complete by the first of
October in each year. In addition to the Senate
proper, another body of sixty, called the Zonta or
addition, was elected by the outgoing Senate at the
close of its year of office ; but it was necessary that
the names of the Zonta should be approved by the
Great Council before their election was valid. The
Senate and the Zonta together formed one hundred
and twenty members ; and besides these, the doge,
his six councillors, the Council of Ten, the supreme
iS6 VENETIAN STUDIES.
court of appeal, and many special magistrates, who
presided over departments of finance, customs, and
justice, belonged ex officio to the Senate, and brought
the number of votes up to two hundred and forty-six.
Further, fifty-one magistrates of minor departments
also sat, with the right to debate, but without the
right to vote.
The Senate was the real core of the administra-
tion. The presence, ex officio, of so many and such
various officers of state sufficiently indicates the wide
field which was covered by the authority of the
Pregadi. The large number of the senatorial body,
and the diversity of subjects with which it dealt,
required that business should be carried on with
parsimony of time and precision of method ; and
therefore private members were restricted to the right
of debate. Only the doge, his councillors, the savii
grandi, and the savii di terra ferma had the right to
move the Senate ; and their propositions related to
peace, war, foreign affairs, instructions to ambassadors
and representatives of foreign courts, to commercial
treaties, finance, and home legislation. The various
measures were spoken to by their proposers, and by
the magistrates whose offices they affected. As in
the case of the Great Council, the Senate also on rare
occasions exercised judicial functions. It was in the
discretion of the College to send a faulty commander
for trial either to the Great Council or to the Senate ;
but in that case the charge must be one of negligence
or misjudgment; if the charge implied treason, it was
taken before the Council of Ten. A few of the
higher officers of state were elected in the Senate,
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION. 187
among them the savii grandi and the savii di terra
ferma, and the admiral of the fleet. The functions of
the Senate were legislative, judicial, and elective.
But just as the Great Council was pre-eminently the
elective body, so the Senate was pre-eminently the
legislative body in the constitution of Venice.
The Collegio, or Cabinet of ministers, formed the
third tier in the pyramid. The College was composed
of the following members : the doge, his six coun-
cillors, and the three chiefs of the court of appeal ;
these ten persons formed the collegio minore, or
serenissima signoria ; in addition to these there were
the six savii grandi, the five savii di terra ferma, and
the five savii da mar ; a body of twenty-six persons
in all, forming the College. Beginning with the lowest
in rank, the savii agli ordini, or da mar, were, as their
name implies, a Board of Admiralty ; but they acted
in that capacity under the orders of the savii grandi,
upon whom the naval affairs of the republic imme-
diately depended. The savii agli ordini had a vote
but no voice in the College ; this post was given, for
the most part, to young and promising politicians ;
it was a training school for statesmen : " Officio loro,"
says Giannotti, "e tacere ed ascoltare." The office
lasted for six months only ; and so there was a
constant stream of young men passing through the
political school, and becoming intimately acquainted
with the affairs of the republic and the methods of
government. How excellent that school must have
been will become apparent as we proceed to note the
functions of the College, of which the savii agli ordini
formed a silent part.
i88 VENETIAN STUDIES.
Next in order above the savii agli ordini came
the savii di terra ferma. This board was composed
of five members ; the savio alia scrittura, or minister
for war ; the savio cassier, or chancellor of the
exchequer ; the savio alle ordinanze, or minister for
the native militia in the cities on the mainland ; the
savio ai da mo, or minister for the execution of all
measures voted urgent ; the savio ai ceremoniali, or
minister for ceremonies of state. These savii di
terra ferma, like the savii agli ordini, held office for
six months only.
The six savii grandi, who came above the savii di
terra ferma, superintended the actions of the two
boards below them, and, if necessary, issued orders
which would override those of the other ministers.
They were, in fact, the responsible directors of the
state. The savii grandi were required to prepare all
business to be laid before the College, where it was
first discussed and arranged before being submitted
to the Senate for approval. To facilitate this labour
of preparation, each of the savii grandi took a week
in turn, and the savio of the week was in fact prime
minister of Venice. It was he who read despatches,
granted audiences to ambassadors, and prepared
official replies. The doge presided in the College, it
is true, but it was the savio of the week who opened
the business, and suggested the various measures to
be adopted.
Besides these boards of savii, the College included
the ducal councillors, and the three chiefs of the
court of appeal. We shall speak of these latter when
we come to the judicial department of the constitution.
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION. 189
The office of ducal councillor was, perhaps, the most
venerable in Venice. These six men held, as it were,
the ducal honours and functions in commission ; they
embodied the authority of the doge to such an extent,
that without their presence he could not act ; he
became a nonentity unless supported by four at least
of his council ; while, on the other hand, the absence
of the doge in no way diminished the authority of the
ducal councillors. For example, the doge without
his council could not preside, neither in the Maggior
Consiglio, nor in the Senate, nor in the College ; but
four ducal councillors had the power to preside with-
out the doge. The doge might not open despatches
except in the presence of his council, but his council
might open despatches in the absence of the doge.
Yet, great as were the external honours of the ducal
councillors, the office was rather ornamental than im-
portant. It was the savii grandi who were the direct-
ing spirit through all the multitudinous affairs of the
College. As we have seen, those affairs embraced the
whole field of government, except the field of justice.
The College had no judicial functions, nor did it
legislate. As the Maggior Consiglio was the elective
member, and the Senate the legislative, so the College
was the initiative and executive member in the state.
The College proposed measures which became law in
the Senate ; and the execution of those laws was
entrusted to the College, which had the machinery
of state at its disposal. It is this right of initiating
which distinguishes the College ; and it is just upon
this point that the ducal councillors appear to have a
slight pre-eminence ; for the doge, his council, and the
190 VENETIAN STUDIES.
savii alone had the right to initiate in the Senate ; the
doge, his council, and the chiefs of the Ten alone
had the right to initiate in the Council of Ten ; the
doge and his council alone had the right to initiate in
the Maggior Consiglio. The doge and his council
alone move through all departments of government,
presiding and initiating, and embodying the spirit of
the republic ; and yet in no case is their power great ;
for the savii had more influence in the Senate, the
chiefs of the Ten in the Council of Ten ; and the Great
Council, where the doge and his councillors had the
field to themselves, was of little importance in the
direction of affairs.
At the apex of the constitutional pyramid we find
the doge.* The doge also had his distinctive functions
in the state ; his duties were ornamental rather than-
administrative. Though all the acts of the Govern-
ment were executed in his name, laws passed,
despatches sent, treaties made, and war declared,
yet it is not in these departments that the doge
stands pre-eminent ; it is throughout the pomp and
display of the republic that he is supreme ; and the
archive wherein his glory shows most brightly is the
Ceremoniali.
The doge was elected for .life. When a doge
died, the eldest ducal councillor filled the office of
vice-doge until the election of the new prince. The
remains of the deceased doge were laid out in the
chamber of the Pioveghi, on th^ first floor of the ducal
palace, dressed in robes of state, the mantle of cloth
of gold, and the ducal biretta. Twenty Venetian
* See Checchetti, "II Doge di Venezia" (Venezia : 1864).
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION, 191
noblemen were appointed to attend in the chapelle
ardente. On the third day the doge was buried ; and
the Great Council on the same day elected the officers
who were to revise the coronation oath, and to render
its provisions more stringent if the conduct of the
deceased had revealed any point where a future doge
could exercise even the smallest independence in
constitutional matters. At the same time the council
elected another body of officers, who were required to
examine the conduct of the late doge, and, if he had
violated his coronation oath, his heirs paid the penalty
by a fine. Immediately after the appointment of
these officers, the Maggior Consiglio proceeded to
create the forty-one electors to the dukedom. The
process of election was long and intricate, and occu-
pied five days at the least ; for there was a quintuple
series of ballots and votings to be concluded before
the forty-one were finally chosen. When the forty-
one noblemen had been appointed, they were taken
to a chamber specially prepared for them, where, as
in the case of a papal election, they were obliged to
stay until they had determined upon the new doge.
They were bound by oath never to reveal what
took place inside this election chamber. But that
oath was not always observed in the spirit ; and
memoranda of certain proceedings of the forty-one are
still preserved in the private archives of the Marcello
family. The first step was to elect three priors, or
presidents, and two secretaries. The presidents took
their seats at a table on which stood a ballot-box and
an urn. The secretaries gave to every elector a slip of
paper, upon which each one wrote the name of the
192 VENETIAN STUDIES.
man whom he proposed as doge. The forty-one slips
of paper were then placed in the urn, and one was
drawn out at hazard. If the noble, whose name was
written upon the slip, chanced to be an elector, he
was required to withdraw. Then each of the electors
was at liberty to attack the candidate, to point out
defects and recall misdeeds.* These hostile criticisms,
which covered the whole of a candidate's private
life, his physical qualities and his public conduct,
were written down by the secretaries, and the can-
didate was recalled. The objections urged against
him were read over to the aspirant, without the
names of the urgers appearing, and he was invited
to defend himself. Attack and defence continued till
no further criticisms were offered, and then the name
of the candidate was balloted before the priors. If it
received twenty-five favourable votes, its owner was
declared doge ; if less than twenty-five, a fresh name
was drawn from the urn, and the whole process was
repeated until some candidate secured the necessary
five and twenty votes. As soon as this issue was
reached, the Signoria was informed of the result, and
the new doge, attended by the electors, descended to
Saint Mark's, where, from the pulpit on the left side
of the choir, the prince was shown to the people, and
where, before the high altar, he took the coronation
oath and received the standard of Saint Mark. The
great doors of the Basilica were then thrown open,
and the doge passed in procession round the piazza
and returned to the Porta della Carta. At the top of
the Giants' Stair the eldest ducal councillor placed
* See the Marcello MS.
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION. 193
the biretta on his head, and he was brought to the
Sala dei Pioveghi, where the late doge had lain in
state, and where he too would one day come. Then
the doge retired to his private apartment, and the
ceremony of election closed.
As we have already observed, the position of the
doge in the republic of Venice was almost purely
ornamental. The doge presided, either in person or
by commission through his councillors, at every
council of state ; he presided, however, not as a
guiding and deliberating chief, but as a symbol of
the majesty of Venice. He is there not as an indi-
vidual, a personality, but as the outward and visible
sign of an idea, the idea of the Venetian oligarchy.
The history of the personal authority of the doge
falls into three periods. A period of great vigour
and almost despotic power dates from the foundation
of the dukedom, in the year 697, down to the reign
of Pietro Ziani in 1172. During this first period, the
ducal authority showed a tendency to become con-
centrated, and almost hereditary in the hands of one
or two powerful families. For example, we have
seven doges of the Partecipazio house, five doges of
the Candiani, and three of the Orseoli. But the
rivalry and balanced power of these great families
eventually exhausted one another, and preserved the
dukedom of Venice from ever becoming a kingdom.
A second period extends from the year 1172 down
to 1457, and is marked by the emergence of the great
commercial houses, and the development of the
oligarchy upon the basis of a Great Council. The
aristocracy during this period were engaged in ex-
O
194 VENETIAN STUDIES.
eluding the people from any share in the government,
and in curbing and finally crushing the authority of
the doge. The steps in this process are indicated by
the closing of the Great Council, the revolution of
Tiepolo, the trials of Marino Faliero, Lorenzo Celsi,
and the Foscari. The third period covers what
remains of the republic, from 1457 down to 1797.
During this period the doge was little other than the
figurehead of the republic ; the point of least weight
and greatest splendour ; the brilliant apex to the
pyramid of the Venetian constitution.
So far, then," we have examined the four tiers in
the original structure of the constitution, the doge,
the College, the Senate, and the Great Council ; and
we have seen that, broadly speaking, these were,
respectively, ornamental, initiative and executive,
legislative and elective. But this pyramid of the con-
stitution was not perfectly symmetrical ; its edges
were broken. This interruption of outline was caused
by the Council of Ten. The exact position in the
Venetian constitution occupied by this famous council,
and its relations to the other members of the govern-
ment, have proved a constant source of difficulty and
error to students of Venetian history. Leaving aside
the obscure problem of the origin of the Ten, it is
still possible for us to indicate the constitutional
necessity which called that council into existence.
As we have pointed out, the College could not act
on its own responsibility without the Senate ; the
Senate could not initiate without the College, for the
preparation of all affairs passed through the hands
of the College. To establish connection between
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION. 195
these two branches of the administration was a pro-
cess that required some time ; it could not be done
swiftly and secretly. In all crises of political import-
ance, whether home or foreign, some instrument,
more expeditious than the Senate, was required to
sanction the propositions of the College. That instru-
ment, acting swiftly and secretly, with a speed and
secrecy impossible in so large a body as the Senate,
was created with the Council of Ten. The Ten were
an extraordinary magistracy, devised to meet unex-
pected pressure upon the ordinary machine of govern-
ment. The history of the emergence of the Ten proves
this view. Without determining whether the council
existed previous to the year 13 10, we may take that
year as the date of its first appearance as a potent
clement in the state. The rebellion of Tiepolo and
Querini, an aristocratic revolt against the growing
power of the new commercial nobility, paralyzed the
ordinary machinery of state, and revealed the danger
inherent in a large and slow-moving body of rulers.
The Ten were called to power by the Venetians, just
as the Romans created the dictatorship, in order to
save the state in a dangerous crisis.
The place of the Ten in the constitutional structure
is below the College and parallel with the Senate.
Below the College the administration bifurcates ; the
ordinary course of business flows through the Senate,
the extraordinary through the Ten. The Ten pos-
sessed an authority equal to that of the Senate ; the
choice of which instrument should be used rested
with the College. The Ten appear to be of more
importance than the Senate, solely because they were
196 VENETIAN STUDIES.
used upon more critical and dramatic occasions.
Wherever the machinery of the College and Senate
moves too slowly, we find the swifter machinery of
the College and the Ten in motion. And so not only
in poHtical affairs, home and foreign, but also in
affairs financial and judicial, the Council of Ten takes
its part. The Ten, as being the readier instrument
to the hands of the College, gradually absorbed more
and more of the functions which originally belonged
to the Senate. This process of absorption, and the
extension of the province of the Ten, is marked by
the establishment of its sub-commissions, which took
their place in every department side by side with the
delegations of the Senate and the ordinary magis-
trates. In politics and foreign affairs there is the
famous office of the three inquisitors of state. In
the region of justice all cases of treason and coining,
and certain cases of outrage on public morals, came
before the Ten ; and it was always open to the
College to remove a case from the ordinary courts
to the Ten, when state reasons rendered it expedient
to do so. In the police department the Esecutori con-
tro la Bestemmia, and in finance the Camerlenghi, were
officers of that council. In the War Office the artillery
was under their control ; and in the arsenal certain
galleys, marked CX., were always at their disposal.
These five great members of the state, four regular
and one irregular, formed the political and legislative
departments of the Venetian government. It remains
now to give a brief account of the judicial machinery
of the republic before proceeding to examine the
papers which belong to these various departments.
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION. 197
In the administration of justice all cases, criminal
as well as civil, were broadly divided into cases arisin^c^
in the city itself, di deiitro, and cases arising on the
mainland or elsewhere throughout the Dominion,
known as cases di fuori. In Dalmatia, the Levant, and
on the mainland, justice was administered, in the first
instance, by officers who bore most frequently the
title of rector. In Venice cases were tried, in the
first instance, before various special courts, each
having jurisdiction in certain cases only. Among
these courts we may mention the police courts of
the signori di notte and the cinque alia pace ; the
court of the Pioveghi, which decided cases of con-
tract ; the Sanitary court, the Jews' court, the
Strangers' court. From all these courts of first
instance, in the Dominion as well as in Venice, there
was an appeal to the supreme courts. The courts
of appeal were four in number; the quarantia crimi-
nale, the quarantia vecchia civile, the quarantia
nuova civile, and the collegio delle biade. To begin
with the lowest in authority ; the collegio delle biade
was a court composed of twenty-two judges, whose
duty was to try civil cases on appeal, both di dentro
and di fuori, in which the value at stake stood be-
tween fifty and three hundred ducats. The cases
di dentro and the cases di fuori were heard by this
court in alternate months. As the court was com-
posed of twenty- two members, it might be equally
divided ; in that case the cause was sent up to the
appeal courts above ; to the quarantia vecchia, if it
were an appeal di dentro ; to the quarantia nuova, if
it were an appeal di Jiiori.
198 VENETIAN STUDIES.
The quarantia vecchia civile and the quarantia
nuova civile were two courts, composed of forty
judges each, whose duties were to try appeal cases
where the stake stood above the value of three
hundred ducats. Cases di dentro went before the
old court, cases di fiiori were heard in the new court.
The forty judges of the quarantia nuova were elected
in the Great Council ; they were required to be
above the age of thirty. These forty judges served
eight months in the quarantia nuova, and then moved
on to the quarantia vecchia, where they served a
second eight months ; they then passed into the
quarantia criminale for a third period of eight months.
The Great Council elected a new quarantia nuova
every eight months ; and a nobleman's term of
judicial service lasted for twenty-four months, in all ;
after which he was ineligible for re-election till eight
months had elapsed. If the new court were equally
divided on a case of appeal, the cause passed into
the old court, and vice versa ; if the courts, upon
this second hearing, were still equally divided, the
case was sent up to the Senate, upon a motion made
in the Great Council.
The quarantia criminale tried all criminal cases of
appeal, both di dentro and di fuori ; but whereas the
two other quarantie were purely courts of appeal, the
quarantia criminale had the power to cite criminal cases
before it in the first instance. The criminal appeal
court was the most ancient and honourable court in
Venice; its three presidents sat ex officio in the Col-
legio, and were members of the Signoria, accompany-
ing the doge whenever he presided at any council, and
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION, 199
embodying and representing the spirit of Justice in the
Venetian constitution. The three presidents of the
criminal court held their seats in the Signoria for two
months at a time, and were then succeeded by other
three. During their absence from their own court
their place was taken by three ducal councillors,
called the consiglieri da basso, who represented the
doge by the side of Justice, as the presidents repre-
sented Justice by the side of the doge.
Each of the three quarantie had three officials
permanently attached to the court for the purpose of
preparing and explaining the case to be submitted to
the forty judges. The officers of the criminal court
were called the avvogadori di commun ; those of the
old civil court were called auditori vecchi ; those of
the new civil court were called auditori nuovi. If a
suitor wished to appeal against the decision of a rector
in a civil suit, he came to Venice and saw the auditori
nuovi. They cited both parties before them, and
heard the case exactly as it had been pleaded before
the rector. If one or more of the auditori held that
the appeal ought to lie, then, supposing the value in
dispute to be below fifty ducats, the auditori them-
selves heard the case ; but if the value was above fifty
and under three hundred ducats, the case was sent to
the coUegio delle biade ; if the value exceeded three
hundred ducats, the case went before the quarantia
nuova. The appellant caused the clerk of the court
to enter his case on the list in pursuance of an order
from the auditori ; and the cases were taken in order
of date, except cases between members of a family, or
cases affecting a ward or perishable goods, and these
200 VENETIAN STUDIES.
had the precedence. The presidents were bound to
yield the court to the appellant as soon as possible ;
and when the case had been called on, it might not
occupy more than three days. The auditori who
had allowed the appeal were bound to defend it before
the court, and to show reason why they had permitted
the court to be moved. No advocate might speak for
more than an hour and a half measured by a sand
glass ; but that hour and a half did not include the
time occupied in reading papers. When the pleadings
were closed, the court arrived at its judgment by
vote. Three kinds of vote were possible : the vote
tagliare, to quash the judgment of the court below ;
the vote lodare, to confirm that judgment ; or the
vote no?t sinceri, undecided. If the votes tagliare
exceeded the votes lodare and non sinceri taken to-
gether, the case was sent down again to the original
court. If the votes lodare exceeded the votes tagliare
and non sinceri, the judgment of the court was con-
firmed. But if neither of these results were reached,
the court heard the case again, minus the non sinceri
voters. This same method of procedure was observed
in the other quarantie ; but if the quarantia criminale
quashed a judgment, the case was not sent down to
the original court ; the quarantia itself passed the
final sentence.
In many cases appeal, which implied a journey
to Venice, was too expensive for the poor of the
distant provinces. To meet this difficulty the audi-
tori nuovi were obliged to go circuit every two years
through the mainland towns, and three sindici da
mar through the towns of Dalmatia, Greece, and the
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION. 201
Levant, hearing appeals and citing them to Venice
when necessary.
The arrangements for the pay of justice were both
simple and efficient. The members of the criminal
forty received two-thirds of a ducat, and the members
of the other forties received one-third of a ducat each
every time they sat. The avvogadori, who had charge
of the criminal cases, were paid a fixed sum yearly
out of fines and confiscations. In civil cases the
plaintiff paid to the judge of first instance a certain
amount per cent, on the value at issue. If he
appealed, he paid the same amount again to the
auditori. If he won his appeal, he recovered from
the judge of first instance, who was therefore paid for
sound judgments only ; if he lost his appeal, he
recovered from the auditori, who were thus refused
payment for sending a case before the court which
the forty judges ignored ; and this regulation served
to protect the court of appeal from abuse ; for
frivolous appeals brought no pay to the auditori, and
were sure to be disallowed by them at the outset.
One of the most remarkable features in the Vene-
tian constitution is the infinite subdivision of govern-
ment, and the number of offices to be filled. Nobles
alone were eligible for the majority of these offices,
and if we consider how small a body the Great
Council really was, it is clear that the larger number
of Venetian noblemen must have been employed in
the service of the state at some time in their lives.
The great political and administrative activity which
reigned inside the comparatively small body that
formed the ruling caste, as compared with the absolute
202 VENETIAN STUDIES.
stagnation and quiet which marked the life of the
ordinary citizen, is one of the most noteworthy points
in the history of Venice. Every noble above the age
of twenty-five was a member of the Maggior Consiglio ;
every week that council was engaged in filling up some
office of state, had some new candidate before it. The
tenure of all offices, except the dukedom and the pro-
curatorship of St. Mark, was so brief, rarely exceed-
ing a year or sixteen months, that the fret and activity
of elections must have been nearly incessant. This
constant unrest bore its fruit in perpetual intrigues,
and censors were appointed to check the rampant
corruption and bribery. But the main point which
is impressed upon us is the universality of political
training to which all the nobles of Venice were
subjected. No matter how frivolous a young patri-
cian might be, he was obliged to sit in the Great
Council ; he would be called upon to assist in electing
the Ten, whose omniscience and severity he had every
reason to dread ; he might even find himself named
to fill some minor post. It was impossible, under
these circumstances, that he should fail to be educated
politically, or that he should ever lose the keenest
interest in every movement of the state. It is to this
political activity that we must look for one of the
reasons which conduced to that extraordinary long-
evity which the constitution of Venice displayed.
Each of the government offices, many as they
were, possessed its own collection of papers. These
are either still in loose sheets, just as they left the
office, or bound in volumes. They are indicated by
the name of the government department, the subject
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION 203
dealt with, and the date. The papers are of three
kinds ; first, there are the files or filze, the original
minutes of the board, written down in actual council
by the secretaries, and with \\i^ filze are the despatches
or other documents upon which the council took
measures. In many of the more important depart-
ments, such as the Senate, the Ten, or the College,
these filze were epitomized ; the substance of each
day's business was written out in large volumes known
as " Registri ; " each entry was signed by the secretary
who had made the digest, and was accepted as
authentic for all purposes of reference. These
registers are, in many cases, of the greatest value
where the files have been destroyed or lost. They
were more constantly in use, and therefore more
carefully preserved ; and now they frequently form
our sole authority for certain periods. As a rule the
registers are very full and good ; they contain all
that is of importance in the files ; but in making
research upon any point it is never safe to ignore the
files where they exist. In some cases the secretaries
made a further digest of the registers in volumes
known as " Rubrics," which contain in brief the head-
ings of all materials to be found in the registers. As
the registers sometimes supply the place of lost files, so
the rubrics are occasionally our only authority where
registers and file are both missing. The rubrics are
often of the highest value. As an instance, we may
cite the twenty volumes of rubrics to the despatches
from England between the years 1603 and 1748.
The method of research, therefore, where all three
kinds of documents exist is this : to examine first the
204 VENETIAN STUDIES.
rubrics, then the registers, and then the files. But the
infinite subdivisions of the government ofifices in
Venice render the task of research somewhat be-
wildering ; and a student cannot be certain that he
has exhausted all the information on his subject,
until he has examined a large number of these minor
offices. He will probably find some notice of the
point he is examining in the papers of the Senate
or of the Ten, and if it be a matter of home affairs,
he can trace it thence through the various magistracies
under whose cognizance it would come ; or if it be
a matter of foreign policy, he will find further infor-
mation in the papers of the College.
Under the republic these collections of state
papers were not known as archives, but as chan-
celleries. The collections of highest interest, the
papers to which the student is most likely to turn
his attention, are those relating to the ceremony,
to the home, and to the foreign policy of Venice.
These three groups are contained in the ducal, the
secret, and the inferior chancelleries. The three
chancelleries were committed to the charge of the
grand chancellor and his staff of secretaries, who
received, arranged, and registered the official papers
as they issued from the various councils of state.
The grand chancellor was not a patrician ; he was
chosen from that upper class of commoners known as
cittadini originarii, an inferior order of nobility, rank-
ing below the governing caste, but bearing coat
armour. The office of grand chancellor was of great
dignity and antiquity, and was held for life. The
chancellor was head and representative of the people,
THE VENETIAN- CONSTITUTION. 205
as the doge was head and representative of the
patricians ; and, when the nobility began to exclude
the people from all share in the government, the
grand chancellor was allowed to be present at all
sessions of the Great Council and of the Senate as the
silent witness of the people, confirming the acts of
the government, and bridging, though by the finest
thread, the gulf that otherwise separated the governed
from the governing. The part which the grand
chancellor took in the business of the Maggior Con-
siglio and of the Senate was a constant and an active
part. It was his duty to superintend the arrange-
ments for every election, to direct the secretaries in
attendance, to announce the names of the candidates
for office, and to proclaim the successful competitor.
His seat in the Great Council hall was on the left-hand
of the doge's dais, and his secretaries sat below him.
But the custody of the state papers was by far the
most important function which the grand chancellor
had to perform. To assist him in these labours he
was placed at the head of a large college of secretaries,
trained in a school especially established to fit them
for their duties. In the year 1443 a decree of the
(jreat Council required the doge and the Signoria
to elect each year twelve lads to be taught Latin,
rhetoric, and philosophy, and the number of the pupils
was gradually increased. From this school they
passed out by examination, and became first extra-
ordinaries and ordinaries, called notaries ducal, then
secretaries to the Senate, and finally secretaries to
the Ten. The post of secretary was one which re-
quired much diligence and discretion. The secretaries
2o6 VENETIAN STUDIES.
were in constant attendance on the various councils
of state, and thus became intimately acquainted with
all the secret affairs of the republic. They were
frequently sent on delicate missions. It was a
secretary of the Ten who brought Carmagnola to
Venice to stand his trial ; and, as we shall presently
relate, it was a secretary of the Senate who announced
to Thomas Killigrew, the English minister, his dis-
missal from Venice. The secretaries were sometimes
accredited as residents to foreign courts, though they
were not eligible for the post of ambassador. Inside
the chancellery the secretaries were entirely at the
disposal of the grand chancellor, and their duties were
to study, to invent, and to read cipher ; to transcribe
the registers and rubrics ; to keep the annals of the
Council of Ten, and to enter the laws in the statute
book.
We may now turn our attention to the principal
series of state papers which issued from the five great
members of the constitution, the Maggior Con-
siglio, the Senate, the Ten, the College, and the doge,
and show how these papers were arranged under the
three chancelleries of which we have spoken.
The cancelleria inferiore was preserved in one
large room near the head of the Giants' Staircase in
the ducal palace, and was entrusted to the care of
the notaries ducal, the lowest order of secretaries.
The documents in this chancellery related chiefly
to the doge ; his rights, his official possessions, his
restrictions, and his state. Among these papers,
accordingly, we find the coronation oaths, the
reports of the commissioners appointed to examine
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION. 207
those oaths, and the reports of the commissioners
appointed to review the life of each doge deceased.
This series is valuable as revealing the steps by which
the aristocracy slowly curtailed the personal authority
of the doge, and bound his office about with iron
fetters, and crushed his power. In addition to these
papers the inferior chancellery contained the docu-
ments relating to the dignitaries of Saint Mark's in
its capacity as ducal chapel ; the order and ceremony
of the ducal household ; the expenditure of the civil
list ; and the archives of the procurators of Saint
Mark, which contained the wills, trusts, and bequests
of private citizens.
The ducal chancellery, which the Council of the
Ten once called " cor nostri status',' was preserved on
the upper floor of the palace, and was reached by the
Scala d'oro. The papers were arranged in a number
of cupboards surmounted by the arms of the various
grand chancellors who had presided in that office.
The documents of the ducal chancellery are of far
higher importance than those contained in the
cancelleria inferiore ; they consist of political papers
which it was not necessary to keep secret. Among
the many interesting series of documents which fell
to the ducal chancellory, the most valuable are the
" compilazione delle Leggi," or statute-books dis-
tinguished by the various colours of their bindings —
gold, roan, and green — to mark the statutes which
relate to the Maggior Consiglio, the Senate, and the
College respectively ; the " secretario allc voci," or
record of all elections in the Great Council ; the " libri
gratiarum/' or special privileges. But most important
2o8 VENETIAN STUDIES.
of all is the great series of documents which include
the whole legislation of the Senate relating to Venetian
affairs on sea and land. Of this vast series, those
marked Terra contain 3128 volumes of files, 411
volumes of registers, and 7 volumes of rubrics ; those
marked Mar number 1286 volumes of files, 247
volumes of registers, and 7 volumes of rubrics. It
will easily be seen how important the ducal chancel-
lery is, both for the verification of dates, and also as
displaying so large a tract of the Venetian home
administration.
But important as the ducal chancellery un-
doubtedly is, it cannot vie in interest with the
cancelleria secreta, which might, with every justice,
have been called '^ cor nostri status^' for it is in the
papers of that chancellery that the long history of the
growth, splendour, and decline of the republic is to
be traced in all its manifold details and complicated
relations. The secret chancellery was established by
a decree of the Great Council in the year 1402. Its
object was to preserve those papers of highest state
importance from the publicity to which the ducal
chancellery was exposed. The regulation of the
secret chancellery was undertaken by the Council of
Ten, and the rigorous orders which they issued from
time to time abundantly prove the difficulty they
experienced in securing the secrecy which they
desired. The secret chancellery became the deposi-
tory of all state papers of great moment ; and if we
take the chief members of the constitution in order,
and note the documents issuing from them which fell
to the custody of the secreta^ we shall see how the
THE VENETIAN CCNSTITUTION. 209
great flow of Venetian history is to be followed
here rather than in any other department of the
archives.
To begin with the Maggior Consiglio, we have the
long series of registers containing the deliberations
of the council from the year 1232 down to the fall of
the republic in 1797, occupying forty-two volumes, and
distinguished, at first, by such capricious names as
"Capricomus,""Pilosus," "Presbiter," and "Fronesis;"
and later on by the names of the secretaries who
prepared them, " Ottobonus primus," "Ottobonus
filius," " Busenellus/' and "Vianolus." In the special
archive of the avvogadori di commun, a contemporary
series of registers is to be found ; it covers from 1232
to 1547, and should be consulted together with the
first series, for it is more voluminous and minute.
The first reference to England that occurs in the
Venetian archives is in the volume "Fronesis" (1318-
1385)- This, and all other documents relating to
Great Britain, have been collected and rendered
accessible in the splendid and monumental series of
the "Calendar of State Papers," edited with such
diligence and care by the late Mr. Rawdon Brown.
The Senate supplied a far larger number of papers
to the secret chancellery than that yielded by the
Great Council. This was to be expected, owing to
the central position of the Senate in the constitution,
and its prominent place in the management of
Venetian policy, home and foreign. The oldest
documents in the archives of Venice belong to the
Senate. They are contained in the volumes of pacts
or treaties, seven in number, without including the
P
210 VENETIAN STUDIES.
volume " Albus," which is devoted to treaties between
the republic and the Eastern Empire, or the volume
" Blancus," which contains the treaties between Venice
and the Emperors of the West. The thirty-three
volumes of "Commemoriali" formed a sort of com-
monplace book for the use of statesmen ; in them
were registered briefly the most important events
and abstracts of principal documents which passed
through the hands of the government. The " Com-
memoriali" cover the years 1293 to 1797; but after
the middle of the sixteenth century they were neg-
lected, and they are chiefly valuable down to that date
only. After the "Patti" and "Commemoriali" we
begin the record of the regular proceedings in the
Senate. This series contains papers relating to home
government, foreign policy, the dominions of Venice
on the mainland, in Dalmatia and the Levant, eccle-
siastical matters, relations with Rome, instructions to
ambassadors, and reports from governors. So widely
spread and so varied were the attributes of the Senate,
that the analysis of a single day's proceedings in that
house would prove most instructive to the student of
the Venetian constitution, and would, in all probability,
bring him into contact with a large number of the
leading magistracies of the republic. The series of
senatorial papers proceeds in almost unbroken com-
pleteness from the year 1293 down to the close of
the republic ; and, counting files, registers, and rubrics,
numbers 1599 volumes. This main series is known
by different names at different periods, and shows
signs of that tendency to subdivision which charac-
terizes all Venetian government offices. The volumes
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION, 211
which run from the year 1293 to 1440 were known as
" Registri misti;" those covering from 149 1 to 1630
were called "Registri secreti." After the year 1630
the papers of the Senate are divided into those
known as ** Corti," relating to foreign powers ; and
those known as " Rettori," relating to the government
of the Venetian dominion.
Besides this great series of " Deliberazioni," con-
taining the general movement of business in the
Senate, there is another voluminous series of docu-
ments, equally important, and even more interesting
to the student of general history — the despatches
received from Venetian representatives at foreign
courts, and the " Relazioni," or reports which ambassa-
dors read before the Senate upon their return from
abroad. Nothing can exceed the brilliancy of this
series ; and the value of the " Relazioni " at least has
been fully recognized. Yet it should be borne in
mind that the " Relazioni " are only a part of the
series, and that, taken alone and isolated from the
despatches, they lose much of their value. For we
must not forget that the " Relazioni " were drawn
up on more or less conventional lines ; the headings,
under which the report was to fall, were indicated by
the government, and were invariable ; and, further,
the home-coming ambassador handed his report
to his successor, who frequently used it as a basis in
drawing up his own. The result is that, except in
the descriptions of court life, and in the sketches
of prominent characters, the " Relazioni " are apt to
repeat themselves. But, taken with the despatches,
which arrived almost daily, they form the most
212 VENETIAN STUDIES.
varied, brilliant, and minute gallery of national por-
traits that the world possesses. The reports and
despatches were made by men whose whole political
training had rendered them the acutest of observers,
and they were presented to critics who were filled
with the keenest curiosity, and were accustomed to
demand full and precise information. Not a detail is
omitted as unimportant ; the diurnal gossip of the
court, the daily movements of the sovereign and his
favourites, are all recorded with impartial and un-
erring observation. The relation of the "Dispacci" to
the " Relazioni " is the relation of the study to the
picture. The " Relazioni " are the large canvas upon
which the whole nation is broadly depicted, the
"Dispacci" are the patient and minute studies upon
which the excellence of the picture depends. The
majority of the Venetian ''Relazioni" between the years
1492 and 1699 have been published ; the earlier part
by Signor Alberi, and the later by Signori Barozzi
and Berchet. The eighteenth century still remains
to be worked out. In the series of " Relazioni " and
" Dispacci," Great Britain occupies a comparatively
small space. While France, Germany, and Constan-
tinople, each give five volumes of reports, England
gives one only, dating from 153 1 to 1773. Of de-
spatches from England there are 139 volumes in all ;
while from Constantinople we have 242, from France
276, from Milan 230, and from Germany 202.
Previous to the year 1603, when the regular series
of despatches from England begins, there had been
intermittent relations between the republic and the
English court. Sebastian Giustiniani was Venetian
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION 213
ambassador in London in the reign of Henry VIII.
(15 1 5-1 5 19); and in the reign of Mary, Giovanni
Michiel represented the republic for four years — from
1554 to 1558. The Protestant reign of Elizabeth
caused a long break, during which the republic re-
ceived its information about the affairs of England
from its ambassadors in France and Spain. Per-
manent relations were not resumed between the two
powers till the accession of James I., one of whose
earliest acts was to send Sir Henry Wotton to Venice
as his ambassador. The appointment of Sir Henry
Wotton was a movement of gratitude on the part of
the king ; and the cause of it cannot be better told
than in the words of Sir Henry's biographer, who
thus describes this " notable accident : "
" Immediately after Sir Henry Wotton's return
from Rome to Florence — which was about a year
before the death of Queen Elizabeth — Ferdinand the
Great, duke of Tuscany, had intercepted certain
letters, that discovered a design to take away the
life of James, the then king of Scots. The duke
abhorring this fact, and resolving to endeavour a
prevention of it, advised with his secretary Vietta, by
what means a caution might be best given to that
king ; and after consideration it was resolved to be
done by Sir Henry Wotton, whom Vietta first com-
mended to the duke, and the duke had noted and
approved of above all the English that frequented
his court.
" Sir Henry was gladly called by his friend Vietta
to the duke, who despatched him into Scotland with
letters to the king, and with those letters such Italian
214 VENETIAN STUDIES.
antidotes against poison as the Scots till then had
been strangers to.
** Having parted from the duke, he took up the
name and language of an Italian ; and thinking it
best to avoid the line of English intelligence and
danger, he posted into Norway, and through that
country towards Scotland, where he found the king
at Stirling. Being there, he used means, by Bernard
Lindsey, one of the king's bed-chamber, to pro-
cure him a speedy and private conference with his
Majesty.
" This being by Bernard Lindsey made known to
the king, the king required his name — which was
said to be Octavio Baldi — and appointed him to be
heard privately at a fixed hour that evening.
"When Octavio Baldi came to the presence-
chamber door, he was requested to lay aside his
long rapier, — which, Italian-like, he then wore ; — and
being entered the chamber, he found there with the
king three or four Scotch lords standing distant in
several corners of the chamber ; at the sight of whom
he made a stand ; which the king observing, bade
him be bold and deliver his message ; for he would
undertake for the secrecy of all that were present.
Then did Octavio Baldi deliver his letters and
message to the king in Italian ; which when the
king had graciously received, after a little pause,
Octavio Baldi steps to the table, and whispers to the
king in his own language, that he was an Englishman,
beseeching him for a more private conference with
his Majesty, and that he might be concealed during
his stay in that nation ; which was promised and
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION 215
really performed by the king, during all his abode
there, which was about three months. All which
time was spent with much pleasantness to the king,
and with as much to Octavio Baldi himself as that
country could afford ; from which he departed as
true an Italian as he came thither."
The presence of Sir Henry in Venice, where he
was a persona gratissima, both on account of his love
for Italy and his knowledge of the language, did much
to strengthen the new relations between England and
the republic. The feeling between Venice and the
Stuart kings became extremely cordial ; but on the
outbreak of the Civil War, in 1642, the republic sus-
pended the commission of Vincenzo Contarini, who
had been appointed to succeed Giovanni Giustinian
as ambassador to England. The secretary Girolamo
Agostino, however, continued to discharge Venetian
affairs till the year 1645 ; and his despatches contain
minute particulars concerning the progress of the
Civil War. In the year 1645, Agostino was recalled,
and the interests of Venice in England were entrusted
to Salvetti, the Florentine resident. Agostino left
behind him in England a secret agent, with instruc-
tions to forward a weekly report on the progress of
affairs to the Venetian ambassador in France, among
whose despatches we find these news-letters from
London. After the death of Charles I. it is not
likely that the republic would have been represented
at the court of Cromwell, towards whom the feeling
of Venice was not cordial, had she not been in great
straits for help against the Turk. But in the year
1652 she resolved to dismiss the representative of
2i6 VENETIAN STUDIES.
Charles II., then in Venice ; and, at the same time,
the government instructed the ambassador at Paris
to send his secretary, Lorenzo Pauluzzi, to London
to open negotiations with Cromwell. With Pauluzzi
the series of despatches from London recommences ;
but these despatches are to be found among the com-
munications from the Venetian ambassador in Paris,
by whom they were forwarded to the Senate. The
despatches of Pauluzzi are of great importance, and
give us a vivid though hostile picture of Cromwell
and his surroundings. In 1655 the negotiations be-
tween England and Venice had advanced so far that
the republic had determined to send an ambassador
extraordinary to the Protector's court. Giovanni
Sagredo, ambassador at Paris, was chosen. The
result of Sagredo's mission is contained in the long
and brilliant relazione which he read in the Senate
on his return to Venice in 1656. In this splendid
specimen of a Venetian report, to which we shall re-
turn in a subsequent essay, Sagredo gives, with singu-
lar lucidity and grasp, a brief sketch of the condition
of Great Britain ; of the causes of the Civil War ;
of Cromwell's rise to power ; of his foreign relations ;
and closes with a portrait of the Protector which
confirms Pauluzzi's unfavourable view, and draws a
terrible picture of that restlessness and dread which
clouded Cromwell's last days — *' piu temuto che
amato . . . vive con sempiterno sospetto." When
Sagredo returned to Venice, his secretary, Francesco
Giavarnia, was left behind in England, as Venetian
resident, and continued to hold that post till the
Restoration, sending despatches every week direct
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION. 217
to Venice, detailing the close of the Protectorate, and
the return of Charles II., whom he was the first to
welcome at Canterbury the day after his landing. In
1 661 the republic gladly reopened full relations with
the Stuarts. Giavarnia was superseded by two am-
bassadors extraordinary, who conveyed to Charles
two gondolas for the water in St. James's Park, and
from that date onwards the diplomatic connection
between England and the republic followed the
ordinary course.
We come now to the papers of the Council of Ten ;
all of these were committed to the custody of the
secret chancellery. We have already seen that the
Council of Ten was an extraordinary office, used upon
extraordinary occasions, where secrecy and speed
were required. Its chief occupations may be summed
up under three heads — safety of the state, protection
of citizens, and public morals. That being the case,
the number and interest of its documents is very great
— greater than that of any other council of state ; but
this interest is confined, for the most part, to matters
affecting the home policy of the republic ; foreign
affairs find comparatively little illustration among the
papers of the Ten. The series of documents, con-
taining the ordinary business of the Ten, dates from
the year 13 15 to the close of the republic. The
documents are arranged according to the matter they
deal with ; that is to say, political matter,/^r// communi
and secretly or criminal mditicr, parti crimminali. The
immense importance and interest attaching to the
papers of the Ten will be illustrated by the statement
that there we find the cases of Marino Faliero, of the
2i8 VENETIAN STUDIES.
Carraresi, of Carmagnola, of Foscari, of Caterina
Cornaro, and of Foscarini.
Among the papers of the Collegio we find our-
selves once more in the general current of foreign
politics. The ordinary proceedings of the College,
the papers containing the arrangement and discussion
of affairs to be presented to the Senate, are included
in the volumes of files and registers, known as the
'' Notatorii del Collegio." The College was entrusted,
as we have said, to receive all the representatives of
foreign powers and to open all letters and despatches
addressed to the government. It is in the three series
known as "Lettere Principi," " Esposizioni Principi,"
and " Ceremoniali," that we obtain the fullest informa-
tion about the action of the agents from foreign courts
resident in Venice. The series called " Lettere Principi,"
letters from royal personages, covers the years between
I5(X) and 1797, and is contained in fifty- four volumes
of filze. England is represented by two of these,
beginning with the year 1570, and ending with 1796,
entitled " Collegio, Secreta, Lettere. Re e Regina d'ln-
ghilterra." These volumes contain one hundred and
seventy-one letters, thus distributed among the various
sovereigns : there are thirteen in the reign of Eliza-
beth ; forty in that of James I. ; four in that of
Charles I. ; three from Oliver Cromwell ; one from
Richard Cromwell ; one from Speaker Lenthal ; ten
during the reign of Charles 11. ; five during that of
his brother ; three during the reign of William,
including one from the Chevalier ; seven in the
reign of Anne ; eight in that of George I. ; twenty-
one from George II. ; and fifty-five from George III.
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION. 219
These letters are concerned with formal announce-
ments and the exchange of courtesies, the credentials
of ambassadors, and notices of royal births, marriages,
and deaths. Their historical importance is very slighc.
The long series of George III. is almost entirely
occupied by noting the yearly increase of his family.
The autographs of the ministers who countersigned
the letters form their greatest attraction. The late
Mr. Rawdon Brown has published facsimiles of these
autographs down to the year 1659 ; but after that
date we find such interesting endorsements as those
of Lauderdale, Arlington, Bolingbroke, Carteret, Pitt,
Halifax, Henry Conway, Shelburne, and Charles
James Fox. On a loose parchment among these
letters is one very curious document. It is dated
Bologna, 21st February, 1671, and begins "Carlo
Dudley per la gratia di Dio duca di Northumbria et
del Sacro Romano Impero, conte di Woruih e di
Licester, et Pari d'Ingliterra." The document goes
on to state that Charles Dudley, duke of Northumber-
land, in consideration of the affection and partiality
always shown towards his person and house, grants to
Ottavio Dionisio, noble of Verona, the title of marquis
to him and to his eldest son, to his younger sons and
to his brothers and their sons, the title of count, in
perpetuity ; and this in virtue of the declaration and
authority of his Holiness Pope Urban VHI., which
conferred on Charles Dudley and his eldest born the
right to exercise all the privileges of an independent
prince. At the date which this document bears, 167 1,
there was no duke of Northumberland ; that title
had lately been bestowed by Charles H. on an
220 VENETIAN STUDIES.
illegitimate son, and had perished with him. This
Charles Dudley was probably some pretender to the
honours of the Dudley family who once held the
dukedom of Northumberland. The document is
curious, for the noble family on whom Charles
Dudley conferred this title of marquis still exists,
and we do not know that any British subject, either
before or after, has ever claimed to be a fountain of
honour. But Charles Dudley is not the only English
pretender who figures among the papers at the Frari.
Filza 8 of the loose papers, titled " Miscellanea Diversi
Manoscritti," contains the marriage certificate and
will of James Henry de Boveri Rossano Stuart,
natural son of Charles II., and seven letters from his
son James Stuart, dated Milan, Gemona, and Padua,
1722 to 1728. The majority of these letters are
addressed to Cardinal Panighetti, from whom this
" povero principe Stuardo," as he calls himself, hoped
to receive money and support in some imaginary
claims on the Crown of England. . The letters are
full of a certain pathos — the pathos which cannot
fail to attach itself to fallen royalty. The hand-
writing is that of an uneducated man ; and James
Stuart, in these letters, certainly shows no signs of
the ability required to meet so trying a situation.
He appeals to the cardinal first on the grounds of
his creed. It is " for the faith that he finds himself
in the miserable little town " of Gemona. Failing upon
this line, James Stuart abandons himself to astrology,
in the hope that the stars may give an answer
favourable to his hopes. But to all his appeals
the cardinal replies with cold reserve, and when he
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION 221
hears of astrology, he adds a sharp and crushing
reprimand.
Leaving the " Lettere Principi " we come to the last
two series of state papers of which we shall speak, the
"Esposizioni Principi,"or recordof all audiences granted
to ambassadors and of the communications made by
them in the name of the power they represented ; and
the "Libri Ceremoniali," or record of the great functions
of state, the coronations and funerals of the doges,
the elections of the grand chancellors, the reception
accorded to ambassadors, princes, and distinguished
travellers. The republic of Venice was as punctilious
as any court of Europe upon the points of precedence,
ceremony, and etiquette. The reader will not have
forgotten the amusing account, given by the elder
Disraeli, of the long struggle between the master of
the ceremonies and the Venetian ambassador at the
court of St. James. The government required from
its representatives a minute account of every detail
of etiquette observed towards them, and replied in
kind in their treatment of foreign ministers in Venice.
The republic was punctilious abroad, and no less so
at home. Every stage in the public entry, first
audience, and cong^ of foreign ambassadors was
carefully regulated and based upon precedent. The
ambassadors of Spain and France had each a special
volume devoted to the ceremonies and etiquette which
the republic observed towards them. M. Baschet
describes at length the receptions of the French
ambassadors, for whom he claims the highest rank
among the representatives of foreign powers at Venice
Great Britain sent fifty-eight embassies, in all, to the
222 VENETIAN STUDIES.
republic, between the years 1340 and 1797. Of these
ambassadors, Sir Gregory Cassalis filled the office
twice, Sir Henry Wotton thrice, the earl of Man-
chester twice, and Elizeus Burgess twice. The cere-
mony to which the ambassador was entitled may
be gathered from the accounts of these embassies
preserved in the " Esposizioni Principi " and the
*' Ceremoniali."
The reception of Lord Northampton in the year
1762 will afford us the most detailed view of the
ceremony, for on that occasion some questions of
precedent arose, and the Cavaliere Ruzzini, who was
entrusted with the conduct of the affair, presented
a long report to the Senate on the subject. The
ambassador was not officially recognized by the
government until he had made his public entry, and
presented his credentials at his first audience in the
College. Until that had taken place, he remained
incognito, and was in fact supposed not to be in
Venice. Before the ambassador arrived, the English
consul was expected to hire a palace for his use.
There was no fixed embassy in Venice ; Thomas
Killigrew lodged at San Cassano, Lord Holdernesse
at San Benedetto, Lord Manchester at San Stae.
John Udny, who was consul at the time of Lord North-
ampton's embassy, rented the Palazzo Grimani at
Canaregio for the ambassador whenever his appoint-
ment was announced, and an amusing and character-
istic story attaches to this affair. The palace belonged
to a Contessa Grimani, and was in bad repair ; but
the owner promised to restore and fit it up for the
ambassador. When the consul went to see the palace,
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION. 223
shortly before the ambassador's arrival, he found that
nothing had been done to it, and moreover that a
gondolier and his wife occupied the ground-floor and
refused to move. He wrote at once to the contessa
requesting her to move the gondolier, to which he
received for answer that the gondolier's wife had been
nurse to one of the countess's boys, and the Grimanis
had promised her twenty ducats a year; if the
ambassador liked to pay that amount, the gondolier
would turn out ; if not, they must manage to share
the palace between them. The consul appealed to
the English resident, John Murray, who wrote an
angry letter to the government, complaining of this
treatment ; " La carita della nobile donna," he says,
*• verso la moglie del gondoliere merita senza dubbio
gran lode, ma il sottoscritto s'imagina che I'avvocato
pill scaltro si troverebbe bene intrigato di produrre
una legge o esempio per incaricare I'Ambasciatore
Inglese di questa carita."
The matter was probably arranged, for on the
22nd of October Lord Northampton arrived, incognito
of course, with all his suite, and took up his residence.
Lord Northampton was ill, and it was not till the begin-
ning of the next year that he took the necessary step
to make his entry and to secure his first audience.
The etiquette observed upon such occasions required
that the ambassador should send his secretary to leave
copies of his credentials at the door of the College,
and to ask on what day the doge would receive him.
The College reply through one of their secretaries
that an answer will be sent. The doge was then
consulted what day would suit him, and he answers
224 VENETIAN STUDIES.
by putting himself at the disposal of the College.
The Senate is then informed of the ambassador's
arrival, and sixty senators, under the direction of a
leader, are appointed to attend the ambassador until
the ceremonies of his reception shall be completed.
The days selected for Lord Northampton's reception
were the 29th and 30th of May, 1763 ; and the
Cavaliere Ruzzini was named as head of the sixty
senators who were to attend the ambassador. Ruzzini
informed Lord Northampton of these arrangements,
and at the same time sent him a programme of the
ceremony, which was based upon that observed
towards Lord Holdernesse, and was identical with
that which the republic offered to the ambassador of
the king of Sardinia. Before his public entry, the
ambassador and his suite went to the island of
San Spirito, in the lagoon towards Malamocco. The
fiction of the ceremony supposed all ambassadors to
be lodged there until they had presented their
credentials. San Spirito was chosen as the point
of departure for the ambassadorial procession, be-
cause the distance between that island and Venice
was supposed to correspond exactly with the distance
between London and Greenwich, whence the Venetian
ambassador was wont to begin his progress. Sir
Henry Wotton's second embassy forms a rare excep-
tion to this rule, for the Venetians were so fond of
that charming and accomplished poet, that they
allowed him to make his entry from San Giorgio
Maggiore, which is much nearer the city and more
convenient. After midday on the 29th, Ruzzini and
his sixty senators, each in his gondola, arrived at
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION. 22$
San Spirito, and found the household of the ambas-
sador drawn up along the landing-place en grande
tenue. Lord Northampton was informed of Ruzzini*s
arrival, and came to meet him on the staircase.
After exchanging the prescribed compliments, Ruzzini,
with the ambassador on his right hand, descended,
and both entered the cavaliere's gondola. The
whole procession left San Spirito, and proceeded by
the Grand Canal to the ambassador's lodging at San
Girolamo, accompanied, as Ruzzini says, by "un
immenso popolo spettatore del nostro viaggio;" for
these official entries were among the most popular
of the Venetian spectacles, and the whole city went
out to witness them. At the palace fresh speeches
and compliments followed. Lord Northampton was
suffering acutely from an illness of which he died that
same year, but Ruzzini reports with obvious satis-
faction that he did not spare him a single ceremony,
" adempi ad ogni parte del consueto ceremoniale."
The next day Ruzzini and the sixty senators again
attended at the ambassador's palace to conduct him
to his audience in the College. Lord Northampton
was worse than he had been the day before ; but
Ruzzini was implacable. It cost the ambassador
three-quarters of an hour to ascend the Giant's Stair.
When at last he reached the door of the Collegio, the
doge and all the College rose ; the ambassador
uncovered and made three bows, and, leaving his
suite behind him, he mounted the daYs and took his
seat on the right hand of the doge. The ambassador
then covered his head, and simultaneously one of
each order of the savii did the same. The ambas-
Q
226 VENETIAN STUDIES,
sador handed his credentials to the doge, and
remained uncovered while they were being read.
The doge made a brief and formal reply welcoming
the ambassador to Venice, and each time the king's
name occurred, the ambassador raised his cap. After
repeating his three bows, the ambassador retired, and
was accompanied to his palace by the sixty senators
who had waited for him at the doors of the CoUegio.
This closed the ceremony of entry.
The English ambassador extraordinary enjoyed
certain privileges, which were established on the
precedent of the embassy of Lord Falconberg, Crom-
well's son-in-law. Among these privileges was the
right to lodging and maintenance at the cost of the
republic, a right which the ambassador usually com-
pounded for the sum of five or six hundred ducats ;
a box at each theatre in Venice was placed at his
disposal, and when he took his conge the Senate
voted him a gold chain and medal of the value of
two thousand scudi. The ambassadors ordinary
enjoyed certain exemptions from customs dues.
These exemptions were frequently abused, and were
the cause of constant friction between the government
and the representatives of foreign powers. In the
year 1763 Mr. John Murray's Istrian wine was seized,
and he only recovered it after expressing himself ben
mortificato. Mr. Murray was constantly in trouble
on this subject. The year before he had addressed
an indignant letter to the government because "a
certain official of the custom-house had accused
him of allowing his servants to sell wine and flour at
the door of the residency. It is but a poor satis-
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION. 227
faction after so long a period of suspicion to know-
that that official is bankrupt and no proof of the
accusation is forthcoming." But by far the most
curious episode of this nature was that which befell
Tom Killigrew, the poet, grandfather of the Mrs.
Anne Killigrew of Dryden's famous ode and a friend
of Pepys, who recalls him as " a merry droll, but a
gentleman of great esteem with the king, who told us
many merry stories," this, perhaps, among the number.
Killigrew was sent to represent Charles II. at Venice
in 1649, just after the execution of Charles I., and
while his son was a ramingo^ or knocking about, as
the Venetian ambassador politely puts it. Killigrew
was received in the usual way on February 10, 1650,
and made his address in Ihigua cattivciy as the
report affirms. But the republic tired of its alliance
with an exiled king, and resolved to dismiss Killi-
grew as soon as possible. Killigrew was poor, and
his master had little or nothing to give him, so he
hit upon the expedient of keeping a butcher's shop,
where he could sell meat cheaper than any one else
in Venice, by availing himself of his exemptions from
octroi. The Senate resolved to fasten upon this illicit
traffic as a pretext for dismissing Killigrew ; and
on the 22nd of June, 1652, they sent their secre-
tary, Busenello, to tell Killigrew, vivd voce, that he
must go. Busenello went to San Fantin, and there
found one of Killigrew's butchers, who told him that
the resident only kept his shop there, but lived him-
self at San Cassano. At San Cassano Busenello was
told that Killigrew was dining at Murano, and would
not be home till evening ; but very soon after he saw
228 VENETIAN STUDIES.
the resident at his window, and insisted on being
announced. He explained " with all possible delicacy,"
as he says, the order of the Senate ; but Killigrew
received the message with every sign of anger and
pain. With tears in his eyes he declared that it was
the other ambassadors who robbed the customs, while
he had all the blame. It was true that he did keep
" a little bit of a butcher's shop to support himself,"
but that could not hurt the revenue ; and he added
that, under any circumstance, he should leave Venice,
for he had received his letters of recall from France,
four days previously. The Senate no more than
their secretary believed in the existence of this letter
of recall ; but Killigrew really had the letter, dated
March 14th, and it was sent into the College, along
with a brief exculpatory epistle from the resident, on
the 27th of June. Killigrew left Venice the same
day, as he was bound to do by ambassadorial etiquette ;
and Charles had not another recognized agent to the
republic until his restoration ; for the Venetians
definitely adopted the policy of courting Cromwell,
in the vain hope that he would assist them against
the Turk.
With the papers of the College we close this notice
of the political documents in the archives at the Frari.
The other departments of the government had each
their own series of papers, equally copious and
valuable. The heraldic and genealogical archives
of the Avvogadori di Commun, for example, the
charters of the German and Turkish exchanges, and
the records of the mint and the public banks, offer
a wide and a rich field for study ; and in spite of the
THE VENETIAN CONSTITUTION 229
profound and extensive labours of such scholars as
Thomas, Checchetti, Barozzi, Berchet, Fulin, Laman-
sky, Mas Latrie, and Rawdon Brown, it will be long
before the materials in the vast storehouse of the
Frari are exhausted or even adequately displayed.
CARDINAL CONTARINI AND HIS
FRIENDS.
The general impression that the influence of the
Renaissance culture upon Italian society was corrupt
is, on the whole, a just one. That influence began
to show itself distinctly at the opening of the six-
teenth century. The period of humanistic study and
acquisition had passed ; the period of application had
begun. And Rome was the focus of the application,
as Florence had been the seat of the earlier efforts to
acquire. At Rome society gathered round the court
of the Vatican and the head of the Church. But it
was a Church in which Aretino might aspire to the
purple ; in which Bandello was a bishop and La Casa
inquisitor and compiler of the first " Index Expurga-
torius." The society was corrupt, but eminently refined,
displaying a finish and a charm which captivated the
gentler temper of men like Erasmus and made them cry
that only the floods of Lethe could drown for them
the memory of Rome, though in the sterner nature of
Luther this refinement merely added disgust to indig-
nation. It is needless here to dwell at any length upon
this point, for the whole subject has lately received
ample and eloquent treatment by an English historian.
But it is well to bear the fact in mind when we turn
CARDINAL CONTARim AND HIS FRIENDS. 231
to the pleasanter contemplation of a portion of this
society which was refined and not corrupt. The nature
of men Hke Contarini, Pole, Sadoleto, Giberti, and
their friends stands out with additfonal sweetness and
lustre when we remember the dark setting of intrigue,
of dissoluteness, and of ruin which surrounded them.
They were a company of noble men animated by noble
objects of ambition, and bound together by the closest
bonds of friendship. We come across them with a
feeling of pure pleasure ; they shine like good deeds
in an evil world. It does not matter that they failed
in their ecclesiastical policy ; that the via media which
they espoused between the youthful vigour of Protes-
tantism and the corruption of the Roman Church was
never adopted ; that it exposed them only to suspicion
from the Lutherans and to charges of heresy from
Farnese and Caraffa ; that they foundered between
the two great and divergent lines of Reform and
counter-Reformation. Their object was a noble one,
and it ennobled lives singularly adapted to take the
lustre of nobility.
To understand the place of these men in the
ecclesiastical policy of the Reformation, it is needful
to look a little more closely at the conditions which
surrounded them. The aims of the papacy had
become secularized in the hands of such mundane and
warlike popes as Sixtus, Alexander, and Julius. The
desire to found a reigning house and to realize that
ever-present, ever-vanishing dream of the Church, a
temporal kingdom, determined the policy of these
pontiffs, and the Venetian ambassador thus summed
up Julius in a despatch to his government: "The
232 VENETIAN STUDIES.
pope," he said, "wishes to-be the lord and master in
this world's game." As the head was so was the
body. The bishops endeavoured to make their Sees
heritable property — the basis on which to establish
a family. The secularization of aim resulted in a
secularization of manner. The pope who aspired to
be a prince adopted the manners of a prince. The
bishops who contemplated founding a house adopted
the bearing which became the head of a house.
Mundane aspirations induced mundane habits, splen-
dour of life, of dress, of retinue, of board. And again,
a Venetian summed up Leo as a pendant to Julius.
Julius desired to be lord and master of this life's game.
Leo "desired to live." Beyond the immediate region
of the Church the Italians had been engaged in break-
ing open the treasure-house of the dead languages,
and the perfume invaded the country. The secularized
manners of the churchmen came in contact with a
wavering ethical standard, the outcome of humanism
and the free play of intellect that recognized nothing
superior to itself The result of this contact was two-
fold, a deterioration in the manners, habits, and
thoughts of society, and a confirmation of the secular
tendency among the clergy. For humanism brought
with it scepticism as to the foundations of Chris-
tianity, and with this scepticism there arose a doubt
whether the Church had any rights other than secular.
In Rome this twofold result soon disclosed itself in a
brilliant and intellectual atmosphere that was at the
same time corrupt. Poets and scholars and accom-
plished women crowded to the court of the Vatican or
to the palaces of cardinals, princes, and ambassadors.
CARDINAL CONTARINI AND HIS FRIENDS. 233
Each great house had its clique, its coterie of parasites
enjoying the refined sunshine and speculating on the
prizes that lay in store should their patron attain to
the papacy. To the charm of life was added the zest
of a hazard, and the adventurer who sought the favour
of this or that prince of the Church secretly prayed
that his cardinal might draw the winning number. But
at the very moment when the Italians had so prepared
life as to be able to enjoy the papacy, should God give
it to them, the cup of pleasure slipped from their
hands. The refinement and brightening of intelligence
which rendered the papacy enjoyable, the seculariza-
tion of its aims which added a further colour to life's
game, were preparing beyond the Alps the very
means by which the papacy was to be robbed of all
enjoyment, were paving the way for Luther's advent
and the sack of Rome. The expansion of intelligence,
the discovery of intellectual muscles, and the pleasure
experienced in their play, which resulted from these
years of humanistic study and training, opened for the
ancient and organized people of Italy the door of
delightful existence. But the quickening element
passed beyond the borders of Italy itself. On the
other side of the Alps it found a different nidus, harder
and more vigorous, in which to germinate. And so
among the Teutonic people the revival took the
character of religious earnestness ; let us reform the
Church, they cried. In Italy it had taken the aspect
of cynical pliability ; let us enjoy the Church, said the
Italians. The result was Luther's advent with all its
compulsive power over the papacy. The schism north
of the Alps put into the hands of two great princes,
234 VENETIAN STUDIES.
the king of England and the emperor of Germany,
a weapon for mastering the papacy so powerful that
Clement could not stand against it. At any hostile
movement on his part Charles threatened to release
Luther ; on the first refusal to obey, Henry declared
the secession of England. The screw was too powerful,
and had bitten only too well. Escape was impossible.
It remained to be seen what compliance could do ; to
test the appeasing efficacy of compromise and reform.
But before reform had become a necessity publicly
acknowledged by the Church, there existed inside the
Church itself a party of men who had begun to
recognize the need, and who turned their thoughts to
the question. These men used to meet together for
discussion at the Church of SS. Dorothy and Silvester,
in the Trastevere, and under the presidency of Padre
Dato, its parish priest. In the midst of corrupt and
indifferent Rome, of Rome that was enjoying the
Church, this handful of earnest men had caught an
echo of the elemental movement that was in progress
beyond the Alps. Reform and not enjoyment was
the subject of their thoughts. This company, which
met in the gardens of SS. Dorothy and Silvester,
called itself " The Oratory of Divine Love. " It was
composed of men drawn together from various parts
of Italy ; from Venice, Modena, Vicenza, and Naples ;
all of them distinguished, but for whom the future
reserved widely differing issues. There was John
Peter Caraffa, the lean and impetuous Neapolitan,
with the fierceness of the Inquisition in his heart,
destined to become Paul IV., to wage a hopeless war
against Spain, to be forced by circumstances he could
CARDINAL CONTARINI AND HIS FRIENDS. 235
not control into the arms of this power he hated, to
die deceived by his nephews and detested by the
Church. There was Gaetano Thiene, founder of an
order of nobles, enthusiastic in zeal, but of gentler
mould and fascinated by the impetuosity of the fiery
Neapolitan. There, too, were Contarini and Sadoleto,
fast friends through life, working for the same object
and sharing the same hopes, a possible compromise
with Protestantism and a reunion of the Church under
her ancient chief, the pope. In fact, the Oratory of
Divine Love contained in miniature the future of the
Roman Church. Its tendencies were there, as yet
undeveloped. The two lines it might possibly adopt
were expressed in the temper of the Oratorians — the
line of absolute defiance to Protestantism, of uncom-
promising and haughty antagonism, of fire and blood
and inquisition tortures ; and the other line of tolera-
tion, of patience, of hope that the lost sheep might yet
be won back to the fold. But in the gardens by the
Tiber the companions were still undivided, unconscious
of the heart-burnings and the cruelty at one another's
hands which lay in store for them ; no Luther had yet
come among them with a sword of separation. It is
only by the light of subsequent history that we see
how they met later on, when the divergence of their
natures had become marked under the pressure of the
growing schism ; how that fierce monk Carafifa, drink-
ing his thick black wine, his " champ-the-battle," as he
called it, turned in fury on his former friends ; how he
thwarted Contarini at Ratisbon ; how Sadoleto's Com^
mentary was placed upon the " Index; " how Pole was
deprived of his office of legate in England ; how even
236 VENETIAN STUDIES.
their humble followers were pursued ; how Priuli lost
the bishopric of Brescia. We do not, however, desire
to follow all the members of the Oratory to the close
of their divergent ways, but only that party among
them which gathered round Contarini, the party of
moderation and compromise, the party also of failure.
Nor is it in their public life and their ecclesiastical
policy that we wish to look closely at these men ; that
belongs to the general history of the counter-Reforma-
tion. It is rather to their inner lives that we would
turn and note, if possible, the manner of men these
friends appear among themselves.
It would be a difficult, and almost a hopeless task,
to extract the essence of these men, had not both Pole
and Sadoleto left a copious correspondence behind
them. In their letters, through the obscurity of a
foreign tongue, we see themselves and their friends
taking shape, acting, and reacting on one another,
growing nearer together as the years pass by. " I
seem to hear your voice speaking to me out of your
last letter," writes Sadoleto to Pole. " My letters to.
you have apparently miscarried. They reached you
either later than they should have done, or else not at
all. But whatever betide the letters, it is not in paper
and ink that our love resides, but rather in the hearts
of both of us ; and not merely written there, but
inburnt, so that it can never be obliterated." And
these phrases of affection pass current among them all.
They were, in sympathy, one at heart. The common
trials and dangers which beset them bound them
closely together. Each one of them suffered misfor-
tune. Contarini saw his country barely escaping
CARDINAL CONTARINI AND HIS FRIENDS, 237
from the ruin of Cambray. Pole was an exile with
a price upon his head. Sadoleto experienced the
fluctuations of court favour and disgrace. Not one of
them avoided the imputation of heresy. And it was
inevitable that it should be so. The intellectual
aspect of Luther's reform, the distinctly rational
assertion of free judgment, could not fail to appeal to
the cultivated Italians brought up on Aristotle at
the feet of Pomponazzo. It was only the narrowest
margin which distinguished Contarini and his friends
from Castelvetri, the excommunicated outlaw, driven
to the mountains to save his life, and dying at length
in exile at Chiavenna. And when Sadoleto made his
last effort on Castelvetri's behalf he, though a cardinal,
appeals to the heretic as a man of letters first, as a
good churchman last. "I love you on every score, and
cannot believe that you hold any opinion unworthy
of a man of letters and a good Christian/' The
reasons which kept these men just inside the Church
were twofold. They were already high in the office
of that Church, and the wish of their hearts was not
to pass outside themselves, but to bring the wanderers
in. Another and profounder reason held them where
they were. The economy of the Church, so complete
in its details, so precise in its gradations of rank and
of duties, could not fail to exercise a strong fascination
over the Italian temper, which desires form above
everything. And now this satisfying symmetry was
threatened with destruction ; its very crown and apex
was in danger ; a many-headed Church appeared to be
no Church at all. It was Henry's declaration of him-
self as chief of the English Church which compelled
238 VENETIAN STUDIES.
Pole to choose exile rather than obedience. With the
theological and philosophical doctrines, however, of
the reformers these friends showed a deep sympathy
which continually made itself felt in their writings.
And this common attitude towards the great question
of their day, an impossible attitude and doomed to
failure just because it appreciated too accurately the
good and the evil on either side, formed the ground-
work upon which the affection of these men was based.
This is the sphere within which they exercised their
finest qualities, their warm friendship and loyalty,
their intellectual keenness, their devotion to high and
noble studies. Within this region they differed, as
even the best friends must differ, in cast of character ;
each of them displayed his individual temperament ;
but within this region also they were sure of one
another's sympathy, and stood together as a party.
It is round Contarini that the party gathers ; he is
the most active and the most distinguished of their
number. Born in 1483 of noble Venetian parents, an
October child, when eighteen years of age he went
to the University of Padua. With characteristic im-
petuosity of temper he attacked both practical and
speculative studies — mathematics, engineering, and
philosophy ; and gave solid proofs of his ability to use
them all. On his return to Venice he was employed
by the government to regulate the river courses
throughout the difficult country of Bassano. It is
said that when he was in Spain, representing Venice
at the court of Charles, Magellan's ship, the Victory^
came home after her voyage round the world, laden
with cloves gathered in the Spice Islands. The
CARDINAL CONTARINI AND HIS FRIENDS. 239
Victory arrived a day later than her log-book showed,
and Contarini alone was found able to explain what
had become of the missing day. The temper of his
mind, the Venetian mind, was chiefly practical ; and
the larger part of his life was spent in active political
duties, for Venice first, and then for the Church.
Writing to a friend, he says his letters are not intended
for circulation : " They are scribbled in haste by a
busy man."
But Contarini never lost his interest in philosophy,
nor the passion for Aristotle, which consumed him
when he first went to Padua. His friends used to
say that if the whole works of the Stagyrite were
lost Contarini could supply them all again from
memory. And it may well have been so, for his
biographer and constant friend, Beccadello, tells us
that he was in the habit of reading Aristotle for seven
continuous years three or four hours a day, and then
during his afternoon walk he " ruminated " on the
subject of his morning's study, reconstructing the
whole chain of argument until it was indelibly im-
pressed upon his mind. And philosophy remained
for him a constant source of relaxation and delight
after the more pressing engagements of his political
career. " You ask me," he writes to a friend, " for
my opinion on the relation between the mind and
the understanding. Till now I have been too deeply
occupied by my duties in the Council of Ten. But
to-night, Christmas Eve, I am free, and shall take
some recreation and no small pleasure in discussing
the point with you. Moreover, meditation on this
subject is by no means unsuited to the solemn nature
240 VENETIAN STUDIES. -
of the day." Then he passes on to the topic, and
loses himself in a lofty flight which closes in the
nature of the Divine. He forgets the Ten and his
political duties in the eternal consolations of a
philosophy based on faith, in the happiness of a
man whose hopes and whose reason are not divorced.
Study and writing were the rare pleasures and not
the constant occupation of Contarini's life, and he
valued them more highly for their rarity. " I know
no better means for whiling away a summer's after-
noon than listening to the music of some mighty poet."
Poetry and philosophical discussion were a relief and
a delight, but writing was a veritable passion with
the man. He lost his appetite and his sleep ; he
wandered about restless and alone, while planning
a work in his head. His friends could always tell
when the labour was upon him and he was about
to produce. After he had once seen and grasped his
subject he wrote with the greatest fury and rapidity,
as much as six pages in an hour, so hurriedly, indeed,
that " many words remained in his pen." Having
thus discharged his mind, he handed the whole work
over to a secretary, to polish, rewrite, and find the
missing words. He absolutely refused to touch his
thoughts again, partly, no doubt, from lack of time,
partly from indifference to the graces of style and from
preoccupation with the matter of his work, partly also
owing to a slight impatience with the laboured polish
of his contemporaries Sadoleto and Bembo. His
style suffered from this haste, but his health suffered
more owing to this addiction to the passionate pleasure
of writing. He became subject to insomnia ; sleeping
CARDINAL CONTARJNI AND HIS FRIENDS. 241
but little, and never after he had wakened from his
first sleep. These night vigils were devoted to the
study of St. Augustine, or to the solution of some
problem in ethics. " Here I am," he writes, " awake
in one of these long winter nights, as so often happens
to me ; and I turn my thoughts to the consideration
of your question, which are the nobler, the speculative
or the moral qualities ? "
With a temper keen and impetuous, we should
expect to find that Contarini possessed a certain
amount of fearlessness and the courage of his opinions.
And, indeed, he always did display a frankness of
manner and directness of speech little in accordance
with the courtly habits of the Vatican. Though
choleric, he never allowed his temper to pass beyond
his control ; and his real gentleness of nature, and
his unswerving loyalty to his friends, bound them to
him in the closest attachment. Pole consulted him
about his private affairs in England. " Keep a good
heart," answers Contarini, " and do not doubt that
the day will come when we shall sing the psalm,
' Glad were we for the days in which we saw evil, for
the years wherein Thou hast humiliated us.' ... I
have no time to write except to say, keep well and
come back soon to the man who loves you more than
any other." It was not his friends only who knew
the worth of the man ; that was only natural. But
perhaps no one in that age of difficult and crooked
policy had a greater power of inspiring confidence
than Contarini. The Venetians knew very well what
they were about when they sent him as their am-
bassador to the court of Charles, with whom their
R
242 VENETIAN STUDIES.
relations were strained and hostile. And Contarini
immediately won the regard of the emperor and
retained it. Charles took Contarini with him when
he made his hurried visit to England, and had not
forgotten him when they met once more at Bologna,
at Nice, and at Ratisbon. The mixture of frankness,
goodness, and grace which characterized Contarini,
made him a singularly lovable man ; one to whom
people turned with a sense of confidence and rest ;
and his modesty and simplicity in no way lessened
Jiis charm. There is a pretty story told of how he
met Margaret, the queen of Navarre, at Nice when
the pope and Francis and Charles were trying to
arrange their differences. Contarini went, as in duty
bound, to pay his respects to Margaret. The queen
came from her rooms towards the head of the stairs
to meet him, and the cardinal was about to kneel
and kiss her hand, when the lady ran forward laugh-
ing, and crying, "No, no, not to me," took him by
both his hands and kissed him on the cheek. Con-
tarini stood blushing like a boy, and all confused,
till one of the bystanders told him with a laugh that
such was the dolce costume of Navarre.
It was from his own countrymen, however, and
early in life that his worth received the highest tribute
of praise. Contarini was in Venice, actively engaged
in the business of the republic. He had just returned
from an embassy to Rome, and was looking forward
to a long life in the secular service of his native city,
when Paul III. determined to raise him to the car-
dinalate and to summon him to Rome in order to
initiate those reforms of the Church which the pro-
CARDINAL CONTARINI AND HIS FRIENDS. 243
gress of Luther made imperative. Contarini, unaware
of the honour in store for him, was at his place in the
Great Council when the pope's messenger arrived on
Sunday morning and requested to see him. This,
while the council was in session, could not be allowed ;
but a secretary took the despatches and, opening them,
suddenly announced to Contarini that he had been
raised to the purple. The counsellors rose in a body
and pressed forward to congratulate their colleague.
But one of them, Alvise Mocenigo, was not so easily
pleased ; he could not rise from his seat with the
others, as he was suffering from the gout, but above
the buzz and patter of congratulation he cried,
"These priests have robbed us of the best gentle-
man this city has." Old Mocenigo's growl was fully
justified ; Venice was struggling to repair the mis-
chief wrought by the League of Cambray, and nothing
could have been more useful to her than the tact,
the firmness, and the popularity of Contarini. But
she lost him ; and that activity which might have
been employed to good purpose in the service of
Venice was transferred, with no result but failure, to
the service of the Church.
Contarini was no sluggard, the change of climate
did not change his temper. He no sooner reached
Rome than he began to form his party, clearly under-
standing the objects for which he had been summoned
thither. He had made the acquaintance of Pole in
Venice. He now called Pole, Sadoleto, Giberti,
Aleandro and Cortese to his aid ; and, in spite of
bitter opposition and jealousy inside the Sacred
College, he pressed the proposals for reform. The
244 VENETIAN STUDIES.
college endeavoured to crush the new-comer with
scorn. " Had Contarini come from the Senate of
Venice to reform the cardinals whose very names
he did not know ? " That was true. Contarini did
not know their names, but he had been beyond the
Alps and knew better than any of them the strength
of Luther's party and the imperative need for puri-
fication inside the Church. Yet his enemies were
able to poison the ear, though not the mind, of the
pope against Contarini. " I know how it is," said
Paul to the cardinal while the latter was remon-
strating with him on some of his recent creations ;
" it is in the very nature of cardinals to be jealous
lest others should be made their equals in considera-
tion." "Pardon me," replied Contarini, "your Holi-
ness cannot with justice bring this charge against me,
for I have suggested the appointment of many who
have proved good servants to your Holiness and the
Church. And indeed I do not count my hat my
chiefest honour. ... If your Holiness would make
the Church fair to see, publish no more decrees ; there
are enough ; but rather set forth living books who
shall give voice and expression to these decrees."
This was Contarini's appeal that his hands might be
strengthened by the admission of his friends to the
Sacred College. To the credit of Paul, he did not
take umbrage at a frankness so unwonted in the
court of St. Peter, but read the earnest sincerity of
the man. He commissioned Contarini and his friends
to draw up a scheme of reform ; and the result of
their meetings was the famous "Advice of the Select
Cardinals," which Sadoleto latined in such vigorous
CARDINAL CONTARINI AND HIS FRIENDS. 245
Style. This document is the most singular monu-
ment to Contarini's courage. He struck fearlessly
at the root of the evil ; at the college itself, at the
boy bishops, at the absentee and pluralist cardinals,
and at the monastic orders whose entire suppression
he advocated. But all his zeal was in vain. The
" Advice " was read and shelved ; the hydra of abuse
did not lose a single head. And in the midst of
these absorbing public occupations Contarini was
ceaselessly engaged in literary correspondence with
his friends ; in reading, emending, and annotating the
work submitted to him by Bembo, Sadoleto, or Pole.
Busy, too, with treatises of his own on Free-will,
Justification, Predestination, the authority of the
pope, written with such outspoken frankness and
with such deep sympathy for the Lutheran point of
view, that it is a marvel how they escaped the " Index
Expurgatorius." Nor did all this engagement make
him bate one jot of his activity on his friends' behalf.
He hears that Pole is in want of cash ; by the next
post his friend learns that the pope will increase
his salary. For Sadoleto's sake he undertakes the
cause of the poor peasants at Carpentras against
the Jews. But if he willingly expends himself for
his friends' behoof, he claims that they, too, shall not
be dilatory nor self-indulgent. His letters calling
them to Rome and the service of the Church shook
Pole and Sadoleto in their peaceful study at Car-
pentras. Both felt and obeyed the compulsion of
this vigorous and loving man.
The failure of Contarini's hopes of reform and
the collapse of the " Advice "did not extinguish his
246 VENETIAN STUDIES.
activity. And when Charles proposed the Diet of
Ratisbon, and asked the pope to send Contarini as
legate, the cardinal, though fifty-eight years old,
gladly embraced the opportunity of attempting once
more the task of reconciliation and compromise. At
the end of January he left Rome, and, to the horror
of his attendants, he pressed straight on across the
Apennines above Bologna, though they lay deep in
snow. "We arrived here," writes one of his retinue
from Bologna, " all of us pierced through with cold,
which accompanied us the whole way, and will not
leave us yet awhile. The Padre Beccadello, though
smothered in a mountain of furs, looked as if he
would have perished of the frost." But Contarini never
complained. His eyes were fixed on Ratisbon, and
his thoughts were occupied by a vision of the Church
made one again through his endeavours. Pole had
followed the same road two years before on his way
to Spain, but with fainter hopes and a feebler courage.
"The fine weather," he wrote to Contarini, "has
allowed us to cross the Apennines, but the cold on
the mountains actually burned us. The passage
would have been impossible had there been rain or
snow." Contarini would not admit such an im-
possible, but he did not know the greater difficulties
that waited him in Ratisbon, difficulties which defied
even his powers of gentleness and zeal to overcome.
When the work of the Diet was once begun he made
rapid progress towards a reconciliation with the Pro-
testants, and differences seemed to be vanishing
under the charm of his treatment. But every step
in that direction only rendered the consummation of
CARDINAL CONTARINI AND HIS FRIENDS. 247
his desire more hopeless. Luther suspected such a
facile agreement ; Charles dreaded a Germany united
and catholic once more through the labours of the
pope ; at Rome Carafifa inveighed against com-
promise, and accused Contarini of heresy ; the treach-
erous offers of Francis to the one party and the other
induced both Protestant and Roman to hope that
concession might be avoided. The legate's task was
an impossible one. Inspired by Caraffa, Cardinal
Farnese wrote a long despatch to Contarini, in which
the latter could not fail to read the ruin of his pros-
pects. "Bear yourself cautiously, and do not be
drawn to assent to any proposition through the hope
of accord. In the exposition of doctrine let us have
no ambiguity. And finally, if you will allow me to
sum up all in a word, do not conduct yourself so
frankly as to run the risk of being gulled by our
enemies." Such was the temper of Rome, and this
despatch was the warrant of Contarini's failure. He
returned to Italy and found his acquaintances cold
towards him. "What are these monstrous articles
which you have subscribed at the bidding of the
Lutherans?" said one. "That is only some squib
of Pasquin ; do not believe it." " Pardon, this is no
squib. I read it in a letter from a great cardinal." So
the Church which he had tried to serve refused to
acknowledge his efforts. Only his friends drew
closer to his side, and their letters came faster and
fuller of affection as the end approached. Contarini
was sent as legate to Bologna in 1 542, the year after
the Diet of Ratisbon. The summer heats began to
rage with great fierceness, and he retired to S. M.
248 VENETIAN STUDIES.
del Monte above the town. In the monastery there
was a loggia looking northwards across the Lombard
fields towards the Alps, which were just visible in
the distance, a fine and serrated line of snow above
the tropical shimmer and haze of the plain. Here
Contarini loved to sit and talk and feel the cooler
breeze. But the keen wind gave him a chill and
threw him into a fever. He knew at once that he
was dying. Beccadello, his faithful attendant, tried
to cheer him. " Do not think of this ; let the doctors
see to it ; only get well and we will set out on our
mission to the emperor." " Before another and a
greater Emperor I must present myself this day." He
was, as always, only too wise, says his biographer ; he
died that same evening, fifty-nine years old.
If Contarini proved himself vigor®us in the
political life which he adopted, his friend Sadoleto
was hardly less so in his own particular way. It is
part of the charm of this company of Contarini that
each member displays his own distinctive features
clearly marked ; though all are bound together by
affection and sympathy. Sadoleto is first and fore-
most a man of letters. He cannot help regarding
Rome from the humanist point of view ; he is one
with Erasmus in the colour of his indignation at the
sack of the Eternal City. " O barbariem inauditam !
Quae fuit unquam tanta Scytharum, Quadorum,
Wandalorum, Hunnorum, Gothorum, immanitas .? "
Sadoleto wished to contemplate Rome from a
distance ; to focus it through the line of its classical
history; to see it through the emotional atmosphere
of all the ages and of all learning. To be compelled
CARDINAL CONTARINI AND HIS FRIENDS. 249
to deal with Rome as the seat of the Sacred College,
as the home of the pontiff at war with Luther,
destroyed the illusion. Therefore Sadoleto escaped
from Rome whenever he saw his opportunity. He
escaped to plunge himself among his books in his
See of Carpentras ; to lose himself in the region
that he loved, the study of the classics and the
conversation of his friends. Not that he was cold-
hearted to the Church ; he was willing to labour for
her ; but she did not fill and brim his whole sphere
of vision as was the case with Contarini. When
his friend Pole failed in his legation to France,
Sadoleto wrote to him with hardly concealed in-
difference. " I was sorry to learn that your mission
has failed, but I take it the less to heart, as I always
foresaw the issue. Only come back safe and sound
to us." He was a scholar and a good friend, but
hardly a politician or a churchman. He knew that
politics were not his region ; and when, under the
pressure of Contarini, he did mix in affairs he chose
the pen, the weapon that came the readiest to his
hand. But we never can read far in his epistles
before we find him abandoning the discussion of
events to cry, " Veniamus ad litteras." The criticism,
the correction, and the composition of books were
the main passion of life for Sadoleto ; for Contarini
they were luxuries to be enjoyed but sparingly. Yet
the gravity and weight of Sadoleto's style fully
justified his choice. And this engine of vigorous
diction which he perfected, he devoted almost entirely
to the service of the Church. Within his chosen
sphere of literature he was a diligent servant. But
250 VENETIAN STUDIES.
as he grew older this literary temper and its claim
upon him grew stronger. " I wish to devote the
rest of my life to study," he writes to Farnese. " I
therefore think of giving up my diocese ; I only
long for peace and quiet anywhere. I renounce
Carpentras and my gardens ; only give me quiet,
be it where you will." This quiet for which he
prayed was employed in no ignoble manner. It was
then the custom to pass books in manuscript from
hand to hand among the friends of the author.
Criticism and correction were invited, and this led
to a continual correspondence upon literary topics.
Sadoleto's study in his villa suburbana at Carpen-
tras was one of the centres of this activity, one of
the fires of the literary forge. And he was happiest
when he was thus employed in company with some
congenial spirit. He caught Pole once on his return
from one of his many embassies, and we can see from
their correspondence how happy they were together.
Sadoleto preludes to Pole : " I have not written before
because I know that you are in receipt of all our
news. My love for you, however, requires the verifi-
cation of no letters. Only come back safe and sound
to me." Then Pole follows to Contarini : " I am here
in Carpentras, living in a monastery, a place solitary
and devout ; moreover, quite close to the gardens
of Sadoleto, whither I go at least once a week to
spend the whole day ; " and again : " These politics
prevent me from enjoying to the full the delightful
and tranquil company of Sadoleto. Here, however,
is an admirable solitude ; and were it not for the
letters from Rome we should have no news at all."
CARDINAL CONTARINI AND HIS FRIENDS. 251
Pole, the most feminine spirit of the three, was
continually swayed between the stronger characters
of his friends Contarini and Sadoleto. On this
occasion Contarini broke in upon their peace with
cries and claims of duty. Pole had to face the
French legation, and the happiest months of his life,
those spent with Sadoleto at Carpentras, came to
an end. But it was not literary work solely which
occupied Sadoleto's days in his bishopric. He was
a man capable of the strongest personal attachments
when the object was brought within his immediate
reach. All that lay beyond his direct perception, and
which yet commanded his regard^ he transferred to
a region of emotion other than personal, into an
atmosphere that was artistic or intellectual. But
his personal feelings were rendered all the stronger
for this concentration. His affections are the affections
of an artist accustomed to deal with the whole sphere
of emotion as the matter of his art, and who suddenly
finds his familiarity with passion translated into terms
of himself and overmastering. But it is just in these
burning moments of his heart that the true nobility
and gentleness of Sadoleto most appear. He has left
one love-letter behind him, through which the deep
current of a genuine affection flows unmistakably.
It does not appear to whom it was addressed ; but
he says, " I have never ceased to love you. Yet,
since it is the wont of lovers to be ever anxious on
behalf of those they love, I wish to enjoin on you
one thing which both my love and your youth
recommend ;: strive, without any appearance of vain
glory, but in wisdom and modesty, to approve
252 VENETIAN STUDIES.
yourself among your company. I, as beseems my
love for you, and my ever-constant wish in all
that affects you, promise and dedicate to you, to your
well-being and adornment, whatever belongs to me ;
my every effort, forethought, influence, authority,
diligence, all, in short, that nature or fortune has
bestowed on me, however trifling it may be, is yours
for all time ; not only on my word as an honourable
man, but on the faith and evidence of this letter
wherewith, as by a solemn pact, I desire to be bound
to you." With such a well of affection in his nature,
Sadoleto could not miss the warm attachment of his
friends. But his lot was cast in troublous times for
a scholar and a recluse. He experienced the changes
and caprices of favour and disgrace, and was forced
to undertake no less than five journeys between
Rome and Carpentras. Thanks to one of these, he
escaped, by twenty days, the sack of Rome and all
the horrors it brought upon his learned friends. But
these long and dangerous expeditions broke in upon
his leisure and seriously embarrassed his affairs, and
towards the close of his life he found himself in
extreme poverty. " I am so utterly poor," he writes,
" that I cannot make even a four days' journey in a
manner becoming to a cardinal. Horses or mules 1
have none." But his poverty could not purchase
him seclusion. He lived to see his friends die away
one by one ; to hear that his Commentary on St.
Paul was condemned and placed upon the " Index ; " to
be torn from his study by an imperious summons to
Rome, where he died in his house by San Pietro in
Vincola, seventy years of age.
CARDINAL CONTARINI AND HIS FRIENDS. 253
The third of this trio of friends, Reginald Pole,
"the gentle cardinal," the spirito angelica, "my Saint
Pole," as Sadoleto calls him, was at once the least
powerful and the most femininely attractive of the
three. It is not only his gentleness — a gentleness which
led him to shelter the man who tried to assassinate
him — nor yet his misfortunes, his own exile, and his
mother's execution that engage our sympathy. It
is the sweetness and sprightliness of his character
which are so attractive ; for Pole, the Englishman, is
the only one of the three friends who shows a grain
of humour. Cast among strangers whom he had to
make his friends, whom he desired above all to have
as his friends, it is touching to watch him struggling
with the barrier of language between them. In his
early letters he sometimes attempts Italian. He halts
along for a sentence or so, and then reverts to the more
formal but more familiar Latin. Gradually, however,
the barrier was broken down, and Pole learned to use
Italian freely. Before the disgrace of himself and
the ruin of his whole family, Pole had come to study
at Padua, after leaving Oxford. He had an income
of nine hundred pounds a year, and lived as became
a nobleman and a relation of the king of England.
On his return home the question of the king's divorce
placed him on the horns of a dilemma — obedience to
the king and rupture with the Church, or exile. Pole
chose the latter alternative, and remembering his days
of study in the Venetian city, he made his way to
Padua once more. It was upon this second visit that
he formed an intimacy with his friends Contarini and
Priuli, and also with the man who afterwards proved
254 VENETIAN STUDIES.
his foe, Caraffa the Neapolitan. Contarini at once
established an ascendency of affection over the gentle
Englishman ; and it was between the political impulse
of Contarini and the literary impulse of Sadoleto that
Pole spent the greater part of his life in Italy. When
Contarini was summoned to Rome to undertake the
work of reform, he called Pole, among other friends,
to his aid; and Pole appears as "the English cardinal"
among the signatories of the "Advice." Pole had
never enjoyed robust health, and the strain of work
in Rome made him glad to escape whenever possible.
Contarini was well aware of his friend's delicate
constitution, and anxiously urged him to pay more
heed to his physical condition, and to keep himself
efficient for the service of the Church. And there-
upon followed a humorous correspondence. Contarini
recommends a fish diet, and above all attention to
the advice of Priuli and his Italian friends, who
understand the climate. Pole replies, "You have
now commissioned Priuli to act as a keeper of my
health and arbiter of my goings ; but he began to
use his authority after so cavalier a fashion that my
horse, which he had borrowed, guessed my feelings
towards him and gave him a fall ; since then I find him
much milder. But, joking apart, travelling tries me
severely. The wind and open air, to which I have
not been accustomed for some months, give me a
fever ; and that attacks me chiefly at night." This
same Priuli is the man who, of all others, was most
deeply attached to Pole. From the time when they
first met in Venice Priuli never left his friend. His
villa near Treviso was always open to Pole ; and
CARDINAL CONTARINl AND HIS FRIENDS. 255
thither Pole retired when in need of rest, or, as in the
middle of the Council of Trent, in search of health.
Priuli was with him on his many legations ; with him
too at his palace of Lambeth during the two years
that Pole was archbishop of Canterbury ; and when
Pole died, " Alvise Priuli, for twenty years my tried
friend," was left his heir and executor. In spite of
the joke about the horse, and his unwillingness to be
drilled, Pole had the good sense to listen to Priuli's
recommendations, and from his next letter, written to
Contarini from Piacenza, it is clear that he has profited.
"Again ! another letter on the same subject ! Do you
think you have no weight with me that you must
follow up the first by a second ? But from this I
learn how anxious all love must needs be. I cannot
deny that my strength has greatly benefited by
listening to your advice, and I am not only well, but
even in robust health. We stop here a whole day, a
thing I have never done before upon the journey.
I am left alone in the house, as my people have all
gone out to see the town. So I take up my pen once
more that I may spend the time with you." It was
partly his delicate health, partly his poverty — for all
his English fortune had been confiscated — partly, too,
a constitutional shyness and shrinking from publicity,
which made Pole dislike and avoid these official
journeys. He came only too willingly to the lure of
Sadoleto's gardens at Carpentras, and loudly bewailed
the hardship which compelled him to quit them for
a journey into France. And, later on, he writes as
legate from Viterbo to Contarini, explaining how he
likes to live : " I use my morning hours in study, and
256 VENETIAN STUDIES.
am therefore very jealous of them. Business comes
after dinner, and the rest of the day is devoted to the
company of Messer Carnesechi and Antonio Flaminio.
If only you were here this place would be a paradise
on earth. Your absence is the sole drawback to my
complete satisfaction. But were I to judge from my
past experience of the way in which God has ordered
my goings, I should have reason to doubt whether
this full measure of quiet could be mine for long."
It is only in the company of a friend or of a friend's
volume that he can forget the tedium of the road.
" Your book," he writes to Sadoleto, " was carriage,
and springs, and companion to me, so much did it
ease my journey." Pole never could see a monastery
without wishing to seek rest inside its walls ; he con-
stantly speaks of himself as though he were a hunted
deer running for the shelter of a cloister, be it at
Dilingen, at Carpentras, or at Maguzano on the Lake
of Garda. He is happy when he escapes from Rome
to the country ; he is happy at Viterbo in the company
of Flaminio, the poet of the country ; or at Rovellena,
among the Euganean hills, "our paradise, as I can
truly call this place, both because of the charm of its
situation amid these delicious hills, and also and
much more because of the friends whose society I
here enjoy;" happy, too, at Dandolo's villa, "ubi
jucunde et hilare epulati sumus." Pole was made for
the frank enjoyment and companionship of his friends
in all the quiet and refined conditions of life, but not
for the bustle and self-assertion of the great world.
Whether it was the poverty of his health, or that the
tragedy of his house was ever present to his memory,
CARDINAL CONTARINI AND HIS FRIENDS. 257
this instinctive shrinking accompanied him through
life. It showed itself in his refusal of the cardi-
nalate, a refusal which compelled the pope to take
him, as it were, by surprise, first appearing to con-
sent, and then, on the morning of the Consistory,
causing him to be tonsured, consecrated, and declared
a cardinal before he well knew what had happened
to him. It showed itself later on, when he declined
to urge his candidature for the tiara ; and in the
indifference with which he learned that he had missed
it by a single vote, an indifference that irritated a
member of the Sacred College into calling him un
pezzo di legno to his face. But Pole was not wooden
in insensibility ; he had his objects of desire. He
longed, as most men do, for what he never did
possess, quiet and the enjoyment of his friends.
Caraffa pursued him as he pursued all who belonged
to Contarini and the party of conciliation. Pole
missed the pain of seeing England break with his
Church once more. He and Queen Mary died in
1548, on the same day; but Pole closed his career
under a cloud of suspicion at Rome, deprived of his
office as legate, and threatened in his See ; the
youngest, the gentlest, and the most unfortunate in
this trio of Contarini and his friends.
These three men differed widely from one another ;
though chance threw them together in a close and
beautiful intimacy. The happiest of Pole's days were
passed in Italy. There, in contact with the friends
he had made, his character is at its brightest and its
best. Pole's Italian sojourn, however, is no more than
an episode in his story. His real life centres in Eng-
S
258 VENETIAN STUDIES.
land. There he experienced the misfortunes of his
youth ; and there the dark story of the persecutions
from Canterbury gathers about his last years. In Eng-
land he was called on to face the crucial trials of his
career. Sadoleto's life could hardly have had a
different issue. He was a scholar and a recluse by
nature, and the difficulties of the times made his high
station a certain source of unhappiness. Yet among
these three friends Sadoleto's character presents the
greatest harmony and completeness. For Contarini
the problem was rather different. He was endowed
with a burning activity of temper, and a natural bias
in two directions, towards philosophical study and
towards politics. The fact that he was a Venetian
determined him rather as a man of action than as a
speculator. But, having adopted the career of politics,
his philosophical bias avenged itself and compelled
him to pursue a line of compromise. Such a line was an
impossible one, and doomed to failure between Luther,
Caraffa, Charles, and Francis. Had he not been a
philosopher Contarini might have been a politician of
the type of Caraffa ; had he been less of a politician
he might have been a speculator in the school of Pom-
ponazzo, and a possible precursor of Bruno. Through
his intellectual sympathies he felt the tumult and the
doubt of this period of change, and his sleepless
nights are witness to the questionings of his soul.
The interest of his life and the pathos of his failure
lay in this, that he was at once something more and
something less than a politician or a philosopher. He
reflected faithfully the period of transition and the
complexity of his own day.
MARCANTONIO BR AG A DIN, A SIX-
TEENTH-CENTURY CAGLIOSTRO.
I.
One of the most curious and permanent features
in the history of the human spirit is the perennial ex-
pectation that the impossible may be realized. The
human spirit, like a child with its toys, seems to grow
weary of that which it possesses, and to reach out its
hands to that which it has not. The very impro-
bability of attaining an object throws a fascination
around it, and renders it more attractive than that
which lies under our hand. Mankind never ceases to
hope — often in secret — that the picture of his imagina-
tion may become actual for him in some way or other.
The form which this expectation assumes continually
varies. Now its result is a credence in oracles ; now
a conviction that the millennium is imminent ; now
the philosopher's stone or El Dorado attracts desire ;
now it is the prospect of classifying ghosts or of
reading the secret behind the veil. But, however
various the manifestations of this reaching towards the
unrealized may be, each age, and especially each
age of any remarkable vitality, has shown itself
aoristic, undefined, and formless in some direction.
26o VENETIAN STUDIES.
It is to this dubious point that the curiosity, dissatis-
faction, and outgoings of mankind have always rushed.
Here, at this flaw in the solidity of the human intellect,
at this breach in the fortress of fact, this breach that
lets infinity flow in upon mankind, we find assembled
the strange and restless spirits of their time — the
magician, the prophet, the philosopher. The qualities
of these men differ widely from one generation
to another as the object of their hopes differed.
Sometimes it was a noble expectation which drew
them to the gates of the infinite ; a hope of Christ's
second coming, or a belief in universal equality and
brotherhood. Sometimes the expectation was mean
and tainted ; such as the belief in the power of
alchemy to create gold, or a hope of inexhaustible
pleasure to be purchased by a compact with the devil.
But, noble or mean in its extravagant aspirations,
each age shows us the human spirit occupied, in part
at least, with a hope that the impossible may become
possible, that the limitless may be grasped.
Each epoch, then, will have its Cagliostros, trading,
with more or less of conscious duplicity and villany,
upon the governing appetites and expectations of
the men about them. These charlatans, in spite of
their iniquity and their certain failure, are seldom
utterly uninteresting — the possibility and the peril of
self-deception touch mankind too nearly. And, more-
over, these charlatans possess the power of bringing to
the surface the salient qualities of the men with whom
they are implicated, and their career throws into
high relief the leading characteristics of their age.
The close of the sixteenth century was a period of
MARCANTONIO BR AG A DIN. 261
extreme ferment and corruption throughout Europe.
The air was charged with expectation. Men's minds
were on the alert for something startling and new ;
old landmarks had been swept away, old faiths called
in question, Machiavelli and the Reformation had
riven Europe and shaken thrones. Court and camp
were in a condition of morbid activity. Princes and
sovereigns moved restlessly, impelled by an insatiable
desire for change. Their palaces abounded in ad-
venturers, ready to propose and attempt impossible
schemes of political aggrandizement. In the world of
politics the bounds of sanity were overstepped, and
in the social world the same process was at work. It
was one of those periods when the moral conscience
seems to have fallen asleep and to have relaxed its
bracing and binding power. In every department of
life charlatans were abroad, preying upon the cupidity,
the folly, or the appetites of society. Our sixteenth-
century Cagliostro, Marcantonio Bragadin, was only
one among a hundred others of similar temper ; but
we have selected him for several reasons. In the first
place, his career led him to cross the paths of many
people of importance : * of Henry IV. of France and
the dukes of Bavaria and Mantua ; of Popes Sixtus
V. and Gregory XIV. ; and, finally and principally, he
came in contact with the republic of Venice. He
occupies two volumes of official letters, reports and
resolutions, which exist now in the archives of the
Frari.t In these manuscripts we are able to follow
* Doglioni, " Hist. Venet.," lib. xviii. ; Daru, " Hist, de
Venise," lib. xxviii.
t See also Cicogna Codice, No. 80.
262 VENETIAN STUDIES.
a part of his life with a minuteness that accounts
for almost every day, and in the process a vivid
picture of a charlatan's career, his successes, and his
failure, is unfolded before us ; while at the same time
we receive a singular demonstration of the patient
accuracy and the thorough method which distinguished
the Venetian government, even when dealing with a
subject apparently so unimportant as the movements
of a reputed alchemist.
II. In nubibus.
Marco Bragadin, of Cyprus, as he called himself,
would seem to have belonged to the noble Venetian
house whose name he bore. How that may be we
cannot say for certain. His birth, his boyhood, and
early youth are lost in obscurity ; and Cyprus is the
only fact upon which we can rely. In Cyprus he was
born, somewhere about 1 540, of a father who practised
alchemy and medicine with considerable success.
Between Cyprus in 1540, and Venice in 1574, we
catch only one fleeting and doubtful glimpse of
Marco as court fool and disreputable attendant in the
train of Bianca Capello, grand duchess of Tuscany.*
The next we hear of him is in Venice, with his
brother Hector, staying in the house of a friend — he
had already begun to make friends and followers —
a certain Caldogno, of Vicenza. There is nothing as
yet about alchemy or mystery of any sort, only
friendship, and that pura fascinatione^ the sheer
fascination which one of his victims subsequently
* See Celio Malespini, " Novelle," torn. ii. Nov. xc.
MARCANTONIO BRACADIN. 263
recognized as a characteristic of the man. At this
time Venice was in a ferment of revelry for the
advent of Henry III. of France. The lavish expen-
diture, the riot, and the licence of these few days'
pageantry turned most heads ; and it occurred to the
two Bragadins that they would like to go to France
in Henry's train, seeing the number of adventurers
who swarmed about the king, and scenting the right
man for their prey, if they could come at him. Money
for the journey was not easily to be had ; but, thanks
to Marco's "sheer fascination," the Caldogno family
advanced fifty ducats and a bill of exchange for
four hundred more ; and, thus provided, the Bragadins
set out. At this point they disappear once more
behind their cloud, and what happened in France is
obscure to us. But it would seem that Marco began his
practice of alchemy or " philosophy," as it was called
by its professors, in that country, where the famous
Nostradamus was little more than dead, and that he
left something of a reputation behind him, enough at
least to secure for him repeated invitations to return.
Whatever reputation Marco may have gained, this
visit to France did not prove financially successful ;
and we find him back again in Venice, all the four
hundred and fifty ducats gone, himself in great straits,
overwhelmed with debts, pursued by creditors, and
with no ostensible means of livelihood. In this pass he
took a step which hampered him all his life, and from
the consequences of this act he never struggled free.
He resolved to enter a monastery of the Capuchins.
Before he assumed the cowl, the Father Superior
obtained for his novice an accommodation with his
264 VENETIAN STUDIES.
creditors, and Marco joined the order of St. Francis
a free man, as he beheved, but, in reahty, he had
fastened such a halter round his neck as was not to
be loosed except by his death. Bragadin had taken
this step merely as a temporary measure and under
the great pressure of his debts. A cloister life had
few attractions and offered no scope to a man of his
temper. He was not long in making his escape and
finding his way back to France. And it was after
this second visit to France that he emerged into
clear light, and began to attract the attention of the
Venetian government.
III. Bragadin emerges.
Hitherto Bragadin's course has lain chiefly in
nubibus ; there have been few indications of the
man's nature or powers ; we have heard little as yet
of transmutation of metals, and nothing of the anima
cToro. Only in Cyprus, Florence, Venice, and France,
has the veil lifted a moment to show us Marco in no
very reputable or hopeful circumstances. Now, how-
ever, he emerges into lucidity, and the vigilant eye of
Venice is turned upon his career.* In September,
1588, Bragadin was established in a small village of
the Bresciano, at the foot of the Alps, not far from
Bergamo. He had just returned from France, where
his second visit had proved no more lucrative than
the first. For he was living in a very poor way, " in
miserable rags," with one companion, a Flemish gun-
smith skilled at mending arquebuses. Here, at
* Cod. No. 80.
MARC ANTONIO BR AG A DIN. 265
Torbiato, he might have remained undisturbed and
unnoticed, but that the officers of the Inquisition got
wind of his whereabouts, and were in search of him
as an apostate and runaway monk. So Bragadin was
forced to change his quarters ; and the next we hear
of him is from Lovere, on the Lago d'Iseo, with the
police close at his heels. One night he was roused
by a hammering at the door, and looking out to see
who knocked, he found the house surrounded, and
the chief constable of Bergamo come to arrest him.
" Alone and undressed, he flung himself out of a high
window, and so escaped," but not without a deep
wound under his chin, the scar of which he bore long
afterwards. Considering the height of the window,
and his narrow escape from capture, he decided that
a miracle had been performed on his behalf, and
asserted it with such confidence that he persuaded
some of his friends to believe the same.
A miracle alone, however, is not a source of
income ; and, as yet, Bragadin's prospects did not
seem very bright. But presently he is back again at
Lovere, and an extraordinary change has come over
his manner of life. At Torbiato he was poor, alone,
and pursued ; at Lovere he is rich and surrounded
by servants. The governors of Brescia report thus of
him in October, 1589: "He entertains in his house,
now twenty, now thirty nobles and other citizens of
Brescia. His expenses are so great that no private
individual could support them. Rumour says that
during these last four or five months he has disbursed
twenty thousand scudi ; and just now he has one
hundred mouths to feed, and one hundred horses in
266 VENETIAN STUDIES,
his stables." Truly a surprising change from the
''miserable rags" of Torbiato just a year ago. And
the way in which Bragadin had wrought this trans-
formation gives him rank as a charlatan. His method
was that of the professional impostor and scamp.
He began by whispering to his neighbours of Torbiato
that God had committed to his keeping a secret
whose value was inestimable, but not for worlds must
they divulge this to another ; he told it them solely
because they had taken pity upon his rags and poverty.
And what was the secret .'' Then Bragadin produced a
fine powder, wrapped in a paper, and said that here
was the anima cToro, the spirit of gold, by whose
potency he could convert quicksilver into the precious
metal, and reap a profit of five hundred per cent.
Unlimited prospect of gold ! It was more than human
imagination could resist, and all to be had by simple
belief in this precious man ; no other price asked ; for
Bragadin began by refusing presents from these lesser
folk, meaning to fly at far higher game. Events
followed the course he expected. Such a light could
not long lie hidden under a bushel. The rumour
spread that at Lovere lived a man who owned the
spirit of gold ; and presently there arrived a certain
Alfonso Piccolomini, gentleman and soldier in the
service of the duke of Mantua, and shortly after the
duke himself, to see whether the anima d'oro might
not be carried off to Mantua, locked away, and so
make his Highness rich forever. Money was not
wanting now, for Bragadin had doubtless represented
to Piccolomini that the labourer is worthy of his hire
even before he has laboured. And so the duke
MARCANTONIO BR AG AD IN. 267
" stayed to dine and sup, and treated Bragadin with
more respect than he shows to our government " — so
report the governors of Brescia. " He made great
offers to Bragadin if he would go to Mantua. With
these, however, Bragadin merely played, and gave no
promise." A few days later, the duke is back again
to supper ; " a great feast, with fish, flesh, confetti
from Genoa and Spain ; all at the cost of seven
hundred scudi, not including an arquebus which
Bragadin presented to the duke, and which was worth
six hundred more ; " and after supper Bragadin did
himself the honour to refuse a diamond ring " worth
some million" — a singular moderation, considering that
it was the duke's pocket which had furnished the feast.
In this distinguished company the humbler friends
of Torbiato are forgotten and thrust aside. But they
do not forget their quickened hopes, their visions of
perennial gold ; and, resenting Bragadin's conduct,
they report ill of him to the authorities in Brescia.
These visits of the duke of Mantua required con-
sideration. The governors referred for orders to
Venice, and received instructions to furnish " the
fullest information regarding the life, habits, expenses,
servants, friends, and intentions of Bragadin." In
this way tlie alchemist came under the notice of the
Venetian government, and the series of daily reports
begins.
IV. Anima d'Oro.
Hitherto Bragadin's illustrious friends had heard
only promises and glowing accounts of the inex-
haustible resources of anitna cToro. Tangible proof
268 VENETIAN STUDIES.
as yet there was none. And they became impatient.
But Bragadin was now aware that Venice had began
to show some interest in his movements. This was
just what he desired. The more bidders for him and
for his precious " medicine,"* as he called it, the better
terms he would be able to make ; so at least he
thought. He was ready to give proof, but was
resolved to do so only in the presence of some
Venetian of authority whose report would impress
his government. He chose his man well. Count
Marcantonio Martinengo, of Villa Chiara, was a noble
of the republic, a distinguished general who had
represented Venice at the courts of Rome and
France, a man valued for his straightforward honesty
and simplicity. At that time he was recovering from
illness at a country house near Brescia. Bragadin
begged Piccolomini, as a friend of Martinengo, to
invite the count to be present at the operation of
making gold from quicksilver which he now intended
to perform. Martinengo gladly accepted the invitation,
for he had heard the rumours about Bragadin and
was curious. But first he consulted the authorities of
Brescia, and obtained their consent to his action on
the understanding that he should send them a detailed
report of all that occurred.f This is Martinengo's
report : " Sig. Marco Bragadin, as a most faithful and
loving subject of this serene republic, wishing to
demonstrate the reality of the gift committed to him
by the Divine Majesty, chose and summoned me as a
* See Ben Jonson's " Alchemist." Subtle might almost have
been studied from Bragadin.
t " Rivista Vienese," xii. 1840.
MARCANTONIO BR AG A DIN. 269
tried friend and servant and vassal of his Serenity,
that I might bear true testimony to the facts. He
made me take a pound of quicksilver, which I had
ordered my servant to buy, and put it in a crucible
upon a fire of live coals. He left it there as long as
one might take to say a Pater noster and an Ave
Maria. Then he made me take some orange-coloured
powder which he values very highly, about as much
as a grain of millet ground into meal ; and this he
made me mix with a red wax, that the powder, which
is very fine, might not fly away. Then he made me
take another small grain of some material between
green and black. This he declared was of no value
at all, and in proof he flung some of it out of the
window ; but at the same time he said that it was
absolutely necessary for the operation, which could
not be performed without it. This stuff with my
own hand I mixed in wax, and then threw both the
pellets into the crucible where the quicksilver was
already boiling. Then we heaped on more coals, so
that the fire was blazing all round, and left it about a
quarter of an hour ; at the end of which, I, by his order,
took the crucible, glowing hot, and put it in a vase
of liquid, like water in consistency but of a pale blue
colour. And when the crucible was cooled, we turned
out of it a lump weighing a pound, which I have
forwarded to you, that it may be sent to Venice, and
tested with the usual tests for gold of twenty-four
carats." The lump was sent to Venice and tested.
We shall hear more of it later on.
This was a good day's work for Bragadin. He
roused all the curiosity and cupidity of the Venetian
270 VENETIAN STUDIES.
officials by his lump of seeming gold, which reached
them through the governors of Brescia. But more
than that, he had attached to himself Count Marti-
nengo by a faith that no subsequent exposure was
able to shake. Martinengo was a plain, honest
man. He had seen the gold made ; that was
enough for him. From that day forward he be-
lieved in the God-gifted Marco Bragadin, and was
completely subdued by the " sheer fascination " of
the man and his work. In all future proceedings
he acts for Bragadin ; defends him ; watches his
interest ; counts it his greatest honour to know this
sage favoured of heaven, this man "with a singular
devotion to goodness." Nothing could have been
more fortunate for Sig. Marco. For, on the other
hand, the Venetian government, who cared little
about the source of his gift, be it from heaven or hell,
who were not at all impressed by his "singular
devotion to goodness," and indifferent as to his
character "more than middling," had been touched
in a place where they were highly susceptible. This
Brescian nugget wakened in them the vision of an
inexhaustible treasury. Their one anxiety now was
that Bragadin should be brought to Venice as soon
as possible ; their greatest fear lest the duke of Mantua
or some other prince should carry off this golden
prize. In their negotiations with the alchemist they
found no fitter intermediary than the Count Marti-
nengo, the man of Bragadin's own choice ; and so, as
plenipotentiary between himself and the Venetian
government, Bragadin secured a man wholly devoted
to himself, the humble slave of his " sheer fascination."
MARCANTONIO BR AG A Dm. 271
V. "His Natural Prince."
The negotiations for bringing Bragadin to Venice
required some delicacy in handling. France, Rome,
Mantua, and Venice were all bidding for the honour
of his presence. Venice was unwilling to arrest him
and carry him off by force, though at the same time
she was fully resolved that he should not escape.
Bragadin was aware of this resolve ; and the know-
ledge that he was virtually caught irritated him into
making a show of freedom by playing with other
princes, and by loudly declaring that he would take
no other road than that which " God should inspire
him to choose." Though he had desired to number
Venice among the claimants for his person, he
was now more than half afraid of his own action,
dreading the results of the notoriety he had created
and feeling that he had touched a power he was
unable to control. The Venetian government did
not wish to alarm him, and preferred that he should
come to Venice seemingly of his own accord. At
the request of Martinengo they sent a safe-conduct
for Bragadin, his powders, jars, and retorts, and ordered
the governors of Brescia to invite him to dine and
to show him every attention. On the other hand,
Piccolomini, as a soldier of adventure in command of
his own troop, was plying Bragadin with wild offers —
to seize Orvieto and make it over to Bragadin, if he
would consent to manufacture gold in that city. The
duke of Mantua, too, was at work in person. Late
one evening he arrived incognito at Brescia, in a
hired carriage with three attendants. He at once
272 VENETIAN STUDIES.
called on Bragadin, and was admitted, by a secret
stair, to the room where the alchemist was, he threw
his arms round Bragadin's neck, implored him to be
his friend, made him shake hands on it, assured him
of his immutable regard. Bragadin replied in the
same strain, and ended by saying, "When I am at
Venice I shall be with a prince who is so entirely my
friend that I can promise you all good offices through
my mediation." Then the two passed the evening
over a splendid supper, and next day the duke sent
to his host a collar, a jewelled watch, and robes with
golden buttons.
But the pressure from outside, from the governors
of Brescia, from Martinengo, from Contarini and
Dolfin, two commissioners sent on purpose to hasten
Bragadin's departure, was rapidly becoming more than
he could resist. As a matter of fact, one course only
was open to him ; and on the 8th of November he
announced that, " inspired by God to refuse all other
offers, he was now resolved to serve his natural prince,"
the doge. The conditions which he asked were
modest enough ; for his game now was to establish
himself well at Venice, and secure the confidence of
the government and the great nobles. " I do not
seek," he says, " nay, I do not desire either dignity, or
honour. I am content with the pleasure I feel in
serving others. I bring to Venice my treasure, and
in Venice will my heart also be. I only entreat your
Serenity to leave me perfectly free to act as God shall
inspire. This operation of making gold requires
much time, and ninety months of undisturbed labour
will be needed to perfect and to multiply the anima
MARCANTONIO BR AG AD IN. 273
doro which I now possess, so that I may be able to
make a suitable gift to your Serenity. The medicine
I have with me is capable of producing one hundred
thousand ducats ; but in order to create five millions,
as I desire to do, I require thirty months for boiling
a certain water in dung under ground. One only
favour I have to ask ; that is, that your Serenity should
use your influence to secure my absolution at Rome
and release from my monastic vows."
But, though everything had been arranged, Bra-
gadin still delayed his departure. The duke of
Mantua still continued to ply him with presents and
letters beginning, " The lover to the beloved ; " and the
governors of Brescia had such grave suspicions that
the duke intended to waylay and carry off Bragadin,
that they deemed it necessary to have the whole
country scoured, and to double the guards at the
gates. At length, on the 20th of November, Bragadin,
Martinengo, and a large escort set out for Peschiera,
Verona, Padua, and Venice. The journey was
arranged to look as like a triumph as possible. The
authorities in each of the towns received Bragadin
at the public palace, feasted and entertained him,
consulted his wishes as to the details of his route,
and supplied him with an escort suitable to a prince —
" for the greater honour of his person," they always
said. But in reality Bragadin was a prisoner and he
knew it. At Padua he made one effort to shake off
his guards. He announced that he would go to
Venice down the Brenta by water, and one boat
could not accommodate all his retinue. He chose this
route because he knew that Piccolomini was lying
T
274 VENETIAN STUDIES.
in wait near Dolo, to carry him off to Mantua or
elsewhere. But the scheme failed ; for the governor
assured him that a personage so dear to the republic
could not be allowed to reach the lagoons unattended.
Upon the 26th of November Bragadin entered Venice,
and found himself safe under the protection of " his
natural prince,"
VI. The Jar in the Ten.
Venice was in a state of expectation at the arrival
of the famous Marco Bragadin Mamugni — " Mam-
mon Bragadin," as the people immediately nicknamed
him. The Venetian government was always remark-
able for the rapidity of its action, when it had once
adopted a course ; and in this case they did not belie
their reputation. Bragadin arrived on the 26th, and
on the 28th, by the advice of Contarini and Dolfin, two
of his well-wishers and high state officers, he sent
Martinengo to the Council of Ten, to convey a
letter addressed by himself to the doge, and to offer
two jars of anima doro, as an earnest of his good
faith, upon the condition that these jars should be
placed in a cupboard in the mint, and the keys of
the cupboard handed over to Bragadin, so that he
might take from the jars the "medicine" as he
required it for his work. Martinengo was introduced
to the council, and the two jars placed beside him
on the floor. He reported at length on his relations
with Bragadin, and then demanded the answer of
the Ten as regarded the offer of his friend. The gift
of the anima d'oro was accepted, and likewise
MARCANTONIO BRAGADIN. 275
Bragadin's conditions. The two jars were ordered to
the mint, and were carried out in solemn procession
by Pietro Marcello, governor of the mint, accom-
panied by the heads of the Ten and Martinengo, who
saw the precious powders stowed away, and himself
carried the keys of the cupboard to the alchemist.
The government suspended judgment, but pursued
their usual method of swiftly and silently securing
everything in their own hands before proceeding to
decisive action. They held Bragadin safe in Venice,
and now they had his anhna d'oro, \\\s piece justificative,
under lock and key. Bragadin had the keys, it is true,
but he could not touch his medicine without their know-
ledge and consent. From Bragadin's point of view,
this present of the anima doro was intended to inspire
confidence, and to justify any delays for which he
might apply ; and to make assurance doubly sure on
this head, he took a further step. On the 23rd of
December Marcello, master of the mint, reports to the
Ten : " This morning I went to the mint. Bragadin
came, accompanied by Martinengo, Contarini, and
Dolfin. They were brought into the mint by the Riva.
We all went to the cupboard where the jars were placed
a few days ago, and, having opened the cupboard with
the keys Bragadin had brought with him, we placed
therein a packet, sealed with four seals of Spanish
wax on the strings, three on one side and one on the
other. These seals, Bragadin tells me, are his own
and one of Count Martinengo's. He further adds
that this packet contains his secret and his Will.
After that we all separated and went our ways."
The government could hardly look for any greater
276 VENETIAN STUDIES.
marks of honesty. They now possessed Bragadin's
" spirit of gold," and the receipt for making it, sealed
with his own intaglio showing the figures of Philosophy
and Truth.
But in the mean time, the good effects of this
apparent candour ran a serious danger of being de-
stroyed. The Brescian nugget had been tested, and
found to be silver, coloured with bronze. This dis-
covery might have put an end for ever to Bragadin
and his secret, but that rumours of it reached his
ears, and he made a countermove to efface its in-
jurious results. A few days after hearing the report
of the assayers in the mint, the Council of Ten received
from several of its own members an account of certain
events which had taken place in the house of Conta-
rini, where Bragadin had volunteered a demonstration
of his powers. He had gone through his usual
performance with his crucible, his orange and black
powders, his wax and coloured water, and at the
close he had made this speech, holding the contents
of the crucible in his hand : " Gentlemen," he said,
" take the gold ; bear true witness to what you have
seen ; test it at your leisure. I hear that the piece
which I made in the presence of Count Martinengo
has been tested in your mint, and is said not to be
pure gold. I affirm that they mistake ; it is pure
gold. I will take a bit of this to test it " (and with
that he cut off a piece with his knife), " and then we
shall see who is wrong. I have come. here of my
own free will, to serve my natural prince. I rely upon
his safe-conduct, and I assure you that I make no
pretensions, nor desire aught but to live and die
MARCANTONJO BR AG AD IN, 277
Marco Bragadin the Cipriot" Twice during his
career on Venetian territory, Bragadin had performed
his operation of projection ; both times reluctantly and
at a pinch. On both occasions it had served his
purpose for a time, and allayed a growing suspicion.
But this was a bank upon which he could not draw for
ever. One more draft and his account will be run out,
his cheque dishonoured and himself undone.
After hearing the report of their members, the
council hesitated again ; they thought the matter worth
further consideration ; and on the 1 3th of December the
Senate appointed a committee of the governors of the
mint, " to deal with this affair as quickly, dexterously,
and prudently as possible, that we may find out the
very truth upon the matter ; persuading Bragadin
with friendly exhortations to give us satisfaction on
the point." So Bragadin was on his last trial — was
face to face with the moment crucial for his prospects
in Venice.
VII. On the Guidecca.
Hitherto we have followed Bragadin's career from
the inside only. To the outer world, however, his
position appeared very different. There were no signs
of immediate collapse, no appearance of a rotten core,
no indication of doubtful foothold. To Venice he
had come as the great Marco Bragadin, philosopher
and alchemist, creator and dispenser of gold, world-
famous and holy man, to whom the government
showed all honour and regard. The great nobles,
greedy for wealth, gave him a ready welcome, and
supplied him with funds on which they hoped to gain
278 VENETIAN STUDIES.
an honest cent, per cent. The people, ready to adopt
the fashion of the moment, believed in the Divine
origin of his gift, and were ready to stone those
who should utter a doubt. Even before his arrival
Bragadin had secured many wealthy and powerful
connections ; the families of Contarini, Dolfin, Dan-
dolo, and Cornaro claimed friendship with him, and
so his arrival in Venice was, in appearance, a tri-
umphant success. He hired the beautiful palace of
the Dandoli on the Guidecca,* with its gardens, cortili,
fountains, and loggie looking over the lagoon, and
there he established himself with an immense retinue
of servants, actors, and musicians, and entertained his
noble friends at masques and balls and banquets of
regal magnificence. In fact, the pura fascinatione
of Signor Marco and his golden reputation reigned
supreme in Venice for a while. He possessed many
gifts which attracted people, talking well and playing
several instruments; while, to; support his character
as alchemist and intimate of the secret world, he
was followed wherever he went by two enormous
black dogs with gold collars round their necks ; and
it did not take the people long to determine that
these two hounds were his familiar spirits. Gold
there evidently was in the house on the Guidecca,
but as yet it had come chiefly from the pockets of
others, and not from Marco's laboratory. But, for
all that, the eclat was brilliant, and the fame of
Bragadin and his golden secret spread far beyond
Venice. This is the account which a learned con-
* Sansovino, " Venezia, Cittk nobilissima e Singolare," in vita
" Cicogna."
MARCANTONIO BRAGADIN. 279
temporary sends to a friend. " It is true," he writes,
" that I have been to Venice to gain some informa-
tion about this famous Mamugna. They say that
he really is able to transmute metals, and therefore
many nobles run after him in the hope of having
their debts paid. They court and almost adore him,
and the least title they give him is that of 'most
illustrious.' Presents pour in from all sides, even
from princes. The price of coal, philosophers' cloaks,
and crucibles has gone up. Every one professes
mammonry. If you want my opinion, I don't be-
lieve a word of it. Species rerum transmutari non
possunty *
Bragadin's success was certainly great. But
underneath this blaze of notoriety there lay the
ominous order of the Senate, calling his case for
immediate judgment, with its rigid and uncom-
promising demand to know " the truth of these
matters." And his admirers, his noble and needy
friends, were growing impatient, and reiterated their
desire di subito veder oro — to see gold straightway.
This caused much uneasiness to Bragadin ; for, as he
carefully explained, gold could not be seen in this
sudden and summary way ; a philosopher requires,
above all things, time and a " serene mind." But
explanations were hardly acceptable while debts re-
mained to be paid and promises fulfilled. In fact,
the gale of public fame and private impatience was
driving the alchemist's bark further and faster than
he desired, and in the background hung the order of
the Senate, waiting to be discharged.
Giovanni Bonifacio, " Lettere," No. 78 (Rovigo : 1627).
28o VENETIAN STUDIES.
VIII. "Till God inspires."
The resolution of the Senate was communicated
to Bragadin two days after Christmas. He had
calculated on rousing cupidity, securing confidence,
and then delaying all action from month to month
upon the plea of requiring leisure, while he lived
upon the credulity and the gold of others. But the
rapidity of the government upset his scheme. Re-
luctantly, " renitente volontd.1' with shrinking will, he
turned to give battle to a power he could not hope to
control. In answer to the request of the committee, he
forwarded a letter to the doge * — an interminable
windy letter, whose core and meaning is reached only
after much difficulty and wading through pages of bitter
complaint that the proofs of his power which he has
already given have not secured him credence. He
assures the doge " that it is his nature to act sponta-
neously, and not when he is forced. For this power is
a great gift from God, and he would leave God to
make use of him as he pleases." He concludes — some
instinct that excuses would not avail compelling him
— by an appeal to the cupidity of the government : " I
do not desire to deceive you in aught, and if compelled
I can, in a very short time, convert my powder into
purest gold. But I warn you that if I act thus we
shall lose the notable advantage to be derived from
allowing the powder to multiply, which I can cause it
to do at the rate of three hundred per cent. This
would take a long time, but at the end I could, with
* " Revista Vienese," ut sup.
MARCANTONIO BRAG AD IN. 281
part of this multiplied powder, produce a sum sufficient
to allow you to taste the benefit of my skill, while
the rest I would put to breed again. Your Serenity,
then, must choose whether you will at once see that
gold which my powder can now make — it will be a
comparatively insignificant amount — or will you let
me put it to multiply? Finally, I beg that in any
case I may not be disturbed during these holy days
of Christmas ; that I may have leisure to attend to
my soul's health, the repose of my body, the soothing
of my tormented spirit, and, in short, that I may
prepare myself for the service of your Serenity."
Bragadin's friends were for taking him at his own
time and waiting till the inspiration came to him.
But the committee, with the imperative order of the
Senate upon them, refused to delay. They continued
to urge Bragadin, while he floundered deeper and
deeper into the mire, from which he knew that there
was no escape compatible with success. On the 29th
of December he sent a formal communication to the
committee. He " begged to be left alone that week,
as he was attending to his soul ; he had confessed,
and hoped to take the sacrament, and so receive a
holy joy. But next week he would comply with their
demands." The answer came back that his request
was reasonable, that he might take his own time, but
must appoint a day in the following week. The day
agreed on was the 6th of January, Epiphany.
282 VENETIAN STUDIES.
IX. At the Palace.*
"On the 6th of January," so runs the report, ''Braga-
din and Martinengo came to visit the doge. They asked
if he would like to see the operation performed, and
a proof made of Bragadin's power. The doge replied
in the affirmative, and a servant was despatched to
buy a pound of quicksilver and a crucible ; while the
privy councillors, the heads of the law court, and the
masters of the mint were summoned to attend. A
fire of coal was prepared in the doge's private
chamber ; and when the servant returned with the
quicksilver and the crucible^ Signor Marco took the
crucible in his hand and said that it was too large for
the quantity of silver, and that he would have required
a fire twice as large. Then he explained to all that
by reason of its high edges the crucible was of no
use, and took another smaller one which he had
with him. This he handed round to the company,
that they might see whether there was anything in it
or no ; and all saw that it was clean and free from
suspicion. Then he took the quicksilver and folded
it in the handkerchief of Pasquale Cicogna, the
doge's nephew, and pressed it out into a plate of
white metal ; and because it had not all come out
of the handkerchief, he squeezed it again, and made
the rest pass through, and flung away some dirt that
remained in the handkerchief Then he took the
plate and handed it to Galeazzo Secco, the doge's
chancellor, and wished him to pour the silver into
* " Cod. Cicogna," ut sup.
MARCANTONIO BR AG AD IN. 283
the crucible ; but the chancellor was afraid of spilling
it, so Signor Bragadin himself poured it out. Then
he took a small folded paper, which he opened, and
inside was seen a very fine orange-coloured powder.
Then, turning to the illustrious Alexander Zorzi,
Bragadin said, * Do you recognize it? Look at it
well ; is it some of my medicine from the mint ? '
Then he took a little on the point of a knife and
threw it on the quicksilver in the crucible. After this
he opened another paper containing some black stuff
in small pieces, and threw one of the pieces into the
crucible, saying that it was of no value ; and to prove
it threw the rest, paper and all, into the fire. Then
he took a piece of red wax and placed it in the
crucible on the top of the silver. One of the council
said, ' If that stuff is of no importance why do you
put it into the crucible ? ' and Marco replied, ' I don't
intend you to know why I put it there ; I mean to
keep that secret to myself.' Then, when he was
about to take up the crucible, he said, ' I must shake
the sleeves of my cloak well, so that no one may say
that I have slipped gold into the crucible.' So he
shook them well, twice over. Then, taking the
crucible, he said, * If you do not all of you presently
acknowledge that this stuff is gold, I am ready to be
branded a scoundrel.' Then he called Quirini and
Zorzi to see him put the crucible on the fire, and to
witness the operation ; and, turning to the doge, he
said, * Serene prince, will it please your Serenity to
come nearer, for this operation is performed on your
behalf.' So his Serenity rose and came to look on,
while Quirini sat down on a bench near the fire.
284 VENETIAN STUDIES.
Then Signer Marco put the crucible on the coals, and
began to blow, and made the others help him. And
presently one heard the stuff beginning to boil, and
making a noise as though one had thrown salt on the
fire ; and this went on some little while. Then Priuli,
the councillor, rising to see what was going forward,
said, " One would think they were frizzling pitch by
the noise it makes.' After a bit Signor Marco,
raising the lid so that we could see the quicksilver
boiling, cried, 'You see how it boils. All this will
soon be gold ; ' and he put the lid on again, and
covered it over with live coal, and set to blowing once
more. And when the boiling and frizzling had ceased
somewhat, he called for a pitcher of water, and taking
the^crucible off the fire, he put it in the pitcher, plung-
ing it well in. Then he drew it out immediately, and,
placing the crucible on the window-sill, he took out
a lump of gold of the shape of the crucible, and
handed it round for all to see and examine. The
councillor Donado alone kept always in the distance,
without caring to see anything."
So for the third time Bragadin had made his
famous operation in the hope of delaying exposure.
But this was his last attempt to draw upon an
exhausted account. Two days after the scene at the
palace, the assayers of the mint handed in their
report : " Glory to God. Test made of a lump of
metal committed to us by the masters of the mint,
which is found by us, testers in the mint, to contain
four carats of silver and four carats of bronze."
With this brief and final document Bragadin's career
and prospects in Venice are closed for ever. Some
MARCANTONIO BR AG A DIN. 285
few of his acquaintances still clung to him, inspired
by cupidity that could not believe itself baulked, or,
as in the case of Martinengo, by a real belief in
Bragadin that rose superior to all failure. But the
tide of popularity ebbed more rapidly than it had
flowed ; and for the Carnival of 1 590 Paolo Sarpi
invented the masquerade of Bragadin, the Mammon
God.* The people hooted him openly in the streets ;
and, after enduring the contumely for a month or
more, he escaped to Padua, where the Cornari offered
him a house and protection.
X. Flight.
Little more remains to be told ; but that little lies
outside Venice. It was not the Venetians who were
to score off and close for ever Bragadin's reckoning
with the world. The pressure of his debts, the
pursuit of his creditors, who had already secured the
sequestration of his goods, and his proximity to
Venice, made Padua by no means a safe or pleasant
home for Bragadin. Moreover, the Senate had con-
sidered a proposal to arrest and punish the man who
had fooled it. The motion was rejected solely on
the ground that such action would compromise the
dignity of the state, and publish the fact that the
Venetians had been gulled. Worse than all, Bragadin
could not trust his host Cornaro, who still pretended to
believe in his gift, and continued to clamour for gold.
Bianchi-Giovani, " Biog. di Frk Paolo Sarpi," i. no, in.
See Cicogna, " Miscel.," 1919, where a popular song on Bragadin
may be found.
286 VENETIAN STUDIES.
These circumstances alarmed Bragadin so much that
he resolved to quit Venetia. But where should he
go ? He had already received a letter from the duke
of Bavaria, couched in the most flattering terms,
addressed to " The Most Illustrious Marco Bragadin,
my dearest friend," * assuring him that the fame of
his secret had spread throughout all Germany, and
asking to be numbered among his admirers. Bavaria
then was open to him. The other alternative was
France. He had written to Henry IV., having reason
to believe that at the French court he would find a
ready welcome and honourable terms. Henry replied
to his ambassador at Venice, enclosing a letter for
Bragadin, and ordering De Maisse to open negotia-
tions with the alchemist.f The letter is a curious
specimen of the attitude upon which Bragadin and
his fellows could always count — a mixture of curiosity
and hope, a desire to see the new thing, and a lurking
expectation that there was some truth in the man's
pretensions ; enough, at least, to justify a trial. But
Bragadin never received Henry's letter ; for the
French ambassador replied to his master that the
alchemist was a miserable charlatan, already exploded,
and therefore he would not deliver the king's en-
closure. So Bragadin resolved to seek refuge in
Bavaria. On the 6th of August he set out for a
ride in the country, as he said. He galloped to
Bassano, passed the Alps without stopping, and
reached Landshut, near Munich, where the duke was
residing.
* " Cod. Cicogna," ut sup. \ Daru, op. cit.^ xxviii.
MARCANTONIO BRAG AD IN. 287
XI. "Velut volatilis fugit Umbra."
Then follows a most singular series of letters * from
Bragadin to his friends, announcing his honourable
reception at the Bavarian court, the growing im-
portance of his position, his intimate relations with
the duke. By his own account, which the duke's
letters in a measure confirm, Bragadin was once
more on the full flood of success, enjoying a St.
Martin's summer of renown, blossoming again in the
warmth of princely favours. The duke, he says, is
" a very saint, worthy to be adored for his innate
goodness and his angelic temper." He has taken a
wonderful fancy to Bragadin ; has promised to obtain
his absolution at Rome : " My dear and sweet lord
is only waiting the election of the new pope. I
cannot express myself better than by saying that
I seem to be dealing with an angel from Paradise.
I only wish those rich old gluttons at Venice, puffed
up with ignorance, could see the way my dear and
only prince treats me. He often says, *I am all-
content if only Signer Bragadin be with me.' " And
the duke writes to the Cornari in terms almost as
warm. A very pretty duet ; Bragadin's pur a fas-
cinatione is clearly at work once more. Then follow
invitations, in Bragadin's name, to the whole Cornaro
family, and a present of four magnificent carriage
horses, from the duke, to bring them to Munich. The
postal service between the capital and Innsbruck is
placed at Marco's disposal. He receives a monopoly
* " Revista Vienese," ut sup.
288 VENETIAN STUDIES.
of all the corn in Bavaria, and offers to make a present
of some to the doge ; for Venice is in need of grain,
and Bragadin wishes to bear no ill will to his natural
prince. But the affair did not go smoothly, and only
a miserable little dribblet found its way into the
granaries of Venice. Meantime Marco is not neg-
lecting his " philosophy," * and writes continually for
glass retorts, mortars, vials, jars, from the furnaces of
Murano ; for minerals, drugs, " Cyprian balsam of
terebinth ; " all things, in short, that are " necessary
for a great and skilled philosopher at work upon
distillation ; " for the duke is waiting till anima d'oro
shall generate, multiply, and finally produce gold.
But, as was inevitable with a charlatan, this
apparent success rested upon a rotten foundation.
This time the weak point was Bragadin's relations
with Rome — a point where the ground had already
trembled beneath his feet. His absolution and re-
lease from his monastic vows were not yet secured.
All had been put in order through the kind offices of
a Spanish priest, an intimate of the pope, and Sixtus
was ready to sign the necessary dispensations when-
ever Bragadin should pay the sum of twelve thousand
ducats into the papal treasury ; the owner of anima
cCoro could afford that amount. But Bragadin's
collapse at Venice rendered it impossible for him to
come by the ducats at once, and the whole matter
hung fire. Meantime, Sixtus died, and Pope Gregory,
with whom the alchemist had now to deal, was a man
of singular purity and austerity of manners. When
* "Filosofia" is frequently used to express both witchcraft
and alchemy. Cf. " La Signora di Monza.''
MARC ANTONIO BR AG AD IN. 289
the duke of Bavaria's representative, Minutio, men-
tioned the case, his Holiness would not hear of any
indulgence, and seems to have expressed an opinion
that the duke should rather make an end of a scamp,
an apostate friar, more than suspected of dealings
with the powers of darkness. With this angry-
message Minutio left Rome for Munich.
While this storm was gathering in the south, the
sky was still serene in Bavaria. The duet between
the duke and Bragadin goes on. There is a cre-
scendo of satisfaction in Marco's letters about himself
Suddenly these cease, and we hear that he is in
prison ; that he is secretly tried, confesses, and is
condemned to lose his head, and to be burned as a
sorcerer, his two black dogs along with him.* Minutio
had arrived from Rome ; the duke found himself
baulked of his desire to see gold. The combination
was fatal to Bragadin.
So sank his castles in the air, and vanished into
thin smoke. Marco Bragadin, his dogs, his jars, his
anima cToro, fall back into the obscurity whence they
had emerged for a while ; the dark gulf closes over
them — velut volatiles fugiunt umbrce. From the very
first there was never any hope of permanent success.
Bragadin is a type peculiar to his age. There were
hundreds of adventurers like him roaming over
Europe. The interest of their problem lies in this :
What end did these men really propose to themselves ?
How did they forecast their career so as to secure
anything like a permanent success .-* It is probable
that they did not look for permanence ; it did not
* See " Revista Vienese." He was executed April 27, 1591.
U
290 VENETIAN STUDIES.
enter into their scheme. They traded on curiosity,
greed, credulity, on the weaknesses of their contem-
poraries. They intended to make for each day
sufficient for each day's needs. Their skill consisted
in playing with circumstances, in combining or
counterposing the people with whom they came in
contact. The excitement of the game was its own
sufficient reward. It did not matter that it was a
game which could have one issue only — failure in
the end.
CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF
CYPRUS.
It is of Caterina Cornaro, lady of Asolo, queen of Jeru-
salem, Cyprus, and Armenia, that we have to speak : a
daughter of Venice, born in that heyday of Venetian
splendour, the close of the fifteenth century and the
opening years of the sixteenth. The lust of the eye
and the pride of life, the confident, unhesitating as-
sertion of sensuous emotion, were declaring them-
selves as principles of being ; the flower of pleasurable
existence was breaking from bud to blossom, to ripen
later and fall in that Dead Sea fruit of seventeenth-
century corruption. Venice had won her wealth ; she
was turning now to the use of it ; baring her bosom
to the joyous and seductive air, blown from the distant
salt sea, bright yet soothing, languid and caressing,
penetrating and pervading all with its magical perfume,
that stirred the soul and drew it to a very ocean of
rapturous delight. She opened her heart and throbbed
to the sweetness and love of her sea-girt home ; she
opened her eyes and drank the changeful symphonies
of colour that, morning and evening, flamed upon her
water-ways. Her artists caught upon their palettes
the reflection of sunsets seen from the Zattcre, and
laid with free hand this glow upon their canvases;
292 VENETIAN STUDIES.
while the golden glory of Venetian women grew there,
large like their skies, soft and undulating as their
ocean floor, clear as the morning light, aureoled with
hair of midday splendour, robed in a colour that was
learned from their sunsets. " Spartam nactus es ; hanc
orna." Venice had asked for no Arcadia ; her little
Sparta of the mud islands she had claimed, held,
made beautiful ; and now, should she not enjoy it ?
If we wish to know what the women of this ample
Venetian life looked like, we must turn to the pictures
of Titian. There, in his Venus of the tribune, large-
limbed and golden on the white sheets, or in his
Flora with full breasts and down-hanging hair, or,
higher and better still, in his Madonna of the ecstatic,
upraised face, with arms outstretched and breeze-
lifted locks, ecstatic, it is true, but not with any super-
terrestrial ecstasy — there it is that we shall find them.
But should we desire to learn what these women were,
not in body only, but in heart and mind ; if it be their
daily life we wish to scrutinize, to see them in their
homes about their business — we are left but poorly off,
and have to be content with such scraps of knowledge
and such inward glimpses as may be caught from the
comedies of their day, or from the few Venetian
novelettes of Bandello and his brother raconteurs.
One thing is clear about their manner of living ;
this wide luxury, this abundant life, was not for all
the women of Venice. A curious calculation * has
been made, from which it would seem that, out of seven
hundred noble ladies, not more than sixty or seventy
* Yriarte, " La Vie d'un Patricien de Venise " (Paris : 1874),
cap. ii.
CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 293
were in the habit of appearing daily in public ; the
others remained close shut in their houses, except
upon festivals and great public functions. It was the
courtesans who freely used and freely enjoyed the
diurnal splendour of Venetian habit. They were
always en evidence, present on the piazza ; their gon-
dolas to be met out on the lagoons, by San Spirito or
the Lido ; their liveries became well known ; their
doings and their sayings were the subject of the
people's gossip ; round them the popular interest settled.
The great ladies remained, for the most part, a shadow
and a name ; they were seen once or twice, perhaps, in
the year, upon one of those state ceremonies when
the noble houses vied with each other in the wealth of
jewellery and the richness of the robes worn by their
gentildonne. But even on such occasions as a ball in
the ducal palace, given to some wandering prince,
the courtesans held their own, and the more renowned
among them were sure of invitations, though, at times
like this, the Venetian nobleman took care that, in
splendour of dress at least, his mistress should not
eclipse his wife. It was a free and brilliant life that
these women led ; they affected a gorgeousness of dress
— rich coloured silks or velvets or Eastern stuffs — which
distinguished them from the noble lady whose every-
day wear was the long and simple black silk cappa.
Their houses were furnished to the furthest point the
sumptuary laws would allow. If a Venetian gentle-
man desired conversation, wit, music, even such politics
as the vigilance of the Three permitted— all, in short,
that we mean by a salon — it was to their drawing-
rooms that he had to go. It was there, and not in
294 VENETIAN STUDIES.
his own house, that he would meet Titian and Sanso-
vino the architect ; or, if he desired a lampoon on his
foe, Pietro Aretino, with his daughters Adria and
Austria. Venice was tuned to a high note of pleasure,
and the atmosphere of these drawing-rooms was cal-
culated to delight a trained sensibility ; for many
of the women were greatly accomplished — fine
musicians; brilliant talkers; sometimes, like Veronica
Franco, skilled writers of the sonnet and that curious
polished verse which says so little and says it so
beautifully.
Very different was the lot of the noble ladies.
They lived from their girlhood in an Eastern seclusion ;
as carefully and as jealously shut away as though they
were the inmates of some Turkish seraglio. The
Venetian men had imbibed their views on domestic
matters from the East ; in every department that
which touched them intimately was coloured from
Byzantium ; their deepest-rooted instincts, habits
and forms were Oriental. They did not keep eunuchs
as a guard upon their women, it is true ; but they
had a hundred jealous eyes always on the watch, and
no Venetian would think of leaving home for long
without a word to some more trusted servant* At all
events, they took advantage of one fashion in favour
among Venetian ladies, and by flattery they induced
them to wear a veritable instrument of torture
which prevented them from straying far afield ;
pattens of an enormous size were in vogue, and the
mania for increasing the height grew, until at length
* The Arsenal museum affords a proof of the extent to which
this brutal and insulting suspicion could be carried.
CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 295
a lady could not walk without the help of two atten-
dants, on whose shoulders the giantess leaned her
hands. One day the French ambassador was in
conversation with the doge, and touching on this
topic, he remarked that such a fashion must be most
incommodious. The doge admitted that no doubt
ordinary shoes would be more convenient, when one
of the councillors broke in with, "Yes, far, far too
convenient."* The cynical suspicion expressed in
this story suggests a far from happy life for nobly
born Venetian dames.
The married women were not, however, the greatest
sufferers in a Venetian household ; they saw the world
upon the great church feasts or the public ceremonies
of state, and on such occasions they received full
liberty to indulge their taste for jewellery and dress.
But the young girls never stirred outside their doors
except to go to mass or confession in the neighbour-
ing parrocchia ; and then they were jealously followed
by some old and faithful nurse, and their beauty care-
fully hidden beneath the long white fazzuolo. The
young men had to be content with their slight oppor-
tunities, and they made the most of them. The loves
of many a Venetian story begin with some chance
meeting in an aisle, some ardent glances exchanged
while waiting for the padre^ or the touch of a skirt
in the narrow calk between the house door and the
church. This jealous watchfulness was extended to
all teachers as well ; to music-masters, dancing-
masters, governesses. The head of a Venetian house-
hold disliked the presence under his roof of any one
* St. Disdier, " La Ville et la Republique de Venise," part iii.
296 VENETIAN STUDIES.
who v/as not entirely a dependent. And experience
may have taught him that he was right ; for, as it was,
very often the old and trusted nurse would find her
bowels of sympathy too deeply stirred to be with-
stood, and by hook or crook the lover of the church
door or the calle would win his way to meeting, brief
perhaps, but bright. But that was a happy fortune
not always granted to Venetian maids ; and, for the
most part, the result of such jealous guarding was
that the girl received no sort of education. Nor had
she that other feminine resource and occupation of
dress ; for at home she was confined to the simplest
clothing, and not a jewel was given her except, per-
haps, a little gold cross or a modest silver chain ; a
flower from the garden, a carnation or a rosebud,
she might put in her hair, just above her ear, but
that was all. What else could she dream of then,
the long dull day, but a lover or her wedding morn-
ing } For marriage meant liberty to her ; then she
would have music lessons, and a dancing-master, and
servants, and a gondola, and invitations to the ducal
balls. One occupation she had daily, and that was
to sit for hours in the sun upon the housetop,* with
all her hair drawn out through the top of a crownless
straw hat, each lock soaked in unguents and carefully
separated so that they fell in a veil all round her head.
There she sat, bleaching her tresses in the sun till they
grew to that glowing Venetian gold. Or in the after-
noon girls of her own age and fate might come to
keep her company, each with her old duefta, who
* The platforms where they sat were called altane. See Cesare
Vecellio, "Habiti Antichi e Moderni" (Venezia : 1590),. No. 119.
CATER INA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 297
chattered and scolded in the inner court, while
they would sit in those little squares of high-walled
garden with a cypress rising on either side of the
tall, barred gate. Stories they told one another, of
what they fancied love was like on the other side
of the walls, or floating in a gondola across the
moon-lit lagoon. Songs, too, of the nursery, learned
in the cradle from those old women whose voices
reached them from the courtyard now — caught from
" Bona sera ai vivi ; .
E riposo ai morti poveri ;
Bon viaggio ai naviganti ;
E bona notte ai tutti quanti ; "
or —
*' Lei non m'amava, no ! "
some high-tenored gondolier as he rowed along the
little canal below their windows. They had games
of ball, with forfeits, now and then, if the weather
was not too warm, in the large rooms where the
balconies hung above the canaL And when the cats
were away surely these prisoned mice might play
a little, and steal out on to the balcony at the sound
of some singing voice they knew ; and then bright
smiles, and the wave of an arm, and the carnation
from the hair thrown down to the hands that waited
for it below. And then, sometimes, love would laugh
at locksmiths, and balconies seem made for ropcr
ladders, and night and the small canals are dark,
and gondoliers may be found trusty ; and a secret
marriage would follow, or else a runaway one, and
then came tears and scandal, unless, as Bianca Capello
did, the girl should end by wedding a grand duke of
298 VENETIAN STUDIES.
Tuscany. But these, we may suppose, were rare
occurrences, and the life of a Venetian girl of quality
was dull and uneventful, and her one escape, in
marriage, did not offer a much brighter prospect.
All she could look for were ropes of pearls, the real
passion of every Venetian woman, more long and
solemn ceremonies, a visit each la sensa to the
Merceria,* where the puppet stood that changed its
fashions to the Paris mode every Ascension Day ; or,
if her husband were a podestd,, a captain, or prov-
veditor, she might hold a little court at Bergamo or
Brescia, and have the pleasure of being the greatest
lady there.
For Caterina, however, queen of Cyprus, a more
stirring though less placid fate was in store. She
was born on St. Catherine's Day, in 1454, the child
of Marco Cornaro and Fiorenza, his wife.f The
Cornari were a very noble Venetian house, and, as so
many Venetians did, they tried to heighten their
ancestral value by claiming the blood of the Roman
Cornelii for their veins. On her mother's side Caterina
had, unquestionably, an imperial lineage ; her great-
grandfather was John Comnene, emperor of Trebizond.
Queen of Jerusalem, Cyprus, and Armenia, child of
* See Yriarte, " La Vie d'un Patricien de Venise," cap. ii.
t Her descent on her mother's side was distinguished
(Romanin, " Storia Docum. di Ven.," vol. iv. lib. xi. cap. iii.) —
John Comnene.
Valenza = Nicolo Crispo, duke of Naxos.
I
Fiorenza = Marco Cornaro.
I
Caterina.
CATER J NA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 299
the emperor of Trebizond, mother of the prince of
Galilee — what a curious collection of vague, shadowy,
half-real titles ! But as yet they lie in the distance, and
Caterina is only a little Venetian girl, living the quiet
home life of other Venetian maids. We may fancy her,
like St. Ursula in Carpaccio's picture, asleep, lying
straight out in her gaunt-posted bed with the old red
hangings, the sheet tucked close beneath her chin,
where the delicate hand and wrist are nestling ; the
small, bare room, with a seat or two, the open window
where the cool, fresh, sweet sea air blows softly in
with the morning light, bowing the heads of the car-
nation flowers in their pot by the window-sill, bearing
on its wings the few and early strokes of the cam-
panile's bell. But the angel that comes through the
opened door, bringing those morning dreams that are
true, brings not to her, any more than to St. Ursula,
tidings of peace. The dreams that come with him
are dreams of that " Fortunate Isle " floating on the
far Levantine waters, of Cyprus, "the mother city
of delights," of pomp and splendour, of a royal
crown, of death and murder, of merciless treachery.
But the angel is Destiny, and he has no tears for
so much goodness, youth, and beauty born to such a
fate.
We cannot now paint a portrait of Caterina with
any certainty of likeness. It is impossible to obtain a
close view of the queen as she really was ; she speaks
too seldom in history — indeed, only once, and that
when the pain of her life was bitterest upon her.
All that we can do is to sketch her figure upon the
wide canvas of her story, catching hints for our study
300 VENETIAN STUDIES.
from contemporary chroniclers and artists. We can
show her drawn to Cyprus in pride and expectation,
wounded there by death and treachery, crushed by
Venice of the velvet paws, sinking quietly down the
hill of life at last in the sunny seclusion of Castle
Asolo.
We must leave her then for the present, asleep in
her Venetian chamber, and turn to the place whither
she is surely drifting, to Cyprus and the court of the
Lusignan. It was a dark background for Caterina's
bright young life to stand relieved against. The
kingdom of Cyprus passed, by sale, from Richard
Coeur de Lion to Guy de Lusignan in 1192. Guy's
brother and heir, Almerico, married Isabella, queen
of Jerusalem and Armenia, and thus both these titles
became united to that of Cyprus. The crown de-
scended for two centuries through a succession of
Ugos, Almericos, and Pierres, till 1426, when King
Jan Lusignan was made a prisoner by the Mame-
lukes of Egypt, and bought his liberty by the promise
of an annual tribute to their soldan. Jan was
succeeded by his son, John the Second, a man of
infirm character,* easily led by the women about
him, and married, for the second time, to one of
singular strength, ambition, and unscrupulousness,
Elena Paleologus, daughter of the tyrant of the
Morea. The queen Elena was a woman of that type
so often produced by the palace life of Eastern courts.
Like Eudoxia, Irene, or Pulcheria, she was mistress of
* " Vir muliere corruptior," says ^neas Sylvius of him, op.
omnia (Basilese : 1551), p. 379. Hen. Giblet, "Hist, de' re
Lusignani" (Bologna : 1647), lib. x.
CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 301
intrigue, and determined to govern both her husband
and his kingdom. She brought with her from her
home those principles of poHcy which shrank from
no cruelty, which dwelt among the inner chambers
of the seraglio, and moved by secret stairs, by venal
courtiers, by treachery and poison. When Elena
reached the Cyprian court, she found that King John
had one child, a bastard boy, called James,* the son of
his mistress, the beautiful Maria Patras. James was
bright, brave, ambitious, and popular ; he had inherited
his mother's gift of great beauty, and the king was
infinitely devoted to him. There was every probability
that, though a bastard, he would be named heir to
the crown. The queen, however, gradually asserted
her power over her husband ; and in the end, by the
* Vianoli, " Historia Veneta" (Venezia : 1680), lib. xix. b.
675 : *' Restava (James) nella nuditk della mera qualitk naturale
che riceve dalla madre ; " yEneas Sylvius, op. omn. edit, cit., p»
579 : " Natus est magni spiritus adolescens." This is the pedigree
of James (Malipiero, " Annali Veneti," Archiv. St. Ital., vol. vii.
part ii.) :
I. Ugo IV. 1339.
4. Giacomo, 1382. 2. Pietro the Valiant, 1361.
I 3. Pierino, 1372.
5. Giano, 1397,
tributary of the soldan.
6. Giovanni II., 1432-1436.
Carlotta, Giacomo II.,
m. I. John of Portugal ; m. Caterina Cornaro.
2. Lewis of Savoy. |
Giacomo III., d. 1475.
302 VENETIAN STUDIES.
cold cruelty with which she mutilated Maria,* his
mistress, she terrified John into complete submission.
She saw that if she desired to rule absolutely, she
must do so through her own daughter, Charlotte ;
but first the handsome and beloved James must be
removed. Elena would have chosen his death, no
doubt, as the surest way to the attainment of her
object ; but James's excessive popularity rendered
such a course too dangerous. She determined, there-
fore, to destroy his hopes of the throne by compel-
ling his father to appoint him archbishop of Nicosia.
Though the boy could not then have been much
more than fifteen years old, he was tonsured, con-
secrated in the four orders, and sent down to the
palace of his See. There he led a life of consider-
able freedom, and mixed constantly in amours and
intrigues ; \ but he never failed to attach all those
who came near him, by his beauty and his grace.
At Nicosia he also became intimately acquainted with
the Venetian merchants, and especially with Andrea,
Cornaro, brother of Marco and uncle to Caterina.
This friendship laid the foundation for the closer
connection with Venice and for the marriage which
were to follow.
The queen, believing that she had disposed of
James, now turned her attention to the other half of
her design. She intended to seek a husband for
* Queen Elena, with diabolical cruelty, deprived Maria of
her nose and ears, and then sent John to visit her.
t The queen was constantly, attempting his murder, and
once he nearly lost his life through the treachery of a favourite
servant. But James was born under a lucky star. See Giblet,
op. cit., hb. X. p. 6 1 6.
CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 303
Charlotte, to induce the king to resign in favour of
his son-in-law, and then to reign herself, through
Charlotte. Prince John, of the royal house of Portugal,
was chosen. He arrived at Cyprus ; the marriage was
completed, and, under the direction of the queen,
John assumed the reins of government. But Elena
found in him a man more powerful than suited her
purpose. He had resolved to rule, not in appearance
only, but in fact. The queen saw her mistake, and
corrected it. John was poisoned.* It now became
necessary to choose a second husband for Charlotte,
and this time Elena was more fortunate. Prince
John's widow was betrothed to Lewis, a son of the
duke of Savoy, selected because his feeble character
and easy temperament made it improbable that he
would oppose the queen. But before Lewis could
reach Cyprus, Elena died,t and the king immediately
sent for his bastard son, loaded him with caresses
and favours, refused to allow him out of his sight,
and showed every disposition to make him resign the
mitre for the apparent title to the throne : he would
certainly have named him prince of Galilee, had not
death cut him short. John followed his wife within a
very few months, and Charlotte, who was still waiting
the arrival of her husband, was proclaimed queen.
* <^neas Sylvius, op. omn. edit, at., p. 379 ; Giblet, op. cit.,
iib. X. p. 592.
t The queen died in 1458 ; King John on the 24th July the
same year. See Mas Latrie, " Histoire de I'lle de Chypre,"
Doc. vol. iii. No. xiv. The island was most unhealthy : death
after death occurred every summer during the heats. See Capo-
di-lista's journey to Cyprus, ap. Mas Latrie, loc. at.
304 VENETIAN STUDIES.
James took the oath of allegiance to his sister, and
then endeavoured to leave the court in order to return
to Nicosia. But his intentions there were suspected,
and he was arrested by the constable of the island,
detained a prisoner, and some attempt was made to
poison him.* Thanks to his innumerable friends, and
to the strength of the party which preferred a male
succession to the crown, James escaped and reached
Nicosia, with every determination to make an effort
to unseat his sister. His friend, Andrea Cornaro,
encouraged him with hopes of Venetian aid, feeling
sure that the republic, out of jealousy for Genoa, who
had espoused the cause of Charlotte, would gladly
win an ascendency in the island by helping James to
the throne. Charlotte, in the greatest alarm, urged
Lewis to hasten his coming. The prince of Savoy
passed through Venice, and reached Cyprus before
the archbishop could complete any plan of action.
James declined to risk his life, and, with the help of
the Venetians, he fled to Alexandria, to the court
of the soldan, the titular superior of the Cyprian
crown.
There James pleaded his sex, always a powerful
argument in the Eastern mind, and excused his ille-
gitimacy, which Oriental nations have seldom con-
sidered a bar to succession. He further urged upon
the soldan that a crown tributary to him was being
disposed of without his advice or consent. James
is also said to have made a formal recantation f of
* Georgio Bustron, MSS. Arund., Brit. Mus., No. 518, fol.
21'°., given by Mas Latrie, op. cit., Doc. No. xv.
t The document is a curious one, and is given by Mas
CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 305
Christianity in order to clinch the favour of the
Mahomedans. The document was eventually sent to
Pius the Second, and became one of the reasons why
the Holy See always showed itself so hostile to James.
But there is very little doubt that the whole of this
episode of the recantation, as well as the document
produced to attest it, was nothing but a forgery by
the knights of Rhodes,, who were warm partisans of
Charlotte. Whether the archbishop ever signed
such a monstrous deed or not, his success at the
soldan's court proved complete. His beauty helped
him to the favour of all who heard him plead his case,
and the charm of his manner created a furore in his
favour. In the hall of the palace and surrounded
by his Mamelukes, the soldan ordered James, then
twenty-two years old, to be robed and crowned
king of Cyprus,t and adopted him as his own son.
From his new father James received a convoy of
ships and a detachment of Mamelukes ; with these
he sailed to claim his kingdom. He landed at
Cyprus, and city after city fell or yielded without
a struggle. Only two castles, those of Famagosta
and Cerines, made any resistance, but they presently
Latrie, op. cit.^ vol. iii. p. 1 10. ^neas Sylvius also refers to it,
op. omn. edit, cit.., p. 580. One or two phrases will show its
character : " Et negabo deitatem, et adorabo humanitatem,"
" luxuriabor cum hebrea super altare," etc.
t For the success of James at Alexandria, see Mas Latrie,
op. cit.^ vol. iii. Doc. p. 99, ad ann. 1460 ; ^neas Sylvius, op.
et edit, cit., p. 579 ; Malipiero, " Annali Veneti," p. 596 ; Sanudo,
"Vite dei Duchi," ap. Muratori, Rer. It. Scrip., tom. xxii. p.
1185 ; Navagero, "Storia Veneziana," ap. Murat., op. cit., tom.
xxiii.
3o6 VENETIAN STUDIES.
surrendered. Lewis fled from Cyprus and returned
to his father's court. The queen Charlotte withdrew
first to Rhodes, and then to Rome, there to implore
the aid of Pope Pius against her brother and his
infidel allies.
James was firmly placed upon the throne. But he
saw arrayed against him the Genoese, whom he had
expelled from the island, the duke of Savoy, in the
interest of Charlotte, and the pope, who refused to
acknowledge his title and had received his ambas-
sadors with very scant courtesy. He could look for
no sure support from the soldan, who was more likely
to seize Cyprus for his own than to undertake wars in
defence of James. It was imperative that the king
should find an alliance elsewhere, and marriage seemed
the easiest method for cementing one. The prepon-
derance in Cyprus could not fail to be a tempting
dowry, and the chief competitors for King James's
hand were Naples, Venice, and the princes of the
Morea. Venice appeared first in the field. James's
old friend, Andrea Cornaro, pointed out to him that
the republic was his firmest support, and that it v/as
to her he should contract himself Andrea therefore
proposed a match between the king and his own
niece, Caterina Cornaro. A romance has been made
out of the circumstances of this suggestion. It is said
that one day Andrea dropped upon the floor a minia-
ture of Caterina ; the king picked it up, and the picture
was so lovely that he became deeply enamoured of
the original. But Andrea played with him, concealing
the name and pretending that the portrait was that of
his mistress, until he had worked the young man to a
CATERINA CORNAROy QUEEN OF CYPRUS, 307
frenzy of passion.* Then he told James that this
was in truth Caterina his niece, to be won only as
queen of Cyprus. However that may be, whether
James was moved by love alone or more by policy,
he sent an embassy to Venice to ask, in form, the
hand of Caterina as his queen. The Senate gladly
accepted the offer in the name of Venice. They
further promised to adopt the bride as a daughter of
the republic, that her birth might in no way fall below
that of her husband, and added a fitting dowry of
one hundred thousand ducats.
The contract was signed, in 1468, by the doge,
Cristoforo Moro, on the one hand, and Filippo
Mastachelli, James's ambassador, on the other. The
ceremonyt of the betrothal took place in the hall of
the Great Council. Forty noble ladies went to the
Palazzo Cornaro to bring the bride to the ducal
palace. There she was received by the doge, the
council, the senators, and state officials. A conse-
crated ring was placed on Caterina's finger by Masta-
chelli, and Cristoforo Moro formally gave her away
to James Lusignan. Then, with all the ceremony
and incidents of royalty, her court reconducted her to
her palace at San Polo. But her passage to Cyprus
was delayed. A hitch occurred in the negotiations,
and for the next four years Caterina remained at
Venice, treated as a queen by her fellow-citizens, but
* Daru, " Storia della Repub. di Venezia" (Capolago : 1837),
lib. xvii. p. 356.
t See Mas Latrie, op. cit.^ vol. iii. Doc. p. 182. He gives a
fragment of an anonymous chronicle at present in the National
Library, Paris. The author is in complete accord with MaHpiero,
already cited.
3o8 VENETIAN STUDIES.
more than doubtful whether she would ever wear the
crown of Cyprus. For Ferdinand of Naples had been
secretly endeavouring to detach James from his Vene-
tian engagements, and strongly recommending a match
with a daughter of his own house. He had agents
at work for him in Cyprus — Lewis Fabrice, a Catalan,
who had been created archbishop of Nicosia in spite
of all the efforts of Venice to prevent the nomination,
and Marin Rizzo, the king's chamberlain. James
wavered between the Neapolitan and the Venetian
alliance, and showed his coldness towards the latter by
quarrelling with Andrea Cornaro, uncle of h\s fia?tcee*
The republic, however, determined to hold the king to
his engagements ; she was not in the habit of putting
her hand to any work without carrying it through. The
government sent an ambassador to the Cyprian court
to explain that Venice would make the rupture of
this match a public question ; further, to urge James
not to disgrace his royal word, solemnly given by his
own ambassador, nor yet to put this slight upon the
queen already pledged to him. Venice promised to
take the island under her protection whenever the
king should fulfil his contract. The attitude of
Caterina's guardian and his own personal inclination
determined James to abandon the Neapolitan connec-
tion. In 147 1 his representatives were sent to Venice
to bring his queen to Cyprus. There still remained
one ceremony to be performed. Caterina was brought
from her palace to the Church of St. Mark, and
there, before the high altar, the doge adopted her as
* Mas Latrie, op.cit.^ vol. iii. Doc. pp. 307, 310, 311, 312, and
316 ; Romanin, op. cit.^ vol. iv. lib. xi. cap. iii.
CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 309
a child of the repubHc* She was now no longer a
Cornaro, but Caterina Veneta Lusignan, a daughter
of Venice. Venice took the parents' vows for her
child ; we shall see how well she kept them. Great
rejoicing followed in the city, and, as a bystander
remarked, "it seemed to each and all that the Signory
had won a kingdom, as, by God's good grace, did
actually happen." t Early in the next year, 1472, the"
Bucentaur came once more for Caterina, to speed her
on her way to her new kingdom. In cloth of gold and
regal train she appeared on the steps of her palace ;
the doge gave her his right hand, and side by side
they seated themselves upon the dais, while the great
boat moved slowly down the grand canal and out to
the Lido, where the admiral of the fleet was waiting
with the ships that were to carry her to Cyprus and
her home.
Caterina was eighteen years old. Titian has
painted a portrait of her about this time, in a purple
robe, with a crown and a veil upon her head and a
flower in her hand. She is not tall, and rather slight
in figure ; beautiful, graceful, sprightly, with a witty
mouth and happy countenance. Happy she must
have been. She had passed suddenly from the
cloistral quiet of her home to a splendour, a pomp,
a destiny that her most far-winged dreams, in their
widest flight, could hardly have revealed to her. The
fate that was unfolding before her must have seemed
• Romanin, loc. cit., July 14th, 1472; Malipiero, " Annali
Veneti," pp. 597, 598.
t Paolo Morosini, "Historia della Citta di Venetia" (Venetia :
1637), lib. XX.
3IO VENETIAN STUDIES.
magical in its brilliancy. Queen of Jerusalem, Cyprus,
and Armenia, surely it was like some Eastern tale
come true. She was young, with that large capacity
for enjoyment which the Venetians had ; her hus-
band she knew to be handsome and brave ; he had
won his kingdom, and, in his heart, had chosen her
to be its queen ; she might well rely upon her beauty
and her charm to gain and keep his love ; their
two lives were being drawn together to the very
home of the mother of love, to Paphos and to Fountain
Amorous. The prospect was one of mingled mag-
nificence and delight, unclouded, for her, by any
prophetic vision.
Caterina reached Cyprus, and one brief year of
quiet and of happiness was given to hen Then
James died in the July heats of 1473, from a fever
caught out hunting. He was only thirty-three years
old, and the enemies of Venice did not hesitate to
say that the fever was the result of Venetian poisons.*
But between the foes of the republic at the Roman
court, who bring this charge, and her friends, who as
strenuously deny it, we cannot now decide. The young
king died and left his wife with child. For other off-
spring there were three illegitimate children, two sons
and one daughter named Zarla, a contraction for
Charlotte. By his will f James bequeathed his kingdom
to his queen and the child that should be born of her.
* Sismondi ("Rep. Ital.," cap. xxviii.) quotes Raynaldus,
" Ann. Eccles.," as the authority for the poisoning.
t Giorgio Bustron, "Chron.," MSS. Arund., Brit. Mus., No.
518, fol. 69V0., the Will of James ; Mas Latrie, op. cit., vol. iii.
Doc. p. 445 ; Sanudo, op. cit., p. 1197.
CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 311
He appointed a commission of seven nobles, including
Andrea Cornaro, to advise and support Caterina. On
her death the crown was to descend to her child
solely, with reversion to each of his bastard sons in
order of birth, and then to his bastard daughter, in
case the legitimate line should fail. The constitution
of the queen's council did not give much promise of
peace, for it contained such antagonistic elements as
Andrea Cornaro, the Venetian, and Marin Rizzo, and
John Fabrice, brother of the archbishop of Nicosia,
both of whom we have already seen engaged by
Ferdinand of Naples to break the match between
James and Caterina.
Her troubles were beginning to close around the
queen. No child had yet been born ; and Cyprus
was almost an open prey, lying ready to the swiftest or
the strongest arm. Caterina, only nineteen years old,
saw enemies on every hand. The Cypriot nobles
were jealous of Venetian ascendency, and the arch-
bishop had little difficulty in persuading them to think
favourably of Ferdinand's pretensions as the surest
counterbalance to the influence of the republic.
Venice, as Caterina knew, would never hesitate to
take her kingdom from her when the moment came.
But just now the government was engaged in a close
and single-handed struggle with the Turk; Venice had
lost Negropont,and next year was to witness the heroic
defence of Scutari, and Europe was presently to
experience the shock of seeing the Turks before
Otranto. So for the present Caterina might look for
help and advice from her home, knowing that if the
Venetians were themselves unable to occupy the
312 VENETIAN STUDIES.
island, they would never willingly allow another power
to do so. There was yet a third danger besetting the
queen : Charlotte renewed her claim to the throne as
the sole legitimate Lusignan.
In August, 1473, a child was born to Caterina,
and called James after his father. As grandson of
the republic, his sponsors at the font were Mocenigo,
the admiral, and the two provveditori* of the fleet.
By the will of James, the birth of this boy should
have settled all claims to the throne. But no sooner
had the Venetian fleet sailed away than the arch-
bishop of Nicosia, who had been maturing his plans
with the king of Naples, rose in revolt. His scheme
was to marry Alfonso, a bastard of Naples, to Zarla,
James's illegitimate daughter. To carry out this
design the archbishop, the counts of Tripoli and
Jaffa, with Marin Rizzo, all three of whom had been
named of the council by James, seized on the city
of Famagosta, where Caterina was lying, recover-
ing from childbirth. The town was roused by the
uproar in the middle of the night. The conspirators
forced their way into the palace ; Gabriel Gentile,
the queen's physician, fled for safety to Caterina's
own chamber, whither he was pursued by Marin, and,
like David Rizzio, slain in the very arms of the
queen. Her uncle Andrea and her cousin Marco
Bembo were both stabbed under the walls of the
castle, and their naked bodies thrown into the moat,
where they lay many days within sight of the queen's
windows, nor dared she take them up to bury them
* Malipiero, " Annali Veneti," p. 599 ; Ceppio Coriolan,
" De Petri Mocenici gestis," lib. ii.
CATER IN A CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS, 313
until they were half eaten by the dogs. The con-
spirators carried the young boy James away from
his mother, and Alfonso was proclaimed prince of
Galilee. Caterina, herself a close prisoner, they com-
pelled to write a letter to the Venetian Senate,
explaining that the murder of her uncle and her
cousin was due to some private quarrel between
them and the soldiers whose pay they had withheld.*
But the Venetian consul sent home a true account
of how matters stood, and orders were despatched to
Mocenigo to sail at once for Cyprus, where he was
to secure by any means the safety of Caterina and
her son.f Mocenigo, however, had forestalled his
instructions, and had already sent the provveditor
Soranzo to the island, promising himself to follow.
When Soranzo reached Cyprus, he found the con-
spirators quarrelling among themselves, while the
* Nov. 15, 1473. See despatch of Giosafat Barbaro to doge,
MasLatrie,^/.^//.,vol. iii. Doc. p. 352. Barbaro gives an account
of the events of that night : " Questa note preterita, cercha a
bore XL, essendo nel letto, premeditando molte e diverse cose,
alditi verso la piaza uno inusato son de campana . . . per la
qual cossa chiamai suso el mio fameglio e disili chel s^ dovesse
far a la fenestra e star attento se el sentiva remor alguno, sen-
tando mi ulular e latrar assaissimi cani." Roman., loc. cit.^
Letter of Senate to Angelo de Adria, Jan. 22, 1474 : " Ma in la
camera propria in conspecto di quella povera zoveneta taglioro
a pezzi il suo proprio medico e un altro suo servitor e domestico.
. . . Tolsero la cassa e le zoie, I'anello del sigilo e I'obbligarono
a scriver lettere ai castellani di ceder loro le fortezze." Malipiero,
" Annali Veneti," p. 600 ; Ceppio Coriolan, " De Petri Mocenici
gestis," lib. iii. ; Sabellico, " Historia Veneta," Dec. iii. lib. ix. ;
Navagero, op. cit.^ p. 1 138.
t Despatch of Senate to Mocenigo, Dec. 20, 1473, Secreti,
xxvi. fol. 58 ; Mas Latrie, op. cit.^ vol. iii. p. 362.
314 , VENETIAN STUDIES.
people of Famagosta and Nicosia had risen for
the queen, and were clamorously demanding her
liberation. On the approach of Mocenigo the chief
conspirators fled. Order was restored and many
executions followed. In obedience to injunctions
from Venice, the forts were put into the hands of
men wholly devoted to the republic. A review of
all arms took place before the queen at Famagosta,
as a display of power and a warning to the dis-
affected ; and, in reward for his services, Caterina
presented Mocenigo with a golden shield, emblazoned
with the arms of Lusignan. Quiet was apparently
secured, and the Venetian admiral sailed away.
Venice was beginning to lay her hand upon
Cyprus ; by this protection of the queen she estab-
lished a right to a voice in the government of that
island. In March of the following year the Senate
appointed a provveditor and two councillors as perma-
nent residents to assist Caterina in her government*
But trouble on trouble pursued Caterina. In
August, 1474, her boy died of fever. He was only
one year old ; and again the charge of Venetian
poisoning was renewed, but the more obvious and
more probable cause of his death was the deadly
malaria t of the coast region. Caterina wrote to the
Senate, telling them of her loss ; and orders were given
that her father, Marco Cornaro, should go to Cyprus,^
* Secreti, xxvi. fol. 79 ; Mas Latrie, loc. cit.^ p. 370 ; Roma-
nin, loc. cit.
t Romanin, op. cit., lib. xi. cap. 5.
X Nov. II, 1474, Secreti, xxvi. fol. 152 ; Mas Latrie, loc. cit.,
p. 398.
CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN- OF CYPRUS. 315
nominally to comfort his daughter and to bear the
condolences of the republic, really to act as Vene-
tian agent in conjunction with Giovanni Soranzo,
their provveditor, in checking any revolt which might
follow on the death of young James Lusignan. This
dread of revolution was not groundless. When her
nephew died, Charlotte renewed her claim to the
throne, and many of the Cypriot noblemen declared
for her as the last true Lusignan. She was a brave,
determined woman, with the courage and the resource
of her mother Elena. When the boy died, she was
at the court of the soldan of Egypt, urging her
legitimacy, as her brother James had urged his man-
hood and his beauty. Charlotte further promised,
if the soldan helped her to the crown, that she would
pay in full the annual tribute, which Caterina had
allowed to fall into arrears. Venice was not at that
moment able to undertake the defence of Cyprus
against Charlotte and the soldan, but by diplomacy
she succeeded in cutting the ground from under
the ex-queen's feet. The provveditor was instructed
to advise Caterina to send an embassy to the Alex-
andrian court with the tribute which was wanting,*
and to excuse the delay on the score of the ravages
committed by the locusts. Venice was really govern-
ing Cyprus and directing its policy, down to the
minutest details of an apology. Caterina obeyed ;
her embassy was favourably received in Egypt, and
Charlotte was dismissed. But she refused to cease
her efforts. She returned to Italy, and continued to
urge the dukes of Milan and Savoy, the Genoese,
* Secreti, xxvi. fol. 138 ; Mas Latrie, loc. cti.^ p. 39i'
3i6 VENETIAN STUDIES.
and the pope to lend her their aid. Letters written
by her to Genoa were intercepted and sent to Venice.*
They disclosed a scheme for a descent on Cyprus
already far advanced. The Venetian government
ordered their admiral, Antonio Loredano, the hero
of Scutari, to garrison the forts on the island,t and
to arrest and send to Venice Maria Patras, the
mother of James, along with his three bastard
children. The marriage between young Alfonso of
Naples and Zarla Lusignan, which formed the basis
of the archbishop's plot in 1473, had never been
completed ; and the republic saw that if they held
the young girl and her two brothers in their power,
they would have one difficulty the less in this delicate
business of keeping all other powers out of Cyprus
till they themselves were ready to absorb it. Their
orders were obeyed as promptly as though the king-
dom were in fact already a province of their empire.
Loredano sent the children to Venice. But Alfonso
refused to renounce the marriage which had been
arranged with Zarla. He pursued her to Venice,
and, with the help of his father Ferdinand, he nearly
succeeded in carrying her off by stealth.J The
Venetians replied by sending the child to Padua,
where she soon afterwards died of the plague,§ as
was said. Alfonso was baulked ; but his father would
* Malipiero, "Annali Veneti," p. 607.
t Council X., Misti, fol. 175; Mas Latrie, loc. cit., p. 408,
Oct. 30, 1476 ; Rom., loc. cit.
X Navagero, op. cit., p. 11 56.
§ Council X., Misti, xviii. fol. 182 ; Jan. 16, 1477 ; Mas.
Latrie, /^(T. cit.^ p. 412.
CATERINA CORNAROy QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 317
not allow him to abandon the game, and in 1478 he
sent him to the court of the soldan. Once more
Caterina was obliged to pay the deficient tribute.
This time, however, Venice instructed her to demand
a formal act of investiture* in return for the dis-
charge of her debt. The diploma came back to the
court of Cyprus, and Alfonso's mission failed. He
wearied of this chase after a wife and a crown ; he
was glad to find himself beyond the reach of his
father's restless ambition ; Alexandria was to his
taste, and he gave himself up to the pleasures of
the town.f
External danger seemed at an end for the present.
But the continual pressure of hostility, the rapid and
repeated blows of destiny, had shattered the royalty
of Caterina's state. Her tenure of the throne hung
upon the fine thread of Venetian pleasure ; her tenure
of life depended upon an equation between the
strength of the Venetian garrison and the force or
cunning of the Cypriot nobles. By the year 1478 the
queen's household, her movements, her very income,
now limited to eight thousand ducats, were under the
direction of the provveditor and his councillors. The
doge has to order them not to hold the reins so tight,
but to allow the queen to move from one palace to
another, and to see that her table is properly supplied. J
Her liberty was gone ; it was hardly possible that
* Malipiero, "Annali Veneti," p. 605, where the deed is
given in full.
t Romanin, loc. cit.
% Colbertaldi, " Hist, di Cat. Cornara," MS. Cod. viii., It.
alia Marciana.
3i8 VENETIAN STUDIES.
she could, by any course of conduct, satisfy the
government which intended eventually to unthrone
her. One thing she certainly might not do ; she must
never dream of a second marriage. It might have
been some consolation to Caterina had the Venetian
domination secured to her peace. But there was no
rest inside her island kingdom. The citizens, the
people of Cerines, Famagosta, Nicosia, were faithful to
her ; they loved their queen. But all through the
island the great nobles were her enemies, and drew
with them their peasants. They were profoundly
jealous of Venetian rule ; they saw the weakness of
the queen ; some of them coveted the throne for
themselves. Caterina was compelled to live in constant
dread of revolution, murder, or dethronement, shut
within the walls of one or other of her faithful towns.
Conspiracy after conspiracy was discovered, some
directed against her life, others against her liberty.
At each new outbreak she could see the frown gather-
ing upon her parent's brow. The dread of Venice
was always before her eyes. Yet she was absolutely
helpless ; never was a queen more so ; caught be-
tween rebellious subjects whom she could not rule
and a cold, uncompromising guardian who desired her
kingdom. For the better protection of Caterina,
Venice, in 1477, had proposed to send a colony of one
hundred Venetian nobles * to the island. They were
to receive large fiefs and a salary of three hundred
ducats each. But when the commissioners sent to
prepare the draft of the scheme came to examine the
Cyprian exchequer, they had to report that it would
Malipiero, " Annali Veneti," pp. 606, 607.
CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 319
not bear this additional charge. The design accord-
ingly fell through. The government, however, con-
tinued to appoint governors, captains, treasurers,
provveditori ;■* occupying every post at court and
every fort in the island. Each new arrival from
Venice deepened the hatred of the Cypriot nobles
and increased the danger to Caterina's life. The
pain of her position was so great that she may well
have wished for the end ; but that was to be delayed
for many years yet ; and, when it did come, it proved
to her the bitterest experience of all her bitter fate.
For ten years more she lived on in Cyprus, feeling her
life daily curbed and crushed between her subjects
and her guardians. Young, beautiful, and unhappy,
called to a government beyond her powers, the fate
of Caterina recalls to us the equally disastrous lot of
that other lovely, hapless, and abandoned lady, Mary
Stuart, queen of Scots.
At length, in 1488, Venice was ready to take her
final step towards annexing Cyprus. She only re-
quired a pretext, and that was soon offered to her
by two events of this year. The sultan Bajazet II.
intended to subdue the Mamelukes of Egypt, and
had prepared a large force for the purpose. The
Venetians surmised that, on the way, he would seize
Cyprus as a base of operations. They determined
to remove the queen, and their action was hastened
by the discovery of a plot. Marin Rizzo, the old
conspirator of 1473, had met Alfonso of Naples at
Alexandria. Rizzo suggested that Alfonso should
sue for the hand of Caterina, and rely on his father
• Mas Latrie, op. cit.^ vol. iii. appendix, p. 841.
32o VENETIAN STUDIES.
Ferdinand for support. To pave the way for this
match, Rizzo sailed for Cyprus in a French boat. He
intended to sound the queen on the subject, and took
with him Tristan Giblet, whose sister .was waiting-
maid to Caterina. The two landed at Fountain
Amorous, and told the rnaster of the galley to cruise
off shore till he should see, up on the headland, a fire
signal raised by night. The Venetian admiral Priuli,
however, was aware of the whole design. He seized
the Frenchman, and, after learning the hour at which
the signal might be looked for, he manned the galley
with his own sailors and sent it towards the Fountain
Amorous. All went well ; the fire was lighted and
answered ; Rizzo and Giblet came on board, and were
arrested by Priuli's men.* Both were sent to Venice,
but Giblet poisoned himself on the way. Rizzo was
kept in close and secret confinement ; the Ten hesi-
tated to condemn him to death, as he pleaded that he
was ambassador of the soldan.f Finally, however, a
year later, he was strangled secretly in the armoury of
the Council of Ten.
The discovery of this last plot determined the
Venetian government to act. Venice could never
permit a second marriage, which would have destroyed
the shadowy title of heir to her daughter which she
now claimed. On the 28th of October the Ten arrived
at their final decision that Caterina should be recalled ;
and Priuli was instructed to carry out their orders as
* Malipiero, " Annali Veneti," p- 609 ; Navagero, op. cit.,
p. 1 197.
t Mas Latrie, op. cit.^ vol. iii. pp. 435-444; extracts from the
Chron. of Marin Sanudo, Council X., May 13, 1489; Rom., loc, cit.
CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 321
firmly, yet as gently as might be,* only under no cir-
cumstances was he to fail. "We fully authorize you to
bow her to our will, with or without her own consent."
In case of refusal, he was to inform her Majesty that
she had forfeited all claim on the protection of the re-
public, and, as a consequence, her income would be
suspended and herself treated as a rebel. On obtain-
ing her consent, Priuli was to affirm everywhere that
the queen had taken this action of her own free will,
and not on any compulsion from Venice. Giorgio
Cornaro was also commissioned to accompany Priuli
to Cyprus,! where he was to assist the general in com-
pelling his sister to resign. And both were told how to
act in case they found Caterina already fled to Rhodes,
a design the unfortunate queen, in her terror, was sus-
pected of harbouring.^ Venice had closed her hand,
and it always proved a strong one. Giorgio arrived
in Cyprus, and found no pleasant or easy task before
him. He had to encounter the strongest repugnance
to his proposals — tears, entreaties, even, as we have
seen, thoughts of flight ; so closely did the queen
cling to her kingdom and her shadowy semblance of
a royal state. " Is it not enough," she said, " that
Venice shall inherit when I am gone ? " § No, it was
ilot enough ; abdication complete and at once was
demanded of her. Promises of a regal reception, of
* " Ultraque omnia, utemini erga majestatem suam omnibus
illis dulcibus, humanis, placabilibus et gratiosis verbis que judi-
caveritis posse operari effectum hujus nostre intentionis."
t Misti, xxiv. fol. 29 ; Mas Latrie, loc.ctL, p. 420.
X Misti, xxiv. fol. 34 ; Mas Latrie, loc. cit., p. 429.
§ Bembo, " Historia Veneta" (Basileae : 1556), lib. i.
Y
322 VENETIAN STUDIES.
princely treatment, of recognition as a crowned head,
of a large income, of fiefs in the Veneto, were lavishly
made to her, only she must obey. At last she yielded.
In the piazza of Famagosta and of Nicosia solemn
Te Deums were sung and the banner of St. Mark
was blessed and unfurled, while the queen looked on
from beneath a baldachino. She saw her cities taken
from her one by one, the cities that had always been
her own. No point in all the long ceremony of un-
robing was spared her ; in every town and village the
same cruel pageant was performed. She entered
each one as a queen and left it discrowned. Venice
was determined that all the world should see how
willing had been her abdication. But the people
flocked about her on her mournful progress, with tears
and blessings ; tears for their liberty lost with their
queen. At last, early in 1479, ^^ was finished.
Caterina and her brother sailed for Venice, and
Cyprus became a part of the Venetian empire.
The government prepared an excellent constitu-
tion* for the island. Venice never failed in that
respect. A lieutenant, the supreme governor, with
two councillors, was established at Nicosia ; a captain,
or deputy governor, also with two councillors, was
sent to Famagosta ; to these were added a military
governor or provveditore.\ But the Venetian title
to the island had no legal ground. James Lusignan,
Caterina's husband, was a usurper ; Charlotte, his
legitimate sister, was the real queen, and it is in virtue
* Malipiero, " Annali Veneti," p. 611; Navagero, op. cit.^
p. 1 197.
t Mas Latrie, op. cit.^ vol. iii., appendix, p. 844.
CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 323
of her claim that the house of Savoy still bears the
empty title of king of Cyprus. But, further admitting
James's title as good, the succession to the crown
should have been governed by his will, which be-
queathed it, after the death of his last bastard, to the
nearest of the blood of Lusignan. In truth, the
republic had no title ; she desired Cyprus and took
it. It never brought her any good ; it is even said to
have worked much harm to her social morality, for
the island was the home of a deep-seated luxury.
Its influence, no doubt, did help to heighten the
corruption which was then beginning to appear at
Venice. The opening of the next century saw the
establishment of many offices,* each, however, more
powerless than its neighbour, to check the extrava-
gance of the dress, the licence of the monasteries, the
rapid growth of vice, the decay of health and spread
of infectious diseases. With much trouble and expense
Venice held Cyprus for a little less than a century,
and then lost it to the Turks in 1571.
On the 5th of June, 1479, Caterina's galley reached
the Lido. There she landed under an awning of gold
and crimson stripes. She was conducted to a chamber
prepared for her at San Nicolo, where she might rest
and prepare for the ceremony of the next day. On
the 6th the doge, accompanied by a train of noble
ladies, came to wait on her and lead her to the Palazzo
Ferrara,t now the Fondaco dei Turchi, where her
* The following offices may be noted : — The provveditore
alle pompe, 15 14; contra besiemmia^ I537 ; sopra monasterj^
1521 ; della sanitdy 148 5- 1556.
t The building occupied by the Museo Civico.
324 VENETIAN STUDIES.
lodging had been made ready at the public expense.
But when the Bucentaur neared the Lido, a burasco
blew down, and so disturbed the ladies that their
condition seemed likely to destroy the stateliness of
the occasion. The doge therefore ordered the anchor
to be dropped, and waited till the wind went by.
When the sea had subsided, Caterina was brought on
board the barge ; she was dressed in black velvet with
a veil and jewels alia Zipriota, as we see her kneeling
in Bellini's picture, " The Miracle of the Cross."
The procession moved up the Grand Canal, and as it
passed the Palazzo Cornaro, Giorgio received the
honour of knighthood from the doge, as a reward for
his services in persuading his sister to abdicate. Then
followed long banquets, and three days of ceremony
in the Ferrara palace.* But one last function
yet remained to be performed before the republic
would let the queen of Cyprus go. At St. Mark's,
in the very place where nineteen years before Venice
had adopted Caterina as her child, she now set the
seal of the Church to her spoliation. The queen was
forced to go through the long office of a second and
more solemn abdication. Then the government
invested her, for life only, with Castle Asolo-f- in
the Marca Amorosa, the Trevisan march. Till Asolo
should be ready to receive her, she was lodged in
that palace on the Grand Canal, now the Monte di
Pieta, called the Palazzo Corner della Regina after her.
* Marin Sanudo, " Chron.," extract by Mas Latrie, loc. cit.y
p. 445-
t " Commemoriali," lib. xvi., ap. Mas Latrie, loc. at., p.
435 ; Mutinelli, " Annali Urbani," lib. v.
CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 325
The castle of Asolo stood on the spurs of the
Alps, between Bassano and Montebelluno, at no great
distance from the Villa Maser. Far away it looked
across the plain to Padua and the Euganean Hills,
those islanded mounds that rise abruptly from the
rich growth of vineyards and of mulberry groves. On
the other side of those hills lived another famous
woman, beautiful, with golden hair — Lucrezia Borgia,
duchess of Ferrara. The morning sun and clear
light morning air come fresh to Asolo from the sea
that lies round Venice ; while behind it the Julian
Alps swell upward, wave on wave, towards the
boundary heights. It was here that Caterina was to
taste the sweet idyllic close to all her stormy life,
surrounded by her little court, her twelve maids of
honour, and her eighty serving-men, her favourite
negress with the parrots, her apes and peacocks and
hounds, and dwarf buffoon. Here the still days went
by in garden walks, or by the little brooks, or in the
oak grove, where the company would talk of love as
though it had no life, like some dead god that could
not reach their hearts ; or else would sing the sun to
his setting with touch of lute strings and sweetly
modulated voices. A dreamy, gentle company in a
soft, rich land, where the seasons melted from glory
to glory, from pure green spring, through summer, "all
delights," to russet autumn and its falling leaves ;
where "dead-cold winter" was as brief as might be.
Caterina left Venice for Asolo, and all the people
of her little principality, olive crowned and bearing
olive branches in their hands, came out to meet their
lady. Under a canopy of cloth of gold they led her
326 VENETIAN STUDIES.
to the piazza of Borgo d'Asolo, where an address was
presented to her. " Oh, happy land of Asolo," cries
the orator in peroration — " oh, happy land of Asolo,
and oh, most happy flock that now hast found so just
and sweet a shepherdess ! Oh, ship thrice fortunate
whose tiller lies in such a skilful hand. Ye then, ye
laurel boughs, the victor's meed, endure the sharp
tooth of our knife that carves on you the name of
Caterina. Sing, birds, unwonted strains to grace the
name, the glorious name, Cornelia." And so he goes
on, appealing to poets, to historians, even to the very
rocks, to eternize the splendour of her story ; apostro-
phizing Apelles and Zeuxis, Zephyr and Jove, and
the Delian goddess.* In spite of the unintended
irony, it was all like some May masque designed by
Poliziano or Lorenzo de' Medici, and executed by
Piero da Cosimo, with its sham classicism, its false
old gods, and its real sweet leaves and springtide air.
Caterina began to give laws to her little kingdom,
and to take a queenly interest in its cares and its well-
being. She opened a monte di pietd, or pawnbroking
bank, for the relief of those in pressing need. She
imported grain from Cyprus and distributed it. She
appointed her treasurer of state, her potestas regius^
and an auditor to hear and judge appeals.f She
wielded her little sceptre for her people's good, and
won their love by her gentleness and grace. Here, in
* Tentori, " Saggio d. St. Civil, e Polit. d. Venezia" (Venezia :
1790), vol. xii.
t Colbertaldi, "Vita di Caterina." From this author and
from Bembo's dialogues, " Degli Asolani," I have taken the
details of this part of Caterina's life.
CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 327
the quiet of twenty years, she lived, surrounded by a
phantom royalty ; yet, unsubstantial as it might be
it was as real as any she had known in Cyprus. Here
she and her court listened one and all to those grave
ragionamenti on platonic love, with their weariful,
never-ending age of gold ; with their gods and goddesses
and mortals made immortal ; with Ceres, Venus, Cupid,
Mars, and Jove ; with Ganymede, or Daphnis, or a
Danae.
Let us look at one day of her life that has been
preserved to us. The speaker is Pietro Bembo,
brilliant, handsome, twenty-eight years old. He has
come across the Euganean Hills from Ferrara and
Lucrezia's court, perhaps with that famous lock of
her yellow hair already closed in the leaves of some
book he carries. The month is September ; and the
occasion the marriage of one among Caterina's maids
to Floriano di Floriano da Montagnana. There are
many guests from the country round, and from Venice
too, all of them glad to escape to the cool mountain
slopes from the torrid summer heat upon the plain.
They have been breakfasting about twelve o'clock in
the large central hall with loggias on either side, open
to the air, but sheltered from the sun that is growing
hotter and hotter to its meridian blaze. The faint
breeze reaches them through the arches of the loggia^
curling round the wide-spanned pillars. Between
each of these is framed the tall-topped cypress spires
that shoot up from the gardens below, relieved in
black against the deep and throbbing blue. In the
woods and alleys and under the pergolas is no hush ;
all the pleasaunce lies quiet and silenced in the noon-
328 VENETIAN STUDIES.
day heat. The meal is over, but the company is still
at table, Caterina sitting at one end, while the talk
flows languidly around. The musicians have played
and the singers sung. At a sign from the queen, two
of her maids rise up, and, moving down the hall
between the rows of guests, they curtsy low to
Caterina. Then the elder, like one of Gian Bellini's
or Carpaccio's " Angiolini," raises her lute and with one
hand holds it to her breast, while with the other she
sounds some few notes of prelude, and then breaks
into song :
"A maid I lived, in mirth and jocund air ;
Sweet fancies fed me, with my lot content.
Now Love doth me afflict, doth so torment,
Nor now nor ever will his torments spare.
" I thought, ah me ! to Hve a life of joy-
When first, dear Love, I passed into thy train ;
But now for dolorous death I wait, am fain ;
My trusting heart how could'st thou thus decoy .?
" While yet to love unyielded and estranged,
Medea looked on Colchis free and glad ;
But when she burned for Jason, bitter and sad
Was all her life henceforth, to her last hour unchanged."
She, when she had finished her chaunt, played
yet a little longer, returning upon the first notes of
her song : then the younger took up her companion's
refrain, but in an altered fashion, and, weaving around
it with her lips and voice, made answer in this wise :
" A maid I lived, in dolour and distress.
With comrades wroth, with my own self in rage ;
Now love with such sweet thoughts doth me assuage,
What can I else but sing for mirthfulness 1
CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 329
" I would have sworn, O Love, to follow thee
Were but to make sure shipwreck on a rock ;
Yet, while I feared this doom, heart-riving shock,
Release from all my pains is granted me.
Until that day when first Love conqueror plays,
Andromeda knows naught but sore annoy ;
When she to Perseus bows, delight and joy
Companion her through life, through death eternal praise."
So they go on with "nay " and " yea ; " the "oh, diviner
air " is caught up and answered by the " oh, diviner
light." And when the girls have finished their
antiphony the queen calls on her favourite maid to
take her viol and sing to them, a closing note to the
"yes" and the "no" of the other two. Then Caterina
rises from table, and she and her attendants retire to
their rooms to rest and sleep through the burning
hours till evening shall bring the time for supper,
more music, and dancing carried to the dawn. But
three young Venetian gentlemen and three Venetian
ladies prefer to leave sleep behind the curtains of
their beds and wander out into the deep, inviting
garden shade. The gardens were the pride of Asolo ;
and these six people, who are presently to lose them-
selves in the labyrinth of Bembo's dialogue, stroll
now beneath a pergola of vines that divided the
garden cross-wise. The shade from the woven leaves
was delicious and cool ; on either side of the walk
ran a square-cut hedge of juniper, breast high only, so
that the eye might take in all the greenery of the
close. There were other walks bounded by well-
trimmed laurel walls, rising high up and at their
summits, curling slightly over so as to throw a shadow
330 VENETIAN STUDIES.
on the path beneath. Into this garden they strolled —
the young men in close-fitting hose of bright and
many coloured silks, and short black cloaks ; the
ladies in velvet and brocades of gorgeous dyes
and tight-rolled masses of golden hair : a globe of
colour moving through a deep green shade. They
wandered on, rising slowly uphill, for the gardens
lay behind the house and towards the Alps, until
they came to a lawn of fine and velvety grass,
studded with flowers, where the more formal garden
lost itself. Beyond the lawn was a shrubbery of
laurel growing as it chose ; through this thicket a
pathway led into a grove where the silence and the
shade alike were profound. In the middle of this
wood a clear stream bubbled from the living rock,
welling up and filling a basin hollowed for it in the
stone. Over the lips of the basin it fell, and was
caught in a runnel of marble and led, with soft
murmur and bickerings through light and shade,
down to the gardens which it watered and kept cool.
Here by this fountain the three ladies and their
cavaliers sat down, and, after some slight coyness not
quite real, spun out that cobweb of platonic love
through the long declining afternoon.* The whole
picture recalls the very spirit of Boccaccio's f intro-
ductions, of Polizian's ballate, of Giorgione and his
garden-parties ; it is a " never-ending Decamerone."
* See Bembo, " Degli Asolani," lib. i. op. class. Ital., No.
135 (Milano : 1808).
t See Boccaccio, Sonnet x., p. 376 of Sig. Carducci's edition ;
" Rime di Cino d. Pistoia ed altri del secolo xiv.," Barbera
(Firenze : 1862).
CATER IN A CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 331
For Caterina and her maids we may hope, how-
ever, that it was not all pure platonism. For her
court was full of guests constantly arriving and
departing ; and every fifteenth day came Pandolfo
Malatesta, lord of Rimini, from his castle of Citta-
della, to make his suit to Caterina herself, or, as others
said, to win the love of her waiting-maid Fiammeta.
And her own family, the Cornari, were courting
Caterina for her influence. On the strength of their
sister's royalty they aspired to the title of princes ;
and by them she found herself forced to arrange a
match between one of her nieces and a prince of the
house of Naples.* But Venice watched this ambition
with a jealous eye. She held that the Cornari were
sufficiently rewarded by the knighthood of Giorgio
and by the cardinal's hat which had been procured
for his son. Venice would not permit a private family
to assume exceptional rank, and administered many
sharp rebukes to Caterina, warning her to live content
with that state of life to which it had pleased the
republic to call her, and to cease all thought of
Cyprus, round which her fancy and her hopes still
lingered.f
The queen really loved Asolo, her gardens, and
her court, nor ever wished to leave them, summer or
winter. Three times only did she make a journey
from her castle. Once when the weather was so cold
that men could walk from Mestre to Venice across
the lagoon, the rigour of winter compelled her to return
to her palace on the Grand Canal. Once too, in 1497,
* Malipiero, " Annali Veneti," p. 612.
t Roman., loc. cit.y p. 437, note i, cap. x., April 3, 15 10.
332 VENETIAN STUDIES.
she paid a visit to her brother Giorgio, then podesta
in Brescia.* She was splendidly and regally received.
A guard of forty youths met her outside the town ;
on the close-fitting hose of each were blazoned the
arms of Cornaro and Lusignan. Triumphs and
allegorical pageants followed : Diana and her nymphs,
who meet a winged dove that sings to them ; but the
nymphs all stay their ears, and, falling on the boy,
tear his wings from his shoulders, as they do in
Signorelli's picture in our National Gallery. The
queen entered the city in a chariot of state drawn by
four white horses horned like unicorns. Jousts by
torchlight were given in the evening, and the j ousters
marched in procession, with helmets on their heads
from whose crests burst flame. It was Caterina's last
royal ceremony, and it was continued for twelve days ;
then the queen returned to Asolo. But Venice showed
herself jealous of this play at mimic royalty, and for
the honour then done to his sister Giorgio was soon
after recalled from Brescia.
The troubled condition of the mainland which
resulted from the wars of the League of Cambray
drove the queen from her home ; Asolo was occupied
by the troops of Maximilian. Caterina went to
Venice for greater safety, and died there on the loth of
July, 1 510, fifty-six years old.f Her funeral displayed
as much magnificence as Venice, on the verge of ruin,
could afford. On the nth of the month a bridge of
boats was made across the Grand Canal from the
Cornaro Palace to the other side. The dead queen
* Marin Sanudo, " Diarii," I. 741.
t Bembo, " Historia Veneta" (Basileae : 1556), lib. x. p. 417.
CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. 333
was followed by the patriarch, the Signory, the vice-
doge, the archbishop of Spalato, and an immense
crowd of citizens with torches in their hands. There
was something fitting in the manner of her burial, for
the night was a stormy one, with heavy wind and
rain. On her coffin lay the crown of Cyprus — out-
wardly, at least, Venice insisted that her daughter
was a queen ; but inside her body lay shrouded in
the habit of St. Francis, with cord and cowl and
coarse brown cloak. Caterina was carried to the
Cornaro chapel in the Church of the Sant' Apostoli,
and next day the funeral service was performed. Over
her grave Andrea Navagero, poet, scholar, and am-
bassador, made the oration that bade farewell to this
unhappy queen, whose beauty, goodness, gentleness,
and grace were unavailing to save her from the
tyrannous cruelty of fate.
THE SPANISH CONSPIRACY:
AN EPISODE IN THE DECLINE OF VENICE.
The Spanish Conspiracy, by the timely discovery of
which Venice was believed to have narrowly escaped
destruction in 1618, is one of those episodes in history
which at once arrest attention by focussing the condi-
tions of a period and throwing a flood of light upon
subsequent events. In diabolical picturesqueness
this conspiracy takes rank with the Gunpowder Plot
or the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. Owing partly
to the doubts thrown upon its reality at the very out-
set, partly also to the silence of the Venetian govern-
ment, to the mystification of some contemporaries,
and the declared scepticism of others, the whole affair
has acquired the fascination of a riddle. It has
attracted abundant research, and has even found its
way into dramatic literature in the best of Otway's
tragedies, "Venice Preserved." At the time there
was a French answer, a Spanish answer, a Neapolitan
answer, a Turkish answer to this riddle, and subse-
quent historians, Capriata, San Real, Chambrier, Daru,
have each adopted one or other of these solutions. No
one of the answers, however, is quite satisfactory, nor
covers the whole ground of our information so as to
THE SPANISH CONSPIRACY. 335
rebut all objections. It may be impossible now to
read to the bottom of this muddy pool ; and von
Ranke, the most distinguished as well as the most
recent of those who have attacked the problem, has
confined himself to researches in the fact without
expressing a decided opinion in any direction. Indeed
it would be difficult to find a more tangled skein for
the historian to unravel ; yet the process reveals so
curious a condition of society in Europe, and in
Venice especially, at the opening of the seventeenth
century, and throws so strong a light upon the causes
which first corrupted and then destroyed the republic,
that the effort to follow each clue through the
labyrinth is repaid with interest.
And first for the outward and visible facts of the
case as they appeared to the Venetians in the spring
of 161 8. Early in this year the city was full of
strangers — Italians from the mainland and foreigners
wandering in search of adventure, whose nature it was
to be drawn at last towards the city of the sea, to "fall
like spent exhalations to that centre." They were
attracted thither by the splendour of Venetian state
ceremonies which were gradually growing more and
more sumptuous, were surely being made the pretext
for a larger licence. On this occasion Venice was pre-
paring to celebrate the election of a new doge, and the
yearly pageant of wedding the sea happened to fall
about the same time. The locande, therefore, were
all full ; so too were the lodging-houses which served
as dependencies to the overcrowded inns. The piazza
at night was thronged with foreign forms in long
cloaks, slouched hats, and high leather boots, pro-
336 VENETIAN STUDIES.
menading and swaggering, now in shadow, now in
moonlight, and filling the air with the adventurer's
language, French in all its endless modifications of
patois. The air seemed charged with vague uneasi-
ness, and Venice had reached a highly nervous condi-
tion between her pleasures and her fears. For some
time past the conduct of the Spanish governors in
Naples and Milan had been the cause of serious alarm
to those politicians who were not entirely dazzled by
the blaze of pageantry and lost in the hunt after
pleasure ; but there was a wild swirl of reckless enjoy-
ment all about them, and a warning voice, had they
raised one, would have been drowned in the din of
the revel.
On the morning of the i8th of May, Venice awoke
to another day of amusement — to her morning bath,
her midday siesta, the evening promenade upon the
lagoon, the "masques and balls begun at midnight,
burning ever to midday." But a thrill of terror
awaited her. This morning of the i8th the early-
risers found the bodies of two men, hung each by
one leg to a gibbet in the piazza, in sign that they
had been executed for treason. On the 23rd, two
days before the Sposalizio del Mare, another body,
bearing the marks of terrible torture, was also exposed
in a like manner. The public emotion became intense.
The people felt themselves suddenly pulled up by this
evidence of death, secret, swift, and apparently cause-
less, in their very midst, hung full in face of their
heedless enjoyment. The silence of the government
heightened the alarm. The executive made no motion
to postpone the ceremonies of the next few days ; the
THE SPANISH CONSPIRACY. 337
three bodies hung there, unexplained, but relieved in
horrible colours upon the brilliant background of civic
pomp. No one knew these men who had been put
to death. They belonged to the mob of vagabonds
and adventurers whom Venice attracted, and upon
whom she, in a measure, lived. One thing alone was
clear ; they were all Frenchmen. Conjecture was
allowed free play ; and the public soon pieced together,
out of the endless rumours of the town, a consecutive
story. These men were the agents of the duke of
Osuna, viceroy of Naples, and of the Marquis Bed-
mar, Spanish ambassador in Venice. In accordance
with a preconcerted design, the city was to have been
seized by a Spanish fleet, which already lay outside
Malamocco, the arsenal fired, the mint and treasury of
St. Mark's rifled, the doge and his council blown up.
When Venice had been sufficiently cowed she was
to be handed over to Spain. The plot had been dis-
covered in time, the guilty arrested and tortured ;
more than five hundred of their accomplices had been
drowned by night in the canals. In proof of this, the
inns, full to the garret a few days before, were now
nearly empty. Such was the story which gained im-
mediate acceptance. The reticence of the government
neither affirmed nor denied anything, and the popular
fury exploded in an attack upon the Spanish embassy.
Bedmar's palace and even his life were in serious
danger.
At the moment when the conspiracy was discovered
the French ambassador, Bruslart, was absent from
Venice on a pilgrimage to Loretto. He received
information of events from his brother Broussin, who
Z
338 VENETIAN STUDIES.
was in charge of affairs, and therefore sent a similar
communication on the subject to the Minister of the
Exterior in Paris. Even thus early, four days after
the first executions, Broussin expresses his disbeUef in
the reasons popularly given for the sentence. He
was sceptical as to the alleged Spanish origin of
the plot, because he and all the French officials
knew that there existed a French plot to which the
condemned were parties, and whose centre was in
their own court ; a plot directed not against the
republic, it is true, but against a power the republic
dreaded and desired to conciliate — against the Turks.
Moreover, this French design was aimed at the Levant,,
where Venice had always shown herself jealous of any
interference. To the French embassy, therefore, it
seemed clear that here lay the real reason for these
sudden executions. Bruslart returned to Venice three
weeks later ; and since those who had suffered death
were Frenchmen, a long correspondence ensued
between the ambassador and the Minister in Paris.
In all his despatches Bruslart denies that the Spaniards
were the authors of the plot. Daru, the French
historian of Venice, accepts Bruslart's negation and
carries it a step further. He boldly asserts that the
Spanish Conspiracy never had any existence at all.
Daru's theory is so startling, and in supporting it
he deals so elaborately with the condition of the plot,
that it will be of service to follow him closely for a
little way. By rejecting the accredited story of the
conspiracy, the French historian lays himself under
the obligation to explain the action which Venice
took in the matter. This he does with surprising
THE SPANISH CONSPIRACY. 339
dexterity. The duke of Osuna, Spanish viceroy of
Naples, Daru affirms, was engaged in schemes to make
himself king of Naples. He asked Venice to help
him, and she consented. Osuna's treason was dis-
covered at Madrid, and Venice exerted all her
powers to obliterate every proof of her complicity
with the viceroy. To do this effectually she hanged,
drowned, or strangled five hundred men, emissaries
of Osuna, whom she found in her dominions, and
who were aware that she was herself a party to
their designs, and who might be called as witness
against her at the Spanish court. The tortures she
inflicted were applied to wring from her own con-
federates the names of all who, by the slightest side-
wind, might have obtained an inkling that the
republic was a principal in the conspiracy. To the
world Venice said that Spain had been compassing
her ruin, and her doge celebrated a public Te Demn
for this salvation from danger ; in reality she had
been plotting against Madrid, and the thanksgiving
was held because she had succeeded in destro3'ing
all her accomplices, and with them every trace of
her guilt towards Spain. This is a startling theory,
and picturesque in the lurid light in which it places
the Venetian government. If Daru's theory were
correct, no more sacrilegious ceremony than the
Te Deum in St. Mark's was ever (Celebrated inside
a Christian church. But it is not correct ; and a
wider view, embracing the general condition of Europe,
and more especially the attitude of France, Spain,
and the viceroyalty of Naples, will prove its fallacy.
By the Peace of Lyons, France had virtually with-
340 VENETIAN STUDIES.
drawn from Italy in 1601. She had ceded Saluzzo,
in Piedmont, to the duke of Savoy, in exchange for
the district of La Bresse on the French side of the
Alps. The French no longer possessed a claim to
any portion of Italian territory ; Spain was left in
undisturbed possession. The withdrawal of France
caused serious alarm to those Italian states which still
retained their independence. No power remained in
Italy to prevent Spain from suppressing the last embers
of freedom ; and these fears received colour when
the Spanish began to harass the duke of Savoy.
The peace of Madrid, however, in 161 7, promised to
restore quiet to Italy, and that peace was especially
the work of the Spanish court. Indeed the centre
of disturbance lay by no means in Spain itself. There
the attitude was pacific. The court of Madrid was
virtually asleep, sunk in a deathlike inactivity. The
king, Philip III., was consumed by a gloomy religious
fervour, unrelieved by any vital interest beyond the
preservation of a rigid and stifling etiquette. He
was completely dominated by the dukes of Lerma
and Uzeda, who dreaded a war which might rouse his
Majesty from this lethargy or should call into notice
men of action who would prove rivals. In contrast to
the paralysis of Madrid, the provinces were fever-
ishly restless, owing to the active ambition of their
governors. It was Inojosa, Fuentes, Toledo, Osuna,
Bedmar, who threatened the remnants of Italian free-
dom. They, and not their court, were the source of
that alarm which Italy felt. These men were powerful
and fully aware of the weakness of their home
government. They seldom received instructions
THE SPANISH CONSPIRACY. 341
from Madrid, and still seldomer obeyed them.
Virtually independent princes, it was in war, in con-
spiracy, and in movement that they came to the fullest
consciousness of their power. To the Spanish repre-
sentatives in Italy the peace of 16 17 was distasteful,
as any peace must have been, and they agreed to
ignore it. Toledo and Osuna both continued to
annoy Venice, in spite of repeated orders to disarm.
The viceroy of Naples plays so important a part
in the story of the Spanish Conspiracy, that we must
look a little closer at the course of his life. Don
Pedro y Giron, grandee of Spain, knight of the
Golden Fleece, and gentleman of the bed-chamber,
was the head of a powerful Spanish house, and had
increased his influence by an alliance with the family
of the duke of Lerma, favourite and all-powerful
minister of King Philip. By nature Don Pedro was
ambitious and impetuous, and the restless air of his
century raised his pulse still higher. At the age
of twenty-five he conceived himself neglected by his
court. He therefore formed a company of troops
at his own charge, and took them to the Netherlands,
where he served under the archduke of Austria.
On the close of the campaign he returned to Madrid
with a fine reputation for valour, and was soon after
appointed viceroy of Sicily. In his kingdom he
made himself unboundedly popular. His manners
were distinguished by courtly Spanish grace, relieved
by flashes of humour which appealed to the popular
taste. He soon became a favourite with nobles and
people alike. But he committed one fatal mistake ;
he allowed himself too great a freedom in matters
342 VENETIAN STUDIES.
of religion. Already he was suspected by the Church
for his fearless defence of the heretics against the
rigours of his own court. And now many stories
of his levity were set afloat, and came to the ears of
his enemies the Jesuits, who stored them up against
the day of his disgrace. When Venice fell out with
Ferdinand of Austria, Osuna was sent as viceroy to
Naples, under orders to support the archduke. At
Naples he continued his popular policy, taking special
care to conciliate the people. He even went so far
as to execute certain barons for cruelty to their
dependents. The populace of Naples adored him.
They called him the " good viceroy ; " but the
nobility, whom he curbed, united with his old enemies
the Jesuits to work his ruin, and the combination in
the end proved too strong for Osuna. On the Peace
of Madrid being signed, the viceroy refused to disarm,
and continued to attack Venice in the Adriatic.
With a frankness characteristic of himself, Osuna
again and again told the Venetian resident that he
had no intention of observing the treaty. " I am
resolved," he said, "to send the fleet into Venetian
waters, in spite of the world, in spite of the king, in
spite of God." The fleet sailed under Osuna's own
colours, and his enemies were not slow to comment on
the viceroy's flag flying from the ships of Spain. His
army steadily grew in numbers, and became the
asylum for all the bravi and broken men who were
wandering in swarms over Europe. The Jesuits and
the nobility had little difficulty in surmising that
Osuna's object was the crown of Naples. They gave
him another year to commit himself, and then they
THE SPANISH CONSPIRACY. 343
struck. In October of 16 18 — that is, five months after
the Spanish plot was discovered at Venice — a formal
information against Osuna was lodged at the court
of Madrid. Early in the following year the govern-
ment determined to recall him ; and then, for the
first time, Osuna secretly sounded the Venetian
resident as to whether the republic would support
him in case he determined to resist the authority
of his own court. The Venetian answer was prompt
and decisive. The Ten declined to treat upon the
subject at all. Osuna saw that his case was hopeless,
and quietly resigned his office to his successor.
Cardinal Borgia. He returned to Madrid, where,
contrary to all expectation, he met with a most
favourable reception ; and it is probable that the
government did not consider his treason proved.
The Venetian ambassador wrote from Madrid that
the duke of Osuna lived in greater state than ever
he did in Italy ; adding, however, " we must not
praise the day till night fall." A stormy night soon
closed upon Osuna. The king died in 1621, and
the ex-viceroy lost the protection of his relation the
duke of Uzeda, whose reign ended with his master's
life. Osuna's enemy, the Church, revived the old
charge of heresy, and he was put upon his trial. For
more than three years the process lasted, spun out
to an interminable length by the Jesuits, who had
at length involved their prey. For these three years
Osuna languished in prison ; finally he died at the
castle of Almeda, poisoned, it is said, by the hand
of his wife, to save the family honour from the shame
of a public execution.
344 VENETIAN STUDIES.
The whole of Daru's argument in explanation of
the Spanish Conspiracy rests upon the relations
between the viceroy of Naples and the Venetian
republic. It is more than probable that Osuna did
meditate seizing the crown of Naples. The scheme
may appear to us now little better than a mere bubble
certain to burst. But it is just one of the notes of this
period that a thousand such mad and vague designs
were in the air. That Osuna asked Venice to aid
him, and that the republic lent a willing ear, is incor-
rect. The Viceroy made no overtures to Venice until
a year after the plot was discovered, and then they
were at once rejected.
Thus far, then, the French historian has carried us,
and we have obtained no explanation of the Spanish
Conspiracy. Nor can we, without taking into con-
sideration the force which was moving the whole con-
tinent at this time. The human spirit had for long been
busy, fusing and amalgamating much diverse matter
inside the crucible of Italy. Now the crucible was
broken by foreign invasion, and its contents flowed
out to work in the innermost core of European society.
The North was vivified at last, and returned upon its
vivifier. After long years it had caught the element
of life and became intellectualized in its constant and
brutal violations of Italy. It left its mistress dead,
but itself arose, quickened to a nobler life by her
undying and invincible spirit. It was an age of libera-
tion, of freedom beyond the borders of Italy, who died
in the effort to project the ideas she created. She,
" the lamp of other nations, the sepulchre of her own
splendour," had taught the world how to tread firmly
THE SPANISH CONSPIRACY. 345
in the path where the spirit guides. But this liberation,
this firm tread, brought with them, as of necessity
they must, certain defects ; and so we find side by side
freedom and licence, the steady step and the head-
long rush. The motto of the age was — " attempt ; "
Perge! ne tmieas ! Luther obeyed the spirit in
his own bold, rough fashion ; rejoicing like a lad in
his new-found strength ; almost hoping that he might
find as many devils in Augsburg as there were tiles
on the roof ; gladly accepting the devil as a bodily
fact for the sake of a blow at him, for the pleasure
of a well-aimed ink-pot. But in Italy they were long
past this boyhood they once knew so well ; they
had now struggled so long that they were weary of
movement and desirous of rest. For ages past the
Italians had been active, creating the Roman Empire,
the Roman Church, reawaking the arts and redis-
covering humanity. They might look at Luther as
a man looks at a child, but they could not feel with
him even in memory. Italy was old. She had not
that directness which comes from partial understand-
ing, nor the youth nor the brutality to free herself as
entirely in outward form from Rome, as she was
already freed in spirit. Campanella, Bruno, and
Sarpi are intellectually as bold as Luther and of
far further vision, far more prophetic. But just there
lay the cause of their defect as agents. In their
wide and almost universal view the points for which
Luther was struggling seemed of such trifling moment.
The raw muscle for an external blow they had not,
though the intellectual courage to deal one was theirs
in abundance. See the hardihood, the audacity, the
346 VENETIAN STUDIES,
adventurous spirit of Sarpi. At each moment you
expect him to falter, to stay his hand, hearing behind
him the thunder of Rome, or dreading the gleam of
her assassin's dagger. But no ! step by step he
advances ; each proposition stated and established
becomes to him, as it were, a spring-board whence to
take a wider and a bolder flight ; till from apologist
he becomes accuser : Venice, his client, quits the dock
for the judgment-seat ; and the pope, no longer the
terrible judge, is in his turn arraigned, tried, and con-
demned. Yet all the while Sarpi remains inside the
Church, not outside it with Luther. Luther passed
outside the Church through an intellectual defect,
through a boyishness of understanding, because he
did not go the whole length of his argument, because
he was about to found a new Church. Sarpi remained
inside the Church because he was intellectually com-
plete, a full-grown man, following his argument to
its close, because, in short, he was a man of no Church.
But these men are the fine phenomena of the
spirit, the brilliant side of the mirror. We may be
sure there was also a darker side. Nothing is more
open to infection than the human mind ; the quality
of its flame depends on the air which feeds and sur-
rounds it. When^such world-moving forces as freedom
are at work no portion of the social organism can
escape the shock, or refuse to share in the impulse.
But the nature of the manifestation depends upon
the medium ; and so, while we look with pride on
a Luther or a Sarpi as brilliant examples of spiritual
liberation, we are warned to read a lesson of humility
in the motiveless anarchy of a Guy Fawkes or a
THE SPANISH CONSPIRACY. 347
Jacques Pierre. In men of coarser fibre, the boldness
and self-reliance which constituted the strength of
Luther became licence and unreasoned restlessness.
What could be done by pushing audaciously onward,
by adopting the motto "Attempt," was constantly
receiving illustration in countless instances of suc-
cessful adventure. Concini, the Italian, was marshal
of France and virtual sovereign ; handsome George
Villiers was ruling England to the ruin of the
Crown. For all the men wl^o were obeying the spirit
of their age, whose minds were being ruffled to
unrest, some such success seemed possible. They
turned their eyes from the failures — from D'Ancre's
dead body in the courtyard of the Louvre, from
Ravaillac torn in pieces by horses, from the three
corpses in St. Mark's Square; — they turned their eyes
from these, or rather their desire made them single-
eyed, with vision only for the impossible goal. The
how, the when, the probabilities, they forgot to think
of; their delirium overlaid all such back-drawing
thoughts. There was a South Sea bubble always
floating within their ken ; an El Dorado about to be
won by them, as others had just failed to win it.
That the bubble was never caught before it burst,
that the El Dorado was never gained, but ended
only in a Raleigh's death, merely added a keener zest
to the pursuit which fruition would have satiated.
Adventure for adventure's sake, querer por sol querer^
that was the real joy of life's game.
The Reformation had shaken Europe to its foun-
dations, and the tremulous condition of the powers
afforded the very medium in which this restless spirit
34S VENETIAN STUDIES.
of adventure might most freely indulge itself. Plot
after plot, hazy in outline, undefined in object, im-
possible of execution, appears in the political world ;
"perplexing kings with fear of change," no one of
whom could find the sore place, nor lay their hand
on it to heal it. Conspiracy was epidemic, infecting
the social atmosphere, breathed by princes and
adventurers alike. Men born to great estate reck-
lessly embarked upon schemes of which they only
dimly saw the value or the issue. The duke of
Nevers meditated establishing a principality in
Greece and resuscitating the empire of the East.
Pope Gregory was in close connection with the
adventurer Stukeley, concocting designs for a revolu-
tion in Ireland. The duke of Osuna saw himself
king of Naples and Sicily. Even if the passion for
intrigue had not been so rife in Europe, this gambling
spirit of its princes and nobles would inevitably have
created a lower class of doubtful characters — men
who became denationalized and ready, on sufficient
bribe, to turn their hand to any disgraceful work.
But as it was, circumstances had already created such
a class. The civil wars in France and the Spanish
wars in the Netherlands turned loose upon the
continent a number of men reared in camps, living
by brawls and intrigues, cosmopolitan in the most
vicious sense. They passed freely from one capital
to another, and offered themselves for hire wherever
anything was stirring. Their credentials were the
rough outlines of a hundred plots, and with these in
their pockets they presented themselves to men like
Nevers, Osuna, or Toledo. Should any one of these
THE SPANISH CONSPIRACY. 349
schemes happen to take the fancy of these princes,
the details received the necessary alteration and
expansion ; and then the whole work was put in hand,
with the adventurer as manager. In fact, these men
were the promoters of bubble companies. The chief
difference between our day and theirs is that the
bubbles they blew were not railroads or silver mines,
but political conspiracies. Their designs are marked
by reckless and meaningless audacity. The number
of assassinations planned or effected at this time was
very large. William the Silent is shot ; Henry IV.
stabbed ; James and the lords nearly blown up ; the
doge of Venice escapes a like fate by a hair's breadth.
Yet no reasonable explanation based upon political
necessity can be found for these multitudinous
conspiracies. It was madness to imagine that
England or Venice could be overthrown by a Gun-
powder Plot or a Spanish Conspiracy, and it is still
more impossible to see what advantage Guy Fawkes
or Pierre could have reaped from their ruin. There
was the pleasure of the long and secret preparation,
the excitement of the scramble for the plunder and
the hurried flight ; but nothing more. Yet it is
among men such as these, who owned no allegiance
but to the spirit of revolutionizing adventure, that we
must look for the authors and agents of these
diabolical schemes. The whole air was disturbed.
For the North this disturbance meant life, vitality,
and growth. England was about to develop her
Parliamentary liberty. France was approaching the
brilliant epoch of Lewis XIV. But for Italy this
invasion of the North, this rejection upon herself
350 VENETIAN STUDIES.
of her own spirit, this apparition of Machiavelli
as an avenging ghost, was preparing a tenebrce from
which there could be no resurrection.
Italy was breaking down into the abyss of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and Venice
shared in the general declension. She had reached
her apogee and was steadily declining. After the
Peace of Cateau-Cambresis in 1558, she had enjoyed
nearly forty years of comparative quiet. She appeared
in her fullest splendour. Never before had the
republic made so magnificent a display in the eyes
of Europe ; nor was she slow to invite the princes
of Europe to visit her. Palaces rose along the
Grand Canal ; state ceremonies increased in number
and in pomp ; life in the sea city appeared like one
prolonged fete. But there were two ominous symptoms
manifesting themselves, almost unobserved, at the
very heart of Venice. The banking system caught
the general fever, became inflated, and burst with
ruinous results ; and the population of Venice
continued steadily to decrease. Not only did the
population fall off in numbers, it also began to
deteriorate in quality. The race for distinction in
wealth and splendour shattered the poorer noble
families, and the collapse of the banking system
completed their ruin. The young men of these
broken case nobili refused to embark on business ;
and nothing remained for them but a life of mis-
chievous adventure, centring round the churches
and the piazza. There was decay in the noble class
and a corresponding decay among the artisans.
Commerce and shipbuilding steadily declined. The
THE SPANISH CONSPIRACY. 351
number of pauper and foundling children increased
so rapidly that the government was compelled to
make provision for their support. A large part of
the population was living on the charity or the vices
of the rich. But this general collapse of a wide-
spread prosperity had a reflex action ; and, while it
ruined the smaller nobility and the smaller traders,
it confined the flow of money to the larger houses
who had weathered the storm. And so side by side
there existed enormous private fortunes, luxury, and
display, and a desperate poverty which hated the
luxury while serving it. In fact, there was a schism
inside the state ; and this schism showed itself in the
art no less than in the social life of Venice. The
great schools of painting and of architecture, magnifi-
cent, rich, ornate, were a fitting expression of the
wealth, the pomp, and pride of Venice. But from
the people came a poetry that was spontaneous,
native, licentious, irreligious, because it felt the reflex
of the Reformation. Profanity invaded the altar.
The Pere Duchesne of Venice appeared. The Senate
was obliged to prosecute those who chaunted fictitious
psalms and obscene litanies, to take action against
mock priests who administered the sacraments or re-
ceived confessions. Everywhere there was an insur-
gence of dialect ; a reformation directed not against
the dogma of Rome, but against the pedantry of Rome.
Comedy rose once more from the heart of the people
to answer the Ciceronian phrase or the Platonic
refinement. " This was the apparition of the people
in letters, of Luther in poetry, of free judgment on
the stage. Harlequin is opposed to the Inquisition :
352 VENETIAN STUDIES.
Pulcinella to pontifical wrath ; Pantaloon to the last
session of the Council of Trent. Beltran counter-
balances S. Carlo Borromeo ; Florindo neutralizes
S. Filippo dei Neri."* While Europe is at the reforma-
tion, Italy had reached the revolution.
Here, then, is Venice divided. And the division is
marked in its strongest tones of splendour and of
corruption by two events : the reception of Henry HI.,
king of France and Poland, and the Spanish Con-
spiracy. Henry passed through Venice in 1574, on
his way to take the crown of France. The republic
determined to receive him as became his rank and
her desire to secure the friendship of France. The
sumptuary laws were suspended during the ten days
of Henry's stay. The great ladies were invited to
vie with one another in magnificence of dress and
jewellery. The guilds were ordered to prepare a
splendid pageant. The Palazzo Foscari, the destined
lodging of the king, was hung with cloth of gold,
with crimson velvet, with sky-blue silk sem^ of
fleurs-de-lys.f Forty pages, the youth, the beauty,
the nobility of Venice, were appointed for service on
the king. They met him as he came in his barge
from the shore near Mestre, each in his gondola, and
his gondolier in silken shirt and hose embroidered
with the family arms. They swept in a semicircle
round the royal barge and conducted the king to
Murano. Then, on the following day, in grand
procession, they brought him to the palace of the
* See Ferrari, op. at.
t See Marsilio della Croce for a detailed account of Henry's
visit, " Historia della publica e famosa entrata in Vinegia del
Serenissimo Henrico III.," etc.
THE SPANISH CONSPIRACY. 353
Foscari. For ten days the king was feted as no
prince had ever been before. There were the gor-
geous liveries of France and of Venice ; fantastic
barges, sea monsters on whose backs the workmen
of Murano fashioned crystal vases at the furnace
mouth ; water pageants ; triumphal arches designed
by Palladio and painted by Tintoret ; regattas ;
serenades ; fireworks on the canal by night ; banquets
where the plates, the knives, the forks, the food were
all of sugar ; a ball in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio,
and that parterre of lovely ladies whose perfume of
beauty intoxicated the royal senses past all waking.
The king never forgot it nor recovered. His life after
was a long mad dream. Henry is said to have left
the remains of his vigour in Venice. We cannot
wonder, for he brought very little with him, and
Venice was a siren tangling the hearts of men in that
network of woven light and colour, the silver-golden
waters of her lagoons. Or shall we say that she was
a harlot, selling herself for her own pleasure ; buying
a doubtful political importance by bartering her body,
not by the force and weight of her arms }
Underneath all this pomp which Henry saw,
there lay a starving and a dangerous population,
casting up as a froth a mob of varied nationality ; men
who haunted the piazza and gained a livelihood by
all disgraceful means — by spying, by informations,
and by murder. The bravi were a source of constant
alarm, and in 1600 the government passed a stringent
decree of banishment against them all ; but in vain.
These ruffians were thoroughly acquainted with all the
hiding-places of the intricate city ; a favourite refuge
2 A
354 VENETIAN STUDIES.
was the palace of some ambassador, where they were
sure to find a ready asylum. The police magistrates
have constantly to complain that their sbirri are
mocked and insulted from the grille in the basement
of some embassy by the man they were sent to arrest.
These basements were, in fact, hives of scoundrels of
all sorts, petted, caressed, embraced by men like
Bedmar or like Bruslart, who required their services
to obtain information or to remove a foe. The
difficulty of dealing with these people, the rapid
spread of political corruption, and the continual
murders, induced the government to encourage a
class of men who were in themselves as dangerous
as the bravi. Denouncement became a trade. The
bocca del hone was opened and a reign of terror
began, very similar to that produced by the delatores
of imperial Rome. No one was safe — the charge
of treason offered such a sure and secret method of
securing vengeance on an enemy. In every great house
some servants were to be found who were informers
by profession. The fearful lengths to which this
system of espionage might be pushed received an
illustration in the fate of the unfortunate Foscarini,
accused of plotting in the house of Lady Arundel,
with whom he was only in love. Foscarini was put to
death ; and the lady herself only escaped humiliation
by compelling Wotton, the English ambassador, to
plead her cause before the Senate ; so powerful were
informers and so dangerous the confidence reposed
in them by the government. Spies, bravi, courtesans,
footmen, barbers, quack doctors — in short, all the evil
spirits of the place stood together in a kind of
THE SPANISH CONSPIRACY, 355
freemasonry of iniquity with which the police were
quite unable to cope. These were the elements of
a corrupt society, banded together to prey on all
from whom they could wring any money or other
advantage. Their numbers were constantly recruited
by fresh arrivals from Naples, from Spain, above all
from France. The Venetian ambassador writes from
Paris, " Every day my house is crowded with people
who declare themselves desirous to serve the republic ;
the applications are numberless ; so full is this king-
dom of idle men." No one of these adventurers who
arrived at Venice was likely to remain outside the
floating population of his brothers whom he found
already established there. His initiation would take
no long time, and he would soon learn that under
the life of the Venetians themselves there was a life
of foreigners, rou^Sy diclassh — men all of them en-
gaged in intrigue of some sort. Before long he
might find himself committed to a plot as wild as
that for blowing up the doge and sacking the city.
There were three Frenchmen, Jacques Pierre,
Regnault, and Langlade, living in this seething
society. They had come to Venice in 161 7, in the
course of their profession as adventurers. Pierre was
a Norman by birth, and had served with distinction
against the Turks. Owing to the knowledge of the
East which he had thus acquired, the duke of Nevers
frequently consulted him in the preparation of his
schemes for a descent on the Levant. The matter,
however, had grown cold, and Pierre quitted France
to seek a fresh field in Italy. Venice was the point
he determined to make for eventually, but he wished
356 VENETIAN STUDIES.
to go there in the pay of the government. With
that object in view he presented himself to Simon
Contarini, the Venetian ambassador at Rome, and
produced the usual credentials of his class — the asser-
tion that he was in possession of secrets important to
the state of Venice. Contarini, whose suspicions
were aroused, pressed Pierre for an exact statement
of what he meant. The adventurer replied that the
viceroy of Naples entertained vast designs against
the Turk in the Levant and on the coast of Albania,
but showed great vagueness as to details. Contarini
wished to forward profitable information to his
government and therefore continued to urge Pierre,
asking, " Are you sure that the points are the Archi-
pelago and Albania t " The Frenchman pressed
Contarini's hand and answered, " Somewhere there-
abouts." This was enough for the ambassador, who
now knew the type of man he was dealing with. He
dismissed Pierre and made a note that he was a man
to mistrust. Pierre then took service with the duke
of Osuna, and soon discovered his hatred of Venice
and surmised his desire to make himself king of
Naples. Pierre continued some time at Naples, ac-
quiring importance in the service of the duke, discuss-
ing plans for attacking the republic, and adding to his
stock-in-trade by mastering the viceroy's political
secrets. The adventurer was growing conscious of one
serious drawback. He could not write fluently and
spoke no Italian. To remedy this defect he attached
to himself another Frenchman, Regnault ; described
as " an old scamp, a man of no spirit, a drunkard, a
gamester, and a smoker, . . . branded with a lily on the
THE SPANISH CONSPIRACY, 357
shoulder for misdeeds in France." But Regnault was
ready with his pen, and willingly entered into partner-
ship with his brother adventurer ; his duty was to
act as secretary to this company which Pierre was
forming. To complete the trio, Langlade was also
admitted to partnership ; and all three applied to the
Venetian resident at Naples for pay in the service of
the republic, bidding, as usual, for his countenance
by offering to disclose political secrets affecting his
government. This time they were successful. Spinelli,
the resident, was less sharp sighted than Contarini,
and Langlade and Regnault were more plausible than
Pierre. They left Naples for Venice with letters of
introduction ; but they did not find the reception they
expected. Langlade, who had secured a written
contract from Spinelli, was sent to the arsenal to
carry on his trade of Greek-fire maker ; but the other
two were left out in the cold. The reason for this
conduct on the part of the government was the
repeated warnings against Pierre, which Contarini
forwarded from Rome. Pierre, however, was not a
man to be baulked. He understood the character of
Spinelli and believed he could frighten the resident.
Accordingly, he wrote to Spinelli, " As yet I have not
received a penny from the government. I believe I
am being trifled with. While acknowledging every
obligation for the trouble you have taken, I will come
to Naples myself to thank you." Spinelli believed
this to be a threat against his life ; and, at his earnest
request, the Venetians gave Pierre an appointment
in the fleet.
Meanwhile Pierre and Regnault had presented
358 VENETIAN STUDIES.
themselves to their ambassador, Leon Bruslart.
Their object was, if possible, to reopen negotiations
with the duke of Nevers concerning his designs in
the Levant. Furthermore, through the help of
Bruillard, Bedmar's secretary, a thorough scamp like
themselves, they had obtained a footing in the Palazzo
di Spagna, and had even gained an interview with
the ambassador, in whose presence they freely dis-
cussed Osuna's designs against Venice. These were
no secret, but no doubt Pierre, by an adroit manage-
ment of the information he had picked up at Naples,
induced Bedmar to believe that he was deeper in the
viceroy's confidence than was really the case. How-
ever that may be, Pierre and his party had opened
relations with two great ambassadors at Venice. It
remained for Regnault to attempt the like with Wotton,
who represented England. Regnault met Wotton one
day, by accident, in a bookseller's shop, and asked for
a private interview, on the plea that he possessed im-
portant political information, which he wished to take
to England himself, but required letters and money.
Wotton, however, was as wary as Contarini, and
Regnault as ignorant and maladroit as Pierre, and
the whole matter fell through. Nothing could more
thoroughly bear the stamp of charlatanism than the
conduct of Pierre and his friends. They were spinning
such a tangled web that to unravel it became im-
possible. The high personages with whom they were
playing had only partial light upon their movements.
Bruslart knew nothing, or only by rumour, of the
Bedmar connection ; Bedmar had heard nothing of
the Nevers scheme; Wotton had no inkling of either ;
THE SPANISH CONSPIRACY. 359
and the Venetian government was, as yet, in perfect
darkness. It was impossible that any one of these,
when called upon, should have been able to give an
adequate account of the plot.
The Frenchmen had now obtained what they re-
quired to float them. They had established apparent
connections with three ambassadors in Venice. They
might be seen going in and out of their palaces ;
familiar with side doors, and known to the servants.
They could use these powerful names, and hint at more
powerful ones in the background. It was time now to
water the stock, to enlarge the number of shareholders.
The great recruiting ground, the piazza, was always
open to them, teeming with idlers ready for any
mischief. Pierre had no difficulty in finding adherents
who would not press too rudely for the how or the
when of his scheme. Enough that there was a plot.
Its vagueness merely rendered it the more fascinating;
the imagination had the freer scope to magnify the
possible prizes. One day, as Pierre was sauntering
in St. Mark's, he passed a young Frenchman, whom
he at once determined to enlist. He proved to be
a native of Languedoc, Gabriel Moncassin by name,
and a soldier of fortune by profession. Pierre carried
him off to dine with him, and afterwards established
him in his own room. Then, under a promise of
secrecy, the plot was hinted at, and, on hearing the
names of Osuna and Bedmar, Moncassin consented
to join. A day or two later, Pierre took his recruits,
now a band of four or five, to the top of the campanile.
From that height he unfolded to them the plan of
the conspiracy, so far as it had any. He pointed to
36o VENETIAN STUDIES.
the treasury of St Mark's, right below them ; to the
mint, looking towards San Giorgio and the sea ; to
the otiose crowd of nobles sauntering on the broglio ;
to the unarmed throng of citizens at the piazza's end.
"A handful of stout men with sticks might make
themselves masters of it all, and drive this herd of
pantaloons into the water." " Is it not a wonder," he
cried, *' that Venice has remained so long a virgin ? "
Then he turned and pointed to the two ports of Lido
and Malamocco, promising that the Neapolitan fleet
should sail in there to second their enterprise when
the right moment arrived. But Osuna's ships,
whether promised to Pierre or only sailing in the gulf
to damage Venetian shipping, never came. They
were wrecked off Manfredonia ; and the chief had to
tell his followers that the execution must be delayed
till autumn, as he and Langlade had been ordered to
join the fleet. So the company separated — Pierre and
Langlade to their posts ; the two brothers, Desbou-
leaux, to Naples ; Regnault for France, to see the
duke of Nevers. The Ten had received an anony-
mous warning to be upon their guard ; hence the
orders to Pierre and Langlade. Pierre endeavoured
to avoid compliance by submitting to the government
an elaborate statement of alleged designs entertained
by Osuna against some place and some power not
named. He hoped that the desire to read to the
bottom of this communication would induce the Ten
to keep him in Venice. But the ruse did not serve
his turn.
In the middle of April another young Frenchman
had come to Venice. His name was Balthassar
THE SPANISH CONSPIRACY. 361
Juven ; a man well connected, the nephew of Marshal
Lesdigueres, and altogether of a better character than
the men with whom he chose to associate. He lodged
at the Locanda Trombetta, and there he fell in with
Moncassin. The two compatriots soon became
friends, and Moncassin, who was uneasy under the
weight of his secret, unbosomed himself to his new
acquaintance. Balthassar made up his mind at once.
He took Moncassin with him to the doge's palace, on
the pretext of some business, and left him in the
anteroom, while he related all that he knew to the
doge and his council. Moncassin was then called in
and frightened and cajoled into completing Balthassar's
story where it was wanting. Then, having gone so
far, he offered his whole services to the Signory. The
name of Osuna had alarmed the council, and they
desired to have proof of his complicity. Moncassin
assured them that such proofs would be found, in the
shape of letters under Osuna's signature, upon the
person of Bedmar's secretary. At first the council
proposed to arrest Bruillard at the Palazzo di Spagna,
but this course was abandoned as too violent. Mon-
cassin then offered to tempt Bruillard to a certain
house where he might easily be seized. The secretary,
however, proved wary. He had already committed
a murder, and refused to venture beyond the embassy,
whose right of asylum the government were unwilling
to violate. The Venetians never obtained any con-
clusive proof that Osuna was the author, or even an
accomplice of the plot. Foiled here, the government,
with the help of Moncassin, introduced a spy at one
of the conspirators' meetings, and the faces of all
362 VENETIAN STUDIES.
were noted. The brothers Desbouleaux and Regnault
were arrested, examined by torture, executed, and
hung on the piazza. Four others suffered death in
the ducal prisons. Pierre and another conspirator,
Rossetti, were drowned at sea by order of the admiral.
Langlade was shot at Zara, along with a soldier and
a boy, whom he had attached to himself. These
twelve men were all who suffered death ; but the
excitement of the moment made the popular voice
multiply these twelve into five hundred, and the
sudden flight of so many foreigners from the city,
gave some colour to their calculation. The fury of
the populace fastened upon the Spanish ambassador,
and Bedmar was soon afterwards recalled.
The discovery of the conspiracy coming with such
startling rapidity, and in the midst of apparent
security, gave a violent shock to the Venetian imagi-
nation, and the danger was magnified beyond all
reasonable bounds. The government kept silence
because they were unwilling to exaggerate an event
which they knew to be, after all, more mad than
perilous. But their silence had an effect the reverse
of that intended. Indeed, the conspiracy in itself was
of no vital moment. It is only as a symptom that it
acquires importance, and as a symptom it is terribly
significant. That it was localized at Venice draws
attention to the curious and abnormal social condition
of the sea city — sure precursor of her decline and ruin.
Her vital force was gone, her growth stayed. Death
and decay were at her heart. That beautiful body,
beautiful still with a siren's fascination, was irrevocably
doomed. " Esto perpetua," the last prayer, the last
THE SPANISH CONSPIRACY. 363
words of her great patriot Sarpi, could not save Venice
from the fate that was coming past reprieve. The
prophet of the " sun-girt city," looking upon her from
her campanile's top, might well have wept and closed
his prophecy with these words : " Piangi, che ben hai
donde."
OLIVER CROMWELL AND THE
VENETIAN REPUBLIC,
During the course of these essays we have fre-
quently had occasion to point out the excellence of
the Venetian diplomatic papers — the "Relazioni," or
reports made by ambassadors on their return from
their missions, and the almost daily despatches from
the courts to which they were accredited. The
despatches contain the minister's first impressions, the
details of court life, and the events of the political
world ; while the " Relazioni " are elaborate synopses
of the general aspect and conditions of those kingdoms
whence the ministers had returned. The reports are
largely based upon the despatches ; but, being written
at leisure, they are frequently cast in a more literary
form.
The Venetian school of diplomacy has always
enjoyed a deserved reputation. Our readers will not
have forgotten Lord Chesterfield's advice to his son
to cultivate, in whatever capital he found himself, the
Venetian ambassador as the man from whom he
would learn more than from any other. There were
two classes of diplomatic agents employed by the
republic, ambassadors and residents. Ambassadors
CROMWELL AND THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. 365
were always patricians ; they were elected in the
Senate ; and the post, though usually onerous, was
valued as a mark of esteem. The Senate elected none
but its ablest members to an embassy, and the mission
was frequently a stepping-stone to the dukedom.
The residents were chosen from among the secretaries
to the Senate and the Ten. These secretaries all
belonged to the class known as cittadini originarii —
a sort of middle-class aristocracy ; not admitted, it
is true, to the Great Council, but possessing various
privileges — the right to bear arms, for example — and
standing between the patricians and the people. The
proper title of a resident was " Circumspect;" the title
of an ambassador was "Most illustrious and most
excellent." Both ambassadors and residents were
men who had enjoyed ample training in political life ;
skilled observers ; bred in the school of peiisieri
stretti e viso sciolto ; and the standard of fulness
and accuracy demanded by the Senate was so rigid
and exacting that these Venetian despatches and
reports — now that they are open to inspection —
acquire a singular value for us. Mistakes in detail
inevitably occur, for it was impossible that a Vene-
tian should thoroughly master all the minutiae of
daily life in the country to which he was ac-
credited ; but in these documents we have the per-
fectly honest and candid opinion of a skilled foreign
observer, writing with the freedom and frankness
engendered by the knowledge that his comments
were made for his master's eye and for none other.
Of course the value of the despatches and reports
varies with the natural ability of the writer ; but we
366 VENETIAN STUDIES.
believe no one will quarrel with the fulness and acute-
ness of the noble specimen we shall give in the
following pages.
The documents which we purpose to use have
been collected and transcribed by Signor Berchet,
and cover the period of English history from the
death of Charles I. to the fall of Richard Cromwell.
We have selected them for two reasons : first, be-
cause of the striking portrait they present to us of
the great Protector ; and, secondly, because they are
in themselves an excellent example of the Venetian
diplomatic style.
Venice had always maintained friendly relations
with the house of Stuart. On the fall of that house
the Venetians were in doubt how to act. They
disliked a republican form of government, and they
had no confidence that the Parliamentary regime
would last, and were therefore unwilling to commit
themselves to any acknowledgment of its supremacy.
But the pressure of the war of Candia, the loss of
that island, and the perpetual danger from the Turks
compelled them to seek assistance wherever it could
be found. No alliance seemed more desirable to
them than that with England, whose fleet was rapidly
becoming the most powerful in Europe, and whose
interests in the East were growing steadily under
the care of the Levant Company. We shall see that
Venice was compelled to acknowledge first the Parlia-
ment, then Oliver, and finally Richard Cromwell, and
all without obtaining the object she had in view.
We come now to the documents ; and we shall
leave them to speak for themselves ; adding merely
CROMWELL AND THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. 367
such connecting matter as may serve to make them
clear, and to lead us up to the main purpose of this
essay, the portrait of Cromwell drawn by Giovanni
Sagredo.
As we have pointed out in a previous essay,
Charles II., when- in exile, sent Tom Killigrew to
represent him in Venice. The Venetians expected
that the Stuarts would soon return to England, and
accordingly the resident was received with due
honours on the 17th of February, 1650. This action
on the part of Venice gave the greatest offence in
England, and it subsequently cost the Venetian repre-
sentative much time and trouble before he could
remove the ill effects of the slight put upon Parlia-
ment. It was not long, however, before the Venetians
discovered that the Stuart cause was still on the wane.
The Turkish war was pressing hard upon the re-
public, and it resolved to abandon the royal house of
England, to make peace, if possible, with Parliament,
and to secure the co-operation of the English fleet
against the common foe. The first step towards
these objects was to dismiss Killigrew. We have
already recounted the amusing details of the resident's
expulsion for keeping "a bit of a butcher's shop."
Killigrew left Venice in June, 1652. Previous to this,
however, the Senate had sent orders to Morosini,
the ambassador in Paris, to despatch his secretary,
Lorenzo Pauluzzi, to London ; to open relations with
Parliament; to urge the Levant Company to assist
Venice; to raise troops and ships for the Turkish war;
and generally to report upon the condition and the
prospects of that government. But Pauluzzi was
368 VENETIAN STUDIES.
sent without credentials and without any recognized
official position. This was an error which cost Venice
dear ; for Parliament was determined to accept
nothing short of a full acknowledgment of its
sovereign position. Pauluzzi left Paris for London.
The duty of receiving him fell upon Sir Oliver
Fleming, master of the ceremonies, a man whom
Carlyle has described as "a most gaseous but indis-
putable historical figure, of uncertain genesis, uncertain
habitat, gliding through the old books as master of
the ceremonies — master of one knows not what."
Pauluzzi seems to have found Sir Oliver solid enough,
and certainly quite master of the situation. On the
2nd of May, Pauluzzi reports to Morosini as follows :
— " I went to Fleming, master of the ceremonies,
and began by explaining to him that I was your
Excellencies' secretary, sent to England in Venetian
interests, to raise ships and men. For that purpose
I had desired to be put in communication with some
of the gentlemen of Parliament ; but, since the forms
of the present government did not permit of this,
I had come to him to assure him that if the republic
thought that its friendship was desired and would be
returned, it would not withhold it. At these words
of friendship desired and returned Sir Oliver broke
in, * I beg you not to use such language. This
republic has no need to court the good will of Venice.
Let us leave these rigmaroles and formalities, and
speak frankly. If you have credentials proving you
the accredited minister of the Serene Republic, well
and good — you will get what you want. Pray tell
me distinctly ; for if you have I will adopt one tone.
CROMWELL AND THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. 369
if you have not I will adopt another.' I found my-
self obliged to confess that I had no credentials, as
I had only come to raise ships ; but I believed that
if credentials were necessary the republic would send
them to me at once. Sir Oliver then grew very angry,
and said, * I am surprised that you should come here
in this fashion even for the object you mention. If
I, let us suppose, were to go to Venice in this way,
pray tell me, what would the Serene Republic say?'
I replied that he would, no doubt, receive every satis-
faction, and that I expected the same. Sir Oliver
answered, ' I am willing to believe it, and, no doubt,
you know better than I do. But I am amazed, and
so will Parliament be amazed, all the more as we
have frequently been advised that the Serene Republic
intended to . send a commission to recognize this
republic, and the delay can only proceed from aver-
sion to the present government.' I wished to disabuse
him, but he interrupted : ' Well, you have come here
to raise ships and men : I believe it : but perhaps also
to play the spy, as a Frenchman did lately ; I must
tell you that we compelled him to leave the kingdom.
Up to the present time the republic acknowledges a
minister of Charles Stuart ; what good can such
irresolution do you } If you want our friendship we
are ready. And now your prudence will tell you
how you ought to act.'" With this sharp lesson
Pauluzzi was dismissed.
Venice proceeded to repair her mistake. On the
1st of June, 1652, Pauluzzi's credentials, addressed "To
the Parliament of England," passed the Senate. But
the republic had to wait seven months before Parlia-
2 B
370 VENETIAN STUDIES,
ment considered its honour vindicated and consented
to acknowledge the representative of Venice. On the
8th of January, 1653, Speaker Lenthal replied, re-
ceiving Pauluzzi as agent for the republic. Meantime
Morosini had been removed from Paris, and Giovanni
Sagredo filled his place. Sagredo was now Pauluzzi's
immediate master, through whom he communicated
with the Senate and received their orders. On the 17th
of May Pauluzzi is instructed to sound the Constituent
Convention as to its willingness to send an embassy
to Venice should the republic send one to London.
To this an affirmative answer, signed by *'E. Montagu,
President of the Council of State, " came from
Whitehall, under date November 25. But before
this reciprocal intention could be carried out, Oliver
Cromwell had been created Protector, and Pauluzzi
remained in London in the quality of resident.
Throughout his despatches Pauluzzi is hostile to
Cromwell. He announces in these words Cromwell's
assumption of the Protectorate : " London, January
3, 1654. Friday last the general was created Pro-
tector of the three kingdoms. The Parliamentarians
do not cease to bite their nails for having allowed
him, step by step, to mount to such a height of
authority as renders him odious to the people."
On the 2 1st of February we have an account of
Cromwell's first public appearance after his elevation
to the Protectorship : " On his appearance not the
slightest sound of applause or of satisfaction was
heard, nor any blessings on the name and person
of the Protector. Very dififerent from that which used
to happen when the late king appeared in public.
CROMWELL AND THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. 371
In general the Protector enjoys but little affec-
tion ; nay, there are not wanting signs of that hatred
against him, which grows daily because, under cloak
of humility and care for the nation's and the people's
weal, he has arrogated all authority and sovereignty.
Only the title of king is wanting, while his actual
power certainly exceeds that of the late king.
At present, however, though they feel themselves
downtrodden, dissatisfied, and deluded, they dare
attempt no action ; nor do they speak except through
their teeth. But every one hopes to see fulfilled some
day the prophesy that this government cannot last
long." And again, on March ist, he writes, "Every
day the ill humour against the Protector and the dis-
obedience of the troops increases. Cromwell, how-
ever, persists in his habitual attitude of humility and
retirement. He protests that he is only what they
have made him ; that he will never be other than
they wish him to be. Traits of an insincere humility,
under cloak of which he aims, perhaps, at glory greater
than his present ; and on this ground his headlong
fall is continually foretold and desired. But he will
save himself with all the greater astuteness that he
knows it to be the general expectation and desire."
Pauluzzi had already had an audience of Cromwell
on the 29th of January, which he thus describes : "The
day before yesterday was appointed for my audience.
I was received with the same ceremonial as that
observed towards other ministers. I was met by Sir
Oliver Fleming, and conducted to his Highness, whom
I found in a chamber surrounded by twenty gentle-
men, arranged on either side, and Cromwell in the
372 VENETIAN STUDIES.
middle. On my appearance in the chamber he un-
covered, and remained so till I began to speak. He
uncovered again at every act of reverence I made
when naming the most Serene Republic. I expressed
myself as follows : congratulating the Protector on his
elevation, assuring him of the good will of Venice, and
begging his aid against the Turks. He remained
attentive to all I said, without interrupting me ; and
Sir Oliver translated the whole into English. Crom-
well replied in the following terms, translated into
Italian by Sir Oliver, expressing his good will towards
Venice ; declaring that he had every desire to assist
the republic, which he considered the buckler of
religion against its most powerful foe. I bowed at
these expressions, and promised to report them to my
government ; and with that I took my leave, accom-
panied by Sir Oliver to my carriage, as is the
etiquette adopted towards all who are recognized as
representatives of their princes and masters."
In August of the same year, Pauluzzi again had
an audience of the Protector, in order to present
letters of congratulation from the Senate. He was
treated with greater ceremony on this occasion, having
the compliment of a guard of honour of one hundred
halberdiers of the Protector's household troops.
Pauluzzi again raised the question of assistance against
the Turk. Cromwell replied that he always admired
the courage of the republic ; he would inform
Pauluzzi, later on, of his decision in the matter. In
January of the following year, the Senate write to
Sagredo that they can no longer delay the despatch
of an embassy to England. They were anxious to
CROMWELL AND THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. 373
clinch what appeared to be a favourable disposition
on the part of Cromwell. The ambassador is to
receive six hundred gold ducats a month as salary ;
four months paid in advance, and no obligation to
render accounts ; a present of one thousand five
hundred gold ducats for outfit ; three hundred
Venetian ducats for horses, boxes, rugs ; three hundred
for vails, of which account is to be rendered. He is to
take a secretary at twenty-five ducats a month, and
one hundred ducats paid down ; two couriers at thirty
ducats each, as usual ; an interpreter and a chaplain
at ten scudi a month, as usual. On the 5th of June
Sagredo himself was elected for the English embassy,
and received his credentials. Sagredo endeavoured
to excuse himself on the ground that he was already
nearly ruined by the expenses of his embassy at Paris ;
but the Senate declined to relieve him of his duties.
Sagredo accordingly began preparations for his new
mission. His carriage alone cost him one thousand
five hundred crowns, and his liveries as much again.
On the 1st of September he left Paris with a large
suite, including, over and above his embassy staff,
five Venetian noblemen and their servants. Cromwell
was pleased at this mark of attention on the part of
the republic, and showed his sense of the compliment
by sending a man-of-war to meet Sagredo at Dieppe,
which the ambassador had chosen as the point of
embarkation in preference to Calais, owing to the
frequent robberies committed by the garrisons of
Gravelinghen and Dunkirk. Sagredo was much
impressed by the size and strength of this man-of-war,
and wrote to the Senate, " If your Serenity had twelve
374 VENETIAN STUDIES.
such ships, no power in the world could resist the
onset. It has seven hundred men and one hundred
guns." The ship crossed the Channel to Dungeness
in seven hours, and landed the ambassador in England.
His public reception took place by water. The grand
master of the ceremonies, accompanied by thirty
gentlemen and the Protector's trumpeters, came to
meet him, " in sixteen feluccas," at Greenwich, whence,
after a sumptuous repast, they conducted him to the
Tower. At the Tower the Protector's carriage was
waiting him ; and, followed by five other carriages
and a guard of fifty horse, he was conducted to the
lodgings reserved for ambassadors and other dis-
tinguished foreigners.
Sagredo sent the Senate an account of his first
audience in these terms : " On the fourth day after
my public entry I was informed that, owing to the
colic which had attacked his Highness, my audience
was to be postponed for three days. Cromwell sent
the master of the ceremonies to assure me of the
regret which he felt at this delay, and to inform me
that, notwithstanding the sickness which confined
him to bed, he would rise on purpose to receive me,
if I thought it necessary. I did not fail to thank
his Highness for such obliging expressions, and
added that his well-being was too valuable to be
exposed to any imaginable risk ; that I would wait
his recovery, nothing complaining of this delay if it
were employed in restoring his health.
** Three days later, he sent his carriages and two
councillors of state to my lodging to fetch me. I
was conducted to Whitehall, that is, the palace of the
CROMWELL AND THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. 375
late king. On my entering the great royal hall, hung
with the richest tapestry and crowded with people,
Cromwell took two short steps towards me. He
begged me to be covered, and I then expressed
myself as follows : that the republic, wishing still
further to mark their regard for the Protector, had
sent me as special envoy to repeat to him what
Pauluzzi had already communicated. Cromwell
replied, thanking the republic, and declaring that
their ambassador should receive the same treatment
as that accorded to the representatives of other
crowned heads. On my withdrawing, he again took
two short steps towards me, hat in hand. I found
him somewhat pulled down, with signs of a health
not absolutely and entirely established, for I noticed
that while he remained uncovered, the hand which
held his hat trembled. For the rest, he is a man of
fifty-six years ; a thin beard ; a full habit ; short, robust
and martial in appearance. His countenance is dark
and profound ; he carries a large sword by his side.
Soldier as well as orator, he is gifted with talents
to persuade and to act."
Sagredo's next despatches, dated the 5th, 6th, and
1 2th of November, dwell upon the difficulties he
encountered in securing the object of his mission,
Cromwell's aid against the Turk : " The Protector, in
order to maintain the credit of his arms, and to
justify his heavy taxation, resolved to attack either
Turkey or the West Indies. Various considerations
inclined him to the latter. I shall do all I can to
induce him to attack the Turk, but there are two
grave obstacles. The first is the Spanish war ; the
376 VENETIAN STUDIES.
second, the Turkey merchants, who form the most
powerful party in the city, and who fear the seques-
tration of their wealth in the Levant. His Highness
sent me last week a pamphlet setting forth the
reasons which oblige England to go to war with
Spain. The conjuncture is little favourable to my
designs. I resolved, however, to neglect no efforts
which might conduce to the public benefit. I de-
manded an audience of his Highness, which was
granted me in his private cabinet. He met me in
the middle of the room, and on my departure he
accompanied me to the door. My interview had for
object to win him round by playing on his religious
feelings, which he displays with all palpable demon-
strations of zeal, even going so far as to preach every
Sunday to the soldiers, exhorting them to live godly
lives. And this preaching he accompanies not merely
with efficacious persuasions, but also with the example
of his tears, which he holds ready at a moment's notice.
By these means he excites and controls the spirit of
the troops at his pleasure. In the second place, I did
not fail to ply him with the stimulus of glory and
fame, as follows : ' I am instructed to remind your
Highness that Venice has now for eleven years been
the buckler of all Christendom against the Turk.
These barbarians are preparing to complete the
conquest of Candia, the outwork of Italy. The zeal
your Highness has for the Christian faith, that piety
and religion which are the noble ornaments of your
generous spirit, will surely set on fire the sacred flame
of your great courage, and put a keen edge on your
valorous sword, which cannot be drawn in a more
CROMWELL AND THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. 377
glorious cause than the cause of the gospel.' To
this Cromwell replied that the generous and constant
defence offered by Venice against the common foe
laid every Christian prince under obligations to your
Serenity ; that he had frequently felt the pricks
and goads of zeal for the service of God ; that it
would have been better had I come to this court
earlier — I should then have found the conjuncture
favourable to my wishes ; that he would take the
opinion of his council. He personally was much
disposed to all that might profit your Serenity, for
whom he entertained a particular esteem."
These negotiations, however, produced no fruit,
and Sagredo, perceiving that he could make no way
with the purpose of his mission, demanded his recall.
The Senate granted his request, and he left England
on the 1 8th of February, 1656, in the middle of a
violent snowstorm, having spent five months in
London. He left his secretary, Francesco Giavarina,
behind him as resident for the republic.
On his return to Venice, Sagredo, according to
custom, read, in the Senate, an account of his
embassy. This relazione is so interesting in itself,
as a fine specimen of what these Venetian reports
were like, and contains so succinct and instructive a
view of the great rebellion and the Protectorate as
observed by a foreign ambassador, that we shall
venture to give it almost in extenso.
"Most Serene Prince,
"The position, size and population of
England, Scotland, and Ireland are so well known to
378 VENETIAN STUDIES.
you, from books and from the reports of ambassadors
to that court, that it would be superfluous and tedious
to recite them here.
" I, Giovanni Sagredo, knight, find it more oppor-
tune that I, as your first ambassador to London after
the downfall of the royal house, should give you a
distinct account of how the civil war began, of the
causes of that change of government, of the character
of the man who at present directs and commands,
of the forces and the alliances of England, and of
the designs she now entertains.
"For an uninterrupted period of fifteen years
that kingdom has been tossed on the troublous sea of
civil war, whereon at last the royal authority made
lamentable and disastrous shipwreck.
" The causes of this shipwreck are various ; and
perhaps the essential causes are not those which live
in the mouth of the vulgar and by the notoriety of
common report.
"The hatred against Charles I. of England was
augmented by a certain instability in religious
matters, an instability which he clearly proved by
professing himself first Calvinist, then Lutheran, and
finally by his passionate endeavours to render the
ceremonies of the Protestant Church as similar as
possible to those of Catholicism. His subjects,
who had imbibed from their ministers an implacable
aversion to the Catholic faith, hated him for this
policy, which proved him entirely Catholic at heart.
It is true, however, that his Majesty on the scaffold,
guided by a diabolical desire to prove the injustice
of his condemnation, publicly professed the dogmas
CROMWELL AND THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. 379
of Protestantism, and, to the damnation of his own
soul, endeavoured to give the lie to the rumour that
he leaned towards the Catholic faith. We must add,
as no unimportant agent in his ruin, that he lacked
the spirit to govern by himself, and availed himself
of ministers whose wits were slow and heavy, such
as Lord Holland, or of austere prelates like the
bishop of Canterbury, who desired to govern London
as though it had been a college or a religious house.
" His Majesty was gifted with a placid nature,
infinite goodness, and incomparable sincerity, and his
breast, as though it had been made of crystal, allowed
all his most secret thoughts to shine through ; so that
his Scotch servants, by whom he was surrounded,
treacherously published his most intimate intentions,
and made service to him impossible by giving his
foes the opportunity to traverse his designs.
" That he did not, at the outset, present a bold front
to Parliament contributed much to his misfortunes.
He suffered meetings and assemblies where, under
cloak of urgent reforms, the royal prerogative was
attacked, and the first seeds of revolution were sown.
"The Parliament, perceiving the. occasion favour-
able to its designs, grew in courage and audacity as
the king's council showed itself lacking in credit and
esteem. And, as frequently happens in civil con-
vulsions, the first movements of Parliament were
received with approval by those who love to fish
in troubled waters, and think to better their own
fortunes by the misfortunes of their country.
" Matters having come to an open rupture, and to
the arbitrament of arms, the earl of Essex was the
38o VENETIAN STUDIES.
first who took the field against the king. In the open-
ing encounter Essex was so thoroughly crushed and
defeated, that eight thousand Parliamentarians yielded
themselves prisoners to the king ; among them many
of his bitterest foes. But the king, always prone to
clemency, and neglecting the sound advice to make
a summary and deserved example of these men, let
them all go free upon their oath not to bear arms
against him again.
"Fairfax, successor of Essex who had been poisoned
by the Parliamentarians on suspicion of his personal
ambition, defeated the royal troops twice ; and,
after various reverses, the king resolved to place
himself in the hands of the Scotch, in the hope that,
as he was their countryman, they would espouse his
just cause. But the Scotch, who had already ruined
his Majesty by selling his secrets, now actually sold
the king himself to the Parliament for two hundred
thousand pounds sterling. His Majesty was closely
guarded by the Scotch in a certain castle ; and being
asked by them whether he preferred to stay where
he was or to be consigned to the English, he replied
that he would rather be in the hands of those who
had bought than of those who had sold him.
" When they had the king in their power the Par-
liamentarians deliberated long. The more moderate
were of opinion that, when abuses had been reformed
and pledges taken, the king should be restored to
authority. Others, and among them Cromwell, who
was then second in command and who enjoyed the
highest esteem, represented that affairs were already
reduced to extremities, admitting no adjustment and
CROMWELL AND THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. 381
no compromise ; that the hatred between the king
and Parliament was too deeply rooted, and mutual
injuries too far advanced, to allow of retreat ; that
the king restored would take revenge ; that those
who feared to smite a crowned head would find a
hundred of their own heads smitten in its place ; that
the safety of Parliament must be weighed against the
safety of the king ; and, in short, that, holding the
king a prisoner, they should proceed to condemn him
as a criminal. This opinion, which gave security to
guilty consciences, met with approval ; and Charles I.,
king of England, was condemned to be publicly
executed.
" The charges against him turned on his share in
the late disturbances ; on his subservience to vicious
and greedy favourites ; and on the sufferings of the
people during the civil war.
"The scaffold was raised level with a window of
the palace, and hung with black velvet. And be-
cause they were afraid that his Majesty might resist
the execution of the sentence, and refuse to lay his
neck on the block, two iron rings were fastened to
the foot of the scaffold, through which a cord was
passed to be placed round his Majesty's neck, and so
to compel him by force to extend his neck to the
axe should he refuse to bow to the fatal blow.
" But the king, warned in time, without coming
to these extremes, begged that no violence might
be used, as he would of his own accord yield to the
law of necessity and the rigour of force. He died
with constancy on the 30th of January, 1648,* amid
* More Veneto.
382 VENETIAN STUDIES.
universal silence and amazement ; for, owing to the
strong detachments of troops posted in various parts,
no one dared to show his sorrow except in his heart
of hearts. So he died ; an example without example
which struck pity not only among men, but also among
the very beasts. For an old lion, who still lives in
the Tower of London, showed his emotion by fierce
roars, not only on the day of the execution, but even
now, every year on the anniversary of the same, to
the wonder and observation of all people.
" London was the chief and the most obstinate
centre of the war. The people advanced from their
private purses untold treasures for the maintenance of
their army. The goldsmiths alone are still creditors
for eight hundred thousand crowns.
" Fairfax, who was at that time in supreme com-
mand, was unwilling to sign the death-warrant. He
gave a forced consent, however, when urged by
Cromwell, who brought him the order from Parlia-
ment. Fairfax also refused to advance against the
Scots, as that would have been a violation of treaty.
Parliament compelled him to resign his baton to
Cromwell, his lieutenant. Cromwell, though then only
second in titular command, was in every way supreme
in authority. For Fairfax was a practical soldier only,
whose sword was his sole resource ; while Cromwell
knew how to use his sword and his tongue equally
well, and to such purpose that, after unhorsing his
own general, he also unseated Parliament, though
that had been the chief cause of his aggrandizement.
They say that Cromwell, foreseeing that the supreme
power must one day fall into his hands owing to
CROMWELL AND THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. 383
the weakness of others and his own ability, insisted
that the execution of the king should follow an act of
Parliament — that is, a decree of the people — in order
that the breach between the people and the king's
descendants might become impassable. And to
render any return of the royal family all the more
difficult, the royal property, to the amount of
eight hundred thousand crowns of income, was sold,
along with the furnishings of the king's wardrobe,
which was put up to auction.
" And as upon the wreck of some fallen palace we
may see another and more magnificent edifice arise,
so upon the ruins of the royal house Cromwell piled
up the portentous splendour of his fortunes, until he
reached that culminating point where he now stands.
"And, because all subsequent events of moment
are either the result of his councils or the fruit of his
actions, my report will now deal with nothing but the
deeds of this man, who has become, through his for-
tune and his ability, the most famous figure of our
day.
" On the fall of the royal authority all government
and the entire control of public affairs passed into the
hands of Parliament. Although Cromwell had only
one vote, yet, as representative of the army, his
opinion was venerated and supported by the majority.
We must remember that Parliament was deliberative,
the army executive.
" Cromwell's success in Ireland, and his personal
courage there, rendered him all the more powerful.
The reduction of Scotland, accomplished with only
nine thousand men, added to his renown. Before
384 VENETIAN STUDIES.
going into battle, he encouraged his troops by telling
them that God had assured him of victory by a voice
which spoke to him in the midnight ; and such was
the confidence which his soldiers had in him, that
their attack was irresistible. The Scotch broke, and
there was not a man of the English army who did not
bring in a prisoner apiece.
" Civil war being thus ended, a foreign war with
Holland followed, on the question of the herring
fisheries.
" The navies of former days were far inferior in
tonnage and in guns to those of to-day, and so one
may say without exaggeration that the ocean never
saw more formidable armaments nor more bloody
battles between two nations braver or more ferocious.
As many as three hundred ships, English and Dutch,
took the sea, and with such a letting of blood that
many times the very waves have blushed for the shame
of such cruel slaughter.
"The Dutch have received a heavy blow. They
have spent more in two years' war with England than
in one hundred with Spain. Their disadvantages fall
under three heads.
" First, their merchant navy is out of all proportion
to their fleet. Secondly, they have no bronze cannon,
in which the English are well found. The English
range and weight being superior, they disable the
enemy before coming to close quarters.
" The third and most notable disadvantage is that
the English intelligences are so good, that at the
very outbreak of the war they were able to seize
Dutch shipping in various waters ; and in this way
CROMWELL AND THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. 385
one may say that the Dutch have indemnified
England for the expenses of the war.
" Parliament taxed the nation heavily for the main-
tenance of the fleet. This rendered it odious to the
people. Cromwell fomented the disgust. Questions
between the Parliament and the army began to arise.
The army refused to submit to reforms which would
weaken its power. Cromwell, foreseeing an attack
on himself, with masculine resolution, placed guards
at the strategical points of the city, and entering
Parliament, accompanied by a few officers, said, ' You
have too long sucked the purest blood from English
veins ; the nation is weary of suffering the ruinous
consequences of your misgovernment ; you have over-
played the prince, a rdle that does not belong to
you ; now, stripped of the royal mantle and kingly
authority, get you about your business ; the comedy
is over.'
" The members, in amazement, kept silence ; but
the Speaker demanded by what authority Cromwell
dared to sack Parliament. Then Cromwell, showing
his sword, replied that his authority lay there. He
drove the Speaker from his seat, removed the mace,
and the other members, in terror and confusion, went
their ways.
"This change of government took place without
any rising. Those who pitied the king rejoiced to
see the authors of his disasters humiliated. The
people applauded the vigour of Cromwell, whose
authority and esteem served to justify his acts.
" The Dutch war continued ; but after the fierce
battle in which Tromp was killed, peace was con-
2 c
386 VENETIAN STUDIES.
eluded upon terms most advantageous to England.
By this peace Cromwell became yet more respected
and feared. He summoned two other Parliaments,
but these proving restive under his orders were
presently dissolved. Cromwell was unwilling any
longer to submit his towering and dominating pros-
perity to public criticism. He accordingly established
the military government which now exists. He caused
himself to be proclaimed Protector of the three king-
doms, with the council, which he retained in order to
preserve the fiction of a republic, and to lessen the
odium which his despotic government creates. He
has declined the crown ; for, after overthrowing the
royal dignity, it would have been a too naked display
of hypocrisy to place the crown on his own head.
Cromwell cares nothing for a name. He is content
with his authority and power, beyond all comparison
greater, not only than that of any king who ever
reigned in England, but than that of any monarch
who wields a sceptre in the world just now.
" The fundamental laws of the nation are upset,
and Cromwell is the sole legislator. His laws are
dictated by his own judgments and his ownMesires.
All offices issue from his hands. The members of
the council must be nominated by him ; nor can they
rise to power except through him ; and, that no one
may become master of the army, he has left the office
of lieutenant-general vacant.
" As for his wealth, no king ever raised so much
from his subjects. England pays at present one
hundred and twenty thousand pounds sterling a
month in burdens ; besides this, the duty of five per
CROMWELL AND THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. 387
cent, on all merchandise sold or bought in a city of
such flourishing commerce as London amounts to
three million two hundred thousand crowns a year ;
add to this the dues on export and import for the
whole kingdom, and the confiscations of private
fortunes, such as the duke of Buckingham's, which
amount to an enormous sum — for the revenue of the
English nobility exceeds that of any other nobility.
The Catholics, on a payment of two-thirds of their
income, are permitted to continue in the exercise of
their creed. In spite of all this wealth the Protector
is not rich. His expenditure exceeds his income.
There are twelve millions a year for the armament ;
for Cromwell is obliged to support those who sup-
ported him. At the beginning of the civil war the
pay of the Parliamentary troops and sailors was in-
creased, in order to entice the king's forces away from
him. But the durability of a government founded on
force depends upon the troops ; it is therefore neces-
sary to pay the soldiers punctually to avoid revolt.
The army is well fed and clad, but rigorously disci-
plined. Neglect of duty is punished by the rod ; for
an ordinary oath, instant cashiering ; for excesses, im-
prisonment, and sometimes hanging. Promotion by
merit, not by seniority, causes complaints against
the government. These are reported to the Protector
by his numerous spies. He purifies the army by
sending mutinous troops to the Indies, or to the
extreme parts of the kingdom ; by these purgatives
he cures the disease, and prevents it from increasing
and infecting the principal members.
"It is a remarkable point among the maxims of his
388 VENETIAN STUDIES.
supersubtle policy, that, knowing he could not rely on
the aristocracy, he began to raise to the highest
commands in the army people of low degree, on
purpose that they, seeing their whole fortunes to
depend on him, might be bound to support his
pre-eminence. This policy, which has welded the
existence of the Protector and of the army in
indissoluble bands, leaves but faint hopes that the
king of Scotland will ever be able to untie and
dissolve a union based upon such reciprocal interests.
It is certain that the troops live with as much regu-
larity as a religious body. It was observed during the
late war that when the king's soldiers gained a victory
they abandoned themselves to wine and debauchery ;
those commanded by Cromwell were compelled, after
their greatest successes, to pray and fast.
" And here I must touch upon Cromwell's religion.
He makes no regular external professions, and so it
is impossible to know what rites he follows. In the
late civil war he professed himself Anabaptist. This
is a sect which abhors princedom and pretends to
hold off God alone. Cromwell, immediately on his
elevation to the command, not only separated from
the Anabaptists, or Independents, but disavowed and
persecuted them. Guided by interests of state he
changes his religion. He holds that it comports with
his policy that in London they profess two hundred
and forty-six religions, all united in alienation from
the pontiff, but among themselves very dissimilar and
antagonistic. The disunion of so many various sects
renders them all weak, and none can waken his
apprehension.
CROMWELL AND THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. 389
"If at this point I were to represent to your
Excellencies the dissonance and variation of these
sects, I should waste much time and merely stir your
pity and your smiles. Near my house there lives a
noble lord with six grown sons, all of different
religions ; they are always in disputes perpetual and
infinite, and sometimes come to blows, so that their
father's whole time is employed and embarrassed in
separating and pacifying them.
"Cromwell, in short, is master of the most beautiful
island in the world, of great circumference and width,
abounding in men, and so happy in its fertility that
in the most rigid winter season the animals always
find green pastures ; where, though the land produce
no wine, one drinks better than in viniferous countries ;
for the wine acquires strength and flavour on its
journey, and by its passage over sea.
"What the land produces not is nevertheless
abundant ; it is drawn thither by the copious and
flourishing commerce of London— a city which yields
not to Paris in population, in the wealth of its mer-
chants, in extent, and, above all, in its convenience to
the sea, which wafts in such abundance of shipping
that, on my arrival, I counted more than two thousand
sail upon the famous river Thames.
" And yet it is true that, after the change of govern-
ment, the glory and the grandeur of London have
altered much. For the most illustrious nobility which
gathered there and made it brilliant is now crushed
and mortified and scattered over the country. And
the delicacy of the court, the gayest and most
sumptuous in the world, is changed now to a perpetual
390 VENETIAN STUDIES.
march and countermarch of troops, an incessant
noise of drums and trumpets, and a long train of
officers and soldiers at their posts.
" The government knows that it possesses a king-
dom separated from the rest of the world — a kingdom
that fears not invasion, and needs no foreign support,
for it has abundant forces to protect itself and to
cause alarm in others with its fleet of choice ships
that hold the sea in obedience and give the law
wherever they pass.
" And foreign powers are held of so much the less
account that they have vied with one another in open
demonstrations of respect and esteem for the man
who now rules England.
" In short, I can assure your Serenity that England
fears no other power ; nay, she claims to waken fear
in them.
" And therefore they receive without returning
embassies, as do the Turks; nor do they seek alliances,
but expect to be sought.
" As regards your Serenity, I am bound to report
with frankness events as they occurred ; and I say
that the despatch of Pauluzzi without credentials was
taken ill. For this reason they refused him audience
for seven months, nor would they ever have granted
it had not credentials been given him in quality of
resident.
" Then the tardy despatch of an ambassador
extraordinary was taken in bad part ; for Venice
was the last of all the powers to send one.
" It was openly said that the Senate entertained an
aversion to this form of government, and stigmatized
CROMWELL AND THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. 391
it as illegitimate. It cost me some pains, before my
arrival, to remove this suspicion. I succeeded in
convincing his Highness that the despatch of an
embassy to him, when none had been sent to Parlia-
ment, was a sign of peculiar respect for his person
and rank. This argument made a breach in his
mind. He sent a man-of-war to France for me, and
I was received with all the distinctions and pre-
rogatives in use towards other ambassadors. When
the French and Spanish ambassadors left London
my chapel was crowded with Catholics. The ministers
objected, but Cromwell refused to interfere with my
liberty.
" I reached England at a moment unfortunate for
the object of my mission, when the West Indian
campaign was already resolved upon. It is true,
moreover, that the Levant Company — that is to say,
the wealthiest Turkey merchants — watched my nego-
tiations jealously. They insisted that, as the company
had four millions of capital in Turkish ports, the
slightest suspicion would suffice to induce the Turk to
confiscate it, as had lately happened in Spain,
" Having now succinctly reported the changes, the
forces, alliances, designs, and form of the English
government, I must return to certain particulars about
Cromwell, who has become so conspicuous and so
famous throughout the world.
** Certain it is that history will have to dwell at
length on all that I have compressed into this
compendium, and that Cromwell must be considered
as a favourite of Fortune's partiality. It is impossible
to deny that by his genius and activity he has
392 VENETIAN STUDIES.
contributed to his own glory. But although he is
rich in courage, wit, and natural prudence, all those
parts would have served him nothing had he lacked
the opportunity to become great. He made use of
his talents and he seized his opportunity.
" Born at Huntingdon of a father whose blood was
noble, but whose fortune was less than moderate,
Cromwell was first a cornet, then a captain in the
cavalry. Cambridge elected him as its member and
sent him to Parliament.
" He is a man of the sword as well as of the tongue,
and hence it is that he has climbed by such great
strides. He rose to be colonel, sergeant-general,
lieutenant-general, and finally general of the whole
army. Favoured by fortune in many a battle, he
proved himself a man of iron courage and fearless in
the sharpest and most dangerous encounters.
"When he was general, two thousand sailors
mutinied and betook themselves to his house, demand-
ing their pay. He heard the noise, and went down-
stairs with four officers who were dining with him.
He thrust himself into the crowd, sword in hand, killed
one and mortally wounded another, with such speed
and dexterity that the rest, terrified at this example
and overawed by their veneration for his person, fled
to their ships.
" Outwardly religious in the extreme, he preaches
with eloquence to the soldiers, exhorting them to live
according to the law of God ; and, to render his per-
suasions more efficacious, he often makes use of tears,
weeping more for the sins of others than for his own.
He is a man of a solid and massive judgment ; and
CROMWELL AND THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. 393
he knows the character of the English as a horseman
knows horses of his manage, and so with the smallest
sign of his whip he guides them whither he will.
"He is not severe except with those of the opposite
party ; courteous and civil with his own, and liberal
in rewards to those who have served him well.
" For the rest, in general he is more feared than
loved — mortally hated by the Royalists, who are no
small body, but who are powerless, being spoiled of
wealth and arms.
" His pleasure is to ride often in his coach to
Hampton Court, a country house of the late king.
He never shows himself in London because of the
accident which happened to him there when he
was going to the City to take the Protectorate. A
large stone was thrown from a window and fell on the
top of his carriage, breaking it in and passing close to
his head. In spite of every effort the author was never
discovered.
" He lives in perpetual suspicion. The smallest
gathering of men rouses his apprehension ; and there-
fore plays, horse-races, and all recreations which
might collect a crowd, are forbidden. At the public
audience which is open to all, I have seen, at various
doors, officers of the guard with drawn swords in
their hands.
" They say he never sleeps twice in the same room,
and often changes his bed for fear of some mine. Some
have even been discovered. It is true, however, that
the government often invents conspiracies to afford a
pretext against the Royalists, and therefore to increase
the army and the guards.
394 VENETIAN STUDIES.
" Cromwell is deeply mortified that he has no
children of spirit and intelligence. His two sons
lack the vigour of their father, and therefore he takes
no pains to make his greatness hereditary ; being
sure the edifice must fall when it has such weak
supports as these two sons of tardy and heavy
intellect.
" The first man in the army is Sergeant-General
Lambert. They say that in his heart he does not
love Cromwell, though outwardly he professes the
closest union with him. In any case, no one is more
able than Lambert to cause a change and form a
party.
" Whether the present government will last long is
a difficult question. It is likely, however, that after
the death of Cromwell we may see some change of
scene, in accordance with the universal law that
violence can never endure."
Giavarina, late secretary to the embassy, remained
in London as Venetian resident at the Protector's
court. His instructions were to urge, upon every
possible occasion, the advisability of assisting the
Venetians against the Turks. This he did, but with-
out success. On the death of Cromwell, Giavarina
conveyed the condolences of the Senate to his son
Richard. Giavarina was treated with all ceremonious
respect. Five court carriages, drawn by six horses
each, were sent to take him to Whitehall. Richard
Cromwell held out every prospect of being willing
to satisfy the Venetians' request. But Giavarina
warned his government not to place much reliance on
these promises, which he considered were made more
CROMWELL AND THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. 395
with a view to induce the republic to acknowledge
Cromwell by the despatch of a special envoy, than
with any idea of their actual fulfilment. Giavarina's
residence in London was not more pleasant than it
was profitable. He found himself in difficulties on
account of the asylum and shelter which he gave at
the residency to twenty Catholic priests, whom the
Spanish ambassador had left behind him when he was
recalled. Giavarina was still further embarrassed by
the superior place assigned to the legate of Branden-
burg at court ceremonies. He considered it his duty
to absent himself on this ground from the festivities
attending the confirmation of Richard Cromwell as
Protector. The Senate, however, disapproved his
conduct, and even proposed to recall him from his
post. Nor were these the only troubles which
Giavarina had to endure. The Senate paid him very
poorly and very irregularly ; the expenses of the
residency were heavy ; he found himself overwhelmed
with debt ; and, to put a crown to his misfortunes, on
the night of the i8th of October, 1657, the residency
was broken into by twelve thieves, who bound and
beat the resident, and, as he says himself, " robbed me
of everything, even my hat ; the public ciphers and
despatches alone escaping by a miracle."
But better days were in store for Giavarina. The
Protectorate fell, the Stuarts were restored, and the
Venetian resident had the honour to be the first
foreign representative to welcome Charles at Canter-
bur)' the day after his landing in England.
VENICE OF TO-DAY,
So much has been written, and is being written daily,
about Venice from the picturesque point of view, that
one is tempted to cry " Enough," to declare that the
subject is exhausted for the present. Such, however,
is not the case. For some reasons, which we will
presently try to indicate, the fascination which the
sea-girt city exercises over her devotees is inex-
haustible. The lover returns to the contemplation of
his mistress with ardour ever new ; he resumes the
endless task of cataloguing her charms, only to find
that having said all, he has not said half enough.
The truth' is that we must number Venice among the
" cities of the soul ; " she ranks with Oxford, Rome,
Siena, Prague ; she has the fatal gift to touch the
imagination, to awaken a permanent desire. Of course
I do not mean that every one feels thus about Venice.
I cannot forget, when the floods of 1882 had destroyed
the exits from the city, that row of discontented
Englishmen who lined the hall of one hotel, cursing
the place and glowering at the porter as though he
were responsible for the downpour on the Alps. For
these the language of the Venice-lover must seem as
the crackling of thorns under the pot, like sheer moon-
VENICE OF TO-DAY. 397
madness ; but they are always at liberty to keep away,
to read nothing that bears the name of Venice, not
so much as to have heard whether there be a Venice
or no.
Perhaps the aesthetic quahty which most empha-
tically belongs to the Venetian landscape, the quality
wherein resides the secret of her charm, is infinite
variety. As a proof of this assertion, I would adduce
the fact that no one is quite satisfied with what others
write or say about the city, is not satisfied with what
he says himself; something is said, but not all — part of
the truth, but not the whole truth. The aspects of
Venice are as various, as manifold as the hues held in
solution upon her waters beneath a scirocco sky.
There is a perpetual miracle of change ; one day is
not like another, one hour varies from the next ; there
is no stable outline, such as one finds among the
mountains, no permanent vista, as in a view across a
plain. The two great constituents of the Venetian
landscape, the sea and the sky, are precisely the two
features in nature which undergo most incessant
change. The cloud-wreaths of this evening's sunset
will never be repeated again ; the bold and buttressed
piles of those cloud-mountains will never be built
again just so for us ; the grain of orange and crimson
that stains the water before our prow, we cannot be
sure that we shall look upon its like again. The
revolution of the seasons will, no doubt, repeat certain
effects : spring will chill the waters to a cold, hard
green ; summer will spread its breadth of golden light
on palace front and water-way ; autumn will come
with its pearly grey scirocco days, and sunsets flaming
398 VENETIAN STUDIES.
with a myriad hues ; the stars of a cloudless winter
night, the whole vast dome of heaven, will be reflected
in the mirror of the still lagoon. But in spite of this
general order of the seasons, one day is less like
another day in Venice than anywhere else ; the lagoon
wears a different aspect each morning when you rise,
the sky offers a varied composition of cloud each
evening as the sun sets. Words cannot describe
Venice, nor brush portray her ever-fleeting, ever-
varying charm. At most they can give one mood
that Venice creates, one aspect of the light and colour
upon her palace walls and water streets. Venice is
to be felt, not reproduced ; to live there is to live a
poem, to be daily surfeited with a wealth of beauty
enough to madden an artist with despair at its un-
graspability ; and hence it may be that Venice has
had so few adequate portrayers among the thousands
who have essayed the task, and not a single poet,
if we except Shelley, who better than any one else
has, incidentally in " Julian and Maddolo," caught and
expressed the general spirit of the lagoon landscape ;
and Mr. Pinkerton, who has seized another of the
more prominent qualities of that landscape, the all-
pervading, sad, caressing grey, characteristic of the
lagoons in scirocco weather, and has translated this
quality into its corresponding mood of mind with a
touch at once so true and delicate, that I know not
where to look for a more faithful portrayal of this
emotion.
It is remarkable that the most frequent efforts to
express the feeling of Venice in words, should have
been cast in prose and not in verse, and should be the
VENICE OF TO-DAY. 399
work of foreigners, not of Venetians. George Sand,
Ruskin, Thdophile Gautier, all strangers over whom
has been thrown the spell of the siren, who, leaving
her, have borne away with them an incurable wound,
for which the only solace has been to dwell again in
memory with the features of the beloved, and to
reproduce her lineaments on the mirror of the mind.
The Venetians love their Venice, but they do not write
about her; they live with her, and that is enough.
With painters, on the other hand, the case is different ;
though here again we feel that the artists have given
us a part of Venice, not the whole, a quality of light
or of colour, one aspect of her infinitely various beauty.
Although the great Venetian masters are chiefly con-
cerned with the external life of their city, her pomp
and circumstance, incidentally we find them influenced
to the very depths of their art by the aesthetic qualities
of their native place. The dome-like spaces which
Bellini leaves above his throned Madonnas' heads,
recall the infinite sweep of the vast Venetian sky ;
nowhere in painting do we feel, as we feel in Tintoret,
that shimmer of light, that blending of tones which
belong to the waters of the lagoon ; nowhere are the
flaming glories of the sunset sky more vividly repro-
duced than in the triumphant splendours of Titian's
canvases. Turner perceived the diffusion and blend-
ing of light and colour which we note as a principal
feature in the Venetian landscape, and strove to repro-
duce it in the radiant morning light of " Returning
from the Ball," and in the marvellous blending of colour
in sky, sail, and sea, in " The Sun of Venice." Turner
came near to grasping the spirit of Venetian land-
400 VENETIAN STUDIES.
scape; but even he found that there were more tones
in heaven and sea than dwelt upon his palette.
In writing about the charm of Venice, it is difficult
for those who feel it to avoid becoming dithyrambic.
Venice admits no Laodiceans ; hot or cold you must
be. The spell begins the moment the traveller leaves
the dust and roar of the railway station, and finds
himself suddenly, and without warning, on the borders
of the Grand Canal. No one who has once felt the
thrill of delight that revelation brings is likely to
■forget it. And day by day the spell is deepened as
the stranger grows familiar with the city's winding
ways, and with the waters upon which she floats.
Hitherto we have asked what is the chief character-
istic in this landscape which acts so swiftly and so
potently, and we have found that, in its widest terms,
the dominant external, aesthetic quality of the lagoons
is vastness and variety ; the vast dome of heaven
above, the vast expanse of water below, the infinite
variety of light and colour in both.
But this wide external setting of sea and sky is
not the only ingredient in the Circe-cup. There is
the city itself and her people. And, coming a little
closer, we may dwell for a while on the singularity
of Venice's geographical position, and the uniqueness
of her history and life. An old Venetian Avriter has
styled one of his books, "Venezia, Citta Nobilissima
Singolare;" and singular, indeed, is the position of this
city, lying spread out like a lotus, her palaces and
campanili thrown up from the long level of the water,
a boss upon the silver shield of the lagoon. Perhaps
no piece of water in the world is more remarkable
VENICE OF TO-DAY. 401
than this hundred and eighty-four square miles of
Venetian lagoon, shut off from the sea by the narrow-
breakwater of sandy islands, called the Lidi. Whether
the lagoons were formed by a subsidence of the
land and an inroad of the sea, leaving the Lidi as
high points unsubmerged ; or whether the Lidi were
originally bars built by the rivers Brenta, Sile, and
Piave, across their mouths, eventually causing those
streams to flood their deltas, is an open question.
But whatever may be the history of their formation,
the lagoons are an essential feature in the landscape
and the life of Venice. They gave protection to her
first founders, when flying from the ruin wrought by
the Huns upon the mainland ; and to-day the health
and safety of the city still depend upon the regular
ebb and flow of their waters. The rivers which
helped to make the lagoon have long been banished
from their ancient courses, and now discharge their
streams direct into the sea. All the varied movement
of this water-system depends upon the Adriatic for its
life and being. The lagoon is not a lake, still less is
it a swamp, nor is it like the open sea. The internal
economy of the lagoons is a piece of most singular
natural engineering, for the circumference of these
hundred and eighty-four square miles, which at high
tide seems to inclose one unbroken stretch of water,
really contains four distinct water-systems, with
separate watersheds, main arteries, and confluent
streams by which the sea, twice a day, as from a
great heart, comes pulsing in through the four breaks
in the Lido barrier, performing its task of cleansing
and purifying the lagoon, and bearing away with it,
2 D
402 VENETIAN STUDIES.
on its outgoing, all the refuse of the city. At low-
tide these channels and arteries are quite distinctly
marked, as they wind between the oozy banks of mud,
which in spring are green with long trails of sea-grass,
and in autumn are brown and bare, taking the reflec-
tion of colour from the sky. But at high tide the
whole surface is flooded, and there lies Venice with
her adjacent islets — San Servolo, San Clemente,
Poveglia — set like gems upon a silver targe. On the
mainland shore of the lagoon there is a strange
debatable territory called the Laguna Morta, where
the sea and land are in doubt, blending with one
another, and producing a region that is neither sea
nor land. This dead lagoon is the home of wild fowl,
and of pungent, salt sea-plants, tamarisk and samphire,
and above all, in autumn, wide fields of pale sea-
lavender. Beyond the Laguna Morta the ground
consolidates, and the Venetian plain, studded with
villas, poplars, vineyards, and mulberry-groves trends
up to the foot of the barrier Alps. The lagoon, the
Alps, and Venice, floating upon the one and guarded
and circled by the other, are the noblest features
in the landscape. From the water you can see the
whole vast sweep of mountain chain, beginning far
in the east with the snowy hills of Carnia, curving
round the broad Fruili plain, and springing to
exquisite proportions and jewelled shape in Monte
Cavallo, Antelao, and Tofana, finally dying away in
filmy pale-blue crests beyond Verona and the Lago
di Garda, and under the battlemented snows of
Adamello. Here again we enjoy a sense of vastness
and of space. These long and immovable Hnes of
VENICE OF TO-DAY. 4C3
serrated peaks, touched, even in summer, now and
again with snow, and in winter white and cold and
clear to their very roots — peaks with beloved names
that invite the climbing spirit, are all yours to gaze at
and to dream about, lazily rocked in your gondola on
the bosom of the still lagoon.
Such is the general external aspect of Venice. The
history of the city is no less singular. When those
first refugees from the mainland sought an asylum on
the shoal mud-banks, drove their first piles, and built
their wattled walls, they little thought that they were
founding a community whose history would flow in
unbroken current for more than a thousand years,
that their descendants would be the richest lords in
Europe, that their navies would ride supreme in c It
known waters, and pour the wealth and opulence of
the East through Venice upon the Western world.
In the isolation of their lagoons the Venetians
acquired freedom and learned self-government. The
obscurity of their position permitted them to grow
undisturbed. The first seed, blown by the gust of
invasion from the mainland to the mud islands, had
time to mature in quiet, to strike deep roots into the
soil, and to spring into a lofty and beautiful tree. The
chief feature in the early history of Venice is that she
belonged neither to the East nor to the West ;
neither to the empire of Constantinople, nor to the
kingdoms which sprang up on the ruins of Rome.
She lay between the two, a nest of hardy islanders,
determined and ready to assert her independence. If|
the Lombards claimed her, she appealed to Constan-^
tinople ; if the emperor wished to interfere, she flung
404 VENETIAN STUDIES.
herself on the Western side. She drew from East and
West alike that nourishment which went to make her
what she really was — a nation by herself, a peculiar
people, Venetians of Venice. The history of this
singular growth falls broadly into four great periods :
these we may distinguish as the period of consolida-
tion, the period of empire, the period of entanglement,
and the period of decline.
When the early settlers, flying before the Hunnish
terror, first took to the lagoons, they fell upon thevarious
islands of the Archipelago and upon the long ridges
of sand that guard the lagoon from the sea ; and each
little group of immigrants began a separate life for
itself, retaining as far as possible the customs, religion,
and constitution of their ruined home on the main-
land. The Lidi, as being furthest removed from the
danger of invasion, were the favourite asylum ; the
largest townships sprang up there — Heraclea, Jesolo,
and Malamocco. These townships gradually drew
together into a federation of twelve communes, each
governed by its own tribune, and meeting in general
assembly for the settlement of business which affected
the general interest of the lagoons. Jealousy and
internecine feuds soon appeared, as one or other of
these townships came to the front, and endeavoured
to impose its will upon its neighbours. Now it was
Heraclea which claimed to lead, and destroyed its
neighbour and rival Jesolo, and was in its turn
attacked and razed to the ground by Malamocco.
It is possible that had this period of internal rivalry
continued for long, the lagoon communities might
have frittered away their strength in private quarrels,
VENICE OF TO-DAY. 405
and the state of Venice might never have emerged
at all. But external pressure came in time to save
the confederation and to compel the lagoon town-
ships to consolidate. The perils of the mainland
sowed the first seeds of Venice ; the peril of the sea
was to form and complete her. Pipin's attack taught
the Venetians for the first time how impregnable was
their sea-girt home ; and they never forgot the lesson.
For long months the Prankish chivalry was held at
bay, defied by the impenetrable network of small
canals and oozy mud-banks, through which no
passage could be found. Finally the assault was
shaken off, and Pipin retired to Milan. At this
moment of their great victory a fusion between the
Venetians and their home took place ; henceforth
each belongs essentially to the other. It is to this
triumph over Pipin that the Venetians looked back
as to their birth-hour : the story of the victory is
haloed in romance, and cherished as the sacredest
record in all Venetian history. The Hunnish invasion
proved the dangers of the mainland ; Pipin's attack
demonstrated the peril of the sea. The Venetians
now effected a compromise, and chose as the future
home of their state that group of islands, midway
between the sea and the land, then known as Rialto,
but henceforth to bear the proud name of Venice.
The consolidation at Rialto closes the first period
of Venetian history ; the period of deepest interest
for us. Modern Venice, with all her pride of palaces,
wealth of art, variety and picturesqueness of life, dates
from the repulse of the Franks. The people of Venice
in this struggle attained to manhood ; they learned
4o6 VENETIAN- STUDIES.
their power ; their union gave them force. They began
to create their constitution, that singular monument
of rigidity and durability, which persisted, with hardly
a break in its structure, for the next ten centuries.
The aristocracy of Venice emerges ; her empire ex-
tends, following the lines of her commerce in the
East ; St. Mark is substituted for St. Theodore as
patron ; the Crusades are used as a means to conquer
Dalmatia and to plant the lion in the Greek Archi-
pelago. Venice clashes with her rival Genoa, and
struggles for this Eastern Empire ; from the shock
she emerges victorious. Into her state coffers and
her private banks poured all that wealth which was
presently to issue in the pomp of art, the pageantry
of existence, her palace fronts along the Grand
Canal, her learned academies, her printing press, her
schools of painting, her regal receptions, the splendour
of her state functions, the sumptuousness of private
life ; all, in short, that made her what she was — the
dazzling pleasure-garden of Europe, the envied of
other states, although she had already overpassed
her apogee. For her greatness and her pride were
leading her towards her doom. Not content with
her commercial empire in the East, Venice could not
resist the temptation to put out her hand and to
seize the wrecks of the Visconti's dukedom ; to build
herself an empire on the land. She was caught and
entangled in the mesh of Italian intrigue ; she became
a factor in continental politics, and was brought face to
face with the great powers of Europe. Her progress
upon the mainland aroused jealousy ; the other states
of Italy became uneasy for their own safety. Rome
VENICE OF TO-DAY. ^o^
seized the opportunity to form the League of Cambray,
whose object was to annihilate the republic. The
league failed of its object ; but the wars it entailed
left Venice crippled, and other disasters poured upon
her head. Her commerce in the East received an
irreparable blow by the discovery of the Cape of
Good Hope, which took the carrying trade out of her
hands. She ceased to be the mart of Europe.* She
was left to battle alone against the Turk ; slowly
expending blood and money, vainly appealing to in-
different Europe. Under this weight of misfortunes
her strength was broken ; she declined, and sank.
The rigidity of her constitution held her still together ;
there were flashes of her old brilliancy and power in
Morosini's conquest of the Peloponnese. But her
day was past, and Venice gradually wasted away
till she was but a wreck and hollow show of her
former glory ; the last of her doges yields the state
to Napoleon without a blow, and, laying the ducal
biretta on the table, calls to his servant, " Take it
away, I shall not use it more."
But, though the republic fell, Venice still remains ;
Venice, the place and the people. There are two ways
of seeing Venice intimately, of obtaining a closer view
of both as they are to-day : one is by sea, with help
of a gondola ; the other is by land, wandering through
that curious maze of narrow streets in which it is a
delight to lose one's self. No conveyance can be
more delightful, more easy, more romantic than the
gondola : it is the most beautiful boat in the world,
• It is not impossible that the Suez Canal may restore to
Venice her lost position.
4o8 VENETIAN STUDIES.
and the most luxurious carriage ; and, like all things
connected with Venice, is essentially a child of the
place ; its form is adapted to the needs of the strange
city that created it ; the lines of its structure are
governed by the purpose it has to serve, the passage
of the narrow Venetian water-ways. The visitor who
is interested in his carriage cannot do better than pay
a visit to the squero, or building-yard, where his
gondola was made. His gondolier will be proud to
take him. The squeri are picturesque though pitchy
places. The long lines of boats drawn up to be cleaned
or mended lie like a row of stranded whales. At one
corner the pitch-pot stands always ready boiling, send-
ing its thick black smoke into the air ; and the boys
rush round the caldron, grimy as imps, each with a
smearing brush brandished in his hands. Or, perhaps,
the bottom of some boat has to be dried thoroughly
and in haste, before receiving its coating of melted
tallow. This is done by kindling a brisk blaze of
reeds under the boat ; the flames leap high into the
air ; volumes of pale smoke roll up over the housetops,
and are swept away seaward by the breeze; the boys
dance about in front of the flames, like demons
officiating at some sacrifice ; there is much shouting
and noise; the whole scene is strange and picturesque.
The art of gondola-building is one which requires
great nicety and exactness. Three qualities are
especially demanded of the boat : that it should draw
little water, that it should turn easily, and that it
should be rowable by one oarsman. To secure these
conditions the hull is built of light thin boards ; only
a very small portion of its flat bottom, thirty-six feet
VENICE OF TO-DAY. 409
in length, rests upon the water, and the boat swings
as on a pivot; and, finally, the boat is not equally-
divided by a line drawn from stern-post to bow —
there is more bottom on one side than on the other,
in order to counterbalance the weight of the rower
behind. The ornaments of the gondola, the familiar
steel prow or ferro, the sea-horses or dolphins, the
rude carving of some scene from Tasso, all that makes
the vessel the picturesque object we know, are
furnished elsewhere than at the squero. Should any
one be curious about the natural history of these
ornaments, and their gradual development through
the centuries, he cannot do better than consult the
pictures in the Academy by Gentile Bellini and Car-
paccio, and the later works of Guardi and Canaletto.
In the former he will see the Venetian noblemen in
their gondolas, with the bright covering of Eastern
rugs for a tenda ; the ferro not shaped as now,
with its hatchet-head and six teeth, but merely a
round club of metal ; the tall rower, graceful then as
ever, in his party-coloured hose and slashed doublet.
In the pictures of Guardi and Canaletto the gondola
has undergone a great change ; it is the modern
gondola that we see : the boat has lost its brilliant
colouring, but, as a compensation, it has certainly
gained in grace.
The gondola is so intimately connected with life
in the sea-city, that, of the pictures and impressions
which one carries away, stored in the portfolio of the
mind, a very large number must be associated with
one's boat. And what can be more delightful than
to start some morning early to spend a day upon the
410 VENETIAN STUDIES.
lagoon ? Venice is never more lovely than on a clear
summer morning ; the air is sweet, the light falls on
palace fronts in broad white flakes, the breeze blows
fresh from the Lido, whither we are bound. As we row
past the green point of the public gardens the fishing-
boats are coming in from their night's toil, laden with
fish for the Rialto market; some are not yet come
to anchor, and cross and recross one another as they
tack, threading the figures of their sea sarabmtde ;
others lie, bow by painted bow, their nets hauled
mast-high to be mended and dried in the sun, and
their great coloured sails close together, and folded
like the wings of a butterfly just alighted on a flower.
The sails of Venice are a constant object of beauty
in the landscape ; their deep oranges and reds, their
fantastic designs — here a heart pierced by a sword,
there a rose in bloom, or a star with a flash of
lightning breaking from it — contrast so vividly with
the cool grey of the waters upon which they float.
On the Lido itself, when one has reached the Adriatic
side, one may wander for miles in either direction
along the shore, where the lizards bask in the hot
sand, where the pale sea-holly, with its delicate purple'
bloom, grows to perfection, mingled with the faint
yellow of the evening primrose. The Adriatic, the
great water avenue to Venice, opens away to south-
east, while on the furthest horizon you can just discern
the faint blue line of hills above Trieste, and the top
of Monte Maggiore that overhangs Fiume and the
Quarnero Gulf A little way along the shore, and
out of reach of those crowds that flock to the bath-
ing establishment, is an unfinished wooden chalet ;
VENICE OF TO-DAY. 411
standing in grounds partially enclosed, and planted
with euonymus, a shrub that grows luxuriantly in
Venice. The house was begun for Victor Emanuel,
but never completed ; and from its upper windows
you command a glorious view of Venice, backed by
her chain of guardian Alps. The city lies like a
flower upon the water ; the rosy front of the ducal
palace, the slender campanili of San Giorgio and
San Francesco, set on either side of St. Mark's
more massive tower ; on the one hand the bright
green woods of the public garden, and far away on the
other the cones of the Euganean Hills, that rise like
islands above the misty levels of the plain : over all,
the vault of the vast Venetian sky, cut by the serrated
line of silent and eternal snow. It is pleasant, as the
day grows hotter, to leave the glare of the more open
shore of Sant' Elizabetta, and to seek the woods of
the Favorita, where the acacia groves and catalpas
yield some shade, where the whole ground is carpeted
with the white and gemlike star of Bethlehem ; or,
better still, to wander down the English-looking lane
and water-meadows that lead to the fort of San
Nicolo, where the gondola can be sent to meet us.
Inside the fort the grass is greener and the boskage
more profound than anywhere else within easy reach
of Venice. In late spring the perfume from the pure
acacia blooms is borne far out across the water, and
in the grass sweet violets grow in abundance.
Behind the acacia grove is a Protestant burial-ground,
now disused, where lie the bones of many an English-
man who came to Venice for pleasure, and remained
to die : here is the tomb of Sir Francis Vincent, last
412 VENETIAN STUDIES.
English ambassador to the republic ; and here, too,
that distinguished Anglo- Venetian, Mr. Rawdon
Brown, prepared himself a grave, and daily came to
tend the shrubs and flowers at whose feet he hoped
to sleep. The Austrians granted Mr. Brown this
exceptional privilege ; but the present masters of
Venice refused to carry it into effect, and nothing
now remains except the thick and rankly growing
hedge which surrounds the empty grave. There is
no more beautiful promenade in Venice than that
around the ramparts of the San Nicolo ; past the
little red osteria^ the Buon Pesce, where the black-
birds sing in the ivy-mantled walls of the old convent
garden, out by the Custom House, and on to the
ramparts themselves. In summer the broad earth-
works are spread with a carpet of more than Persian
brilliancy ; crimson poppies, purple salvias, and vivid
green grass. Round the corner of the fort the current
sweeps in or out of the Lido mouth, the ancient water
entrance to the city, and marks the water surface in
swirls and varying tones of silver grey. Far to the
east, in the offing, the sunlight falls upon the congre-
gated sails of the fishing-boats plying their business
by the Piave's mouth, where fish are most abundant.
Everywhere there is a sense of space in sky and
sea, and the pungent odour of sea-brine upon the air.
In the evening we may return by the island con-
vent of San Lazzaro, where the Armenian monks
spend their placid lives in study and the culture of
their garden lands here and on the Lido. The island
is a veritable gem of colour set upon the lagoon ; for
the monks have painted their convent a deep crimson,
VENICE OF TO-DAY. 413
and all day long San Lazzaro glows upon the water like
an oleander bloom blown from one of its own garden
bowers. Ungrudging access is granted to this garden
and cloister rich in flowers. The terraced walk looks
towards Venice, and is planted with alternate cypress
and oleander trees. Between these exquisite settings
are framed vignettes of the city ; San Giorgio and
San Marco, San Giovanni and San Francesco ; and
the green point of the public gardens. This terrace
is a place on which to bask and dream the evening
through ; watching the crabs sunning themselves and
fighting on the sloping wall-foundations, or noting the
ripples stirred by some fish upon the shoal lagoons ;
watching, too, the sunset flame itself to death behind
the Euganean Hills, while the heavens slowly change
from gold to orange, to crimson, to purple, to pale
transparent azure, till night comes silently over the
Eastern waters, veiling the brilliant hues of day ; the
first stars begin to tremble in the blue ; it is time to
seek the gondola and to row home towards the long
line of piazza lights that make a broad inviting path
for us across the lagoon.
The lagoon offers many expeditions more distant
than the one to which we have just referred. Torcello,
with its ancient Basilica and mosaics, its Greek church
of Santa Fosca, its old traditions of early lagoon his-
tory, and its present desolation, will always prove a
favourite. The way to Torcello takes us through six
miles of lagoon scenery. After leaving Venice behind
us, our prow is set towards the easternmost corner of
the lagoon, that desolate unexplored tract of marsh-
land, formerly known as the " Dogado," where the
414 VENETIAN STUDIES.
doge had his preserves of fishing and shooting, and
whence came the wild-duck, which by custom he was
obliged to present to every noble on St. Barbara's
Day. Torcello lies between Venice and the Dogado ;
and to reach it we have to pass Murano, with its
glass furnaces sending their long black streamers of
smoke into the air. Presently we reach Mazzorbo,
once the greater city, the major urbs^ now composed
of a few scattered houses, a wine-shop, and a church,
whose campanile is riddled with Austrian shot. The
Alps go with us all the way to Mazzorbo, march-
ing along, pace for pace ; but at the entrance to the
village we forsake the open lagoon, and pass into
a narrow canal that winds between high garden
walls, over whose coping hangs a mantle of ivy,
with here and there a burning spot of pomegranate
flower. Spring and autumn are equally delightful
at Torcello. In spring the orchards and the hedges
of thorn are in full bloom ; the delicate sprays of
pink or white are thrown up in relief against the
blue sky. In autumn all the water-meadows are a
shimmer of purple-red, from the feathery plumes of
the sea-lavender that gives to the waste spaces the
colour and feeling of a Scotch moor. The island of
Torcello is a desolate place, with a world's-end atmo-
sphere about it Once it was populous, but now
marshes and malaria render it almost uninhabitable.
There is a little museum of antiquities that have been
found on the spot. But the custode of the museum,
one of the few natives of Torcello, is more interesting
than any of the antiquities which he guards. He is
a robust -and healthy young fellow, but with a manner
VENICE OF TO-DAY, 415
SO mellow, so dreamy, so far away, such a sense of
ancient half-remembered things in his blue eyes, that
it seems as though the very spirit of Torcello had
passed into his soul. He will take you round the
museum, laying a light hand here on a torso, there on
a Roman tomb. " A cippus!' he will say, in gentle,
lingering tones, " a Roman cipptis ; " and then, as you
pass on, he adds lower, as though quite to himself, and
caressing some secret all his own, " a Roman cippus"
The campanile of Torcello is, as usual in Venice, a
solid, square brick tower, rising to a great height, and
the view from it, when you have climbed the rickety
wooden ladders that led to the bell-chamber, is most
striking. To the east the broken land — half sea, half
land — begins ; and the whole country is cut by wide
ditches which intersect one another. These are the
" Valli," where fish are bred for the Venice market ;
and a very valuable property the "Valli" are. To
the south is the Adriatic, and the long line of Lidi
breakwaters, curving away to Chioggia ; Venice and
the Euganean Hills to the west ; and north, the ever-
present Alps, visible from Torcello as hardly from
anywhere else, for there is absolutely nothing to
interrupt the view ; the plain runs right up to their
roots, and the eye may wander on and on till it finds
the eternal snows of Tofana, Antelao, or Pelmo. The
sea and sky, Venice and the mountains, these are the
four chords on which the music of the Venetian land-
scape is played.
A sail home from Torcello in the evening is a
delightful experience ; and some of the gondoliers are
skilful at handling their boats, without keel or rudder.
4i6 VENETIAN STUDIES.
steering them with an oar behind, like the Vikings of
old. If it be summer or autumn, a storm, sudden and
furious, is not at all improbable, and will make no
bad close to such a day. The great masses of cloud
gather in the east, and sail slowly and stately towards
us, surely gaining upon us. The van of the storm-
clouds is curved into an arc by the pressure of the
wind behind, though here upon the water there is
only breeze enough to fill the sail. Steadily the
billowy battalions advance until, as we are off Murano,
the colour of the water begins to change to a pale
pea-green, no longer transparent, but thick as jade.
There is a feeling of oppression in the air, a brooding
stillness, then suddenly the wind drops ; not a breath,
not a hush for five minutes, while the storm-clouds
overtake us. Then, far away behind Murano, one
catches a low humming, like the noise of a threshing-
machine ; it is the wind in the city — you must
down sail and make for the nearest post. The
hurricane leaps out from the city, striking the water,
tearing it into foam, and flinging the spray high into
the air. There is fury and confusion in the sky. The
thundery masses are rent and riven ; through the gaps
of dun-coloured vapour you catch the steely blue of
storm-clouds, boiling as in a caldron ; and beyond
them even again, pure blue sky and sunlight. A rain-
bow rises high in the air, relieved against the turbulent
heavens, and spans the lagoon. Then the whole
tornado sweeps away south-westward. The sunset
reasserts itself, and dashes the sky with streamers of
crimson and orange; then darkness, with lightning
and storm slowly dying away into the west, leaving
VENICE OF TO-DAY. 4x7
the heavens serene and the night breeze fresh and
cool. These summer storms are sudden and almost
tropical in their fury, but they are quickly spent ; and,
like tropical cyclones, their path is a narrow one, con-
fined to one line on the lagoon, but where they strike
they have been known to unroof houses.
Besides these better known expeditions to the
Lido, Torcello, and San Lazzaro, there are many
others quite as worthy the attention of any one who
has time and to spare in Venice. A little to the right
of the canal that leads to Torcello, lies the island of
San Francesco in Deserto. In a desert of water and
mudbanks. Saint Francis's island certainly stands.
It is easily distinguished and always remembered by
its solitary stone pine, which spreads its umbrella of
sunproof boughs over one angle of the convent garth.
For San Francesco is still a convent of the Franciscan
order, and the brothers show the stone coffin in which
their founder used to acclimatize himself to death.
But the large square of rich deep grass which the
island walls inclose is by far the most enticing feature
of San Francesco. A noble avenue of cypresses, the
finest to be found near Venice, runs down one side ;
and in spring the air is heavy with the perfume of the
narcissus, which grows here luxuriantly. Some way
off to the south li^s Treporti, on the outermost bank
of sand that keeps the Adriatic from invading the
lagoon. At Treporti the scenery is very different
from that of the other places we have visited : long
sweeps of sandy dune, covered with coarse bent grass
and heather, and broken into pools of brackish water
that reflect the sky like a mirror. The ground is all
2 E
4i8 VENETIAN STUDIES.
uncultivated ; the air is filled with pungent aromatic
odours born of the sea and the wild sea-loving plants.
On the shores, which seem to stretch inimitably on
either hand, the sand is fine and soft and yellow ; there
is no choicer place for a bathe ; the sea is wide open
before you, warm, limpid, pure, and inviting ; and as
you swim far out, the domes and campanili of Venice
rise up in low relief upon the water-level, and the
sound of her bells comes mellowed and blended across
the blue expanse.
Or if the western lagoon is to be explored, no ex-
pedition is more favourable for this purpose than the
one to Fusina. Through Fusina once lay the main
road between Venice and Padua ; but the Austrian
railway bridge has, until lately, diverted the current
of traffic from Fusina to Mestre, and any one making
the journey to Fusina was almost sure to have the
lagoon to himself, or, at most, to share it with some
sparse and scattered fishermen. Within the last year,
however, a tramway has been opened between Fusina
and Padua, and a small steamboat plies from Venice
to meet the trains ; but this will not seriously break
the loneliness of the voyage, nor rob of its inalienable
charm that great sweep of lagoon that opens away
from the mouth of the Giudecca, and stretches on and
on to the lagoon's end at Chioggia and Brondolo. It
is well to choose a grey day for this expedition — one
of those pearly silver-grey days, so subdued, so delicate
in suggested colour, that come every now and then in
autumn. As the gondola leaves the Giudecca canal
and makes for the island of Saint George-among-the-
Seaweeds, the surface of the lagoon has an oily ap-
VENICE OF TO-DAY. 419
pearance, and is almost pallid in its grey whiteness.
In the offing you can see the few trees which stand in
a group near the port of Malamocco, and the spars of
some big shipping ; nearer still the fort of Sant'
Angelo and the island of Saint George itself. Every-
thing is mellowed by an all-pervading semi-transparent
haze, which, on the horizon, confounds the limits of
the sea and sky. Upon the surface of this silver-grey
mirror rise the black silhouettes of the fishermen ;
each solitary figure upright and poised upon the stem
of his narrow boat. The gondola passes under the
red brick wall of San Giorgio, where the Madonna
stands guardian at the corner, and the saint in stone
charges and slays the dragon. The island was once a
convent belonging to the Benedictine order, and the
home of the Venetian Saint Lorenzo Guistiniani ; but
now the church has lost its campanile, and the church
itself, refectory, and cloisters are converted to the base
uses of a powder magazine. At Fusina the Brenta
used to flow into the lagoon, and a considerable
portion of its waters still discharge here — sufficient to
allow the gondola to proceed up this branch till it
joins the present main stream. This is worth doing ;
for in spring the Brenta is rich in water-lilies, yellow
ranunculus, and flags. From the banks of the Brenta
one looks westward across a curious flat country —
so low-lying that one hardly perceives any difference
between its level and that of the lagoon — until the
eye reaches the Euganean Hills, thirty miles away,
whose cones and pyramids form such a beautiful
episode in every Venetian sunset.
The expeditions to be made upon the lagoon are
420 VENETIAN STUDIES.
SO numerous and so various that it is impossible to
catalogue them here, nor is it our intention to offer
such a catalogue. Our object was to show how
great is the variety in the Venetian landscape, in
Venice as seen from outside. But it must not be
supposed that the lagoons are always steeped in sun-
light. They have their moods : now black beneath a
sudden storm ; now cold and hard as steel under the
piercing east wind — the bora that reaches Venice
from the hills above Trieste ; and sometimes in winter
wrapped in an impenetrable blanket of damp mist, so
thick and heavy that one may easily lose one's course
between the Lido and Venice ; and the steamers,
slowly feeling their way in or out, loom for an ins^nt
and then disappear, swallowed up in that dense wall
of vapour, and the; sound of their fog-horns dies away
down the wind. All the shipping looks ghostly, tall,
and gaunt as one passes it, and the whole scene is like
the sea-traffic in a world of dead men.
Nor is the variety less remarkable or less enchant-
ing if we forsake the gondola and take to the land.
Nothing can be more full of charm than a walk through
Venice ; the infinite variety and windings of the calli^
the sudden debouchment upon some open campiello^
the perpetual changes of scene. There is usually some
surprise in store for any one who takes a walk through
the city ; either some piece of architecture, some
balcony or doorway that has escaped notice, or some
vivid picture of popular life.
The beauty of the city itself is, of course, more
subject to destruction than the beauty of the lagoon.
It seems impossible that "progress" should ever be
VENICE OF TO-DAY. 42c
able really to ruin the vast dome of the sky and the
wide expanse of sea-floor ; but inside the town, resto-
ration, new streets, iron bridges have entailed a decided
loss in picturesqueness. Yet even on this point
Venice is more fortunate than many other Italian
towns. It is not long before salt winds and sun begin
their labour upon the newest stone, and insensibly
man's handiwork suffers a sea-change that gradually
brings the most glaring restorations into harmony
with their surroundings. There are two moments
particularly favourable for an artist to take his walks
in Venice. One is after a rain shower, when the old
intonaco upon the walls has every tone brought out,
and is vivid with colour ranging from grey through
pale sea-green to red — the old Venetian red with which
so many houses used to be stained. The other choice
moment for a walk is in the early morning before the
business of the day has begun. The sunlight falls in
such broad cool flakes upon the Istrian stone, the
islands San Clemente and San Servolo look exqui-
sitely pure and white upon the water, San Giorgio
Maggiore springs up like a goddess new risen from
her bath. As one wanders about the deserted calliy
the birds sing in the inclosures ; and on the zattere the
air is laden with the perfume of honeysuckle and other
creepers that trail over the wall of Princess Dolgo-
rouki's garden. Indeed, the gardens in Venice, like
everything else in the city, have a character all their
own. In the first place, they are greatly prized, for
space is scarce in this city built upon islands won
from the very sea. The soil of Venice, composed of
lagoon mud, is rich and heavy, but so impregnated
422 VENETIAN STUDIES.
with salt that only certain plants will grow freely in
it ; and it hardly repays the labour to force reluctant
flowers towards an imperfect and precarious bloom.
But the variety of plants that thrive and are happy in
Venetian soil is quite sufficient to furnish forth a
lordly show. Many flowering and aromatic shrubs
take kindly to the soil ; then roses, and above all the
banksia ; most bulbs ; and, freest and happiest of all,
carnations — the garofoli that play so large a part in
Italian love-stories. There are two gardens on the
Giudecca, very different in their character, but each
illustrating in its way what a Venetian garden may
be. In the one every resource of wealth and art has
been lavished to produce a succession of brilliant beds.
In the middle of this desert of colour is a green oasis,
a sort of English orchard, where the fruit trees are
gathered together, and fling their laced and flickering
shadows on turf as fine, as velvety, and of as deep a
green as any to be found in England. On either side
the walks meander away among beds of splendid
colour that varies with the varying seasons. There is
an Oriental lavishness about the scene ; the eye is sur-
feited, and the scent of flowers almost oppresses the
air. The other garden is not less beautiful ; but it
has been left in the condition given to it by its old
Venetian proprietors. A narrow strip is divided from
the rest of the garden by a thick hedge ; and here are
congregated all the flowers that grow freely in Venice.
The flame-coloured trumpets of the bignonia hang
from the cypress, up which it has climbed ; the walks
are overarched by bowers of roses ; banksias festoon
the wall ; one corner is filled by a Daphne odorifera
VENICE OF TO-DAY. 423
that draws to its perfume innumerable butterflies. At
intervals openings in the hedge give access to that
part of the garden which is set apart for profit rather
than for pleasure ; aisle upon aisle of vine-covered
pergolas cross each other ; and down these cool pro-
menades, where the sun is never too strong, one can
saunter on and on, till the boundary wall is reached,
and before one open out the long reaches of the
lagoon that stretch away to Malamocco and the fort
of Alberoni.
It is in the streets of Venice that one comes to
know the people and the manner of life they lead.
And it will be strange if one does not like them, in
spite of all their faults. There is a gaiety, a laughter
and light-heartedness about these children of the
lagoons that is very winning ; a disengagement and
apparent frankness of manner that captivate, for all
their indifference to truth, and that fatal desire to find
out what you want them to say and to say it.
I doubt if there was ever much decided costume in
Venice except among the nobles and the gondoliers,
and what there was has disappeared. The women,
however, still wear that most graceful of all garments
— a shawl large enough to cover the head and to fall
below the waist — handkerchiefs, they call them, — and
they have unerring taste in the choice of colours.
These shawls are seldom gaudy, their tone is usually
subdued — fawn, pale mauve, sometimes a tawny red ;
the strong colours are reserved for the bodices and
neckcloths. The linen of Venice is famed for its
whiteness, and of this the women make abundant dis-
play on festas and holy days. Nothing can surpass
424 VENETIAN STUDIES.
the grace of these shawl-clad figures, seen down the
long perspective of a narrow street, or gathered in
groups round the carved well-head in some open
campiello.
Although there is not much colour and variety of
costume to be met with in Venice, the streets them-
selves are full of picturesque suggestions. Most of
the shops are quite open in front, and the whole con-
tents may be seen — part, indeed, overflows and
straggles on to the narrow pathway. Here is a
corn-dealer's shop, with open sacks of polenta flour of
every shade of yellow ; there an old-clothes shop, with
dresses of every hue and shade ; and next door to it is
a worker in bronze, whose rows of burnished pots and
plates serve as a red-gold background. Then, again,
up at the Rialto, where the vegetables are sold, what
a wealth of colour in the piles of tomatoes, vegetable
marrow, and great pumpkins cut down the middle, and
displaying all their orange insides. One of the charms
of a stroll through Venice, of losing one's self, as is
easily done, in that labyrinth of streets, is that one
never knows what surprise may be in store. Now it
is some scene of market or popular life ; again it is a
great stone angel standing guardian at some calle-
head ; here a coat-of-arms that sets you blazoning,
there a Gothic door with terra-cotta mouldings : the
place seems inexhaustible ; and for ambient to all
this variety and richness of art and life, there is the
singularly limpid air and light of the lagoon.
Few crowds are more cheerful or better ordered
than a Venetian crowd. The people love to congre-
gate ; every one is out on the business of pleasure, and
VENICE OF TO-DAY. 4*5
determined to enjoy themselves to the full. There
are flashes of a ready wit in repartee that play across
the throng. I remember once — the government was
then in a critical state, and the ministry was likely
to go out — there was a man who had drunk more
wine than would allow him to walk steadily : " Take
care," said some one, " you'll fall." " Well," came the
instant reply, " Depretis is going to fall, and so
mayn't I } " Touches of sentiment, too, are some-
times displayed, the sentiment that finds expression in
the quaint villotte or Venetian popular songs. The
struggle between the sea-wind and the land-wind is
regarded as a battle for ever being waged ; the clouds
are the victims of this endless strife — " They are
going to the mountains, but the mountains will not
receive them." The immortal wanderings of the moon
strike the Venetian fancy as they struck the fancy of
Shelley and of Leopardi : " Povaretta ! viaggia sempre
e non riposa mai ; " and sometimes a profounder note is
struck, as in the remark, "Quando viene il desiderio non
c'^ mai troppo." But these are rarer touches, depths
that are seldom stirred ; as a rule the Venetian popolo
is the lightest and most easy-going in the world, free
as a child from care or doubt about right or wrong.
Indeed, this carelessness, so disturbing to a northern
temper, apt to take all things seriously, is charac-
teristic not of the Venetian popolo only, but of the race
in general. The writer once had the misfortune to be
summoned as a witness before the pretor. His fellow-
witness, the only one, was an old woman dressed in a
thick flannel petticoat. After weary waiting in the
ante-room, where every one was smoking and throwing
426 VENETIAN STUDIES.
their matches about, we were summoned into the
crowded court, made to stand up, and were lectured
on the nature of an oath and the terrible consequences
of perjury. While this was going on, one of the
policemen suddenly said to the old woman, *' You're
burning," but he never moved ; and sure enough
a thin thread of smoke was rising from the old
lady's petticoat. " Santissima Vergine Maria!" she
cried in horror, but no one moved. The judge on
the bench put his finger-tips together, observed the
witness for a second, and confirmed the policeman's
remark, " Yes, you are burning ; " and prosecutor,
counsel, and general public confirmed the judge, and
said, "Yes, she's burning." The old lady's fellow-
witness could not let her burn in this way quite quietly,
so he caught her petticoats tight in his hands, while
the judge, still with his finger-tips together, nodded
approval from the bench and said, " Squeeze her,
squeeze her, squeeze her well." The smouldering
flame was soon put out. The judge smiled, the police-
men smiled, the public smiled, and the case went on.
The Venetians have always been, and still are, a
festa-XoVmg people. In the days of its wealth and
pride the republic spent lavishly upon its State
entertainments. The natural capacities of the city
for a great spectacle, the winding waterway of the
Grand Canal, opening upon the basin of St. Mark,
with San Giorgio on one side, and the ducal palace,
the Piazzetta, and the Basilica upon the other, the
curve of the Riva closed by the public gardens, all
seem to invite and require the compliment of some
scenic display. The pictures of the old Venetian
VENICE OF TO-DAY, 427
masters — Bellini, Carpaccio, Veronese — prove how
deeply the Venetians revelled in the pageants of state.
But when the republic fell the great ceremonies came
to an end. Only among the people the roots of the
original passion were kept alive. The people have
lost most of their old sports in which they delighted :
the battle on the bridge between the rival factions of
black and red, the Nicolotti and Castellani ; the human
towers and pyramids, piled up in many a fanciful
shape, called the Forze d'Ercole ; but one sport — the
national sport of the Venetians — the regatta, still
lives on ; and lately, since Venice became a part of
United Italy, the Town Council has done much to
revive the splendour of the show. The regatta is fre-
quently combined with a serenade on the Grand Canal
in the evening, and the two together form a spectacle
which can be surpassed by no other city in Europe.
The race is rowed in light gondolas, much smaller
than the gondola in ordinary use. The course is from
the stairs of the public garden up to the station and
back again to the Palazzo Foscari, the traditional win-
ning-post. The prizes are money and flags for the
first three, and a pig and a flag with a pig upon it for
the last. Long before the race begins the Grand Canal
is crowded with boats of every sort and size : gon-
dolas, sandolos^ barche, barchette, topos, cavaline, vipere^
bissoni — there is no end to the names and kinds of
Venetian craft. The facades of the palaces are all
a-flutter with flags, and from the windows hang tapes-
tries, carpets, curtains, anything that will add to the
dance of colour. The balconies are filled with people ;
every window has its bevy of heads; the very roofs are
428 VENETIAN STUDIES.
black with sightseers. Down below on the water the
scene is no less animated and brilliant. The course is
kept by large boats with twelve oars, called bissoni.
Each of these is decorated symbolically. One re-
presents the Arctic regions ; its rowers are clad like
walruses, a Polar bear lies on its bows, and a block
of ice serves as a seat for its captain and steersman.
Another represents the tropic regions, with palms and
gorgeous flowers for decoration. A third is a trophy
of the Murano glassworkers* art. These great boats,
crossing and recrossing one another on the waters of
the canal, weave, as it were, a web of colour. The
eye is ever charmed by some new combination of the
water-loom. Presently comes the boom of a distant
cannon. The race has begun. A hush falls upon the
crowd, only to be broken when the first boat appears
round the curve, and it becomes certain whether
Nicolotto or Castellano leads. The race sweeps by, and
disappears again behind the Rialto, which swallows it
up like a yawning mouth. There is a perpetual buzz
of voices — criticism, comment, bets flying about — until
the boats come in sight on their journey home ; a
moment of breathless excitement, then a roar of the
victor's name as he shoots his bow past the winning
post and snatches up his flag as he passes. The race
is finished. All the while, overhead is the wide, blue,
quiet sky, and, underneath, the water silently, persist-
ently, heedlessly going its way to the sea.
In the evening the serenade starts from some
point above the Rialto. The singers and orchestra
are placed on a barge which is decorated and lighted
by numbers of little lamps arranged sometimes like a
VENICE OF TO-DAY. 429
pyramid, sometimes like a fountain of fire. The object
of every good gondolier is to take his padroni as near
to the music as possible, whether they like it or not.
The result is that the singers' barge soon becomes
wedged in between a solid mass of gondolas, like a
ship in an ice-floe ; and it is only with the greatest
difficulty that any progress can be made. The whole
of the solid mass floats slowly down with the tide,
getting more and more closely jammed as the canal
narrows to pass the Rialto bridge. Under that wide
arch the scene is most fantastic. The electric light
casts its cold white ray down the Grand Canal, falling
now on this palace front and now on that, causing
them to start into sudden and ghastly prominence,
like ghosts unmasked. The smoke of the Bengal
lights streams out from under the arch in dense
coloured masses, and wavers away on the night air.
The figures of the poised and statuesque gondoliers,
each one standing upright on the stern of his boat, oar
in hand and hair blown by the breeze, form a series
of varied and beautiful silhouettes against the darker
background of the houses or the sky. The serenade
is a long affair ; and when one has had enough of
the whole strange and fantastic scene, escape is easy
down one of the innumerable side canals that lead to
the quiet quarters of the town.
Besides these great spectacles of regatta and
serenade, there are many o\\\qx feste in Venice, chiefly
of a religious character. Each parish church, for
example, honours the feast of its patron saint by a
procession to all the shrines within the parish boun-
daries. It is a picturesque sight to see one of these
430 VENETIAN STUDIES.
bright trains of priests and people streaming across
the bridges and along the fondamenta of some small
canal. First come the porters of the church clad in
long blouses of white, red, and blue, bearing the
candles, the pictures, the banners, and images of the
church ; then a band of music, playing the gayest of
operatic airs, and behind the music the priests sur-
rounding the parocco, who carries the Host under a
canopy of a cloth of gold ; more music, a long file of
the devout bearing candles, and boys with crackers and
guns bring up the rear of the procession. The day
ends with public dancing in the largest campo of the
parish. Venice still records her gratitude for salvation
from plague in two annual ceremonies, the Madonna
delta Salute in November and the Redentore in July.
On both occasions the priests of every parish in
Venice go in procession from St. Mark's to the
respective churches of the Salute and Redentore.
As the festa of the Redentore falls in high summer
the occasion is seized to make its vigil a night-long
water-frolic. As soon as the sun has set, the broad
Giudecca canal begins to swarm with boats, gaily
dressed with boughs and lanterns, forming an arbour
under which a supper-table is spread for a party of
friends. There are fireworks and prizes for the best-
dressed boats ; and towards two o'clock all the crowd
move off to the Lido to salute the rising sun, and rush
into the sea to meet it.
One of the most curious and characteristic of
Venetian popular ceremonies is the way in which
they keep Good Friday, and with an account of this
function we will close this attempted picture of Venice
VENICE OF TO-DAY. 43 1
of to-day, the place, and the people, as seen in its
general external aspects.
If a stranger arrived in Venice on Good Friday, he
would certainly take that day for a feast and not for
a fast The streets are full of people in their Sunday
best. The inevitable sign and signature of a festa
is present everywhere in the herds of children who
rush, roll, and romp among the passengers, whirling
their rattles to frighten Judas, or turning somersaults
and calling them Carpaccio for the benefit of aesthetic
foreigners. But, upon this day, the chief delight of
the Venetian children is to fit up a Santo Sepolcro,
and to appeal, on the strength of it, to the crowd for
coppers. In most of the churches there are represen-
tations of the Holy Sepulchre, and the children of
Venice follow the lead of their Church, but they are
content with less apparatus. Indeed, almost anything
will do for a Saftto Sepolcro. I saw one little creature,
about six or seven, who had constructed her sepulchre
from an old bottle, a sprig of bay, and two candle-ends,
and who appealed most successfully to the passers-by,
winning as much for her pretty face and gentle mien,
as for her idea of the Holy Grave.
It is at night, however, and in the more populous
quarters ^of the city, little frequented by strangers,
that the most characteristic sight of a Venetian Good
Friday is to be seen. The people of the quarter, the
shopkeepers, wine-sellers, fishermen, agree to sing
the Twenty-four Hours, a long chaunt in twenty-four
verses, following the life of our Lord through His
Passion. The ceremony is a purely popular one ; the
Church has no part in it. The natives of the quarter
432 VENETIAN STUDIES.
subscribe among themselves, in kind or in money, to
bear the expenses of the function ; one gives oil for
the lamps, another the wick, another wine for the
singers, who are usually a company of gondoliers or
porters from the district. At one end of the calle^ a
shrine is raised in the shape of a temple ; the pillars
and pediment and all its lines defined by little glass
lamps, whose flames flicker and waver in the evening
breeze. The yellow light of these altar-lamps contrasts
strangely with the stronger and whiter light of the
ordinary gas-jet that projects from the middle of the
shrine ; and this blended light is thrown upon the faces
of the men and women who stand in a dense group
waiting till the singing shall begin. On either side of
the calle the upper windows of the houses are open,
and filled with heads, leaning out, looking down and
chatting to friends below. At the far end of the
street, crowning the angle of a garden wall, stands a-
Madonna, carved in stone, with the Infant in her arms,
a lamp and rose-wreaths about her feet, and behind
her the thick clusters of a westeria that has climbed
up and falls in delicate violet showers about her head.
Over all is the long narrow strip of dusky sky that the
house-roofs cut, lit by one large star.
Presently the singing begins. In harsh, but
powerful voice, the leader of the band strikes up the
first of the twenty-four hours, and the rest of his com-
pany join in as they catch the note. The tune is a
grave and sombre chaunt, and the whole reminds one
of psalm-singing in a Scotch kirk, with the precentor
leading the way. Each verse takes about three
minutes to sing, and there is a pause of five minutes
VENICE OF TO-DAY. 433
between one verse and the next. The crowd is quiet
during the singing; but in the interval the women
begin to chatter, the men take a pull at their long Vir-
ginias, and the thin blue smoke floats lazily up into
the night ; the boys rush and tumble, until the pre-
centor's voice, commencing the next verse, bids silence
fall upon the throng once more.
The ceremony lasts about three hours, and ends,
of course, in the inevitable supper at the nearest wine-
shop. As we return to go down the calle they are
singing the fourteenth hour. The light from the altar
falls upon the hair of the women, the bronzed necks
and faces of the men, and the fairer faces of the chil-
dren they hold in their arms to see the sight. One
moment, and we turn the corner by the garden wall.
There all is quiet ; not a footfall in the streets, and
above us the silence and the fragrance of the rich
Venetian night.
THE END.
PRINTBD BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITKI), LONDON AND BttCCLKS.
2 F
-<IC
A CLASSIFIED LIST
Kegan Paul, Treneh, Tpiibner & Co.'s
PITBLIOATIONS,
December, 1896.
insriDEx:
Angling
. 67
Geology .
51
Persian
78,92
Animal Magnetism 30
History
39
Philology .
. 67
Anthropologj
. 48
History,
Philosophy .
. 31
Arts, Useful
and
Constitutional
45
Philosophy,
Fine .
. 66
India
81
Religious
. 27
Astronomy
. 49
Islam
89
Physics
. 53
Bibliography
. 93
Japan
90
Physiology .
. 67
Biography
. 34
Languages
67
Poetry
3
Botany .
. 49
Law
45
Politics
. 46
Buddhism
. 91
Medicine .
57
Beligion
. 16
Chemistry
. 61
Mental Science .
31
Sculpture
. 62
Chess
. 56
Metaphysics
31
Sociology
. 44
China .
. 86
Meteorology
51
Societies'
Diet
. 67
Military Science
60
Publications
. 95
Education
. 44
Mineralogy
51
Speculative
Egypt .
. 87
Moral Science .
27
Theology
. 27
Essays .
3
Music
61
Sports .
. 66
Ethnology
. 48
Mythology
28
Technology .
. 63
Ethics .
. 31
Numismatics .
61
Theosophy .
. 34
Fiction .
. 12
Occult Sciences .
29
Topography .
. 41
Finance
. 46
Oriental .
81
Travels
. 41
Folk-lore
. 28
Fainting .
62
Voyages
. 41
Gastronomy
. 67
Periodicals
95
Zoology
. 54
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Classified List of Publications. 21
Pulpit Commentary — continued.
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22 Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co.'s
Pulpit CommentsiTy— continued.
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Classified List of Publications. 23
Pulpit Commentary — continued,
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24 Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co.'s
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WILBERFORCE, Bishop, of Oxford and Winchester, Life of.
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WOLSELEY, WILLIAM, Admiral of the Red Squadron,
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HISTORY.
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BAIRD, HENRY M., The Huguenots and the Revocation of
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India. See Oriental.
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O'OLERY, THE, The Making of Italy, 1856-1870. Svo, i6.f.
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and IV. Svo, 24J. net.
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By Order of the Sun to Chili. With Illustrations.
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CORNEY, P., Early Northern Pacific Voyages (1813-1818).
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History of a Slave. With 47 Illustrations. Square 8vo, 6s.
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MITCHELL, E. H., Forty Days in the Holy Land. With
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MULHALL, M. G. and E. T., Handbook of the River Plate,
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RGLFE, E. N., and INGLEBY, H., Naples in 1888. With
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ROUTLEDGE, Canon C. F., History of St. Martin's Church,
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ST. CLAIR, GEGRGE, Buried Cities and Bible Countries.
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SAMUELSGN, JAMES, Bulgaria, Past and Present: His-
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STGDDARD, CHARLES AUGUSTUS, Cruising among the
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STRACHEY, Sir JOHN, India. With Map. New Edition.
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TAYLOR, Canon ISAAC, Egypt. Leaves from an Egyptian
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YOUNG, ROSALIND AMELIA, Mutiny of the 'Bounty,'
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VI.— SOCIOLOGY.
EDUCATION.
BAIN, ALEXANDER, Education as a Science. Seventh
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BROWNING, OSCAR, Introduction to the History of
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GALLOWAY, R., Scientific and Technical Education; or,
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HAWTREY, MABEL, The Co -Education of the Sexes.
Crown Svo, 2.s. 6d. net.
LESSING, G. E., Education of the Human Race. From the
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LANDON, JOSEPH, School Management. Including a
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MAGNUS, Sir PHILIP, Industrial Education. 6^. (Education
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MAHAPFY, Prof., Old Greek Education. Second Edition.
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Parents' Review. Monthly, dd.
PLUMPTRE, C. J., Lectures on Elocution. Delivered at
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LAW.
AMOS, Prof. SHELDON, History and Principles of the Civil
Law of Eome. An Aid to the Study of Scientific and Comparative
Jurisprudence. 8vo, i6s.
Science of Law. Seventh Edition. Crown 8vo, $s.
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cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo, 3J. 6af. {Paternoster Library.)
BERTILLON, ALPHONSE, Signaletic Instructions, includ-
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Translated under the Supervision of Major R. W. McClaughty.
Illustrated. Large 8vo, half morocco, ^^i los.
FIELD, D. D., Outlines of an International Code. Second
Edition. Royal 8vo, £2 2s.
FOSTER, ROGER, Commentaries on the Constitution of the
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£1 4J. net.
HALLECK'S International Law ; or, Rules Regulating the
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GEORGE, 'E'Ei^'RY— continued.
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VII.— NATURAL SCIENCE. ^
ANTHROPOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY.
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland,
Journal of. Quarterly. 5j-.
BALKWILL, F. H., The Testimony of the Teeth to Man's
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Classified List of Publications. 49
HAECKEL, Prof. EENST, History of the Evolution of Man.
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SMITH, R. BROUGH, The Aborigines of Victoria. Com-
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2 vols, royal Svo, £2 3^-
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Man and the Glacial Period. With iii Illustrations and
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ASTRONOMY.
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and Geology. With Numerous Figures. Svo, 14^^.
LOOMIS, E., A Treatise on Astronomy. Svo, sheep, 75. 6d.
Introduction to Practical Astronomy. Svo, sheep, 75. 6d.
STANLEY, W. F., Notes on the Nebular Theory. Svo, 9^.
YOUNG, Professor, The Sun, with Illustrations. Crown
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BOTANY.
CANDOLLE, ALPHONSE DE, Origin of Cultivated Plants.
Second Edition. Crown Svo, 5^^. (/. S. S.)
COOKE, M. C, British Edible Fungi: How to Distinguish
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Fungi: their Nature, Influences, Uses, &c. Edited by
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D
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Introduction to Fresh-Water Algse. With an Enumera-
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DA VIES, G. CHRISTOPHER, Rambles and Adventures of
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HENSLOW, Prof. G., Origin of Floral Structures through
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HICKSON, S. J., The Fauna of the Deep Sea. Crown Svo,
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LENDENFELD, R. von, Monograph of the Horny Sponges.
With 50 Plates. Issued by direction of the Royal Society. 4to, £'}^.
LUBBOCK, Sir JOHN, Contribution to Our Knowledge of
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PHILLIPS, W., Manual of British Discomycetes. With
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45^. respectively.
TECHNOLOGY, Etc.
Amateur Mechanic's Workshop. Plain and Concise Direc-
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'The Lathe and its Uses.' Sixth Edition. Illustrated. 8vo, ds.
ANDERSON, WILLIAM, Practical Mercantile Correspon-
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AXON, W. E. A., The Mechanic's Friend. A Collection of
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Cements, Drawing, Dyes, Electricity, Gilding, Glass-working, &c.
Second Edition. Numerous Woodcuts. Crown 8vo, 3^. dd,
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DU MONCEL, Count, The Telephone, the Microphone, and
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EGER, GUST A V, Technological Dictionary. In the English
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GALLOWAY, ROBERT, Treatise on Fuel. Scientific and
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64 Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co.'s
HULME, F. EDWARD, Mathematical Drawing Instruments,
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JAPP, A. H., Days with Industrials. Adventures and
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KAMARSCH, KARL, Technological Dictionary of the Terms
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Vol. I. German — English — French. 12s.
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KROHNKE, G. H. A., Handbook for Laying out Curves on
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Lathe, The, and its Uses; or, Instruction in the Art of
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los. 6d.
LAWLOR, J. J., Practical Hot Water Heating, Steam and
Gas Fitting. Crown 8vo, 8^. 6d.
LEFFMANN, HENRY, and BEAM, W., Examination of
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Analysis of Milk and Milk Products. Crown 8vo, ^s.
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The Boy Engineers. What They Did, and How They Did
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MAGUIRE, W. R., Domestic Sanitary Drainage and Plumb-
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Classified List of Publications. 65
MALDEN, W. J., Pig Keeping for Profit. Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d.
( Village Library. )
MOORE, CUNNINGHAM WILSON, A Practical Guide for
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MORFIT, CAMPBELL, Pure Fertilisers, and the Chemical
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Manufacture of Soaps. With Illustrations. 8vo, ^£2 1 2 j. 6d.
OSTERBERG, MAX, Synopsis of Current Electrical Litera-
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RICHARDSON, M. T., Practical Blacksmithing. With 400
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Practical Carriage Building. 2 vols. los.
Practical Horse-shoer. With 170 Illustrations. Crown
8vo, 5^.
ROSS, Lieut.-Col. W. A., Pyrology; or, Fire Chemistry.
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SCHUTZENBERGER, Prof., Fermentation. With 28 Illus-
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Science. Weekly. jQi 2s,
Scientific American. Weekly. i8j.
Scientific American. Export Edition. Monthly. £1 5^.
Scientific American. Building Edition. Monthly, i^s.
Do. Supplement. Weekly. £1 5^.
SEDDING, J. D., Art and Handicraft. Six Essays. Svo,
75. 6d.
SMITH, HAMILTON, Hydraulics. The Flow of Water
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With 17 Plates. Royal 4to, 30^.
£
66 Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co.'s
THURSTON, Prof. R. H., History of the Growth of the Steam
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Manual of the Steam Engine. For Engineers and Tech-
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WANKLYN, J. A., MUk Analysis. A Practical Treatise on
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WANKLYN, J. A., and CHAPMAN, E. T., Water Analysis.
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WANKLYN, J. A., and COOPER, W. J., Bread Analysis.
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Air Analysis. A Practical Treatise. With Appendix on
Illuminating Gas. Crown Svo, 5^-.
WATERHOUSE, Col. J., Preparation of Drawings for Photo-
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WEISBACH, JULIUS, Theoretical Mechanics. A Manual of
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E. B. CoxE. With 902 Woodcuts. Second Edition. Svo, 31J. 6d.
WIECHMANN, G. P., Sugar Analysis. For Refineries,
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WILCOX, LUTE, Irrigation Farming. Crown Svo, 10s.
WYLDE, W., Inspection of Meat. A Guide and Instruction
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SPORTS.
GOULD, A. C, Modern American Pistols and Revolvers.
Svo, cloth, 7^. 6d.
Modern American Rifles. Svo, cloth, los. 6d.
HILLIER, O. LACY, All About Bicycling. i2mo, i^.
MONEY, Captain ALBERT (" Blue Rock,") Pigeon Shooting.
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Classified List of Publications. 67
NEWHOUSE. The Trapper's Guide. A Manual of Instruc-
tion. Crown 8vo, 5^.
Practical Hints on Shooting. By " 20-BoRE." 8vo, 123-.
WHEELDON, J. P., Angling Resorts near London. The
Thames and the Lea. Crown 8vo, paper, is. 6d.
IX.— PHILOLOGY.
COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY.
ABEL, CARL, Linguistic Essays. Post 8vo, 9^. {Triibner^s
Oriental Series. )
Slavic and Latin. Lectures on Comparative Lexicography.
Post 8vo, 5^-,
BRUGMANN, K., Elements of the Comparative Grammar
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History of Sanscrit, Old Iranian, Old Armenian, Old Greek, Latin,
Umbrian, Samnitic, Old Irish, Gothic, Old High German, Lithua-
nian, and Old Bulgarian. In 5 vols. Svo, cloth.
Vol. I. Introduction and Phonology. By T. Wright. 582 pp.
1888. i8x.
Vol. II. Part I. — Morphology. Stem Formation and Inflection. By
S. Conway and W. D. Rouse. 500 pp. 1891. ids.
Vol. III. Part II. — Morphology. Numerals, Nouns, and Pronouns.
By S. Conway and W. D. Rouse. 412 pp. 1892. 12s. 6d.
Vol. IV. Part III.— Morphology. Verbs : Formation of the Stem,
and Inflection or Conjugation. By S. Conway and W. D. Rouse.
630 pp. 1895. £1.
Vol. V. Index of Words, Matters, and Authors mentioned in Vols.
I.-IV. 250 pp. 1895. 9-^-
BYRNE, Dean JAMES, General Principles of the Structure
of Language. 2 vols. Second and Revised Edition. 8vo, 36J.
Origin of Greek, Latin, and Gothic Roots. Second and
Revised Edition. 8vo, i8j.
GUST, R., Linguistic and Oriental Essays. Post Svo. First
Series, lox. 6d. Second Series, with 6 Maps, 21s. Third Series,
2 1 J'. {Triibners Oriental Series.)
DELBRUCK, B., Introduction to the Study of Language.
The History and Methods of Comparative Philolc^ of the Indo-
European Languages. 8vo, 5^.
6S Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, and Co.'s
GARLANDA, FEDERICO, The Fortunes of Words. Crown
8vo, 5^.
The Philosophy of Words. A Popular Introduction to the
Science of Language. Crown 8vo, 5^-.
GREG, R. P., Comparative Philology of the Old and New
Worlds in Kelation to Archaic Speech. With Copious Vocabularies.
Super royal 8vo. £i lis. 6d.
LEFEVRE, ANDRE, Race and Language. Crown 8vo, 55.
{LS.S.)
Philological Society, Transactions and Proceedings of.
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SAYCE, A. H., Introduction to the Science of Language.
New and Cheaper Edition. 2 vols. Crown Svo, gs.
The Principles of Comparative Philology. Fourth Edition,
revised and enlarged. Crown Svo, los. 6d.
SCHLEICHER, AUGUST, Comparative Grammar of the
Indo-European, Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin Languages. Translated
from the Third German Edition by H. Bendall. Svo, 13^. 6d.
TAYLOR, Canon ISAAC, The Alphabet. An Account of
the Origin and Development of Letters. With numerous Tables
and Facsimiles. 2 vols. Svo, 36^-.
WHITNEY, Prof. W. D., Life and Growth of Language.
Sixth Edition. Crown Svo, ^s. (/. S. S.)
Language and the Study of Language. Fourth Edition.
Crown Svo, lOi-. dd.
Language and its Study. With especial Reference to the
Indo-European Family of Languages. Edited by R. MORRIS.
Second Edition. Crown Svo, 5^.
AFRICAN.
CUST, R. N. A Sketch of the Modern Languages of Africa.
2 vols. With 31 autotype portraits, 1SS3. Post Svo, iSj. {T. O. S,)
ALBANIAN.
Grammaire Albanaise, a I'usage de ceux qui desirent appren-
dre cette langue sans I'aide d'un maitre. Par P. W. Crown Svo,
75. dd.
Classified List of Publications. 69
ANGLO-SAXON.
RASK, ERASMUS, Grammar of the Anglo-Saxon Tongue.
From the Danish, by B. Thorpe. Third Edition. Post 8vo,
5^. (id.
ARABIC.
COTTON, General Sir A., Arabic Primer. Consisting of 180
short sentences, containing 30 primary words prepared according
to the vocal system of studying language. 38 pp., crown 8vo,
cloth. 1876. 2s.
Diwans, The, of the six ancient Arabic Poets — Enniibiga,
'Antara, Tharafa, Zuhair, 'Alqama, and Imruulqais, and a collection
of their fragments, with a list of the various readings of the text
edited by W. Ahlwardt. 8vo, wrapper. 1870. \2s.
HIRSCHFELD, H., Arabic Chrestomathy in Hebrew charac-
ters, with a Glossary, viii. and 174 pp., 8vo, cloth. 1892. 'js, 6d.
MEAKIN, J. E. BUDGETT, Introduction to the Arabic of
Morocco. English- Arabic Vocabulary, Grammar, Notes, etc. Fools-
cap 8vo, 6s. net.
NEWMAN, F. W., Dictionary of Modem Arabic. (Anglo-
Arabic and Arabo-English.) 2 vols. Crown 8vo,;^i \s.
Handbook of Modern Arabic. Post 8vo, 6s.
PENRICE, J., Dictionary and Glossary of the Koran, with
copious Grammatical References and Explanations. 1873. Small
4tO, ;^I I^.
/
SALMONE, H. A., Arabic-English Dictionary. Comprising
about 120,000 Arabic words with English Index of about 50,000
words. 2 vols. Post 8vo, 36 j.
BANTU.
KOLBE, F. W., A Language Study based on Bantu. An
Inquiry into the Laws of Root Formation. 8vo, 6s.
TORREND, J., Comparative Grammar of the South African
Bantu Languages. Comprising those of Zanzibar, Mozambique,
the Zambezi, Kafirland, Benguela, Angola, the Congo, the Ogowe,
the Cameroons, the Lake Region, &c. Super-royal 8vo, 25^.
70 Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co/s
BASQUE.
VAN EYS, W., Outlines of Basque Grammar. Crown 8vo,
3^. 6^.
BENGALI.
YATES and WENGER, Bengali Grammar. New and Revised
Edition. 136 pp. small 8vo, cloth. 1885. 4s.
CHINESE.
BALL, J. D., How to Write Chinese. Part I. Royal 8vo,
boards. 1888. 10s. 6d.
EITEL, E. J., Chinese Dictionary in the Cantonese Dialect.
With Supplement. Royal 8vo, half calf. £2 12s. 6d.
HIRTH, P., Text Book of Documentary Chinese. With a
Vocabulary. 2 vols, demy 4to, £i is.
Notes on the Chinese Documentary Style. 1888. 8vo,
3^. 6d.
LOBSCHEID, Rev. W., Chinese and English Dictionary.
Arranged according to the Radicals. 187 1. Royal 4to, cloth,
£2 8s.
English-Chinese Dictionary. With the Punti and Mandarin
Pronunciation. 1866-69. 4 vols. , folio, ;i^4 45-.
WILLIAMS, S. WELLS, Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese
Language. Arranged according to the Wu-Fang Yuen Yin, with
the Pronunciation of the Characters as heard in Pekin, Canton,
Amoy, and Shanghai. Third Edition. 4to, half calf, £^ i ^s. Also
Index to same, arranged according to Sir Thomas Wade's system of
orthography, by Acheson. 8vo, cloth, 12s. 6d.
CUNEIFORM.
BERTIN, GEORGE, Abridged Grammar of the Languages of
the Cuneiform Inscriptions. Crown 8vo, 5^-.
Classified List of Publications. 71
DANISH.
BOJESEN, MARIA, Guide to the Danish Language. 12 mo, 5^.
OTTE, E. C, Dano- Norwegian Grammar. A Manual for
Students of Danish, tesed on the OUendorffian System. Third
Edition. Crown 8vo, Ts. 6d. Key, 3^.
Simplified Grammar of the Danish Language. Crown 8vo,
ROSING, S., Danish Dictionary. Crown 8vo, 85. 6d.
DUTCH.
AHN, F., Grammar of the Dutch Language. 12 mo, 3^. dd.
HALDEMAN, S. S., Pennsylvania Dutch. A Dialect of
South Germany, with an Infusion of English. 8vo, 35-. 6d.
EAST INDIAN.
BE AMES, J., Outlines of Indian Philology. With language
Map. Second Edition, enlarged and revised. 1868. Crown 8vo,
Comparative Grammar of the Modem Aryan Languages of
India. Hindi, Panjabi, Sindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya, and
Bengali. In 3 vols. 8vo, i6x. each vol.
Vol. I. — On Sounds, xvi. and 360 pp. 1872.
Vol. II. — The Noun and Pronoun, xii. and 348 pp. 1875.
Vol. III.— The Verb, viii. and 316 pp. 1879.
CAMPBELL, G., Specimens of Languages of India. Includ-
ing those of the aboriginal tribes of Bengal, the Central Provinces,
and the Eastern P'rontier. Royal 4to, boards. 1874. £i lis. 6d.
WHITWORTH, G. E., Anglo-Indian Dictionary. A Glossary
of Indian terms used in English, and of such English or other non-
Indian terms as have obtained special meanings in India. 8vo, 12s.
EGYPTIAN.
BUDGE, E. A. WALLIS, First Steps in Egyptian. Large
post 8vo, 95. net.
An Egyptian Reading Book for Beginners, with a Vocabu-
lary. 8vo, 155. net.
*J2 Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co/s
ENGLISH.
BARTLETT, J. R., Dictionary of Americanisms. A Glossary
of Words and Phrases colloquially used in the United States. Fourth
Edition. 8vo, 2.\s.
BOWEN, H. C, Studies in English. For the use of Modern
Schools. Tenth Thousand. Small crown 8vo, i^. 6d.
English Grammar for Beginners. Foolscap 8vo, \s.
CARRENO, Metodo para aprender a Leer, escribir y hablar
el Ingles segun el sistema de Ollendorff. 8vo, 4^^. 6^. Key, 3^.
JENKINS, JABEZ, Vest-Pocket Lexicon. An English Dic-
tionary of all except Familiar Words, including the principal Scien-
tific and Technical Terms. 64mo, roan, is. 6d. ; cloth, is.
SMITH, H. PERCY, Glossary of Terms and Phrases. Cheap
Edition. Medium 8vo, 3^-. 6d.
TRENCH, Archbishop, English Past and Present. Four-
teenth Edition, Revised and Improved. Foolscap 8vo, 5^.
On the Study of Words. Twenty-third Edition, Revised.
Foolscap 8vo, 5^-.
Select Glossary of English Words used formerly in Senses
Different from the Present. Seventh Edition, Revised and En-
larged. Foolscap 8vo, 53-.
WEDGWOOD, H., Dictionary of English Etymology. Fourth
Edition, Revised and Enlarged. 8vo, £1 is.
Contested Etymology in the Dictionary of the Rev. W. W.
Skeat. Crown 8vo, 5^-.
WHITNEY, Prof. W. D., Essentials of English Grammar.
Second Edition. Crown 8vo, 3^-. 6d.
FRENCH.
AHN, F., Method of Learning French. First and Second
Courses, i2mo, 3^-. Separately, i^-. 6d. each.
Method of Learning French. Third Course. i2mo, ij-. 6^.
BELLOWS, JOHN, French and English Dictionary for the
Pocket. Containing the French-English and English-French Divi-
sions on the same page, Conjugating all the Verbs, Distinguishing
the Genders by Different Types, giving Numerous Aids to Pronun-
ciation, &c. Fifty-third Thousand of the Second Edition. 32mo,
morocco tuck, I2s. 6d. ; roan, loj-. 6d,
Classified List of Publications. 73
FRENCH — continued.
BRETTE, P. H., and THOMAS, F., French Examination Papers
set at the University of London. Part I. — Matriculation and the
General Examination for Women. Crown 8vo, 3^. dd. Key, ^s.
Part II. — First B.A. Examinations for Honours and D. Litt. Ex-
aminations. Crown 8vo, 75.
CASSAL, CHARLES, Glossary of Idioms, Gallicisms, and
other Difficulties contained in the Senior Course of the ' Modern
French Reader.' Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d.
CASSAL, CHARLES, and KARCHER, THEODORE, Modern
French Reader. Junior Course. Nineteenth Edition. Crown Svo,
2s. 6d. Senior Course. Crown Svo, 4J. Senior Course and
Glossary in i vol. Crown Svo, 6^.
Little French Reader. Extracted from the 'Modern
French Reader.' Third Edition. Crown Svo, 2s.
KARCHER, THEODORE, Questionnaire Frangais. Questions
on French Grammar, Idiomatic Difficulties, and Military Expres-
sions. Fourth Edition. Crown Svo, ^. 6d. ; interleaved with
writing paper, ^s. 6d.
LARMOTER, M. DE, Practical French Grammar. Crown
Svo. New Edition, in one vol., 3^. 6d. Two Parts, 2s. 6d. each.
LE-BRUN, L., Materials for Translating English into French.
Seventh Edition. Post Svo, 4J-. 6d.
NUGENT, French - English and English - French Pocket
Dictionary. 24mo, 35-.
ROCHE, A., French Grammar. Adopted by the Imperial
Council of Public Instruction. Crown Svo, 3i'.
French Translation. Prose and Poetry, from English
Authors, for reading, composition, and translation. Second Edition.
Foolscap Svo, 2s. 6d.
SIMONNE, Metodo para aprender a Leer Escribir y hablar
el Frances, segun el verdadero sistema de Ollendorff. Crown Svo,
6s. Key, 3^. 6d.
VAN LAUN, H., Grammar of the French Language. Crown
Svo. Accidence and Syntax, 45. ; Exercises, 3^-. 6d.
WELLER, E., Improved Dictionary. English-French and
French-English. Royal Svo, Ts, bd.
74 Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co.'s
GERMAN.
AHN, F., Grammar of the German Language. New Edition.
Crown 8vo, 3^-. dd.
Method of Learning German. 12 mo, 3^. Key, %d.
Manual of German Conversation; or, Vade Mecum for
English Travellers. Second Edition. i2mo, is. 6d.
FRCEMBLING, F. OTTO, Graduated German Reader. A
Selection from the most popular writers. With a Vocabulary.
Twelfth Edition. i2mo, 3^-. 6d.
Graduated Exercises for Translation into German. Extracts
from the best English Authors, with Idiomatic Notes. Crown 8vo,
4^^. 6d. ; without Notes, 4^-.
GREEK.
CONTOPOULOS, N., Lexicon of Modern Greek-English and
English-Modern Greek. 2 vols,, 8vo, 27^.
Modern-Greek and English Dialogues and Correspondence.
Foolscap 8vo, 2.s. 6d.
GELBART, E. M., Guide to Modem Greek. Post 8vo, 7^. 6d.
Key, 2s. 6d.
Simplified Grammar of Modern Greek. Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d.
PAUL, C. KEGAN, and STONE, E. D., Philological Intro-
duction to Greek and Latin for Students. Translated and adapted
from the German. Third Edition. Crown 8vo, 6s.
THOMPSON, E. MAUNDE, Handbook of Greek and Latin
Palaeography. Second Edition. Revised. With numerous fac-
similes. Crown 8vo, $s. (/. S. S.)
GUJARATI.
TISDALL, Rev. W. ST. CLAIR, A Simplified Grammar of
the Gujarati Language. Together with a short Reading Book and
Vocabulary. Crown 8vo, lo^-. 6d.
Classified List of Publications. 75
HEBREW.
BALLIN, ADA S. and F. L., Hebrew Grammar. With
Exercises selected from the Bible. Crown 8vo, ^s. 6ii.
BICEELL, G., Outlines of Hebrew Grammar. 8vo, cloth, 4^.
HINDI.
BALLANTYNE, J. R., Elements of Hindi and Braj Bhakha
Grammar. Compiled for the East India College at Haileybury.
Second Edition. Crown 8vo, 5^.
BATE, J. D., Hindi-English Dictionary. Royal 8vo, cloth.
1875. ;,^i lis. 6d.
KELLOGG, S. H., Grammar of the Hindi Language. With
copious Philological Notes and Tables. Second Edition, Revised
and Enlarged. 1893. ^vo, cloth, iZs.
HINDUSTANI.
CRAVEN, T., English-Hindustani and Hindustani-English
Dictionary. New Edition. i8mo, 4^. 6d.
DOWSON, J., Grammar of the Urdu or Hindustani Language.
Second Edition. Crown 8vo, lOi-. 6d.
Hindustani Exercise Book. Passages and Extracts for
Translation into Hindustani. Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d.
FALLON, S. W., A New English-Hindustani Dictionary.
With Illustrations from English Literature and Colloquial English,
iv. and 674 pp. royal 8vo, cloth. 1883, (Published at Rs. 22.)
Reduced to ^i.
*»* Printed in Roman characters only.
A New Hindustani-English Dictionary. With Illustrations
from Hindustani Literature and Folk-lore. xxiv. ix. and 1216 pp.
royal 8vo, cloth. 1879. (Published at I^, 52.) Reduced to £2.
*»* All Hindustani words are printed in the Persian and Roman
character ; those of Hindi origin also in the Devanagari.
PALMER, E. H., Simplified Grammar of Hindustani, Persian,
and Arabic. Second Edition, Crown 8vo, 5^.
PHILLIPS, CoL A. N., Hindustani Idioms. With Vocabulary
and Explanatory Notes. Crown 8vo, 5^.
76 Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co/s
HUNGARIAN.
SINGER, J., Simplified Grammar of the Hungarian Language.
Crown 8vo, ^s. 6d.
IRISH.
STOKES, WHITLEY, Goidelica. Old and Early-Middle
Irish Glosses, Prose and Verse. Second Edition, Medium 8vo, iSs.
ITALIAN.
AHN, F., Method of Learning Italian. i2mo, 3^. 6d.
CAMERINI, E., L'Eco Italiano. A Guide to Italian Con-
versation. With Vocabulary. i2mo, 4^-. 6d.
MILLHOUSE, J., English and Italian Dictionary. 2 vols.
8vo, 1 2s.
Manual of Italian Conversation. i8mo, 2s.
JAPANESE.
BABA, TATUI, Elementary Grammar of the Japanese
Language. With easy Progressive Exercises. Second Edition. 5^-.
CHAMBERLAIN, Prof. B. H., Simplified Japanese Grammar.
Crown 8vo, 5^-.
Romanised Japanese Reader. Consisting of Japanese
Anecdotes and Maxims, with English Translations and Notes.
i2mo, 6^.
Handbook of CoUocLuial Japanese. Second Edition. 8vo,
I2S. (>d.
Handbook of the Japanese Language. For Tourists and
Residents. In the Colloquial style. 24mo, 4^.
HEPBURN, J. C, Japanese and English Dictionary. Second
Edition. Imp. 8vo, half roan, \%s.
Japanese-English and English- Japanese Dictionary. Third
Edition. Royal 8vo, half morocco, 30^-. Pocket Edition, square
l6mo, 145'. Index of Chinese characters in the royal 8vo. Edition,
arranged according to their radicals by W. H. Whitney. 1888.
Cloth, 4^. dd.
Classified List of Publications. 'J^
IMBRIE, W., Handbook of English- Japanese Etjnnology.
Second Edition, 1889. 8vo, ds.
MUTSU, H., Japanese Conversation Course. 1894. Small
8vo, 2f. dd.
KHASSI.
ROBERTS, H., Grammar of the Khassi Language. Crown
8vo, 1 05-. dd.
LATIN.
AHN, P., Latin Grammar for Beginners. Thirteenth Edition.
i2mo, 3i'.
IHNE, W., Latin Grammar for Beginners, on Ahn's System.
i2ino, 3^.
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JAPAN.
CHAMBERLAIN, BASIL, Classical Poetry of the Japanese.
Post 8vo, Ts. 6d. { Triibner' s Oriental Series. )
Things Japanese. Second Edition. Crown 8vo, 8j. 6d.
Chushingura, or the Loyal Retainers of Akao. Translated
by JuKiCHi Inouye, with numerous Illustrations by Eisen
ToMiOKA. 8vo, y. 6d.
GOWER, Lord RONALD, Notes of a Tour from Brindisi to
Yokohama, 1883-84. Foolscap 8vo, 2s. 6d.
GRIFFIS, W. E., The Mikado's Empire. Book I.— History
of Japan from B.C. 660 to A.D. 1872. Book II.— Personal Ex-
periences, Observations, and Studies in Japan, 1870-74. Second
Edition. Illustrated. 8vo, 20s.
Classified List of Publications. 91
History of the Empire of Japan. Compiled and Translated
under the direction of the Department of Education, Tokyo. With
numerous Illustrations, of which some are in Colours and Collotype,
and a Map. vi. and 428 pp. of text. 1893. 8vo, boards, I2s. 6d.
*♦* The Illustrations are printed on Japanese paper.
Nihongi; or, Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to
A.D. 697. Translated from the original Chinese and Japanese, by
W. G. Aston. Vol. I. 1896. 8vo. Price, complete in 2 vols., 21s.
SALWAY, CHARLOTTE M., Fans of Japan. With 10 full-
page Coloured Plates, and 39 Blocks in Text. Royal 4to, 31J. 6d. net.
TAYUI, R., The Commercial Guide and Trade Directory of
Japan. Royal 8vo, cloth, £1 is.
WENCKSTERN, F. von, Bibliography of the Japanese Em-
pire. Being a Classified List of all Books, Essays, and Maps in
European Languages, relating to Dai Nihon, published in Europe,
America, and the East, from 1859-93, to which is added ^facsimile
reprint of Leon Pages' Bibliographic japonaise depuis l^XV^. sikle
jusqtCa^ 1859. 1895. Large 8vo, £\ <^s. net.
ORIENTAL BUDDHISM.
BEAL, S., The Romantic Legend of Sakya Buddha. From
the Chinese Sanskrit. 1875. Crown 8vo, 12s.
Life of Hiuen-Tsiang. By the Shamans Hwui Li and
Yen-Tsung, with an Account of the Works of I-Tsing. Post 8vo,
\Os. {Triibner's Oriental Series.)
Dhammapada.— Texts from the Buddhist Canon, commonly
known as Dhammapada. Translated from the Chinese. Post 8vo,
Js. 6d. {Triibner's Oriental Series.)
Catena of Buddhist Scriptures. From the Chinese. 8vo,
15^.
Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World.
Translated from the Chinese of IIiuen Tsiang (a.d. 629). With
Maps. 2 vols. Post 8vo, 24_r. {Triibner s Oriental Series.)
BIKSHU, SUBHADRA, Buddhist Catechism. 12 mo, 2s.
EDKINS, J., D.D., Chinese Buddhism. Sketches Historical
and Critical. Post 8vo, i8j. {Triibner s Oriental Series.)
EITEL, E J., Chinese Buddhism. Handbook for the Student
of. Second Edition. Crown 8vo, i&f.
92 Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co.'s
FAUSBOLL, v., The Jataka. Together with its Commentary,
being tales of the anterior birth of Gotama Buddha. Now first
published in Pali. Vols. I. -VI. 8vo, 28^-. each.
JENNINGS, H., The Indian Religions ; or, Results of the
Mysterious Buddhism. 1890. 8vo, ioj-. dd.
KISTNER, 0., Buddha and his Doctrines. A Bibliographical
Essay. 4to, 2s. 6d.
LILLIE, A., Popular Life of Buddha. Containing an answer
to the Hibbert Lectures of 1881. With Illustrations. 1883. Crown
8vo, 6s.
Buddhism in Christendom ; or, Jesus the Essene. With
Illustrations. 1887. 8vo, 15^.
RHYS-DAVIDS, T. W., Buddhist Birth-Stories ; or, Jataka
Tales. The Oldest Collection of Folk- Lore extant. Being the
Jatakatthavannana, translated from the Pali Text of V. Fausboll.
Vol. I. Post 8vo, 1 8 J. {Triibner' s Oriental Series.)
ROCKHILL, W. W., Life of the Buddha and the Early
History of his Order. Derived from Tibetan works in the Bkah-
Hgyur and the Bstan-Hgyur. 1884. Post 8vo, los. 6d. {Triibner' s
Oriental Series. )
Udanavarga. A collection of Verses from the Buddhist
Canon. Compiled by Duarmatrata, and translated from the
Tibetan. 1883. Post 8vo, 9^. {Triibner' s Oriental Series.)
SWAMY, Sir M. C, Sutta Nipata ; or. Dialogues and
Discourses of Gotama Buddha. Translated from the Original Pali.
Crown 8vo, 6^.
The Dathavansa ; or, the History of the Tooth Relic of
Gotama Buddha. Pali Text with Translation. 8vo, 10s. 6d.
English Translation only, 6s.
{See also tinder China.)
PERSIAN.
HAFIZ, The Divan. By Khwaja Shamsu-d-Din Muhammad-
I-Hafiz-i-Shirazi. Translated into English Prose, with Remarks,
etc., by Lieut.-Col. PI. Wilberforce Clarke. Vols. I. and II.
1891. 4to, cloth, £2 I2s. 6d. Vol. III., 4to, cloth, £1 lis.
HAFIZ, of Shiraz, Selections from His Poems. Translated
from the Persian by H. Bicknell. 1875. 4to, cloth, £2 2s.
JOHNSON, S., Oriental Religions and their Relation to
Universal Religion. Persia. 8vo, i8j-.
Classified List of Publications. 93
OMAR KHAYYAM, The Quatrains. Persian Text with an
English Verse Translation by E. 11. Whinfield. 1883. Post
8vo, cloth, I ox. 6d. (Trjibner's Oriental Series,)
The Quatrains. New Translation into English Verse by
E. II. Whinfield. 1881. Post 8vo, cloth, 5^-. (Triibner's
Oriental Series. )
RIEIT, C, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the British
Museum. 3 vols. 1879-83. 4to, cloth, 25 j. each volume.
SA'D UD DIN MAHMUD SHABISTARI. Gulshan i Raz
(the Mystic Rose Garden). Persian Text with an English Trans-
lation, Notes, and a Commentary, by E. H. Whinfield. 1880.
4to, cloth, los. 6d.
The Gulistan, or Rose Garden of Shekh Mushliu'd-Din
Sadi of Shiraz. Translated from the Atish Kadah, by E. B.
Eastvvick. Second Edition. Post 8vo, los. 6d. {Triibner's
Oriental Series, )
Vazir of Lankuran. A Persian Play, with a Grammatical
Introduction, Translation, Notes, and Vocabulary, by W. H. Hag-
gard and G. Le Strange. Crown 8vo, 10s. 6d.
XI.— BIBLIOGRAPHY, PERIODICALS, AND
PUBLICATIONS OF SOCIETIES.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
ALLIBONE, S. A., Dictionary of English Literature and
British and American Authors. From the Earliest Accounts to
the Latter Half of the 19th Century. 3 vols. Royal 8vo, £$ Zs.
Supplement, 1891, 2 vols, royal 8vo,j^3 3X.
Bibliographica — 3 Volumes. Containing the 1 2 parts. Bound
in half morocco (Roxburgh style). Large Imperial 8vo, £2 2s. net
each.
British Museum Publications. List on application.
DUFF, E. GORDON, Early Printed Books. With Frontis-
piece and Ten Plates. Post 8vo, 6.f. net. {Books about Books.)
ELTON, CHARLES and MARY, The Great Book Collectors.
With 10 Illustrations. Post 8vo, 6s. net. {Book's about Books )
94 Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co.'s
FLETCHER, W. YOUNGER, English Bookbindings in the
British Museum. With 66 plates. Printed in facsimile by W.
Griggs. Folio, limited to 500 copies, ;^3 3^-. net.
HARDY, W. J., Book Plates, With Frontispiece and 36
Illustrations of Book Plates. Post 8vo, ds. net. [Books about
Books.)
HORNE, H. P., The Binding of Books. With 12 Plates.
Post 8vo, 6s. net. {Books about Books.)
IBRAHIM, HIMLY, Prince, The Literature of Egypt and
the Soudan. A Bibliography, comprising Printed Books, Periodical
Writings, and Papers of Learned Societies, Maps and Charts,
Ancient Papyri Manuscripts, Drawings, etc. 2 vols. Demy 4to,
Japan, Bibliography of. {See Oriental.)
MADAN, FALCONER, Books in Manuscript. With 8 Plates.
Post 8vo, 6s. net. [Books about Books.)
POLLARD, A. W., Early Illustrated Books. With Plates.
Post Svo, 6s. net. [Books abotit Books. )
POOLE, W. F., Index to Periodical Literature. Revised
Edition. Royal Svo, £i i^s. 6d. net. First Supplement, 1882
to 1887. Royal 8vo, £2 net. Second Supplement, 1887 to
1892. Royal 8vo, £2 net.
SLATER, J. H., Early Editions. A Bibliographical Survey
of the Works of some Popular Authors. Svo, 21 i-. net. Interleaved
with Writing Paper, 26^-. net.
SWINBURNE, Bibliography of Algernon Charles Swinburne
from 1857 to 1887. Crown Svo, vellum, gilt, 6s.
THACKERAY, Bibliography of. Sultan Stork, and other
Stories and Sketches, 1829-44, now first collected. To which is
added the Bibliography of Thackeray. Large Svo, \os. 6d.
THOMPSON, Sir E. MAUNDE, English Illuminated Manu-
scripts. With 21 Plates in Chromo- Lithography. Imperial Svo,
iSj'. net.
TRUBNER'S Bibliographical Guide to American Literature
from 1817 to 1887. Svo, half bound, iSj.
Catalogue of Dictionaries and Grammars of the Principal
Languages and Dialects of the World. Second Edition. Svo, 5^.
Classified List of Publications. 95
PERIODICALS AND SOCIETIES.
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland,
Journal of. Quarterly. 5^.
Antiquarian Magazine and Bibliographer, The. Edited by
Edward Walford and (i. W. Redway. Complete in 12 vols.
8vo, £2, net.
Asiatic Society of Bengal, Journal. 8vo, 3^. per number.
Proceedings, is. per number.
Asiatic Society, Royal. Bombay Branch. Journal Irregular.
Asiatic Society, Royal. Ceylon Branch. Journal. Irregular.
Asiatic Society, Royal. China Branch. Journal. Irregular.
Asiatic Society, Royal. Straits Branch. Journal. Irregular.
Asiatic Society. Japan Branch. Transactions. Irregular.
Bibliotheca Sacra. Quarterly, 3j'. 6^. Annual Subscription, 1 41.
British Chess Magazine. Monthly, 9^.
Calcutta Review. Quarterly, 6s.
Imperial Institute Year Book. los. net.
Index Medicus. A Monthly Classified Record of the Current
Medical Literature of the World. Annual Subscription, 50J-.
Indian Antiquary. A Journal of Oriental Research in
Archeeolc^, History, Literature, Languages, Philosophy, Religion,
Folk-lore, etc. Annual Subscription, £1 16s.
Indian Evangelical Review. Annual Subscription, los.
Psychical Research Society, Proceedings. Irregular.
Sanitarian. Devoted to the Preservation of Health, Mental
and Physical Culture. Monthly. Annual Subscription, 18^-.
Science. Weekly. Annual Subscription, jQi 2s.
Scientific American. Weekly. Annual Subscription, i2>s.
Scientific American, Export Edition. Monthly. Annual
Subscription, £1 $s.
96 Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co.'s List.
Scientific American, Building Edition. Monthly. Annual
Subscription, 14^-.
Supplement. Weekly. Annual Subscription, ;£i 51.
Tropical Agriculturist. Monthly. Annual Subscription,;^ i 6^.
Parents' Review. Monthly, 6d.
Messrs. KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., Ltd.,
are also Publishers to the following Societies, etc., lists
of publications of which may be had on application :
The Chaucer Society.
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The British Museum.
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Plymouth: W. Br^ndoi^ and Son, Printers
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