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 PIGNOTTI'S 
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 VOL. I. 

 

 
 

 
 The ARC ii of CONSTANTS
 
 FROM THE KAKUFS7 KKA ; COMPRISING 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 REVIVAL OF LETTERS, SCIENCES, AND ' ARTS, 
 
 IN'TERSPERSKO WITH FSSAYS ON IMPORTANT LITERARY AND 
 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS; INCLUDING 
 
 MEMOIRS OF THE FAMILY OF THE MEDICI. 
 
 TRANSLATED FUOJI THE ITALIAN OK 
 
 LORENZO PIGNOTTI > KOYAL AND GRAND DUCAL HISTGIUOGK AHHER, ETC. 
 
 BY JOHN BROWNING, ESQ. 
 
 DEPUTY PURVEYOR OF THE FORCES; SEVERAL YEARS RESIDENT 
 IV FLORENCE. 
 
 IX FOUR VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR YOUNG, BLACK, AND YOUNG, 
 
 2, TAVISTOCK STREET. 
 MDCCCXXVI.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 Translator's Preface . yii 
 
 Preface by the Italian Editors xi 
 
 An Historical Account of the Life and Writings of Lorenzo 
 Pignotti ..... xxvii 
 
 CHAPTER I. Of the Etrurians Their Splendour Division of 
 Etruria Principal Cities Government Wars with Rome 
 The Etrurians become effeminate Are finally subjugated to 
 the Romans . .... 1 
 
 CHAP. II. The Etrurian Alphabet Labours of Dempster 
 Etrurian Academy of Cortona Disputes between Gori and 
 Maffei Opinions of Lanzi Philosophy of the Etrurians 
 Their Ideas of the Supreme Being Lampredi on the Birth of 
 Pythagoras Respect of the Romans for the Learning of the 
 Etrurians Their Notions of Astronomy Useful Inventions 
 Theatrical Representations Documents published by Curzio 
 Inghirami Works of the Etrurians in bronze Ruins of 
 Paestum Opinions of Winkelmann Etrurian Vases . 63 
 
 CHAP. III. Roman Citizenship granted to Foreigners Mecse- 
 nas Vicissitudes of Tuscany on the Invasion of the Barba- 
 rians Siege of Florence Valour of Stilicho, and Death of 
 Radagasio Alaric at Rome Ransom and Plunder of that 
 City Reign of Valentine Enterprises and Death of Ezio 
 End of the Empire of the West Odoacres, King of Italy 118 
 
 CHAP. IV. Enterprises of Theodoric, King of the Goths His 
 Government Cassiodorus, Boethius, and Amalasontha Beli- 
 sarius Narses End of the Kingdom of the Goths Reign of
 
 iv CONTENTS. 
 
 the Longobards Alboin Rosamond Gundeberg, Wife of Ro- 
 tari Desiderius Duke of Tuscany, last King of the Longo- 
 bards Code of the Longobards Beginning of the Power of 
 the Popes Charles the Great Reign of the Franks Longo- 
 bard Code corrected. . . . . 135 
 
 CHAP. V. Dukes, Counts, and Marquises of Tuscany Origin 
 of the Houses of Este and Brunswick Enterprises of Boni- 
 face Influence of the Marquises of Tuscany over the Affairs of 
 Italy Hugo is elected King His Discords with the Marquis 
 Lambert Exclusion of the Bavarian Line from the Dominion 
 of Tuscany Line of Provence Hugo, called the Great, go- 
 'verns justly His Death Vicissitudes of Hugo and the other 
 Kings of Italy Adventures of Adelaide, Daughter of the King 
 of Burgundy Boniface, Marquis of Tuscany His Magnifi- 
 cence, his Riches, and Death Matilda, Countess of Tuscany 
 Gregory VII. Henry IV. Pillage of Rome by the Normans, 
 and Death of the Pontiff, Gregory VII. Death of Henry 
 and Conrad, his Son Henry V., Emperor Power of Matilda, 
 and her Death ..... 1G9 
 
 CHAP. VI. Reflections upon the Vicissitudes, Manners, and 
 Customs of the Past Ages Judgments of God Duels Truce 
 of God State of Italy in the Tenth Century Knights-Errant 
 End of the Feudal Government . . . 203 
 
 ESSAY on the Art of War in the Lower Ages . 225 
 
 ESSAY I. Upon the Origin and Progress of the Italian Lan- 
 guage ..... 243 
 
 CHAP. VII. State of Tuscany after the Death of the Countess 
 Matilda Power and Enterprises of the Pisans Crusades 209 
 
 CHAP. VIII. Origin of Florence Her Increase Situation of 
 h'.r Walls Pandects found by the Pisans in Auialfi Various 
 Republics in Tuscany Government of Sienna Enterprise of 
 the Baleari, undertaken by the Pisans Other Acquisitions and 
 Power of the same . . . 273 
 
 CHAP. IX. Descent in Italy of Frederic I. Diet of Ron- 
 caglia Imperial Rights to the Regalia admitted Rebellion 
 of the Italian Cities, and the Lombard League Peace of Con- 
 itance-New League of the Cities of Tuscany Possession of
 
 CONTENTS. r 
 
 Sardinia given by Frederic to the Pisans Events in the East- 
 Enmity between the Pisans and Genoese . . 294 
 
 CHAP. X. Republican Government in Florence Demolition of 
 various Feudal Castles Internal Dissensions Factions of the 
 Guelphs and Ghibellines Wars Avith Pisa and Sienna Wars 
 of the Pisans with the Genoese The Emperor Frederic II. and 
 Peter of the Vineyards (Pier delle Vigne) Different Factions 
 in Tuscany Money coined in Florence Enterprises of the 
 Florentines New Wars and Enterprises of the Pisans Dis- 
 turbances in Florence Battle of Monte Aperti between the 
 Guelphs and Ghibellines . . . 305 
 
 CHAP. XI. Decline of the Guelph Party Council of Empoli 
 Magnanimity of Farinata, of the Uberti Family War with 
 Lucca and the exiled Guelphs Arrival of Charles of Angers in 
 Italy Battle near Benevento, and Death of Manefroi Reform 
 of the Government of Florence Disturbances which ensue De- 
 scent of Conrad of Suabia into Italy Enterprises of the Pisans 
 armed in his favour Battle of Tagliacozzo Flight of Conrad, 
 who is arrested, and delivered over to Charles Death of Con- 
 rad Peace of Charles with the Pisans, and with the other Cities 
 of Tuscany Peace between the Guelphs and Ghibellines of 
 no effect Civil War between the Pisans fomented by King 
 Charles Death of Pope Gregory X. New Agreement between 
 the Guelphs and Ghibellines in Florence Affairs of Sicily 
 Celebrated Sicilian Vespers New Change of Government in 
 Florence . .... 343 
 
 CHAP. XII. Power and Riches of Pisa War with the Ge- 
 noese Battle of Meloria, and Defeat of the Pisans League of 
 the Guelphan Cities against them Treaty with the Floren- 
 tines, and Cession of their Castles Faction of the Visconti and 
 Gherardeschi in Pisa Horrible Punishment of Count Ugolino 
 with his Sons and Nephews Reflections upon the Crimes 
 attributed to them Vicissitudes of the Government of Sienna 
 Death of King Charles of Naples . . 372 
 
 CHAP. XIII. Republic of Arezzo Power of the Bishops Ex- 
 pulsion of the Guelphs from the City War between the Flo- 
 rentines and Siennese Battle of Campaldino War between 
 the Florentines and the Pisans Capture of Calcinaia and of 
 Porto Pisano Change of Government in Florence Peace with 
 the Pisans . 398
 
 vi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. The Erection of Magnificent Edifices in Flo- 
 rence Third Enclosure of Walls Superiority of the Floren- 
 tines in Commerce and Letters Faction of the Bianchi and the 
 Neri in Pistoia Pistoia surrenders to the Florentines The 
 Ghihellines join the Bianchi ; the Guelphs the Neri Entrance of 
 Charles of Valois into Florence Power given him to reform the 
 Government Exile of the Bianchi Robert, Duke of Calabria, 
 is called by the Guelphs to Florence Death of Corso Donati 
 Disturbances in the other Republics of Tuscany Descent of 
 the Emperor Henry VII. upon Italy Arrives at Pisa Goes to 
 Rome ; whence he marches towards Florence Raises his Camp, 
 and dies at Buon Convento Origin of Uguccione of the Beech 
 Tree (Delia Faggiola) Makes himself master of Lucca 
 Battle of Monte Catini Principles of Castruccio, who is 
 arrested by the Son of Uguccione : liberated by the People, and 
 declared Lord of Lucca 413
 
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 A WORK, like the History of Tuscany by Lorenzo Pignotti, 
 appeared to the translator, during his several years' residence 
 in that country, an object of too great importance to be with- 
 held from the literary part of England. When he first made 
 known to his friends in Florence his intention to undertake 
 the laborious task, they, in general, approved of the project, 
 and few of them doubted of the probable advantage an 
 English version of such an history would prove, or that it 
 would form a valuable addition to the library ; but it was at 
 the same time suggested, that the very copious illustrations, 
 which adorn the work, and which are nearly sufficient to form 
 an history of themselves, would demand the most undivided 
 assiduity, and an extension of time beyond that which the trans- 
 lator contemplated. 
 
 Feeling, however, a due sense of the value of historical works 
 in general, and appreciating, with the most lively participation, 
 the unusual interest which the present history had awakened in 
 all elegant Tuscans and Italian literati, the translator was de- 
 termined not to suffer himself to be deterred from a pursuit 
 which delighted him, by any representation that might be made 
 of the labour to be encountered. The most pleasing ideas 
 were associated with the name of Tuscany: the cradle of 
 arts and sciences, the Attica of the Italian language, the 
 land, above others, of all Italy, which, in the period of its 
 prosperity and opulence, had opposed the strongest and most
 
 viii TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 effectual arm to the inroads of tyranny, or the machinations of 
 oppression, appeared sufficient and powerful motives for an 
 Englishman, whom long residence had familiarized with that 
 country, to offer an English version of its history to the British 
 public. 
 
 Still, however, a natural want of confidence in his own 
 abilities to render justice, however imperfect, to a work which 
 embraces, like the present, not only the usual narration of 
 political events, but which is interwoven with various ingenious 
 essays upon the important branches of literature, had nearly 
 appalled the translator. He feared that he might involve him- 
 self in a labyrinth, from which his exertions might be inadequate 
 to extricate him; and he saw before him a mass of detail, of 
 comment, of illustration, and erudition, which would have 
 demanded from translators, far better qualified for the enterprise 
 than he was, the most sedulous deliberation. 
 
 Upon perusing the original with all due attention, these dif- 
 ficulties considerably increased. The work was, from the 
 essays above mentioned, novel in its kind, and was divided 
 by the author into five books. These books could not, in the 
 translation, have formed each of them one volume, and a cur- 
 tailment of them could not, with justice, be undertaken. The 
 translator, however, trusting to the candid indulgence of his 
 literary countrymen, in submitting with the diffidence becoming 
 him, this his first attempt at translating a work, surrounded 
 with so many difficulties, to their notice, determined upon un- 
 dertaking the whole of it, which he has divided into the four 
 volumes at present offered to the public. 
 
 In the first volume, the conjectures and obscurities in which 
 the origin of the Etruscans is involved, are examined with pro- 
 found erudition and deep research. The division of ancient 
 Etruria, her principal cities, her wars, and final subjugation to 
 Rome, gradually prepare the reader for the history of one of 
 the most celebrated republics which arose from the ruins of
 
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. ix 
 
 the Roman empire. Imbibing from the Romans their valour 
 and love of glory, the Tuscans became justly celebrated by the 
 heroic defence of Florence, in the first irruptions of the Bar- 
 barians, and which proved the salvation of both Rome and 
 Italy. The long period which followed has been denominated 
 the Dark Ages of Tuscany, during which she became exposed 
 to numerous revolutions, and passing from the yoke of the 
 Goths to that of the Longobards and Franks, was constantly 
 oppressed by numerous tyrants, who held their authority from 
 the then king of Italy. After the death of the Countess 
 Matilda, Tuscany gradually constituted herself into republics 
 and Pisa, her wars, her power, and opulence ; the progressive 
 aggrandizement of Florence the factions of the Guelphs and 
 Ghibellines, the Bianchi and the Neri embrace a few heads 
 from the mass of interesting events narrated by the learned 
 author. The volume embraces two essays, analogous to the 
 time of which he treats : the first, " On the Art of War in the 
 Lower Ages ;" the second, " On the Origin and Progress of 
 the Italian Language." 
 
 The enterprises of Castruccio; the government of the Duke 
 of Athens, his cruelties, the conspiracies formed against that 
 odious tyrant, and his final expulsion, which constitutes a new 
 epoch in the Florentine republic, are narrated with fidelity, in 
 the second volume, and an Essay " On the Revival of 
 Sciences and Letters" is introduced, as appropriate to the 
 fourteenth century. The history then becomes one uninter- 
 rupted series of internal changes of government and dissensions 
 in the three republics of Sienna, Pisa, and Florence, until 
 Pisa, humbled and conquered, is rendered dependant upon the 
 latter. 
 
 The third volume contains the history of the family of the 
 Medicis, their splendour, riches, and persecutions ; the wars 
 in Lombardy with Sforza, precede a general detail of the affairs 
 of Italy, the invasion thereof by Charles VIII., the fanaticism of
 
 x TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 the Friar Savonarola, and, as Florence had reached the pinnacle 
 of commercial prosperity at the period under review, the very 
 useful Essay " On the Commerce of the Tuscans" is here intro- 
 duced. 
 
 The fourth volume includes the reign of the Cardinal of the 
 Medicis, Leo X. the various wars which resulted from Charles's 
 descent, until the government of Tuscany is finally constituted 
 into a grand duchy under Cosmo the First. The work concludes 
 with an Essay " On the State of Sciences, Letters and Arts, 
 generally at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the six- 
 teenth century." 
 
 If the Translator has succeeded in bringing into observation 
 a book which, from the standard importance of its contents, 
 deserves to be generally known to all classes of readers, he will 
 consider his labours rewarded ; and, in hearing the narrative, the 
 reflections, the profound investigations of Pignotti in an English 
 garb, accepted by a discriminating and liberal public, he will feel 
 happy in receiving so proud a stimulus to further and more 
 successful exertions.
 
 PREFACE BY THE ITALIAN EDITORS. 
 
 THE annunciation of a most important history from the pen 
 of the celebrated Lorenzo Pignotti may probably have excited 
 no small degree of astonishment in the minds of those, who 
 were hitherto unacquainted with him by any other title than that 
 of the first writer of tales and fables in the Italian language. 
 And, in fact, if the qualifications, which are indispensable for 
 an historian, appear, in general, to offer a perfect contrast to 
 those which constitute a poet, this difficulty becomes greatly 
 increased when the style, adopted by Pignotti in his poems, 
 which throughout breathe an air of elegance, of grace, and of 
 fire, is duly considered. Dante and Tasso, for example, would 
 probably have succeeded in becoming great historians, but 
 scarcely should we be of the same opinion with respect to Ariosto 
 and Fortiguerri How were it possible, it maybe asked, for the 
 same pen, which wrote the Anatomy of the Heart of an accom- 
 plished Lady, (/' Anatomia del Cuore a" una Donna galante) 
 to conduct us through all those political transitions and vicissi- 
 tudes, which laid open the gates of Italy to the descent made 
 by Charles VIII., and which afterwards obliged him to take his 
 departure, and even make a rapid flight ? How too can the face- 
 tious writer of the Goldfinch (Cardettino) and the Calash (Pado- 
 oanelld) presume to step forward in the narration of the events, 
 which preceded that celebrated descent, and boldly announce 
 himself to enter the contest with a famous historian, who, ac-
 
 xii PREFACE BY THE ITALIAN EDITORS. 
 
 curding to the opinion of a great man * will be considered as a 
 Tacitus \vhen the Italians shall become a nation? 
 
 The best answer that can be given to these considerations 
 consists in the history itself, which is now offered to the public ; 
 the picture which Macchiavel undertook to draw is confined 
 \\ithin far narrower limits, and, consequently, all comparison 
 therewith must be at an end : we nevertheless consider, it may 
 not be useless to reflect, that the same spirit of order, of per- 
 spicuity and of nature, particularly, which guided Pignotti 
 throughout the whole of his poetical productions, has been of 
 wonderful service to him when he devoted himself to write this 
 work. It has been said that poets are, for the most part, de- 
 ficient in the natural style, when they dictate prose. The 
 habit they have of seeking always for foreign ideas, or the 
 expression itself which is foreign, even when the conceptions 
 may not be so, habituates them to reject the most natural 
 expression, because it is too common ; and the least defect 
 they have is that of being guilty of an over nicety. Algarotti 
 has been charged with this very defect, who, although he ap- 
 pears throughout his works to have been rather a prose writer 
 than a poet, had nevertheless passed his youth in conversation 
 with the muses. If, too, in every writing that failure is to be 
 avoided, which advises the reader, more than any other, of the 
 great study and excessive meditation of the author, this failure 
 ought particularly to be banished from history, the principal 
 object of which is to detail the truth, which is but ill relished 
 by those who read affected and far-fetched phrases. And who 
 would venture to doubt of this, after that the expressions and 
 the phrases have been said to be in some measure the phy- 
 siognomy of the ideas? 
 
 And in fact, upon taking this work into our hands, we shall 
 be easily induced to acknowledge that the candour of mind in 
 
 * Alfieri.
 
 PREFACE BY THE ITALIAN EDITORS. xiii 
 
 the person who wrote it is wonderfully perspicuous in the ex- 
 pressions, which are at all times clear, natural, and never far- 
 fetched, and are given, above all, with that regularity and pro- 
 priety of disposition, which are derived from the order and the 
 disposition of the ideas. Two other important merits are to 
 be added to these two, viz., the impartiality and gravity with 
 which the history is dictated ; merits which are by no means 
 very common, and the latter particularly rare in a writer of 
 tales. But all, who were more nearly acquainted with Pignotti, 
 know that in the last twenty years of his life, he was far more 
 the philosopher than the poet : and when he took the lyre in 
 hand, after his fiftieth year, (from that affection \vhich always 
 brings us back again to the Muses, even when we have aban- 
 doned them,) the arguments of his poems clearly prove, that 
 he had long since abandoned the jokes and fooleries which 
 accompanied him in his youth. 
 
 Considering, therefore, that Tuscany was without a body of 
 history which, beginning from the Etrurians, offered in one 
 picture whatever memorable happened in this province, down 
 to the epoch in which it fell under the dominion of that cele- 
 brated family which, under the free government, had been its 
 finest ornament, he began, as early as the year 1793, to trace 
 out the first lines of it. 
 
 The obscure hints, which antiquarians, and other founders 
 of ingenious hypotheses, when speaking of the Etrurians, 
 give their readers, appeared to him sufficient, if not to 
 form great volumes, to compose at least a brief narration, 
 which might serve in some measure as an introduction to his 
 history. In this, he proposed to prove the great importance 
 of the Etrurians, in arms, politics, in arts, literature and 
 sciences, and mindful of what he owed to propriety, and 
 leaving to the inquiries of the learned, whatever is uncertain 
 and obscure, he hoped, in a brief treatise, indeed, but given 
 with the justice and precision which characterize a good
 
 xiv PREFACE BY THE ITALIAN EDITORS. 
 
 i iti/en, to vindicate in favour of Etruria, what appeared not 
 sufficiently proved in favour of the Greeks. 
 
 The Etrurians lost their name when they fell under the 
 dominion of the Romans ; and acquired another, but together 
 with it both fame and splendour, when they were enabled, 
 after many vicissitudes, to constitute themselves into free go- 
 vernments. The immense and ignoble period, which happens 
 from the year 473 of Rome, and which comes down to the 
 year 1115 of our era, is that, which usually most embarrasses 
 the writers of modern histories. Pignotti, however, imagined 
 he could include this period in one book, which, beginning 
 by offering to the eyes of readers, the principal cause of the 
 decay of the Roman empire, and the consequent servitude of 
 the Italians, in the ruin of the art of war, and continuing to 
 narrate all the revolutions and misfortunes which happened 
 from it, whether from the repeated invasions of the barbarians, 
 the despotism exercised by the feudatories, or the tyranny of 
 the powerful, comes down to the institution of chivalry, which 
 was destined to repress those excesses which no force had 
 hitherto been able to prevent. And in order that the reflections 
 of the philosopher may not be separated from the narrations 
 of the historian, he does not forget to introduce the consi- 
 deration, to what a degree of blind ignorance the human mind 
 had then arrived, particularly in the celebrated Judgments of 
 God, worthy of appearing in an epoch, in which shame and 
 contempt were annexed to the exercise of letters. Never- 
 theless, some little spark of illumination bursts forth occa- 
 sionally in the midst of the universal depravity even in those 
 times; and the philosophical reader, reflecting upon what 
 happened afterwards, is obliged to contemplate, with sorrow, 
 the ruin of the empire of the Goths. 
 
 But, as Tuscany makes but little display in this immense 
 period, if we except the domination of the Countess Matilda, 
 the author, by finishing the second book of his history after
 
 PREFACE BY THE ITALIAN EDITORS. XT 
 
 the death of that woman, who made both emperors and the 
 kings of Italy tremble, was obliged to change the system of his 
 narration, and adopt one which should be more copious, and 
 carry him less rapidly through the four centuries, which re- 
 mained for him to describe. Considering, too, that the manner 
 of making war in that age, which is unknown and become out 
 of fashion in our days, renders, sometimes, the almost con- 
 tinual narration of feats of arms in the ancient historians, un- 
 intelligible, he thought of preceding this tract of history with 
 a brief appendix of the Art of War in the Lower Ages, in order 
 thence to continue the narration of the events of the above 
 mentioned ages. 
 
 The division of these events into three great periods, offered 
 brilliant prospects to the mind of a man who undertook to exa- 
 mine profoundly the causes of the progress and aggrandize- 
 ment of the Florentine republic, and, a principal object with 
 one who devoted himself to write the history of Tuscany. 
 
 Florence being freely constituted, by that tendency which 
 a government, consisting of many, has to fall into the despotism 
 of one person alone, saw herself precipitated by degrees, in the 
 midst of factions, into the power of one of those imperial vice- 
 roys, who were for many years the scourge of Italy, and who 
 dexterously making himself master of power, and, availing him- 
 self of the discords and internal dissensions which prevailed 
 among the citizens, became, for a short time, tyrant over them. 
 The common danger, for a moment put to silence all con- 
 siderations of private interest ; the Duke of Athens was ex- 
 pelled ; his ministers were barbarously put to death, and the free 
 government again established. This period, which has a be- 
 ginning, an interregnum, and an end, must naturally have 
 offered to the historian, a complete part, and he included it 
 in his third book. 
 
 Liberty being regained by the Florentines after the ex- 
 VOL. I. b
 
 xri PREFACE BY THE ITALIAN EDITORS. 
 
 pulsion of the duke, that same moral force, which had served 
 to defeat it, must have been of infinite assistance to the heads 
 of that faction which knew how to make itself master of the 
 government after its fall, and, inasmuch as it had been greater, 
 to overcome the obstacles opposed by the tyrant and his sa- 
 tellites, by so much the stronger was the consistency taken by 
 that magistracy, which, under the name of Captains of the 
 Guelphan Faction, extended its authority over all the parts 
 which constituted the government of the Florentine republic. 
 
 Modern histories, down to the end of the last century, offer 
 no examples of a tyranny exercised in a free city, and under 
 the name of law, similar to that of a magistracy, which be- 
 came at once master of the liberty, of the property, and even 
 of the life, of every class of citizens. In the various attempts 
 they made to overthrow it, one family distinguished itself among 
 the others for its affection towards the lower orders of people ; 
 fomented their rebellions against the captains ; opposed the 
 measures resorted to by them to maintain themselves in their 
 monstrous authority ; and, their head being elected gonfaloniere 
 in those times, which were so favourable to those who aspired 
 to the supreme power, established the first stone of the foun- 
 dation of a new and extraordinary domination, which, after 
 having made its descendants arbiters for more than a century 
 of the Florentine republic, conducted them, after various vicis- 
 situdes, to declare themselves absolute masters of it. The 
 House of Medicis, without any title which distinguished it 
 among the other families, was not only the principal, but, by 
 means of its adherents, the ruling family in all the councils of 
 the government. As it was justly said, that in a military re- 
 public, the bravest man in it sooner or later becomes king, 
 o, in a republic of merchants, it is the richest who must 
 become so. The treasures, which were accumulated by the 
 Medicean House, would appear fabulous in those times,
 
 PREFACE BY THE ITALIAN EDITORS. xrii 
 
 particularly, when the substances of gold and silver were so 
 scarce, if we were not acquainted with the means whence 
 they were acquired, and the talents, possessed by Cosmo in 
 industry and traffic, were not well known. The authority of 
 that House, which began with the favour of the people, after 
 the ruin of the captains of the Guelphan faction in Silvester, 
 and was augmented in his children and nephews, proved firm 
 and constant from the first years of the life of Cosmo. He had 
 purchased, by his immense riches, the minds of all who were 
 to be sold in the republic, and with their joint strength and 
 votes he prepared himself either to intimidate or to oppress 
 those, whose minds were not sufficiently debased to suffer 
 themselves to be purchased. In vain his rivals, and the 
 most powerful 'and daring citizens attempted from the be- 
 ginning to oppose themselves to him, in vain they shut him 
 up in prison, and sent him into exile. They went too meanly 
 to work, to succeed in oppressing him ; and offended him too 
 openly that he could ever pardon them for the attempt. 
 Cosmo de Medicis, after a very short and glorious exile, was 
 recalled to his country, arrived in it triumphant, and proscribed 
 even too cruelly all his enemies *, increased in estimation and 
 authority, and, dying, left both the honour and the burthen of 
 government, to a son who did not resemble him. 
 
 But so great was the power attached to that extraordinary 
 domination, that Piero, although almost always sickly, although 
 far inferior to his father in talents, although betrayed by a de- 
 ceitful friend f, who caused to be broken, without his having 
 perceived it, the yoke under which he oppressed his faithful 
 
 * See the History, Ann. 1434. 
 
 t Diotisalvi Neroni, who induced him to demand again from many families 
 the money which Cosmo had lent them, (whereby various failures enstied,) 
 who, from being adherents to the House of Medicis, became its most impla- 
 cable enemies. 
 
 b 2
 
 xviii PREFACE BY THE ITALIAN EDITORS. 
 
 and numerous adherents, after a short period, triumphed over 
 the snares laid for him by his concealed enemies, preserved the 
 authority left him by the father, and bestowed it wholly upon 
 his children. 
 
 A horrible conspiracy, which extended its threads through 
 various parts of Italy, which was nourished by the hatred of 
 a most powerful family, only uselessly threatened to destroy 
 the two younger brothers, and extinguished the youngest of 
 them : Lorenzo de Medicis, having escaped the great danger, 
 by his prudence, sense and magnanimity, and by a generosity 
 without example, in the midst of a thousand risks which were 
 always growing around him, not only increased the power and 
 the splendour of his house, but became the greatest and most 
 respectable man in Italy. There was a time, in which the 
 principal powers armed against him, openly gave the Floren- 
 tines to understand, that he alone was the cause of the war : 
 but he alone, by his prudence, moderation and valour, divided 
 his external, and restrained his domestic, enemies; took a 
 share in all the political transactions of the Italian govern- 
 ments ; defeated the designs of the Venetians, at the Diet of 
 Cremona ; and, dying, left in the enjoyment of perfect tran- 
 quillity, this beautiful Italy, which has felt even down to our 
 days the effects of his premature death*. 
 
 This great tract of history, which, beginning from the liberty 
 regained by the Florentines after the expulsion of the Duke of 
 Athens, finishes at the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent, 
 could be hardly divided; and hence it was included by the 
 author in the design of his fourth book. 
 
 * The author treats in a masterly manner the hypothesis which is slightly 
 mentioned ; and thinks that, if Lorenzo had arrived at the age of his grand- 
 father, the invasion of Charles VIII. would not have taken place, and con- 
 sequently that contest, which has never terminated, would not have begun. 
 See History, Ann. 1492.
 
 PREFACE BY THE ITALIAN EDITORS. xix 
 
 With the death of Lorenzo the star of the Medicean family 
 was for a moment eclipsed ; and Italy saw the three sons *, 
 wandering, proscribed, and fugitive, imploring from the neigh- 
 bouring princes f, a small share of that protection, which the lat- 
 ter would have been fortunate at other times to have merited from 
 the father of the former. But if, with the death of Lorenzo, talents 
 and sense were also lost, there were, nevertheless, in foreign 
 countries, those remains of the hereditary riches J with 
 which, after a long peregrination, and the death of the elder 
 brother, the young Medicis were enabled to purchase the 
 arms of the viceroy , which had escaped from the defeat of 
 Ravenna, return with these by force into their own country, 
 and open themselves a road to greater riches. The whole of 
 Italy gloried in giving to the age which began, the name of 
 the proscribed, who, under the humble garb of a mendicant 
 friar, escaped from the fury of his enemies || ; and all Christian 
 Europe, prostrate at his feet, adored him upon the ponti- 
 fical throne. That companion of his exile, that private che- 
 valier of Rhodes^, who was afterwards considered the soul 
 of his councils, (after a short pontificate**, which makes us 
 desire with sorrow for that of Leo,) was destined to succeed 
 him, and to prove, in the midst of the frightful and horrible 
 calamities with which he was shaken, that Fortune makes a game 
 
 * Piero, who died when passing the Garigliano, in 1 504 : the Cardinal 
 John, who was afterwards Pope Leo X., and Julius, who became Dnke of 
 Nemours . 
 
 t At Bologna, where Bentivoglio received Piero coldly ; and at Urbino, 
 where Julius was treated with magnificence, and singular marks of friendship. 
 In the hands of the, agents of their traffic ; although Lorenzo had con- 
 verted many castles into the purchase of many large estates in Tuscany. 
 Raimond of Cardona, Viceroy of Naples. 
 Giovio and Nardi say that he fled in the disguise of a friar. 
 lj Julius de Medicis, son of Julius, slain in the conspiracy of the Pazzi, and 
 who was afterwards Clement VII. 
 ** That of Adrian VI. See An. 1523.
 
 xx PREFACE BY THE ITALIAN EDITORS. 
 
 sometimes of her favourites, and after having tossed them from 
 the top to the bottom of her wheel, brings them back again, 
 with a rapidity greater than their fall, to the summit of it. 
 Clement VII. hardly escaped from the horrid sacking given 
 to Rome by the impious soldiers of Charles V., re-con- 
 quered with their arms and their blood the authority that his 
 family had lost at that time in Florence; succeeded in be- 
 coming related to the royal House of France ; and, upon his 
 death, left the last branch of the family of Cosmo, Father of 
 the Country, under a more modest title, absolute lord of all 
 the states which once formed the dominion of the Florentine 
 republic. The city of Sienna alone, which had been able to 
 maintain herself free, was soon obliged to yield to the arms, 
 artifice, and the fortune, of Cosmo I. 
 
 Here, then, is the History of Tuscany, down to the grand 
 duchy, divided into five books, each distinguished by a parti- 
 cular character. In the first, we wander amongst conjectures 
 and obscurities : in the greater part of the second, an universal 
 barbarism covers the surface of the globe; the right of force 
 and arms is the only one that can be invoked : the third is a 
 continual narration of dissensions, turbulencies, and wars : in 
 the fourth, we see a private family becoming gradually arbiter 
 of a powerful republic, and afterwards still more preponde- 
 rating in the fluctuating politics of Italy : in the fifth, finally, 
 the invasion of Charles VIII. begins, and a contest ensues, 
 which will never have a termination. 
 
 In the greater part of the histories of other countries there is 
 little to be added after the narration of the political events ; 
 in the History of Tuscany, they form, perhaps, the least 
 important part of it. 
 
 After the invasion of the barbarians various dialects began 
 to be introduced into the different provinces of Italy, derived 
 from their ancient language, ingrafted into that of the 
 conquerors. Tuscany saw the first writers, who formed,
 
 PREFACB BY THE ITALIAN EDITORS. xxi 
 
 polished, and civilized, that dialect which afterwards became 
 the noble language of Italy. So fine a boast was not to be 
 lightly touched upon ; and the author, consequently, designed 
 to write an Essay upon the Origin of the Italian Language. 
 
 At the word of the greatest writer*, which modern nations 
 boast of, literati and artists arose on every side of Tuscany, 
 who taught the manner of chanting elegantly in verse, of writing 
 elegantly in prose, of handling the pencil, of animating marble, 
 and casting bronze ; and hence a neiv Essay was prepared upon 
 the Revival of Letters, Sciences, and Arts, m the works of Dante, 
 Petrarch, Boccaccio, Donatello, and Brunelleschi. 
 
 In the revival, in the mean time, of architecture, immense trea- 
 sures were lavished by the Siennese upon building their sumptuous 
 cathedral; by the Pisans, upon their magnificent Campo Santo, 
 one of the finest monuments of the age ; by the Florentines, in 
 order to rival, in their churches, palaces and public galleries t, 
 whatever was to be found of magnificent in antiquity. How was 
 it possible, every one would ask, for a people, who were shut up 
 within the confines of a province which is not very fertile, to 
 arrive at such vast riches, which enable them to raise buildings 
 worthy of the Romans themselves ? Hence, therefore, appeared 
 the necessity of giving a succinct idea of this extraordinary 
 prosperity in an Essay upon the Commerce of the Tuscans, which 
 accompanies the fourth Book, wherein the many contempo- 
 rary external warlike enterprises, which were fed by those 
 immense riches, are narrated. 
 
 * A difference should always be made between the author and the writings. 
 The divine comedy is not the greatest work of the genius of moderns ; 
 but he who wrote that work in those times is the greatest of all who have 
 appeared since. 
 
 f That of Orgagna above all, which is properly styled by the learned 
 Signior Cicognera, (vol. 1, p. 462,) of his History of Sculpture, the finest 
 portico in the world.
 
 xxii PREFACE BY THE ITALIAN EDITORS. 
 
 The age of Lorenzo de Medicis finally, and the beginning 
 of the other of Leo, recalling to the memory that of Peri- 
 cles, justly invited the historian to consecrate his talents to the 
 memory of those great men, who do eternal honour to our 
 native country, which, in spite of jealousy and envy, always 
 maintains as honourable a post as any other province of Italy*. 
 Leoniceno, in medicine ; the Socini, in law ; Toscanelli, in ma- 
 thematics; Guicciardini, in history ; Macchiavel, both in history 
 and politics ; Poliziano, in poetry ; Casa, in eloquence ; Ghiberti, 
 Leonardo, the Frate, Andrea del Sarto, Cellini, Buonarrotti, 
 in fine arts ; and the unique Leo Baptist Alberti, in all, 
 {because he was at once a mathematician, a natural philosopher, 
 a poet, a critic, a moralist, an architect, a sculptor, and a 
 painter) form a constellation of genius, without speaking of 
 lesser ones, equals to whom we are doubtful whether Greece 
 herself can boast of. If this constellation of genius was 
 formed to elevate the mind of any writer, much more must it 
 have attracted the particular attention, and inflamed the heart, of 
 him who had passed his years in the cultivation and in the exa- 
 mination of all the works derived from the arts of the beautiful. 
 A final Essay was then arranged upon the State of Sciences, 
 Letters and Arts, at the end of the fifteenth, and beginning of 
 the sixteenth, centuries, which forms alone an entire volume of 
 the whole work, and is, without doubt, its finest ornament. 
 
 The author, having in this manner designed and filled up 
 some parts of his workt, devoted himself to make a minute 
 research into every corner of the Florentine archives, which 
 
 * Tuscany, in poetry, (to say nothing of others) has reckoned in our days 
 Pignotti, Florentine, and Tantoni. We know not among contemporaries 
 if, upon an equal population, any other province could offer a greater number 
 of poets of equal merit. 
 
 f Those particularly which belong exclusively to literature, and those which 
 re too well known to stand in need of historical aid and documents.
 
 PREFACE BY THE ITALIAN EDITORS. xxiii 
 
 although diligently examined both by Monsignor Fabbroni 
 and by the learned friends of the celebrated Roscoe *, never- 
 theless offered him many unpublished Documents. He read 
 all the manuscript histories and most important chronicles, 
 as well as the very voluminous Diary of Burcardo, which is 
 preserved in the Laurentian library, and the shorter one of 
 Paride Grassi ; and, after having reaped an ample harvest of 
 intelligence, began to write his work from beginning to end- 
 The least discerning part of our readers will perceive, that the 
 narration acquires force and vigour as the interest increases, 
 and the events arise ; in the same time that the differ- 
 ent Essays, composed at various times, and a fruit, in great 
 part, of the many and judicious reflections, arising from the 
 reading of the writers of whom he speaks, shine refulgent with 
 the most brilliant colours. The last part alone, which is the 
 period of history, rendered famous both by the great events 
 which happened in Italy and the pen of Guicciardini, appears 
 dictated by him with greater vigour than the rest. With an 
 emulation, which rivals his strength and profoundness, he 
 appears to take courage from the difficult situation in which he 
 is placed. The firm and daring character of Capponi, the 
 audacious eloquence of Savonarola, the profound reasonings of 
 the Florentine secretary, the goodness of character in Julius 
 de Medicis, the inconsiderate temper of Piero, the magnifi- 
 cence and excessive prodigality of Leo, the arrogance of 
 Lorenzo *|*, the cunning mildness of Julius, (as long as he was 
 in the government of Florence,) and his double-minded cha- 
 racter and pusillanimity after he was elevated to the mitre, all 
 is brilliantly treated in a more confined picture, but a more 
 animated and varied one than that which is drawn by the 
 
 * The canon Bandini, and the British resident minister Penrose. 
 f Son of Piero, who was afterwards Duke of Urbino, the same to whom 
 Macchiavd dedicated his book del Principe.
 
 xxir PREFACE BY THE ITALIAN EDITORS. 
 
 greater part of the writers of the Florentine History, who, in 
 the midst of the merits they possess, are mostly deficient in 
 propriety of measure*. 
 
 Having written a work, which would have demanded the 
 labours of half a century, and after having, in great mea- 
 sure, copied and corrected it with his own handt, it was still 
 deficient in that polish, which authors ure wont to give to their 
 works, when they correct the proofs of the press. Alfieri, per- 
 suaded of this truth, said that a manuscript work was a book 
 half made, which can only receive its last perfection from the 
 anxious and indefatigable hand of the author, who presides over 
 the edition, and corrects every error in it. 
 
 Pignotti was now making every preparation to give his work 
 his last attention, when the French government caused the 
 celebrated law upon the press to be published, by which law 
 (without saying any thing of the rest) authors were obliged to 
 send their manuscripts to the Censure three hundred leagues 
 distant from their place of domicile. He then gave up every 
 idea of giving his history to the world, and waited for better 
 times. Being shortly afterwards attacked with the long and 
 painful disease which brought him to the grave, he was 
 obliged to leave it imperfect. 
 
 After his death, however, a general desire was manifested 
 at seeing a history published, which was not only favour- 
 ably known to those few persons to whom the author had 
 confided it, but which was expected by many who were 
 acquainted with the author, to fill up a void in our litera- 
 ture. His heirs, yielding to the general request, 1 and sparing 
 no expense to give it a brilliant, elegant edition worthy of their 
 
 * It is understood of the writers of history of these times. 
 
 t The books 11. III. and portion of the IV. down to 1434 ; the Appendix 
 upon the Art of War ; Essay the First ; the greater part of the Second ; and 
 the whole of the Third, are of another pen, bat corrected by him.
 
 PREFACE BY THE ITALIAN EDITORS. xxv 
 
 author *, were, however uncertain of the method they should 
 pursue in publishing it. They knew it had not received 
 the final polish from the hands of the illustrious author; were 
 they, then, to leave untouched those places which were 
 visibly defective, which either negligence, haste, or the inten- 
 tion of correcting them, had suffered to fall from his pen ? or 
 were they, by making themselves the interpreters of his 
 wishes, boldly to correct them ? In the first case, what would be 
 said of his negligence by the many persons who, like the beetle, 
 seek only for impurities in the works of the most renowned 
 authors ? and what would the public say of their temerity in the 
 second ? In this state of uncertainty, they were already much 
 perplexed, when, reading the place of the fourth Essay, where 
 the author speaks of the Florentine secretary, they found 
 therein their best defence t. Every uncertainty, therefore, 
 ceased; and it was resolved upon, to publish the History 
 exactly as it was found in the manuscript. 
 
 * We speak of the first edition, 8vo., sold by Nicholas Capurro in Pisa, 
 1813-14. 
 
 f He is accused of having sometimes neglected grammatical correctness in 
 his writing. It may be said, in his defence, that the faults are so trivial, that they 
 are hardly to be discovered. He has been the first who has proved that we may 
 write with force and perspicuity, and neglect grammatical minutiae. Being 
 occupied with great objects, he has employed all his energy in describing them, 
 paying little regard to those rules, among which other writers are implicated, 
 who lose their time in discussing their words and their situation, arrest the 
 rapid march of genius, and unnerve their style. Fourth Vol. Essay IV.
 

 
 AN 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT 
 or 
 
 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 LORENZO PIGNOTTI.
 
 

 
 
 
 THE 
 
 LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 LORENZO PIGNOTTI. 
 
 LORENZO PIGNOTTI was born on the 9th of 
 August, 1739, in the opulent, polite, and popu- 
 lous town of Figline, in the upper valley of the 
 Arno. His father was a respectable merchant of 
 that place. Fortune, however, appeared at the 
 birth of Lorenzo, in destroying the possessions of 
 the father, as if desirous of opposing the future 
 celebrity of the son ; and it may be said with some 
 reason of him, as of an illustrious Roman, that he 
 was indebted to his ancestors for nothing. He 
 was, as it were, the child of himself. Videtur ex 
 se natus. 
 
 A paternal uncle, who had engaged in com- 
 merce with better success than his brother, called 
 Lorenzo to that city at a tender age; when he 
 became an orphan by the death of his father and 
 mother, together with his two sisters, Maria and
 
 xxviii LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 Ann, and his brother Edward. The issue proved 
 that this paternal uncle was not governed, in 
 offering protection to his nephew, by any senti- 
 ment, either of humanity, consanguinity, or of 
 commiseration, but yielded, as it were, in spite of 
 himself, to that duty which the law imposed upon 
 him, of maintaining him. He, however, neg- 
 lected not the education of his nephew. The 
 college of Arezzo, which has at all times been 
 distinguished for the best of discipline, for the 
 good method pursued in the studies, and the abi- 
 lities of the instructors, had now to number Lo- 
 renzo amongst its pupils. 
 
 The young scholar gave early proofs that his 
 talents destined him to occupy one of the first 
 posts among the poets and the literati of Italy. 
 He ran through, with a rapidity which excited 
 the surprise of his masters, the first classes of 
 humanity. Impelled by a curiosity which em- 
 braced, and endowed with a memory which 
 retained, every thing, he enriched his young mind 
 with the exquisite beauties of the Italian and 
 Latin classics; and the taste he made in his selec- 
 tion proved that he would, one day, either rival or 
 surpass the models he took for his guide. Emula- 
 tion is usually the incentive, of which the institu- 
 tions, destined to the scientific and literary education 
 of youth, avail themselves, in order to engage 
 them to study. The young Lorenzo had no need
 
 OF LORENZO PIGNOTTI. X xix 
 
 of this ordinary stimulus, and which approximates 
 so near to envy, in order to launch forth with 
 ardour upon the career of letters. He was sum- 
 moned to literature by an instinct which predo- 
 minated over him; and the distance at which he 
 left his fellow-scholars, by drawing him near to 
 his masters, rendered him at once the object of 
 the admiration of both. 
 
 Those, who, in the examination of the moral 
 qualities and of the dispositions of the mind of a 
 man, choose to attribute every thing to education, 
 will always meet with a strong objection to their 
 way of thinking, in the premature and speedy 
 annunciation which nature gives of the great qua- 
 lities inherited by some young persons, which 
 qualities they afterwards develop, when grown 
 up. Pignotti, involved in the miseries which 
 ruined his father, at a time that the latter had 
 retired with the slender remaining fruits of his 
 unsuccessful commerce to the city of Castello, 
 (whence he was afterwards called by the duties 
 of consanguinity by his uncle,) made poetry, when 
 he had not yet completed his ninth year, and his 
 verses evinced a genius far superior to his age. 
 He had hardly passed the class of students in the 
 seminary of Arezzo, when he was considered 
 worthy of being a master. 
 
 An ecclesiastic directed at that time the rheto- 
 rical studies in that seminary, and his poetic 
 celebrity would have been in want of nothing to 
 VOL. I. c
 
 xxx LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 give it eclat, if he had been born in a country 
 less fruitful in poets than Tuscany. The Piovano 
 Landi, (because under this name he was always 
 afterwards known,) a very pleasing literato, and 
 possessed of a classic elegance in composing Ber- 
 nescan pieces of poetry, appreciated the literary 
 talents inherited by young Pignotti, and cultivated 
 the innate disposition he evinced for making poe- 
 try*. He had not yet left the class of rhetoric, 
 when his poetry formed the wonder and delight 
 of the most cultivated persons of the city, to such 
 a degree, that the eyes of all were turned towards 
 the poet of the seminary. 
 
 The celebrity, which distinguished Pignotti when 
 still a young man, engaged Monsignor Philip In- 
 contri, who occupied at that time the bishop's 
 see of Arezzo, a prelate, who held talents in 
 estimation, and who was furnished with discern- 
 ment to distinguish them, to propose him to 
 
 * Picriotti has made an honourable mention of his master in 
 
 O 
 
 one of his tales, hitherto ineditcd, entitled Le Burle del Diaiolo, 
 (The Mockeries of the Devil :) 
 
 Trovossi a caso nn giorno non lontano 
 
 Da qucsto pazzo un prete a Febo caro, 
 
 Che gi& canto la vita d' un Piovano 
 
 Con Tosco stile il piu purgato e raro, 
 
 Uno do' piu bei spirit! e piu dotti 
 
 Che il fertil Casentino abbia prodotti. 
 
 Accidentally there was one day a priest dear to Plincbns, not distant from 
 this madman, who already sang the Life of one Piovano in the most pure 
 and choice Tuscan style, one of the finest and most learned spirits that the 
 fertile Casentino has produced.
 
 OF LORENZO PIGNOTTI. xxxi 
 
 occupy the post of Landi, when the latter was 
 called from the chair to the care of souls. But 
 neither the inclinations of Pignotti could have led 
 him to embrace the ecclesiastical state, as he 
 must have done had he accepted the invitation, 
 nor would the elevation of his genius have been 
 able to lower itself to the humbler details of in- 
 struction which were proposed to him*. 
 
 Then it was that he was obliged to manifest to 
 his uncle his decided resolution of devoting him- 
 self entirely to the cultivation of sciences and 
 letters, and the impossibility of tying him to the 
 ecclesiastical condition of life. This frankness in 
 the youthful Pignotti, which was authorized more- 
 over by the liberty every person should have to 
 select for himself a situation in life, displeased 
 the uncle, who rudely denied him all further 
 assistance, and limited the extent of his genero- 
 sity to so small and paltry an assignment, that it 
 
 * The following is the manner in which he himself describes 
 this epoch of his life, in the elegant epistle he wrote to the Cheva- 
 lier Victor Fossombroni : 
 
 Tra i preti, senza voglia d' esser prete, 
 
 In seminario i priini anni passai ; 
 
 E d' Euea le vicende or triste, or liete 
 
 Lessi, e del Venusin gli scherzi gai : 
 
 AH'ingegno abbozzato in questa guisa 
 
 Novelle cognizioni aggiuosi a Pisa. 
 
 I passed the first years of my life amongst the priests in the seminary, 
 without wishing to be a priest, and read both the doleful and joyful vicissi- 
 tudes which attended neas, as well as the merry jokes of Venusino: I 
 added fresh acquirements to my mind, which bad been sketched in this 
 manner, when I arrived at Pisa. 
 
 c 2
 
 xxxii LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 was scarcely sufficient to satisfy the first and most 
 urgent cravings of nature. 
 
 The greatest reputations have frequently de- 
 pended upon circumstances, the failure of which 
 would have suffered men, who have fixed the 
 attention of their contemporaries and of posterity, 
 either to have remained among the common 
 crowd, or to have been concealed in obscurity. 
 Maria, the elder sister of Lorenzo, had entered 
 into matrimony in Arezzo with Anthony Philip 
 Bonci, a man who, from his profession of a land- 
 surveyor and calculator, certainly had no great 
 means to assist his brother-in-law, but who had 
 received from nature a generous disposition, a 
 compassionate heart, and, what is of far more 
 importance, sufficient discernment to distinguish 
 that the talents of his relation were estimable; 
 and therefore deserved to be cultivated and pro- 
 tected. The brother-in-law made amends to 
 Pignotti for the injustice, and the harsh treat- 
 ment he had experienced from his uncle, received 
 him at his own house, prevented him from being 
 discouraged, and furnished him with the means 
 of continuing his literary and scientific education 
 at the university of Pisa. 
 
 Pignotti evinced, during the whole of his life, 
 the lively sense of gratitude he entertained for this 
 generosity displayed towards him by his brother- 
 in-law. He declared his native place was that of 
 the husband of his sister and his benefactor ;
 
 OF LORENZO PIGNOTTI. xxxiii 
 
 literary history may also with reason consider 
 him an Aretine, if, in disregarding the birth-place 
 of the individual, that of the birth of his celebrity 
 should rather be valued ; and this observation, 
 whenever the birth-place of Pignotti may become 
 an object of learned controversy, will be able, 
 perhaps, 
 
 Aux Saumaiscs futures epargner des tortures. 
 
 The force of genius possessed by the young 
 Lorenzo appeared proportioned to the different 
 situations in which he was placed ; and as, when 
 a schoolboy, he had known the manner of conci- 
 liating to himself both the admiration and the 
 esteem of his preceptors in humanity, in like 
 manner, when a student at the university, he 
 understood how to conciliate to himself also that 
 of his philosophical tutors. The celebrated pro- 
 fessor Sorea, known for the vast extent of his 
 knowledge, and his eloquence, made Pignotti 
 rather a bosom friend than a pupil. The latter, 
 after the example of the celebrated Francis Redi, 
 his countryman, had chosen the study of medicine 
 and philosophy, as that which was probably con- 
 sidered by him as most compatible with his predi- 
 lection for poetical labours. In these two facul- 
 ties he was laureated in Pisa on the 1st of May, 
 1763, and having gained the laurel, he transferred 
 himself to Florence, to commence his medical 
 practice in the royal hospital of that city. 
 
 The genius of Pignotti acquired at that epoch
 
 xxxiv LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 a more vast theatre, upon which it could make 
 its temperament known. Collecting, with a pru- v 
 dence not very frequent in young cultivators of 
 the Muses, what was necessary for his own useful 
 and decorous establishment, whereby he could 
 liberate his brother-in-law from the burthen of 
 maintaining him, and which he felt due to the 
 natural impulse which led him exclusively to 
 devote himself to letters and poetry, he endea- 
 voured also to acquire a name in medicine by 
 his eagerness for the practical study of this art, 
 as he had already acquired, and was every day 
 further extending it, by his poetical productions, 
 which were recited in the most polished and dis- 
 tinguished societies of the capital, and had ren- 
 dered him the object of the wonder and of the 
 good wishes of all. 
 
 Pignotti, during his practical studies of medi- 
 cine, was admitted among the number of Apatist, 
 or indolent academists ; and what proves that he 
 understood, even from that time, how to unite 
 to an imagination, full of vivacity and grace, what- 
 ever the memory can possess of vast and useful 
 in knowledge, was the reception he gained, al- 
 though in an early age, from the learned composing 
 the so called academy of the Sibittone*. This aca- 
 
 * Goldoni, in the Memorials of his Life, gives a full detail of 
 this academy. As the said book, one of the prettiest of the kind, 
 parses through the baods of all persons, we think it unnecessary
 
 OF LORENZO PIGNOTTI. xxxv 
 
 demy, although it may appear frivolous in its ob- 
 ject, was a residue in Florence of those agreeable 
 literary societies, which had arisen amidst the riches 
 of every kind of works of imagination, and not ap- 
 pearing directed to any scope of true utility, 
 served, as it were, as food to the fine geniuses 
 who frequented them, and, as articles of mere 
 luxury, made a display of whatever we still pos- 
 sessed of esprit and erudition, after having ex- 
 hausted objects, however, of greater importance. One 
 circumstance proved how early young Pignotti put 
 himself on a level with the most accredited and 
 the oldest champions. He proposed a question 
 relative to an object of science : the Nestor of 
 that academy ought to have adapted the reply of 
 the sibyl to the solution of the question, and the 
 sibyl answered woman's hood, (scuffia}. Either 
 that the Nestor, at the moment, knew not how 
 to contrive the connexion between the reply and 
 the question, as it was his duty to have done, or 
 wished to give a mortification to the celebrity 
 which the young poet enjoyed, he thought proper 
 to observe that the sibyl's reply had been very 
 wise and opportune to the question, as far as it 
 treated of a theme more worthy to occupy a 
 woman's toilette, than the erudition of a literato. 
 Poets are not to be offended with impunity, and 
 
 to report what he says of it, it being sufficient to refer our readers 
 toil.
 
 xxxri LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 young Pignotti proved at that meeting the truth 
 of the saying of Horace, Facit indignatio versum. 
 In a dissertation, wherein the traits of an original 
 fancy shone forth, and the flowers of a classic 
 and exquisite erudition were seen scattered with 
 profusion, mixed with the graces of a lepid and 
 very piquant style, he proved the conformity of the 
 sibylline answer to the question, and was covered 
 with applause. 
 
 These literary controversies and labours of mere 
 academical luxury distracted not the youthful 
 Pignotti from the more serious and useful studies 
 of practical medicine, to which gratitude and duty 
 alike impelled him. He was soon matriculated in 
 medicine, with the applause of his instructors; 
 and, in the exercise of this lucrative profession, 
 was almost immediately placed in a condition to 
 exempt his brother-in-law from any concern about 
 the convenient subsistence of him. Born with a 
 strict sense of rectitude, although endowed with a 
 very fervid fancy, he knew, from his early years, 
 the method of making his dearest inclinations sub- 
 ordinate to the reflection of his social duties ; and 
 what will afford still more wonder, and serve as 
 example to those, who, when young, assume, as 
 necessary to poetic independence, the very natural 
 inclination to a dissolute life, and affect the impa- 
 tience of Ovid, without possessing his genius, he 
 dedicated himself, in order to obtain a permanent 
 and decorous post in society, to the exercise of a
 
 OF LORENZO PIGNOTTI. xxxvii 
 
 profession, the efficacy of which, like some other 
 illustrious sceptic, he was not much inclined to 
 believe*. 
 
 A physician, who is at the same time a literato 
 and poet, unites all the means and advantages of 
 making a brilliant figure in the societies of a 
 learned and populous capital. Pignotti soon per- 
 ceived the excellent effects produced by the Vise 
 employment of his talents. If, when he shewed 
 himself in the societies as a mere poet, he was 
 enabled to delight and attract the curiosity of all, 
 when he appeared therein as a physician, accre- 
 dited by the esteem he enjoyed from his masters, 
 and by the successes which had attended him, 
 delight was converted into a necessity, and cu- 
 riosity into a wish to possess him. An enemy to 
 every kind of that affected gravity, with which some 
 followers of Galen either cover their insufficiency, 
 or endeavour to add a merit of opinion to their 
 real merit, he professed, as physician, both in his 
 
 * Ebbi desio di rintracciar 1' arcano 
 
 Principle delle cose, e il cupo scno 
 
 Delia natura, ed un capriccio strano 
 
 L' arte a studiar mi spinse di Galeno ; 
 
 allor credeva in buona coscienza 
 
 Che ci fosse nel momlo questa scienza. 
 
 Ma la fallacia vistane e visto anco 
 
 Ir P astrologo e il medico del paro, &c. PIGNOTTI, ib. 
 " 1 had a desire to trace out the secret principle of things, the dark bosom 
 of nature, and a strange caprice induced me to study the art of Galen ; then 
 it was that I thought, in good conscience, that this science existed in the 
 world. But having seen the fallacy of it, and seeo too the astrologer and 
 the physician alike, &c."
 
 xxxviii LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 behaviour and method, all the simplicity and frank- 
 ness which distinguishes the good Tuscan school; 
 and he probably only wanted the wish to place 
 himself by the side of Redi amongst the masters of 
 the salutary art, in order to do so. If the medicines 
 administered to the mind are frequently more salu- 
 tary, or equally so, with those administered to the 
 body, Pignotti was not without the means in the 
 good sense, taste, erudition, and pleasing manners 
 he possessed, of being useful to his illustrious pa- 
 tients, and those were truly illustrious who, from 
 the first exercise of his profession, were intrusted to 
 his care. Amongst these distinguished patients the 
 Marquis Viale, of Genoa deserves to be mentioned, 
 who, being attended and cured by Pignotti in a 
 painful and obstinate ophthalmy, formed such an 
 attachment for him, that, upon returning to his 
 native place, he wished to have him with him, 
 spared neither entreaties nor promises to detain 
 him, and offered him an honourable and advan- 
 tageous establishment. 
 
 Pignotti, however, who had contracted an inti- 
 mate familiarity and confidence with the most im- 
 portant personages of Tuscany, and enjoyed the 
 particular protection of the illustrious president, 
 Pompey Neri, chose immediately to depend upon 
 him, as he expresses himself in a letter of the 
 llth January, 1767, addressed to his sister in 
 Arezzo, and proposed his friend, the Abb6 Cesti, 
 an Aretine, for the employment that had been
 
 OF LORENZO FIGNOTTI. 
 
 offered him in Genoa ; and refusing even a more 
 brilliant appointment which his benevolent protec- 
 tors of that city projected for him in Paris, he re- 
 turned speedily to his Tuscan protectors. 
 
 It appears that Pignotti, either calculating that 
 the profession of physician he continued to exercise 
 after his return to Florence gave him not that inde- 
 pendence and leisure so necessary to a cultivator of 
 the Muses, or impatient to have a wider field in 
 which he could display his eloquence and erudi- 
 tion, made this desire known to his illustrious pro- 
 tector, Pompey Neri, who thought he made a 
 present to his sovereign and his native country by 
 proposing him for the chair of natural philosophy, 
 in the new academy which the immortal Leopold 
 established in the year 1769 in Florence for the 
 education of the nobility. 
 
 Although this employment was not very lucra- 
 tive, it furnished Pignotti with the opportunity of 
 increasing his celebrity, and of acquiring new and 
 closer connexions with the most illustrious ranks 
 of the city, in the midst of which, although he was 
 not of an elevated birth, and was devoted wholly to 
 letters, he afterwards lived always beloved and ad- 
 mired. To this circumstance, probably, that urbane 
 and constant regard may be attributed, which he 
 always professed for persons distinguished by birth, 
 and that inclination which appeared always to lead 
 him to seek their society, an inclination for which 
 some gloomy and harsh minds have pretended to
 
 xl LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 do him wrong, calumniating him with the title of 
 adulator, and which moreover shews how greatly 
 his mind was sensible to all the social proprieties, 
 and of what importance he considered it to esta- 
 blish by his own example that communication 
 which should always exist between men of letters 
 and persons who have the means of protecting them. 
 Had Pignotti lived in the times of Lorenzo the 
 Magnificent, he would have had a place in his 
 heart, as well as Poliziano and Landino. 
 
 In the year 1774, Pignotti was elevated from the 
 chair of natural philosophy of Florence to that of 
 the same science in the university of Pisa. His 
 lectures upon a subject, of which it may be said 
 with reason, ornari res ipsa negat, contenta doceri, 
 were models of eloquence and taste. At a time 
 when that city had become, particularly in winter, 
 the sojourn of pleasure to illustrious and royal per- 
 sonages, who were allured to it to enjoy the mild- 
 ness of the climate, and a situation which art has, 
 as it were, torn from the hands of nature, in order 
 to render it more delightful and beautiful, the lec- 
 tures of Pignotti were frequented by those illus- 
 trious personages, whom the desire of hearing them 
 confounded amongst his scholars. In analyzing the 
 nature of bodies, and investigating their properties, 
 he gave to all an interesting complexion. The 
 seduced imagination, it appeared, was to serve as 
 incitement to reason for instruction ; the imagination, 
 however, was always the companion of reason, an
 
 OF LORENZO PIGNOTTI. xli 
 
 union which the taste alone of Pignotti was able to 
 render an useful method of instruction. He pos- 
 sessed both eloquence of ideas and of words, and 
 both appeared upon his lips embellished with all 
 that the magic of the extempore style possesses of 
 most interesting, together with a purity and cor- 
 rectness of diction. He was not master of volu- 
 bility of speech, which the common herd of orators 
 and listeners confound with eloquence, and which 
 is nothing more than verbosity and pronunciation. 
 He was, on the contrary, a slow deliverer rather 
 than otherwise ; and if the cause of the intrinsic 
 merit of his lectures could have been confounded 
 with that of his manner of declamation, or could on 
 that account have lost any of its merit, he must be 
 reproached with a certain monotony. 
 
 From this epoch, it appears, we may date the 
 project which Pignotti conceived of furnishing Ita- 
 lian poetry with a kind of composition which it was 
 still without in the midst of every other with which 
 it abounded, and to which he was indebted for the 
 high degree of reputation he enjoyed, both in our 
 own country and amongst foreign nations. We are 
 speaking of his Fables, which were given for the 
 first time to the world in Pisa, in the year 1782, 
 from the press of Pieraccini. Few works met with 
 like success; for, in a short time, they passed 
 through fifteen editions in Italy and elsewhere, 
 and afterwards they were increased to thirty. 
 
 The Fable of Pignotti is not of the same kind
 
 xlii LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 with that of JEsop and of Phffidrus, nor of those of 
 La Fontaine or Gray, although it approaches the 
 latter nearer than any other. Ornamented fable 
 is a composition for which Italian poetry is indebted 
 to Pignotti, and to the fine discernment which 
 he displayed even in matters of fancy. Some 
 fables of Crudeli present us neither with the pro- 
 ject nor the attempt at this kind of composition. 
 La Fontaine was enabled, in a language which so 
 readily lends itself to precision and conciseness, and 
 is so subservient to the intellect, whilst it adapts 
 itself so little to the imagination, to devote himself 
 to fable, the greatest merit of which consists in 
 rapidity of detail, and that fine simplicity which 
 our idiom is so little acquainted with that it has no 
 adequate term to express it like the French. A 
 poetic language like our own ought to give an 
 ornament to fable, which makes it appear with other 
 merits than those of the fable of foreigners of 
 whatever nation, a fable alike adapted to instruct 
 and delight all classes of society, so that it may no 
 longer remain confined in the narrow limits of an 
 instruction purely moral, and circumscribed in the 
 libraries of youth. 
 
 Pignotti, in order to disarm of her weapon that 
 malignity which, probably, affected to perceive no- 
 thing further in him than a poet, chose to prove that, 
 if his hand knew how to manage the pencil of 
 poetry with so much grace, it could, with equal 
 success, govern the style of sciences, and published
 
 OF LORENZO PIGNOTTI. xliii 
 
 his meteorological conjectures upon the variations of 
 the barometer, according to the theory of Monsieur v 
 Le Roi. In a conjectural subject the most brilliant 
 and most ingenious hypotheses are those which most 
 satisfy, and the better the book is written so much the 
 less the reader measures the degrees of probabi- 
 lity of the hypothesis. The conjectures made by 
 Pignotti are full of genius, and coherent, in every 
 part, to the system with the principles of which he 
 was proceeding to solve the difficulties of his sub- 
 ject. His style is clear, and gifted with a scientific 
 precision ; the gracefulness, which from time to 
 time adorns it, gives it an air of originality which is 
 never disunited from the productions of writers of 
 genius. The revolution which natural philosophy, 
 chemistry, and pneumatics, have undergone in these 
 latter times, has rendered some changes necessary 
 in that work, and Pignotti, always a follower of 
 the progress of his school, had already prepared 
 them ; but from the negligence or ignorance of the 
 bookseller to whom they were consigned to be 
 printed, they have hitherto remained inedited. 
 
 The Eulogy of Pignotti, which is, probably, now 
 receiving the last stroke of perfection from a learned 
 and celebrated pen, is intended to run minutely 
 through all the works, both in prose and verse, 
 with which he enriched the Italian literature. But 
 we cannot refrain from indicating those works of 
 his of greater fame, which, having formed an epoch
 
 xlir LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 in the history of poetry and our native literature, 
 have also formed one of them in that of his life. 
 
 One of the original and valuable characteristics 
 which mark the poetry of Pignotti is, that of uniting 
 all that is charming and varied in fancy with what- 
 ever reason possesses of the instructive and philo- 
 sophical. He has not written, with the exception of 
 a few imitations, either Epistles, Satires, nor a 
 Poetic Art, like Horace and Boilcau, but has given 
 to Italy a method of making poetry, which renders 
 him both the Horace and the Boileau of Italian 
 literature. It appears that the Graces under his pen 
 are despoiled of their attributes, in order to clothe 
 Reason and Philosophy with them. If he turns his 
 attention in his poetry towards the great, he knows, 
 like Boileau, how to intermix praises judiciously 
 expressed, with precepts of literature and morality 
 given with truth and precision, and the precept ap- 
 pears even to lose the air of being one, such is, as 
 it were, the gracefulness and vivacity with which he 
 announces it ! In the picture he gives of vice and 
 ridicule, he conceals his lash in the midst of the 
 roses, and causes it to be read with interest by 
 those same persons whom, probably, he had in 
 contemplation when writing it. 
 
 These merits, which embellish all the poetry of 
 Pignotti, whether we treat of his Fables or of his 
 Lyric Poetry, presaged a kind of composition, of 
 which they were to form the primary beauty, and
 
 OF LORENZO PIGNOTTI. xly 
 
 which, on that account, was to have been an ori- 
 ginal kind. In works of fancy and of taste it is 
 difficult to class the descriptions as we class stones 
 and insects in the cabinet of a naturalist, and the 
 creative genius laughs at the spirit of classification. 
 Italy possessed a kind of poem which, turning upon 
 the narration of a celebrated but ridiculous event, 
 deserved not the name of epic poem ; and to which, 
 therefore, the classifiers gave the name of hero- 
 comic. But this description, even from the pen of 
 the easy and pleasing Tassoni, was always con- 
 demned to an indecent scurrility, and the Muses 
 were not ashamed, at times, to speak the phrases of 
 the market and the highway. Despreaux had 
 proved how much variety of movement and grace 
 may be scattered in a subject with little matter to 
 work upon; and in Despreaux variety smothers not 
 the unity of the subject, in a medley of borrowed 
 episodes which destroy it. The movement does 
 not consist in uniting the mythologist with the his- 
 torian, the allegorical with the real, and in con- 
 ducting the gods of Olympus to a tavern ; nor do 
 the Graces, instead of smiling decently, crack their 
 sides with laughter like the women of the vulgar. 
 But, in order to keep ridicule in such a kind of 
 composition within its just limits, and render it as 
 much as possible spiritual, (may we be permitted the 
 expression?) an exquisite sense of decency, a per- 
 fect knowledge of all the gradations of human 
 VOL. I. d
 
 xlvi LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 follies, and of all the caprices of the civilized pas- 
 sions, become necessary, in order that a poet may 
 choose his models in the Conversazione, and not in 
 the markets. The union of poetry with the spirit 
 will be noted in the annals of our literature, in the 
 little poem of Pignotti, called the Present of the 
 Lock of Hair, La Treccia Donata. We do not think 
 that the translation is the touchstone of the good- 
 ness of the poetical composition, although it may 
 be so of the precision of the style. But the French 
 translations which have been made of this little 
 poem shew that, even deprived of the magic style 
 in which the greater merit of the poem consists, the 
 spirited allusions, the gracefulness, and rapid narra- 
 tive, the piquant painting of the characters, and the 
 riches of the invention have been preserved with 
 interest, even amidst the transparent indeed, but 
 always imperfect and obscure, powers of the transla- 
 tion into a language which is not poetic. 
 
 In the Eulogies of the Counsellor Tavanti, of the 
 mathematician Perelli, and of the Counsellor Ra- 
 nuzzi, professor of public right in the university of 
 Pisa, Pignotti paid a debt due to his love of 
 country, because those distinguished subjects were 
 either Aretines or nearly so. In the Letters upon 
 the Latin Classics to his friend the senator Julius 
 Mozzi, in doing nothing else than keep account of 
 the discourses he held with him upon many sub- 
 jects of taste, on occasion of the royal parties in the
 
 OF LORENZO PIGNOTTI. xlvii 
 
 country at Poggio a Caiano, of which we shall after- 
 wards have to speak more at length, so that it 
 might be said, 
 
 vestigia retro 
 
 Observata sequor ; 
 
 he proves how fine was his discernment, and how 
 exquisite his touch, in apprizing the beauties of the 
 chefs-d'oeuvre of genius in the two arts, so often 
 improperly called sisters, Poetry and Painting; and 
 the admirers of Tasso must pardon him for the 
 subaltern post in which he, nevertheless, appears to 
 have chosen to place him when confronted with 
 Ariosto, if on no other account than that of the 
 ingenious reflections he makes upon both poets. 
 
 It might have been supposed that, after so many 
 original and fine productions he had given the 
 world, nothing was wanting to complete the literary 
 glory of Pignotti. But he had conceived the project 
 of a work as vast for the multiplicity of objects it 
 was to embrace, as it was important for the dispo- 
 sition of the events it was to describe. We should 
 not be able to determine what were the motives 
 which engaged Pignotti, who aspired to take his 
 seat by the side of the historic muse, as he had 
 already sat by that of Poetry, to choose the History 
 of Tuscany from the most remote and obscure times 
 of Etruscan antiquity down to the establishment of 
 the grand duchy. But we ought to congratulate 
 ourselves and all Tuscans that his subject has not 
 been snatched away from our native literature, and
 
 xlviii LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 become, like some other Tuscan subject, the pro- 
 perty of foreign literature. The celebrated Gibbon, 
 called, by the strength of his genius, to manage the 
 pencil of history, was long perplexed about the 
 choice of the subject, which was to employ his bold 
 criticism, the pompous luxury of his style, and his 
 immense erudition. He relates, in the Documents 
 to serve as history of his life and his works, 
 written by himself, that two subjects delighted him 
 more than any other, the History of Swiss Liberty, 
 and that of the Republic of Florence under the 
 House of Medicis ; and says, moreover, that, having 
 given the preference to this latter subject, as he 
 considered it the most interesting, he had already 
 prepared many rich materials to compose it. If 
 Gibbon had put his hand to, and had completed, this 
 historical work, no other man, probably, would have 
 ventured upon writing the History of the Tuscan 
 Republics, after the finest part of this history had 
 been treated by so great and celebrated a pen. 
 It was the good fortune of our literature that 
 Gibbon, meditating upon the ruins of the capitol, 
 in his journey to Rome, turned his attention to- 
 wards the Decay and Fall of the Roman Empire; 
 and the History of Tuscany, in its most brilliant 
 period, and in the most interesting epochs of the 
 moral and political vicissitudes which distinguished 
 it, remained untouched, in order to exercise the 
 erudition of our own Pignotti. 
 This work, although posthumous, of which we
 
 OF LORENZO PIGNOTTI. 
 
 are now speaking, in order not to interrupt the 
 narration of his literary labours, because the true 
 life of a literary man consists altogether in his pro- 
 ductions, must have cost Pignotti long and painful 
 study, and a fatigue which was very ill compatible 
 with his already advanced age. Having been a poet 
 when a young man, he reserved the last years of 
 his life to the gravity of the historian. We should 
 be guilty of arrogance were we to wish to anti- 
 cipate an opinion upon this work. But it may be law- 
 ful for the author of the Account of the Life and the 
 Works of Pignotti, to note all therein which is among 
 the attributes of the man, and the citizen, rather than 
 the author. The moderation and the wisdom with 
 which Pignotti judges of events brought about by the 
 most uncontrollable passions of the man, and his de- 
 cided aversion to all those popular movements, which 
 some would be tempted to call democratic inde- 
 pendence, and which he always calls movements of 
 the mob; the veneration he pays, and the interest 
 he evinces in following up the origin and successive 
 aggrandizement of the Medicean House, around 
 which, as the centre of security and peace, the long 
 inquietudes which agitated Tuscany became ap- 
 peased and extinguished, prove the sense of rec- 
 titude which guided him in political affairs, and 
 the profound knowledge of human nature which 
 he possessed. This work, which is far more im- 
 portant than the Metamorphoses of Sulmonese, might 
 have received like those a greater degree of per-
 
 1 LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 fection under the pen of the author if he had been 
 in time to correct it, and in this respect we cannot 
 refrain from shedding a tear of sorrow over that 
 work as we are ready to shed many over his 
 tomb. 
 
 The History of Tuscany, to the completion of 
 which Pignotti devoted himself with all diligence, 
 produced two effects in the latter course of his life. 
 On the one hand, it obliged the state in justice to 
 grant him otium cum dignitate ; on the other, it con- 
 tributed every day to wear out more and more his 
 vacillating health. 
 
 He was dispensed in the year 1801 from the 
 public lectures, and in the following year was ex- 
 onerated entirely from the labours of his chair, in 
 order that he might enjoy more leisure to employ 
 himself upon the continuation and completion of 
 his historical work. He was promoted to the rank 
 of Royal Historiographer, and was declared coun- 
 sellor of the sovereign in all matters of public 
 instruction ; and finally, in 1807, he attained the 
 highest post of literary dignity in Tuscany, in being 
 appointed Auditor of the Royal University of Pisa. 
 
 But if Tuscany is to possess in Pignotti an histo- 
 rian who leaves us no reason to envy England for 
 her Hume and her Robertson, she is indebted for 
 it to the goodness and munificence with which his 
 Imperial and Royal Highness the Grand Duke Fer- 
 dinand III., at present on the throne, always 
 treated him. This best of princes, a friend from
 
 OF LORENZO PIGNOTTI. li 
 
 his early years of letters and the learned, paid 
 respect to the talents of Pignotti, by admitting 
 him into the select circle of men of science, with 
 whom he frequently chose to enter into familiar 
 conversation, and thought him worthy of increasing, 
 by his presence, the delights of his country diver- 
 sions at Poggio a Cajano, to which the sovereign, 
 in his goodness, frequently invited him. The 
 project which Pignotti conceived of writing a 
 Tuscan History exactly at this epoch, and when 
 he on that account enjoyed an unlimited celebrity, 
 proves that he considered he had not as yet duly 
 paid his debt of attachment to his native country, 
 and gratitude to his sovereign, if he did not give 
 Tuscany a history she was without. 
 
 The honourable office of the direction of Tuscan 
 studies, which Pignotti had exercised with so much 
 utility to public instruction since the year 1801, be- 
 came, after the year 1808, an inconvenient burthen 
 upon his shoulders. In 1809, Pignotti was attacked 
 with a stroke of apoplexy, which had the ap- 
 pearance of being nervous, in the palace of his 
 illustrious protectors and hosts, the princes Corsini 
 in Florence, where Pignotti, who had been ad- 
 mitted by the liberality and friendship of the 
 Grand Prior Lorenzo of this name, was also de- 
 tained by an equal trait of friendship and liberality 
 in the excellent princes his nephews, to whom the 
 society of Pignotti was always equally dear, as is 
 the memory they still preserve of him. From that
 
 lii LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 epoch, his friends and those who were most fre- 
 quently with him, began to remark a weakness of 
 memory in him, which continued gradually to in- 
 crease, particularly when regarding recent affairs, 
 although he preserved a most lively and ready re- 
 collection of ancient events. His intellectual facul- 
 ties were progressively further weakened by re- 
 peated attacks of apoplexy to which he was subject. 
 His inclination to tears proved that his vigour of 
 mind was no longer the same. His tours from Pisa 
 to Florence in the warm season, which he so much 
 delighted in, were wholly laid aside, and he re- 
 mained permanently at Pisa, a sojourn which was 
 reputed by physicians as better adapted to his state 
 of health. 
 
 Pignotti, when a young man, had neglected no 
 means of strengthening his physical constitution. 
 The game of the ball, of equipoising, the chase, 
 in which, however, he never gave proofs of great 
 dexterity, and above all, fencing, were the gym- 
 nastic exercises with which he endeavoured to 
 invigorate his body, whilst he enriched his mind 
 by study. In this latter exercise he found a com- 
 petitor in his friend the Count Frederick Borbolani 
 Montauto. He endeavoured also to recreate his 
 mind with pleasing distraction, was fond of music, 
 particularly instrumental, and was sufficiently skilful 
 in playing the flute and the mandoline. He cannot 
 be reproached with having given himself up to any 
 kind of excess ; and sobriety was one of his favourite
 
 OF LORENZO PIGNOTTI. liii 
 
 virtues. Having adopted the method of taking one 
 meal only a-day, he steadily adhered to the plan, 
 even to the last periods of his life, and probably 
 only allowed himself the excessive use of coffee, 
 which he loved with transport, and which, ac- 
 cording to his system, was to supply the place of 
 wine, from which he constantly abstained. 
 
 It would have appeared that Pignotti, by this 
 austere and methodic regulation, should have en- 
 joyed a longer course of life. But the strength of 
 nature which was already weakened by long study, 
 frequently protracted to a late hour of the night, 
 appeared to abandon his mind entirely, if it de- 
 serted not his body also with equal celerity. The 
 latter periods of the life of this learned man pre- 
 sented a very proper phenomenon to humble 
 human pride. Pope quoted the weakness of the 
 character of Bacon, in order to shew that no person 
 ought to be proud of the superiority of his know- 
 ledge. We can quote, not the weakness, but the 
 absolute death, of the spirit of Pignotti, who was 
 still animated and alive, in order to strengthen the 
 same moral precept. This great man, in whose 
 countenance every person might contemplate the 
 unaltered lineaments which mark the literato, who 
 had so often instructed and enlivened the societies 
 which had the good fortune to possess him, was 
 condemned in his latter days to the life almost of 
 an automaton. The incomprehensible nullity of 
 his spirit announced an internal and secret prin-
 
 liv LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 ciplc of universal weakness, and freed from 
 apoplectic attacks, he was assailed on a sudden 
 by a very furious inflammatory one of the bladder, 
 which took him from the world on the 5th of August, 
 1812, after religion had administered to him those 
 succours which his deplorable state of mind could 
 admit of. 
 
 The moral character alone of Lorenzo Pignotti 
 would deserve an eulogy of itself. Although we 
 have given some hint of it in the course of these 
 accounts of his life and works, we should not 
 think we had done sufficient justice to his memory 
 if we said nothing more of it. When, upon reading 
 the literary history of the men who illustrated the 
 sixteenth century with their works and writings, 
 we discover the indecent rage with which they 
 pull each other to pieces, we are tempted to believe 
 that philosophical paradox, which describes sciences 
 and letters as uniquely capable of corrupting and 
 degrading human nature, and this temptation is not 
 given to us sometimes from times so very remote. 
 In Pignotti, the cultivation of letters appeared to 
 complete a certain sense of moral rectitude, which 
 he never belied in all the actions of his life. Na- 
 turally, or at least in appearance, phlegmatic, the 
 placid nature of his manners stamped a new cha- 
 racter of goodness upon his deportment and dis- 
 course. Rendered superior to envy by the literary 
 successes which attended him since his early years, 
 either he knew nothing of it from a scnsu of supe-
 
 OF LORENZO PIGNOTTI. lv 
 
 riority, or could not know it from a goodness which 
 was innate in him. Inexhaustible in his poetic 
 talents, he neither knew that jealousy by pro- 
 fession, which often mixes gall and wormwood in 
 the ambrosia with which the Muses, according to 
 the saying of a celebrated literato, ought always to 
 live ; and he beheld with indifference, and fre- 
 quently with a smile, others in distant countries 
 appropriating to themselves poetic compositions 
 which were made by him, although they could not 
 say, like Paul of Martial, that the compositions were 
 their own by right of purchase. 
 
 As a public man, familiar with the great, Pignotti 
 merited their confidence, because he never abused 
 it; and when he became head of the public in- 
 struction he called himself fortunate alone, because 
 he was enabled to be useful to the persons he 
 valued. Young men who announced genius and 
 a disposition for study, found in him a protector 
 and a father. Admitted on account of the excellent 
 moral qualities with which he was endowed, and the 
 literary merit which distinguished him into the 
 society of the powerful and the great; enabled to 
 penetrate at times into the source of grace, he 
 apprized this favour first as a homage paid to 
 letters, and in the second place, as the means 
 whereby he could make those talents known, which 
 deserved to be either protected or distinguished. 
 And how many persons of talent in Tuscany would
 
 Ivi LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 have remained either unknown or neglected, had it 
 not been for the assistance of Pignotti ! 
 
 As a private individual Pignotti gave himself up 
 to the impulse of a beneficent heart without limits; 
 and it was a maxim he often repeated, that no 
 pleasure can be imagined to be more satisfactory 
 and pure than that which is derived from suc- 
 couring an unfortunate. A lady of quality, who 
 had made a handsome figure in the world, falling, 
 from political events, into misery in her old age, 
 had recourse to Pignotti, who assisted her with a 
 considerable sum of money, when the latter at the 
 same time thanked her for having had confidence 
 in him, and for having given him an opportunity 
 of exercising an office of humanity. After her 
 death, the heirs, hearing of this assistance, wished 
 to return the sum to Pignotti, who refused it, 
 saying, that he had been sufficiently recompensed 
 by the pleasure of assisting an unfortunate. 
 
 The tranquillity of his literary career, like that 
 of his domestic life, was not poisoned by any of 
 those displeasures which not rarely accompany 
 great celebrity. If he knew that he was not 
 without the invidious or enemies, (and who is 
 there, who, living amongst mankind, has them 
 not?) he never regarded envy, and feigned to take 
 no notice of the enmity borne him by others. He 
 never permitted himself any trait, either in private 
 or iu public, which announced a mind provoked by
 
 OF LORENZO PIGNOTTI. Ivii 
 
 the rancour of others : he was either silent upon his 
 enemies, or endeavoured to excuse them. As a lite- 
 rato, he was persuaded of one truth, which he often 
 repeated to his friends, that is, that if a work is bad 
 it is properly depreciated, and if good, it is of itself 
 sufficient to defend itself without the necessity of en- 
 tering into intrigues and disputes. He considered 
 the censures that were passed even unjustly upon 
 a literary production, as the best service that could 
 be done to the work, in as far as they dispose the 
 curiosity of others to read it ; and quoted for this 
 purpose the example of Hume, who said that a 
 writing of his, upon being attacked by Warburton, 
 went through many editions alone on this account, 
 whilst another, which had not enjoyed this honour, 
 lay forgotten in the warehouse of the printer. 
 
 Even in matters in which he was more at home, 
 and upon which he had greater right to decide, and 
 make the authority of his own opinion prevail, he 
 never arrogated to himself that impatient and de- 
 cisive tone which is so displeasing, even from the 
 lips of those who may be in the right. Pignotti 
 approved not either the style or the economy of 
 the drama of Alfieri. When this great and extra- 
 ordinary man was in Pisa, occupied in the project 
 of giving a true and perfect tragedy to Italy, he 
 did not fail to consult amongst others, Pignotti, 
 who endeavoured to persuade him by examples, 
 drawn particularly from Metastasio, that there may 
 be a sublime dramatic style without stiffness. Al
 
 Mii LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 6eri somewhat corrected his style, and Pignotti 
 had no small share in this change, which was 
 owing more to the manner with which the counsel 
 had been given, than to the counsel itself, because 
 another professor, who had pretended to impose 
 upon the high genius of the tragedian with the 
 tone of doctorial authority, became the object of 
 a pungent epigram. 
 
 The conversation of Pignotti, whenever he freely 
 abandoned himself to the effusion of his heart and 
 intellect, was at once interesting and instructive. 
 With a memory rich in the exquisite beauties of 
 the Latin, Italian, French, and English, classics, 
 and of the most choice anecdotes of the literary 
 and civil history of every age and country, he 
 possessed something with which he could embellish 
 every subject upon which he turned his discourse, 
 and to instruct without affectation in every matter. 
 Whoever knows little, and is obliged to make a 
 parade of his genius to say what he knows when 
 the opportunity presents itself, has invented that 
 proverb, that the immorality is offensive of any 
 man who is the first to pronounce that a trait of 
 esprit is worth the loss of a friend. The riches 
 of acquirements possessed by Pignotti, gave him 
 the means of spending them without injuring the 
 self-love of any one. A project was once con- 
 ceived of keeping an account of all that he said in 
 his conversation of the philosophical, the erudite, 
 the critical, and of original reflection. This project
 
 OF LORENZO PIGNOTTI. lix 
 
 was not carried into execution ; and if it had been, 
 the collection that would have been given to the 
 world, would have occupied a distinguished post, 
 and perhaps the first, in that collection of sayings 
 and thoughts in which it is uncertain if all belong 
 to the great men with whose names they are en- 
 titled. 
 
 The testament of Pignotti was the expression of 
 those sentiments of gratitude which his heart so 
 much delighted in. With a legacy, small, it is true, 
 for the subject to whom it was left, but precious on 
 account of the manner in which it was conceived, 
 he left a pledge of remembrance to the princes 
 Corsini, of the affection with which, during his life, 
 he had been always treated by the individuals of 
 that illustrious family. Mindful always of what he 
 owed his brother-in-law Bonci, he considered the 
 children of his sister who was married to him as 
 his own, and honoured them by constituting them 
 his general heirs. 
 
 The works of Pignotti will transmit to the most 
 remote posterity the lively image of his genius; 
 and two great contemporary artists, with means 
 less independent, it is true, of the injury of time 
 and human vicissitudes, will hand down the true 
 picture of the great characteristics which distin- 
 guished him, the Signior Peter Benvenuti, in a 
 picture which is preserved in the gallery of the 
 princes Corsini, and the Signior Anthony Santarelli, 
 in a model of relief in wax intrusted to him for ex-
 
 U LIFE AND WRITINGS, &c. 
 
 ecution by the Professor Rosini, and which he now 
 preserves. 
 
 The mortal remains of Pignotti, if we are to 
 believe hoc manes curare sepultos, deserved a place 
 in the midst of those tombs in the Campo Santo of 
 Pisa which awaken the memory of so many illus- 
 trious defunct: and we are indebted to the brothers 
 Bonci, his heirs, for the mausoleum, which will point 
 out, in that ample and venerable enclosure, alike to 
 contemporaries and posterity, the place where the 
 father of Italian fable terminated his brilliant 
 career. 

 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF ETRURIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OF THE ETRURIANS. THEIR SPLENDOUR. DIVISION OF 
 
 ETRURIA. PRINCIPAL CITIES. GOVERNMENT. WARS 
 
 WITH ROME. THE ETRURIANS BECOME EFFEMINATE. 
 ARE FINALLY SUBJUGATED TO THE ROMANS. 
 
 JL HE desire of boasting an ancient origin has always 
 prevailed, not only in families, but amongst whole na- 
 tions. Both the one and the other, by searching too 
 far into remote ages, lose themselves in the mists of 
 antiquity, and sometimes a convenient obscurity serves 
 to conceal a doubtful genealogy. Often, however, fable 
 has supplied the absence of truth, and raised a splendid 
 edifice upon a very slender foundation. There is no 
 nation which boasts a more honourable descent than the 
 Etrurians or Tuscans, nor is there, probably, another 
 whose origin is more involved in uncertainty, or more 
 enveloped in fable. The Pelasgi, whom ancient histo- 
 rians so frequently mention, were one of the two 
 wandering Greek tribes, Pelasgian and Hellenian : the 
 former consisted of men the most rude and savage; 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 and if any of them approached and established them- 
 selves in Italy, they had not for their object the civili- 
 zation and instruction of its inhabitants. 
 
 In endeavouring to trace this celebrated people from 
 foreign emigrations, nothing is more calculated to involve 
 the reader in perplexity than the various opinions of 
 early writers upon the origin of the Etrurians. By 
 selecting fragments from the works of those who, pro- 
 bably, themselves had followed uncertain traditions, and 
 by noting some similarity of custom, language, and 
 superstitious rites, their descent has been traced from 
 various parts of the earth. Even the most learned, as 
 Buonarotti, Maffei, Freret, &c., have wandered on this 
 ocean of conjecture with equal uncertainty. * One 
 infers their rise from the Egyptians; t anot ^ er fr m 
 the Canaanites; Ja third, both from these and the 
 Phenicians ; a fourth, from the Lydians and Pelasgi ; 
 others, from various parts of Asia, as far as the territory 
 that lies between the Caspian and Euxine Seas, cele- 
 brated for the subsequent emigrations of those hordes 
 of barbarians who effected the destruction of the Roman 
 Empire ||. From these various Eastern points, some 
 have conducted their tribes to Etruria by sea; whilst 
 others, searching into times prior to the art of naviga- 
 tion, bring them by land, and by a strange tour to arrive 
 in Italy, make them first penetrate into Germany. 
 Certain French historians, and among these Freret*!, 
 deriding such opinions, in order to establish the early 
 population of Etruria on a better foundation, turn them- 
 selves to the west, and deduce their origin from the 
 people of Trentino ; whilst others point out a route by 
 
 * Buonarrotti. f Maffei. J Mazzocchi. 
 | Scrv. in Virg. || Durandi. f Histor. de 1'Acadcm., torn. 18. 
 ** Guarnacci.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 3 
 
 which, immediately after the deluge, an Asiatic colony 
 came to Tuscany ; and, finally, there are those who, 
 instead of bringing into this province a Greek colony, 
 maintain that both population and arts were poured from 
 Etruria into Greece ; nor are there wanting conjectural 
 examples to support this opinion. Dardanus, founder 
 of Troy, is often called by Virgil and by Servius, a 
 native of Etruria, son of Corytus, or of Jupiter. Passing 
 from Italy into Phrygia, he becomes author of the Trojan 
 race, and founder of that celebrated city * ; whence it 
 follows, that instead of being the sons of the Phrygians 
 or Greeks, we become their fathers ! And Plato further 
 tells us, that the religious rites of Etruria had penetrated 
 into Greece^. 
 
 Leaving those to enjoy their scrupulous credulity, 
 who, willing to reconcile apparent contradictions, main- 
 tain that the emigration first took place from Etruria 
 into Greece, and thence returned to Etruria, we must 
 abandon those fabulous traditions from which innume- 
 rable volumes have been compiled. The exposition of 
 so many contradictory opinions is alone sufficient, to 
 confute their authors, and involve them in impenetrable 
 obscurity. It is not necessary that we should endea- 
 vour to trace our origin from any foreign nation, how- 
 ever celebrated : on the contrary, it must be gratifying 
 to our national pride, to know that we are citizens of a 
 country distinguished for arts and letters even from the 
 most remote ages. In the general uncertainty, every 
 Tuscan will readily embrace this decision ; yet he will 
 nevertheless acknowledge the probability that a Grecian 
 colony was formed in some part of Italy. But even 
 
 * Coryti Tyrrhena a sede profectmn. Virg. /En. 1- 7, v- 209. 
 
 Hinc Dardanus Ortus. Virg. ./En. 1. 3., v. 16. 
 t De Legibus. 1 
 
 B 2
 
 4 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 with this concession, he will reflect on the impossibility 
 of a miserable race of pirates or barbarians, who aban- 
 doned their native country, bringing with them those 
 elegant arts and sciences which flourished in Etruria. 
 
 The epoch of ancient Etrurian splendour preceded the 
 times of history, when nations less rude, thinking simple 
 truth too unimportant, wished either, to render it more 
 wonderful by mixture with fable, qr. more august by 
 covering it with religious mystery. The Marquis Maflfei, 
 one of those who have most distinguished themselves in 
 inquiry, and many others, believe every thing uncertain 
 that appertains to Italy before the rise of Rome. Then 
 it is that a ray of light begins to dawn ; but in this 
 obscure path we cannot tread with safety until later 
 ages. We can only believe that the kingdom of Etruria 
 and its splendour arose in the most remote times ; that 
 it preceded all the nations of Europe, and rivalled the 
 Egyptians themselves. This may be inferred even from 
 the uncertainty of its origin, from the loss of its books, 
 its historians, its language, (events which could only 
 have taken place in a very long lapse of time,) and from 
 many passages of the most ancient writers ; to which 
 may be added also the respectable opinion of illustrious 
 modern authors*. 
 
 Another natural observation may here be noticed, 
 viz. t that it is beyond doubt some kind of animal has 
 been entirely lost ; for in the books of Etrurian learning 
 some species of birds are mentioned which were totally 
 wanting in the time of Pliny f. But leaving obscurity, 
 and following again those liistorians from whose writings 
 some light may be discovered, Livy appears the most 
 worthy of attention, when asserting that Etruria became 
 
 Storia universale di una Societa di Lett. Inglese. 
 
 t Diod. lib. 5. Plin. lib. 10, cap. 15. Depicta in Etrusca disciplina.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 5 
 
 celebrated and powerful, both by land and by sea, far 
 before Rome ; in proof of which he quotes the name of 
 the Tuscan Sea, given to the lower and upper part of 
 the Adriatic, from Adria, a colony of the Etrurians, who 
 governed on both sides of the Apennines, and even as 
 far as the Alps*; that the Rezi or Orisons were of 
 Tuscan origin, and still retained the sound of their lan- 
 guage, however /corrupted. From many other writers 
 we learn that the dominion of the Tuscans extended 
 over all Italy. Etruria was divided into three parts, the 
 Circumpadana, the Campana, and the Media t- Her 
 limits became narrower afterwards, and by the name of 
 Etruria, generally speaking, is understood La Media, 
 which extends from the mouth of the Magra to that of 
 the Tiber. This was the most extensive line : on the 
 opposite boundary, the chain of the Apennines which 
 approach the sea towards the west, confine it, whilst the 
 Tiber, rising from the same mountains, and flowing 
 towards the east until constrained by the declivities, it 
 is obliged to turn towards the south to discharge itself 
 into the sea, spreads itself along the shore. This long 
 coast had various cities and ports, which, in the course 
 
 * The passage itself is worthy of insertion. " Tuscorum ante 
 Romanum Imperium late terra manque Alpes patuere : mari supero 
 inferoque, quibus Italia insulae modo cingitur, quantum potuerint 
 nomina sunt Argumento quod.alterum Tuscum communi vocabulo 
 gentium, alterum Adriacum ab Adria Tuscorum Colonia vocavere 
 Italicae gentes, hie in utrumque mare vergentis incoluere urbibus 
 duodenis terras prius' eis Apenninum ad inferum mare, post trans 
 Apenninum totidem, quod capita originis erant coloniis missis, quae 
 trans Padum omnia loea, excepto venetorum angulo qui sinum 
 circumcolunt maris usque ad Alpes tenuere. Alpinis quoque gen- 
 tibus ea haud dubio origo est maxime. Rhetis quos loca ipsa 
 efferarunt ne quid ex antiquo praeter sonum linguae nee eum 
 incorruptum tenuere." Tit. Liv. dec. 1, lib. 5. 
 
 t Cellar. Geograph. torn. 2.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 of ages, have undergone many changes. The ancient 
 Luni covered the last western point of Etruria on the 
 left bank of the Magra*. Her large and convenient 
 port, the present Gulf of Spezia, rendered her com- 
 merce flourishing, and her power respectable ; she fell 
 and rose again several times, was deserted and ruined in 
 the days of Lucanf; was again peopled in later ages, 
 and at this moment historians dispute her precise situa- 
 tion J ; her name remains to the adjacent country, called 
 the Lunigiana, which she probably governed. Continuing 
 on the shore towards the east, and leaving names little 
 certain, as the Wood of Ferrania and others, we meet 
 with Pisa, whose shore and harbour have so often 
 changed : situated upon the triangle formed at that time 
 by the junction of the Arno with the Serchio, this town 
 was highly adapted to commerce, the junction of the 
 two rivers forming a body of water sufficient to float 
 the largest vessels of those ages. In the celebrated 
 burial of the Tuscan coast, the sea has been removed 
 from Pisa, and her harbour changed. After Ercole 
 
 * We follow the opinion of Holstenius and Cellarius, rather than 
 that of Cluverius, who places it on the right bank. 
 
 t Desertae msenia Luna;. Luc. 
 
 I Luni might have been illustrated by a poem of my learned 
 friend Raimondo Cocchi, had not death immaturely terminated his 
 labours. This poem, entitled " The Ruin of Luni," was already 
 laid out in prose ; I have seen two cantos of it, full of imagination 
 and sentiment ; one of which was published by the Author in verses 
 of various metre, beginning thus : 
 
 Senti the batte nncor 1* onda marina 
 Sulle rive di Luni e freme il Vento, 
 Ma la citta de* popoli reina 
 E' fatta Campo, c vi muggi 1' armento. 
 
 It would have been desirable if the prose manuscript had been 
 given us. 
 
 Strab. Geograph.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 7 
 
 Labrone (now the commercial and populous Leghorn), 
 we come to- the Vada Volterrana. The neighbouring 
 Volterra, which, from her saline springs, produces the 
 salt for Tuscany, worked it also in the times of Rutilius, 
 by drying in the sun the stagnant water of the sea*. 
 Upon these salt-pits Rutilius contemplated the villa of 
 his colleague Albinus. Vetulonia, from the analogy of 
 the name with the wood of Vetulia, or Vetletta, we 
 must probably place near the little river Cornia, which 
 falls into the hot waters, called the Caldane. Between 
 the tower of S. Vincenzo, and the ruins of Populonia, 
 are still to be seen the remains of a city which can only 
 belong to the ancient Vetulonia, which was one of the 
 most respectable cities of Etruria, and from which the 
 Romans imitated their consular fasces, and other deco- 
 rations of their magistrates f. Next follows Populonia, 
 situated upon a high promontory, which, extending into 
 the sea, approaches the island of Elba, from whence 
 is seen below the canal of Piombino, which town, risen 
 perhaps from the ruins of the former, is distant from it 
 three miles : the beautiful and convenient harbour of 
 Populonia is described by Strabo, and has now the 
 name of Portobaratto^. This city suffered various 
 
 * Rutil. Num. itiner. 
 
 Subjectus villae vacat aspectare salinas 
 Qua mare terrenis declive canalibus intrat 
 Ast ubi flagrantes advomit Syrius ignes 
 Tarn cataractarnm clanstris excluditur aeqnor 
 
 Ut fixos latices horrida duret humus, 
 Concipiunt acrem nativa coagula Phcebum 
 
 Et gravis aestiva crusta calore coit. 
 
 t Silius Ital. Lib. 8. 
 
 Maeoniaeque hsec priina dedit precedere fasces, 
 Et juoxit tolidem tacito terrore secures. 
 Hsec alias eboris decoravit honore curules, 
 Et princeps Tyrio vestem praetexuit ostro. 
 
 I Cluver. Ital. Antiq. lib. 2.
 
 8 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 changes; it is believed to be one of the twelve cities of 
 Etruria, was ruined in the times of Sylla, and in after 
 ages was more than once destroyed and rebuilt. Not 
 far from Populonia, we discover in the modern Massa, 
 the ancient Massa Veternense, the birth-place of Caesar 
 Gallus*. On the other side of the promontory, where 
 the sea winds along the land, was the ancient harbour 
 of Falesia, and the lake of Prile is now the lake of 
 Castiglionef. Between this and the Ombrone, at a 
 small distance from the sea, was Rosulum, also called 
 one of the twelve Etrurian cities J. The fabulous origin 
 of the neighbouring harbour of Telamon, leads us down 
 to the times of the Argonauts : destroyed afterwards 
 and forgotten, it was again repaired by the Siennese in 
 the lower ages, for the convenience of the Florentines, 
 when their enmity with the Pisans shut them out of the 
 harbour of Pisa. Then follows the other promontory, 
 or Mount Argentarius, which stretches itself into the 
 sea near the small island Giglio attached to the con- 
 tinent by a small tongue of land, it forms a peninsula, 
 and contains to the east, Porto Ercole, to the west, 
 the modern Orbitello. At the beginning of the small 
 isthmus was Cosa, a desert since the times of Rutilius, 
 probably the modern Ansidonia. Graviscae, which took 
 its name from the fetid smell of the marshes, was situated 
 near the river Marta, which empties into the sea the 
 superfluous waters of the lake of Bolsena||. Centum- 
 
 * Ammian. Marcel, lib. 14. cap. 40. 
 t Cic. pro Mil. Cell. Geogra. Antiq. torn. 2. 
 t Dion. Halic. lib. 3. 
 
 $ The fable of the rats, whose invasion drove away from Cosa 
 its inhabitants, is a sufficient proof of the desolation of the city. 
 RUTIL. 
 
 || Inde Gravjscorum fastigia rora videmtis 
 Quas premit aeotivsc saepe paludis odor. Ki in.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 9 
 
 cellae, or the harbour of Trajan, built and adorned by 
 him with magnificent works, contained the delightful 
 villa of this emperor, so much admired by Pliny*. 
 Finally the Tiber, with its two branches forming the 
 sacred island j% and discharging itself into the sea, ter- 
 minated the Etrurian coast: that of Augustus upon 
 the right branch, still preserves the name of harbour, 
 as Ostia upon the left; and the salt-pits established 
 by the king, Ancus Martius, are continued to the pre- 
 sent day, though the spot may have undergone some 
 variation on account of the approach of the shore. 
 
 Having thus run along the maritime coast, it would 
 appear necessary to mention the twelve cities into which 
 Etruria was divided, but which they were we cannot 
 assert with certainty ; we must, therefore, be contented 
 with noting some of them, either considered as such, or 
 which deserve, from their celebrity, to be distinguished 
 above the rest. Pisa and Volterra, by many historians, 
 are not registered among the cities which formed the 
 kingdom of Etruria ; not because their antiquity and 
 splendour were inferior to the others, but on account of 
 a different government causing them to be considered as 
 foreign to the Etrurian constitution. Other writers 
 again reckon them amongst the first, and as each indi- 
 
 * Plin. lib. 6. Epist. 31. 
 
 t qua fronte bicornis 
 
 Dividing Tibero dexteriora secat. RUTIL. 
 
 It is strange how one of the most accurate writers upon ancient 
 geography, Cellarius, has confounded the sacred island at the 
 mouth of the Tiber with that situated in Rome itself. Cell. geog. 
 ant. lib. 2. cap. 9. 
 
 I Dempster. Etruria regalis. 
 
 Hos parere jubent Alpheae ab origine Pisae 
 Urbs Etrusca solo. Virg. jEn. 1. 10, p. 179. 
 
 The precise and exact Virgil probably meant to denote by the 

 
 10 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 vidual supports his opinion by the testimony of historians 
 equally respectable, we can easily reconcile their state- 
 ments by supposing that at some periods they have been 
 united to the kingdom of Etruria, at others separated 
 from it, as will appear from a review of the ill -formed 
 Etrurian government, which will be speedily attempted. 
 Arretium, Cortona,and Perusia, although in ancient times 
 not mentioned amongst the first cities, became so shortly 
 afterwards*. Arretium was celebrated for its wall, com- 
 pared by Vitruvius to that of Athens towards Mount 
 Hymettus. Arretium and Cortona probably rose from 
 the ruins of Corytum, which was for a time the largest, the 
 most powerful and celebrated among the Etrurian cities; 
 but as we do not find it mentioned in the wars of the 
 Romans with Etruria, we must conjecture that it was 
 destroyed in the civil dissensions of the Etrurians them- 
 selves. The greater part of the other towns, in the long 
 lapse of ages have fallen into oblivion ; of some we can 
 only assign the ancient site by very dubious conjecture, 
 whilst of others nothing remains but a skeleton of their 
 ancient greatness, and the celebrity of the name. Veii 
 was situated twelve miles distant from Hornet- Anti- 
 quarians doubtfully point out to us its site in the modern 
 Scrofano, or rather upon a steep rock opposite to the 
 island FarnesiaJ. Although from the valorous resist- 
 
 words ' Urbs Etrusca solo,' a city placed in the soil of Etruria, 
 but not united to' the Etrurian confederation. 
 
 * Tit. Liv. lib. 1. cap. 9. " Itaque a Cortonoe, Perusia, Arretio, 
 quee ferme capita populorum Etruria ea tempestate fuerunt legati, 
 #c." " Tres validissimse urbes Etruria capita Vulsinii, Perusia. 
 Arretium pacem petiere." 
 
 f Cluver. (Ital. Antiq.) thinks the text of Livy to have been 
 corrupted, and that the 20th mile-stone (lapidem) should be cor- 
 rected for the 12th. Cellarius also reduces the miles to 12. 

 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. II 
 
 ance it opposed to the Romans, we may form great 
 ideas of this city, yet few will feel induced to believe 
 the assertions of an ancient author, that it rivalled even 
 Athens in greatness*. It was one of the most powerful 
 rivals of Rome in her early rise, and the obstinate war 
 between the two cities ceased only with the total de- 
 struction of Veii. The site of Falerii is uncertain ; Clu- 
 verius places it in the present Civita Castellana, others 
 at Gallese, and Cellarius presumes it to be the city of 
 the Falisci. Tarquene was a city near the sea, not far 
 from Corneto, a mile distant from which are seen the 
 ruins of a town, called even to this day by the inhabi- 
 tants Tarquene f. Near Tarquene was Agylla, since 
 called Cere, now Cervitere, on a stony hill, four miles dis- 
 tant from the sea, as described by Virgil . Volsinium, 
 now Bolsena, illustrated, or more properly obscured, by 
 the birth of Sejanus, still exists ; as also Clusium, or Chiusi, 
 called by the ancient Etrurians, Camars. Fiesole, a 
 city mentioned as populous and powerful, continued to 
 decline with the increase of her daughter Florence, 
 which latter city, an illustrious author, upon very weak 
 proofs (which are even refuted by the continued silence 
 of succeeding writers, and by evidence more certain of 
 its origin), has pretended to place amongst the ancient 
 towns of Etruria^. 
 
 Many of these cities distinguished themselves particu- 
 larly, in one or more of the fine arts which then flourished 
 in Etruria; Arretium in pottery, whence the Aretine vases 
 became so celebrated ; Tarquene in the various models 
 formed from clay ; Volsinium (which was, perhaps, the 
 
 * Dionys. Halicarn. t Cluv. Ital. Antiq. 
 t Haud procul hinc saxo colitur fundata vetusto 
 
 Urbis Agyllinae sedes. Virg. jEueid. lib. 8, v. 479. 
 ^ Lami, Lez. d' Antich. Toscana.
 
 12 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 city of workmen), in sculpture; Perusia and Cortona in 
 bronze; Chiusi in incisions in fine stones; Volterra in 
 the sculpture of alabaster, . and the material being still 
 found in the neighbourhood, it has recently excited the 
 genius of moderns to give new life to that art. 
 
 The government of ancient Etruria is very uncertain ; 
 it would have been known better if the book of Aristotle 
 had been preserved, in which, as Athenrcus testifies, he 
 treated of the ancient governments of Italy, and amongst 
 them, of the Etrurian. In the midst of uncertainty, 
 however, we may consider it as an established fact, that 
 the twelve populations, or cities, formed a federative 
 government, of which we have various proofs. Their 
 deputies met on all important occasions near Viterbo, 
 at thefanum Voltumnce, to treat of public affairs* : this 
 assembly resembled the Amphytrionic council of the 
 Grecian cities, which met every year, although it ap- 
 pears that the Etrurian council did not meet annually, 
 but only in cases of extraordinary emergency. Every 
 city had a right to make war or peace for herself, to 
 live as a republic, or to create a head, a king, or lucu- 
 mone, to unite themselves with any other city, and 
 conjointly make war ; whence the ties which linked this 
 confederation together were very vveajc, as we learn 
 from the various details of ancient writers, and particu- 
 larly from Livy. Veii made war against the Romans 
 almost always alone, nor did the other cities ever inter- 
 fere, unless they perceived, that by the oppression of 
 Veii, the whole force of the Romans would be directed 
 against them. In the last war, Veii elected herself 
 a king ; this election gave displeasure to the other cities, 
 more from a personal hatred to the object of their 
 
 * " Fanum Voltumnee" was, perhaps, Viterbo itself. See 
 Cluver. a Cell.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 13 
 
 choice, than on account of the deed itself; they were 
 not, however, regarded as rebels, and conceiving them- 
 selves to have merely exercised their rights, they solicited 
 assistance from the rest of Etruria*. 
 
 It is here to be observed, that the creation of a king, 
 in order to avoid the tumult which arose at the annual 
 elections of their magistrates, civil and military, denotes 
 a city nearly free, which has the power of creating her 
 own rulers annually ; but which, in order to avoid such 
 tumult, has recourse in that year to the choice of a 
 king ; from which it may be inferred, that some small 
 tie existed between the twelve cities. Whether any 
 sovereign ever existed amongst them who possessed 
 even a slight authority over all, has been very much 
 disputed ; the name of LMCUTHO is understood by many 
 to denote a head, or king, of a particular city; that 
 of Lars, a sovereign of all Etruria, if indeed it is not a 
 proper namef. 
 
 From this same instability of government, whereby 
 particular cities at times elected themselves a king, at 
 others chose to live in freedom, they may occasionally 
 have arrived at the election of a general sovereign, who, 
 like the stadtholder of Holland, governed this federative 
 republic, but with far less authority. In urgent cases 
 of war, or of internal discord, they probably elected to 
 themselves a head to direct the former, or to appease 
 the latter, as has been the custom of all nations. The 
 
 * " Vejentes tedis annuse ambitionis quse interdum causa dis- 
 cordiarum erat, regem creavere, offendit ea res populorum Etrurise 
 animos, non majore odio regni, quam ipsius regis. . . . Gens itaque 
 auxilium Vegentibus negandum donas sub rege essent decrevit." 
 Tit. Liv. dec. 1. lib. 5. 
 
 This passage, more than any other, exposes to us the bad 
 regulated system of the Etrurian government. 
 
 t Maffei Osserv. Letter.
 
 14 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 confusion \vhich some author has made of these general 
 rulers with the numerous sovereigns of the twelve cities, 
 has probably given rise to that long list of Etrurian 
 kings enumerated by Dempster, and which includes a 
 period anterior to the deluge*. 
 
 The government of ancient Etruria resembled in 
 some measure that of Tuscany before the subversion of 
 the feudal system ; it was then dissolved, and divided 
 into as many governments as there were cities, some of 
 which united into small turbulent republics ; others, 
 oppressed by petty tyrants, who rapidly succeeded each 
 other, exalted and humbled with the same celerity and 
 bad faith, wavering between despotism and licentious- 
 ness, knew neither how to serve, or to become free. 
 This was also nearly the state of the ancient Etrurians, 
 as appears from glimpses of their history ; so far is it 
 true, that the genius of nations, once established by a 
 tacit consent not well understood, continues to influence 
 in successive ages, even the most remote, in spite of the 
 revolutions it may undergo from time to time. That 
 restless spirit of independence which agitated the ancient 
 Etrurians, as well as the inhabitants of other parts of 
 Italy, after having more frequently degenerated into 
 licentiousness, than raised itself to liberty, finally solved 
 the difficult problem in the great and generous mind of 
 the Romans. By discovering the art of conciliating 
 different interests, and making them all conspire to the 
 national glory and utility, they fixed the limits to its 
 executive power without weakening the action, per- 
 suaded to a rational obedience without slavery, and 
 
 * It does not appear that Lampredi, in his dissertation upon 
 the civil government of the ancient Tuscans, allows of a general 
 sovereign to Etruria ; but the correctness of his statement is 
 extremely doubtful.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 15 
 
 thus formed one of the most perfect constitutions which 
 those people have known, and which subsequently 
 enabled them to become the masters of the world. The 
 basis of this constitution once undermined, weakened 
 by luxury, torn by civil wars, and oppressed by despo- 
 tism, they became the slaves of barbarians, who, whe- 
 ther expelled from, or domiciliated among them, could 
 not extinguish their independence, or suppress their 
 anxiety for the execution of minor projects. 
 
 Returning to the Etrurian kings, we find in the cata- 
 logue the name of Eolus, whose superior skill in navi- 
 gation, added to his numerous and successful expedi- 
 tions, which enabled him to conquer and govern various 
 islands, gave rise to the fable in which he is represented 
 as the ruler of the winds. Herodotus and Thucydides 
 agree in stating, that one of the earliest naval engage- 
 ments took place between the Phocians on one side, 
 and the Etrurians and Carthaginians on the other, near 
 Sardinia. Victory decided in favour of the Phocians, 
 who destroyed forty of the enemy's ships, and put the 
 remainder to flight ; an event which proves that Etruria 
 was not only powerful at sea, but her alliance with the 
 Carthaginians, a people so celebrated in commerce, 
 leads us to a high conjecture upon the traffic of the 
 Etrurians. We distinguish also in the list of sovereigns 
 the name of Mezentius, to whom, perhaps, the Roman 
 epic poet has given an infamous celebrity which he did 
 not deserve, at least, he has strangely altered his history 
 and falsified the events ; for JEneas, instead of being 
 enabled to hang up in triumph the arms of Mezentius, 
 (as the poet, in order to honour his hero, informs us,) 
 was killed in battle against the latter, his body remaining 
 unburied, an occurrence so much dreaded by the super- 
 stitious ancients, and even by ^Eneas himself; nor was
 
 16 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 the fact wholly unknown to Virgil, as it is found amongst 
 the other prophetic imprecations of the dying Dido*. 
 Certainly ancient historians, as Pompeius, Festus, and 
 Servius himself, who quotes Varro, accord the victory to 
 Mezentius; and Livy, who praises so much the Romans, 
 passing over this event with an affected ambiguity, con- 
 firms us still more in our opinion. If it were true that 
 Mezentius waged war in favour of the Rutuli against the 
 Latins, upon the condition of receiving as a reward the 
 wines that might be found in the Latin camp, as Varro, 
 Pliny, and Ovidf attest, (who make the Roman festi- 
 val, called Vinulia, originate from this circumstance,) it 
 would set before us at once both the meanness of the 
 objects which interested such heroes, and the intem- 
 perance of Mezentius. His character will appear less 
 atrocious, if we call to mind that the horrible cruelty of 
 attaching dead bodies to living ones, was not his inven- 
 tion, but a punishment used among the Etrurians J. 
 Nevertheless, the character of Mezentius will always 
 be considered as cruel ; the fine verses of Virgil im- 
 press it as such upon tender minds, as also those of the 
 innocent Dido, and many other victims of poetical 
 imagination . 
 
 * As the last words of the dying Dido are a prophecy of all that 
 should happen to tineas upon his entry into Italy, and to his 
 successors, we may take for part of that prophecy the following 
 verse : 
 
 Sed cadat ante diem, mediaque inhumatus arena 
 
 Haec precor, bane precem extremam cum sanguine fundo. 
 
 /En. lib. 4. 
 
 j- Varr. cit. de Plin. 1. 14. cap. 12. Ovid. Fast. 1. 4. 
 
 $ Cic. in Hortens. Servius. 
 
 $ None of the ancient historians mention the voyage of ^Eneas 
 into Africa ; on the contrary, in the greater part of the chronolo- 
 gies, Dido is placed three ages before ./Eneas, that of Newton
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 17 
 
 In the meantime, that formidable city, which was 
 destined not only to rule over Etruria, but to conquer 
 and govern the finest provinces of the globe, was rising 
 and increasing in power. The origin of the Romans, 
 like that of all other nations, is enveloped in fable; but 
 the 3Lneid has rendered common to the civilized world 
 the immortal deeds by which they became so deservedly 
 distinguished*. 
 
 In the midst of fabulous accounts, which either alter 
 or embellish the truth, there are some facts upon which 
 the most credited historians agree, viz., that the Tro- 
 jans, sons probably of the Etrurians, were the authors 
 of this celebrated people. After the capture of Troy, 
 JEneas retired with numerous followers to Pergamus, a 
 fortress where the precious things and the tutelary gods 
 were preserved ; but, unable to hold out long, he re- 
 paired to the most inaccessible part of Mount Ida, 
 
 alone making those illustrious personages contemporary. The 
 Abbe Andres has dedicated to this subject an entire dissertation, 
 in which he has displayed much learning, in order to justify 
 Virgil from the charge of anacronism, and rests his argument on 
 the scrupulous delicacy and judgment of the poet. But errors of 
 a similar nature occur in the writings of this author ; and among 
 them, that in which Palinurus, in the sixth book of the JEneid, men- 
 tions the port Velino, which did not exist in the time of JEneas, as 
 noticed by Gellius, in his Attic Nights. The proof therefore rests 
 on the authority of the Newtonian chronology, which has been 
 already confuted by the astronomical observations of Whiston, 
 and the reasoning of Freret and others. (See Bailly's Hist, de 
 I' Astronom.') The error of Virgil has, in this instance, produced 
 rerses so truly pathetic and elegant, that the fault becomes ex- 
 cusable ; and the more so, when we consider that the times of 
 which he treats are obscure and fabulous, and chronology, even in 
 our own days, uncertain. 
 
 * Livy says, with much judgment, " Datur haec venia anti- 
 quitati, ut miscendo humana divinis primordia urbium augustiora 
 faciat." 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 18 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 where he was joined by a great multitude from the con- 
 quered city, and the neighbouring castles. The Greeks 
 were preparing to attack this last asylum of the Trojans, 
 but not finding the enterprise easy, and tired of a long 
 war, they suffered them to depart with their property*. 
 The Trojans speedily embarked, and after traversing 
 the Hellespont, arrived in Thrace, at the peninsula 
 Pallene, inhabited by the Cruseans, their allies. 
 
 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, an excellent critic upon 
 those historians of Troy who existed in his time, assures 
 us that amongst all the tales of the vicissitudes of 
 -/Eneas, this was the most probable. From Pallene, 
 after touching various islands of the Archipelago, he 
 arrived at Buthrotum, a port of Epirus, where, with some 
 chosen companions, he went to visit the oracle of Do- 
 dona : to establish the truth of this journey, Dionysius 
 mentions some very ancient vases of bronze which 
 existed even at his time in that temple, on which was 
 engraved an ancient inscription attesting the fact. 
 
 Virgil, in his voyage of ./Eneas, has greatly followed 
 the history which must have been sufficiently known in 
 his time ; because the arrival of JEneas in Sicily, the 
 numerous friends he found there, and the burning of the 
 ships, to which they were instigated by the Trojan 
 women, are not poetical embellishments simply, but are 
 found in ancient histories. The prediction of the Har- 
 pies, who threatened the Trojans with a famine which 
 should cause them to devour their tables ; the observa- 
 tion of Ascanius on his first arrival in Italy, of having 
 devoured those tables formed of beds of bread upon the 
 grass f, appear to the severe critic stories too puerile, 
 and unworthy the majesty of an epic poem : the author, 
 
 * Dionys. Halicarn. lib. 2. t v ' r g- ^n. lib. 3. v. 7.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 19 
 
 however, deserves some indulgence for flattering thereby 
 the taste of his fellow-citizens, by whom such tales, as 
 the most grave historians inform us, were greatly es- 
 teemed*. The remaining vicissitudes of JEneas, of his 
 descendants, and the birth of Rome, are too well known, 
 and too much mixed with fable, for a prudent writer 
 either to be detained by them, or to draw from them 
 any important information. 
 
 2^ Year Scarcely was Rome born when we find her 
 Rome. en g a g e( j m war w jth the Etrurians. Romulus 
 turning his arms against the Veientes, more than once 
 occasioned bloody quarrels; and Veii being the city 
 of Etruria nearest to Rome, was frequently opposed to 
 the Romans, and kept them in constant exercise of the 
 dreadful art of war. The town of Fidenae, five miles 
 distant from Romef, was frequently the object of vio- 
 lent contention between the two people : conquered by 
 Romulus, it rebelled against the Romans under Tullus 
 Hostilius, and took part with the Veientes. In spite of 
 the treachery of Metius, king of Alba, who allied him- 
 self with the Romans, and abandoned them in the heat 
 of the battle, the Veientes were defeated, and Fidenas 
 retaken ; the treacherous king of Alba was ordered to 
 be hanged by the enraged conqueror between two bent 
 trees, which, turning furiously one against the other, 
 
 * Dionys. Halicar. lib. 1. 
 
 t Fidenae was situated near the confluence of the Ariene with 
 the Tiber. Liv. lib. 4. This city was very populous under Tibe- 
 rius, in the 12th year of whose reign, as Tacitus informs us, a 
 theatre was destroyed in Fidenee during a representation of a fight 
 of gladiators, whereby 50,000 souls were killed or wounded. 
 We may suppose that the whole of this population did not belong 
 to Fidenae, but was greatly increased by a concourse from Rome 
 and the neighbourhood. 
 
 C 2
 
 20 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 horribly crushed the body*. Ancus Martins fought 
 several times against the Romans, and beat them. But 
 above all the other kings of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus 
 was most at variance with the Tuscans. 
 
 Five Etrurian cities, Clusium, Rosuluin,Volterra, 
 Aretium, and Vetulonia, united with the Latins 
 against the Romans ; but this confederation was fre- 
 quently broken, more, by the valour than the power of 
 Tarquin "I". A fatal rivalship was now declared between 
 Rome and Etruria ; the rising power of Rome asto- 
 nished the surrounding people ; the whole of the Etru- 
 rian cities united against so dangerous an enemy, and 
 after various deliberations, marched a powerful army, 
 passed the Tiber, where, surprising and entering Fidene 
 by stratagem, they scattered terror and desolation 
 throughout the Roman territory. 
 
 Tarquin, thus taken by surprise, did not venture 
 into the country during a whole year. In the 
 meantime the Romans collected two armies, with one of 
 which Tarquin marched against Veii, discomfited his 
 enemies, and desolated their country ; Collatinus, how- 
 ever, who commanded the other, in endeavouring 
 to recover Fidense, was completely beaten by the 
 garrison with which it had been reinforced. Tarquin 
 triumphed again in his attack against Argylla, but the 
 devastation of the country, and a large booty, were the 
 only effects of his victory* 
 
 The following year was more fortunate for 
 Rome. Fidenae, a place so important and so 
 dangerous to the Romans, demanded equally their at- 
 tention to recover it, as that of the Etrurians to main- 
 tain it : the latter had a powerful force both within and 
 
 * Tit. Liv. lib. 1. Dionys. Halicarn. lib. 3. 
 t Dionys. Halicarn. lib. 3.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 21 
 
 \vithout ; the Etrurians, however, being conquered in 
 the open field, the siege of Fidense was now carried on 
 with greater obstinacy ; and being finally taken by the 
 Romans, the rebels were punished with the scourge 
 and with death, the Etrurian garrison sold as slaves, the 
 citizens expelled, and the lands of the Fidenates divided 
 amongst the Roman soldiery, who remained masters of 
 the city. To avenge this insult, another formidable 
 Etrurian army was collecting among the Sabines; but the 
 active Tarquin, before the Etrurian cities had each sent 
 their contingent, attacked them near Eretu m*, 
 and gained a most complete victory, obliging the 
 panic-struck Etrurians to sue for peace at the foot of 
 their conqueror. The deputies, in order to appease 
 Tarquin, reminded him of his Etrurian origin f; and 
 although he received them with the imperious language 
 of a victor, a peace was stipulated after nine^I years' 
 war, making the Etrurians partially dependant upon the 
 Romans. The only homage rendered to the king of 
 Rome, was probably the ensigns of sovereignty sent 
 him, the crown of gold, the throne of ivory, the sceptre, 
 &c. ; ornaments which decorated the splendid triumph 
 of Tarquin. 
 
 Peace, however, lasted only a few years. It was 
 equally important both to the Sabines and to the Etru- 
 rians to regain Fidenae : a proposition was therefore 
 made by the former to some Etrurian city, to take up 
 arms and unite itself with them. The two armies of 
 the Sabines and Etrurians were encamped near Fidenas, 
 below the conflux of the Anio with the Tiber, upon 
 the two opposite banks of the latter river, communicating 
 together by a bridge of boats. Tarquin had recourse to 
 
 * Round Mountain t Tarquene. I Dionys. Halicarn. lib. 3.
 
 22 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 the following stratagem to separate them. He sent, in 
 the night, various boats laden with flaming combustibles, 
 some with the tide, and others against it, which, driven 
 by a furious wind, arrived at the bridge and burnt it. 
 The two separated armies, thus thrown into confusion 
 by the Romans, were entirely defeated *. 
 
 The Etrurians made some further efforts against 
 
 197. . . 
 
 the Romans, particularly in the time of Servius 
 Tullus, but were always obliged to make terms with him, 
 
 as they had done with Tarquin, by acknowledging 
 
 a supremacy, which, in fact, was never exercised 
 
 over them. 
 
 From these details it is manifest that war, in those 
 times, consisted merely in the devastation of the country; 
 the art of taking fortresses was unknown ; a great vic- 
 tory was followed by neither acquisition of city or of 
 castle, and rarely of territory ; the conquered were only 
 humbled for a short time, in order that they might re- 
 turn to hostilities with increased vigour. After so many 
 victories over the Etrurians, the Romans remained still 
 confined within the ancient limits prescribed to them by 
 the Tiber ; and the Veientes, so often conquered, and 
 only twelve miles distant from Rome, remained the same 
 powerful and formidable enemy. 
 
 Meanwhile the celebrated revolution was working 
 
 244 
 
 in Rome, by which the monarchy was abolished. 
 The insufferable tyranny of Tarquin the Proud, the insults 
 offered by his family to the people, the base action of Sex- 
 tus towards Lucretia, and the magnanimous conduct of 
 that illustrious woman, who, after disclosing to her husband 
 and parents the infamous deed, had the courage to plunge 
 the steel into her own bosom, excited the just indigna- 
 
 * Dion. Halicarn. lib. 3. Tit Liv. lib. 1.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 23 
 
 tion of the Romans to revolt, and eventually led to the 
 expulsion of the tyrant. Lucius Junius, whose affected 
 stupidity under the reign of Tarquin, when penetration 
 and talent were crimes, had gained him the contemptuous 
 title of Brutus, a name so celebrated afterwards, was 
 the principal actor in this tragedy. 
 
 After the expulsion of the ruling family, Rome con- 
 stituted herself into a republic. The exiled Tarquin, 
 wandering and begging through the cities of Etruria, and 
 carrying with him the sad spectacle of his former 
 grandeur, easily excited the compassion of the people : 
 sympathy for fallen majesty raised in his favour the re- 
 solution and the power of Porsenna, one of the most ce- 
 lebrated kings of the Etrurians, who reigned in Clusium, 
 and probably governed the rest of Etruria. Political 
 considerations also encouraged Porsenna to the succour 
 of Tarquin, as the example of debased majesty might 
 become contagious, and finally prove prejudicial to his 
 own royal power: he resolved, therefore, upon making 
 preparations for war, and for that purpose devised more 
 extensive plans of operation. In the meantime the 
 
 244. 
 
 followers of Tarquin, impatient of delay, having per- 
 suaded two Etrurian cities to take up arms in their favour, 
 vis., the Veientes and the Tarquinienses, assembled 
 a considerable army, and, without waiting the united 
 forces of Etruria, marched against Rome. The Romans 
 came out to meet them, and a sanguinary and undecided 
 conflict took place, memorable only for the death of the 
 Consul Brutus, and Aruns, son of Tarquin. The for- 
 mer, with a part of the cavalry, was at the head of his 
 army ; Aruns commanded also a vanguard of horse. 
 Discovering each other, and fired by a mutual hatred, 
 more intent upon striking than defence, they each fell at 
 the first blow. The two armies immediately came in
 
 24 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 contact ; the left wing, composed of the Vcjenti, accus- 
 tomed to yield to the Romans, was beaten ; but the 
 right, formed of the Tarquinienses, successfully com- 
 bated with the Romans*. 
 
 Porsenna, in the meanwhile, was marching against 
 Rome with the whole force of Etruria ; and although 
 the Romans had long been accustomed to victory, they 
 were, in this instance, completely overpowered. Weak- 
 ened by the absence of the royalists, and disconcerted 
 by the acts of their new government, they became dis- 
 mayed ; while the Etrurians, better governed than here- 
 tofore, united by common consent, and commanded by 
 the brave and prudent Porsenna, fought with more than 
 their accustomed valour. The Romans were twice de- 
 feated ; and the only defence of their capital was Mount 
 Janiculum, separated from it by the Tiber, and de- 
 fended by a considerable force. Porsenna, however, 
 invested Mount Janiculum with so much art and vigour, 
 that, making himself master of it, the Romans retired 
 towards the bridge Sublicius, where the Consuls, reani- 
 mating their fugitive army, conducted it against the 
 Etrurians. Mainilius, who had joined the Etrurians with 
 u body of Latins, commanded the right wing ; the Tar- 
 quinians, with the outlawed Romans, and their adherents, 
 held the left ; and the centre was led on by Porsenna, 
 with the flower of Etruria. On the side of the Ro- 
 mans, Spurius Lartius, and Titus Henninius, gave front 
 to the Tarquinienses ; Marcus Valerius, and Titus Lu- 
 cretius, to Mamilius ; whilst the Consuls Poplicola, and 
 his colleague, commanded the centre. After the most 
 obstinate proofs of valour on both sides, Valerius and 
 Lucretius were wounded, and obliged to quit the field. 
 
 * Liv. lib. 2. Dionys. Hulicarn. lib. 5.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 25 
 
 The left wing of the Romans, panic-struck by this event, 
 began to give way, and retreated principally towards the 
 bridge ; the example was quickly followed by the whole 
 army, and the Romans were driven in confusion towards 
 the bridge and the city. In this moment of danger, 
 Horatius Codes, Spurius Lartius, and Herminius, with 
 a few remains of the most brave, covered the fugitives, 
 that they might retreat with greater safety; but the 
 enemy advancing upon them like a torrent, the three 
 warriors posted themselves upon the bridge to meet the 
 force of the whole army. Horatius Codes ordered 
 the bridge to be cut down behind him, and when half 
 broken, obliged his two companions to retire, remaining 
 himself alone in front of his enemies, whom he re- 
 proached in the most severe terms, accusing them of a 
 disregard of their own liberty, in opposing that of 
 others. A feeling of shame roused his enemies to rush 
 furiously upon him, but the intrepid warrior remained 
 firm, though severely wounded in the thigh, and the 
 bridge being finally demolished, he leaped into the Tiber; 
 and although exhausted by fatigue, and struggling against 
 the current of the river, he arrived in safety among his 
 comrades, who, receiving him with shouts of triumph, 
 and bearing him on their shoulders, entwined his fore- 
 head with a crown, and afterwards erected to him a 
 bronze statue, in the Forum. Thus Horatius saved 
 Rome ; and by re-awakening a spirit of virtue in the 
 Romans, shewed them, at the same time, of what actions 
 a brave man is capable*. 
 
 Porsenna having passed the Tiber with a part of his 
 army, and surrounded Rome on every side, cut off the 
 supplies of provisions ; nevertheless they were brought 
 
 * Dion. Halicarn. lib. 5. Tit. Liv. lib. 2.
 
 26 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 down the Tiber. The Roman Consul caused a report 
 to be circulated that a great number of cattle, brought 
 hastily into Rome, where pasture was deficient, would 
 be led, under a strong escort, to graze in the meadows 
 without the Esquiline Gate, a place the most remote 
 from the enemy. The latter, giving credit to this de- 
 lusive statement, secretly sent a strong detachment to 
 drive away the escort, and seize the cattle ; when the 
 Romans, who had laid wait for the Etrurians, rushing 
 out suddenly upon them, from various directions, cut to 
 pieces more than 5,000 of their enemies. 
 
 Famine would finally have accomplished what force de- 
 nied, when Mutius Scaevola determined to sacrifice him- 
 self for his country by killing the king of the Etrurians. 
 The resolute boldness with which he stepped forward to 
 strike the blow, his mistake, and firmness in holding his 
 hand in the flames until it was entirely consumed, are 
 sufficiently known from historians and poets*. We 
 cannot, however, withhold the praise which is due to 
 the generous mind of the Etrurian king, who, instead of 
 being enraged against the man who had thus attempted 
 his life, admired the courage of Mutius, and his love of 
 country, and granted him a pardon f. So many proofs 
 of Roman heroism moved Porsenna to such a degree, 
 that his hatred towards them was changed into admi- 
 ration and terror. Mutius, moreover, having asserted 
 that if his hand had failed, there were still 300 bold 
 young Romans who had sworn to attempt the same 
 blow ; he considered how dangerous it was for him to 
 
 * There are those who treat this event as a fable, but if we 
 have no faith in Livy, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, it is 
 useless to dwell upon the Roman history in its early times. See 
 Dissert. " Sur 1'incertitude des premiers siccles dc Rome, chap. 3. 
 
 t Tit. Liv. 2. Dion. Halicaru. lib. 5.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 27 
 
 engage such enemies, and resolved to negotiate a peace 
 with them. After frequent vain endeavours to reconcile 
 them to Tarquin, he abandoned to his fate his unfortunate 
 friend, and made terms with the Romans. It is true 
 that he dictated the conditions of peace like a conqueror, 
 but shewed, nevertheless, a generous mind ; for having 
 obtained, as hostages, the sons of the most respectable 
 personages of Rome, he restored them to liberty in the 
 moment of departure ; saying that he confided more in 
 the honour of the Romans, than in any other pledge ; 
 and with a royal munificence, left to his enemies, afflicted 
 by famine, the copious magazines of provisions, which 
 he possessed on Mount Janiculum. 
 
 Upon the return of Porsenna to Clusium, the Romans 
 sent him a solemn embassy, with a throne of ivory, a 
 sceptre, a crown of gold, and a triumphal garment*. 
 
 We have seen that when the conquered Tuscans sent 
 these ensigns of triumph to the kings of Rome, they 
 were always accompanied by the homage due from de- 
 pendance ; we may, therefore, infer that in this war, if 
 we except the principal moment of the exile of Tarquin, 
 that which most concerned the Romans, the latter acted 
 the part of the conquered, and Porsenna that of a- con- 
 queror, which acquires still further confirmation, if the 
 oppressive terms spoken of by Pliny are true, viz., that 
 the Romans were only to make use of iron in agri- 
 culture f. 
 
 In the meantime a part of the army of Porsenna, 
 under the command of his son Aruns, was advancing 
 against the Aricini and Cumani, commanded by Aris- 
 todemus ; but Aruns having been slain, the Etrurians 
 took to flight, and arrived exhausted, and covered with 
 
 * Dion. Halicarn. lib. 5. f Plin. lib. 34, cap. 14.
 
 '28 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 wounds, in the neighbourhood of Rome, where they 
 were charitably received, taken into the city upon cars, 
 and supplied with every necessary assistance. A part 
 of them were thus induced to change their country, and 
 establish themselves in Rome, where they gave name to 
 a street*. 
 
 It would appear that the system of a prudent king, 
 like Porsenna, was to remain in peace with the Romans, 
 a peace that might at least continue during his life ; for 
 we do not find that the Etrurians had, for a long lime, 
 
 o 
 
 taken any part against Rome. The other neighbouring 
 populations, however, the Sabines, the JEqui and Volsci, 
 kept them continually in the exercise of that discipline 
 which was to prove fatal to them all. More than once 
 these people were beaten, and stained the Latin fields 
 with horrid slaughter. The discords between the Ro- 
 man Senate and people were, however, more favourable 
 to their enemies than arms ; frequently they interrupted 
 the Roman triumphs, and gave opportunity to their 
 rivals to gain time, and return to the attack with re- 
 newed vigour. It is true that the turbulent agitations of 
 Rome were very different from those of other republics, 
 w hich so often have been stained with the blood of their 
 most zealous citizens. For many years, and as long as 
 the love of country held them sufficiently together, as 
 long as all tended towards the same end, although dis- 
 cord found its way into Rome, the Senate and the people 
 respected each other so far that in all their tumults, not 
 the sword and the lance, but reason and laws were the 
 arms with which they fought ; and every quarrel be- 
 tween a people so sanguinary and ferocious in the field, 
 terminated only in a blow from a stick or the fist. The 
 
 * Dion. Halicarn. lib. 8.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 29 
 
 people in the delirium of their anger, rather than pro- 
 ceed to acts of violence against the Senate, separated 
 themselves from it by retiring from Rome to the Sacred 
 Mountain, always holding in respect that assembly ; and 
 the prudence of Menenius is well known, who, by the 
 fable of the belly and the members, was able to appease 
 and bring back the people to Rome. Finally, civil dis- 
 putes among them were, for the most part, terminated 
 by law, whilst in other nations they finished only with 
 blood ; whereby a virtuous emulation was excited be- 
 tween the two ranks, enabling them to meet their com- 
 mon enemies with greater ardour. Dissensions rarely 
 spread from the forum to the military camp ; and the 
 people, finding that the most common expedient of the 
 Senate to appease their tumults, and elude their de- 
 mands, was to lead them to battle, at times refused 
 
 270. 
 
 to march, at others suffered themselves to be 
 beaten in the field, or at least would not conquer, that 
 the Consul who commanded them might draw no honour 
 from a triumph: this particularly occurred in their 
 battles against the Volsci and Veientes, under the Consuls 
 Quintus Fabius, and Lucius Valerius*. Then it was 
 that the Etrurians, after many years of peace, thought 
 the season opportune to oppress Rome. In a large 
 assembly of the whole nation it was decided that the 
 Veientes should be sustained with the greatest vigour, 
 which, as the nearest city to the Romans, and the most 
 powerful, had begun again to disturb them ; they were 
 certain also of the co-operation of the Sabines, the 
 jEqui, and the Volsci, determined enemies to Rome. 
 The campaign was opened in the neighbourhood of 
 Veii, where, by degrees, the Etrurian forces were 
 
 * Dion. Halicarn. lib. 8. Tit. Liv. lib. 2.
 
 30 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 ordered to assemble ; they were opposed by the Consul 
 Fabius, hated by the people, whilst the other Consul 
 of the popular faction marched against the JEqui, who, 
 however, gave no opportunity of battle. Not so with 
 Fabius. The fight began, the Romans were already 
 victorious, and the enemy in confusion, when the cavalry 
 advanced to complete the victory: the cavalry being 
 considered partizans of the nobility, the infantry suf- 
 fered them to be surrounded by the enemy ; nor could 
 the commands or entreaties of Fabius prevail to make 
 them march to their assistance: they were, therefore, 
 very ill-treated, and the victory remained imperfect. 
 The seditious soldiers, not content with thus failing in 
 their duty, threw the whole blame of this misfortune 
 upon the cavalry and their commander, abandoned the 
 camp in the night, and retiring precipitately to Rome, 
 scattered throughout the city desolation and dismay. 
 Fabius thought proper to make a precipitate retreat ; 
 and as the Veientes were not aware of the desertion of so 
 large a body of his troops, they contented them- 
 selves with plundering the abandoned camp. This 
 event being made known, flattered the Etrurians still 
 more with the hope of oppressing Rome. Numerous 
 bodies of brave troops from every part of Etruria, as- 
 sembled at Veii, nor -were auxiliaries wanting from 
 the opposite shore of the Tiber. This imminent danger 
 roused the Romans; and although the pontifical tri- 
 bune, by renewing the pretensions of the people, en- 
 deavoured to disturb the enlistment, the wisdom of the 
 senate, and the fear of the approaching enemy, made the 
 Roman array numerous, though inferior to that of Etru- 
 ria. Marcus Fabius had been made Consul, the bro- 
 ther of the ill-received Fabius of the preceding year, 
 but his prudence and valour caused the senate to decide
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 31 
 
 in his favour, and the people gave him for his colleague 
 Cneius Manlius, surnamed Cincinnatus. Rarely have 
 generals found themselves in more dangerous circum- 
 stances, obliged to fight against an enemy so superior in 
 number, and uncertain even of the good disposition of 
 their own troops. 
 
 The fatal example of the preceding year obliged the 
 consuls to adopt extraordinary precaution : the two 
 armies were led forward, and approaching Veii, took 
 up a very advantageous position, entrenching them- 
 selves with all possible care; and, what was unusual 
 with the Romans, resolved to stand upon the defensive. 
 The Etrurians appeared to triumph over their weakness, 
 and encircling the Roman entrenchments with their 
 cavalry, insulted them with opprobrious language, un- 
 conscious of thereby seconding the wish of the consuls 
 to awaken the slumbering courage of the Romans. 
 These insults were multiplied to such a degree, that the 
 soldiers finally demanded battle, to which the consuls 
 feigned a repugnance, in order to increase the ardo'ur of 
 the soldiery, until at last their demands were converted 
 into seditious clamour. Fabius, who wished to make 
 good use of the moment, commanded silence, and ad- 
 dressing the soldiers in an eloquent and designing dis- 
 course, in which, passing over the unlucky events of the 
 preceding year, and telling the Romans that when they 
 wished to be so they were always invincible, he feigned 
 to yield to their wishes*, finishing his oration with these 
 memorable words " that death flies from the brave, 
 and follows only fugitives and cowards." 
 
 The speech of Fabius was received with the greatest 
 applause, when Flavoleius, who had been raised on 
 
 * Vide Dionys. Halicarn. Ant. Rom. Kb. 9.
 
 32 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 account of his valour from the lowest rank to that of a 
 superior officer, mounting upon an eminence, called 
 upon the soldiers to swear not to return to Rome, unless 
 victorious ; the oath was taken by all with joyful shouts, 
 when, full of ardour, they marched to battle. The 
 diligence of Roman historians has furnished us with the 
 details here given, whilst we are obliged to seek for 
 proofs of the valour of the Etrurians among the docu- 
 ments of their own enemies ; yet certain it is, that how- 
 ever surprised by a change of scene, and the renewed 
 ardour of the Romans, they met them with no less 
 courage and intrepidity. The consul Manlius com- 
 manded the right wing, Quintus Fabius, brother of the 
 consul, the left, and the consul Fabius the centre. If 
 we are to believe the Roman historians, the Etrurians 
 erred in taking up a position on ground too narrow for 
 their ranks to extend themselves in ; scarcely had they 
 room for the necessary motion of their arms to launch 
 their arrows, by which means those of the Romans 
 never failed in their mark. The Etrurian wing opposed 
 to Quintus, by extending its columns, at one period had 
 nearly surrounded the Romans, when the commander, 
 borne by some of his chosen brave in the midst of his 
 enemies, was struck by an arrow in the breast ; drawing 
 it out, he fell from his horse ; the consul hastened to his 
 succour, accompanied by his other brother Caesone, and 
 by a troop of brave soldiers, when, reminding the fugi- 
 tives of their oath, they took fresh courage at the sound 
 of his voice, and regained the lost ground. They then 
 hastened to find Quintus, whom they discovered still 
 alive under a heap of bodies, but arrived only in time 
 to see him expire. The Etrurians, thus driven back on 
 this side, were also discomfited in the centre. The 
 right wing of the Romans began to give way, the consul
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 33 
 
 Manlius received a wound in the knee, obliging him to 
 quit the field, and the soldiers were already in flight, 
 when the Fabians, again hastening to their succour, 
 repulsed the enemy. A body of the Veientes were in the 
 meantime dislodging the Romans in the spot where the 
 wounded Manlius had been carried, who, forgetful of 
 his pain, had the courage to remount his horse and ani- 
 mate his defenders. Besides the servants and other fol- 
 lowers, a chosen band of veterans was kept in reserve ; 
 the attack became furious, the consul fell, covered with 
 new wounds, the entrenchments were taken ; and the 
 desire of plunder alone, which threw the Etrurian ranks 
 into disorder, saved the remains of the Roman guard. 
 The Consul Fabius, apprized of this new misfortune, 
 hastened to attack the enemy in his entrenchments, but 
 the Etrurians defended themselves vigorously, from the 
 advantage of ground. Siccius, a Roman officer, well 
 acquainted with the weakest side, directed the assault, 
 and, in order not to rouse the valour of the Etrurians to 
 desperation, left the passes free ; when Fabius, who had 
 left the battle undecided, returned to his army and com- 
 pleted the victory. The Etrurians were not molested in 
 their retreat. The attack had begun at mid-day, and 
 night alone put an end to a most sanguinary combat, in 
 which both sides were, at various times, the conquered 
 and the conquerors. The following day the Etrurians 
 retreated, and thus left no doubt of a victory, which was 
 universally ascribed to Fabius. 
 
 The Roman historians, as we have seen, have not 
 omitted to mention every deed of valour performed by 
 their republicans, whilst they pass over in silence those 
 of the Etrurians, of whom we have no account either of 
 their generals or officers. 
 
 A triumphal entry was preparing in Rome for Fabius, 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 but as he thought it improper to exhibit himself in 
 pomp for so bloody a victory, the people saw him 
 enter dressed in mourning, with the bodies of his 
 brother Quintus and Manlius ; a refusal of triumph, (adds 
 the historian,) more glorious than the triumph itself*. 
 
 That this victory of the Romans was more one of 
 name than of fact, may be inferred from the hostilities 
 which were almost immediately recommenced by the 
 Veientes ; and the .ZEqui also offering fresh insults to the 
 Romans, the new Consuls, Fabius, Caesio, and Vir- 
 ginius, took the field ; the former against the 
 Veientes, the latter against the ^Equi. Virginius 
 was surrounded, and retired to a hill, where the Etrurians 
 besieged him ; and had not the Consul Fabius hastily 
 marched to his succour, he would have been obliged, 
 from want of provisions, to lay down his arms, and sur- 
 render himself prisoner f. 
 
 The Etrurians, with the Veientes, still continuing to 
 insult the neighbourhood of Rome, means were devised 
 of opposing a barrier to their incursions, by establishing 
 and garrisoning forts in the country. The family of 
 Fabius, consisting of 300 individuals, implored the 
 senate to confide to them the protection of their country ; 
 the generous offer was accepted, and they were joined by 
 about 4,000 of their friends and dependants, at the head 
 of whom was Marcus Fabius, the same who, with so 
 much glory, had fought against the Etrurians : guided 
 by him, this small and intrepid band left Rome amidst 
 shouts of admiration and applause from their fellow- 
 citizens ; and fixing their head-quarters in a castle near 
 
 1 " Omni ado triumpho, depositus triumphus clarior fuit." 
 Liv. lib. 2. For all the above events, see this historian, and Dion. 
 Halicarn. lib. 9. 
 
 t Liv. lib. 2, Dion. Halicarn. lib. 9.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 35 
 
 the river Cremera*, built various forts and towers at 
 proper distances, whence they established a judicious 
 line of defence, making frequent sorties against the 
 Veientes, who ventured to depredate the country, and 
 returning always victorious. In the meantime the Ro- 
 mans were attacked on tbree sides by the JEqui, the 
 Volsci, and the Veientes ; the latter were soon defeated 
 by the Consul ./Emilius, and obliged to sue for peace, 
 which was scarcely obtained, when the rest of Etruria, 
 irritated against Veii, obliged them to break it. The 1 
 incursions of the Fabians served them as a pretext, 
 whom they demanded to abandon their dangerous posi- 
 tion, which was immediately, refused, and the Fabians 
 continued harassing the Veientes with hostilities. The 
 latter, exasperated and ashamed of being curbed by a 
 handful of men, had recourse to stratagem to accomplish 
 what open arms denied them. The Fabians, rendered less 
 circumspect by repeated victories, made a sortie, 
 for the purpose of seizing the cattle which were 
 sent to graze along the river by the Veientes, who, laying 
 wait for them in great numbers, sallied out suddenly 
 against them. The valour with which they resisted the 
 attack, was equal to the celebrated resistance of the 
 Spartans at Thermopylae, or any other similar enter- 
 prise. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who varies somewhat 
 in his narration from Livy, tells us that a part only of 
 the Fabians (as is probable) sallied from the castle to 
 make prey of the cattle, when, suddenly overtaken by 
 the Etrurians, they resisted bravely; that finally the 
 
 * The river Cremera is now called the Valca or Varca ; coming 
 out of the lake of Baccano, it throws itself into the Tiber, five miles 
 from Rome. Mvr. Ital. Ant. 
 
 Ds
 
 36 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 centre of their little body being broken, they retired, 
 fighting, to a hill, whence they several times drove back 
 the enemy, who surrounded them on all sides. The 
 latter, however, formed round the little troop a kind of 
 blockade, in which the Fabians were kept without food 
 during the whole of the following night. Their com- 
 panions, at the dawn of day, hearing of their misfortune, 
 and well knowing that from hunger they would be 
 obliged to surrender, hastened to accomplish their rescue, 
 or to die in their defence, leaving but few in charge of the 
 castle : this little body was immediately surrounded by 
 the enemy, and, after an obstinate contest, cut to 
 pieces. 
 
 The remnant of the Fabians surrounded on every 
 side upon the hill, exhausted by fatigue and famine, 
 continued to hold out until the evening, by raising 
 heaps of bodies around them, with such valour and ob- 
 stinacy that the enemy dared not approach ; who, after 
 losing a third part of his army, and remaining some time 
 in suspense, sent heralds to offer them a secure retreat, 
 if they would lay down their arms, and abandon the for- 
 tress ; conditions which their noble minds immediately 
 rejected. The Etrurians, however, did not dare to ap- 
 proach, but holding them constantly besieged, threw 
 upon them stones, arrows, and other missiles, from a 
 distance. The Fabians, although nearly all wounded 
 and disarmed, their weapons being either broken or 
 blunted, made a desperate descent from the hill, when, 
 rushing upon the enemy like wild beasts, and tearing 
 from them their arms, they maintained the unequal con- 
 test until all remained dead upon the field. The remain- 
 ing little body that were left in charge of the fortress 
 defended itself with equal valour, till, straitened by
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 37 
 
 famine, they made the same courageous sortie, and fell 
 with the same desperate spirit*. 
 
 The Roman historians and poets have contended with 
 each other in celebrating this memorable enterprise, and 
 a glorious commemoration of it was made annually in 
 Rome by a solemn festival f. The new Consul Me- 
 nenius, by hastening his march, might, probably, have 
 arrived in time to liberate the Fabians, had not his 
 enmity to that family made him reluctant to undertake 
 the enterprise. Elated with victory, the Etrurians now 
 marched against the Consul ; and if we credit the Ro- 
 man historians, the latter took up a very disadvantageous 
 position, from whence he was driven, and obliged to 
 take shelter in his cantonments, where, attacked by the 
 conqueror, he was again dislodged with little resistance. 
 The Romans experienced a shameful defeat, and the fu- 
 gitives owed their lives only to the avidity of the con- 
 querors, who halted to plunder the cantonments ; they 
 nevertheless followed up their victory, and approached 
 Rome, where, meeting with little resistance, they took 
 possession of Mount Janiculum J. Rome, thus block- 
 aded by the enemy, was in the greatest dismay ; the 
 Consul, who was fighting against the Volsci, was hastily 
 recalled ; and, upon his arrival, two battles took place, 
 the first undecided, the second near the gate Collina ; 
 after which the Etrurians were obliged to retire. This vic- 
 tory of the Romans, however, does not appear to have been 
 of great importance, as the Etrurians were still encamped 
 upon Mount Janiculum, where they invested the city, 
 and distressed it for provisions. Besides the numerous 
 population to be maintained, numbers from the country 
 
 * Tit. Liv. lib. 2. Dion. Halicarn. lib. 7. 
 t Ovid. Fast. lib. 11. J Tit. Liv. lib. 2. Dion. Halicarn. lib. 9.
 
 38 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 I 
 
 had Hocked to the capital, which disaster increasing, the 
 
 Consuls finally deemed it expedient to lead the famished 
 soldiers against the enemy. The conflict was long and 
 obstinate, both sides being alternately the conquerors, 
 until the Romans were finally victorious, the Etrurians 
 quietly retreating in the night towards Veium. The 
 number of killed and wounded was so great, even on 
 the part of the Romans, that the Consuls Virginius and 
 Servilius refused the honours of a triumph*. 
 
 These reciprocal losses kept the two nations for 
 some time quiet, till the Etrurians, making a new 
 league with the Sabines, prepared again to besiege 
 Rome, whose armies hud been separated, and not yet 
 well assembled upon the territory of Veii, when the 
 Consul Valerius, with surprising celerity, overtook the 
 Sabines, and defeated them. He immediately advanced 
 against the Etrurians, whom he compelled to take re- 
 fuge in Veii, and in the neighbouring mountains. So 
 many repeated losses obliged the Veientes to sue for 
 peace, and by defraying the expenses of the war, they 
 obtained a truce for forty years. During nearly the 
 whole of this period the Etrurian cities took no part in the 
 wars which the Romans continually carried on against 
 the Sabines, the jEqui, and the Volsc. The former 
 were kept in continual exercise of this dreadful disci- 
 pline, whilst idleness and luxury were rendering the Etru- 
 rians effeminate. After so long a peace, the rebellion of 
 Fidene, a colony of the Romans, put arms once more 
 in the hands of the Etrurians. Four ambassadors had 
 been sent to Fidene to recall it to allegiance. Tolum- 
 nus, king of the Tuscans, was also there at the same 
 time, and by his order, either direct or equivocal, the 
 
 * Liv. & Dion. loc. cit.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 39 
 
 ambassadors were massacred*. It is easy to conceive 
 the indignation which fired the Romans at this affront, 
 and their eagerness to avenge it. The Falisci and the 
 Veientes, commanded by Tolumnus, had joined the Fi- 
 denates. The Romans, after a small advantage, not 
 gained without blood, created Mamercus -/Emilius dictator, 
 who went out against the enemy, then posted near the 
 walls of Fidene : here a furious conflict took place, in 
 the midst of which Cornelius Cossus, the tribune of the 
 soldiers, a youth not less admirable for the beauty of his 
 person than his strength of mind, seeing Tolumnus 
 covered with his royal ornaments, and fighting valiantly 
 against the Romans, darted violently upon him, con- 
 temptuously reproaching him as a violator of the 
 sacred rights and laws of nations ; and crying aloud that 
 he was about to offer his victim to the shades of the be- 
 trayed legates, with the first stroke of his lance he threw 
 him from his horse, and slew him. Cossus cut off the 
 head of Tolumnus, fixed it upon a spear, and throwing 
 the Etrurians into consternation by the spectacle, thus 
 completed the victory f. 
 
 Upon the return of the victorious army to Rome, 
 Cossus consecrated in the temple of Jupiter Feretrius 
 the spoils of Tolumnus, called the magnificent, (opima,) 
 which were the second consecrated after those by 
 Romulus J. 
 
 * It is related that the Fidenates were consulting him at the 
 moment he was playing with dice, and that, intent upon the game, 
 he made use of the word occide, a technical term allusive to the 
 play, which was interpreted as an order to slay (occidere) the am- 
 bassadors. Tit. Liv. lib. 4. Valer. Max. lib. 9, cap. 9. 
 
 t Tit. Liv. lib. 4. Val. Max. lib. 3, cap. 2. 
 
 J Romulus having slain and despoiled with his own hand the 
 leader of the Caeninenses, instituted this rite, in order to give 
 greater lustre to the nation. Tit. Liv. lib. 1.
 
 4r> HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 Fidene, after another slight action, being sur- 
 rounded, the Romans made themselves masters of 
 it by the following stratagem, which, though common in 
 those days, excites our astonishment. A subterraneous 
 mine was conducted under the city, in a part where the 
 citizens least expected an attack: the assault being made 
 on the opposite side, all ran to its defence, whilst the 
 enemy suddenly coming through the mine, filled the city, 
 and Fidene received its deserved chastisement. Such 
 events dismayed the Veientes and Falisci, and induced 
 the whole of the Etrurian cities to unite against the Ro- 
 mans. The Fidenates obeyed this yoke very unwillingly, 
 and at last persuaded the Veientes to rise in their 
 
 OOfJ 
 
 favour, by breaking a truce of eight years obtained 
 from the Romans. 
 
 Although the Etrurian diet would not consent to take 
 up arms unitedly against the Romans, it encouraged pri- 
 vate individuals to aid the Veientes, and the hope of 
 plunder greatly swelled their army. The Romans, on 
 account of civil cavils between the people and the senate, 
 in lieu of two consuls, had elected four military tribunes, 
 who were, indeed, the most celebrated of their warriors ; 
 bu as military command must attach to one alone, the 
 multiplicity of commanders produced a contradiction of 
 orders and confusion, by which the Romans were ulti- 
 mately defeated*. The Fidenates, taking courage at 
 this victory, rose and barbarously slaughtered all 
 the Romans found in their city, joined the enemies 
 of Rome, and passing the Tiber, encamped not far from 
 Fidene. Rome was now in the greatest confusion and 
 dismay, when Mamercus ^Emilius attacked the Veientes 
 with success. The puerile stratagem of the Fidenates 
 
 * Tit. Liv. lib. 4.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 41 
 
 availed them little ; in the heat of the contest they came 
 out of the city dressed as furies, waving lighted torches. 
 The Veientes being overpowered by the Romans, few 
 escaped either death or slavery ; and the Fidenates fly- 
 ing towards the city, were pursued by the Romans, who 
 entered pell-mell with the fugitives, and Fidene was re- 
 taken and sacked*. The humbled Veientes sued for 
 peace, and a truce was granted them for twenty years, 
 but which the conquered enemies of the Romans con- 
 tinued to observe as long only as defeat was fresh in 
 their memory ; when fear afterwards vanished by de- 
 grees, and their wonted audacity returned. This truce 
 was not yet terminated, when the Veientes, again 
 molesting and pillaging the neighbourhood of 
 Rome, the latter demanded satisfaction ; the former, af- 
 flicted by domestic dissension, at first modestly sued for 
 pardon ; but the demands being renewed the following 
 year, they assumed an insolent tone, threatening the Ro- 
 man ambassadors with the fate of those of Fidene. 
 The fierce minds of the Romans needed only this pretext 
 to induce them not only to declare war, but to resolve 
 upon the destruction of the cityf. 
 
 Fidene, as has been already mentioned, was situated 
 upon a strong rock, and renowned for the valour of its 
 inhabitants, not inferior in number to the Romans. 
 Dionysius of Halicarnassus compares its magnitude to 
 Athens. As the wars hitherto carried on against this 
 people, resembled rather inroads than military opera- 
 tions, the Romans now resolved upon besieging Veil 
 in form, by surrounding it on every side, and, what was 
 hitherto unusual in Roman warfare, to take up their 
 winter quarters before the city. This resolution met, 
 
 * Tit Liv. lib. 4. Flor. cap. 12 & 13. f Tit. Liv. lib. 1.
 
 42 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 indeed, with opposition, but was finally adopted*. The 
 
 latter, however, prepared for their defence with all 
 
 possible zeal ; and that all hearts might be more 
 
 united by submitting to implicit obedience, they elected 
 
 a king, whose name is unknown, which giving displeasure 
 
 to the other cities of Etruria, they resolved to afford the 
 
 Veientes no kind of succour "j". 
 
 The siege which had begun under the command of the 
 military Tribunes, armed with consular power, was at- 
 tended almost immediately with misfortune to the Ve- 
 ientes : making a sudden sortie in the night, they burnt 
 the machines, and destroyed the works. The insult thus 
 offered to the Roman power, instead of lessening, inflamed 
 still more the courage of its youth, who crowded in num- 
 bers to avenge it : the works were re-established, the 
 siege carried on with greater vigour, and, notwithstanding 
 the general council of the Etrurians had resolved to give 
 no succour to the Veientes, the Falisci and the Capenates J, 
 foreseeing their own ruin in that of Veii, having as- 
 sembled a numerous body of troops, suddenly attacked a 
 part of the Roman army, commanded by the tri- 
 bune Sergius ; and a sortie being made at the 
 same time by the Veientes, that wing of the Romans was 
 defeated, and fled to the camp of the tribune Virginius, 
 who, from an ill understanding, had not marched to its 
 succour. The two tribunes were condemned to a pecu- 
 niary penal ty; but the Romans having soon repaired 
 this misfortune, followed up the siege of Veii. 
 
 We cannot sufficiently express our astonishment at the 
 supine indolence of all the Etrurian cities, (with 
 the exception of the Falisci and Capenates,) in thus 
 
 * Plut. vita Camilli. t Tit. Liv. lib. 4. 
 
 t People inhabiting the country between Fiano and Civitella. 
 
 * Tit. yv. lib. 5.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 43 
 
 abandoning to its fate the strongest bulwark of Etruria, 
 which, once conquered, rendered it easy for the Romans 
 to penetrate into the heart of the province. Probably 
 their attention was distracted by some war not well 
 known, or by threats of an invasion from the Gauls, who 
 had long since passed the Alps, and occupied the 
 plains of Lombardy. Other battles in the mean- 
 time had taken place round the besieged city, where the 
 Capenates and Falisci, endeavouring to demolish 
 the works, were repulsed with great slaughter. 
 A phenomenon occurred about this time, which 
 
 356. . . . /> i i 
 
 may give exercise to the conjectures of the ad- 
 mirers of natural philosophy, and which seriously occu- 
 pied the warriors and legislators of Rome and Veii, 
 as thereon depended the issue of the war. The lake 
 Albano had risen to a very extraordinary height with- 
 out rain, or any apparent cause ; the season was ex- 
 tremely dry, yet the waters overflowed the basin, and 
 made their way towards the sea. An old Etrurian pro- 
 phesied that the Romans would never conquer Veii, 
 unless they turned those waters, not towards the sea, but 
 over the surrounding country. The senate of Rome, 
 either to confirm or discredit this prophecy, sent to con- 
 sult the oracle of Delphi : the priests made Apollo 
 confirm the presage of the old Etrurian, and the god 
 added (which he rarely omitted) that the Romans, upon 
 the conquest of Veii, were to send a rich present to his 
 temple. This event is interesting both to the naturalist 
 and politician ; and in order to comprehend the enor- 
 mous quantity of water necessary to produce this effect, 
 we must be acquainted with its extent. The lake Al- 
 bano, now called Castello*, is situated near the cele- 
 
 * It has this name from Castel Gandolfo, built by Gandolfo 
 Savelli, now a villa of the Pope.
 
 44 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 brated mount Albano; its form is almost oval, extending 
 about eight miles of circumference, and the unequal 
 margin of its crater is formed by rocks and hills, of 
 various heights ; the greatest ascends to 480 feet above 
 the superficies of the lake, the smallest to 292 *. Like 
 its neighbour Nemi, and many other lakes, it has been 
 the crater of a vulcano, the marks of which are still 
 clearly visible |. It would appear to arise from consi- 
 derable subterraneous springs, as Kirker conjectured, by 
 seeing the lead carried constantly towards the side with 
 which he was sounding the depth ; and there is, perhaps, 
 still a secret communication with the neighbouring lake 
 of Nemi. In order to account for so large a body of 
 water collecting itself as to exceed the height we have 
 described, it is necessary to suppose the passages to have 
 been at that time obstructed, by which the waters were 
 usually discharged . The devout Romans, in obedience 
 to the oracle, constructed a large canal, still visible, and 
 which does not appear the work of Rome while her do- 
 minion extended only over a few miles of territory, but 
 of that Rome which gave laws to the world . The 
 canal leads at present to the Silvian waters, and thence 
 towards the Tiber ||, whilst other natural passages, pro- 
 
 * Kisker near the Volpi Latium Vetus. 
 
 f Lapi. lez. accad., sull'origine de due laghi. 
 
 J Examples of such phenomena are not wanting. In the islands 
 of Chersus and Aserus, situated between Istria and Dalmatia, 
 (celebrated for the petrified human bones frequently found there,) 
 there is a lake, which, without any manifest cause, often swells, 
 comes out of its bed, and again returns. 
 
 ^ The description may be seen in the work Vulpii Latium Vetus. 
 This stupendous canal, excavated from the bowels of the mountain, 
 runs underground about 1,500 feet, and in some part is formed by 
 large quadrate stones. 
 
 || Vulp. Lat. Vet.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 45 
 
 bably more ancient than the artificial one, form the waters 
 Crabre and Ferentine. This command of the Tuscan 
 augur and the oracle, was, probably dictated by the 
 legislators of Rome themselves, who, occupied either in 
 war or in agriculture, knew well of what utility it would 
 be to irrigate the country between the lake and the Tiber; 
 and in order to obtain a more easy obedience, made the 
 oracle command it*. The Romans obeyed, but did not 
 omit to reinforce their troops. In the civil contests, 
 military tribunes had been elected instead of consuls, and 
 sometimes taken from the plebeian order. The Etrurian 
 diet, newly assembled, refused to declare solemn war 
 against Rome, while they secretly encouraged various 
 cities to succour Veii. In the meantime a 
 
 357. 
 
 voluntary body of Etrurians marched against the 
 Romans. The rashness of the two military tribunes 
 carried them incautiously into an ambush, where their 
 troops sustained a furious attack. Genucius, one of 
 the tribunes, was killed, and Atinius saved himself upon 
 an eminence, with the remains of his army. The news 
 of this disaster spread consternation in Rome : recourse 
 was had to the election of a dictator, and the choice fell 
 upon Camillus, who created Cornelius Scipio his lieu- 
 tenant. The troops were now inspired with fresh 
 courage, and after completely defeating the Falisci and 
 the Capenates, allies of the Veientes, the city was besieged 
 with the greatest vigour. The Romans, however, de- 
 spairing of taking it by open assault, constructed a sub- 
 terraneous mine, by which they were to be conducted 
 into the fortress of Veii. The work was one of ar- 
 
 * Cicero, speaking of this event, confirms our conjecture. " Ita 
 aqua Albana deducta ad utilitatem agri suburbani non ad arcem 
 urbemque retinendam. (Cic. de Divinat.)
 
 46 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 duous execution * ; but in the remains of ancient edifices 
 we have luminous examples of what rude art is capable, 
 when directed by natural sense and perseverance, and 
 animated by enthusiasm, without the aid of modern re- 
 finement ; a recent instance of which is observable in the 
 stupendous emissary of the lake Albano. The mine was 
 carried on with the greatest celerity day and night, the 
 miners being changed every six hours ; and when finished, 
 Camillus deemed the victory so certain that he required 
 instructions from Rome, as to the disposal of the booty. 
 Upon a signal given, the Roman soldiers, who had been 
 for many days in repose, rushed suddenly from every 
 side to the assault of the city, and whilst the Veientes 
 were assembled upon the walls to defend themselves from 
 so furious an attack, the band of chosen and resolute 
 warriors, who had penetrated under the city by the sub- 
 terraneous road, sallied out in an instant into the fortress ; 
 whence rushing upon the astonished Veientes, before they 
 had time to recover from their consternation, they opened 
 tlie gates, admitted their companions, and thus finished, 
 after ten years of continued war, the conquest of a city 
 which had so long resisted Rome, and rivalled her 
 power. 
 
 The slaughter ceased with the first onset: the free 
 citizens were conducted to Rome and sold as slaves, the 
 city remaining a desert, the greatest part of the buildings 
 having been destroyed. The superstitious soldiers, after 
 loading themselves with the profane spoils, thought also 
 of enriching their country with the sacred and miraculous 
 images of Veii, and particularly the idol Juno ; but as 
 
 * Tit. Liv., lib. 5, " Operum fuit omnium longe maximum ac 
 laborisissimum ; cuniculus in arcem hostium agi coeptus."
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 47 
 
 they considered it a kind of sacrilegious impropriety to 
 make the goddess cliange her country, the consent of the 
 image to be removed to Rome, was asked by a sacred 
 deputation ; when either the pious credulity or super- 
 stitious imagination of the bystanders saw the goddess, 
 by a nod of her head, and heard her by voice, consent to 
 the request*. 
 
 A war with the Falisci succeeded that of Veii, 
 which, like the latter, was long and obstinate. Camillus, 
 the military tribune who commanded the Romans, had 
 often discomfited his enemies, and was now blockading 
 the city. A schoolmaster, who was leading a number 
 of boys belonging to the first families of the Falisci to 
 take the air, thought of making his fortune by treachery ; 
 conducting the innocent youth amongst the enemy, he 
 presented them as prisoners to Camillus, telling him that 
 in so doing he consigned to him the city Faleria, as he 
 gave up the sons of her first citizens. The virtuous 
 Camillus answered, that the Romans did not hope to 
 conquer by treachery, but by force of arms, against armed 
 enemies; and, laying the shoulders of the preceptor 
 bare, with his arms tied behind him, immediately con- 
 signed him to the boys, who, after whipping him with 
 rods, took him back to Faleria. This extraordinary 
 spectacle moved the Falisci, who, rather conquered by 
 Roman generosity than by arms, sent a deputation to 
 Rome, determined to place themselves, by their own 
 choice, under so virtuous an enemy f. 
 
 The incursions of the Vulsinii upon the Roman ter- 
 ritory produced another trifling war, in which that 
 people felt the vengeance of Rome ; and still greater 
 
 * Tit. Liv. lib. 5. Plutar. vita Camilli. 
 t Tit. Liv. lib. 5.
 
 48 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 misfortunes, probably awaited them, had not the contest 
 been interrupted by more important events. 
 
 An enemy far more powerful was now threaten- 
 ing Etruria and Rome. The Gauls, who had 
 long since abandoned their country, occupied the plains 
 of Lombardy, and formed Cisalpine Gaul. It is said 
 that these barbarians were attracted by the softness and 
 fertility of the Italian climate, and particularly by the 
 wines it produced*. Impatience of rest, and avidity of 
 plunder, attracted this people to Etruria. Chiusi, a. 
 principal city, was surrounded by a numerous body of 
 these barbarians, and applied to the Romans for aid, 
 who, divided at this time by civil discords, had exiled 
 the only man capable of saving Rome, Furius Camillus, 
 the conqueror of the Veientes. In this dangerous con- 
 juncture they evinced an equal weakness in council and 
 in arms ; instead of vigorously succouring the Etrurians, 
 they sent an embassy to dispute with the Gauls upon 
 public right, and to demand an explanation of their con- 
 duct. The answer they received is sufficiently memora- 
 ble. Brennus, laughing at their demand, told them that 
 he occupied the territory by the same right as that by 
 which the Romans had invaded the lands of their neigh- 
 bours, that is, the right of arms, which alone belonged 
 to the strongest. This answer will be thought worthy 
 only of a barbarian, but it is at least candid and sincere, 
 and founded upon the principle which has regulated 
 the actions of nations, in spite of those metaphysical 
 romances called treaties upon public i ight, which have 
 
 * Gaul, covered by woods, had a climate far more rigid than at 
 present, whence the grape would not ripen. Even in the times of 
 Ceetar the climate was so cold, that rein-deer were found tin 11% 
 animals that can only live among the cold and snows of Lapland. 
 (See Button's history of this animal.)
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 49 
 
 never served either to prevent war, or to make peace ; 
 and which, even in our polished age, enable the violators 
 of the rights of others to dissemble with more effect, or 
 give answers less candid than that of Brennus, by cover- 
 ing the truth with ingenious sophistry, and studying to 
 give a colour of justice to the most evident violations by 
 ingenious manifestos *. 
 
 The conference having been broken off, a skirmish 
 took place between the Etrurians and Gauls, in which 
 Fabius killed one of their principal leaders with his own 
 hand. The Gauls, exasperated by this manifest viola- 
 tion of faith, abandoned Chiusi, and hastened to Rome. 
 The vicissitudes of this war are related by Roman his- 
 torians : it appears that fortune, desirous of punishing 
 the ingratitude of the Romans towards Camillus, de- 
 prived them of their wonted judgment and courage. 
 The confusion in which they marched to give battle to 
 the Gauls, and the disorder of their ranks when they 
 met them at the river Allia, occasioned one of the most 
 terrible and memorable defeats in the Roman history. 
 A dreadful panic struck the rest of the army, which, 
 instead of retiring to the defence of Rome, dispersed 
 itself through the country, a great part retiring to the 
 abandoned city of Veii, and leaving Rome in the 
 power of the enemy. The barbarians themselves were 
 astonished at the facility of their conquest, finding the 
 city almost without inhabitants, and the remainder 
 having fortified themselves in the capitol. Finally, the 
 glory of freeing his ungrateful country, and saving her 
 from the disgrace of redeeming herself at the price of 
 gold, was reserved for Camillus, who, arriving at the 
 moment when the price of Rome was weighing in the 
 
 * Tit. Liv. lib. 5. Plut. Life of Camillus. 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 balance, broke the shameful contract, challenged the 
 Gauls to battle in the centre of Rome, where they were 
 beaten and put to flight with the same facility as the 
 Romans had been at the river Allia. Joining afterwards 
 again at a distance of eight miles from Rome, on the Via 
 Gabinia, they made a valorous resistance, but were 
 finally cut to pieces, not one having been left to carry 
 back to Lombardy the news of their defeat. 
 
 In this war, as on many other occasions, we perceive 
 the public welfare, and the safety of a kingdom, depend- 
 ing often upon a single individual*. This victory of the 
 Romans thus liberated Etruria from every danger. The 
 abandoned city of Veii was upon the point of rising 
 immortal, and the glories of Latium to be transferred to 
 Etruria : Rome no longer existed ; the fire and sword 
 of the Gauls had destroyed all but the capitol, and 
 it was long debated whether the situation of the city 
 should be changed, and the Roman population carried 
 to Veii. Camillus opposed it, and thus reserved to 
 Latium the honour of future triumphs. 
 
 It would appear, however, that this victory gave only 
 fresh vigour to the Romans, whilst it filled the Tuscans 
 with jealousy and apprehensions ; for shortly after we 
 find almost the whole of Etruria in arms against Rome. 
 Sutrium, a city in alliance with the Romans, was attacked 
 by the Etrurians ; and the former being unable to hasten 
 to its succour, the city surrendered, and the inhabitants 
 were permitted to evacuate it with only one garment 
 upon them. The miserable exiles met with the Roman 
 army commanded by Camillus, who was hastening to its 
 relief; and being counselled not to despond, the Roman 
 general advanced quietly to Sutrium, where the insolent 
 
 * Tit. Liv. lib. 5. Plut. Life of Camillus.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 51 
 
 Victors, not expecting such an assault, had left the gates 
 open, and without a guard. Thus surprised by a sud- 
 den attack, they were easily overpowered ; a pardon was 
 granted to those who laid down their arms, and the city, 
 thus lost and regained in one day, was restored to its 
 inhabitants. 
 
 Perceiving how little interest can be excited by 
 
 a continued detail of deeds of slaughter, which, 
 resembling each other so much, are not diversified by any 
 of those civil and instructive events which place before 
 the reader the genius and the customs of a nation, with 
 the revolutions of its internal government; and omitting, 
 therefore, many of the warlike enterprises sufficiently 
 narrated in the Roman annals, we hasten to those more 
 decisive events, which finally ruined and subjugated 
 Etruria to the Roman power. 
 
 After an alternate series of truces, violations, and many 
 trivial occurrences, hostilities recommenced, in which 
 the Tarquinii gained some advantage over the Romans, 
 but dishonoured the victory by their cruelty in putting 
 to death more than 300 prisoners. The Romans, dis- 
 tracted by other wars, could not immediately avenge 
 themselves. 
 
 Some time afterwards, Fabius Ambustus marched 
 
 against them, now united with the Falisci. 
 
 These people made use of a vain stratagem or su- 
 perstitious rite, already practised by the Fidenates : they 
 placed at the head of their army a body of priests, 
 dressed as furies, holding artificial serpents in one hand, 
 and lighted torches in the other. This sudden and ex- 
 traordinary spectacle struck the Romans with a mo- 
 mentary terror ; the soldiers had already given way, 
 when, encouraged by the Consul Fabius, they dissipated 
 
 E 2
 
 52 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 the spectres and dispersed the enemy*. This was only 
 the prelude to a far more sanguinary action, which took 
 place along the Tiber with a very numerous host of Etru- 
 rians, who were defeated with the loss of 7,000 men. Two 
 years afterwards a body of Romans, commanded by 
 Quintius Penna, attacked the Tarquinii; the battle 
 was bloody and indecisive, but the enraged Romans, 
 determined to avenge cruelties practised by their ene- 
 mies, caused many of their prisoners to pass under the 
 rod and axe of their lictors. Such horrid examples show 
 the necessity of mutual respect in war, and the observance 
 of those laws which command slaughter to cease with 
 the battle "f. Incursion followed incursion on the part 
 of the Tarquinii, Falisci, c., but always proving 
 unsuccessful ; they were at length obliged to sue for 
 peace, and obtained a truce of forty years. The 
 remainder of Etruria, exhausted by so many de- 
 feats, remained in a state of tranquillity, approaching 
 almost to supine indolence ; whilst the ferocious nation 
 which was threatening them with chains, became every 
 day more formidable in the continual exercise of war 
 against powerful tribes. During the various wars in 
 which the Gauls advanced even to Rome, the Etrurians 
 remained totally inactive. The Volscians, the Samnites, 
 and other tribes of the country called Magna-Grecia, 
 were almost constantly disputing with the Romans, who 
 finally triumphed; but had her enemies more judiciously 
 combined in their operations, we may predict that this 
 rising colossus would have been overpowered. Jealousies, 
 however, and private interests, continued to divide these 
 nations, who, one after the other, fell under the Roman 
 yoke. Etruria, after remaining nearly forty years with- 
 
 Tit. Liv. lib. 7. Flor. lib. 1, cap. 8. t Liv. lib. 7.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 53 
 
 out molesting the Romans, leaving them to subjugate the 
 tribes beyond the Tiber, began again to arm herself, and 
 to threaten those conquerors without even assigning a 
 cause : the preparations were formidable ; whence 
 the Romans, full of apprehension of a dangerous 
 war, named Servilius Longus Dictator ; the storm, how- 
 ever, dispersed of itself, and the Etrurians did not 
 inarch*. In the following year all the tribes of Etruria, 
 with the exception of the Aretines, turned anew against 
 Rome, and commenced the attack of Sutrium, a colony of 
 the Romans, which was considered as the gate of Etru- 
 ria ; the Romans, commanded by the Consul 
 
 442. 
 
 Aemilius, hastened to its succour. The Etrurians, 
 deliberating among themselves whether it was better to 
 temporize and stand on the defensive, or hazard a deci- 
 sive battle ; the latter prevailed, and rarely has a battle 
 been fought with so much obstinacy f ; it appears to have 
 remained undecided, and suspended only by the night. 
 The most brave on both sides had fallen, and the re- 
 mains of both armies, retiring to their cantonments, 
 found themselves so much weakened as to be unable to 
 renew the battle, and a tacit truce was the consequence. 
 The valour, evinced by the Etrurians in this conflict, 
 sufficiently proves that long repose had not weakened 
 their military courage, although it has been stated that 
 the Consul received the honours of a triumph. The 
 following year the Etrurians returned to the attack of 
 Sutri with a fresh army, when the Romans, headed by 
 the Consul Fabius, came out to meet them ; they fought 
 with the most determined obstinacy, until the Etrurians 
 
 * Tit. Liv. lib. 9. Fas. Capit. 
 
 t Liv. lib. 9. " Nullo unquam praelia . fugee minus, aut plus 
 caedis."
 
 54 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 suffered an immense slaughter, and the loss of their 
 camp ; the remains of their army taking refuge in the 
 wood and Mount Ciminus*. The sacred horror of 
 this wood induced the Romans to consider it a profana- 
 tion to enter it : the less superstitious feared to venture 
 into an unknown country, still keeping alive in their me- 
 mory the fatal adventure of the " Forche Candine,'' 
 where the Roman army, surrounded by the Samnites, 
 were obliged to yield to a disgraceful yoke. When we 
 consider that the wood Ciminus, or Viterbo, struck 
 such terror into so brave a people, many reflections pre- 
 sent themselves. We pardon a superstitious 
 imagination from fear of invisible powers, against 
 which the courage of the bravest warriors is not sufficient, 
 unless armed by philosophy)"; but we cannot avoid 
 noting the manner of making war in those times. Cou- 
 rage and power of the hand appears to have been its 
 foundation, more than the art of campaigning, and the 
 rules of military tactics. A warlike people, led on by 
 experienced generals, was so ignorant of the situation of 
 
 * Tit. Liv. Lib. 9, ' The Mountain Ciminus is now called the 
 Mountain of Viterbo. 
 
 f Tit. Liv. lib. 9, thus describes the wood Ciminus : " Sylva 
 erat Ciminatunc invia atque horronda, quam nuper fuere Germanici 
 saltus, nulli ad earn diem ne mercatorum quidem adita, &c." In 
 every age, large and thick woods have been thought the abode of 
 some deity; and greater as their obscurity was, greater the fear 
 and reverence. The philosophy of Seneca did not guard him against 
 this prejudice. " Si tibi occurrit vetustis arboribus et solitam 
 altitudinem egressis frequens lucus, et conspectum coeli densitate 
 ramorum submovens, ilia proceritas sylvae et secretum loci, et 
 adrni ratio umbrae in aperto tarn densse atque continues, fidem tibi 
 numinis facit." Senec. ad Luc. epist. 41. Religion and good 
 sense have destroyed all the deities of the woods. The wood of 
 Tasso is an imitation of the wood of Lucan, near Marsilia ; but
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 55 
 
 the mountain of Viterbo, as not to dare to enter it ; 
 whilst the Etrurians thought they possessed in this wood 
 an insurmountable bulwark against the Romans. The 
 Roman army thus remaining in doubt, Fabius, brother 
 of the Consul, who was skilled in the Etrurian tongue, 
 offered to explore the terrible wood ; and entering it, 
 accompanied by a servant, both dressed as shepherds, 
 they passed through the wood and mountain, observed 
 the situation of the country, and its population, and 
 arrived as far as Umbria. Fabius having arrived at 
 Camerinum, and finding that people inclined to favour the 
 Romans, he made himself known, and on returning 
 afterwards to the camp, encouraged the Consul to ascend 
 the mountain and penetrate into the heart of Etruria. 
 The enterprise was executed ; the Etrurian territories 
 beyond Mount Ciminus were laid waste ; and the sol- 
 diers, laden with booty, had scarcely again crossed the 
 mountain, when they met the Roman Legates with two 
 Tribunes, who commanded Fabius not to enter the wood 
 Ciminus ; so great was the terror it impressed upon the 
 minds of the Romans. 
 
 The enterprise thus executed had still greater glory, 
 
 Ceesar appears still greater than Goffredo. See Phars. lib. 3, 
 
 v. 399. 
 
 Lucus erat longo nunquam violatus ab aevo, 
 
 Obscurum cingens connexis aera ramis. 
 
 Sed fortes tremuere manus, motique verenda 
 
 Majestate loci, si robora sacra ferirent 
 
 In sua credebant redituras membra secures. 
 
 Implicitas magno Csesar terrore cohortes 
 
 Ut vidit, primus raptam librare bipennem 
 
 Ausus, et aeriam ferro proscindere quercum 
 
 Effatur, merso violate in robore ferro : 
 
 Jam ne quis vestruin dubitat praescindere sylvam 
 
 Credite me fecisse nefas. Tune paruit omnis 
 
 Imperiis, non sublata secura pavore 
 
 Turba, sed expensa superoruni, et CiesarU ira."
 
 56 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 and the expedition of the Consul's brother was looked 
 upon with the same degree of wonder as we now read of 
 the travels of some adventurer who has penetrated into 
 the unknown deserts of America. This event either 
 greatly exasperated or alarmed the Etrurians, who, to 
 avoid the threatened yoke, assembled the most numerous 
 army they had ever led against the enemy, to which 
 were united also the Umbrians, when, advancing as usual 
 to Sutrium, they presented battle to the Romans. The 
 latter, stuck with astonishment and dismay at the extra- 
 ordinary number of their enemies, remained in their 
 fortified camp. It is very probable that if the Etrurian 
 commanders had taken advantage of the moment by 
 attacking the Romans in their intrenchments, without 
 giving them time to recover from their sudden panic, they 
 would have overpowered them; but content with the 
 terror they had struck into the enemy, they threatened 
 only to attack them on the following clay. Slumbering 
 upon this vain threat, they neglected, with supine indif- 
 ference, every necessary precaution against a surprise. 
 The Roman Consul, seeing his troops by degrees regain 
 courage, having ordered them to take their food, gave the 
 command for attack at the dawn of day, when the Etru- 
 rian camp was confusedly immersed in sleep. The sur- 
 prise was so great, that this immense multitude of war- 
 riors took to flight without resistance. It was rather a 
 slaughter than a battle, and the great exaggeration alone 
 of Livy, serves at least to shew us that a vast number 
 were slain*. The terror of this defeat obliged 
 
 444. 
 
 Aretinum, Cortona, and Perusia, at this time the 
 
 Livy, lib. 9, asserts, that the number of the Umbrians and 
 Etrurians killed and wounded amounted to 60,000 ; a number very 
 improbable.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 57 
 
 principal Etrurian cities, to sue for peace, and obtain a 
 truce of thirty years ; but the other cities persisted ob- 
 stinately in war, which being fomented by the Umbrians, 
 who had assisted the Etrurians, and intent upon resenting 
 past injuries, they prepared one of the finest and most 
 numerous armies ever assembled, with which they ad- 
 vanced against the Romans, whilst another body of 
 Umbrians preceded and supported it. The Umbrians, 
 hitherto unacquainted with Roman strength and courage, 
 soon experienced a defeat, near the wood Ciminus. 
 Not so easy was the victory over the Etrurians : the 
 two armies met near the lake Vadimone*, the command 
 of the Etrurians having been assigned to their king 
 Elius Volternus, or Volterranus. It did not appear to 
 the Romans that they were fighting against an enemy 
 they had so often defeated : leaving the uncertain and 
 distant contest of arrows, the attack commenced only at 
 
 * The lake Vadimone is celebrated for various battles. Besides 
 the present, twenty-seven years afterwards the Gauls were dis- 
 dbmfited by Dolabella. It is now called the lake of Bassano. 
 Pliny describes as a wonder the floating islands that are found in 
 it, and upon which sheep and goats, by leaping thereon, are often 
 transported into the midst of the lake. The same phenomenon is 
 seen in our days in the sulphurous Albanian waters, between Rome 
 and Tivoli, spoken of by Virgil, ^En. 7. This phenomenon is easily 
 explained : in these turbid and stagnant waters are found scattered 
 substances of every kind, and of various specific gravity ; the hea- 
 viest of these waters go to the bottom, the less heavy remain at top, 
 and by the union of attraction form these swimming masses. Be- 
 tween the lake Vadimone and the Tiber is a very extensive plain, 
 where the above battles took place. The principle we have here 
 explained, is the general one for the formation of these little islands. 
 There may be other particular ones : the roots of marshy plants, 
 especially of reeds and alders, entangling together, and covered 
 with mire and putrefied leaves, form a turf, which, uniting together, 
 create an island. (Targioni Viaggi, torn. 2. Padule di Bientina.)
 
 58 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 the length of the sword, each choosing his adversary. 
 Fury and obstinacy were equal on each side ; the first 
 ranks all fell, the second succeeded them with the same 
 ardour, and both sides were exposed to the greatest 
 danger. The infantry were either killed or wounded, and 
 the cavalry having lost the greater part of their horses, 
 were become useless ; when the Roman knights, not 
 disdaining to supply the loss of infantry, gathered in a 
 band, and passing on foot over heaps of killed and 
 wounded, came up with the ruined infantry of the Etru- 
 rians. This sudden and unexpected reinforcement de- 
 cided the day, and the Etrurians experienced the most 
 fatal defeat. The most warlike of their youth were lost, 
 together with their national courage ; their minds be- 
 came debased, and from the loss of this battle we may 
 date the ruin of the Etrurian power*. Succeeding en- 
 deavours were always weak ; and from this period we 
 find the Etrurian cities purchasing a truce, or peace, 
 from the Romans, by the payment of a tribute. We 
 perceive a certain authority of the Romans over them : 
 
 a Dictator crushes the seditions of the Aretines ; 
 
 every endeavour ended in the disgrace of Etruria, 
 and a battle lost near Volterra, shews that the Romans 
 had easily penetrated into the heart of their country f. 
 They were no longer in a condition to cope with Rome ; 
 they needed powerful allies, which indeed they easily 
 found, the increase of the Roman power having awakened 
 a consternation in all the tribes of Italy. The Umbrians, 
 the Etrurians, the Samnites, and the Gauls, at length 
 determined to renew the war against the Romans : the 
 number of fighting men, however, is certainly exagge- 
 rated, as the Samnites and Gauls united are made to 
 
 * Tit. Liv. lib. p. t Tit. Liv. lib. 10.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 59 
 
 amount to 140,000 infantry, with 40,000 cavalry. The 
 Etrurians and Umbrians composed another army. The 
 intention was for the first army to commence the attack, 
 the other falling upon the exhausted Romans in the heat 
 of the contest. The Consuls Fabius Maximus, and 
 Decius Mus, penetrating the interior of the enemy, 
 called another body from Rome, which they sent to lay 
 waste the lands of the Etrurians, in order to make a di- 
 version. Instead of remaining firm at their post, where 
 the great object was to be decided, the defence of their 
 lands drew the Etrurians and Umbrians elsewhere : in 
 the meantime the Samnites and Gauls attacked the Ro- 
 mans, and although the force of the latter finally pre- 
 vailed, they found themselves in great danger. The 
 wing commanded by the Consul Decius had been broken 
 and put to flight, when their commander adopted one of 
 those expedients which rarely fail in producing a happy 
 result over superstitious people. After having tried in 
 vain to stop the fugitives, he called to the high-priest 
 Livius, and crying loudly that he offered himself as a sa- 
 crifice to Heaven for the safety of his army, commanded 
 him to pronounce the mystical words of this act, and im- 
 precations against the enemy. Having himself repeated 
 them, he rushed forward into the thickest of the battle, 
 where, fighting desperately, he was slain. This super- 
 stitious rite and spectacle detained both fugitives and 
 conquerors. The high-priest began loudly to exclaim 
 that the Romans could no longer be beaten ; and ani- 
 mated by these exclamations, they struck terror into the 
 Gauls, who were now easily defeated and dispersed ; 
 so much good and so much evil can superstition pro- 
 duce ! The action of Decius must be deemed great and 
 magnanimous : his body was found with difficulty, buried
 
 60 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 among a heap of the enemy*. The modern opinion 
 which has hitherto prevailed, that the French armies 
 were gifted with an impetuous fury at the first onset, but 
 incapable of sustaining it long, may find a confirmation 
 in the observation made by Livy on this battle with the 
 Gauls f. 
 
 The contest was very bloody on both sides ; 25,000 
 of the allies, and 7,000 Romans, were left dead on the 
 field. We meet hereafter with some puerile efforts of the 
 Etrurians, similar to the last motions of an expiring 
 animal ; and probably the last is their march when 
 
 Pyrrhus waged a furious war with the Romans ; 
 
 they were, however, easily conquered, and Etruria 
 was entirely subjugated by Tiberius Coruncanus. From 
 this period no further mention is made of Etrurian wars. 
 Thus finished a contest which had lasted more than four 
 ages. The want of Etrurian historians, and the neces- 
 sity of deriving information from the writings of their 
 enemies, or those at least who were admirers of Rome, 
 allows us to observe the Etrurians in no favourable light. 
 
 O 
 
 Ignorant of information touching the internal political 
 events of their country, we are deprived of the means of 
 ascertaining how far they may have influenced their fall. 
 Few reflections, however, are sufficient to enable us to 
 trace their final overthrow to the luxury which prevailed 
 among the people, and the weakness of their civil con- 
 stitution. 
 
 * Tit. Liv. lib. 10. He only imitated his father Decius, who had 
 made the same sacrifice in the Latin wars in the battle at the side 
 of Vesuvius, near the city Vesevi. The death of the celebrated 
 Codrus may also be mentioned as a similar example. 
 
 t " Gallorum quidem corpora intollerantissima laboris atque 
 cestus fluere, primaque eorum proelia plusquam virorum,postreum 
 minus quam foeminarum esse." Liv. lib. 10.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY: , 6} 
 
 Etruria lias been celebrated by all ancient writers for the 
 riches and luxury displayed in her public spectacles, her 
 dress, her habitations, and her tables covered with costly 
 fare, even three times a day*. 
 
 In the following chapter it will be shewn that the fine 
 arts flourished here earlier than in any other nation of 
 Europe ; a circumstance which, while it. adds to the na- 
 tional splendour, is at the same time no less calculated to 
 produce effeminacy both of mind and body. On the 
 other hand, the Romans, inured to hardships, preserved 
 no other arts than those of agriculture and warfare ; and 
 the same hands which at the head of their legions had 
 borne arms with consular authority, did not disdain in 
 peace to guide the plough. Whilst the Etrurians, during 
 long truces, were enjoying the pleasures which the arts 
 of luxury on every side afforded them, and were gradually 
 enervating themselves in the bosom of effeminacy, the 
 Romans were continually engaged in wars against the 
 Volsci, the Sabines, &c. The constitution of the 
 Etrurians, moreover, was less adapted to war ; united by 
 a very slender tie of confederation, the various cities or 
 populations had no regular assemblies like the Amphic- 
 tyonic Council in Greece ; the Deputies only united in 
 extraordinary cases at the temple of Voltumna, and the 
 liberty which every city enjoyed to follow, or not, the 
 common resolution, divided the members, and too fre- 
 quently deprived them of the power of acting with an 
 unanimous and well-concerted force. Besides which, 
 nothing is more easy than to divide such a government, 
 and then the weakest power can easily destroy it. Of 
 this we have no few examples : in our own days, we have 
 seen Holland, which, while united in one common cause, 
 
 * Demst. Etrur. regal.
 
 62 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 had successfully resisted the victorious anns of Louis 
 the XlVth., subjugated by 25,000 Prussians, even at a 
 moment when aided by a powerful army from England. 
 We have seen too Switzerland conquered by the same 
 means, and receiving laws from France. Such is the 
 fate of federative republics, and was that of Etruria, 
 although assisted, though perhaps too late, by other 
 tribes or cities, which finally underwent the same destiny 
 of being subjugated by all-conquering Rome. This tor- 
 rent, confined within its banks for some ages by other 
 cities, had only acquired force and depth, and having 
 finally exceeded them, covered not only with its flood the 
 whole of Italy, but extended itself through all Europe, 
 Asia, and Africa, and over the richest and most fertile 
 provinces of the world. The Roman people, however, 
 the greatest the earth has ever known, treated the Etru- 
 rians hereafter not has slaves, but as brethren. Various 
 cities of the province obtained the honour of Roman 
 citizenship : by degrees Etruria became associated with 
 the Roman power, adopted its disposition, its customs, 
 imbibed its generous sentiments, and became highly 
 useful to Rome in her foreign wars. From this epoch, 
 however, the events of Etruria are confounded with those 
 of Rome, and the Etrurian history is poured (to make 
 use of the expression) into the Roman ; nor is Etruria 
 any longer an object of particular history, until, after the 
 ruin and dissolution of the Roman empire, she returned to 
 form under the name of Tuscany, a separate province, 
 governed by her own laws.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE ETRURIAN ALPHABET. LABOURS OF DEMPSTER. 
 ETRURIAN ACADEMY OF CORTONA. DISPUTES BETWEEN 
 GORI AND MAFFEI. OPINIONS OF LANZI. PHILOSOPHY 
 OF THE ETRURIANS. THEIR IDEAS OF THE SUPREME 
 BEING. LAMPREDI ON THE BIRTH OF PYTHAGORAS. 
 RESPECT OF THE ROMANS FOR THE LEARNING OF THE 
 ETRURIANS. THEIR NOTIONS OF ASTRONOMY. USEFUL 
 INVENTIONS. THEATRICAL REPRESENTATIONS. DOCU- 
 MENTS PUBLISHED BY CURZIO INGHIRAMI. "WORKS OF 
 THE ETRURIANS IN BRONZE. RUINS OF PJESTUM. OPI- 
 NIONS OF WINKELMAN. ETRURIAN VASES. 
 
 AT is necessary to be brief on the subject upon which 
 we are about to enter, in order not to weary the reader 
 with arguments supported by light conjecture, and through 
 fear of taking, at every step, the shadow for the substance. 
 The art of the critical antiquarian is most to be admired, 
 when enabled to form an ingenious system from few and 
 certain materials : but here all is uncertainty ; language, 
 literature, sciences, inventions, are supported more by ima- 
 gination than judgment. Language, particularly, is 
 always a kind of enigma, and perhaps the Etrurian 
 labyrinth of Porsenna, or that of Crete, were less inex- 
 tricable than the Tuscan language. Nevertheless a 
 crowd of distinguished literati have believed themselves 
 in possession of the thread of Ariadne ; but in order to 
 have an idea of their difficulties, we have only to observe,
 
 64 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 that rarely have they ever agreed upon the alphabet, and 
 they deserve excuse, on account of the slender materials 
 which they have been obliged to build with. If a few 
 broken columns, and some ill-formed stones, were exca- 
 vated from an ancient soil, where history and tradition 
 inform us there existed an august temple, or a magnificent 
 palace, should \ve feel disposed to trust those architects 
 who might present us with a sketch of those buildings 
 taken from such poor monuments? Yet the architects 
 are many in our case, and their designs consequently 
 various, one presenting us with an Egyptian, another a 
 Grecian, and a third an Asiatic edifice. 
 
 It is natural to imagine that the ingenious Tuscans 
 have taken care to illustrate their ancient soil, but an 
 Englishman (Thomas Dempster,) has mostly laboured 
 thereon. Before him, however, the Aretine Attilio 
 Alessi had put his sickle to this harvest, formed an 
 Etruscan alphabet, and obtained inscriptions since the 
 sixteenth century : but as his history where all this is 
 mentioned, remains still a manuscript*, his observations 
 were unknown to Dempster. This writer, during the 
 three years he was professor of Pandects, in the Univer- 
 sity of Pisa, gathered many documents relating to Etru- 
 ria. Too frequently drawn aside by mere conjecture, 
 and transported by imagination on the subject he had 
 undertaken to embellish, he attributes too many inven- 
 tions, and too much science, to Etruria ; yet he is, never- 
 theless, the individual who has most successfully laboured 
 in the contest. His Etruria Regale remained un- 
 printed for nearly a century, and when it was proposed 
 to print it in Florence, the Florentine antiquarians were 
 
 * This manuscript is at present in the library belonging to the 
 family Riccardi.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 65 
 
 stimulated to offer many explanations and additions. In 
 this epoch, antiquarian studies were pursued with more 
 than ordinary fervour, and Buonarroti, Gori, Salvini, 
 Lami, &c., greatly distinguished themselves. A respecta- 
 ble city of Etruria, in order to illustrate her ancient 
 mother, consecrated immediately an academy, devoted 
 principally to Etrurian antiquities, when Maffei, Passed, 
 Mazzocchi, Olivieri, Bourguet, and many learned 
 foreigners, vied with each other for distinction. All 
 of these employed much labour in a sandy field ; and 
 as fancy is never more gratified than when supported 
 by a few dates, she has the power to take the most con- 
 venient road. These illustrious men arrived often, by 
 very laborious journeys, at very different results, excusa- 
 ble if they have sometimes erred, as their road was 
 
 " Quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna 
 " Est iter in sylvis *." 
 
 This diversity of opinion sometimes produced much 
 warmth of argument on either side, and Maffei and 
 Gori particularly, like two gladiators descending into the 
 arena, and throwing at each other the insolence of learn- 
 ing, arrived at what Maffei had too surely predicted the 
 amusement of the public at their own expense t- The 
 Etrurian language is the " Selva selvaggia ed aspra e 
 forte J," where it appears that these learned men 
 la dritta via abbian smarrita. 
 
 Nothing shows this more clearly than the great variety 
 of opinions, and the impossibility of giving a rational 
 
 * Virg. lEneid. lib. 6. 
 
 t Fabb. (Vita Maffei.) Maffei, drawing a parody from two 
 verses of Tasso, says of his adversary, 
 
 Lieta Commedia vnol che si apprf senti 
 
 Per lor diporto alle slraniere genti! 
 I Dante Inf. cant. 1. 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 HISTORY OI TUSCANY. 
 
 translation to the few remains of Etrurian writings. A 
 dispute ensued between Maftei and Gori upon the 
 Etrurian alphabet. The former, who derived the Etru- 
 rian origin from the Canaanites, insists that their language 
 arises from the Samaritan. Gori discovers a great simi- 
 larity between the Tuscan letters and vowels and the 
 ancient Greek ; an opinion which gained more followers 
 than that of Maffei : after much labour, however, alpha- 
 bets were indeed formed, but almost without rule. The 
 Frenchman Bourguet, in this instability of foundation, 
 found some support. By comparing the Eugubine 
 tables, two of which are written in Latin characters, but 
 in the Etrurian tongue, he thought he perceived that the 
 fourth in Etrurian letters contained a compendium of 
 the two Latin ones ; it appearing to him, that with little 
 variation, many words of the Latin were repeated, and 
 upon this foundation he formed an alphabet. The other 
 documents by which the alphabet has been increased 
 and improved, and the language interpreted, are the 
 various inscriptions, the shortest of which are found in 
 jewels, medals, and goblets, and consist, for the most 
 part, in names only, accompanied by some figure from 
 which is has been thought an explanation might be de- 
 rived. Gloomy monuments, such as urns, tiles, and 
 pots, contain the longest : the most important feature 
 they possess is the frequent Latin translation, by which 
 the proper names furnish us with a key to the alphabet, 
 and the translations make the road easy to the interpre- 
 tation of the language ; but antiquarians meet with so 
 many difficulties to make the translation correspond with 
 the original, that they are obliged to contend that the 
 sentiments have been often changed in the Latin trans- 
 
 O 
 
 lation; a conjecture by no means probable*, and 
 
 * Lanzi, Essay upon the Etrurian Language, torn. 2. (Saggio 
 di Lingua Etrusca, torn. 2.)
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 07 
 
 which the reader will interpret according to his own 
 judgment. 
 
 The inscriptions on altars, candlesticks, or statues, are 
 much longer. These monuments form the foundation 
 to the interpretation of the Etrurian tongue. Besides 
 the Etrurian, we are assured that there were in Italy the 
 Euganean, the Volscian, the Urnbrian, the Samnitian, 
 and the Oscan tongues. If so much similarity is found 
 between these and the Etrurian, and if Etruria reigned 
 at one time over all Italy, the most probable opinion 
 leads us to believe them dialects of the latter. The writ- 
 ing of the Etrurians, as of the most ancient eastern na- 
 tions, runs from right to left, and sometimes the second 
 line from left to right, changing directions ; a method 
 which obtained the name of bustrofedo, from the use of 
 oxen in ploughing, which labour it imitates. After the 
 labours of so many, the alphabet of Gori is the one 
 most received ; nevertheless Lanzi, who has treated 
 the subject with so much learning, has made some 
 change in it. 
 
 This learned man agrees with Gori upon the similarity 
 of the Etrurian tongue with the Greek and Latin, and 
 we find in his work the ingenious conjectures by which 
 he shows the analogy*. Now even supposing that to 
 be true which is contradicted by others, what will be the 
 consequence ? does the similarity of some words prove 
 that the Etrurian tongue is derived from the Greek? 
 Speaking of a nation whose historians and books of every 
 kind are lost, and of which we derive only scanty infor- 
 mation from writers so much later, are we to infer that lan- 
 guage, sciences, and the arts, were derived from Greece ? 
 To a Greek who thus reasoned with a Tuscan, the latter 
 
 * Lanzi, Essay upon the Etrurian Language. 
 
 F 2
 
 tW HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 might answer, taking " quaesitam mentis superbiam ':" 
 and why not rather infer, that from Etruria, knowledge, 
 language, and arts, were poured into Greece? Our 
 ancient Etrurians, even by the confession of those who 
 idolize Greece*, cultivated the fine arts, when the 
 Greeks were still barbarians. Lanzi assures us, that if 
 this had actually been true, the Latin writers would not 
 have failed to make known this glory of Italy ; but it is 
 not difficult to observe, that in order to establish the 
 truth of such a statement, it would be necessary to pro- 
 duce historical documents, and it unfortunately happens 
 that at the period when the first Roman writers existed, 
 almost all the Etrurian documents had been lost. It is, 
 moreover, to be noted, that the Romans were ambitious 
 supporters of their own glory and grandeur, which they 
 adorn even with fable, whilst they neglect and often 
 despise those of their neighbours. The negligence and 
 errors of ancient writers upon this head, too, are scarcely 
 credible : of this Herodotus, the most ancient historian, 
 and the nearest to heroic times, is an example; for 
 although it has been clearly shewn that the poets Linus, 
 Orpheus, and Melampus, preceded Homer, the father 
 of history has not hesitated in asserting that they lived 
 after him t- To such proofs we might add, in order to 
 sustain our opinion, the conjectures we have made upon 
 the origin of the Etrurians, and the authority of Virgil, 
 who derives the origin of Troy from Italy. These re- 
 flections are only intended to moderate the boldness of 
 many writers on the affairs of Etruria. Vnd, in fact, 
 
 * Winkelman, Stor. dell. Art. del Dis. lib. 3. cap. 1. 
 
 t Gillies's History of Ancient Greece, chap. 6. The negli- 
 gence of Herodotus is very great; besides other proofs, Linus is 
 mentioned by Homer in the Iliad, Book 18. Melampus in the 
 Odyssey, Book 11.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 69 
 
 what can be inferred from the similarity of some words 
 in two languages ? Let us suppose that one of those 
 great events, either physical or political, which have 
 changed the face of the earth, should destroy the literary 
 documents of Europe, and no oilier memorial should 
 remain but the Italian, Spanish, and French tongues, 
 which are chiefly derived from the Latin that one of 
 these was entirely lost, a few inscriptions alone remain- 
 ing antiquarians discovering in these inscriptions a si- 
 milarity of words, by adopting the same arguments which 
 are employed upon the Etrurian language, and by refer- 
 ring to the fragments of those historians who had sur- 
 vived the wreck of ages, might denominate either the one 
 or the other the mother tongue, as their caprice might 
 dictate. 
 
 The most celebrated monument of the Etrurian lan- 
 guage is to be found in the Eugubine tables, seven of 
 which were discovered in the neighbourhood of Gubbio, 
 in the year 1444; and notwithstanding the labours and 
 researches of various writers on the subject, the inscrip- 
 tions contained on these tables still remain a secret, as 
 the impartial reader will readily perceive from the diver- 
 sity of opinion which prevails among the various inter- 
 preters. Buonarroti believes them to be conventions of 
 nations ; Gori and Bourguet an Oscan poem, or lamenta- 
 tions of the afflicted Pelasgi ; Olivieri, Maffei, and 
 Passeri, descriptions of rites, or laws relating to private 
 disputes ; while Lanzi, who subsequently examined them 
 with so much diligence, thinks they refer to religion and 
 sacrifices. The latter, however, with much ingenuity, 
 confesses that he interpreted only a small part of them, 
 and that the remainder were still unknown to him*. 
 
 * Lanzi, Loc. Cit. The single word which appears in the Chi- 
 mera of Bronze in the Royal Gallery of Florence, is a knot for
 
 70 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 In order to have a still further idea of the obscurity of 
 the subject, we must not omit the interpretation of one of 
 these tables by the celebrated Doctor Lami, and his 
 opinion upon the Etrurian tongue, which, amidst so 
 much uncertainty, appears the most probable. Whilst 
 so many of the literati, with a view to arrive at some in- 
 terpretation, are seeking a similarity of the Etrurian 
 words with the Samaritan, the Greek, &c., he has en- 
 tirely directed his attention to the Latin ; and in a minute 
 and long examination contained in his Gualfondian Let- 
 ters, by comparing Latin words expressing substances 
 the least subject to change of name, and the most an- 
 cient, as mountains, rivers, cities, &c., then proper 
 names, and many other subjects, with the Etrurian, he 
 has discovered a much stronger similarity than the most 
 learned have been able to trace with the other foreign 
 tongues ; whence he is induced to consider the two as 
 collateral dialects. It might also be said, that Etruria 
 having once been pre-eminent in arms, arts, and letters, 
 it is natural that she should have communicated her 
 tongue to the subjugated nations, whence their languages 
 became various dialects of the Etrurian, and one of 
 these the Latin ; and, in truth, the ancient fragments of 
 the latter are almost equally unintelligible with the 
 Etrurian. 
 
 Finally, Lami gives a translation of the same Eugubine 
 Tables*, which Gori interpreted, and by him called 
 Carmen Orthium Lamentabile. The reader, who is de- 
 interpreters ; they read it Tinmeuil or Tinmicuil. Buonarotti thinks 
 it the name either of an artist or animal ; Gori, that it signifies the 
 quality of a beast, that is, " ready for vengeance ; " Passeri be- 
 lieves it to be the name of a revengeful deity, whilst an Englishman 
 (Swinton) makes it signify a dragon, a goat, or a lion. 
 * Lettcrc Gualfondianc. lett. 20.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 71 
 
 sirous of tracing the different and distant roads into which 
 these writers have been led by their imaginary systems, 
 may refer to the two translations ; both are confused, 
 yet that of Lami is much to be preferred, although this 
 illustrious and learned man, perceiving, perhaps, the 
 common error, and finding himself bewildered in the 
 labyrinth, has happily quoted the following verses from 
 Ariosto, to represent the supposititious journeys of anti- 
 quarians through the obscure paths of conjecture : 
 
 Varii gli affetti son, ma la pazzia 
 
 E tutt' una pero che gli fa uscire, 
 
 Gli e come una gran selva, oye la via 
 
 Conviene a forza a chi vi va fallere ; 
 
 Chi su, chi giu, chi qua, chi la travia, #c. 
 
 After so many experiments, abounding with contra- 
 dictions, it must be confessed that the Etrurian tongue 
 is still unintelligible a conclusion assuredly humiliating 
 to literary vanity ; but the documents which exist are so 
 few, that even were the most perfect explanation given to 
 them, little would remain upon Avhich knowledge might 
 be profitably exercised. We therefore conclude our re- 
 flections on this subject by repeating the sentiments of 
 the English writers of universal history. According to 
 their opinion, the alphabetical characters of the Etrurians 
 are the most ancient at present known, and different 
 monuments of this people rival in antiquity any that 
 exist, not excepting even the Egyptian. 
 
 Etrurian science and literature present us with few 
 but less uncertain objects. That the Etrurians preceded 
 all European nations in the cultivation of letters, arts, 
 and sciences, appears from the testimony of our own 
 countrymen, confirmed by that of foreigners*. A 
 
 * Winkcl. 1st. dell' Art. torn. 1. lib. 3. cap. 1. Caylus Recueil 
 d'Antiq.
 
 72 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 learned writer, however, often mentioned, does not 
 esteem their philosophy and learning*, and supports his 
 opinion by observing that when the Romans, in order to 
 reform their laws, wished to consult a wise people, they 
 did not turn to Etruria, but to Greece, as related by 
 Livyj". To this it may be answered, that the learned 
 Gibbon J, with his accustomed discrimination, has at- 
 tached much suspicion to the statement of the Roman 
 historian ; and history affords the most abundant proofs 
 that wherever the fine arts have flourished, there also 
 letters have shone. The remains of Etrurian arts are 
 still admired, although no documents exist to preserve 
 the birth and progress of letters : the works of their his- 
 torians have perished, some of whom existed, according 
 to the testimony of Varro, down to the eighth age ; and 
 the little that is known of them is derived from some 
 passages of those Greek or Latin writers, who casually 
 speak of them. Seneca adverts to their theology and 
 natural philosophy. Beginning too with one of the 
 most important parts of human learning, the ideas of 
 God, it does not appear that a greater or more just one 
 can be formed, than that of the Etrurians mentioned by 
 the writer just quoted, where he calls God, Keeper, 
 Monarch, the Spirit and Animator of the universe, Lord 
 and Artificer, &c. " Eumdem quern nos Jovem intelli- 
 gunt, custodem, rectoremque universi, animum ac spiri- 
 tum, mundani hujus operis Dominum et Artificem, cui 
 nomen omne convenit : vis ilium fatum vocare ? non er- 
 rabis. Hie est, ex quo suspensa sunt omnes causse cau- 
 sarum. Vis ilium Providentiam dicere? recte dices, 
 est enim cujus consilio huic mundo providetur, ut in- 
 
 * Lanzi, Saggio di Lingua Etrusca. f Tit. Liv. lib. 3. 
 
 t Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. 44. 
 Censor. De die natali, cap. 5.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 73 
 
 coiicussus eat et actus suos explicet. Vis ilium naturam 
 vocare? non peccabis: est enim ex quo nata suiit, om- 
 nia cujus spiritu vivimus. Vis ilium vocare mundum? 
 non falleris, ipse enim est totum quod vides, totus suis 
 partibus inditus, et se sustinens vi sua. Idem et Etrus- 
 cis quoque visus est," &c*. The idea is expressed with 
 sublimity; nevertheless, an illustrious writer has pro- 
 nounced this doctrine as erroneousf, and not unlike that 
 of Pythagoras, Zeno, and the modern Spinosa. To at- 
 tempt an investigation of the mysterious doctrines of Py- 
 thagoras, or the less intelligible tenets of Spinosa, would 
 at once involve us in the obscure labyrinths of ancient 
 and modern metaphysics; yet it appears a sophistical 
 severity to pass such a sentence upon an opinion which 
 speaks so clearly of the Creator of things, by whose 
 counsel this world is provided for; whilst, in the system 
 of Spinosa, matter is increate, and neither Counsel nor 
 Providence is admitted. The only equivocal expression, 
 which would appear to approximate it to Spinosa, would 
 be found in the sentiment, that all we see is God a 
 phrase which has been frequently employed by the most 
 orthodox writers, and which signifies no more than 
 that, in the wondrous works of the creation, the Creator 
 is discovered. A hundred writers of verse and prose 
 have repeated the same sentiment, and an ingenious mo- 
 dern poet J, replying to an atheist, says that he is de- 
 ceived, because 
 
 . . . Quodcunque vides, quodcunque movetur 
 Est Deus, et grand! vestitur imagine mundus. 
 
 Pope expresses himself in a similar manner in one of his 
 
 * Seneca. Qusest. Nat. lib. 2, cap. 45- 
 
 t Lampredi, Saggio sulla Filos. degli. ant. Etrus. 
 
 J Sectan. SaU I.
 
 74 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 moral essays, and even the pious Metustasio, in order to 
 convince an incredulous person, says, 
 
 Ovunque il guardo giro, 
 O sommo Dio, ti vedo, &c. 
 
 And in fact, what better argument can we use to con- 
 vince ignorant minds of the existence of a Creator, than 
 to present to them the wonderful scene of the universe, 
 the intelligent mechanism with which motions both ce- 
 lestial and terrestrial are made, and from things created, 
 
 o ' 
 
 to infer the wisdom of the Creator ? But still more we 
 shall be able to compute the injustice of the interpreta- 
 tion form a passage of Suidas *, who refers to a fragment 
 of an ancient Etrurian writer upon the creation of the 
 world, worthy the attention of the reader from its ana- 
 logy to the book of Genesis, although the days are pro- 
 tracted to thousands of years. " Opificem rerum om- 
 nium Deum duodecim annorum millia universi hu- 
 jus creationi impendisse; ac primo millenario fecisse 
 cesium et terram, altero fecisse firmamentum illud quod 
 apparet, idque ccelum vocasse, tertio mare et aquas 
 omnes quae sunt in terra, quarto luminaria magna solem 
 et lunam, itemque Stellas, quinto omnem animarn volu- 
 crum, reptilium et quadrupedum : videri itaque potest 
 sex milliarios ante formationem hominis praeteriisse, et 
 reliquos sex milliarios duraturum esse genus hominum, 
 ut sit universum consummationis tempus duodecim mil- 
 Hum annorum." In this passage the Creator is distin- 
 guished from things created, which is contrary to the 
 system of Spinosa, and the act of creation is mentioned 
 in the most specific terms. The word destiny admits 
 of so many explanations in the systems of the earlier 
 natural theologists, that after Seneca has clearly spoken 
 
 * Suidas, in vocc Tynhena.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 75 
 
 of Providence and Counsel, it would be cavillous malig- 
 nity to take it in a bad sense. In the ancient philoso- 
 phers we find so much obscurity of sentiment, that we 
 cannot fairly attach ourselves to the worst ; and as the 
 same metaphysical errors are often repeated with merely 
 a change of name, many of those unintelligible subtil- 
 ties are found in Seneca upon the explanation of destiny, 
 that the Jansenists invented upon the doctrine of grace 
 and predestination*. Even English writers of universal 
 History, and the acute Cudworth, have in the best 
 manner interpreted the above passage from Seneca. 
 
 Of the remainder of Etrurian philosophy we have 
 only very scanty fragments ; a philosophy for the most 
 part supposititious and obscure : but if it could be 
 proved, as many learned men have maintained, that 
 Pythagoras was a native of Etruria, this philosophy 
 would acquire great lustre. The contest lies between 
 Samos and Etruria, and an equal number of writers on 
 both sides might be quoted. It is certain that this 
 father of philosophy was a long time in Magna Grecia, 
 where he founded a celebrated school, which induced 
 Plato to visit Italy f. Seeking a pacific soil where he 
 might fix his residence, Pythagoras flew from Samos, 
 then oppressed by the tyrant Polycrates, and having 
 visited Olympia, Elis, and Sparta, where he found no 
 opportunity to philosophize, he came to Italy, and in 
 the quiet and splendid Magna Grecia awakened the 
 highest admiration of his learning . Crotone saw more 
 than 2,000 scholars surround him : the peace which this 
 country then enjoyed had generated an extraordinary 
 luxury, and Sibaris has perpetuated even to our days 
 
 * See Seneca. Quaest. Natur. lib. 2. f Cic. Tuscul. lib. 1. 
 t Porph. Jarabl. Justin.
 
 76 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 the effeminacy by which it had acquired no very honour- 
 able celebrity. Pythagoras reformed with his lessons 
 this luxury and effeminacy ; and before this philosopher 
 and political missionary, the women themselves laid 
 aside their refinements of dress, and put on more 
 modest attire. Those principles of morality and politics 
 which tend to improve society and make men happy, 
 were the leading objects of his lessons ; nor were the 
 secrets of nature neglected by him. Although a great 
 part of his doctrine was enveloped in dark mysteries, 
 it is nevertheless certain that Pythagoras taught many 
 of the finest truths, which, after having been long buried 
 in oblivion, have risen again, and done honour to mo- 
 derns as new discoveries. To him belongs the demon- 
 stration of the celebrated 47th Proposition of the first 
 book of Euclid, the distribution of the celestial sphere, 
 and consequently the Copernican system ; the cause of 
 solar and lunar eclipses, the law of gravitation towards 
 the sun, the nature of comets, &c.* Even the master 
 of the loftiest song, Homer, travelled through Italy, and 
 fixed his residence in Etruria, where he probably learnt 
 the fables of Averno, Acheron, Circes, the Sirens, &c., 
 and it becomes melancholy to remember that in this 
 country he lost his sight f- The learning of the Etru- 
 rians appears to have been held in great repute by the 
 Romans : according to the testimony of Livy, they 
 caused their children to be instructed in Etrurian as well 
 as Grecian literature . The Etrurians cultivated me- 
 
 * Gregory, Maclaurin, Montucla, Dutens, Mainers, &c. 
 
 t Heracl. Pontic. fragmen. de Politiis. Gori, Mus. Etrus. torn. 2. 
 
 J Auctores habeo Romanes pueros sicuti nunc Greecis, ita tune 
 Etruscis literis cruder! solitos. Tit. Liv. lib. 9. The words 
 Etruscis literis remove the doubts entertained by some writers, 
 that the instruction related merely to religious ceremonies : they
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 77 
 
 clicine, and were considered as the discoverers . of me- 
 dical remedies*. Dempster has attempted to corro- 
 borate this statement by citing a letter, probably apo- 
 cryphal, from Hippocrates to Philepomenes, in which it 
 is said that medicine has a close connexion with the art 
 of divining, and from which he infers that the Etrurians, 
 having been the inventors of the latter, must also have 
 invented the former. An opinion of the Etrurians re- 
 newed in our dayst, was, that thunder and lightning 
 came out of the bosom of the earth, as well as that 
 which descends from the clouds ; an opinion which 
 may be sustained, at least in part, after the great dis- 
 coveries of Franklin, who in re-establishing the electrical 
 equilibrium between the clouds and the earth, states 
 that the explosion may sometimes take place upon the 
 latter, and the current of electric fire go from the 
 bottom to the top. The opinion discovers genius, 
 observation, and refinement of reasoning in the Etru- 
 rians. 
 
 A modern writer has honoured the ancient Etru- 
 rian and Latin soothsayers with one of the greatest 
 modern discoveries, the art of being obeyed by thunder 
 and lightning. Dutens, in his observations, more in- 
 genious than true, upon the origin of discoveries attri- 
 buted to moderns, after maintaining that the ancients 
 knew and made use of the telescope , has the courage 
 
 were indeed sent to Etruria also for that purpose, but the passage 
 of Livy speaks only of literary instruction. 
 
 * Martian. Capell. de Nupt. Philosoph. et Merc. lib. 6. 
 
 f Maffei. 
 
 { Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. 2. cap. 53. Seneca. Qusest. Natur. 
 
 Experience had taught the ancients, that by descending to the 
 bottom of a well the stars were seen even in day-time : they made 
 use of some long tubes open on both sides to look at distant objects,
 
 $8 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 to come forward with this strange assertion ; nor does 
 he adduce any reason in support of it, but that we 
 know there were some religious ceremonies against 
 thunder and lightning consecrated to Jupiter Elicius, 
 which he translates Jupiter Electric. This Jupiter, he 
 says, personified in thunder, was obliged to come upon 
 the earth, laying his foundation particularly upon the 
 verses of Ovid 
 
 Eliciunt coelo te Jupiter, unde minores 
 
 Nunc quoque te celebrant, Eliciumque vocant. 
 
 He adds, that Tullius Hostilius, in badly managing the ce- 
 remony of invoking thunder, was killed, as the unfortu- 
 nate Richman was in our own days. This airy conjecture 
 would acquire body and strength, if the existence of an 
 ancient medal could be verified, representing Jove on 
 high with a thunderbolt in his hand, and below a man 
 guiding with a string a large eagle, which is the method 
 by which Franklin brought his system to the last demon- 
 stration. But we know not where to find a medal so 
 singular as to excite the attention of antiquarians and 
 philosophers, and the importance of the fact deserved 
 that the author should give some authority for his state- 
 ment; as the public cannot be contented with a mere 
 
 as by receiving only in the eye the rays emanating from the single 
 object that is looked at, the sensation is more lively: these were 
 the telescopes of the ancients : Dutens gratuitously adds the convex 
 of glasses, by strangely interpreting some passages from ancient 
 writers. It is easy to perceive that a discovery so wonderful 
 would not have been mentioned doubtfully, but that we should 
 have a description of it in a hundred places : its utility alone in 
 navigation would have rendered it memorable in history. The 
 same may be said of Franklin's discovery. It is somewhat ex- 
 traordinary that a writer who has attributed to the ancients 
 almost all the great modern discoveries, should censure Dempst-T 
 for attributing too many inventions to the Etrurians.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 79 
 
 vague and uncertain assertion*. But following the 
 Etrurian inventions, the soothsayers, who certainly ob- 
 served celestial phenomena, (as in these the conjurors 
 of every country have hoped to read the future,) made 
 mention of the great year, which discovers no ordinary 
 skill in astronomy. Pliny asserts that hand-mills were 
 invented in the ,city of Bolsena; and if Piseus Tirrenus 
 added to nautics the anchor and the naval rostrum f, it 
 is a new argument in favour of Etrurian skill in naviga- 
 
 o o 
 
 tion. The invention of wind instruments, or rather the 
 cultivation of music, is conjectured from the observation 
 that these instruments are seen in the Etrurian bas-reliefs 
 only, expressive of festivals and sacrifices ; and the 
 Tyrrhene tube, by universal consent of writers, was of 
 Etrurian invention . The Romans drew their first thea- 
 trical representations from Etruria, and from its language 
 actors are still called histrionic ||. The Atellan fables, 
 a rude dramatic composition, were brought by the Osci, 
 an Etrurian tribe, to Rome ^[. Volumnius wrote Etru- 
 rian tragedies ** probably before the Romans had the 
 first rudiments of learning; and the jovial and licentious 
 Fescennini came to the Romans from the Etrurian tribe 
 Fescennia. By the Etrurians the Romans were instructed 
 in almost all the arts, and adopted the virtues and vices, 
 the worth and the defects, of the former. The scenic 
 masks of the Romans are also an invention of the Etru- 
 
 * We quote the words of the author : " A personage worthy of 
 belief has asserted that latterly a medal has been found with the 
 inscription Jupiter Elicius, representing Jove with thunder on high, 
 and beneath him a man governing a flying stag." Dutens Orig. &c. 
 Traduz. di Venezia. 
 
 t Plin. lib. 7. cap. 56. J Buonar. Supple, ad Dempst. 
 
 \ Athen. Deips. lib. 4. Pollu. Onomas, cap. 11. 
 
 || Tac. Ann. lib.. 14. H Tit. Liv. dec. 1. lib. 7. 
 
 ** Verro presso Dempst.
 
 80* HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 rians * ; and if they acquired from the latter the formid- 
 able discipline of fighting with steady foot in close bat- 
 talion f, they likewise adopted from them the barbarous 
 practices of the gladiators. The greater part of the 
 games, processions, and religious customs, were also in- 
 troduced into Rome from Etruria. 
 
 The mysterious documents published by Curzio In- 
 ghirami have been pronounced apocryphal, but the 
 singularity of his statements are deserving of notice. 
 This young nobleman of Volterra, during his residence 
 at his villa of Scornello, in the year 1634, discovered a 
 stone of globular shape, formed of various strata, and 
 containing in the centre a paper on which certain pro- 
 phecies were noted. Pursuing his researches, he found 
 many similar envelopes, enclosing fragments of Etrurian 
 history, &c. The documents are numerous, and have 
 been published in a large volume J. Among them was 
 a letter of Prospero, a native of Fiesole, who appears to 
 have been the author of the greater part of these memo- 
 rials and prophecies, and who states that he lived in the 
 times of Sylla, and concealed his documents in what he 
 calls scharith . The grand duke Ferdinand the Second, 
 doubting the authenticity of these discoveries, ordered 
 an investigation to be made, and for that purpose ap- 
 pointed a deputation of two noble Florentines, who, with 
 the assistance of engineers, succeeded in excavating 
 new writings; and the deputies made a formal declara- 
 tion, that the ground had not been opened for many 
 
 * Dempst. torn. 2. tav. 90. f Athen. lib. 6. 
 
 I " Etruscarum Antiq. Fragmenta a Curtio Jnghirami prop 
 Scornellum reperta." 
 
 f) Allacci satirically infers that this word is derived from the He- 
 brew, signifying fraud or deceit.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 81 
 
 ages*. A tribunal competent to judge of this dispute 
 should be formed of antiquarians, and not of lawyers. 
 In short, they immediately judged the prophecies of 
 Prospero supposititious, and among those who chiefly 
 distinguished themselves were Enrico Ernestio, and Leone 
 Alacci, by showing a thousand incongruities. Not only 
 had the author availed himself of old torn parchment, 
 but his pretended prophecies were evidently written after 
 the events had taken place ; as an instance of which he 
 prophesied that the house Farnese should be mistress of 
 Parma. Although we may choose to believe the devil 
 a prophet t, yet hardly shall we find in our days any one 
 weak enough to believe the Fiesole soothsayer capable 
 of so much. 
 
 Something would remain to be said upon this subject, 
 were it not difficult to determine with whom the inven- 
 tion originated. The first suspicion fell upon Curzio 
 Inghirami, yet we cannot with any probability imagine 
 that he was capable of executing such a design. When 
 examined, he had completed 20 years ; and allowing a 
 necessary time to write such a number of papers, in which 
 so many different hand-writings appeared, also that which 
 must have elapsed before the earth could become so 
 firmly consolidated, we shall go down to so tender an 
 
 * Documents collected by Canonico Lesci. 
 
 t The celebrated Fontenelle, after having written an extract 
 from the work of Vandal upon oracles, in which he maintained that 
 they were merely frauds of the Pagan priests, was attacked for 
 his opinion by the Jesuit Balto, who contended it was the Devil 
 who gave the Oracles, and that the opinions of Vandal and Fon- 
 tenelle were not orthodox. Fontenelle, stimulated by a journalist 
 to reply, but declining at the same time the question, gave the 
 journalist this celebrated answer : " Je consens que le Diable ait 
 ete prophete puisque le Jesuite le veut, et qu'il cr,oit cela plus or- 
 todoxe." 
 
 VOL, I. G
 
 92 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 age of this youth as to render it impossible for him to 
 contrive and execute such a fraud. Whoever might 
 have been the impostor, must be placed for the prophecy 
 above mentioned, the establishment of the house Far- 
 nese in Parma, between the years 1550 and 1634. After 
 having hidden the writings, death probably hindered 
 him from laughing at the simplicity of those who had 
 given him credit*; and to dispute about whom the in- 
 vention belongs to, (wisely says a modern historian), is 
 the same as to quarrel about what nation is the most 
 ancient. 
 
 The fine arts are inhabitants of all climates; but, 
 like plants, they do not find every soil equally fruitful. 
 Daughters of imagination, they rise whenever public ap- 
 plause or royal favour unfolds those buds which nature 
 has planted equally in the soul of the elegant artists of 
 Greece, and of the savages of America. It would be 
 fruitless to search into the obscure notions of ancient 
 ages for the origin of painting and the sister arts ; and 
 if the invention of the former has been attributed to 
 love, who dictated to the maid of Sicyon the ingenious 
 contrivance of marking in the wall the outlines of her 
 lover's countenance, who was about to leave her, it must 
 be confessed that such an assertion is more poetical than 
 historical, the thought being too easy not to have fallen 
 into the mind of the most ancient inhabitants of the 
 earth t It is useless however to lose time in investi- 
 
 * Consult the learned work of Leone Alacci, in which, with so 
 much exactitude and learning, he examines the paper, the orthogra- 
 phy, and ink itself of the writings mentioned, and proves them to 
 be modern. 
 
 t Pliny speaks of the art of making clay-work or modelling, 
 when he mentions this fact, (lib. 35. cap. 12.,) which by many has 
 been applied to the origin of painting : it is true that he also 
 ascribes the invention to the same artifice in Sicyon or Corinth,
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 83 
 
 gating from what people the Etrurians learnt the fine 
 arts. There is nothing certain amidst the darkness of 
 antiquity ; whence we have every right to suppose that 
 they rose and grew in Etruria as they had done in India, 
 or in Egypt. That the Greeks, in their ancient emigra- 
 tions to Etruria, brought the fine arts with them, as 
 Winkelman has thought, is not only uncertain, but pro- 
 bably untrue; the epoch of the glory of the Grecian 
 arts being later than that of the Etrurian, it would be 
 difficult to demonstrate that the Greek colonists of those 
 times were more polished than their Etrurian cotempo- 
 raries. But we will refer to the various epochs of an- 
 cient Greece, from which it might be possible to infer 
 that the arts were cultivated in that countrv at the time 
 
 */ 
 
 they flourished in Etruria. In her first epoch, when 
 governed by the ferocious Pelasgi and the rude Helle- 
 nians, she had no idea of the arts of imitation. The 
 heroic times succeeded ; and the ship Argos, so much 
 celebrated, probably conveyed only corsairs who were 
 induced to visit Colehis, to plunder the gold which was 
 extracted from the sands of the river Phasis. Then fol- 
 lowed the war of the seven Heroes against Thebes, and 
 finally the celebrated Trojan war. Through all these ages 
 we have not the smallest notice of the fine arts being 
 cultivated in Greece; but poetry alone, which amongst 
 nations even the most rude has always been the compa- 
 nion of heroes and warriors. After the ruin of Troy, 
 the princes who had been so long absent from their do- 
 minions, found them all in confusion, and ripe for rebel- 
 lion; and the domestic peace being disturbed, those 
 
 and ridicules the Egyptians for boasting that it arose with them 
 6,000 years before it was known in Greece (lib. 3. c. 3. ;) but with- 
 out excepting the Egyptian chronology, the art must have been 
 practised in Asia or in Egypt much earlier than in Greece. 
 
 G2 

 
 84 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 lierce civil wars took place which desolated that country 
 for nearly four centuries, and which are so eloquently de- 
 scribed by Thucydides. The fourth century after the 
 ruin of Troy coincides with the origin of Rome, a time 
 in which the industrious Etrurians, whose cities were most 
 flourishing, and who enjoyed a tranquil repose, cultivated 
 the art of painting, and cast wonderfully in bronze. 
 Pliny asserts that the pictures of Ardea and Lanuviuui 
 were of a date prior to Rome, and that the triumphal car 
 of Romulus was cast in bronze by Etrurian artificers. 
 
 This short history, and particularly the testimony of 
 Pliny, destroys every difficulty against our assertion, and 
 especially that derived from the emigration from Corinth 
 of Demaratus, spoken of by Strabo, upon which so much 
 stress has been laid by the favourers of the Greeks, and 
 which it is necessary to detail on account of its being 
 quoted by so many as a proof that the Etrurians owe 
 much to the Greeks in the imitative arts. 
 
 After the building of Rome, Demaratus came from 
 Corinth, accompanied by numerous colonists, and being 
 favourably received by the Tarquinesi, he married a 
 Roman lady, by whom he had a son, called Lucumone. 
 Afterwards, having become the friend of Ancus Martius, 
 king of the Romans, Lucumone himself got the kingdom, 
 and was called Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. Both he 
 and his father equally adorned Etruria; the latter with 
 the manufacturers who had followed him from his native 
 country, the former with the riches drawn from Rome. 
 This is the celebrated passage upon which many writers 
 have endeavoured to support the opinion that the Greeks 
 became masters of Etruria. But to cut asunder the 
 knot, it is necessary to call to mind that we have 
 already demonstrated that the arts flourished in Etruria 
 before the birth of Rome ; whence it follows that the
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 85 
 
 expedition of Demaratus could have added but little to the 
 Etrurian arts, which at that time flourished more than 
 those of Greece. These artists are called by Strabo 
 demiurgi, a word that generically embraces every kind 
 of art, and grammatically speaking, those whose works 
 are publicly exposed to sale. But let us hear another 
 Greek historian, also cotemporary and perhaps some- 
 what prior to Strabo, viz., Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 
 who speaks of the arrival of Demaratus in the following 
 words*: " Demaratus, a merchant, made a voyage to 
 Italy, having laden at his own expense a vessel with 
 merchandise, which he sold in the Etrurian cities, then 
 the most flourishing part of Italy ; and having drawn 
 therefrom considerable gain, he would not touch at any 
 other port, always going and returning through the same 
 sea, and carrying the Grecian merchandise to the Etru- 
 rians, and the Etrurian to the Grecians : but a conspi- 
 racy taking place in Corinth, he formed the design of 
 leaving it, and established himself in Tarquinii," &c. 
 This author makes no mention of artists, but merely 
 alludes to merchants who sold or exchanged Grecian 
 wares for those of Etruria, which corresponds exactly 
 with the word demiurgi. If, as Dionysius asserts, the 
 cities of Etruria were the most fortunate of Italy, are 
 we not to suppose that here it was that the fine arts flou- 
 rished? Innumerable assertions of respectable writers 
 attest that before the arrival of Demaratus, the fine arts 
 were in their splendour in Etruria : the beautiful pictures 
 that were found there, according to the testimony of Pliny, 
 in Ardea, Cere, &c., were painted before the birth of 
 Rome. The four celebrated horses, and the statue of 
 Romulus crowned by Victory t, were cast in bronze, by 
 
 * Lib. 3. 46. anti. Roma, f Dion. Halicar. Antiq. Rom. lib. 3.
 
 8fi HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 the Etrurians ; and Tarquinius Priscus himself, wishing 
 to get carved the famous statue of Jupiter Capitolinus, did 
 not apply to Corinth, but to Turrianus of Flegelle, where 
 the Etrurian arts flourished. What can we reply to 
 these facts r It has already been seen, that on account of 
 political circumstances, Greece could not, before the 
 birth of Rome, cultivate those arts for which leisure and 
 tranquillity are necessary : the priority of the arts in 
 Etruria, therefore, remains demonstrated. We will make 
 no critical observation upon the passage of Strabo, nor 
 assert that the Greeks, desirous of deriving all fine things 
 from their country, have often impudently lied, as Dion 
 Cassius upon Cicero, calumniated by him in order to de- 
 grade him before the face of his philosophers. The 
 Romans knew them sufficiently well, and Juvenal ex- 
 claimed, 
 
 . . . . Et quidquid Graecia mendax 
 
 Audet in historia. 
 
 All the fabulous histories of Daedalus, so celebrated as an 
 artist, related by Pausanias and others, are to be placed 
 in the same list; although in the fable of Daedalus, 
 adopted by Virgil, we might wish to concur in the pas- 
 sage of the fine arts from the East to the West. 
 
 Daedalus, ut fama est, fugiens Minoia regna 
 Preepetibus pennis ausus se credere coelo, 
 Insuetum per iter gelidos erravit ad Arctos, 
 Chalcidicaque leevis tandem superadstitit arce. 
 Redditus his primum terris tibi, Phoebe, sacravit 
 Remigium alarum, posuitque immania templa. 
 
 We will briefly notice what many lay great stress upon, 
 as the works of ancient Etruria, viz., the ruins of Paestum. 
 Posidonia, or Paestum, about two miles distant from the 
 river Silarus, between Campania and Lucania, was a very 
 ancient city of Magna Grecia. At present, it presents
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 87 
 
 us with massy remains which evidently belonged to im- 
 mense and elegant buildings. Father Paoli looks upon 
 them all as Etrurian, others as Grecian, as in this part 
 of Italy, called Magna Grascia, the fine arts flourished, 
 and certainly some of them have a Grecian stamp ; ne- 
 vertheless we must not believe them entirely Greek, but 
 a part Etrurian, when Etruria ruled over all Italy. In 
 fact, Etrurian inscriptions, and some of great magnitude, 
 have been found among those ruins, which give credit to 
 their being Etrurian buildings, as they existed in early 
 times. 
 
 Some of these inscriptions were found by Sir Wil- 
 liam Hamilton and Mons. d'Hancarville, enchased in 
 the very walls of the city ; whence it may be inferred 
 that the city was first adorned by the Etrurians, and 
 that these ornaments afterwards gave place to the 
 more recent ones of Greece*. But let us pay atten- 
 tion for a moment to the assertions of Winkelman, 
 who, being one of the most celebrated antiquarians 
 of our age, deserves particular notice. A certain contra- 
 diction is found in his sentiments, or at least a confusion 
 arising from the desire of attributing every thing to the 
 Greeks. He cannot, however, deny that Etruria cultivated 
 the fine arts prior to Greece f; yet he asserts that the 
 history of the Etrurian arts commenced with the arrival 
 of the Pelasgi in Italy, and although they do not owe 
 their origin entirely to the Greeks, they are at least in- 
 debted to them for their greater advancement. But 
 what did the Pelasgi bring into Italy ? Not the arts of 
 design, for by the confession of the author, they were 
 already in Etruria; and at the time of this supposed 
 
 * Antiquites Etrusques, par M. d'Hancarville. 
 t Lib. 3. cap. 1. Istor. delle Arti, &c.
 
 88 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 emigration, Greece was less polished than Etruria ; and 
 if any one without documents would believe the contrary, 
 how should we presume that an emigration of pirates 
 (as we have said before) or of miserable common people 
 obliged to abandon their own country, could bring with 
 them improvement in arts and sciences? Are we to be- 
 lieve, as the author would insinuate, that before the ar- 
 rival of these pirates, Etruria was in profound ignorance, 
 and that at their appearance, coming from a country 
 more barbarous, the cultivation of the arts should begin? 
 These are assertions without proof, and even contra- 
 dictory in themselves. The argument of this illustrious 
 writer to sustain the opinion that the Etrurians were 
 scholars of the Greeks, derived from the observation that 
 Grecian history sometimes formed the subjects of their 
 works, is of little weight; as experience shows us how 
 often even moderns adopt a similar practice, by present- 
 ing us with the figures of Hercules, Alexander, Cyrus and 
 Socrates. 
 
 That the Etrurians knew the facts relating to Greece 
 rather by tradition than by written documents, may 
 be inferred from the confusion or imperfection of their 
 knowledge. In the Etrurian Corniola of the Mu- 
 seum Strasciano, representing the heroes who fought 
 against Thebes, not seven, as the history relates, but 
 five only, appear ; nor is this the only error or variation 
 found in Grecian history. But we can no the certain 
 that they have not frequently expressed also their own ; 
 of the many bronzes, marbles, and painted wares that 
 remain in our days, some are not intelligible, because 
 they allude to unknown histories, and it is probable that 
 in many of them Etrurian events are expressed; and, in 
 fact, the little statue of metal, with an inscription upon 
 the thigh and leg, which represents a child with a hang-
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 89 
 
 ing necklace, a globe in the left hand, and a bird in the 
 right, according to Buonarroti *, is the celebrated Tar- 
 getes, inventor of the art of divining. Many other 
 bronzes contain representations of Etrurian mythology 
 or history. Regarding mythology, it is very doubtful, 
 according to the opinion of the learned Maffei, whether 
 they derived it from the Greeks, or the latter rather from 
 the Etrurians f. It is very natural to imagine that the 
 most ancient works of these people participate of the 
 rudeness of all arts in their infancy : observation and his- 
 tory teach us that they make a rapid progress, and in 
 the ordinary course of human events, they do not require 
 many years to bring them to a certain perfection. Cima- 
 bue, G iotto, Masaccio, are not very distant in time. It is 
 difficult, amidst such uncertainty of documents, to assign 
 the epochs of the progress of the Etrurian school : the three 
 already fixed by antiquarians, and the freedom of their 
 opinions in attributing to each the Etrurian labours that 
 appear before them, may reasonably be doubted by those 
 who contemplate the errors into which the judges of an- 
 cient works have fallen. To assert, when works are 
 found that 'rival the Greeks, that the Etrurians have imi- 
 tated the latter, adhering to the three imagined epochs, 
 is a system J, and the spirit of system leads often to 
 
 * Appendix ad Dempst. 
 
 | Maffei, Osserv. Letter, torn. 3. Extr. del Dempst. 
 
 t Winkelman, History of the Arts. Lanzi of the Sculpture of 
 the Ancients. An example of the errors into which the spirit of 
 system leads us is to be found in a passage of Horace quoted by 
 the latter. The small Etrurian statues are placed by that poet 
 among the most precious monuments : Signa marmor, ebur Tyr- 
 rhena sigilla, &c. The antiquarian asserts that the poet alludes to 
 those works which belong to the third epoch ; otherwise, instead of 
 Tyrrhene, he would have used the word Tuscanica : as if poets 
 made use of expressions either with mathematical or historical pre-
 
 90 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 error. The modern Tuscans, through extreme affection 
 to their country, may both esteem and attribute too 
 much to their predecessors, and thereby deceive them- 
 selves ; let us be just, and not contrast ancient Etruria 
 with Greece in the times of Pericles and Alexander ; but it 
 must be admitted that Etruria has been the teacher and 
 mistress of herself, and that among her few remains there 
 are some which closely approximate to the arts of the 
 Grecians. 
 
 We are not enabled to judge with precision to 
 what point the arts were carried with the Etrurians, as 
 among the ruins of antiquity only very scanty monu- 
 ments remain. From simple clay*, they arrived at 
 casting statues of beautiful bronze, as the chimera in the 
 Royal Gallery of Florence attests |. We may instance 
 the statue dressed in the Roman style, which in the 
 
 cision ; or the word Tyrrhena did not raise as good an idea of an- 
 tiquity as Tuscanica, which, moreover, is neither elegant nor poetic. 
 The poet does not seriously assert that the Romans of his time had 
 painters, wrestlers, and musicians, superior to the Greeks. 
 
 . pingimus atque 
 
 P*aUiinu8, et luctamur Achivis dot-tins unctis. 
 
 The proposition was advanced as an absurdity, as appears by the 
 verse which precedes it : 
 
 N ili it in 1 1 a est olea, nihil extra est in mice duri. 
 
 It never could have occurred to the minds of the Romans to con- 
 tend in those arts with the Greeks, as Virgil, who wrote in the same 
 time, asserts : 
 
 Excudent alii spirantia mollius era. 
 
 Credo equidem, vivos ducent de marmore vnltus, &c. 
 
 * Almost all nations have begun to give form to clay, and in 
 nearly all the ancient languages, sculpture and pottery are synony- 
 mous : 
 
 Inquc Jovis dextra fictile fulmen erat. OVID. 
 
 t It was found at Arezzo in excavating the foundations of the 
 fortress.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 91 
 
 border of the drapery has Etrurian characters engraved ; 
 the little statue of Hercules, with the skin of a lion 
 twisted round the left arm * ; the Pallas of natural size, 
 and particularly the statue found at Pesaro upon the 
 shore of the Adriatic, which represents a young man, 
 and which Winkelman asserts to be one of the finest 
 bronze statues handed down to us by the ancients']", 
 although he doubts its being of Etrurian origin. It may 
 be noted that the inscriptions are never in the base, or on 
 the pedestal, but upon the statue itself, which is a proof 
 of antiquity. 
 
 Neither the Grecians nor Romans made use of this 
 custom, but prior nations ; and Herodotus asserts that 
 the very ancient image of Sesostris, which he had seen, 
 had the inscription upon it ; the writing also runs from 
 light to left, another sign of remote antiquity. They 
 cast with great ability in copper ; their pieces of money 
 were cast, and many of them are to be seen with a 
 three-fronted Janus on one side, and on the other 
 often a dolphin and a club, sor/etimes a frog and 
 an anchor ; points or little globes are also to be seen 
 on them, which probably indicated their value J. They 
 engraved also excellently, as some Etrurian goblets 
 handsomely worked testify; and we perceive from va- 
 rious cameos and deep incisions in hard stone how greatly 
 this art was perfected among them. If we have no 
 Etrurian works to confront the stupendous productions 
 of Phidias and Praxiteles, we have still some that ap- 
 proach them : the Diana in the museum of Herculaneum 
 is among the latter ; and Winkelman, who is no friend 
 of ancient and modern Etruria, confesses that this statue, 
 
 * Winkelman, torn. 2. lib. 7. cap. 2. 
 
 t Tom. 1. lib. 3. c. 2. 
 
 t Buonarroti Appen. ad Dempst. $ 38.
 
 92 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 in some parts, is worked with so much mastership, that 
 finer feet are not to be discovered in the best Grecian 
 figures*. The representation of Tydeus, in the Strozzian 
 museum, shews the force of expression that the Etru- 
 rians employed in their works. This hero is engraved 
 naked, in the act of taking out an arrow from his leg : 
 the care and attention with which the muscles are ex- 
 pressed, indicate to what degree of perfection the art 
 had arrived, and how well anatomy, its indispensable 
 companion, was understood. It is not to be denied 
 that sometimes laboured gestures and attitudes are 
 discovered, defects into which those fall also in lite- 
 rature (as all productions of taste resemble each other) 
 who possess the wish, without the power, of executing 
 a strong and expressive style. The Capitoline bas 
 relieff, which represents Mercury in company with 
 Apollo and Diana, is of this style; the forced position 
 of the fingers of Mercury shew this defect; but the 
 opinion that this faulty style is generally that of the 
 ancient and modery Tuscans, is equally false and unjust. 
 It is certain that the arts imitative of nature arrive at 
 perfection by long exercise ; and it is well known how 
 greatly the Etrurians laboured in them, as from the 
 single city of Bolsena, when subjugated by Marcus 
 Flavius Flaccus, not less than two thousand statues were 
 transported to Rome J. 
 
 From this history we learn the great labour bestowed 
 upon sculpture by the Etrurians, and which with an 
 ingenious people soon leads to perfection. From their 
 statues in the Florentine Gallery, we draw the wonder- 
 ful art of the Etrurians in melting and casting, as these 
 
 * Lib. 3. c. 2. 
 
 t The print of it is seen in front of Winkclman's work, Storia, &c. 
 
 t Plin. lib. 34.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 93 
 
 are all of one piece, of excellent metal, and hollow 
 within, whilst the ancient Greeks, according to Pau- 
 sanias, formed them of plates of metal only roughly 
 worked *. The chef-d'oeuvres of the Etruscans having 
 probably perished, we can ill judge of their merit in the 
 fine arts from the scarce documents that remain, either 
 injured or destroyed by time. We know, however, that 
 in Rome their works have excited wonder : the colossal 
 Apollo of bronze, fifty feet high, placed by Augustus in 
 the library of the Temple, called forth the admiration 
 of Pliny f, who probably had the greatest knowledge 
 and the finest taste of his age an age the most cele- 
 brated for the study of the fine arts in Italy. A statue 
 of so enormous a size, attracting by its beautiful propor- 
 tions the admiration of Pliny, proves the perfection of 
 the art in the nation by which it was cast. Winkelman, 
 who has pretended that in the fine arts the Etrurians 
 never surpassed mediocrity, has also hazarded an indi- 
 cation of the reasons. " It appears," he says, " that 
 the Etrurians more than the Grecians were inclined to 
 melancholy and sadness, as we may infer from their 
 religious worship and customs ; and we are to observe 
 too, that to a man gifted with such a temperament, 
 adapted certainly to more profound studies, the sensa- 
 tions are felt too deeply and acutely ; for which reason 
 that soft emotion is not produced in his senses which 
 renders the spirit perfectly susceptible of the beautiful." 
 The fallacy of such reasoning must be perfectly obvious. 
 The acute and deep sensations are inseparably con- 
 
 * Maffei, Osserv. Letter. Tom. 3. Estratt. del Dempst. 
 
 t Lib. 24. c. 7. " Videmus certe Apollinem in Bibliotheca 
 templi August! Tuscanicum L. pedum a pollice; dubium sere 
 mirabiliorem an pulchritudine." Using the word Tuscanicum, 
 Lanzi will not doubt that the ancient Etrurians are meant.
 
 94 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 nected with a lively imagination, the first origin of 
 the fine arts; and the more deeply and acutely are 
 stamped in it the images of external objects, so much 
 better is it adapted to describe them in the arts of 
 imitation. Melancholy religious compassion has not 
 hindered the birth and unfolding of the fine arts ; 
 the chef-d'oeuvres which adorn the Vatican consist of 
 the Transfiguration, the Madonna della Seggiola, Mi- 
 chael the Archangel, the Moses of S. Pietro in Vin- 
 culis, &c. The French nation, probably more gay, 
 spirited, and addicted to pleasure than any other 
 nation of Europe, although in letters it has produced so 
 many excellent works, is far from having arrived in the 
 fine arts at that point when Rome raised itself again 
 under Leo. Winkelman, from a just veneration for the 
 Grecians, became enthusiastic in their favour. Enthu- 
 siasm is calculated to stimulate artists and writers in their 
 career, but highly dangerous when we wish to form a 
 correct judgment; and its influence is often found in the 
 opinions of this writer, and particularly in his observa- 
 tions upon the Etrurian artists. After having severely 
 censured the ancients, he has had the courage to evince 
 the same opinion upon the modern Etrurians. He had 
 first asserted, that of the Etrurian artists the same 
 might be said as Pindar said of Vulcan, that he was 
 born without the Graces * : he then adds " These 
 characters of the art, with the ancient inhabitants of 
 Etruria, are to be discovered even now in the works of 
 their successors, and an impartial eye will readily dis- 
 cover them in the designs of Michael Angelo, the 
 greatest artist that the Etrurians have had ; nor is it to 
 be denied that this character is one of the defects of 
 Daniel of Volterra, Peter of Cortona,"&c. The autho- 
 
 * Storia delle Arti del Disegno, lib. 3. rap. 3.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 95 
 
 rity and reputation of this writer does not admit of 
 silence. After the new birth of the arts, Tuscany, to 
 which country we are indebted for it, produced innu- 
 merable artists, who highly distinguished themselves in 
 all the various branches, and regulated the different 
 styles ; and if Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci 
 have surpassed them all in sublimity of imagination and 
 vivacity of expression, an Andrea del Sarto, a Jacopo 
 da Pontormo and others, have not been wanting to show 
 that the graceful and delicate style is not foreign to 
 Tuscany. That among the various styles, the sublime, 
 the strong, the expressive style has been the ruling one 
 of the modern Tuscans, we will readily concede ; as this, 
 instead of being a reproach, is the greatest eulogium 
 that can be passed upon them. And in truth, where is 
 the poet that would not rather aspire to the sublimity of 
 Horner than the tender softness of Anacreon ? Respect- 
 ing other styles there may be disputes among artists ; but 
 the grand, the sublime, that Michael Angelo has ex- 
 pressed in the Capella Sistina finds nothing to oppose it : 
 the colossal statue of Moses is regarded with the same ad- 
 miration as the most renowned ancient works : we see 
 therein sublimity and grandeur of expression, united to mo- 
 desty and natural repose of the members, which forms the 
 height of perfection. But how can so much wrong be done 
 to the Tuscan artists, as to compare them to the rude 
 and rustic Vulcan born without the Graces ? Who since 
 the new birth of the arts has been the master of grace ? 
 Do not all acknowledge him in Leonardo da Vinci? 
 Has he not surpassed even Raphael himself, who learnt 
 so much from him ? We may appeal to the judgment 
 of the impartial reader, and to those connoisseurs who 
 judge according to their good understanding, and not 
 by the authority of celebrated names.
 
 96 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 But to turn from this short digression, solidity of 
 style was the characteristic of Tuscan architecture ; a 
 fact which is sufficiently known. Inferior to the other 
 orders in lightness and delicacy, in larger columns, in 
 cornices without frieze, it evinces a noble simplicity, 
 added to the stability of the edifice, a merit, which if 
 not the only one, is at least the first in architecture. It 
 appears that when the first men, leaving their rude roofs 
 of straw, resorted to solid materials, they began to adopt 
 the Tuscan mode of building, as one of the fathers of 
 architecture asserted *. The ancient cottages were na- 
 turally more elegant than their early dwellings, built 
 with the trunks of trees in the extremity of the facade, 
 united in the upper part by another oblique trunk, 
 which sustained the roof of straw or of boards. The 
 building afterwards extending itself, instead of two trees 
 four became necessary ; and when they proceeded to 
 the use of stone materials, they naturally substituted 
 columns for trees : and thus is delineated the birth of 
 the Etrurian order. Of the magnificence and grandeur 
 of the Etrurian buildings, nothing remains but the tes- 
 timony of an ancient writer : the sepulchre of Porsenna 
 at Chiusi alone, as described by Pliny, give us some 
 idea of the splendour of their edifices. The sepulchre 
 was of large quadrate stones, and surrounded by four 
 sides or walls, each of which extended 300 feet in 
 length, and 50 in height ; in the internal area of 9,000 
 feet was an inextricable labyrinth, the remains of which 
 are pretended to be shewn in some crooked caverns of 
 the town of Chiusi, notwithstanding both Pliny and 
 Varro state that it was outside the city. Upon the 
 vast quadrangle were raised fire pyramids, four in the 
 
 * Palladio Architt. cap. 14.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 97 
 
 corners and one in the middle, seventy-five feet broad at 
 the base, and one hundred and fifty high. At the top of 
 these stood a large globe of bronze ; from this hung vari- 
 ous chains, to which were attached moveable bells, which 
 rung when agitated by the wind : upon the top of the great 
 pyramids smaller ones were raised, and upon these, others ; 
 but Varro, moved by the improbability of the height of 
 these pyramids, and by their disposition, was ashamed, 
 as Plato says, to speak largely of them. It is added, 
 that of this exterminated building no vestige remained in 
 the days of Pliny, that is, about 600 years after Por- 
 senna; nevertheless Rome exhibits remains of ancient 
 buildings in many places that count more than 1,600 
 years. The pyramidal figure is adapted to preserve an 
 edifice still more. No vestige remained of these famous 
 ruins in Chiusi in the days of Pliny, whilst after so 
 many ages the pyramid of Caius Cestius in Rome re- 
 mains nearly entire. This shows us the improbability 
 of the statements respecting this great monument. 
 
 That Etruria was anterior to Greece in the art of 
 painting may be inferred from many facts, which the 
 learned Tiraboschi has ingeniously collected*. Pliny 
 assures us that in the days of Troy this art was not yet 
 inventedf ; and in the two great poems of Homer, wherein 
 both sculpture and engraving are so often described, no 
 mention is made of painting. Pliny, speaking of his 
 own times, alludes to Etrurian paintings in Ardea, more 
 ancient than those of Rome, and assigns an equal degree 
 of antiquity to those of the Ceri and Lanuvium J, in the 
 latter of which the naked representations of Helen and 
 Atlas attracted the attention of Pontius, legate of the 
 
 * Stor. della Letter. Ital. torn. 1. f Lib. 35. cap. 4. 
 
 J Plin. lib. 35. 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 emperor Caligula, who contemplated their removal, had 
 the nature of the edifice favoured his intention. The 
 stability of their colouring has handed down many of 
 these paintings even to our own age : they were found 
 in the excavated sepulchres at the ancient Tarquinii, 
 near Corneto. These sepulchres are cut out of the 
 ground ; we descend to them by a cavity of a conical 
 figure, that widens from the aperture to the bottom; and 
 the roofs and walls are adorned with paintings*. It is 
 known that the most ancient pictures were formed only 
 of a single colour, culled therefore monocromatiche, drawn 
 with simple lines. Of this kind are the paintings of the 
 Etrurians, formed with whitish contours upon a plaster 
 or cement of a dark ground; the greater part of these 
 pictures represent battles: in one, Winkelman thinks 
 that the doctrine of the Etrurians upon the state of the 
 soul after death is symbolized. " To this," says he, 
 " are assigned two black Genii, who are represented as 
 drawing a car, in which the image of the soul of the 
 deceased is supposed to be deposited, while two other 
 Genii are beating with long hammers upon a naked fi- 
 gure of a man fallen to the ground." This singular in- 
 terpretation opens a vast but obscure field to metaphysi- 
 cians. 
 
 Whether the Etrurians painted with various colours 
 is not known; we find, however, that they sometimes 
 painted their statues, and of this kind we have still the 
 fine Diana of the Herculanean Museum, of which we 
 have already spoken. It is easy to imagine that much 
 expression could not be given to figures lined with a single 
 colour, nevertheless in them we can sometimes discern 
 the boldness of the hand and the correctness of the de- 
 sign. 
 
 * Winkel. Storia. delle Art. lib. 3. cap. 2.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 99 
 
 One of the most celebrated and elegant manufactures 
 of Etruria were the vases of baked earth, called Etruscan 
 vases. The distance of time, and the rarity of these 
 productions, have given rise to many disputes. The 
 learned Buonarroti, Gori, and Guarnacci have thought 
 them an ancient Etrurian work. Maffei, Winkelman, 
 and others, are of opinion that they were produced from 
 Campania, Sicily, and various towns of Magna Grecia. 
 The arguments of Buonarroti to prove them Etrurian 
 are the following: the authority of ancient writers who 
 often speak of Etruscan vases ; the similarity between 
 various figures expressed in these vases and those cut 
 upon Etrurian cups of bronze used in sacrifices; the 
 figures of fauns with horses' tails, whilst the Greeks 
 painted them like those of a goat; the figure of a certain 
 bird unknown to Pliny, the great naturalist, and who 
 asserts it to have been found painted in the books of the 
 Etrurian diviners; the crowns, the vases in the hand of 
 Bacchus, the musical instruments, &c., all show them to 
 be Etrurian, as they are not found in the works of the 
 Grecians. Winkelman discovers some weight in these 
 arguments, and then replies with his accustomed manner 
 of reasoning: 1st., that the elegance of these vases, and 
 the correctness of the design, are such as do not belong 
 to the Etrurians; 2dly., that the quantity found in Sicily, 
 in Campania, &c., and the scarcity in Tuscany, prove 
 that in the former countries, rather than in the latter, 
 they were worked. Let us revert to history on this 
 point. Tarquinius Priscus, desirous of erecting the statue 
 of Jupiter Capitolinus, selected the artist Turrianus of 
 Flegelle, one of the most ancient towns of Etruria. * The 
 art of making statues from chalk continued in every age, 
 
 * Pliny, lib. 35. cap. 12. 
 
 H 2
 
 100 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 but particularly the small Etrurian statues, or Tyrrhena 
 rigilla, were very much in esteem in the days of Horace*. 
 To this kind the small statue of chalk possessed by Ti- 
 berius belonged, which was so singularly expressive as 
 to cause the poet to say that Prometheus, amusing him- 
 self, had formed it: 
 
 Ebrius hac fecit terris puto monstra Prometheus 
 Saturnalitio lusit et ipse luto. 
 
 Nor of less ingenuity is the other of which Martial 
 says, 
 
 Sum fragilis, sed tu, moneo, ne sperne sigillum : 
 Non pudet Alcidem nomen habere meum. 
 
 These little Etrurian statues being so celebrated, it may 
 be said that the vases of chalk which were correctly 
 called sigillati (or istoriati,) painted with figures, were also 
 of Etrurian workmanship; and that the Etrurians, 
 particularly the Aretines, worked elegant vases of 
 earth, worthy of the tables of monarchs, we infer from 
 various passages of the classics, and particularly from 
 Martial : 
 
 Aretina nimis ne spernas vasa monemus ; 
 Lautus erat Tuscis Porsena fictilibus. 
 
 From the most remote antiquity to the times of Pliny 
 the art maintained itself in Etruria; and that writer 
 asserts that the most noble and elegant vases of chalk 
 were in his days those of Samos, Saguntum, Pergamos, 
 and Arretiumf. In the distich attributed to Virgil J, and 
 the verses of Persius , Etruscan vases, and particularly 
 those of Arretium, are spoken of. For many ages we 
 
 * Epist. 2. lib. 2.' f Plin. 35,'cap. 12. 
 
 t " Arretinc calian mensis decorate paternis 
 
 Ante maims medici quani bene sanus era." 
 
 S Sat. 1. c. 2 .
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 101 
 
 have certain testimony of the conservation of this art in 
 Etruria ; it flourished there before the Grecians had made 
 any progress in the fine arts. The many vases excavated 
 in the vicinity of Volterra, Cortona, Arezzo, Populonia, 
 and Corneto, preserved in various museums, and that 
 which we shall make known from the excavations in 
 Arezzo, sufficiently destroy the second objection of 
 Winkelman. It is true that the manufacture of some of 
 them is rude, but others are found of exquisite work- 
 manship. In order to form a just conception of the 
 quantity of fine vases found in Arezzo, it is necessary to 
 refer to the account of some ancient writers, whose 
 works remain unpublished. The first is S. Ristoro 
 d' Arezzo, who lived about the middle of the thirteenth 
 century* : it may be permitted to us to refer to a frag- 
 ment of this writer, in order that we may better under- 
 stand, in his rude native expressions, the feeling which 
 the sight of the vases then excavated made upon him 
 and his contemporary observers. " The vases," says 
 he, " were formed of glued earth, fine as wax, and of 
 perfect form ... in which vases were designed and cut 
 all the generations of plants, leaves, and flowers, and all 
 the generations of animals that can be thought of . . . . 
 and they made them of two colours, as blue and red, but 
 more red, which colours were bright and fine, not having 
 body: these colours were so perfect, that remaining 
 under ground, it appeared that the earth could not spoil 
 
 * The manuscript was found in the library of the late Suddeano 
 Riccardi : it is entitled " Incominciasi il libro della composicione 
 del mondo .... composta da Ristoro d' Arezzo," &c. " The author 
 has dated his manuscript 1282, whence it may be concluded that 
 he lived about the middle of the thirteenth century. Gori has 
 published a fragment which particularly refers to the Aretine 
 vases.
 
 102 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 them. When they dug by some chance within our city, 
 and in the neighbourhood without it, nearly two thousand 
 were found, and many of them appeared as if just made 
 . . , . in some was found engraved a lean image, in 
 another a fat one ; some laughing, some crying, some 
 dead, some alive, some old, some young, some naked, 
 some dressed, some armed, some disarmed, some on 
 foot, some on horseback ; and there were found in them 
 fights and battles wonderfully represented .... they 
 were found cut and designed so wonderfully that the 
 years were known, and time both clear and obscure, and 
 if the figure was distant or near, and every variation of 
 mountain, of valley, of river, of wood, &c. ; there were 
 found spirits flying through the air in shapes of naked 
 boys, and attached to them every diversity of poem," 
 &c. This writer afterwards dilates upon the wonder 
 they excited in the observers, who, he says, scarcely 
 thought them human work. Although he lived in a 
 rude age, the stupor, the ecstasy, the confusion that he 
 discovers, and which he relates to have arisen also in 
 others at the contemplation of the vases, are such as to 
 lead one to believe that the workmanship was very ele- 
 gant; and from the battles and other pictures we easily 
 infer them to be of Tuscan hands. The second writer 
 is celebrated and very well known, viz., Giovanni Villani, 
 who states " that in Arezzo anciently were made, by very 
 fine masters, red vases with different engravings, and of 
 so fine an engraving, that looking at them they appeared 
 impossible to be of human workmanship ; and we still 
 find them : and certainly too we still say that the situation 
 and air of Arezzo produce very subtle men" The third 
 lived in the time of the splendour of the fine arts under 
 Leo. X., viz., Attilio Alessi, the Aretine, in whose manu- 
 script history we read the following passage : " Besides
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 103 
 
 the aforesaid things, the Aretine vases evince wonderful 
 antiquity, so fine and of so surprising a lustre, that they 
 were compared to vases of crystal ; and of this I my- 
 self bear witness, who found one of them near the banks 
 of the river Castro, distant from the city 1000 paces, in 
 the form of a tumbler-glass, and of so fine and resplen- 
 dent appearance, that it surpassed any kind of glass .... 
 there were found a great quantity with letters in the 
 bottom of each vase, and at times was present, when the 
 grottos were cut into, Messer Giovanni de' Medici, who 
 was afterwards Pope Leo. X. ; and in some was seen a 
 battle of birds, a hunt with lions, dogs, horses, chariots, 
 and even the gods, as Bacchus, Jupiter Ammon, figured 
 with wonderful industry and art . .- . . found on the 
 banks of the said river near the bridge Carciarelle *, in 
 the year 1492, the aforesaid Giovanni then Cardinal be- 
 ing present, and they are of ten found in the foundations., 
 when houses are built" The elegance of the vases here 
 spoken of can no longer be doubted, since so learned and 
 polished a man, who lived in the times of the greatest 
 taste for the arts, bears testimony to the fact : but to 
 finish the history of the pottery of this city, we shall re- 
 fer to an extract of ingenious fragments of unprinted 
 writings upon the Aretine pottery, by a learned man of 
 Arezzo, lately deceased, Mr. Auditor Francesco Rossi, 
 who has done honour to letters, to his country, and to 
 jurisprudence, who has filled important situations, and by 
 his modesty has concealed many of the merits with which 
 he was adorned f. The Aretine territory having been, 
 
 * Here was one of the manufactories of these vases, as Auditor 
 Rossi has proved to us, of whom we shall shortly make mention. 
 
 t The politeness of the heirs, and particularly of Mr. Fulvio 
 Rossi, the worthy brother of the author, has permitted me to gather 
 the knowledge here inserted, and to publish it.
 
 104 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 for many ages, celebrated for its vases, he has sought 
 for the spots in which the manufactories were established ;' 
 three of which he has found within the city, and eight at 
 least in the neighbourhood : he has occupied himself with 
 the examination of two of these, situated near each other 
 in a place anciently called Centumcell, now corrupted 
 into Cincelli * situated at the west of Arretium, distant 
 therefrom six miles, not far from the Castle of Rondine, 
 where a villa of the author afforded him leisure to em- 
 ploy so learnedly the autumnal holidays. Not only has he 
 found there numberless fragments of very fine vases, but 
 even the remains of the furnaces, the troughs (trogoli) 
 and the utensils to make them. From the remains of 
 the manufactory and the positions of these vessels still 
 remaining, he has been able to deduce the manner of 
 fabricating the Aretine vases. According to his obser- 
 vations, the chalk, which was very fine and light, and 
 preserves still these qualities, was extracted from the 
 ground situated under the manufactory. Being previ- 
 ously worked with the hands, it was thrown into tubs 
 full of water, where the finest part of it dissolved itself: 
 this turbid water, impregnated with the finest part of 
 the chalk, was poured into another tub, where (to use 
 a chemical term) it was decanted (decantava,) reducing 
 itself into an impalpable substance, and with this the 
 finest Aretine vases -were formed. Such chalk is still 
 almost of the colour of dark ground, and when it is boiled 
 takes a lively red. The furnaces of a quadrate figure are 
 still seen, formed of very small bricks, the length of which 
 is one-fourth of an arm by one-eighth of breadth. The 
 vases are painted with animals, hunts, &c., embellished 
 
 * That Cincelli was called Centumcellee is inferred from a paper 
 of the Monastery of S. Flora and Lucilla of the Cassinesi, noted by 
 Aleotti, and published by Camici.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 105 
 
 with very beautiful ornaments *. They were made also 
 with moulds, and two pair of these of a chalky substance 
 have been found still in good preservation. From the 
 remains of these moulds, even after so many ages, we 
 find that in using them oil was employed, in order that 
 the chalk might more easily separate. The refined chalk 
 being put into the moulds, the vase was drawn off, and 
 afterwards brought to perfection upon the wheel. As 
 he found around the furnaces various fragments of baked 
 vases without varnish, he thinks that the latter was ap- 
 plied after the first slight baking, which is also the opinion 
 of Winkelman and Fea t. The colour of the Cincelli 
 vases is for the most part of a coral red ; there are how- 
 ever those of the colour of a peach blossom, others black, 
 and some of the colour of steel; he has never found the 
 azure seen by Ristoro. Although this diligent investi- 
 gator has never had the fortune to find entire vases, he 
 has nevertheless discovered fragments so large as to give 
 us an idea of them when entire ; they are extremely light 
 and fine, equal to any Campanian or Sicilian, or those 
 thought such. The great learning of the ingenious and 
 intelligent antiquarian leaves us in no doubt respecting 
 them, and many of these large fragments are still existing 
 to testify to whomsoever might wish to make a compa- 
 rison. 
 
 After this short history of Etruscan vases, let us draw 
 some consequences which appear to us inevitable. From 
 undoubted documents and the testimony of the most re- 
 spectable ancient writers, it is inferred that in Etruria, and 
 particularly in Arretium, vases of chalk were manufactured 
 since the most remote times, and before the arts began 
 to be cultivated in Greece; that this art was continued 
 
 * 
 
 He has caused drawings of them to be made. 
 
 Seethe notes to the work of Winkelman, torn. 1. cap. 4.
 
 106 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 there and was in great renown in the days of Pliny f that 
 the Aretine vases were very fine and highly elegant; 
 the glory of this art therefore belongs to Etruria, and it 
 can only be doubted whether they made them in Magna 
 Grecia ; and even if this is granted, it may still be said 
 with great probability, that that country took the art from 
 the Etrurians, as the latter cultivated it before the fine 
 arts were known in either one or the other Greece. We 
 have no other foundation for believing in the existence 
 of potteries in Magna Grecia than the great abundance 
 of vases found there, and the Grecian inscriptions some- 
 times stamped upon thenj. But the porcelain of China, 
 of which Holland is full, the English vases of Terra Delfa 
 scattered through all Europe, are they to be a sufficient 
 proof to ignorant posterity that they were made where 
 they might be found? Might not the ancient vases have 
 been transported in the same form from the principal 
 manufactories of Etruria to Campania and Sicily ? And 
 might not the opulent inhabitants of these countries 
 have ordered the manufacturers to affix to them what- 
 ever inscriptions they pleased, as in our days even 
 the arms of families are impressed upon porcelain, 
 or upon utensils of any kind sent into distant coun- 
 tries ? They have maintained themselves in better pre- 
 servation there from having been more prized, whilst 
 at the source they were probably held in less repute. 
 These are only conjectures against the manufactures of 
 Magna Grecia; but the universal silence of ancient 
 writers is something more than conjecture. These speak 
 only through Italy of Etruscan and Aretine vases. 
 Pliny, among the rest, who has not left unmentioned any 
 country celebrated for arts and manufactures, who has re- 
 minded us of the potteries of Arretium, Saguntum, Samos, 
 and Pergamus, speaks only of cups fabricated in Sor-
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 107 
 
 rento*. What more fit opportunity could there be to 
 speak of the pottery and the vases of Campania and 
 Sicily ? This silence of Pliny and all other ancient writers 
 can hardly be explained ; and we are informed by Horace 
 that the works in chalk of Campania were very coarse f. 
 The last resource of Winkelman and his followers to 
 diminish the glory of the Etrurian art, will be, that 
 (granting the extreme fineness of the Aretine vases, 
 which cannot be denied,) the Etrurian art was brought 
 to perfection in the third epoch, when they had learnt it 
 from the Greeks. On these arbitrary epochs we have 
 already made our observations, and will dispute no fur- 
 ther. But it will be always true that the primary art 
 was Etrurian, and continued from the most remote times 
 down to the age of Pliny. That the Etrurians of the 
 lower ages, and as Winkelman calls them, of the third 
 epoch, have learnt it from the Greeks, may be partially 
 correct, but certain proofs thereof are always wanting ; 
 for to assert that in this epoch we find the Grecian style 
 in the Etrurian works, is saying much, and a great proof 
 with some antiquarians and a flock of dilettanti who 
 blindly follow them ; while it affords no proof to those 
 who examine without partiality, and judge according to 
 the dictates of reason, and not from the authority of 
 
 * " Retinet hanc nobilitatem et Arretiurn in Italid, et calicum 
 tantum Surrentum." Lib. 35, cap. 12. 
 
 f Horat.lib. 1. Sat. 6. 
 
 " Pocula cum cyatho duo sustinet, astat echinus 
 " Vilis cum patera guttus campanasupellex." 
 
 To prove that chalk was worked in Sicily, Winkelman has only 
 found a passage of Diodorus Siculus, in which it is said that the 
 father of Agathocles was a potter ; and another of Ateneus, in which 
 patellae siculce are mentioned, as if where earthen pots and pans 
 were made, it should be a proof that porcelain was also worked.
 
 108 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 celebrated names *. Alluding to certain ancient coins 
 which have Etrurian inscriptions, Winkelman reasons 
 thus : " Whilst the writing testifies that the Campanians 
 have received it from the Etrurians, from the figure 
 which is not at all according to Etrurian art, it may be 
 inferred that they have imitated the design from the 
 Greeks." We might have greater faith in this manner 
 of reasoning if the enormous mistakes were not known 
 to us, which are made in judging both of the Grecian 
 manner and of the various styles by the most celebrated 
 artists; errors from which Raphael d'Urbino, Giulio 
 Romano, &c., have not been wholly exempted f. And, 
 in fact, what is the manner that they call Grecian ? it is 
 that which most approaches perfection, and that which 
 is called beautiful. Cannot a nation that cultivates with 
 ardour the fine arts, arrive finally at perfection without 
 the aid of foreign precepts ? Could not the Italians, in 
 the country called Magna Grecia, have done so? and, 
 little distant from it, might not also Etruria, who so long 
 and with so much ardour cultivated the fine arts ? Let 
 us leave prejudices, and judge by our senses. In the 
 dispute upon Etruscan vases, foreigners render us justice. 
 The English have imitated the Etruscan vases, and 
 Wedgwood has given the name of Etruria to the place 
 where his celebrated manufactory is established. We 
 
 * Upon the blind and servile deference which is generally paid 
 to the connoisseurs of fine arts, d'Alembert quotes the following 
 anecdote: A person reasoning justly upon the beauty and defects 
 of a picture of Raphael, a painter who overheard him said : " Tout 
 ce que M. dit est vrai, mais c'est qu'on n'a pas coutume de dire 
 cela." He adds, that the errors or the prejudices were compared 
 by the Abbe St. Pierre to the pills that are swallowed without 
 chewing, otherwise they would not be swallowed." D'ALEMBERT, 
 Elog. de VAbbe de St. Pierre. 
 
 t Vasari, vita di Buonarroti.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 109 
 
 will conclude with a short comparison between the luxury 
 of the ancients and moderns. We make use of the 
 finest porcelain, the white ground of which adds greatly 
 to its beauty and ornaments ; the latter, however, are 
 awkward, the figures badly designed, or injured by the 
 baking, nor are they ever to be compared to those of the 
 Etruscan vases, the design of which Winkelman com- 
 pares to that of Raphael. The luxury of the Etrurians 
 is sufficiently celebrated; it is known, however, little 
 more than by this general reputation, but their imitators, 
 the Romans, after they had abandoned their native sim- 
 plicity and poverty, and despoiled the provinces of the 
 East, gave themselves up to a degree of luxury, to which 
 the moderns have never arrived. Their palaces sur- 
 passed in grandeur the most splendid of succeeding ages, 
 even without quoting as an example the golden house 
 of Nero ; the gates, often of Numidian marble, the 
 doors inlaid with tortoise-shell*, the walls of the rooms 
 incrusted with the most rare marbles, covered with rich 
 furniture and carpets ; gilded beams with gems enchased 
 in themt> and fountains in the rooms; pavements of 
 excellent Mosaic, often representing interesting histories, 
 and the Etruscan vases as a finish to the ornaments. The 
 buildings were very lofty, and at the top was a hanging 
 garden, of rare and expensive plants; the entrance was 
 sometimes flanked by a wood of columns ; that of the villa 
 of the Gordiani has two hundred of the finest Numidian 
 marble ;. The profusion of jewels and pearls, worn by 
 the women, can hardly be expressed : after having covered 
 the head, the locks of hair, the neck, ears, fingers, and 
 
 *'... inliiant tcstudine postcs. VIRG- Georg. lib. 2. 
 
 t " Vidi artes veterumqne man us verisque metalla 
 Viva modis, labor est auri numerate fignras 
 Aut ebur, aut dignas digitis contingere gemmas." STATICS. 
 J Capital, in Gord.
 
 110 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 arms, they attached a great number to their shoes *; and 
 the celebrated Lollia Paulina, on every public occasion 
 carried no less upon her than the value of four millions of 
 French francs t The cost of their suppers exceeds ima- 
 gination; the tables most appreciated (although many 
 were made of silver and ivory,) were of knotty cedar, 
 stained like a leopard, the feet of silver or of onyx J : the 
 vases were for the most part of silver, (it having been 
 ordered by Tiberius that the golden ones should serve 
 only for sacrifices,) were covered with jewels ; they 
 are still called vases of entire gems ||. The luxury dis- 
 played in their servants at the suppers, was such, that 
 they were all nearly of the same age, of the same quality 
 and colour of hairlL The expense of the suppers of 
 Lucullus, Apicius, and Vitellius, will scarcely be be- 
 lieved. The fish, of which they were so greedy, were 
 seen alive at the tables before cooking them ; and for 
 this purpose there were reservoirs beneath **. This is only 
 a very small example of the luxury of the Romans, which 
 was in truth extravagant ; but it was necessary to expend 
 in some manner the immense sums which flowed into 
 Rome from a conquered world. Her citizens, not con- 
 
 " Neque enim gestare margaritas nisi calcant et per uniones 
 ambulent satis est." Plin. lib. 9. cap. 56. 
 
 f Vide Plin. loc. cit. e le note dell'Arduino. 
 
 I Mersio describes some that cost 50,000 florins. 
 
 ^ " Turba gemmarum potamus et smaragdis teximus calices. 
 Plin. in prse. 1. 33. 
 
 || Pacat in padeg. " Parum se lautas putabant, nisi sestivam in 
 gemmis capacibus glaeiem falerna fregissent," and more positively 
 Cicero, ver. 6. ; " Erat illi vas vinarium ex una gemma pergrandi 
 trulla excavata cum manubrio aureo." Probably some hard stone, 
 of the finest and most rare quality, is here meant. 
 
 U Senec. Epist. 95. 
 
 ** It was said that the fish should be fresh enough to have the 
 taste of the sea.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. Ill 
 
 tent with the spoils of the East, with the immense tri- 
 butes drawn from the provinces, had acquired immense 
 possessions ; under Nero, according to the testimony of 
 Pliny, six Roman citizens possessed the whole territory 
 of Africa subjected to the Romans *. 
 
 After the Egyptians, the Etrurians have been the 
 most superstitious people upon earth. Before con- 
 demning them, however, it will be necessary to know 
 them better, in order to decide whether their supersti- 
 tions were not probably useful political laws. Among 
 nations ignorant of the true religion, the wisdom of le- 
 gislators is worthy of praise, who have made it subser- 
 vient to good order and public happiness. In all go- 
 vernments there has always been a class of persons for 
 whom the naked truth is dangerous, and some prejudices 
 necessary. Rome, a pupil of Etruria, furnishes us with 
 many examples. If sometimes the Roman Senate was 
 full of persons, who, despising the pagan theology, 
 laughed at the pains of Tantalus and of Sisiphus f, this 
 was far from taking away the salutary blind from the 
 eyes of the people, who, incapable of too fine reasoning, 
 had need of something to fix their adoration, and to 
 which they could adddress their wishes, and which, by 
 threatening an inevitable punishment to hidden crimes, 
 might console afflicted virtue in the more desperate cases, 
 pouring upon her, as a sweet balsam, the hope of future 
 recompense. It is true again that the religious errors 
 of paganism, at least for a time, did not give rise to di- 
 visions and holy wars in Italy ; Rome was ready to give 
 citizenship to all foreign deities, and the Egyptian might 
 adore quietly in Rome his crocodile, without being ridi- 
 culed or persecuted by the Roman, who, by his side, 
 
 * See Meurs de Luxu. Rom. 
 
 t Sallas. Conjur. Cat. allocuzione di Cesare.
 
 112 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 was burning incense to Jove : and as the government held 
 in hand and directed this dangerous instrument, acts 
 of superstition were moderated or enlivened, and called 
 in aid according to the public wants. The Romans, 
 having learnt from the Etrurians their religious rites, 
 probably learnt also their useful effects. The priesthood 
 with the Etrurians, as often among the Greeks, was 
 annexed to the first authorities ; the place of augur was 
 only conferred upon senatorial or consular persons : if 
 therefore in the religion of the Etrurians we find cere- 
 
 C5 
 
 monies which appear to us ridiculous and weak, we must 
 not immediately condemn them, because we are uncertain 
 of the end of their institution. One of their supersti- 
 tious arts was divination, the origin of which is supported 
 by a very rude fable. The Etrurian Tages or Tagetes, 
 son of the earth, escaped from the furrow of a plougher 
 of Tarquinii, taught the Etrurians the art of divina- 
 tion*. The superficial reader will easily laugh in be- 
 holding grave magistrates read futurity in the bowels of 
 animals, in the flight of birds, in the hunger or inappe- 
 tency of fowls, nor undertake an expedition, or engage in 
 battle without the consent of animals ; but the philoso- 
 pher admires the wisdom of magistrates, who with such 
 means interpreted as they pleased, could either restrain 
 the unseasonable ardour, or revive the courage of their 
 soldiers. After Tagetes, who left no writing, Bacchis 
 or Bacchides was the first to distinguish himself; La- 
 beone too, in fifteen books, has expounded this science 
 with much gravity. The books of the Etrurians in this 
 kind reputed classic, and kept with sacred terror, were 
 called Acherontic ; nor did the Romans, much as they 
 improved the other arts, ever arrive at the art of divina- 
 tion; whence, even in the lowest ages, we find them 
 
 " Fatalem gleham mot is aspexit in ai vis." OVID, Cicer. lib. 4. de Dititwt.
 
 H I STORY OF TUSCANY . 113 
 
 consulting, in urgent cases, the Etrurian classics *. It 
 must be confessed that accident has sometimes confirmed 
 these extravagancies ; the omens of the birth of Rome 
 are well known : the ancient augurs too predicted that 
 the Roman power would last for twelve ages ; the ca- 
 price of fortune verified the whimsical prediction, and 
 the power of Rome was extinguished exactly with the 
 Empire of the West in the twelfth agef. The Romans, 
 who thought themselves always inferior to their mas- 
 ters J, sent annually ten sons of senators into Etruria, to 
 learn divination ; at first none, unless of noble and sena- 
 torial race, could exercise this art ; it was afterwards 
 debased, and in all the castles astrologers were found, 
 who for a certain price imparted good fortune^. 
 
 One of the most important parts of this science was 
 the observation of lightning, of thunder, and the fall of 
 
 * Tune quis nunc Artis scripta et monumcnta volutans 
 Voces terrificas chartes promebat Etruscis. CLAUD. 
 
 The Emperor Julian had always with him Etrurian soothsayers. 
 Amm. Marcell. lib. 23. cap. 5. 
 
 t This is not one of those prophecies invented frequently after 
 the event; Varro, Censorinus, Cicero and others, speak of it many 
 ages before its verification. It is seen, in Claudian, that Italy, 
 alarmed at the invasion of the Goths, remembered the presage 
 with terror : 
 
 Turn reputant annos, intereeptoque volatu 
 
 Vulturis incidunt properatis stecula metis. CLAUD, de Bet!. Getico. 
 
 And whilst its verification was approaching, Claudian in derision 
 
 adds : 
 
 Surge, precor, veneranda parens, et certa secundis 
 Fide dels, humilcmque meturn depone senectae, 
 Urbs aequaeva polo, time demum furca sumct 
 Jura in te Lachessi, cum sic mntaverit axem 
 Foederibus natura noris, ut flumine verso 
 Irriget Jigyptum Tanais meotida Nilus, &c. 
 
 I " VosTusci ac barbari auspiciorum populi Romani jus tenetis?" 
 Cicer. de Nat. Deor. Aul. Gell. Noc. Att. 1. c. 5. 
 ^ Quin. Enn. ad finem lib. 1. de Divin. 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 thunderbolts, and the name of the nymph Bigoa, mistress 
 of this part of divination, was as celebrated among the 
 Etrurians as that of Franklin among modern philoso- 
 phers. This thunder and lightning science of the Etru- 
 rians may certainly appear to us ridiculous ; but Seneca, 
 who admires its wisdom, unveils to us the mysteries hid- 
 den under it mysteries which taught mankind the most 
 useful moral lesson. By placing in the right hand of 
 the great deity an arm ready to fall upon the head of 
 the wicked, they endeavoured to restrain those who only 
 follow virtue through fear of punishment*. The moral 
 precepts of this science still more ennoble it when other 
 circumstances are developed. The thunders that Jupi- 
 ter sends forth of his own will are innocent, and adapted 
 only to frighten the wicked ; the prejudicial and destruc- 
 tive are thrown only by the counsel of the other deities. 
 And did those wise men believe that the supreme 
 ruler of things had want of others' counsel? No, cer- 
 tainly not; but under this veil they exposed an excel- 
 lent doctrine, which teaches the great and the rulers of 
 the earth not to punish without listening to the opinion 
 of wise men f. The quoted passage of Seneca shews us 
 a small part of the political morals of the Etrurians, hid- 
 den under a veil, which sometimes makes them appear 
 
 * Senec. Quaest. Natur. lib. 2. c. 24. " Ad coercendos animos 
 impci itni urn sapientissimi viri (Etrusci) indicaverunt inevitabilem 
 inctiim, ut supra nos aliquid timeremus. Utile erat in tanta au- 
 dacia scelerum aliquid esse, adversus quod nemo satis potens esse 
 videretur ad coercendos laque cos, quibus innoccntia nisi metu 
 non placet, posuere supra caput judicem ct quidem armatum." 
 
 t " Discant hoc ii, qui magnam potcntiam inter homines adepti 
 sunt, sine consilio nee fulmen quidem mitti : advocent, considerent 
 multorum sententiam, placita temperent, ct hoc sibi proponant ubi 
 aliquid percuti debet, nee Jovi quidem satis suum esse consilium." 
 Senec. Quaest. Natur. lib. 2. c. 43.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 115 
 
 to us ridiculous ; whence it is becoming to admire, or at 
 least respect in silence, that part which we do not under- 
 stand. Besides the mysterious science of thunder and 
 lightning, the Etrurian soothsayers interpreted the other 
 prodigies which were thought a presage to misfortunes : 
 their augurs prescribed a medicine for these evils * ; and 
 if they accomplished no other good, they called the at- 
 tention of the vulgar towards a being under whose vigi- 
 lant eye their operations were watched, and who was 
 ready to punish or to reward them. In our times, too, 
 pride and ignorance have generated an opinion that ex- 
 traordinary phenomena announce misfortunes : to ima- 
 gine that the sun is obscured, that comets appear, and 
 that nature puts herself in disorder to announce the 
 death- of a Caesar or of a Charles V., becomes ridiculous 
 enough to a philosopher, who, contemplating the im- 
 mensity of nature, sees the universe prodigiously peopled 
 with suns, among which our earth becomes so small a 
 thing, that if by an act of omnipotence it should be an- 
 nihilated, it would leave no greater void in nature than a 
 grain of sand taken from the sea-shore. And if the 
 earth is so small a thing, what must be its inhabitants ? 
 Our pride becomes humbled at such a consideration, and 
 every terror at imagined prodigies vanishes. But to re- 
 turn to the religion of the Etrurians ; besides Jupiter, 
 they acknowledged twelve gods, who, as consenters or 
 accomplices, were called counsellors of Jupiter, gods whom 
 it was not lawful to mention, although names had been 
 given to them which Ennius has comprised in two verses 
 not very poetical : 
 
 Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, 
 Mercurius, Jovis, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo. 
 
 * See Lucan, lib. 1, where the Tuscan Arontes, 
 " Moustra jubet primum," &c. 
 
 I 2
 
 1 16 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 If the supper of Augustus was not probably a ca- 
 lumny of Antony, it would appear that he had derided 
 or profaned the majesty of these gods : himself dressed 
 in the garments of Apollo, it was said that the five other 
 guests represented the other gods* and six women the 
 goddesses. This supper, either true or false, was believed 
 by the public, who, in the following days, (there having 
 been a great dearth) jokingly said that the gods had de- 
 voured all the corn. Various deities, besides the above, 
 were adored by the Etrurians, and among others the 
 goddess Nurscia in Bolsena, in whose temple the years 
 were numbered with nails. 
 
 It has been believed by some that the Etrurians prac- 
 tised the barbarous sacrifice of human victims ; no writer 
 however asserts it, and it has only been inferred from 
 observing in the remains of their antiquities human 
 figures in the act of being sacrificed. Such is the group 
 of the eighty-first table of Dempster, where an old man is 
 perceived with his knee upon a pedestal, and two persons 
 in the act of wounding him ; but probably this, like 
 various other similar representations, is a ceremony of 
 mitred mysteries : in these, which the Romans afterwards 
 practised, were raised those who should be exposed to 
 various proofs, to impress them with terrror, and to the 
 threat of death, to prove their courage. Tertullian calls 
 them mimics of martyrdom f ; and the cruel and extra- 
 vagant Commodus profaned the mitred mysteries with a 
 
 * Suet, in Octav. cap. 70. 
 
 Cum primum istornm conduxit inensa Choragnm, 
 Sexque deos vidit Manlia scxque deas, 
 Impia dura Plioebi Caesar mendacia ludit, 
 Duin nova divortim caenat adulteria, 
 Omnia se a ten is tune minima declinanmt, 
 Fugit et auratos Jupiter ipsc thrones. 
 t Tertull. cap. 15. de Corona.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 117 
 
 real homicide*. Something like it (as follies often re- 
 semble each other) has been used in the society of Free 
 Masons : those that were initiated were exposed to like 
 threats, to naked iron, to fire, &c f- The want of Gre- 
 cian or Latin authors, who would not have omitted men- 
 tioning this cruel practice, and the easy explanation that 
 may be given to Etrurian figures, gives us a right to ab- 
 solve the Etrurian nation from a custom which has dis- 
 honoured not a few nations. 
 
 * " Sacra mitriaca vero homicidio polluit." Lampred. de Com- 
 modo. 
 
 f " Le .secret des francs ma9ons trahi et revele.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ROMAN CITIZENSHIP GRANTED TO FOREIGNERS. MK( I - 
 NAS. VICISSITUDES OF TUSCANY ON THE INVASION OF 
 THE BARBARIANS. SIEGE OF FLORENCE. VALOUR OF 
 STILICHO, AND DEATH OF RADAGASIO. ALARIC AT 
 ROME. RANSOM AND PLUNDER OF THAT CITY. REIGN 
 OF VALENTINE. ENTERPRISES AND DEATH OF EZIO. 
 END OF THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST. ODOACRES, KING 
 OF ITALY. 
 
 J.T was no misfortune for Etruria to be conquered by 
 the Romans. The latter nation, truly great both in 
 arms and in wisdom, united and identified with herself 
 not Etruria alone, but by degrees the whole of Italy, 
 and afterwards many of the conquered nations. The 
 Italian cities were the first to obtain the rights of 
 Roman citizenship, and the conquered partook of the 
 splendour and glory of their conquerors. This was the 
 wisest manner of preserving the subdued nations in fide- 
 lity and obedience; hence they became proud of the 
 name of Roman citizen, hoping to rival the most re- 
 spectable inhabitants of Rome, and felt interested in 
 the advantages and grandeur of that government : hence 
 too one of the causes of the rapid progress and solid 
 establishment of the Roman empire. The weak policy 
 of the Grecian republics, by preserving with jealous 
 vanity the genuine blood of their ancient families, and 
 disdaining to associate with foreigners, prevented them 
 from acquiring that vigour by which the Roman state 
 increased. Sparta and Athens remained in their, little- 
 ness, and after a short bright epoch, languidly declined. 
 Rome associated to her interests great men, born even
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 119 
 
 out of her bosom, who, finding no obstacle to their ar- 
 riving at the first ranks in the republic, and the com- 
 mand, either lent her important services, or made her 
 illustrious by the celebrity of their names. Among the 
 great men Rome has taken from Etruria, there is one 
 too illustrious to be passed over in oblivion by an 
 Etrurian. This is Cilnius Mecaenas, whose family graced 
 the city of Arretium *. Descended from royal blood, but 
 a private personage, he surpassed the celebrity of kings 
 his ancestors : and his name is added to the most illus- 
 trious of an illustrious nation. Augustus, Mecaenas, 
 Virgil, and Horace are mentioned almost always to- 
 gether, and mutually impart and receive greater lustre 
 from their union f. The name of Mecaenas, however 
 common to the protectors of letters and of sciences, is 
 very often badly applied. Mecsenas could protect, 
 because endowed with that taste and delicate feeling 
 which perceives its real beauties, he knew how to appre- 
 
 * All authors in verse and in prose make him descend from the 
 royal race of the ancient kings of Etruria, and particularly from 
 Cilnius Mecaenas, king of the Etrurians, and an Aretine who 
 reigned in Arretium 400 years before this his celebrated descendant. 
 (Dempst. Hetruria Regal.) The house of Cilnius is mentioned by 
 many writers as respectable in Arretium in the times of ancient 
 Etruria, as in those in which it was under the government of 
 Rome; T. Livius, lib. 10. " Hetruriam rebellare ab Aretinorum 
 motu orto nunciabatur ubi Cilnium genus prsepotens," &c., then 
 " Seditionibus Aretinorum compositis, et Cilnio genere cum plebe 
 in gratiam reductu." Silio Italico, Pun. lib. 7. 
 
 Ocius accitum captivo ex agminc poscit 
 Progeniem ritusque duels, dextrzeqne labores 
 Cilnius Arreti tyrrhacnis ortus in Oris 
 Clariuu noriien erat, sert laeva adduxerat bora 
 Ticiui juvenem ripis, &c- 
 
 f The greatest emperor, the most powerful of his contempo- 
 raries, did not disdain to treat with familiarity the son of a libertine, 
 and a native of the country of Mantua, viz., Horace, and Virgil.
 
 120 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 ciate learning : without such qualities, letters cannot be 
 usefully protected, .since reward, conferred upon in- 
 ferior productions, discourages more than a cold and 
 total indifference, whence the frequent profanation of 
 this name, and the few who resemble him. The greatest 
 sovereigns have never rewarded the literati with so 
 much generosity, nor have they ever honoured them as 
 he has done. He did not disdain to place himself fre- 
 quently with a few learned friends at the humble board 
 of Horace. Without Meca3nas, too, the great songster 
 of JEneas would probably have remained in obscurity and 
 misery*. Augustus held him always in high esteem, 
 
 Augustus often sat among them; Horace was blear-eyed, Virgil 
 asthmatic; whence Augustus on one occasion said, / jftnd myself 
 between tears and sighs. Neither the friendship of these great 
 men, or their poetical effusions, have thrown upon his character a 
 lustre which prevents our observing his cruelties, and his crooked 
 policy, since few are those who know his defects, and almost all 
 know the verses of those great poets ; so that Ariosto has said 
 with reason 
 
 Non fu si ginsto, e si benigno Augusto 
 
 Come la tuba di Virgilio suona ; 
 
 1 ,' avere avuto in poesia buon gusto 
 
 La proscrizione iniqua gli perdona. 
 
 Augustus, like Mecsenas, was also a writer endowed with an ex- 
 cellent genius for criticism, and capable of discerning the defects 
 of his own works : he wrote a tragedy called Ajax, with which he 
 was not contented, and therefore condemned it to oblivion. Being 
 asked by his friends the reason, he replied, " I have swallowed it." 
 
 * Paneg. in Pisonem. 
 
 Ipse per Ansonias jEneia carmine gentes, 
 
 Qui canit, ingenti qui nomine pulsat Olympnm, 
 
 Meoniumque senem Romano provocat ore, 
 
 Forsitan illius nemoris latuisset in umbra 
 
 Quod canit, ct sterili tantum cantassel avcna 
 
 Ignotns populu, si Mecenate careret. Martial. Epigr. lib. 8. Ep. 56. 
 Jngera perdidcrat, kc.See Probus, in vita Virgilii, tfc. 
 In the time that Augustus, to restore his health, weakened by
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 121 
 
 and with many other respectable personages, often in- 
 terposed between him and Antony, appeasing the rising 
 jealousies of the two ambitious rivals *. In those diffi- 
 cult times of civil war, Augustus conferred upon Me- 
 caenas the government of Rome and Italy, and he was 
 always a faithful and useful servant to that emperor f. 
 Amongst all his courtiers, Meca3nas appears to have 
 been the only one who ventured boldly to tell him the 
 truth ; and Augustus too is worthy of high praise for 
 having suffered with patience the severe and sometimes 
 harsh reprehensions of his friend J. After his death, 
 he perceived with sorrow how much he had lost, when, 
 repentant of having propagated the shame of his house 
 in the heat of passion, by too solemn a punishment 
 of Julia, he asserted that if Mecaenas had been alive, 
 that honest man would have boldly told him a truth 
 which no other man ventured to do . If it be true, 
 
 the fatigues of body and mind in the last war with Antony, was 
 breathing the wholesome air of Atella in Campania, Virgil, brought 
 there by Mecaenas, read to him in four days, his Georgics ; and 
 when the weakness of Virgil did not allow him to continue reading, 
 Mecsenas himself followed it. See Vita Virgil, by an anonymous 
 author, attributed to Donatus. 
 
 * Appianus. Hor. Sat. 5. lib. 1. 
 
 Hue venturus erat Mecaenas optimus, atque 
 Coccejus missi magui de rebus uterque 
 Legati, avcrsos soliti componerc aniicos. 
 
 t Tacito. Lib. 6. Annal. 
 
 J Augustus sitting at the tribunal, Mecaenas being present, the 
 latter perceived that Augustus, in a moment of irritation, was 
 about to condemn many persons to death ; when, not able to pene- 
 trate through the crowd that surrounded him, he wrote the words 
 Surge vero tandem, carnifex, and threw the writing into the bosom 
 of Augustus, who having read it, rose without condemning any 
 one. Dion, lib. 50. Zonnaras Ann. torn. 2. Cedrenus in histor. 
 
 ^ Senec. lib. 6. de Benefic.
 
 122 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 that, contrary to the opinion of Agrippa, he advised 
 Augustus not to leave the empire, he saw, as a great 
 politician, the impossibility that Rome should return to 
 a republic; the abdication of Augustus might first 
 awaken civil wars, and then give place to a worse suc- 
 cession*. He not only encouraged literary men, but 
 entered also the list of writers both in verse and in 
 prose; his dialogues spoken of by an ancient gram- 
 marian f, his Prometheus praised by Seneca J, make 
 him known to us as an elegant and judicious writer. 
 
 Seneca has preserved a verse, which shews us how 
 much his philosophic spirit was free from those prejudices 
 by which superstition or pride attach so much impor- 
 tance to the tomb . These great qualities may induce 
 us to excuse some small blots in his character. He was 
 accounted effeminate, and is said to have given a name 
 little honourable to the excessively delicate, who were 
 subsequently called Mecaenates ||. But this has va- 
 nished, and the name of Mecagnas has remained to 
 denote alone the protector of literature. His style was 
 accused too of the same softness and fastidiousness he 
 possessed in his person, but as his works have never 
 reached us, we can form no opinion of them. Horace 
 and Virgil were not the only learned friends of Me- 
 
 * Dion. Xiphilin, &c. In the tragedy of Cinna, by P. Corneillc, 
 Cinna and Maximus, who are made by the poet to represent the 
 parts of Meceenas and Agrippa, treat before Augustus of the 
 question of abdication or retention of the empire with a profound- 
 ness and ingenuity worthy of the greatest author. 
 
 t Sosipater Charisius. 
 
 t Senec. Epis. 19. 
 
 \ Nee tumulum euro, sepelit natura relictos. Senec. Epist. 93. 
 
 || Juven. Sat. 12. 
 
 l'i .<( ipitai r volens, utiam pulchcrrime, vcstem 
 Purpmcam tcnerb ijuoquc Moernatibn- aptam.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 123 
 
 caenas : Propertius *, Lucius Varus t> a writer of trage- 
 dies spoken highly of by Quintilian J, and Domitius 
 Marsus, increased the number; nor was there any 
 eminent writer in Rome, whose friendship Mecaenas 
 did not make it his glory to seek ||. As in other things, 
 he was delicate too in his table, and amongst the exqui- 
 siteness of his viands there were some truly singular^". 
 He w ? as very unhappy during the last years of his life; 
 a slow fever consumed him by degrees, which was ac- 
 companied by a terrible symptom, viz., the total absence 
 of sleep, the only comfort in disease either of body or 
 mind : neither the artificial murmur of waters nor music 
 were able to lull him to rest**; and if the account is 
 not exaggerated, he lived three years in this wretched 
 state tt- He is said, however, to have been so much 
 attached to life, that, miserable as it was, he did not 
 like to lose it, although wasting by the most cruel tor- 
 ments JJ. He died after languishing three years, and 
 
 * Lib. 2. Eleg. 6. et alibi. t Paneg. in Pisonem. 
 
 J Lib. 10. cap. 1. Martial, lib. 7. Ep. 4. 
 
 || To this list is only wanting the name of Tibullus, who probably 
 chose to live far from the tumultuous vortex of courts, in tranquil 
 poverty, as we learn from his verses. Eleg. 1. lib. 1. 
 Divitias alias, &c. 
 
 Me mea paupertas vita traducat inerti, 
 Dum meus exiguo luceat igue focus. 
 
 1F Among the singular dishes may be reckoned the flesh of 
 young asses. Plin. lib. 8. cap. 43. " Pullos asinarum Mecsenas 
 instituit multum eo tempore praelatos onagris." Wild asses were 
 in use, as a most dainty food, at the tables of the Persian kings. 
 Teophilac. Simocata, lib. 4. cap. 2. Also at the present day wild 
 asses are used for the table of the king of Persia. Adam. Ol- 
 carius. Itiner. Pers. p. 2. Antonio Pratense, counsellor of France, 
 used the same food. Joan. Brune.rix de re cibaria. 
 
 ** Senec. lib. de provid. cap. 3. 
 
 tt Plin. lib, 7. cap, 51. tt Senec. Epist. 101.
 
 124 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 with his last words recommended to Augustus his friend 
 Horace*, who, desiring not to survive Mecaenas, 
 Heaven in great measure listened to his wishes ; he did 
 not outlive him more than three months t, and his re- 
 mains were carried upon the Esquiline Hill, to repose by 
 the side of those of his friend J. The defects of Me- 
 caenas are but little blemishes, like the light stains in a 
 fine picture, which, easily removed, the beautiful co- 
 louring remains : time has cancelled the former, and his 
 name has been handed down as immortal . 
 
 Tuscany, now become a part of the Roman empire, 
 was subjected to the vicissitudes of this great body. 
 An inconsiderable portion of the immense whole, she 
 is for a time hardly noticed in history, and begins to 
 emerge from obscurity when the greater part of the 
 Italian cities became republics, that is, after the middle 
 of the twelfth century. Through this space of time 
 great revolutions took place. From the ruin of the 
 Roman empire, a series of the greatest misfortunes 
 began throughout Italy under the government of the 
 barbarians, from which she never recovered but with 
 the extinction of their power. Although the history on 
 which we are employed, does not refer to the time when 
 Etruria, miserable and oppressed, as all the other 
 provinces of Italy, is only rarely mentioned, and for the 
 most part but for some misfortune, there are never- 
 theless in these eleven centuries some events which 
 preceded its more regular government, too important to 
 be omitted. Of these therefore we shall exhibit a short 
 
 * Suet, in vita Horatii, " Horatii Flacci, ut mei mcmor esto." 
 t Dion. lib. 50. 
 J Suet, in Horat. vita. 
 
 A Tuscan may hope for pardon on account of this di- 
 gression.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 125 
 
 picture before we come to her particular history : such 
 as the ruin of the empire of the west, the kingdom of 
 the Goths, its destruction, the establishment of the 
 Longobardi, the ruin again of these, and the rise of the 
 new empire of the west under Charles the Great, which, 
 however, did not bring along with it a greater degree 
 of tranquillity to this distracted country. 
 
 The civil convulsions over, by which republics are 
 usually extinguished, and the sovereignty established, 
 a considerable interval ensued in which the numerous 
 population of that vast dominion lived in perfect tran- 
 quillity. An illustrious modern author* has asserted, 
 with much probability, that if we were to seek in the 
 annals of the human race for an epoch, when the largest 
 portion of mankind lived the most happily f, it would 
 be necessary to refer to the early times of the Roman 
 empire, shortly after its establishment. Its confines 
 were defended by legions, and by the terror of the 
 Roman arms, and consequently respected by the barba- 
 rians : these legions, kept in awe by the wisdom of the go- 
 vernment, had not yet discovered the secret of being arbi- 
 ters of the empire; the culture of the mind, and the social 
 arts, had been communicated by the conquerors to the 
 conquered ; the laws were wise : and although the over- 
 bearing will of the governors might violate them, it 
 could not take place too often, nor could any too ma- 
 nifest injustice be indulged, as in the east; for a po- 
 lished nation feels more acutely, and more readily finds 
 the means of making its grievances known to the throne. 
 For nearly a century the empire was governed by a 
 succession of wise and virtuous emperors, and Nerva, 
 
 * Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall, &c. 
 t The Roman Empire did not contain less than 120,000,000 of 
 inhabitants.
 
 126 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 Trajan, Adrian, and the two Antonines are still men- 
 tioned amongst the greatest benefactors of the human 
 race. Even when the government was in the hands of 
 a Tiberius, a Caligula, a Nero, the mass of Roman 
 subjects enjoyed the advantages of wise laws ; and the 
 cruelty and folly of these monsters extended only to 
 some individuals, who by their birth and offices enjoyed 
 the too dangerous honour of approaching too near their 
 master. But these times of calm and of happiness in- 
 troduced insensibly into the empire the seeds of its ruin, 
 which were unobservedly but gradually growing ripe. 
 The barbarous nations, superior to the Romans in phy- 
 sical force, and equal to them in courage, had been 
 subjugated by the superiority of military art, which 
 being relaxed amongst the Romans, whilst it was com- 
 ing to perfection with the barbarians, the effeminacy of 
 the former made them regard the condition of arms as 
 laborious, which was easily conceded to foreigners 
 whom the emperors, hoping rather for support from 
 them than from the natives, very willingly enlisted in 
 their legions. These dangerous auxiliaries made them- 
 selves acquainted with all the finesse of Roman tactics, 
 and communicated it to their countrymen : whilst the 
 
 / 
 
 latter were training themselves more and more to the 
 art of war, the former were becoming enervated, so 
 much so that, in the times of the emperor Gratian, they 
 laid aside even their iron armour as an unnecessary 
 burden*. The dangerous secret of the Roman weak- 
 ness being discovered, it was no longer difficult for these 
 nations, invited by the softness of the climate, by riches 
 and their attendants, to attack the Roman empire with 
 success ; nevertheless an empire so powerful, and which 
 
 * Vegetius, de Re Milit.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 127 
 
 had taken such deep roots, resisted, as it were, with its 
 sluggard power, for a considerable time. The ancient 
 Latin valour, roused by misfortunes, awakened again at 
 times in the breasts of the emperors and of the brave 
 leaders, and in the campaigns of Italy, of France, and 
 of Greece, innumerable hosts of barbarians often re- 
 mained victims of their mad ferocity. The Roman 
 empire did not fall until after many repeated attacks, 
 and contended for ages, even in its weakness, against 
 multiplied enemies. One of these events is worthy of 
 being mentioned in the History of Tuscany as very 
 glorious for the city of Florence. The sons of Theo- 
 dosius had divided the empire : Honorius governed that 
 of the west, a prince weak in character as in temper, 
 without vice and without virtue. The west, therefore, 
 was governed in his name by Stilicho, who may be 
 reckoned one of the last Roman generals : full of am- 
 bition, of courage, and perhaps the only support 
 of the now falling empire, he justified the choice of 
 Theodosius by his actions, who, giving him in marriage 
 his adopted daughter Serena, and thus drawirfg him near 
 the throne, had interested him in its defence, the ties of 
 which were moreover increased by the union of the 
 daughter of Stilicho with the Emperor himself. This 
 hero had already sufficiently distinguished himself against 
 the Goths, led on by Alaric, whom he had first reduced 
 to extremities in Greece and in the woods of Arcadia *, 
 and afterwards repeatedly defeated in Italy in the bloody 
 battles of Pollentia and Veronaf. After a short repose, 
 
 * Zosimus, lib. 5. Claud, de Bello Getico. 
 
 f " Sigou. de Regno Italiae. Murat. Ann. D' Ital." " Claud, de 
 bello Getico : the remains of Pollentia are seen twenty-five miles 
 S. C. of Turin." Cluver. Ital. Antiq.
 
 128 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 Italy was inundated by an immense horde of barbarians, 
 
 who, moving from the northern parts of Germany, came 
 
 in search either of an establishment, or of plun- 
 
 chrirto! der. (This event, which particularly interests 
 
 400. V , . J . , 
 
 Florence, is, as it were, a luminous spark thrown 
 out by that noble city amidst so much darkness, and a 
 prelude of her future glory.) This voluntary army was 
 composed of various nations; Vandals, Swedes, Alans, 
 &c., united under the command of Radagasius. Such 
 was the confusion of the empire, the frontiers having 
 been left unprotected, that this ponderous host penetrated 
 without obstacle into the heart of Italy. Many cities 
 were sacked and destroyed ; and whilst Rome and her 
 senate were trembling, Honorius shut himself up in Ra- 
 venna, rendered invincible by the marshes with which it 
 was at that time surrounded : the city of Florence alone 
 resisted the hostile rage with heroic constancy, and con- 
 sumed the enemy's force in a lingering siege. Reduced 
 to the last extremities, it was succoured by Stilicho, at 
 the head of the imperial army. The events, however, are 
 not distinctly related *. The army of the barbarians, 
 commanded not by Radagasius alone, but by two other 
 chiefs, did not form a body animated by one single de- 
 sire, and was more strong in number than in the valour 
 of its combatants : a part alone of them carried on the 
 siege of Florence. Stilicho, who xvas master of the coun- 
 try and perfectly well acquainted with its local situation, 
 appears to have blocked up every passage by which pro- 
 visions could be carried to the camp of Radagasius, and 
 in this manner converted the besiegers into the besiegedf. 
 
 * Oros. et Augus. 
 
 f It is seen that this was his manner of making war ; thus he 
 had shut up the Goths in Greece upon mount Pholoe, near the
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 129 
 
 The famished barbarians made the most furious assaults 
 upon the besieged city, which led to a magnanimous re- 
 sistance, until the besiegers, compelled by hunger, sur- 
 rendered at discretion. Radagasius was killed ; the 
 greater part of the conquered who had escaped famine 
 and the sword, were sold as slaves ; and the heroic defence 
 of the Florentines saved both Rome and Italy. A con- 
 siderable part of this army was scattered throughout Italy, 
 constituting a force sufficient to overwhelm it; but, terri- 
 fied at the fate of their companions, they effected a retreat, 
 which the prudent Stilicho did not think proper to pre- 
 vent. But already the fatal secret of Roman weak- 
 ness was too well known ; a weakness, which conti- 
 nued increasing, as the same causes, operating without 
 interruption, became still greater and more sensible. 
 The barbarians, who had once tasted the delights and 
 the treasures of Italy, although sometimes repulsed, re- 
 turned with greater alacrity, especially when the imperial 
 armies were without conductors, who, heirs to the Latin 
 valour, could compensate the weakness of the troops by 
 their ability. Thus it was when Stilicho, ruined by the 
 cabals of the court of Honorius, and afterwards slain, 
 Italy and Rome had no defender; the fierce Alaric 
 
 river Peneus, who by negligence escaped from him, and thus again 
 he straitened Alaricupon the mountains of Verona, when, fearful per- 
 haps of his valour, and animated by desperation, he suffered him to 
 escape, by concluding a truce. From the words of Orosius we may 
 conjecture that the principal body of the enemy's army was upon 
 mount Fiesole : " In arido et aspero montisjugo." " In unum ac 
 parvum verticem." The situation of this mountain, surrounded by 
 others still higher, and with Florence encompassed by a series 
 of little hills, the intervalleys of which, and the entrances of the 
 higher mountains, might be easily shut, rendered more easy such 
 an. operation. Zosim. lib. 5. Marcell. et Prosper. 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 HISTORY 4>F TUSCANY. 
 
 returned*, and no longer kept in awe by that 
 C 4w"' nero > arrived at the walls of the city of Rome, 
 then very populous, but by far too rich, and ener- 
 vated by luxury. In the times of her poverty and 
 virtue, with a far less population, she had intre- 
 pidly viewed her walls surrounded by the Gauls and 
 Carthaginians, and knew how to triumph over them by 
 her heroic constancy ; but those times were now no more, 
 and a city, containing at least one million of inhabitants, 
 ransomed herself from the power of the Goths with all 
 the gold, silver and precious spoils the barbarians 
 chose to demand f. The avidity of the latter 
 having been rather increased than satiated by these con- 
 cessions, they returned shortly afterwards with begging 
 pretexts to Rome, sacked the city if], and exposed her to 
 all the horrors which military licentiousness thought pro- 
 per to inflict. Thus eleven ages after its founda- 
 tion, this superb city, which had ruled over the finest 
 portion of the globe, remained a prey to the Goths, and 
 belied the pompous soothsayers, pagan prophets and poets, 
 who had promised her an immortal power. In the mean- 
 time Honorius, whom court intrigues had deprived of 
 the only man calculated to arrest the common ruin, in- 
 capable of witnessing the wrongs of his enemies, insensible 
 to the public evils, and deprived almost of his kingdom, 
 remained shut up in the walls of Ravenna, less unhappy, 
 indeed, because he owed his indifference to so many mis- 
 fortunes more to his own imbecility, than to firmness of 
 mind. After the death of Alaric, the hostile torrent 
 
 * Zosim. lib. 5. 
 
 t It is singular that among the other demands of the Goths war. 
 one for 3,000 pounds of pepper. 
 J Procop. lib. 1.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 131 
 
 finally abandoned Italy, and the empire returned, from 
 \vant of opposition, into the hands of its imbecile Em- 
 peror. 
 
 The empire of the west continued to maintain itself by 
 the valour of some illustrious captain, who from time to 
 time appeared to rise, as it were, from the ashes of Ita- 
 lian magnanimity ; but it is a painful and at the same 
 time an instructive spectacle, to see how often princes 
 sacrifice the safety of their kingdoms to their own 
 jealousy or that of their flatterers. Stilicho, who 
 had already saved the empire, and might still have pre- 
 vented its downfall, fell a victim to the cabals of court. 
 Another illustrious warrior, the celebrated Aetius, de- 
 fended too the empire of the west by his talents and 
 courage, under an emperor weak as Honorius, and met 
 with the same recompense. The enterprises of Attila, 
 whose name still resounds with horror in the ears of 
 Christians, are well known*. Upon the invasion of the 
 Huns, commanded by him, the timid Valentinian prepared 
 to fly from Italy. The empire was then unprovided with 
 defenders, when Aetius was enabled to collect a force 
 capable of opposing the Huns, by associating with the 
 interests of the empire even those of the Goths, who 
 had established themselves in Languedoc. So numerous 
 
 * This ferocious barbarian loved praise, but despised exaggera- 
 tion. The poet Marullus presented to him in Padua a poem which 
 he did not understand. When he understood from the interpreters 
 that he was therein made to descend from the gods, and that he 
 himself was called a god, he grew angry to such a degree as to 
 order both the poem and its author to be thrown into the fire : he 
 subsequently pardoned him, thinking that such severity might 
 deter other writers from chanting his praises. CallimachusExper. 
 in Vita Attilae. Compare the good sense of the king of the Huns 
 witli the vanity of Alexander the Great, who wished to be thought 
 a son of Jupiter, and considered a god. 
 
 K 2
 
 132 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 an army had perhaps never invaded the Roman provinces; 
 perhaps never was so great a battle fought as that in 
 Champagne, near the plains of Chalons, which lasted 
 two days *. The Huns were obliged to retreat, and the 
 exaggeration that we read of 300,000 slain, although it 
 cannot be admitted as probable, may serve at least to 
 confirm a horrible slaughter. Nevertheless the saviour 
 of the empire, Aetius, met with the fate of Stilicho, and 
 it being dangerous to order him to be arrested, as he was 
 the idol of the troops, the ungrateful and imprudent Va- 
 lentinian became himself his executioner, and in a moment 
 when Aetius was conversing with him, suddenly drew 
 out a dagger, and plunged it into his heart. In his train 
 of courtiers, however, there was some one free enough to 
 tell him, that by this action he had cut off his right 
 hand with his left. The troops, who adored Aetius, did 
 not hesitate to mutiny and massacre the em- 
 
 Anno 
 
 chruti. peror. 
 
 476. 
 
 But the final ruin of the empire of the west 
 was reserved to Odoacert. Born in the north, but 
 educated in Italy, he held one of the first posts among 
 those mercenary strangers which the empire paid for its 
 ruin. At the head of those soldiers who from defenders 
 shortly became enemies, he destroyed the remains of the 
 empire of the west, and took the title of king of Italy. 
 The last of the degenerate emperors was Romulus Au- 
 gustus, who by a whimsical accident united two illustri- 
 ous names, viz., that of the founder of Rome, and the 
 founder of the empire, and who was called, by way of 
 ridicule, MomyllusAugustulus. He was so much despised, 
 that Odoacer did not think it dangerous to leave him 
 
 * Joonandes de Rebus Geticis. cap. 36. 41. 
 f Theoph. Cas. in Chronic.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 135 
 
 his life; the deposed emperor was banished to the de- 
 lightful hill of Misenus, first a modest villa of Marius, 
 then a sumptuous one of Lucullus, afterwards of the 
 emperors, where also Tiberius died ; and which, passing 
 through various vicissitudes, after having been the abode 
 of this degraded emperor, became subsequently a sanc- 
 tuary and fortress, and is now a naked hill, which, from 
 the amenity of its site, bears testimony to the elegance 
 and taste of the ancient Romans. 
 
 It has become the fashion, particularly with the French 
 writers, to consider the Roman government as tyrannical 
 and oppressive toward other nations, because its only 
 object being the art of war, it ruled over so large a part 
 of the world by force of arms ; but a wise observer, who 
 takes into his consideration the revolutions of so many 
 ages, will easily absolve this generous people from such 
 an accusation. The Romans not only conquered, but 
 civilized the conquered nations ; besides which, the state 
 of war, wherein the history of past events shows us the 
 fate of nations, places before our eyes the motives which 
 prompted the Romans to extend their conquests. Scarcely 
 was their superiority in arms lost, when we see Rome 
 and Italy a prey to the first ferocious occupants, and 
 exposed to those calamities which the valour of her sons 
 had for so many ages kept remote from her. Heavy as 
 those hitherto suffered had proved, from this moment 
 a series of the most sorrowful events befel the unhappy 
 Italians. Odoacer, first king of Italy, is represented to 
 us as wise, moderate and merciful, respecting the reli- 
 gious rites of the inhabitants, in which he made no inno- 
 vation. In spite of this character, however, the fate of 
 the conquered is always melancholy : a third of the fer- 
 tile plains of Italy was ceded to the conquerors *, whose 
 
 * Procop. lib. 1.
 
 134 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 insolence she could not always control, and who thought 
 they made a present of what they did not take away. 
 Sciences and letters extinguished, (except the most vul- 
 gar arts, indispensable even to barbarians,) every thing 
 that is the child of elegance and taste, and which em- 
 ployed and nourished so many people, was entirely lost ; 
 the fields became deserted, and consequently unproduc- 
 tive. 
 
 The opulence of the noble Romans, who, until the 
 plunder of Rome had held immense possessions in Africa 
 and in Asia, and which gave food and employment to 
 the idle inhabitants of the city, had vanished. Africa, 
 once the nurse of Italy, was separated from the Empire 
 of the West ; the little that its badly cultivated soil pro- 
 duced was for the greater part given to the conquerors, 
 whence famine and desolation depopulated this once 
 happy country.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ENTERPRISES OF THEODORIC, KING OF THE GOTHS. HIS 
 GOVERNMENT. CASSIODORIUS, BOETHIUS, AND AMALA- 
 SONTHA. BELISARIUS. NARSES. END OF THE KING- 
 DOM OF THE GOTHS. REIGN OF THE LONGOBARDS. 
 
 ALBOIN. ROSAMOND. GUNDEBERG, WIFE OF RO- 
 
 TARI. DESIDERIUS. DUKE OF TUSCANY, LAST KING OF 
 THE LONGOBARDS. CODE OF THE LONGOBARDS. BE- 
 GINNING OF THE POWER OF THE POPES. CHARLES THE 
 GREAT. REIGN OF THE FRANKS. LONGOBARD CODE 
 CORRECTED. 
 
 .TOR seventeen years Odoacer enjoyed the fruits of 
 his victory, after which he was obliged to yield 
 chHni Italy to a more powerful conqueror. Theodoric, 
 king of the Goths, marched from Pannonia, Mesia 
 and Illyricum, with an immense population, to wrest 
 the conquest of Italy from his hands, and his fate was 
 decided in two battles, one in Friuli, the second under 
 Verona*. Odoacer, beaten in both, sought shelter in 
 Rome, but found that the unfortunate have few friends, 
 and the gates shut in his face ; he finally took refuge in 
 Ravenna, where, after sustaining a long siege, he gave 
 himself up to Theodoric, trusting to magnificent pro- 
 mises, but was afterwards put to death under pretext of a 
 conspiracy. It was not indeed easy to prove the latter, 
 but a conqueror is never in the wrong. Theodoric, re- 
 maining king of Italy, governed it with much wisdom : to 
 military talents he united the arts of peace and of 
 government, and knowing how necessary it was to flatter 
 
 * Vide Muratori Annali d'ltalia : some make mention of a third 
 action.
 
 136 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 the people he governed, adopted Italian manners and 
 even the dress, undertook to regulate the confused state 
 of Italy, making no innovation in the religious worship : 
 although a pagan, he respected the catholics to such a 
 degree that he even made presents to the Vatican 
 temple, in order to conciliate their general love*; pro- 
 moted commerce by wise regulations as far as possible, 
 and gave new life to agriculture. The energy of his cha- 
 racter, respected even by his barbarous followers, served 
 to protect the conquered by the wise laws he promul- 
 gated, and by vigour in their execution ; he suffered the 
 subjugated nations to live by their own laws, and under 
 him the constitution of the Roman government was pre- 
 served. The prohibition of duelling does honour to his 
 good sense: in a letter of Cassiodorius, written in the name 
 of the king, expressions are made use of which might put 
 the defenders of this modern gallant punctilio to the 
 blush. He generously ransomed a great number of Ita- 
 lians made prisoners in an excursion of the Burgundians, 
 and was certainly one of the most powerful of monarchs, 
 for his dominion was so amply extended beyond Italy, 
 that this to him indeed delightful province was the lesser 
 part of his empire f- Although so ignorant of letters 
 that he could not write his name^:, he highly valued those 
 
 * If in the last days of his life he disturbed the catholics, the 
 imprudent Greek Emperor was the cause of it, by persecuting the 
 pagans : probably the suspicion that there was a secret conspiracy 
 between his catholic subjects and those of the East may have con- 
 tributed to such a result. 
 
 t Southern France, the greater part of Spain, Dalmatia, Pan- 
 nonia, a part of Hungary, Swabia, the two Rezii, and consequently 
 the modern country of Tyrol, were subject to him. 
 
 J To sign his name he used a plate of gold, in which it was 
 cut in large loiters ; and by passing his pen through the empty 
 spaces of the plate, he formed the signature.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 137 
 
 who possessed them, and was desirous of being sur- 
 rounded by men of talent ; of which the esteem he had 
 for Cassiodorius, the most learned man of his age, whom 
 he chose for his secretary, the pleasure he took in his 
 company, by making him converse upon all the scientific 
 knowledge known at that time, and raising him to the 
 most distinguished offices, are sufficient proofs. Even 
 the unfortunate Severinus Boethius, a celebrated philoso- 
 pher and elegant writer, enjoyed, for a long time, the 
 favour of Theodoric, and was raised to the first honours; 
 he incurred afterwards disgrace, and gave perhaps motive 
 to the calumny of others by his bold and imprudent dis- 
 courses*. He was shut up for a long time in a mise- 
 rable prison in Pavia, and was afterwards cruelly put to 
 death. His bookf, written amidst tribulations and the 
 horrors of a prison, to seek a balsam for his wounds from 
 that philosophy which promises more than it maintains, 
 excites the admiration of all who consider the times in 
 which it was penned, wherein a lively and elegant ima- 
 gination has covered stoic maxims with poetic colouring, 
 nor does this work lose any thing by the side of the 
 most elaborate writings of Seneca ; and if it exceeds in 
 magic the style of the father of Roman eloquence, it may 
 be put in comparison with his philosophical writings. 
 Boethius had been educated in the schools of Athens, 
 where the opinions of the philosophers of the golden 
 times of Greece were still taught. 
 
 Theodoric reigned in Italy thirty-three years, 
 and left an only daughter, the celebrated and un- 
 fortunate Amalasontha. Although in this short view it is 
 not our design to occupy ourselves with particular events, 
 
 * Vales. Frag- 
 
 t De Consolat. Philosophic.
 
 138 HISTORY OF TUSCAN!. 
 
 nevertheless the adventures of the beautiful daughter of 
 so great a sovereign merit commemoration. She was 
 equally endowed with the graces of body and mind ; her 
 father caused her to be well instructed, and the learned 
 Cassiodorius gave himself much care to adorn her mind ; 
 she was early married to Eutaricus, destined to the 
 throne; but dying before Theodoric, the son of Amala- 
 sontha, Atalaric, who, at that time, was not more than 
 eight or ten years of age, was declared his successor. 
 The mother his tutoress, superintended the education of 
 her son. The Goths, however, by despising sciences and 
 letters, and thinking them unworthy of a generous mind, 
 obliged the mother to discharge the masters she em- 
 ployed, and to give the king young Goths his cotempo- 
 raries for companions; when, throwing all restraint aside, 
 he abandoned himself to wine and other excesses, of 
 which he died a victim, at the very early age of sixteen 
 years. Amalasontha, by the laws of the Longobards, 
 was excluded from the kingdom ; her party, however, 
 caused Theodatus, chosen by her for a husband, to be 
 elected king, who, ignorant altogether of the arts of 
 government and of war, occupied himself only with the 
 rude literature of those times. Perhaps this merit de- 
 termined the vanity and caprice of Amalasontha; and the 
 result was such as fully demonstrated that he could not 
 have made a worse choice. The ungrateful Theodatus, 
 soon wearied with the commanding tone of counsel used by 
 his benefactress, or perhaps stimulated by some ambitious 
 confidant, confined her in one of the small islands of the 
 lake of Bolsena, where she was afterwards strangled, in 
 
 O ' 
 
 the flower of her youth and beauty *. The glory of the 
 kingdom of the Goths was extinguished with their great 
 
 * Jornand. de rebus Geticis, cap. 59.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 139 
 
 kingTheodoric: the weak Theodatus, frightened at the 
 threats of the Emperor Justinian, who pretended to the 
 distant possessions of Italy as part of the empire, pro- 
 mised to abdicate the throne ; but not doing so, nor 
 daring to put himself at the head of the troops which 
 were to march to meet the army commanded by Belisa- 
 rius, confided the command to Vitiges, who, being pro- 
 claimed sovereign by the Goths, who detested a weak 
 king, the vile Theodatus was put to death*. 
 
 The Emperors of the East were regarded as the na- 
 tural heirs to the empire of the West, and the kingdom 
 of the Goths was therefore in their eyes an usurpation. 
 Those who preceded Justinian had neither talents or 
 power to attempt the conquest. He it was who con- 
 ceived the project and confided the execution of it to the 
 man most capable to the great Belisarius. This was 
 one of those men whom nature rarely forms ; not infe- 
 rior in military talents to the greatest generals of ancient 
 Rome ; more valuable, because deficient in courageous 
 troops, and in the means of subsisting his own, he was 
 obliged to contend with difficulties unknown to ancient 
 generals ; equally versed in the arts of war, as in those 
 of peace, deliberate in counsel, fervid and intrepid in 
 action, fitted to conquer by arms, and to conciliate the 
 minds of the conquered, he was the best adapted to ex- 
 ecute the projects of Justinian. Procopius, the secre- 
 tary of this hero, and an ocular witness, has described his 
 enterprises ; and if sometimes we might wish to think 
 him partial, he has only at most employed a colouring 
 more seducing in painting the great events, the foundation 
 of which, being well known, is attested by other writers. 
 Belisarius had already signalized himself against the 
 
 * Procop. de Bello Getic. lib. 1. Cassiodor. epist. 32. lib. 10, &c.
 
 140 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 Persians, and put an end to a difficult war against the 
 Vandals; Africa had been regained, and their king 
 Gelirner, led prisoner to Constantinople, had deco- 
 rated his triumph. Justinian sent him into Italy 
 \vith an army, which may appear unequal to such 
 an undertaking, as it did not exceed 8000 men between 
 horse and cavalry ; but the valour and wisdom of the 
 captain supplied the deficiency in the number of the 
 troops. Having conquered Sicily and the kingdom of 
 Naples, partly by force, partly by stratagem, he marched 
 to Rome, which city, looking upon the Greeks as the 
 liberators of Italy, opened her gates to him without delay. 
 The Goths, in order to stop this flame, which was 
 threatening their kingdom with destruction, assembled an 
 army of 150,000 combatants, and advanced towards 
 Rome*. Belisarius not having sufficient force to keep 
 the field, shut himself up in Rome, which was soon be- 
 sieged. The siege lasted for nearly a year ; in which 
 the obstinate fury of the Goths on one side, and the 
 firmness and valour of Belisarius on the other, gave rise 
 to the most illustrious actions. Neither hunger nor con- 
 tagious disease, neither the dismay of the Romans, nor 
 treason, could conquer this hero. Upon the walls of 
 Rome this small body sustained attacks, which both 
 from their fury and continuance, for the number of 
 killed, and for their consequences, may be compared to 
 great battles f *, and the army of the Goths, continually 
 
 * For the events of this war, see Procop. lib. 1. &c. Journandes 
 de Rebus Geticis. Murat. Annal. d'ltal., &c. 
 
 t In an assault given to the structure of Adrian (sepulchre of 
 Adrian) which still preserved its ornaments, the statues, columns, 
 and every thing that presented itself to the combatants, were 
 thrown upon the barbarians. The sleeping faun, in the palace 
 Barberini, was found in an excavation of the ditches of that castle,
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 141 
 
 repulsed, diminished nearly one half by the swords of 
 the besieged, and by disease, was obliged finally to 
 abandon the enterprise. This defence gave a decided 
 superiority to the imperial arms. The Goths were dis- 
 mayed, in part dispersed, and the remnant of their army 
 proved unable to oppose the victorious Grecians, who re- 
 ceiving reinforcements, attacked various towns of Italy. 
 Few had the courage to resist, and among these Fiesole, 
 which was speedily conquered. Belisarius afterwards 
 passed on to Ravenna, where the king of the Goths was 
 shut up: Vitiges was one of the bravest of his nation, 
 and, although elected by the free consent of a people 
 who esteemed only military valour, and chosen too in 
 times of danger, he nevertheless proved inferior to Be- 
 lisarius. Vitiges was besieged in Ravenna, as Belisarius 
 had been in Rome ; the former city, however, was es- 
 teemed stronger than the latter : the number of the be- 
 sieged at least equalled that of the besiegers, but we are 
 not acquainted with any of those traits, which in the 
 siege of Rome so much distinguished Grecian valour. 
 Ravenna was finally obliged to capitulate, and the king 
 of the Goths remained the prisoner of Belisarius. Little 
 was wanting to the total conquest of Italy, when the sus- 
 picious Justinian recalled Belisarius upon the pretext of 
 a Persian war. It is true that he had disobeyed him in 
 refusing to accept an ignominious treaty concluded by 
 him with the Goths ; he had also been tempted with the 
 offer of the crown of Italy; but his ready obedience, the 
 Gothic spoils he brought with him, and the king Vitiges 
 himself, were his best defence. Upon the departure of 
 Belisarius, the weak remains of the Gothic kingdom 
 
 and was probably thrown there on this occasion. Angelius Bar 
 gseus de edific. Urbis Rorase eversoribus. Thesau apud Grae. v. 4,
 
 142 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 took fresh courage ; Ilildibald was elected a king, who 
 was shortly put to death*; then Erraricus, little worthy 
 of heing mentioned, and finally Totila, who by 
 his counsel and arms regained the greater part of 
 Italy. In vain was Belisarius sent back without troops, 
 without money or provisions: his name alone, if it 
 could not free Rome from the siege of Totila, at least 
 sustained the miserable remains of the Grecian force ; 
 and if we estimate the difficulties with which he found 
 himself surrounded, and the efforts of genius and valour by 
 which he was able to surmount them, he will not appear 
 of less consequence in this little fortunate campaign of 
 Italy, than in his most splendid victories j~. Recalled to 
 Constantinople, he served a court faithfully for the rest of 
 his life, where all merit was eclipsed by favour. He was 
 only referred to in extreme danger, which post, he was 
 neglected ; even in his last days, whilst an invasion of the 
 Bulgarians and Sclavonians threatened the city of Con- 
 stantinople, the trembling Emperor, his weak courtiers, 
 and the whole people, turned their eyes to the neglected 
 veteran, who, forgetful of past injuries, saved an un- 
 grateful court by his intrepidity J. Who would have 
 imagined that after this last and signal service, they 
 would have had the temerity to confound his name with 
 a conspiracy, either true or supposed, against the Em- 
 peror ? Belisarius was kept a prisoner in his own palace, 
 and obliged to descend to the humiliation of justifying 
 himself. He was finally pardoned, and eight months 
 
 * In the midst of a great banquet, one of his guards, who stood 
 behind him, irritated by the king's having caused a damsel greatly 
 beloved by him to marry his rival, drew suddenly forth upon him, 
 and literally severed his head from his body. 
 
 t Procop. lib. 3. 
 
 t Agatiu*, lib. .5. 'lliophan. Chron.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 143 
 
 afterwards terminated a life full of glory and persecution. 
 13y the retreat of Beiisarius, Italy remained in the hands 
 of the Goths; and Justinian, who scarcely possessed the 
 means of defending the empire of the East, panted 
 always after that of the West, and above all for Italy. 
 It is matter of common observation, that princes fre- 
 quently aim at new conquests rather than endeavour to 
 increase the force and splendour of those they already 
 possess. The falling Greek empire was continually 
 threatened by the barbarians, whose incursions insulted 
 the dignity of Constantinople, which they even dared to 
 approach: but instead of thinking seriously upon securing 
 the centre of his dominions, Justinian employed treasures 
 and arms to recover Italy ; and after many vain attempts, 
 he confided the enterprise to Narses. History, the 
 mirror of sovereigns and ministers, although in the past 
 the future may be most frequently read by a discerning 
 mind, shews us how often the fate of kingdoms depends 
 upon the choice of able defenders. Beiisarius and 
 Narses successively recovered Italy : every thing was 
 useless without them ; all obstacles yielded to their valour; 
 neither the want of manhood, nor his soft and effe- 
 minate education, detracted from Narses the merits 
 of a hero. He had already fought under Beiisarius in 
 the same war; coasting the Adriatic by masterly 
 marches, he led an army into Italy, composed of 
 warriors of different nations. Between Matelica and 
 Gubio, most probably, the armies of Totila and Nai> 
 ses met. After an obstinate battle, the Goths were 
 completely beaten ; and Totila, wounded in the flight, 
 either by the hands of the enemy or his own people, 
 died, after every assistance had been afforded him in 
 vain. This battle decided the fate of Italy ; for, although 
 Teias, a brave and determined warrior, was elected king
 
 144 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 of the Goths, Narses made himself master, by degrees, 
 of almost all the country, and of Rome itself: and in ano- 
 ther rencontre, which lasted two days, at the foot of Vesu- 
 vius, Teias was killed, after numberless proofs of valour*, 
 and the remainder of the Goths stipulated with Narses 
 for an honourable retreat out of Italy. The treaty, 
 however, appears either not to have been maintained, or 
 other Goths, who garrisoned some places particularly in 
 Tuscany, did not ratify it ; whence the war was not ter- 
 minated. In the mean time, a powerful army of 
 Franks, either roused by Teias, or naturally greedy 
 of prey, had descended into Lombardy; and Narses 
 sent against them part of his army, whilst marching 
 himself to recover Tuscany. Florence, Volterra, and 
 Pisa opened to him their gates : Lucca alone afforded 
 an obstinate resistance, but finally yielded. In the mean 
 time, the army of the Franks had invaded Italy as far as 
 Calabria, but was routed and dispersed by Narses at 
 the river Volturno. This war may be regarded as a 
 conclusion to that of the Goths, after having continued 
 twenty years ; and the Gothic government was thus ex- 
 tinguished at the end of sixty-four years. Hatred of the 
 name of the Goths will gladden perhaps the superficial 
 reader, when he hears of the ruin of their kingdom ; but 
 this event, in the eyes of a profound observer, appears 
 rather a calamity for Italy, as the conquerors and the 
 conquered were now beginning as it were to be amalga- 
 mated together. The cruelty too of the first conquerors 
 had been tamed ; and if Italy at this time had been con- 
 solidated into one stable and independent government, 
 she would have remained such for the future, instead of 
 becoming subject to Constantinople. In addition to her 
 
 * Procop. lib. 4. Murat. Ann. d'ltal.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 145 
 
 dependance and the tributes she paid, she was always 
 weakly defended at so great a distance, and easily 
 became the prey of the first enterprising people. Narses 
 continued to govern Italy for a long time ; and was 
 occupied only in small wars, occasioned either by the 
 Goths, who had still remained in some of the towns, or 
 by the spirit of independence ; but in all of which he 
 remained the conqueror. After sixteen years, his go- 
 vernment began to appear tyrannical, either that the 
 avidity of gold seduced him, or that the natural desire 
 of novelty made the Romans anxious for a change; 
 whence the senate of Rome demanded his recall from the 
 Emperor Justinian. If we credit the statement of a 
 dishonourable embassy having been sent to him in the 
 name of the Empress Sophia*, and that Narses, in 
 revenge, called the Lombards into Italy, pointing out 
 to them the facility of a conquest, we have a warning at 
 once to Sovereigns, to respect those of their subjects 
 who have rendered them important services. Narses 
 was recalled ; but, fearing the intrigues of court, he did 
 not choose to leave Italy, and died at an advanced age 
 in Rome. Narses and Belisarius may be regarded as 
 the last generals of the Greek empire : both re-conquered 
 Italy more by their own personal valour than that of 
 their troops ; both were disgraced at court, where the 
 great enterprises of an absent hero are less attractive to 
 the minds of weak princes than the insidious voices of 
 present calumniators. Belisarius, however, appears to us 
 
 * Some historians relate that the Empress Sophia induced the 
 emperor to say, it was time that an eunuch like him returned to 
 spin at the seraglio ; and that Narses answered, that he would 
 spin such a web as the empress would not know how to extricate 
 herself from. Murat. Ann. D'ltal. Signorino Horat. Blanc. Rerum 
 Ital. scrip, torn. 1. pag. 427-8. 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 greater than Narses, who, celebrated only in the war 
 of Italy, sacrificed the interests of his sovereign to the 
 revenge of the first wrong received. A long series of 
 wars undertaken in Africa, in Persia, in Greece, and 
 Italy, distinguished Belisarius. More virtuous and more 
 patient than Narses, he opposed his secret enemies only 
 with his frankness and innocence; nor did he take 
 revenge for the repeated insults from the imperial court. 
 Unfortunate in the dissolute conduct of his wife Anto- 
 nine, the friend and confidant of the Empress Theodore, 
 he became enveloped in so many dangers, that perhaps 
 the same misfortune which had placed Narses above 
 incurring them, will appear to some less severe*. 
 
 Italy, thus deprived of such great men, easily 
 passed from the yoke of the Goths to that of the 
 Lombards. These people, mentioned by Tacitus, Strabo, 
 Velleius Paterculus, lived between the Elbe and the 
 Oder. Alboin, their king, a most fierce warrior, held 
 the countries he possessed in so little repute when 
 compared with Italy, which he deemed a certain con- 
 quest, that, marching with an immense host, carrying 
 with it entire families with their movcable goods, he con- 
 ceded to the Huns, and other neighbouring nations the 
 country which he abandoned. Arrived at the confines 
 of Italy, the ferocious king ascended a high mountain, to 
 contemplate its beauty, and anticipate the pleasure of 
 possession f ; and entering without opposition on the side 
 
 * The history of the blindness and mendicity of Belisarius is a 
 fable embraced with eagerness and without examination by poets, 
 rhetoricians, and philosophers, as an illustrious example of the 
 vicissitudes of fortune. This fable is only found in the verses of a 
 discredited writer, (Zetzes chit.) who lived many ages subsequent to 
 Belisarius. 
 
 f Paul. lib. 2. c. Sigor de Regno Ital. lib. 1. Murat. Ann. 
 D'ltal.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 147 
 
 of Friuli ; Verona, Vicenza, and other cities surrendered 
 to him without resistance. The imperial militia, 
 
 569. . 
 
 incapable of keeping possession of the country, shut 
 themselves up in some few towns, where they defended 
 themselves ; but yielding by degrees to the victorious arms 
 of the invaders, the whole of the fertile province was called 
 Lombardy, after the name of the conquerors, and shortly 
 afterwards Tuscany, Umbria, and la Marche experienced 
 the same change, while Longinus defended little more of 
 the Exarchate than Ravenna and Rome. This period was 
 the commencement of a new dynasty of barbarians, who 
 swayed over Italy. The valour of Alboin equalled his 
 cruel ferocity, which apparently was the cause of his death. 
 Before the invasion of Italy, he had almost entirely de- 
 stroyed the nation of the Gepidse in one great battle, and 
 killed their king, Cunimund, whose daughter, the beautiful 
 Rosamond, was obliged to marry the conqueror. Ac- 
 cording to the barbarous customs of those days, Alboin 
 drank out of the skull of Cunimund, bound in gold, at a 
 great banquet of the Lombards* ; and in Verona, when 
 perhaps rendered still more ferocious by wine, he obliged 
 the unhappy Rosamond to drink from the same horrid cup. 
 This was the beginning of a series of tragic events. The 
 wife of the tyrant becoming highly incensed at such con- 
 duct, seduced two Lombard gentlemen by the charms 
 and arts of her sex, one of whom slew Alboin whilst 
 asleep. As this king was idolized by the Lombards, 
 Rosamond, with her lovers, Helmichis and Peredeus, was 
 obliged to take refuge in Ravenna, where she sought the 
 protection of Longinus, who with an eager eye contem- 
 plated the beauty of her person, and the rich treasures 
 she brought with her. Inconstant and cruel in her 
 
 * This was the custom of many barbarous nations, and is still 
 practised by the American savages. 
 
 L 2
 
 148 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 disposition, Longiuus easily induced her to get rid of 
 Helmichis, to whom she offered a cup of poison as a 
 restorative, as he was coming out of the bath ; but the 
 flavour of the draught exciting his suspicion, he pointed 
 his sword at her breast, and obliging her to drink the 
 \emainder, both paid the penalty of their crime. 
 
 The reign of the Lombards in Italy lasted nearly two 
 ages, and experienced the fate of preceding conquerors. 
 The sturdy valour of the warriors of the north became 
 gradually softened and unnerved by the mildness of the 
 climate, and the delights of the south. The unani- 
 mity of the chiefs, who rendered them victorious, lasted 
 as long as there was danger of invasion ; after whicli the 
 desire of enjoying the fruits of conquest, abandoning 
 themselves to effeminacy and repose, became natural 
 to them. The nature of their political constitution, 
 too, was not adapted to preserve the vigour of a go- 
 vernment. Kings with very trifling authority ; superior 
 vassals, almost independent, commanding other minor 
 vassals, who sought the same independence, and never 
 obeyed the laws but by force ; the remainder of the 
 people conquered, considered as slaves, and treated even 
 worse than the useful domestic animals. This was the 
 complex of which the feudal government was formed, 
 both of the Lombards and the other unhappy pro- 
 vinces*. 
 
 In the space of two ages from Alboin to Desiderius, 
 twenty-five kings of that nation are reckoned, and the 
 medium term of dominion for each is eight years f. 
 
 * See the fable of jEsop, of the serpent with a hundred heads, 
 and that with an only head, which is the image of the feudal system 
 and the monarchy. 
 
 t Some of them, void of all learning, distinguished themselves 
 by good natural sense. Among these is mentioned Agiluf, hus-
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 149 
 
 Amongst these kings, Rotari deserves to be distin- 
 guished, whose wisdom and valour shed lustre upon the 
 reign of the Lombards. Not born to the throne of Italy, 
 his election does honour to the queen Gondeberga, 
 sister of king Adaloaldus. Dying without progeny, he 
 transferred his rights to her husband Arioaldus, who, 
 created sovereign by the Lombards, treated with in- 
 gratitude the woman from whom he had almost received 
 the kingdom as a gift. Her attractions had made 
 such an impression upon one of the principal Lom- 
 bard princes, called Adalolfus, that he had the cou- 
 rage to make an attempt upon her conjugal faith : 
 the chaste princess having severely rebuked his conduct, 
 the perfidious lover accused her in revenge of con- 
 spiring the death of -her husband with Tato, duke of 
 Tuscany, in order to cause the latter to be proclaimed 
 king. Upon the testimony alone of this man the 
 
 632. 
 
 credulous and weak husband caused the innocent 
 queen to be shut up in the fortress of Lomello, where 
 she remained prisoner nearly three years, until Clo- 
 taritis, king of the Franks, intimated to the husband 
 that a queen descended from the blood of the Franks 
 ought not to support the pain and infamy attendant 
 upon so black a crime without proof. Recourse there- 
 fore was had to what was called the Justice of God : a 
 certain Pittus or Carellus appeared as the advocate of 
 Gondeberga * ; the base conduct of the traitor was ex- 
 posed, and the queen re-established in her original 
 
 honourable rank. Upon the death of her hus- 
 
 r *%/ * 
 
 band, the Lombards put such faith in her wis- 
 
 band of the beautiful and prudent Teodolinda, to whose groom 
 our Boccaccio has applied an ingenious trait of spirit, in one of his 
 facetious tales. Decani. Giorn. 3. Nov. 2. 
 * Sigon. lib. 2. de Reg. Ital.
 
 150 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 dom and virtue, that they left to herself the election of 
 a husband and a sovereign, and she did justice to their 
 good opinion by the choice of Rotari, one of the wisest 
 of kings *. For the space of seventy-seven years since 
 the monarchy was established in Italy, the unfortunate 
 people had been governed without written laws: there 
 existed only some traditional forms or customs, 
 according to which civil controversies were de- 
 cided ; and it is easy to perceive that such laws, either 
 deficient in many cases, or far too numerous, frequently 
 led to the most capricious acts of injustice. Rotari was 
 the first to form a code of laws * : he put together those 
 which were only traditional, and adding others which 
 he deemed expedient, fixed at least a basis which in 
 some degree restrained the licentious will of the judges, 
 and approached nearer to real justice. This useful 
 work was done in Pavia, the ordinary abode of the 
 kings f , and was the beginning of the written Lombard 
 code, afterwards increased by various successors . Ro- 
 
 * Paul. Diac. lib. 4. 
 
 f We learn from the beginning of the edict of Rotari " first, 
 that the Longobards counted ten kings before the invasion of 
 Italy, as he was called the seventeenth king, and was the seventh 
 of Italy ; secondly, that the code was approved by the principal 
 Lombards and by the army," from which it may be inferred that 
 the legislative power was divided between the king and his 
 warriors, &c. 
 
 J In the midst of the strange and barbarous Lombard laws 
 the wisdom of this legislator was rendered evident. Whilst for a 
 long time, and even down to our own age, an ignorant super- 
 stition, adopted even by lawyers, has caused sorcerers to be consi- 
 dered as gifted with the power of injuring mankind, and the ridicu- 
 lous formalities of their judgments have been permitted to in- 
 fluence their actions, he openly condemns the practice. Codic. 
 Longobard. Rotharis, No. 379. " Nullus presumat aldiam alie- 
 nam aut Ancillam, quasi strigam qua* dicitur Maga occidere quia
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 151 
 
 tari distinguished himself also in arms, added to his 
 provinces part of the Genoese territory, and repulsed 
 the united army of the Greeks and Romans in a san- 
 guinary conflict near the Panaro : at his death he left 
 his kingdom to his son Rodoaldus, a son unworthy of 
 such a father; of whom we have scarce any other 
 account except that after a short and inglorious reign, 
 without progeny, he was killed by a Lombard whose 
 wife he had dishonoured. His successor was Ari- 
 bert, of the Bavarian nation, elected by the free 
 voice of the Longobards ; his reign was short and with- 
 out glory, which he finished by the impolitic act of 
 dividing his kingdom between his two sons, Bertaridus 
 and Gondibert. Royal power has seldom been divided 
 with good effect*, and the fatal experiment between 
 brothers is almost always attended with the Theban 
 disaster. 
 
 Although the two brothers chose a different seat for 
 
 o 
 
 their government, the one Pavia, the other Milan, they 
 soon attacked each other with open force, when Gondi- 
 bert, calling Grimoaldus, the duke of Beneventum, to 
 his aid, the latter finished the war by despoiling both, 
 and occupying the contested throne. Grimoaldus was 
 an extraordinary man and his vicissitudes very singular. 
 Last of the sons of Gisalfo, duke of Friuli, when he 
 was invaded by the Avari, he had singularly distin- 
 guished himself: his imprudent father, venturing with a 
 small force to oppose the whole army of the Avari, had 
 
 Christianis mentibus nullateuus est credendum nee possibile est 
 ut hominem mulier vivura intrinsecus possit comedere," &c. In 
 the same code his successor, Luitprando, disapproves, though he 
 does not dare to prohibit duels. Luitprandus, No. 63. 
 
 * Omnisque potestas 
 
 Impatiens consortis erat. Luc.
 
 152 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 been cut to pieces : the mother and sons were shut up 
 after the battle in the Giulian Forum, or Cividad dd 
 Friuli: this infamous woman, falling in love with the 
 king of the Avari, opened to him the gates, but paid 
 the price of her treachery by an ignominious death, 
 preceded by the most dishonourable circumstances. 
 The sons in the mean time had taken flight : Grimo- 
 aldus, the youngest of all fled on horseback behind his 
 brother*. Overtaken by his persecutors, he was vio- 
 lently dragged from his saddle, but his life was spared, 
 on account of his beauty. When placed as a prisoner 
 in the same manner, on horseback behind his enemy, 
 the boy, full of boldness, anil with a mind fitted for the 
 greatest undertakings, seeing a dagger hang by the side 
 of his foe, had the courage to seize it and to stab him : 
 leaping into the saddle, and turning the horse round 
 with haste, he succeeded in effecting his escape. After 
 many vicissitudes he became duke of Benevento ; and 
 the fame of his power and valour induced the incau- 
 tious Gondibert to seek his aid in the contest with his 
 brother. He saw the facility of possessing himself of 
 the kingdom of Italy, whence assembling a powerful 
 army, and creating his son duke of Benevento, he 
 marched openly against the two brothers, whom he 
 defeated in battle, slaying Gondibert with his 
 
 fifiQ 
 
 own hand, and possessing himself of the sceptre 
 of Italy by marrying their sister. One of the most 
 illustrious Romans has said, that if ever it be lawful to 
 violate justice, it may be so when it leads to a king- 
 dom f. This is the unjust and dangerous garb of all 
 usurpers, and unfortunately mankind judge from events, 
 
 * Paul. Diac. lib. 4. 
 
 t Maxim of Julius Caesar : " Quod si violandum est jus, reg- 
 nandi causa violandum est ; caeteris rebus pictatem colas."
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 153 
 
 the grandeur and success of which cover great crimes. 
 If Grimoaldus was to be judged by this rule, his great- 
 ness alone will appear. In his ferocious character cer- 
 tain sparks of generosity are visible, however darkened 
 by suspicion. The other brother, Bertaridus, had taken 
 refuge near the Avari : Grimoaldus caused it to be 
 intimated to them, either to give him over to his hands, 
 or he would regard them as enemies. The Avari, 
 neither wishing for war or to betray Bertaridus, coun- 
 selled him to fly ; but that unfortunate man, not know- 
 ing where to take refuge, took the resolution of The- 
 mistocles : throwing himself into the power of his enemy, 
 asking only to live privately and tranquilly in his do- 
 minions *. He was received gladly by Grimoaldus, and 
 treated for some time with generosity ; but the con- 
 course of his ancient subjects who paid homage to their 
 dethroned king, excited the jealousy of Grimoaldus, who 
 was counselled by his friends to get rid of him ; and 
 orders to that effect had been secretly given, when they 
 were revealed by Onulfus to Bertaridus, who succeeded 
 almost miraculously in saving himself in France ; and if 
 it is true that Grimoaldus not only pardoned but re- 
 warded the fidelity of the friend of Bertaridus, it is a 
 trait the more worthy of admiration, as the habits of 
 those times were the most atrocious, and void of all 
 virtue. Grimoaldus was also a wise legislator, and 
 added to the code of Rotari what experience had shewn 
 to be wanting f. 
 
 A theological dispute occasioned afterwards a singular 
 change in the affairs of Italy. Obedience and custom, 
 rather than force, had still preserved the remains of the 
 ancient dominion in Italy to the emperors of the east. 
 
 * Paul. Diac. lib. 5. t Paid. Diac. Murat. Ann.
 
 154 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 These were Sicily, a part of the kingdom of Naples, 
 Ravenna, with Pentapolis. Rome herself received both 
 orders and governors from Constantinople, and although 
 she not rarely disobeyed them, had not yet ventured to 
 declare herself independent. The dispute upon the 
 worship of the sacred images which had been awakened 
 in the east, divided all the Christian world. The Greek 
 emperor, Leo Isauricus, besides his imprudence in mix- 
 ing in theological disputes, had the folly also to attack a 
 rite already long established, and dear to the greater 
 part of the people *. The flattery of his favour and the 
 force of his power made the reluctant Greek prelates 
 consent, and the people of the east, not, indeed, without 
 tumult and sedition, saw their adored images snatched 
 away from them. But the west, more remote from the 
 imperial power, and more free therefore in sentiment, 
 resisted courageously the imperial mandates ; the armed 
 executors were either repulsed or slain, and the High 
 Pontiff Gregory, after having insulted even the Greek 
 emperor rudely in his letters, gave the impulse to the 
 Italians to shake off the yoke of an heretic emperor. 
 The greater part of Italy, subjected to the Greeks, 
 abandoned the imperial command. Thus a theological 
 dispute, if it did not entirely deprive Leo of his esta- 
 blishment in Italy, almost annihilated his power over 
 them ; and Rome, after so many vicissitudes, found 
 herself by this singular event freed from a foreign yoke, 
 and at liberty to adopt whatever political consti- 
 tution she pleased. A languid remembrance of 
 ancient titles, without knowing either their power or 
 their limits, had given a new rise to the authority of 
 the people and the senate, who could not meet and 
 
 * Theophores. Gregor. II. epist. 1. ad Imperatorem Leon, &c.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 155 
 
 deliberate without confusion and tumult. In the midst 
 of this inevitable confusion, it was natural that religious 
 reverence towards the Roman pontiff should cause him 
 to be regarded as the first magistrate ; towards him, 
 therefore, by degrees, the eyes of the multitude were 
 directed : his riches, his connexions with foreign princes, 
 his religious influence, constituted him, insensibly, so- 
 vereign of Rome ; a sovereignty legalized by the free 
 consent of the people, and confirmed by the possession 
 of ten ages. This is a more noble title, and more legal 
 than the controversial donations of Constantine, of 
 Charles the Great, and of Otho. The prudent pon- 
 tiffs in the moment in which the zeal of religion in the 
 Italians had shaken off the yoke of the Greeks, per- 
 ceived that these cities, left without support, would 
 have easily fallen into the hands of the Lombards, 
 more formidable to them, perhaps, than the Greeks. 
 Although, therefore, they threatened to cause a new 
 emperor to be elected, they had the prudence to stop 
 at the threat, and to respect the weak remains of the 
 Greek empire, certain of having over these people an 
 influence superior to that - of the emperors, and to 
 strike terror into the Lombards with the specious title of 
 provinces subjected to the Greek empire. Luitprand, 
 who governed this people at that period, appeared dis- 
 posed to profit by the confusion into which Italy was 
 thrown, by taking possession of the cities no longer 
 defended by the forces of the Greeks. He advanced to- 
 wards Ravenna, which opened to him her gates, as 
 did some other cities ; but Luitprand, who should have 
 treated the people who thus voluntarily gave themselves 
 up to him, with the greatest mildness, either wanted 
 this prudence, or the power to hold in check the un- 
 disciplined Lombards : despoiled and cruelly treated,
 
 156 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 they repented of their former conduct, and the Loin- 
 bards therefore did not long retain their conquest. The 
 Venetians, encouraged by the pontiff, marched in aid 
 of the Greeks ; even as early as this period they pos- 
 sessed a respectable marine force, and coming down 
 with their fleet unexpectedly upon Ravenna, a nephew 
 of Luitprand is stated to have been made prisoner*, 
 Peredeus, Duke of Vicenza, slain, and Ravenna, with 
 the other cities returned into the hands of the Greeks. 
 The avidity of the Lombards was continually tempted 
 by the riches of Rome, and restrained only by religious 
 fear. Luitprand, however, marched against it; when the 
 Pontiff Gregory, who knew well his character, went out 
 to meet him, and addressed him in such terms, that, in- 
 stead of attacking Rome, he went to prostrate himself in 
 the Vatican Temple, where, having laid down his arms, 
 mantle, and royal crown, he left every thing at the tomb 
 of St. Peter. This king died after a long and happy 
 reign. Paul Diaconus, who made a long eulogium upon 
 his character, describes him as valourous in war, though 
 a lover of peace ; ignorant of letters, but for his wisdom 
 worthy of being placed by the side of philosophers. 
 He was certainly very devoted and obedient to the eccle- 
 siastics ; ransomed the bones of St. Augustin with a 
 great treasure from the hands of the Saracens f, and 
 went from Pavia to Genoa to meet this sacred relic. 
 At Pavia he had a church in his palace, where di- 
 vine service was daily celebrated, as in a cathedral, by 
 priests and clergymen. Among other proofs of his per- 
 sonal bravery, it is related J, that being told two of his 
 armour-bearers wished to kill him, he made them follow 
 
 * Murat. Ann. d' Ital. t Sigon. do Regno Ital. lib. 3. 
 
 J The same anecdote is related of Henry IV., King of France.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 157 
 
 him into the thickest part of a wood, when, being alone, 
 and making a sudden stop, he told them boldly that 
 the present was the time to execute their design. The 
 latter, astonished and frightened, sued for pardon*. His 
 nephew Hildebrand, incapable of reigning, was, after a 
 few months, deposed ; and Rachis, Duke of Friuli, 
 elected in his stead. One of his first undertakings was 
 the siege of Perugia. Pope Zachary went to 
 meet him ; and was able to influence him so 
 much, that he not only persuaded him to raise the siege, 
 but to abandon also the world. Rachis, therefore, passed 
 from the throne to the cloister on Mount Casino f, 
 and his wife Tasia and daughter Rotrude built a mo- 
 nastery, where they shut themselves lip. To 
 Rachis succeeded his brother Astolphus, the same 
 upon whom Ariosto founds his amusing talej. This 
 king was of a character very different from his brother : 
 he occupied Ravenna, and threatened Rome, when Pope 
 Stephen II., perceiving that religious respect for him 
 
 * Paul. Diac. Anast. in loc. t Anastas. in Zaccar. 
 
 t Astolfo, Re cle' LoDgobardi, quello 
 
 A cui lascio il fratel Monaco i! Reguo, 
 
 Tu nella giovinezza sua si bello, 
 
 Che mai pochi altri giunse.ro a quel Segno : 
 
 N'avria a fatica. ARIOSTO, Canto 23, 
 
 The desire of becoming a monk appeared epidemical in princes 
 at this time. Charlemagne, brother of Pepin, and son of the 
 famous Charles Martel, came into Italy, and built a monastery 
 upon Mount Soratte, where he consecrated himself, by causing 
 himself to be shaved in the crown by Pope Zachary ; finding him- 
 self, however, disturbed by the frequent visits of foreigners, parti- 
 cularly of the Franks, he retired to Mount Casino. Anselm, 
 Duke of Friuli, retired also to a monastery built by him at Fano. 
 Anastasius, the emperor, beaten in battle by Theodosius, became a 
 priest. Theodosius, too, driven from the throne by Leo, together 
 with his son, put on the ecclesiastical habit. Faroaldus, Duke of 
 Spoleto, pursued a similar course.
 
 158 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 was too precarious a defence for the holy see, and that 
 it was necessary to seek succour elsewhere*, implored the 
 aid of the Franks. The warlike valour of this people 
 had attracted the eyes of the world, especially by their 
 victories over the Arabs. This nation, animated by a 
 religious fanaticism, had made immense conquests in a 
 short time. After having subjugated Persia, Egypt, and 
 the fertile coast of Africa, extending from Egypt to 
 Abila or Ceuta, passed the strait, and given a new name 
 to Calpef, they inundated like a torrent, and subju- 
 gated Spain more rapidly than a traveller could have 
 passed through it ; and, invading France, they threat- 
 ened all Europe, until this vortex of war was arrested 
 by the Franks and the valour of Charles Martel. In 
 the incapacity of the Frank kings, Charles governed 
 France, under the title of steward (Maggiordomo) ; his 
 son Pepin inherited the charge ; conscious of his power 
 and his valour, and tired at length of sustaining all 
 the weight of the monarchy without the diadem, he 
 aspired to the honour that all warriors and the people 
 were willing to confer upon him. One scruple, how- 
 ever, deterred him, worthy on account of its rarity of 
 being mentioned in history, and this was, the oath of 
 fidelity he had taken to the imbecile Childeric J. 
 
 Pepin had recourse to Pope Zachary, who, ab- 
 solving both him and the Franks from the oath, 
 declared him King of France, and he was consecrated 
 and anointed by Saint Boniface, Archbishop of May- 
 ence ; and Childeric, shorn, and putting on the habit 
 
 * Anast. in Saph. Annales Franc, &c. 
 
 t Gebel al Tarik, or the mountain of Tarik, the name of one 
 of the Arab leaders in Spain, whence we have Gibelatar or Gi- 
 bilterra. 
 
 J Teophares in Chronog. Cedrenus in Hist.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 159 
 
 of a monk, was shut up in a convent. After so signal a 
 service, a successor of Zachary could not have recourse 
 in vain to the King of the Franks : in fact, Pepin 
 marched his troops towards Italy, and not meeting with 
 opposition, arrived at Pavia, where he besieged King 
 Astolphus, who, seeing himself hardly treated, and suing 
 for peace, a contract was entered into, by which he was 
 obliged to cede to the Holy See, Ravenna, and the 
 Exarchate. But, after the departure of the Franks, he 
 did not observe the treaty ; and, probably imagining that 
 the King of the Franks would not again bring an army 
 into Italy at so heavy an expense to give a part of it to 
 the pope, not only did not fulfil his promises, but 
 hastened imprudently to besiege Rome. The pope, in 
 this danger, wrote a letter in the name of St. Peter, 
 directed not only to his Protector Pepin, but to his sons, 
 and the whole French nation, promising them for such 
 an action the eternal life of paradise*, and threatening 
 them, if they did not march, with eternal punish- 
 ment. The King of the Franks was not disobe- 
 dient to the orders of St. Peter, again besieged Astolphus 
 in Pavia, and obliged him to cede to Rome, one of the 
 most important parts of the Grecian and Lombard 
 dominion f. This cession of Astolphus, or donation of 
 Pepin, formed to St. Peter or to his successors a consi- 
 derable state. Critics, however, in analyzing the letter 
 itself of Pope Stephen to Pepin, have started many 
 subtle disputes upon the donee (law term.)};. 
 
 * Cod. Caroline. 
 
 t Ravenna, Remini, Pesaro, Fano, Cesena, Sinigaglia, Jesi, 
 Forlirapoli, (Forli,) Montefeltro, Ciceraggio, Monte di Lacaro, Cas- 
 tello di S. Mariano, o Marino, Bobbio, Urbino, Cagli, Luccolo, 
 Gubbio, Comacchio, e Narni. Murat. Ann. D'ltalia. 
 
 I These are words of the letter : Donatio facta B. Pietro sane-
 
 160 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 Astolphus survived but a short time this humiliating 
 treaty. Desiderius, Duke of Tuscany, was elected king, 
 with whom the languishing reign of the Lombards was 
 destined to terminate. The monk Rachis, brother of 
 Astolphus, weary of a monastic life, had quitted his re- 
 tirement, and, favoured by a strong party, aspired to the 
 throne. Desiderius had recourse to the pope, who ad- 
 monished the monk to retire to his convent; and so 
 great was the authority of the head of the church, 
 that at this intimation Rachis found himself aban- 
 doned by all his followers. Desiderius had promised to 
 the pope the cession of certain cities ; but neglecting to 
 fulfil this engagement, the pontiff referred to his accus- 
 tomed Protector Pepin, who sent ministers into Italy, 
 and the disputes were adjusted in favour of the Holy 
 See. This was the last service paid him by the King 
 of the Franks, who dying, left the kingdom to his 
 son, Charles, who deservedly acquired the name of 
 Charlemagne. 
 
 It had been the policy of Rome to prevent any friend- 
 ship or alliance between the Lombards and Franks ; 
 it was therefore grievous to the Pontiff to learn that a 
 matrimonial treaty was pending between the two royal 
 families of Italy and France. The mother of the young 
 princes, Berta*, had come in haste to Pavia to promote 
 the union; the Pontiff declaimed against the alliance; 
 and his admonitions would probably have received the 
 approbation of posterity, if the princes had been actually 
 united to other wives, as he pretended to believe: the 
 other motives which he urged, accompanied with threats, 
 
 tseque Dei ecclesiae et reipublicae Romance. The keys of the city 
 were deposited upon the altar of St. Peter's, and the pope took the 
 government. 
 
 * Annal. Francorum.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 161 
 
 are worthy only of the ignorance of those times *. 
 Charles, who was one of those great characters who re- 
 spected religion as long as it did not interfere with 
 his power; paid no attention either to the exhor- 
 tations or threats, and married the daughter of Desiderius ; 
 but this tie, which gave umbrage to the pope, was soon 
 dissolved by the divorce which Charles obtained, with- 
 out any just motive, by marrying another f. New and 
 stronger disgusts arose between the two kings ; and on 
 the death of Charlemagne, brother of Charles, his two 
 sons had been despoiled of the kingdom by their uncle, 
 an act of cruelty and injustice which the historians of 
 those times have not ventured to condemn; so true is 
 it that the lustre of great actions causes crimes to be 
 forgotten ! The nephews had taken refuge at the court 
 of Desiderius, who not only afforded them protection, but 
 encouraged the pope, his enemy, and whom he had re- 
 cently deprived of some cities, to acknowledge them as 
 sovereigns. Charles, invited by the pope to vindicate the 
 common injuries, did not require much solicitation; he 
 hastened to Italy and blocked up Desiderius in Paviu, 
 which, after a long siege, was compelled to surrender. 
 
 * The following extract is given as an example. " What mad- 
 ness is this, excellent children, great kings, hardly do I dare to say 
 it, that your noble nation of the Franks, eminent abore other 
 people, and the splendid and most noble progeny of your royal 
 power, should pollute itself with the perfidious and most filthy na- 
 tion of the Lombards, which is not even reckoned among nations, 
 and from whom we know that the leprous are derived! No sensible 
 person will suffer a suspicion even to arise, that kings so renowned 
 will meddle with so abominable a contagion," &c. Cod. Carol. 
 Epist. 45. It is added, that he placed this exhortation upon the 
 sepulchre of St. Peter, and sent it from that holy place, threatening 
 them even with excommunication, if they disregarded His injunc- 
 tion. 
 
 t " Eginardus vita Caroli Magni." 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 Sent into France, and shut up in a monastery, Desiderius 
 became an ecclesiastic, and died in sanctity *. His son 
 Adelgisius, after having bravely defended Verona as far 
 as it was possible, finally fled, and embarking at the 
 Pisan harbour, repaired to the court of Constantinople. 
 Thus finished in Italy the reign of the Lombards, whose 
 fall was accelerated by the politics of Rome. Charles, 
 after the capture and expulsion of Desiderius, called him- 
 self king of the Franks and Lombards, and treated the 
 latter with kindness. At the siege of Pa via, Charles 
 had gone to visit the Pontiff' Adrian at Rome, and had 
 confirmed to him, it is said, not only the donations of 
 Pepin, but added even new ones. That these donations 
 were merely verbal on the part of both kings is 
 referred from the letters of the pope, but their na- 
 ture is not clearly defined : they were certainly not those 
 referred to by Sigoniusf, who states that Charles gave 
 what he did not possess, as, for instance, Sicily. After 
 the conquest of Italy, the generosity of Charles however 
 grew cold ; possessed of so fine a country, he probably 
 became more strongly attached to its real interests. 
 There are not a few documents from which we perceive 
 that he exercised acts in sovereignty, not only over the 
 cities of Italy, but over Rome herself^. In the mean 
 time this great sovereign established his son, the young 
 Pepin, king of Italy ; and hence the commencement 
 of another dynasty which France gave to this province. 
 The establishment of a new ruler might displease Rome; 
 the natural desire of aggrandizement, common to most 
 sovereigns, might give rise to disputes between the two 
 
 * Murat. Annal. <T Ital. f De Regno Ital. 
 
 J See Murat. Ann. d' Ital., where two interesting passages are 
 quoted of Paul Diac. Eginardus. 
 Annal. Francorum.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 163 
 
 confining states, in which the same power which had 
 before assisted the pope against the Lombards, would 
 become his enemy : but the piety, the religion, the respect 
 of the family of Charles towards the sacerdotal authority, 
 the counsellors, the ministers of these princes, for the 
 most part ecclesiastics, all tended to confirm this conjec- 
 ture; and among the principal ministers was the prudent 
 ecclesiastic, St. Adelard. Abbot of Corbey*. In the 
 mean time an epoch interesting for Italy and the whole 
 of Europe was approaching. The reigning Pontiff, 
 Leo. III., had been accused of various crimes, which 
 excited a strong party against him. Charles returned to 
 Italy, and arrived in Rome ; the pope, confiding in his 
 support, invited all the regular and secular clergy to as- 
 semble in the church of St. Peter, in order to state 
 the substance of their accusations ; but no one dared to 
 speak. On Christmas-day, however, as the pope was 
 celebrating solemn mass in the Vatican temple, (Basilica 
 Vaticana,) on a sudden a crown was seen to move, and 
 place itself upon the head of Charles, whilst the clergy 
 and the people cried out, To the most pious and august 
 Charles, crowned by the great God, pacific emperor, life 
 and victory^. Thrice was the acclamation repeated, 
 and the pope, imitating the priests of Israel, anointed 
 Charles with the holy oil as emperor, and Pepin king of 
 Italy. Thus the empire of the west, extinct for four 
 ages, rose again by a bold step, by which the pope 
 thought to possess, or usurp the power of creating 
 sovereigns. Perhaps the pope, in giving this title, meant 
 only to confer that of bishop or patriarch of Greece 
 
 * Ann. d' Ital. Mur. 
 
 f Eginar. Vita Caroli M. Joannes Diaconus, &c. The first 
 court writer, secretary of Charles, designates this as a concerted 
 plan. 
 
 M2
 
 164 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 or Asia, and certainly that alone, unprovided with force, 
 would have been of little value; but conferred upon a 
 sovereign so powerful as Charles, and upon his enterpris- 
 ing successors in times when the veneration for pontifi- 
 cal decrees was so great, it became a powerful instru- 
 ment to palliate with a gloss of justice the most bold 
 pretensions. The Roman empire had extended itself 
 over the most fertile and cultivated provinces of the globe 
 then known ; these had been snatched by force from 
 their original possessions. A Roman emperor might 
 liberate by force either the whole or a part, or at least 
 wrest the rights of vassalage from the sovereigns of those 
 provinces. The acclamation of Charles, naturally con- 
 certed between him and the pope, was an act humiliating 
 to both, as the latter, without losing any thing, gave 
 away amply what he did not possess : the imaginary 
 gift might be reduced to something. In the mean time 
 the pope exercised one of the greatest and most respec- 
 table functions, viz., that of conferring the imperial 
 crown. At this moment the consequences depending 
 upon that event and example were not well understood. 
 Various were the visits that this indefatigable sovereign 
 
 o o 
 
 made to Italy, but none had a consequence of so much 
 importance. The life of this monarch, worthy as any 
 other of the name of great, was a continued series of 
 journeys and battles : his dominion embraced two-thirds 
 of the ancient Roman empire ; it extended itself even 
 further on the north, where he made thirty-three cam- 
 paigns, sometimes to humble, sometimes to recall to 
 their duty, those ferocious people, impatient of restraint. 
 He was always victorious, except in Spain, against the 
 Saracens, whence, retiring in haste to calm the rebellion 
 of the Saxons, he was attacked in a close and disadvan- 
 tageous pass between the Pyrenees, in which his enemies
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 165 
 
 had lain wait for him, and his rear-guard was cut to 
 pieces. This was the celebrated rout of Roncisvalle, 
 in which, among other warriors, the famous Rolando 
 or Orlando was slain, whom romance writers have no- 
 ticed, and particularly the fabulous Til pin or Turpin, 
 archbishop of Rheims*, often ludicrously quoted by one 
 of the greatest Italian poets. This misfortune excepted, 
 the reign of Charles was truly glorious. The Lom- 
 bard code was amended by him, and increased by various 
 important laws, which may be seen in the Capitolari: 
 he took the most efficacious measures, compatible with 
 that barbarous legislation, to remedy injustice. It is 
 easy to perceive how oppressed were the miserable 
 people under the feudal government ; how difficult that 
 their lamentations should reach the ears of a sovereign, 
 who had both the wish and the power to cause justice 
 to be done. Charles therefore constituted itinerant 
 judges who raised tribunals in the squares of the cities, 
 and called upon the governors and people to state their 
 grievances: the best lawyers of the place were sum- 
 moned, the count, the bishop, &c., and their judgment 
 was given in public. Such a tribunal exercised its rights 
 too in the pontifical cities, whence it is clear that Charles 
 had reserved to himself a perfect dominion over theni"f*. 
 Although devoted to the holy see, he had always suffi- 
 cient vigour not to yield weakly to indiscreet pretensions, 
 and to keep it within its limits. The greatness of his 
 enterprises covers his defects. Pisa boasts of having 
 
 * In a council celebrated in Rome in 768, between the twelve 
 bishops, is found this Turpin, archbishop of Rheims ; but the ro- 
 mance attributed to him was written more than two ages after by 
 a friar on the confines of France and Spain. Fabricius Biblioth. 
 Latin. Medii Mvi. 
 
 f Annal. Francorum. Eginar.
 
 166 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 furnished to so great a monarch a master in Peter 
 Diuconus. Although ignorant of letters, he honoured 
 and sought after learned men by a species of instinct 
 with which nature has endowed great men for all worthy 
 things ; and he made every effort to encourage learn- 
 ing in France and in Italy. The astonishment his 
 great enterprises excited in his contemporaries, left a 
 profound trace in even barbarous posterity; his actions 
 were mixed with fables, which, to render them credible, 
 are always attached to extraordinary men. Poets and 
 romance writers honoured his name, and the public 
 squares of Europe were full of curious people listening 
 to the words of any one who recounted the actions of 
 Charles the Great*. Charles, before his death, in a 
 ,diet of respectable princes at Aix-la-chapelle, had caused 
 his eldest son, Lewis, to be declared emperor t- This 
 act merits reflection. The re-establishment of the impe- 
 rial dignity in the west had received its origin and first 
 impulse from the pope; whence it appeared that Charles 
 should refer to the same fountain, to instal his son in 
 the same dignity: he, however, preferred an election 
 established upon a more solid basis, where the most 
 powerful princes of Germany were of one accord, or af- 
 fected to believe that the intervention of the high pontiff 
 was necessary only in the establishment and creation of 
 an empire ; nor was the solemn act to be repeated to 
 every individual, as he wished to prevent the dangerous 
 influence that such an act appeared to give to priesthood 
 over the empire. The family of Charles, established by 
 three heroes, Charles Martel, Pepin, and Charles the 
 Great, arrived at the highest splendour; but after his 
 death their influence began to decline, his degenerate 
 
 * The name of Quack (Ciarlatano) is derived from these people. 
 * Annul. Francor. Thegan. De Gestis Ludovici Pii, cap. 6.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 167 
 
 descendants possessing none of the virtues of their 
 ancestors. Lewis, heir to the greater part of his domi- 
 nions, the slave of his wife, was deposed by the cabals 
 of his intriguing children, and recalled to the throne by 
 the pity excited in the minds of the people by the sight 
 of the degraded son of a hero; equally weak in body 
 and mind, after a reign without glory, he caused himself 
 to be transported to an island of the Rhine, near May- 
 ence. Having lost his appetite, he superstitiously ima- 
 gined that heaven was punishing him for not having ob- 
 served the lent of that year, and died of languor *. 
 
 His sons contended for the great inheritance of their 
 grandfather. Germany and Italy were drenched in 
 blood by their discords ; but these degenerate descen- 
 dants soon manifested a total inability to govern a power- 
 ful empire. Italy, in which the conquerors rapidly suc- 
 ceeded, was treated by all as a country of conquest, and 
 therefore each of them abused the right of governing it. 
 In the midst of these miseries, she was threatened with 
 another misfortune : the Arabs, for some time masters 
 of Sicily, having passed into Calabria, had fortified 
 themselves upon the delightful Misenus, converting the 
 tomb of St. Severinus into an asylum for the worshippers 
 of Mahomet. From thence they threatened all Italy ; 
 scouring the coasts with their fleet, they destroyed the 
 city of Luni, proceeded up the Tiber, and entering Rome 
 plundered the church of St. Peter. In order to defend 
 this rich and sacred edifice from new incursions, Leo IV. 
 surrounded it with walls t, built numerous houses, that 
 the inhabitants might at least avail themselves of some 
 temporary defence, and gave them to a number of Cor- 
 sicans, who had emigrated from their native country. 
 
 * Anual. Francor. f Anastas. Biblioth. Vita Leon. IV.
 
 168 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 The place took its name of Lconina from its founder, 
 and is now included within the circuit of modern Rome. 
 The insolence of the Saracens was so great as to sur- 
 prise in an islet at the mouth of the Rhone, Rolando, 
 Archbishop of Aries, compelling his simple subjects to 
 pay a considerable ransom for his person*. So weak in 
 defence had the Italians become, that not more than 
 twenty Saracens, driven by a tempest on the coast be- 
 tween Nice and Monaco, entering by night into a castle, 
 probably Trassineto, murdered all who opposed their 
 progress; then fortifying themselves, and having collected 
 together their remaining companions, they made incur- 
 sions into France and Italy, penetrated into the Mon- 
 ferat, sacked the monastery of Novalesa, near Turin, and 
 maintained themselves there for some time, to the dis- 
 grace of all the Italian Princes. 
 
 * The Archbishop had gone to the island Camergue, where the 
 Abbey of St. Cesarius, held by him, was situated. Surprised there 
 by the Saracens, a very large price was stipulated for his ransom. 
 In the mean time grief and probably sufferings caused his death, 
 even at the moment of his liberation. The crafty Saracens kept 
 his death concealed, and when his people came to receive him, 
 they carried his body on shore upright in a chair, dressed in the 
 pontifical habit, and made off rapidly with the money. His people 
 approached the chair, and, wishing to speak to him, found a 
 corpse.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 DUKES, COUNTS AND MARQUISES OF TUSCANY. ORIGIN 
 OF THE HOUSES OF ESTE AND BRUNSWICK. ENTER- 
 PRISES OF BONIFACE. INFLUENCE OF THE MARQ.UISES 
 
 OF TUSCANY OVER THE AFFAIRS OF ITALY. HUGO IS 
 
 ELECTED KING. HIS DISCORDS WITH THE MARQ.UIS 
 LAMBERT. EXCLUSION OF THE BAVARIAN LINE FROM 
 THE DOMINION OF TUSCANY. LINE OF PROVENCE. 
 HUGO, CALLED THE GREAT, GOVERNS JUSTLY. HIS 
 DEATH. VICISSITUDES OF HUGO AND THE OTHER KINGS 
 OF ITALY. ADVENTURES OF ADELAIDE, DAUGHTER OF 
 THE KING OF BURGUNDY. BONIFACE, MARQUIS OF 
 TUSCANY. HIS MAGNIFICENCE, SIS RICHES, AND 
 DEATH. MATILDA, COUNTESS OF TUSCANY. GREGORY 
 VII. HENRY IV. PILLAGE OF ROME BY THE NORMANS, 
 AND DEATH OF THE PONTIFF, GREGORY VII. DEATH OF 
 HENRY AND CONRAD, HIS SON. HENRY V. EMPEROR. 
 POWER OF MATILDA, AND HER DEATH. 
 
 _LUSCANY, exposed to all the revolutions of Italy, 
 passed from the yoke of the Goths to that of the 
 chmti Lombards, and afterwards to the Franks. In 
 these governments, nearly uniform, she had been 
 equally governed and oppressed by a duke, count or 
 a marquis who depended upon the king of Italy. By 
 these titles the principal ministers of the kingdom were 
 distinguished. From being judges at first, and leaders of 
 barbarians, they became, after the ninth century, princes, 
 distinguished by a single step only from the throne. It 
 was their privilege and their duty to meet at the na- 
 tional council, and laws had no validity without their 
 sanction. In the places he governed, the duke or count 
 was a supreme civil and military commander, with ab- 
 solute power, assisted in their councils, either civil or
 
 170 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 military, by their assessors or scabines, who thought 
 themselves better informed than their master. Their 
 conduct indeed might be subjected to the examination of 
 itinerant judges, established by Charles the Great, when 
 weakness or fear induced them to submit themselves to 
 such a tribunal. They may therefore be considered 
 both in their power and abuse of it, and probably too in 
 the nature of their councils, as very similar to the Ba- 
 shaws or Governors of the Ottoman Porte. At a nod 
 of their sovereign, they were obliged to march with 
 their subjects in arms, and divided with him the taxes 
 levied upon the people. The sovereign might displace 
 them at pleasure, nor had the sons any legal right to in- 
 heritance ; but a custom was soon introduced, by which 
 they could not be deprived of their office without a pro- 
 cess, at which a powerful duke or count often disdained 
 to appear ; and the dangerous habit of confirming the 
 sons in the dignities of their father, united with the power 
 of the son, made it gradually hereditary. During a 
 long series of these masters of Tuscany, we scarce meet 
 with any event worthy of mention*. Passing over those 
 of whom little is known, we commence our observations 
 upon this kind of government by introducing the names 
 of Boniface and Adalbert, who formed the root from 
 which two of the most illustrious families of Europe, the 
 house of Este, and that of Brunswick, are derived. The 
 favour accorded by the former to men of letters has re- 
 ceived the most fortunate reward in the immortality given 
 it by two of the most celebrated chefs d'ceuvres which 
 human genius has produced in Europe, viz., the Orlando 
 Furioso, and Jerusalem Delivered. The latter family, 
 
 . 
 
 * See Cositno upon the Dukes and Marquises of Tuscany.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 171 
 
 after various vicissitudes, is established upon the throne 
 of the most powerful of nations*. 
 
 The genealogical tables, for the most part, which 
 vanity lays before the eyes of the public, begin with an 
 illustrious man, whose origin is not sufficiently clear: this, 
 however, is not the case with Boniface, for he descended 
 from a family possessing the ample domains of Bava- 
 ria and Saxony, the limits of which were far more ex- 
 tensive in ancient than in modern geography f . Boni- 
 face, called the Bavarian, was Count of Lucca, in those 
 times considered the principal city of Tuscany. His 
 son, Boniface II., united with this title that of Duke 
 and Marquis of Tuscany, and signalized himself by the 
 defence of the places committed to his charge, and by 
 his fidelity to the weak son of Charles the Great, to 
 whom probably his family is indebted for their establish- 
 ment in Italy. Besides Tuscany, the defence of Cor- 
 sica and Sardinia had been committed to his care, when 
 the African Saracens, insulting not only these islands, 
 but even the coast of Tuscany itself, Boniface assem- 
 bled a small fleet, and leaving the harbour of Pisa the 
 pirates vanished at the sight of him. After visiting the 
 coasts of Corsica, he disembarked in Africa, between 
 Utica and Carthage. The Saracens, not accustomed to 
 be insulted by Christians on those shores, assembled a 
 large body of combatants, and five times attacking the 
 camp of Boniface, were as often repulsed with great 
 slaughter : the conquerors, covered with glory and laden 
 with treasures, returned to the mouth of the Arno. 
 To his merit of defender of Tuscany against the 
 
 * Murat. Antich. Etens. Leibnitz. Origines Guelphicse. 
 f Gibbon's Antiquities of the House of Brunswick, 
 t From him probably, the tort of Bonifazio, in that island, took 
 its name.
 
 172 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 enemies of his religion, Boniface added that of defender 
 of the fair sex. The weak character of the heir of Charles 
 the Great, Lewis the Pious, and the vicissitudes of his 
 wife Judith, are well known. She descended, like 
 Boniface, from the Guelphic family of Bavaria, which, 
 interwoven afterwards in Italy with the house of Este 
 on the female side, probably gave rise to the famous 
 Guelphic faction. The sons of Ludwig the Pious, and 
 particularly the turbulent Lotharius, king of Italy, either 
 abusing the weakness of their father, or intolerant of the 
 ascendency which their mother-in-law held over him, 
 had forced that weak sovereign to abdicate the throne ; 
 and Judith being at length shut up in a monastery at 
 Tortona, whilst compassion towards the degraded son of 
 Charles the Great, and the venerated remembrance of 
 the father, induced the heart of his subjects to replace 
 him upon the throne, Boniface, taking up his sword 
 according to the laws of chivalry in defence of the fair 
 sex, hastened with some faithful followers to free Judith 
 from the holy prison, and re-conduct her in safety to the 
 arms of her trembling husband. This gallant and valorous 
 enterprise drew upon him the hatred of the king of Italy, 
 and he was obliged to seek refuge in France, but pro- 
 bably returned to his government, and died in Tuscany. 
 His son Adalbert I. sometimes denounced as an as- 
 sassin, sometimes exalted as a hero by Pope John VIII., 
 according as he was his friend or enemy, is distinguished 
 by chronology alone from Adalbert II., his son, as 
 they are confounded together by many writers, ignorant 
 entirely of the actions of the former. Adalbert II. 
 was one of the most celebrated dukes and marquises of 
 Tuscany. His riches rendered him one of the most 
 powerful of the Italian princes, and Tuscany began 
 under him to take a decided part in the revolutions of
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 173 
 
 Italy. The state of Tuscany was contended for by txvo 
 kings Berenger and Lambert: the duke of Tuscany 
 was either an enemy to the latter, or desirous of aggran- 
 dizing himself upon his ruin, hastened still more by 
 the ambition of his wife, Berta, the daughter of king 
 Lotharius of Lorena, who probably aspired to the title of 
 Queen. Having shaken off the imperial yoke, and united 
 himself with Count Adebrand, he assembled a numerous 
 army, which he marched against Lambert towards Pavia. 
 This undisciplined body, led on by inexperienced gene- 
 rals, advanced to San Donino, between Parma and 
 Placenza, where the active Lambert surprised them in 
 the night with a few chosen cavalry, attacked, and de- 
 feated them. Adebrand saved himself by flight; but 
 Adalbert, who had concealed himself in a stable, was 
 made prisoner. When brought before Lambert, the 
 conqueror pleasantly told him, that the place where his 
 meanness had induced him to hide himself, had verified 
 the prophecy of his wife*. Adalbert remained pri- 
 soner but for a short time : Lambert fell in the chase, 
 not however without suspicion of having been killed by 
 his companion Hugo. Italy lost in him an excellent 
 king ; young indeed in years, but not in wisdom, as we 
 learn from an historian of those times 'f. 
 
 On the death of so powerful an enemy, Berenger 
 hastened to Pavia, where he freed his prisoner Adal- 
 bert, whom he sent back to the state of Tuscany, and 
 attempted to establish himself as the only King of Italy; 
 but the powerful party of the deceased Lambert raised 
 
 * She boasted to make of her husband either a king or an ass. 
 Liutpr. apud Sigoniura, lib. 6. de Regno Italise. 
 
 t Inerat illi honesta morum probitas, sancta e formidolosa seve- 
 ritas, et quam juventus ornaverat in corpore, splendida mentis cani- 
 cies decorabat saneta, &c. Luitprandus.
 
 174 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 a rival to Berenger, by inviting Lewis, the King of 
 Provence, to the throne of Italy, a prince descended 
 from Charles the Great. Berenger, seeing this new 
 storm lowering over him, and unprovided with troops 
 and money, had recourse to his friend Adalbert, by 
 whom lie was powerfully assisted, and enabled to march 
 with so formidable an army, that Lewis, upon his 
 arrival in Italy, being surrounded, was obliged to capi- 
 tulate; promising on oath never to undertake any similar 
 enterprise, he was suffered by Berenger to depart in 
 safety* The enemies of the King of Italy, and above 
 all the Pope, did not remain quiet spectators of this 
 event ; they recalled Lewis, and the pope promised 
 him again the imperial ensigns. Perceiving, at length, 
 that every attempt, without the consent of the powerful 
 Marquis of Tuscany, would have been vain, they had 
 recourse to his wife Berta, who had great influence over 
 the mind of her husband. Adalbert, overcome by the 
 incitements of so many Italian princes, and by the per- 
 suasions of his wife, proffered his aid to Lewis f ; and 
 Berenger, deprived of such powerful support, yielded 
 to his opponent, and repaired to Verona, where he 
 fortified himself. Lewis, having occupied Italy 
 without opposition, was crowned king in Pa via. 
 Pursuing his journey to Rome, he received from Pope 
 Benedict the imperial ensigns ; and returning to finish 
 the victory, he prepared to surround Berenger in Ve- 
 rona, who took refuge in Bavaria. Fortune, however, 
 appeared to play with the crown of Italy and Beren- 
 ger ; for the Marquis of Tuscany at this time gave and 
 took it away at pleasure. He had received the emperor 
 
 * Luitprand. Hist. lib. 2. 
 
 f Luitpr. Hist. lib. 2. Anon in paneg. Bereng. lib. 4.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 175 
 
 at his court, and had treated him with such splendour, 
 that the luxury and magnificence displayed on this occa- 
 sion greatly surprised the emperor, who, jealous of being 
 surpassed by a vassal, whispered in the ears of a con- 
 fidant, that the latter acted more like a king than a mar- 
 quis, and that he only wanted the royal title. These 
 words being repeated to Adalbert, and malignantly in- 
 terpreted by his wife, instilled a poison into the heart of 
 the husband, who suspecting that his riches had excited 
 the envy of the emperor, had influence enough gra- 
 dually to alienate from him the minds of the Italian 
 princes. Lewis, thinking himself secure from every 
 danger, had disbanded his army by the advice of others, 
 and remained quiet in Verona*. Berenger, informed 
 of this, marched with a chosen and resolute body of 
 troops, surprised Verona, and took Ludwig prisoner. 
 After reproaching him for breaking his faith, he caused 
 his eyes to be taken out, and compelled him to abdicate 
 his throne. Berenger remained for some years with- 
 out a competitor, but not wholly tranquil ; and was 
 finally deprived of his kingdom by Ridolf, King of 
 Burgundy, who did not long enjoy the favour of the 
 inconstant barons. 
 
 The power of the King of Italy, as in every feudal 
 system, depended upon his agreement with the barons ; 
 and from their natural instability they no sooner placed 
 a king upon the throne, than they became discontented 
 with their work, sought to depose him, and create a 
 new one, whom they soon deposed from capricious mo- 
 tives : a few of the most powerful and intriguing barons 
 always proved sufficiently strong under such a system to 
 change the government. Such for a long time was the 
 
 * Luitpr. Hist. lib. 2.
 
 176 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 situation of Italy. The powerful Marquis of Tuscany, 
 Adalbert II., being dead, his son Guido suspected by 
 Berenger, perhaps through the intrigues of the ambi- 
 tious Berta his mother, was imprisoned. Tuscany, how- 
 ever, had remained faithful to him ; whence he might, 
 after the fall of the former, have conveniently re- 
 established himself. Guido and Lambert were the bro- 
 thers-in-law of Hugo, Duke of Provence, the fruits of 
 the first marriage of their mother Berta with Lothario, 
 Count of Aries. Ermenigarda, married to Albert, 
 Count of Ivrea, was also their sister, a woman not 
 inferior to her mother in political intrigues *. Seconded 
 by her family in Tuscany, she invited her brother Hugo 
 to the throne of Italy. With such powerful support, the 
 project could not fail : Hugo came by sea, and disem- 
 barking at Pisa, met all the princes of Italy and the 
 ambassadors of Pope John ; from thence he repaired to 
 Pavia, where he was elected, and crowned in Milan, 
 with the accustomed ceremony by the Archbishop 
 Lambert. In vain did the Italians endeavour to effect 
 the overthrow of Hugo. More artful and more fortunate 
 than the others, he discovered a dangerous conspiracy, 
 at the head of which were Geto and Valperto, who were 
 both punished ; the former was deprived of his eyes and 
 his tongue, the latter of his lifef. This conspiracy ex- 
 tinguished, the government of Hugo acquired greater 
 vigour ; but his avidity, injustice, and ingratitude to his 
 benefactors, obscured his character, and were subse- 
 quently the cause of serious misfortunes. He was 
 
 Ernienegarda cum mariti dictionem vidua administrate!, 
 favore Principutn Italieorura mulieribus illecebris sibi conciliate, 
 tantos opes qusesiverat ut etiam Rodulpho regnum eripere cogi- 
 tavit. Sigon.de Regno Ital. lib. 6. 
 
 t Luitpr. Hist. lib. 3.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 177 
 
 indebted for the throne of Italy to the family of the Mar- 
 quises of Tuscany, whose ruin he attempted, and effected 
 by fraud. Guido, successor of Adalbert, had increased 
 in power by his matrimony with Maria, or Marozia, the 
 worthy daughter of Theodore, and widow of Count 
 Alberigo. This woman, in her dissoluteness, had no 
 regard even for female decency, and made Rome and 
 the Vatican one scene of prostitution. Armed with 
 female arts, and more than female courage, fit to govern 
 the seditious tumults of Rome, she had made herself mis- 
 tress of the Adrian Mole, and dictated laws to the pope 
 and the Roman people. Guido, Duke of Tuscany, felt 
 no repugnance in marrying such a woman, yielding every 
 other consideration to his natural love of power. He 
 derived, however, no other advantage from the union 
 than that of associating his name with some of the infa- 
 mies of his wife, and shortly afterwards died. His bro- 
 ther Lambert, become, by the death of Guido, Mar- 
 quis of Tuscany, was ambitious of the title or 
 dishonour of the husband of Marozia. The King of 
 Italy, jealous of the Tuscan power, which he saw increase 
 by this marriage of Lambert, conceived a strange tale, 
 adapted to the ignorance of the times, in order to despoil 
 him of the state*. He caused it to be reported, that 
 neither Lambert, Guido, nor the sister Ermenegarda, 
 were children of Adalbert. In a case in which the 
 most delicate proofs were sought after, Lambert had no 
 difficulty in appealing to the so called Judgment of God, 
 (Giudizio di Dio,) and proving the authenticity of his 
 birth by force of arms. Hugo promptly accepted the 
 challenge, and sent one of his bravest combatants, 
 
 O ' ' 
 
 named Teutino, to confront Lambert; and although the 
 
 * Luitpr. Hist. lib. 3. 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 latter was victorious, nevertheless the enraged and unjust 
 Hugo, by an extraordinary abuse of power, invested his 
 own brother Boso, with the duchy of Tuscany, and 
 caused the eyes of Lambert to be plucked out. 
 Thus the Bavarian line of Boniface remained excluded 
 from the dominion of Tuscany : Adalbert, however, sur- 
 vived this catastrophe*, and propagated the line in 
 Oberto, and thence into the two families of Este and 
 Brunswick. His rival being extinguished, the king 
 of Italy did not disdain to unite himself with the 
 prostituted and already aged Marozia: it is not well 
 understood why he was not declared emperor, as the 
 reigning pope John XI. was son of Marozia, born as was 
 reported from pope Sergius ; but probably thinking himself 
 secure of this honour, he delayed too long the means of 
 acquiring it : his pride offended the Roman nobility, and 
 later events raised the most serious obstacles to his am- 
 bition. A trivial family occurrence, a box on the ear 
 given by .Hugo to his son-in-law Alberic, caused the 
 Romans to revolt; headed by Alberic, they took pos- 
 session of the Adrian Mole, where they found Marozia 
 and the king of Italy, whose troops were without Romef- 
 He caused himself to be taken from the walls of the 
 castle, joined his troops, and vainly attempted to re- 
 enter the city: Marozia was imprisoned, the power of 
 the Pope despised, and supreme authority conferred upon 
 Alberic, now declared Lord of Rome, who well knew 
 
 * Adalbert III., both by Leibnitz and Muratori, is thought to 
 have been the son of Guido and Marozia; but the accurate Gib- 
 bon, carrying the most ingenious criticism into these researches, 
 shows that such a descent is irreconcileable with chronology, 
 whence he thinks him the son of Boniface, younger brother of 
 Adalbert II. See Gibbon's Antiquities of the House of Bruns- 
 wick. 
 
 t Prodcard in Chron. apud Duchesne.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 179 
 
 how to resist the arms and arts of Hugo. Driven from 
 Rome and hated by the Italians, he had nevertheless 
 strength enough to repulse the Duke of Bavaria, who, 
 invited by the secular and ecclesiastical princes of Italy, 
 advanced to the valley of Trento, from which he deemed 
 it prudent to retreat. But the unquiet Hugo, always de- 
 sirous of aggrandizing himself, took away the duchy of 
 Tuscany from his brother Boso, and bestowed it on 
 his son Lothaire, whom he had already caused to be 
 declared king of Italy. He found the minds of the people 
 sufficiently disposed to this change. Willa, the wife of 
 Bosone, so greedily coveted the riches of others, that the 
 women of Tuscany had abandoned all their precious 
 ornaments, in order not to tempt her cruel avarice. 
 Hugo, with his accustomed art, induced the people to be- 
 lieve that snares were planned against him by his brother; 
 nor is it at all improbable, as they were both of the 
 same character. He imprisoned the husband, and rob- 
 bing the wife* of all her gold and jewels with the most 
 indecent violence f, sent her back to Burgundy. He 
 then invested with the government of Tuscany his na- 
 tural son Oberto, of whom history records little worthy 
 of notice. To him succeeded Hugo, called without rea- 
 son the Great, a title conferred upon persons who have 
 raised themselves far above the sphere of this sovereign 
 of Tuscany. With greater precision he might have been 
 called just and pious, as he was accustomed privately to 
 visit the cottages of his rustic subjects, interrogate them 
 upon the government and character of their sovereign, 
 
 * Luitprand. lib. 4. 
 
 t " Mulier jussa est vestibus exui : quo [facto, apparuit earn 
 cupiditate gemmae in occultissimis corporis partibus abdictisse." 
 Sigo De Regno Ital. 
 
 N*
 
 180 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 and listen to their answers, which were not masked by 
 fear or adulation. His memory is venerated by the 
 ecclesiastics, to whom he made rich presents. The Abbey 
 of Florence is one of the seven Monasteries founded and 
 richly endowed by him, where his tomb and statue are 
 to be seen, and where annually his praises are celebrated 
 in a cold rhetorical declamation. At his death the male 
 line of Provence ceased, and a foreigner succeeded him, 
 in the person of Tedaldus, grandfather of the celebrated 
 Countess Matilda. In the meantime Hugo, preserving 
 his natural thirst of blood, caused Anscharius, Duke of 
 Spoleto, to be put to death, under the pretext of the 
 latter having conspired against him : he wished also to 
 sacrifice the life of his brother, the Marquis of Ivrea, 
 who was apprized of his danger by Lothaire, son of 
 Hugo, and saved himself by flight into Germany. De- 
 ceit and cruelty formed the character of Hugo, to which 
 was united the most unbridled licentiousness: a seraglio 
 of concubines, at his advanced age served rather to irri- 
 tate than to extinguish his impotent desires. Report or 
 slander had given out that he did not even respect the 
 most sacred ties of consanguinity in his debaucheries ; 
 but his iniquities had at length arrived at their height, 
 and the Italians were in search of one who might free 
 them from such a tyrant. Fear, however, induced them 
 to plot in silence ; all hearts were turned towards the 
 exiled Marquis of Ivrea, saved by his son. His friend 
 Amedeo came privately to Italy, and exposing himself 
 to the greatest dangers, secured for him the unanimous 
 wishes of the Italians. The marquis was in the mean 
 time approaching Italy, already risen in his favour, and 
 arriving at Milan, the ecclesiastic and secular princes 
 united, and were upon the point of declaring him king of
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. isi 
 
 Italy, when Hugo, aware of his own danger, determined 
 to strike the last blow* Aware that his son Lothaire 
 enjoyed the affection of a great part of Italy, he caused 
 him to be presented at the assembly of Milan, entreating 
 that if the father had rendered himself unworthy of the 
 throne, they would not do wrong to one who was innocent, 
 by excluding him from it. The diet being moved by 
 this act, Lothaire was confirmed king, more however by 
 title than power, the whole of which was enjoyed 
 by Berenger. Hugo retired into Provence, where 
 Lothaire died after having reigned some years without 
 blame and without praise : his death is reported to have 
 been occasioned by poison. This crime, imputed by 
 some to Berenger, whose life Lothaire had saved, is 
 uncertain; but the persecution of Adelaide, the 
 widow of Lothaire, is an indelible stain upon the 
 new kings of Italy, Berenger and his son Adalbert. In 
 the midst of a tedious and uniform relation of treasons, 
 of slaughter, and revolutions, the adventures of the beau- 
 tiful and prudent Adelaide deserve particular at- 
 tention. She was the daughter of Ridolphus, the 
 second king of Burgundy ; her figure and agreeable man- 
 ners had captivated the heart of the son of Berenger, 
 who offered her his hand ; but she refused to unite her- 
 self with those who had ruined, and perhaps caused the 
 death of her husband. Irritated by the refusal, the 
 father and son plundered her of all her riches, and shut 
 her up in a fort on the lake of Garda, where the wife of 
 Berenger, Willa, went so far as to ill treat her, even 
 with blows if. She remained there with a female servant 
 
 * Luitprand. Hist. lib. 5. 
 
 t This adventure is related by the nun Rosvida, a poetess of 
 that age, by Odlone, Abbot of Clugni, Donizone, &c. Murat. 
 Rerum Jtal. Script.
 
 182 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 for a considerable time, when a priest named Martin> 
 having made an aperture in the wall, or a subterraneous 
 mine, succeeded in releasing the captives, and all three 
 hid themselves in a wood upon the lake of Garda, where 
 had it not been for the succour of a fisherman they would 
 probably have perished of hunger. The priest in the 
 mean time unveiled the secret to the bishop of Reggio, 
 who not daring to give shelter to Adelaide, she obtained 
 it finally from Atto, or Azzo, who received her into the 
 strong fortress of Carossa. Berenger in vain endea- 
 voured to recover her person ; in vain formed a close 
 siege around the fortress, which in those times proved 
 invincible, and the siege was converted into a blockade. 
 All, however, was useless ; Otho came first from Ger- 
 many, and having set her at liberty, admiring her virtue 
 and her beauty, thought her worthy to become his wife. 
 From the times of Charles the Great, no sovereign had 
 appeared upon the stage of Europe of merit equal to 
 Otho, and who united, like him, wisdom and valour: 
 he calmed the seditious tumults of Germany ; in a great 
 battle near Augsburg, discomfited the Hungarians, who 
 were overrunning France, Italy and Germany, com- 
 mitting the greatest excesses, and entirely destroyed 
 their army ; reduced to order the affairs of Italy ; was 
 crowned its king and emperor; visited Rome several 
 times, and endeavoured to restore to her that tranquillity 
 which a clergy without discipline and a people unac- 
 customed to obey had banished from her walls. In this, 
 however, he met with the greatest obstacles ; a conspi- 
 racy was formed against him, from which he escaped by 
 flying to his troops, then lodged in the environs of Rome. 
 Attacked by the Romans, who were repulsed, the fury 
 of his soldiers would have led to an horrible slaughter, 
 which was happily prevented by Otho. Perfectly master
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 183 
 
 of his temper, he brought the turbulent Romans to sub- 
 jection, and caused the priesthood and the empire to be 
 respected. We read of various donations made by him to 
 the Roman church, which have the same exceptions as 
 others. In these donations certain cities are mentioned 
 which did not belong to the emperor *. After a glorious 
 reign, as well in war as in peace, Otho died, leaving 
 his son, Otho the second, emperor, king of Italy, 
 and of a great part of Germany. He neither inherited 
 the wisdom, the valour, nor the clemency of his father. 
 Desirous of signalizing himself in arms, and to wrest 
 from the Saracens and Greeks that portion of Italy 
 which they occupied, he marched his troops against 
 them: a bloody battle ensued in Calabria, in which 
 Otho was defeated t, with an immense slaughter of 
 his men, among whom were many of the principal 
 gentlemen and German ecclesiastics ; the Bishop of 
 Augsburg, and the Abbe of Fulda. Otho was in 
 danger of being himself taken by the Saracens, but 
 flying towards the sea shore, he was taken on board a 
 Greek vessel under sail, not far from the shore, which 
 he hailed and approached by spurring his horse into the 
 sea. He found himself, however, in the hands of a 
 pirate, or an enemy, from whom he escaped by means 
 of a rich ransom . He was preparing new forces to 
 
 * In that mentioned by Cardinal Baronius, the city of Venice is 
 included. Vide Murat. Ann. d'ltal. 
 
 t Murat. Ann. d'ltal. 
 
 I A Sclavonian soldier on board the Greek vessel discovered 
 him : Otho promised a considerable ransom to the captain, ask- 
 ing him permission to send a messenger to the Empress Teofania, 
 who would send sacks of gold to redeem him. She was in the 
 city of Rossano, where the plan was concerted. When the ship 
 appeared in sight, a number of beasts of burden went out of Ros-
 
 184 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 revenge the insult his arms had suffered, when he died 
 in Rome. Otho III., who succeeded the father in 
 the same dominions, was very inferior also to his grand- 
 father : being crowned emperor, he several times visited 
 Italy and Rome, continually immersed in the same dis- 
 turbances. The remembrance of their ancient enter- 
 prises, and of lost Roman splendour, kept the dege- 
 nerate descendants in a state of inquietude, and drove 
 them on, not to laudable undertakings, but to seditions. 
 Crescentius, of a troublesome spirit, and gifted more 
 with rashness than courage, excited Rome and Italy to 
 shake off the government of a foreign prince. These 
 words, which made no impression upon the Italians, 
 produced their desired effect in Rome. Otho hastened 
 to quell the rebellion, and the walls of Rome were for- 
 tified; but upon the Romans vacillating, Crescentius 
 shut himself up in the Adrian Mole. He finally capi- 
 tulated, and Otho, who had previously promised him 
 his life, ordered him to be beheaded ; but afterwards, 
 from feelings of remorse, and desirous of expiating the 
 crime, he went barefooted on a pilgrimage to Mount 
 Gargano, celebrated for the sanctuary of San Michael. 
 He even passed a whole Lent as a penitent in the mo- 
 nastery of Classe, and is supposed by some to have died 
 of poison, administered to him in revenge by the wife of 
 Crescentius, whom he had had the imprudence to choose 
 
 sano, laden with sacks, which appeared full of money. In some 
 of the boats were standing courageous soldiers, dressed as sailors. 
 Theodore, Bishop of Metz, approached the Greek vessel to con- 
 clude the treaty. Otho, conducted to the prow of the vessel, 
 in sight of his men, and trusting to his ability in swimming, gave 
 a leap into the water, and a Greek who endeavoured to retain him 
 by the coat, was seriously wounded. He arrived safe on shore, 
 Heaving a rare example of a Greek having been deceived by a 
 German. Murat. Ann. d'llal.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 185 
 
 for a lover : never had saint or hero died so much 
 hated by the Italians ; even his corpse, on being trans- 
 ported to Aix-la-chapelle, was insulted by the populace 
 wherever it passed ; and the armed troops who formed 
 the escort, were frequently assailed *. In the mean time 
 Tedaldo had succeeded Hugo, called the Great, in the 
 government of Tuscany, and next to him Boniface 
 father of the Countess Matilda. The Tuscan historian 
 should pay particular attention to this celebrated woman, 
 as mistress of Tuscany, and as one of the most promi- 
 nent actresses in the sanguinary contest between the 
 priesthood and the government. Boniface was re- 
 garded in these times as the most respectable prince of 
 Italy ; he ruled over Mantua and Ferrara t, and became 
 afterwards Marquis of Tuscany ; he had two brothers, 
 Tedaldus and Conrad ; the former, a man of exemplary 
 chastity J, was Bishop of Arezzo; the other a brave 
 warrior. The bravery of Conrad saved Boniface in 
 a feat of arms in Lombardy ; assailed by those people, 
 whilst fighting bravely, and having with his own hands 
 cut off the head of a soldier who had ferociously called 
 him to battle, he was near yielding, when he was suc- 
 coured by his brother Conrad, who, making a sudden 
 
 * Ditmaro, lib. 4. Annalista Sassone, &c. 
 t Murat. Antiquit. Ital. Diss. 6. 
 I Doniz. cap. 5. 
 
 Extat castus ita quod quodam tempore quidam 
 
 Pcrversi vane pro quadara debilitate 
 
 Hortabantur eum stuprum committere secnm, 
 
 Quod pracsul tractans jussit deducere partam 
 
 Quippe luparn quamdani, prius ignem ponere mandans 
 
 Ante smim stratum : videt ignem flammiferatum 
 
 Approprians junta dum flammas sensit abundaus 
 
 In lacrymis clanrat ; vac, vac mihi si modo raram 
 
 Flammiculam vilem nequeo sufferre, perire 
 
 Si me contingat Barathri flaimnam, miser : illaur 
 
 Quomodo sufferre potero?
 
 186 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 sortie out of the wood with his men, attacked the 
 enemy, re-established the fight, and finally defeated 
 them. This victory, however, proved fatal to him ; a 
 wound which he received on this occasion having 
 brought him slowly to the tomb. The riches of Boni- 
 face, his more than royal pomp, and luxury of ostenta- 
 tion, were displayed in his second nuptials with Beatrice, 
 daughter of Frederic, Duke of Lorraine, after the death 
 of his first wife Richilda*. He went to receive 
 Beatrice with a most sumptuous train ; his horses, 
 if we are to believe Donizone t> having been shod with 
 silver. He conducted his wife into Lombardy, where, 
 according to the customs of those times, he kept a 
 public table for three months, at which not only the 
 noble foreigners, but all descriptions of people, were 
 wont to assemble : vulgar and coarse entertainments and 
 buffooneries, adapted to the rudeness of the times, 
 were the spirit of these amusements ; gold and silver 
 adorned the tables, to which the viands were carried on 
 beasts of burden ; sweet-scented spices were crumbled 
 by force of mills, and there were even wells of wine, 
 where every one could quench his thirst out of pails of 
 silver. Although such descriptions may be thought ex- 
 aggerated, we must nevertheless infer that the magnifi- 
 cence of these nuptials greatly surprised Italy: many 
 lands and castles, some in Lorraine, others in the 
 Brcscian territory, were brought in dowry to the 
 Marquis of Tuscany by Beatrice. The present too of 
 three hundred horses, and as many goshawks, made 
 by Albert, his Viscount or Vicar of Mantua, to the 
 emperor Henry, when he came to Italy, excited the 
 
 * She was daughter of Gisalbert, Earl of the sacred Palace in 
 Italy. 
 
 t Cap. 9. Vita Mathil. Doniz.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 187 
 
 admiration of this prince, who deduced the riches of the 
 principal from those of his vicar*. The extraordinary 
 riches of Boniface may excite our astonishment; but 
 besides the cities and castles which he possessed in this 
 province, he held many ecclesiastical lands f, and of 
 others he made a vile traffic, by conferring them for 
 money. It is true that every year he was accustomed 
 to visit the celebrated monastery of Pomposa, and there 
 make solemn confession and penitence for his sins, not 
 without offering rich gifts to that church J ; sometimes 
 publicly submitting to the discipline of the whip from 
 the holy Abbe" Guido, before the Altar . He died a 
 violent death in a very advanced age. Passing through 
 a wood between Mantua and Cremona, he was 
 wounded with a poisoned arrow by a concealed traitor, 
 and buried in Mantua. The Duchess Beatrice, was 
 left with three children, viz., Frederic, Beatrice, and 
 Matilda; and the possession of the vast paternal do- 
 minions falling to the widow, the children being left in 
 her custody, she became a very important person. An 
 alliance with the duchess was sought by the most pow- 
 
 * Donizone relates that the emperor Henry, having invited 
 Albert to dinner, the latter refused, saying that he had never 
 dared to seat himself at the table of Boniface; that having 
 obtained afterwards the permission from him, and received as 
 presents from the emperor many furs, all these gifts he presented 
 to his principal, together with one of a stag, full of money. These 
 facts are adapted to shew the customs and manner of thinking of 
 those times. Certainly the power of Boniface had always given 
 umbrage to the emperor Henry III., and finally led to his arrest. 
 
 f Murat. Antiq. Ital. Diss. 36. 
 
 t Doniz. 
 
 Fratres ac Abbas ejus delicta lavabant 
 Ecclesiee quorum solito dabat optima dona, 
 Rex denim nullus dedit ibi meliora. 
 
 S Doniz.
 
 188 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 erful nobles. It was on this account that Geoffrey, 
 Duke of Lorena, secretly desired the treaty, and arriving 
 in Italy, married Beatrice, and concerted at the same 
 time the union of his son Geoffrey, (the Hunchback), 
 with his daughter-in-law Matilda, then at a very tender 
 age. The power of the dukes and marquises of Tus- 
 cany often excited the jealousy of the emperors : it is 
 not, therefore, surprising that this matrimonial alliance, 
 mysteriously concluded without his knowledge, should 
 have displeased the emperor Arrigo, when he saw a 
 crafty and aspiring man like Geoffrey, possess himself 
 of the dominions of the deceased Boniface without his 
 approbation. 
 
 The emperor in the mean time arrived in Mantua, but 
 Geoffrey did not presume to present himself to him ; he 
 sent, however, his wife Beatrice to make intercession, 
 and to promise fidelity. In spite of her safe passport, 
 she was detained by the emperor, who, in order to 
 assure himself still more of Geoffrey, endeavoured by 
 every art to get possession of the younger son of 
 Beatrice. The young prince dying about this time, and 
 shortly before his sister Beatrice, all the hopes of this 
 house, together with the rich dominions, were consoli- 
 dated in Matilda. The emperor passed into Tuscany, 
 and had a meeting with the Pontiff Vittorio, who as- 
 sembled a council in Florence Geoffrey, in the mean 
 time, had retired into Lorraine, while the emperor, fear- 
 ful of his designs and activity, did not delay returning 
 into Germany. Beatrice remained a prisoner until his 
 death, which happened the following year, and his son 
 Henry IV., as yet a boy, having been proclaimed king 
 of Germany, by means of the pope, pardoned the 
 enemies of his father at the intercession of the same 
 pontiff, and among them Geoffrey, and set his wife
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 189 
 
 Beatrice at liberty. Geoffrey formed a friendship with 
 the pope, and invited him to Florence, where, upon 
 arrival, he created his brother Frederic a cardinal, by 
 the title of St. John Chrysostomus. The pontiff died 
 whilst they were carrying the new cardinal to Rome to 
 take possession of his church. He was then 
 created pope by the name of Stephen IX. with 
 universal applause, which gave an increase of power in 
 Italy to his ambitious brother Geoffrey. They soon 
 prepared to profit by these events particularly during the 
 minority of the new king of Germany, Henry IV. 
 Already had the treasures of the sanctuary of Mount 
 Casino been carried secretly to Rome by order of the 
 pope, to the great annoyance of the monks, but scruples 
 which hence arose in his conscience induced him to 
 send back the treasure, and his death, which happened 
 shortly afterwards, broke the vast designs of his brother, 
 who aspired to the kingdom of Italy and the imperial 
 crown. Having returned to Lorraine, he experienced 
 various vicissitudes, and at his death left a son by his 
 first marriage, named Geoffrey, or Gozzelone the 
 Crooked, who, either before or at this time married 
 the only daughter of Boniface and Beatrice, the cele- 
 brated Countess Matilda. It appears, however, that her 
 husband had little influence in the government of the 
 states of his wife, as on various occasions we find, in the 
 acts of sovereignty exercised at this time in Tuscany and 
 elsewhere, the conjoint names of Beatrice and Matilda. 
 The part which the latter had taken in favour of the 
 emperor, in the controversies between him and the pope, 
 could not render him very acceptable to his wife or to 
 his mother-in-law, the declared partisans of the pontiff. 
 It has been doubted whether the marriage of these par- 
 ties had ever been consummated ; yet it is certain that
 
 190 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 after a short time Matilda lost her husband and mother. 
 The former was killed in a very extraordinary manner *. 
 The Countess Beatrice, a. woman adorned with many 
 moral virtues, had died in the city of Pisa; equally 
 religious and prudent, her memory was long venerated, 
 and her sepulchral urn still remains in the Campo Santo, 
 where once were the barbarous verses, 
 
 Quamvis peccatrix sum domna vocata Beatrix 
 In tumulo missa jaceo quoc comitissaf. 
 
 Matilda, now mistress of rich and powerful dominions 
 in Tuscany and other parts of Italy, became particularly 
 celebrated for her attachment to the Holy See, and to 
 Gregory VII., in the tumultuous and sanguinary dis- 
 putes which in those times agitated the church and the 
 empire. Her religious charity might certainly incline 
 her to the church party, to which she was also united 
 by interest. According to the laws of those times, the 
 states of Bonifazio, her father, did not descend to the 
 female line ; and in order to be possessed even by the 
 males, the sanction of the emperor or of the king of 
 Italy was necessary. Matilda, deprived of these rights, 
 had every thing to fear on the part of the emperor ; she 
 was nevertheless one of the most faithful supporters of 
 Gregory VII., who, arrogating to himself the power of 
 giving and taking away kingdoms, awakened a dispute 
 which for a long time scandalously divided the Christian 
 world, and often produced the most bloody scenes. If 
 that pretension at any time excessively increased the 
 authority of the pontiffs, it greatly contributed to di- 
 
 * At the time he was at the common place which had commu- 
 nication with the public street, a traitor threw an arrow at him 
 from an opposite building, pierced by which, he shortly after died. 
 Murat. Ann. d'ltal. 
 
 f V. Morroua, Pisa Ilhutrata, &c.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 191 
 
 minish it, by exciting the jealousy of the sovereigns 
 against the power of Rome. The dispute may be 
 said to have begun with the election of Gre- 
 gory VII. to the pontificate. He had already signa- 
 lized himself for a long time in maintaining the preten- 
 sions of the imperial city, and promoted, by his autho- 
 rity and eloquence, the bull of Stephen IX., in which it 
 was pretended to exempt the ecclesiastics from the se- 
 cular forum, and from taxes of any kind imposed by the 
 laity. He had strenuously maintained the assertion, 
 that neither the emperor or other sovereigns possessed 
 the right to interfere in the election of the pope. We 
 discover also in his character a certain imperious will in 
 opposing the determinations of the holy Abbe of Monte 
 Casino Desiderio, who had enjoined penitence on the 
 young Abbe" of the island of Tremiti for having caused 
 the eyes of four ecclesiastics to be plucked out, upon the 
 bare suspicion of a conspiracy. This learned, pious, 
 but fierce cardinal, being elected pope by the name of 
 Gregory VII., demanded the approbation of Henry; 
 and if we credit the statement of the Cardinal of Ar- 
 ragon *, that Gregory in writing to the emperor, begged 
 him not to approve his election, otherwise he could not 
 tolerate his excesses, we must admire the virtue of 
 Henry in confirming it. The air of superiority which 
 he assumed over other sovereigns is apparent in his 
 letter, full of denunciations, to Philip, King of France, 
 for having on some occasions caused large sums of 
 money to be paid to the Italian merchants. 
 
 The first act of hostility between Henry and the pope 
 took place soon after the death of the Duchess Beatrice. 
 One of the principal causes of dispute was the collation 
 
 * Vita Gregorit VII.
 
 192 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 of ecclesiastical benefices, a privilege which the secular 
 princes actually exercised, and which the pontiff also 
 claimed. Gregory had early held a council in Rome ; 
 and, determined to pursue vigorous and bold measures, 
 had publicly and expressly forbidden what preceding 
 pontiffs modestly attempted to reform. The secular 
 princes were unwilling to relinquish a right of so much 
 importance, and which so greatly increased the power of 
 those who exercised it under a feudal constitution. In 
 spite of the resolutions of the council, Henry continued 
 to exercise the right as heretofore; and Gregory, after 
 having written letters full of rigorous admonitions, des- 
 patched two legates to the emperor, threatening 
 him with the spiritual thunders of the holy see, in 
 , case he persisted in his purpose. Henry caused a coun- 
 cil to be assembled in Worms, by which Gregory was 
 condemned and deposed *. The pontiff, apprized of this 
 measure, pursued a similar course against Henry, declar- 
 ing him to be excommunicated, and at the same time 
 absolving his subjects from their oath of allegiance. 
 Unfortunately for Henry, he had powerful enemies in 
 Germany, to whom the measures of the pope afforded 
 pretext for rebellion. Henry found himself at once 
 abandoned, not only by princes and soldiers, but even 
 by his own domestics. It is related that two of the 
 most faithful remained to serve him, the remainder fly- 
 ing from an excommunicated person as from one af- 
 flicted with the plague. He had recourse to entreaty, 
 and promised the pope to submit himself to the decision 
 of a diet which should be held in Augsburg ; but think- 
 ing, probably, that their decision would prove fatal to 
 him, he resolved to solicit the aid of the Italians. The 
 
 * Murat. Ann. d' Ital.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY 193 
 
 pope had marched from Rome, escorted by the Countess 
 Matilda, and on his arrival in Vercelli, learnt that Henry 
 had already arrived in Piedmont by another route. As 
 the imperial party was stronger in Italy than in Germany, 
 Gregory judged it most prudent to place himself in secu- 
 rity, and therefore shut himself up with Matilda in the 
 strong fortress of Canossa, where Henry sought to obtain 
 the forgiveness of the haughty pontiff, who, in conse- 
 quence of the repeated importunities of Matilda, th^ 
 humble prayers of the Marchioness Susa, Adelaide, mo- 
 ther-in-law of Henry, and of many princes and prelates 
 who interceded for his pardon, condescended at length to 
 admit him to his presence, and exacted from him the most 
 abject humiliation*. Canossa was surrounded by a triple 
 line of walls: in the month of January Henry was held for 
 three days in the second circle, from the morning until the 
 evening, despoiled of his royal insignia, covered with 
 abject garments, and bare-footed, in the most inclement 
 season, and compelled to fast for the same time: he was 
 afterwards received by the pope, to whom he promised 
 all that he wished. Gregory absolved him from the ex- 
 communication, but did not re-establish him on the 
 throne with full authority, leaving to the diet that 
 decision which he had not waited for before. This ex- 
 traordinary event equally excited the indignation of the 
 Italian princes against Gregory and Henry, the former 
 being accused of cruelty and pride, the latter of servility 
 and baseness, his enraged subjects proceeding so far as to 
 shut the gates of the city in the face of their unfortunate 
 sovereign. At length universal compassion was able to 
 accomplish more than general contempt. Animated by 
 numerous partisans, Henry assumed the royal ensigns, 
 
 * See Lamber. Scarafurgien. Chronon. Card, de Arag. Vita 
 Gregor. Doniz. Vita. Mathild., &c. 
 
 VOL. I. O
 
 194 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 and refusing to present himself at the diet, Ridolph, duke 
 of Swabia, was elected king. This measure displeased 
 Gregory, who contended that to himself alone* was 
 reserved the right of deciding to whom the crown of 
 Germany belonged. From the lands of the Countess 
 
 Matilda in Lombardy, where until now he had 
 1079. 
 
 lived, he returned to Rome and held a council, in 
 
 which it was determined to send legates into Germany, 
 to take cognizance of these affairs. In the mean time 
 Henry, having returned to Germany, and assembled a 
 small army, commenced hostilities against his rival, 
 which continued nearly two years. Ridolph, however, 
 having remained superior in a bloody engagement which 
 took place in January, forwarded an account of his suc- 
 cess to the pontiff, together with new accusations against 
 Henry. Determined by victory, the pope immediately 
 declared Ridolph king of Germany, on which occasion 
 he made use of that celebrated verse, 
 
 Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rudolpho. 
 
 He then renewed his excommunications against Henry, 
 condemning him, by virtue of them, to be always un- 
 successful in battlef. According to the assertion of 
 Sigiberto, the pontiff predicted even his death. Certain 
 it is that he prophesied his downfall J; but fate gave the 
 lie to all his presages. Henry at length became the 
 conqueror, and his rival was killed in a great battle in 
 
 * Lib. 4. Ep. 23, 24, 28. 
 
 t Thus he expresses himself: " Ipse autem Henricus cum suis 
 fautoribus in omni congressione belli nullas vires, nullamque in 
 vita sua victoriam obtineat, <fcc." 
 
 t Gregor. VII. Epist da lib. 8. " Nefandorum perturbationem 
 inerita ruina cito sedandam, et Sanctae Ecclesiee pacem et securi- 
 tatem (sicut, et de divina dementia confidentes promittiraus) 
 proxime stabiliendam." Vide Baronio a Fleury.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 195 
 
 Germany. This accident much disconcerted the affairs 
 of the pontiff, who (as men judge always from events) 
 was severely censured. The affairs of Italy did not 
 improve in those parts where the friends of Henry 
 increased. The Countess Matilda had assembled a 
 powerful force to oppose his favourers, but the two 
 armies meeting in the Mantuan territory, that of Matilda 
 was entirely defeated*. These victories threw the pon- 
 tiff and Matilda into great embarrassment : already had 
 the conqueror, greedy of revenge, penetrated into Italy; 
 the states of Matilda were the first to suffer from the 
 storm, and Florence was closely invested; but 
 resisting valorously from April until the 21st of 
 July, Henry was finally obliged to retire towards Rome, 
 which he also besieged. The partisans of Henry in 
 Lombardy took up arms against Matilda, and Lucca, 
 at that time the principal city of Tuscany, rebelled 
 against her. The siege of Rome terminated like that of 
 Florence: the unwholesome air of the Roman country 
 proved more injurious to Henry than the arms of the 
 Romans f ; and a fatal epidemic arising in his army, he 
 was obliged to depart. Returning to Tuscany and Lom- 
 bardy he occupied the lands of Matilda, who, leaving him 
 master of the open places, retired within her fortresses, 
 and continued to afford assistance to the pope. Henry, 
 after various useless attempts, finally entered into Rome 
 two years after. this expedition, the gates having been 
 opened to him by the people, and Gregory taking 
 refuge in the Adrian mole^:. He soon caused another 
 pope to be consecrated, called Clement III., who 
 
 * Card, de Arag. Vit. Gregor. Barthold. Costantien in Chron. 
 f Card, de Aragon. Vita Gregor. VII. 
 
 t Annales Saxon, apud Echard Carden. de Arag. Vita Greg. VII. 
 
 02
 
 196 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 solemnly bestowed on him the imperial crown ; but 
 receiving information, that the celebrated duke Robert 
 Guiscardo, with a powerful army, was hastening to 
 liberate the pope, Henry retired to Siena. In the mean 
 time Robert, either by force or treason, entered into 
 Rome, and his undisciplined army, composed of Nor- 
 mans and Saracens, set fire to various parts of the city, 
 sacked it*, dishonoured the women, made slaves of 
 many Romans, and freed the pope, who, after so horrible 
 an event, not thinking himself secure in Rome, retired 
 under the auspices of Robert to Salerno, where he soon 
 died. Unspotted in his manners, rigid in discipline, 
 and endowed with many ecclesiastical virtues, he is 
 reckoned with reason among the most distinguished of 
 those who have occupied the pontifical throne ; but 
 having been the first to arrogate to himself the right of 
 exercising an abuse of power, which awakened a war 
 between the priesthood and the empire, and proved fatal 
 to both parties, he has not received the entire approba- 
 tion of an enlightened posterity. He is nevertheless 
 acknowledged to have been actuated by good faith, and 
 his zeal, however indiscreet, was dictated by a conviction 
 of his rights. 
 
 Matilda still continued to resist the progress of Henry. 
 His army was already devastating her lands, and Castel 
 de Sorbara was besieged. The Countess being informed 
 that the siege was carried on with great negligence, ex- 
 pedited quietly her little army, which, surprising the 
 besiegers in the night, dispersed them, making many 
 prisoners. A woman so celebrated as the Princess 
 
 Bertold. Costantiensis in Chron. I.andul. Senior. Hist. Mediol. 
 lib. 4.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 197 
 
 Matilda, and the mistress of so many states, was desired 
 in matrimony by many of the princes of Europe, 
 and among the rest, by Robert, son of the cele- 
 brated William, Duke of Normandy, called the con- 
 queror, from the conquest which he afterwards made of 
 the kingdom of England ; but through the mediation of 
 Pope Urban II., Matilda entered into a new marriage 
 with Guelph V., a valorous prince, and son of Guelph 
 IV. Duke of Bavaria. By this union the party of the 
 Pope acquired additional strength; and Henry, after 
 having laid waste the lands in Lorraine* which he pos- 
 sessed by inheritance from his mother Matilda, returned 
 to Italy. The princess and her husband retired to a 
 fortified city. Henry in the mean time took possession of 
 Mantua; but if he often proved superior to his enemies 
 in arms, they conquered him by resorting to artifice. 
 The favourers of Matilda and Guelph attempted to ex- 
 cite discord between Henry and his son Conrad, to 
 whom they proffered the crown of Italy, in order to in- 
 duce him to rebel against his father^. The latter, ap- 
 prized of their intentions, caused Conrad to be arrested, 
 but having escaped from prison, and taken refuge 
 in the court of the Countess, he was sent to the 
 pontiff, who absolved him from his allegiance ; and hav- 
 ing united in his favour many Italian princes, he was 
 created King of Italy, and received the crown from the 
 
 * Doniz. Vita Mathild. 
 
 t The reports invented to slander Henry were most extraordi- 
 nary. It was said, among other calumnies, that Henry , having 
 put in prison the wife of Adelaide, permitted many to use violence 
 toward her, and that he wished to force her own son to commit 
 the same offence, who, upon refusal incurred the hatred of his 
 father, &c.
 
 198 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 Archbishop of Milan*. The latter measure had a 
 powerful effect on the heart of Henry, who attempted to 
 put himself to death. Nor did the artifices of Matilda 
 stop here : in order to make him taste new bitterness, 
 she secretly contrived the flight of his wife Adelaide, who, 
 having escaped by her means from a prison in Verona, 
 sought the protection of the Countess t, by whom she 
 was instigated to present herself at the council of Plai- 
 sance, in the presence of two hundred bishops, and more 
 than 30,000 of the laity. Before this numerous as- 
 sembly Adelaide exposed the wrongs she had suffered, 
 which failed not to be fully believed, although they might 
 have been exaggerated. Conrad, the new king of Italy, 
 met the pontiff on this occasion, to whom he promised 
 the imperial crown, after exacting from him a solemn 
 pledge that he would renounce the right of ecclesiastical 
 investitures, which had been the principal subject of dis- 
 cord between the pontiff and Henry. 
 
 The ambitious Matilda had contracted with Guelph a 
 marriage only of appearance. It has been already seen 
 that even her first husband had probably been only so by 
 name ; and perhaps it was not difficult for Guelph to 
 subject himself to this law, neither the beauty or the age 
 of Matilda being such as to render her person peculiarly 
 attractive J. This had been merely a political marriage, 
 from which both parties expected to derive advantage. 
 The Duke of Bavaria had furnished Matilda with pow- 
 erful support against Henry : Guelph, on the other side, 
 had hopes of becoming heir to the states of his wife, the 
 
 * Landulph. Sen. His. Mediol. 
 t Doniz. Vita Matild. Ann. Sax. 
 
 I When she married Guelph she was in her forty-fourth year. 
 Of her beauty none of her panegyrists make mention.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 199 
 
 reversion of which had been secured to him at her 
 death, by virtue of the marriage contract. But in this 
 he was greatly deluded ; Matilda having, in the year 
 J077, made a secret donation of all her states to 
 the pontifical seat. The power of her enemy Henry 
 having ceased, a husband became burdensome to Ma- 
 tilda ; and Guelph, apprized of her secret donation, ex- 
 pressed his indignation at the manner in which he hatl 
 been deceived. Meanwhile the unfortunate Henry, 
 having retired into Germany, to revenge himself on 
 Conrad, caused his second son to be elected king, and 
 had the mortification of seeing even him seduced by his 
 enemies, who, under the plea of religion ; succeeded in 
 advising him to detach himself from an excommu- 
 
 1104 
 
 nicated father; a German diet gave him the crown : 
 the unfortunate father did not long survive this blow, and 
 died in Liege at the age of fifty-six, after having 
 passed the greater portion of his life midst civil 
 tempests and the tumults of war. The valour of Henry 
 cannot be denied ; yet this merit served only to inflame 
 a despotic disposition, which the customs of those times 
 were not calculated to diminish. He had the misfor- 
 tune to have a formidable rival in the pontiff, Gregory 
 VII. A mortal war took place between those princes, 
 and both were equally the victims of their animosity. 
 Gregory died almost deserted in Rome, after having 
 witnessed the pillage of the city by his enemy. Amidst 
 the conflicts of these rivals, Matilda, preserved her states 
 and her power : she survived them a long time, and ac- 
 quired the reputation of having quelled, at least in Italy, 
 the faction of Henry. His unfortunate father had been 
 already revenged by Matilda herself for the rebellion of 
 Conrad, who enjoyed the fruit of his crimes for a short 
 season. Although he is celebrated by the historians of
 
 200 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 that age, and by the ecclesiastics, as a virtuous young 
 man, and by one writer compared to an angel *, he did 
 not preserve the favour of Matilda, who wishing to govern 
 as a queen, became extremely jealous of his power as 
 king of Italy : she respected him as long as he served to 
 promote her designs ; but in proportion as the fear of 
 his father ceased, her respect for the son diminished. 
 He saw snatched from him by this ambitious woman 
 even the slightest prerogatives of the Italian crown, and 
 retired full of disgust to Florence, where he shortly ended 
 his days. That he died of poison, which Matilda caused 
 to be administered to him, has been conjectured from the 
 wickedness of those times, but not demonstrated '[". His 
 brother was desirous of adding the crown of Italy to 
 that of Germany ; and adopting the policy of his prede- 
 cessors, led a powerful army into this unhappy country, 
 which, from its fertility and riches, has too frequently 
 attracted the avidity of foreigners, while its division into 
 so many small powers, of different interests, has rendered 
 it unable to present a uniform and compact force to 
 resist invasion. The march of the young Henry into Italy 
 was marked with desolation J: passing through Tuscany, 
 he arrived in Arezzo, and finding the citizens divided into 
 two parties, and disputing as to the site of a cathedral, 
 he took upon himself the right of making the decision, 
 which, not proving satisfactory to the contending parties, 
 
 * Uspergien. 
 
 t " Cum pervenisset Florentiam rex ipse prudens, sapiens, et 
 decorus facie (proh dolor !) adolescens, accepta potione ab Aviano 
 Medico Mathildis. Comitissee vitam finivit." Landolfus. His. 
 Mediolan. 
 
 J Pandulphus Pisanus in vita Pasch. He passed through Italy, 
 pressing out blood and gold.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 201 
 
 he razed a great part of the city to the ground *. Ma* 
 tilda, who gave umbrage to all the kings of Italy, and 
 with whom all excited suspicion, retired into the fortress 
 of Canossa, from whence she sent a deputation to com- 
 pliment Henry ; but a violent tumult occurred in Rome, 
 where the latter had been affectionately received by the 
 pontiff. After having mutually embraced and kissed 
 each other, the pontiff called upon Henry to renounce 
 the collation of ecclesiastical benefices, before bestowing 
 upon him the imperial crown ; and on his refusal to 
 comply with this condition, a convulsion arose, in which 
 the pontiff was arrested by the Germans; at that time the 
 imperialists, and the Romans resorted to arms : various 
 rencontres took place in consequence, and Henry left 
 Rome, carrying with him the pontiff as a prisoner f, who, 
 finally ceding his pretensions, was restored to liberty, and 
 crowned Henry V. as Emperor. 
 
 The fame of the Countess Matilda had excited a high 
 curiosity in the Emperor, and as she did not deem it 
 prudent, while Italy was at the discretion of the imperial 
 army, to leave her strong places in Lombardy, Henry 
 determined to visit her in the fortress of Bibbianello, 
 upon the Reggiano, where, received by Matilda with 
 royal magnificence, he remained three days ; and as the 
 latter, among other languages, spoke also the German, 
 he conversed with her without an interpreter, and, highly 
 struck with the superiority of her talents, not only 
 confirmed her in the possession of her states, but re- 
 garded her with filial respect, and, calling her by the 
 
 - 
 
 * Otto Frisingensis Chron. lib. 7. 
 
 -f Usperg in Chron. Otto Frisingen. Pandulph. Pisan. in Vita 
 Pasch.
 
 202 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 name of mother, declared her vice-regent of Lombardy*. 
 She maintained, during all the tempests which agitated 
 Italy, a preponderating interest until her death, a year 
 before which she had the happiness to recover the city of 
 Mantua, which had rebelled from her since the year 
 1090. Finally, she terminated a life full of agi- 
 tation and of glory. Alike distinguished for her 
 piety and wisdom, her political dissimulation and artifice 
 may be pardoned ; and if the assertion of an ancient 
 writer may be credited, she merited the appellation of 
 protectress of letters t Her name has been honoured 
 by posterity, and in the seventeenth century Urban VIII. 
 caused a magnificent mausoleum to be erected to her 
 memory in the church of St. Peter. 
 
 * " Cui Liguri regni regimen dedit in vice regis, nomine quam 
 matris verbis clans vocitavit," &c. Doniz. Vita Mathilde. 
 f Benven. da Imola Comm. di Dante.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 REFLECTIONS UPON THE VICISSITUDES, MANNERS, AND 
 CUSTOMS OF THE PAST AGES. JUDGMENTS OF GOD. 
 DUELS. TRUCE OF GOD. STATE OF ITALY IN THE 
 TENTH CENTURY. KNIGHTS ERRANT. END OF THE 
 FEUDAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 JT ROM the ruin of the empire of the west to the 
 end of the reign of the Countess Matilda, we have 
 passed through six ages of misfortune for Italy: the 
 Goths, Lombards, and Franks were alike distinguished 
 for their ignorance and barbarity, and treated the con- 
 quered nations as herds of beasts. The melancholy 
 history of these times presents one scene of desolation ; 
 and as we have observed in a former part of this volume, 
 upon the assertion of a great historian*, there has never 
 been a time in which a larger portion of the human race 
 have lived more happily than for about a century after 
 the establishment of the Roman empire; so another 
 historian, equally celebratedf, has maintained that were 
 we to search for a period in which a great part of man- 
 kind have been the most oppressed and unhappy, we 
 should find it in the ruin of the Roman empire of the 
 west, and after that epoch. In times of civilization, 
 however cruel and atrocious war may prove, there are 
 nevertheless certain limits beyond which the ferocity of 
 nations, civilized by education, cannot extend. The 
 Huns, Vandals, Goths, and Lombards knew no re- 
 straint : in their incursions they spared neither sex, age. 
 
 * Gibbon. 
 
 t Robertson, Introduction to the Life of Charles V.
 
 204 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 or rank ; those who resisted, and who did not resist, 
 were equally cut to pieces ; in the first fury of their 
 invasions, cities were sacked and set on fire, the inha- 
 bitants made slaves*, and the country laid waste, in 
 order that the wretched inhabitants, who had saved them- 
 selves in mountainous places, might perish from hunger ; 
 whole provinces were converted into deserts, and nations 
 exterminated. Many provinces of the Roman empire 
 more or less suffered from this scourge, too frequently 
 followed by pestilence, and faminef, and some of them 
 still feel the effects of it. The coast of Africa upon the 
 Mediterranean, celebrated for the three hundred popu- 
 lous cities at the time of the Romans, was reduced on 
 
 * In the sacking of Rome by Genseric, shortly before the sub- 
 version of the empire, and forty-five years after that of Alaric, the 
 city was still full of the first nobility and the most opulent persons ; 
 a great part of whom, deprived of all their wealth, were led as 
 slaves into Africa. Nothing that had the appearance of gold or 
 silver was spared by the Vandals ; the statues were melted, and 
 even the celebrated roof of metal which covered the capitol, the 
 gilding of which and of the whole temple had cost five million of 
 sequins, &c. Donati, Roma Antiqua. 
 
 f Consult Robertson's History of Charles V. introd. note 5, 
 where we see too sorrowful proofs of our assertion. Also Murat. 
 Ant. Ital. Dissert. 21, and Paul Diaconus, who, on the invasion of 
 the Lombards, says, " Non erat tune virtus^Romanis ut resistere 
 possent, quia et pestilentia plurimos in Liguria et Venetia extinx- 
 erat, et fames nimia ingruens universam Italiam devastabat." The 
 most terrible plague in the annals of the human race, began in the 
 year 543; it spread itself through all the then known world, lasted 
 fifty-two years, and destroyed nearly the half of mankind. It had 
 been preceded by five years of the most horrible dearth, in which 
 Dario, Archbishop of Milan, who was a spectator, attests that 
 many mothers devoured their own children. Procopius, himself, 
 an ocular witness, asserts that in Piceno alone more than fifty 
 thousand persons died, and that in the territory of Rimini two 
 women, left alone in a house, devoured seventeen men, killing them 
 at night, one by one.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 205 
 
 the invasion of the Vandals, to a sandy desert; and 
 Thrace, one of the most cultivated Roman provinces, 
 shared a similar fate. We have seen how often Italy 
 suffered from the irruptions of these barbarians. From 
 that flourishing state, which, at the time of the Roman 
 power, had rendered her the most cultivated and populous 
 of countries, she had fallen into a state of the greatest 
 misery, and presented a spectacle of ruined and burnt 
 cities, the soil became covered with wild plants, the nume- 
 rous wild beasts remained in quiet possession of the ruins, 
 the waters of rivers, not being regulated, inundated a 
 vast extent of territory*, by which the air was infected ; 
 indeed some lands are not yet recovered from the effects 
 of this neglect which has continued to the present day, 
 and particularly the neighbourhood of Rome once so 
 smiling and so peopled f. The assertion of pope Gelasius 
 that the human race was almost annihilated in Italy and 
 Tuscany, although we may think it exaggerated, is 
 expressive of the desolation of those times ; nor are the 
 words of an illustrious pontiff of the following century 
 much different from it J. The repeated inroads of so 
 many barbarous nations which succeeded each other 
 before the unfortunate inhabitants could have time to 
 take breath, must in fact have reduced Italy to this 
 wretched state. These barbarians however began finally 
 to establish themselves ; first the Goths, then the Lorn- 
 
 * Murat. Antiq. Ital. Disser. 21. 
 
 t Baron. Ann. 496. Gelas. Epist. ad Andronicum. 
 
 J S. Greg. (Mag. lib. 3. cap. 38, Dialog.) thus expresses himself: 
 " Mox effera Longobardorum gens in nostram cervicem grassata 
 est . . . . depopulate urbes, eversa castra, concrematae ecclesise, 
 destructa monasteria virorum, ac feminarum, desolata praedia, 
 atque ab omni cultura destituta in solitudine vacat terra, nullus 
 hanc possessor habitat, occuparunt bestise loca quse prius multitudo 
 hominum tenebat."
 
 206 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 bards came with their families to take possession of the 
 territory, making use of it as their own*, enslaving the 
 inhabitants, and making them work as beasts of burden, 
 scarcely giving them necessary food. We have already 
 seen what the feudal government was, and how grievous 
 to the people, who, besides the horrible oppression they 
 endured, were however very degenerate. When we 
 choose (says one of these barbarians) to give the most 
 opprobrious name to an enemy we call him a Roman f. 
 Thus fortune, by a strange vicissitude, revenged these 
 people for the contempt, in which they had been once 
 held by the Romans. The life of these unhappy persons 
 was valued less than that of beasts of burden, and in the 
 shameful penal code of those times we find the life of a 
 man fixed at a lower price than that of a hawk or a war 
 horse : the manners were the most ferocious ; at every 
 page in history we meet with sovereigns, popes, ecclesi- 
 astics, poisoned, strangled, or stabbed ; and what is still 
 more revolting to a mind civilized by education, is the 
 indifference with which such actions were received and 
 even applauded by the most religious persons. A long 
 list might be made of the assassins, poisoners, &c., but 
 
 * Sometimes not all the land was occupied, under Odoacer 
 only the third part. It appeared strange and unjust to the pastor 
 of Mantua (and it certainly was so) that a very small portion of 
 Italian territory should be given to the veteran soldiers of Rome. 
 (Virg. Eel. I.) 
 
 O Licida, vivi pervenimus, advena nostris 
 Quod nunquam voriti sunius, ut possessor Agelli 
 Diceret : haze mea stint, veteres migrate coloni. 
 
 And this too was but a very small evil in comparison of the 
 former. 
 
 t In hoc solo, id est, Romani nomine, quidquid ignobilitatis, 
 quidquid limiditatis, quidquid avaritiee, quidquid luxuriae, quid- 
 quid mendacii, imo quidquid vitiorum est comprehendentes. 
 Luitprandii Legatio apud Murat. Script. Return Ital. vol. 2. par. 2.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 207 
 
 a single fact will give an idea of the remainder. Mau- 
 rice, the emperor of the east is described by contem- 
 porary writers as a wise and good prince : the usurper 
 Phocas however caused his children and his brother to 
 be put to death one by one before his eyes, and the 
 unhappy father during this tragic spectacle could only 
 offer up words of patience and resignation to the will of 
 heaven*. And still (who would believe it?) a re- 
 spectable pontiff, Gregory, rejoices at the ruin of Mau- 
 ricef, and calls the reign of Phocas very happy. Nor 
 did the profession of persons devoted to religion soften 
 their fierceness. The bishops, the abbots, exercised the 
 profession of arms, so well adapted to encourage that 
 sanguinary character they had inherited from the age ; 
 we frequently find the patriarchs of Aquileia, the bishops 
 of Cologne and Augsburg, the abbots of Fulda, and 
 many others, at the head of an army wielding the sword 
 better than they wore the gown ; whence their atrocious 
 actions, even in time of peace, do not excite our astonish- 
 ment. A question little intelligible to the uninitiated in 
 theology, upon the single or double will in Jesus Christ, 
 had formed a division : and excited movements in the 
 people who grow still warmer upon subjects they do not 
 understand : the emperor Constantine had wisely pro- 
 hibited disputes upon the questioned opinion. Not only 
 did Martin V. send forth his fulminations against this 
 wise decree, but the pontiff Theodore, repairing to the 
 sepulchre of St. Peter, poured out some drops from the 
 
 * He exclaimed always, " Justus es, Domine, et rectum judicium 
 tuum." Murat. Ann. d' Ital. 
 
 f He lifts up his hands to heaven, speaking to the wife of Phocas, 
 " Quod tarn dura longi temporis pondera cervicibus nostris amota 
 snnt." And then turning towards Phocas himself, tells him 
 " Quiescat felicissimis temporibus vestris universa respublica," &c.
 
 208 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 consecrated cup into the inkstand, and wrote with this 
 sacred ink the condemnation of the monothelites or 
 assertors of a single wish*. Nor did Stephen VI. 
 commit an act of less profanation towards Formoso 
 his predecessor, a pontiff very much esteemed. The 
 latter had the misfortune to have been in those times 
 of faction of a sect inimical to Stephen. He was 
 now dead and his ashes reposed in peace, but Stephen 
 chose to vent his fury upon his body. Under the 
 pretext of the too common and tolerated abuse of 
 having passed from one bishopric to another, he ordered 
 the body to be taken from the ground, and having pub- 
 licly degraded it by a ridiculous ceremony, he directed it 
 to be thrown into the Tiber, declaring all the ecclesias- 
 tical appointments made by himf as null and void. 
 Shortly afterwards this same ferocious pontiff was 
 himself put in prison, and strangled. It would be too 
 tedious a task to furnish a list of the popes and anti- 
 popes who have made war upon and mutually put each 
 other to death J : nor can the decent historian defile his 
 pen with the wickedness of the prostitutes Theodora 
 
 Murat. Ann. d'ltal. 
 
 f We cannot do otherwise than exclaim, 
 
 .... Tantae nc animis coelestibus ire ? 
 
 J Francone, a cardinal, causes Benedict VI. to be strangled, 
 and himself elected pope; he is expelled and flies to Constan- 
 tinople, after having despoiled the Vatican temple: having re- 
 turned to Rome when John XIV. had been elected, he imprisoned 
 him, and put him to death either by steel or poison. Benedict IX., 
 having fallen into the hatred of the Romans for his dishonesty, 
 thefts, and assassinations, is expelled, and Silvester III. elected; 
 after three months, however, Benedict returns, Silvester is driven 
 out, and the pontificate is afterwards sold to Gregory VI. The 
 scandalous proceedings of the church in these times are recounted 
 at length by Herman. Contra. Leo Ostiense Pope Viet. 3 dial. 3, &c.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 209 
 
 and Marozia who made Rome and the Vatican in- 
 famous by creating popes, whose principal merit was 
 their beauty of person*, or transmitted that august 
 office as it were by inheritance to their dissolute de- 
 scendants f. Not even the religious solitude of hermits 
 was the abode of tranquillity and virtue. We fre- 
 quently meet here not only with the intrigues of the 
 age, but even sanguinary tragedies, whence we percefve, 
 that the ferocious customs of the age J were not aban- 
 doned with the secular habits ; nor must we wonder at 
 it. Kings made a sale of bishoprics and abbeys, or 
 gave them in command to princes and princesses; 
 young men of an early age were seen decorated with the 
 
 * Luitprand relates that Marozia, enamoured with John, made 
 him first Bishop of Bologna, then of Ravenna, and afterwards 
 Pope John X. ; and, subsequently imprisoned by the opposite party, 
 he died of grief and ill usage. 
 
 t Octavian, son of Alberic and nephew of Marozia, caused 
 himself to be elected pope at the age of eighteen, and turned the 
 Vatican into a brothel. 
 
 J Let us give an example of it. Ralfred Abbot of Favfa is 
 poisoned by two Monks, Campone and Hildebrand; these two 
 villains disputed afterwards with money and arms for the dominion 
 of that Abbey and of others depending upon it. Hildebrand 
 having won the Marchigiani by money drives out Campone ; the 
 latter offers, however, a greater sum to them, and chases away 
 Hildebrand. Campone remained master of the field of battle, had 
 various sons and daughters, to whom he gave dowries from the 
 purse of the monastery. Alberic, a seigneur of Rome, drove 
 Campone away by force and sent an exemplary abbot, but the 
 monks who chose to have no reform, poisoned him. Another 
 Abbot, Adam, was sent by the son of Alberic, who, being ac- 
 cused of a rape bought his safety at a dear price of gold drawn 
 from the estates of the monastery. This is only a small example 
 of the facts which might be adduced, taken not from writers, 
 enemies of Rome, but from the most holy and attached to the 
 faith, as Muratori and others. 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 *10 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 gown who were ignorant even of the first articles of the 
 faith*. The chastity prescribed by the canons was 
 little reconcikable with the age and with such customs. 
 The scandalous life of the bishops and the rectors, who 
 did not blush at publicly maintaining prostitute women, 
 was almost necessarily tolerated, since when any re- 
 straint was wished to be put upon it, it gave rise to 
 disputes capable of agitating the whole ecclesiastical 
 body f. 
 
 The laws by which justice was administered were 
 conformable to the barbarity of the times ; before King 
 Rotari we have seen habit, or rather the caprice of the 
 judges, without any written laws decide upon the life 
 and property of the people : he it was who began to fix 
 this uncertain legislature by uniting the vague laws in 
 one code, and forming at least a stable basis upon which 
 judgments might be regulated : these laws savoured of 
 the barbarous ignorance of the age. The decisions 
 were already in use, so abusively called Judgments of 
 God, because barbarous presumption made it believed 
 God would suspend the order of nature at every nod 
 by working a miracle. The trials were made in various 
 ways; in cold water by immerging the accused and 
 expecting that, if guilty, he would swim, the water 
 refusing to receive him in its bosom ; every one may see 
 that the greatest villains were sure to be saved J. More 
 dangerous were the immersions of one hand in boiling 
 
 * See Otto, Bishop of Vercelli " de pressuris Ecclesiae." 
 
 t Landulfus senior, Arnolphus Rerum Italic, torn. 1.4. Murat. 
 Ann. d'ltal. 1059. 
 
 J The specific gravity of the human body is greater than that of 
 water, the difference, however, is very small ; whence men have 
 been found who swam naturally upon it, but they are mentioned 
 yery rarely, as for example, the celebrated Neapolitan priest.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 211 
 
 water, walking over red-hot ploughshares, or across the 
 flames ; nevertheless we frequently find these dangerous 
 trials carried into execution in face of the public with 
 facility. It is not difficult for human genius, stimulated 
 by necessity, to find out, on such important occasions 
 some secret for bearing the fire : it was reported that the 
 priests of Apollo passed without injury over burning 
 charcoal*. The wise Varro explains to us the pheno- 
 menon f and if such an experiment were of as much 
 importance in our days as in ancient times, I am certain 
 that ingenious metaphysicians would have made this 
 discovery, as we have already seen essays upon itj. 
 
 * Plin. lib. 8. Super ambustam ligni struem ambulantes non 
 aduri dicebantur. See too Virgil's .iEneid llth, verse 785. The 
 prayer of Arontes : 
 
 Sunime Deum, et Sancti custos Soractis Apollo, 
 Quern priori colinuis, cui pineus ardor acervo, 
 Pascetur, et medium, freti pietate per ignem 
 Cultores multa premiums vestigia pruna, &c. 
 
 f See Varro, quoted by Servius in the above passage of Virgil : 
 Quod medicamento plantas tingerent. 
 
 Albert. Mag., lib. de Mirabilibus, mentions also the manner of 
 touching fire without burning oneself. The extraordinary callosity 
 of the skin may cause us to bear the contact of burning iron 
 without pain. V. Holler, lib. XII. 10. Tactus, where he mentions 
 having seen the fluid glass of a furnace in the mountains of Basle 
 touched with impunity; and there we see many authors quoted 
 who assert the same, and particularly those who attest that at 
 Siam and Malabar there are persons who walk upon lighted 
 charcoal; upon the faith of Costeo also " de ignis medic prasfer 
 asserisce : Hibisci radicis portulacse et mercuriali. Succo manus 
 ad metallum ferendum idoneas redde." 
 
 t When the means of preserving buildings of wood from fire 
 was discussed, Lord Mahon in England caused it to be seen that a 
 sack of powder covered with a varnish of his invention thrown into 
 the fire did not burn. (Rosier Journal de Physique.) The most 
 difficult trial appear* to have been that of passing between two 
 
 P 2
 
 212 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 To trials so strange and fallacious, the probity, the faith, 
 the wealth of the most important men, the honour of 
 the most respectable nations, and of queens themselves, 
 were exposed. Duelling was another of these cruel 
 trials. The woman produced a champion, who, if 
 beaten, she was condemned without mercy. These 
 experiments were approved, not by the vulgar alone, but 
 the ecclesiastics, since both the forms and rites of these 
 judgments were found in their missals and rituals*. 
 The weaLness of the government was obliged to tolerate 
 private wars : in the midst of populous cities the ferocious 
 inhabitants, like savages in a state of nature, assumed 
 the right of vindicating by force their mutual injuries. 
 The citizens, therefore, walked with arms in various 
 groups, and every moment the streets were stained with 
 blood by their contentions. Custom, together with the 
 
 piles of burning wood: and therefore we have but few examples 
 and for the most part unsuccessful, as in the year 1102, in Milan, 
 in the year 1098, in Antioch, to prove the authenticity of the lance 
 with which Jesus Christ was wounded. And in fact, except in 
 the cases in which from the circumstances which have accom- 
 panied them it has visibly appeared that Providence chose to 
 manifest his wish as, besides various others, in that of St. Peter 
 called afterwards Jgnes Vallombrosano, who passed across two 
 piles of burning wood to prove that the bishop Teutone had been 
 elected simoniacally, (a trial made by order of S. Gio. Gualbert in 
 Florence,) infinite are the cases in which many impostors have 
 availed themselves of unlawful means to feign miracles and 
 profane religion. And although some of them may have suc- 
 ceeded, every one sees how the natural manner even may be 
 shewn of causing the pretended miracles to happen, without the 
 divine power lending its aid to authenticate such rash experiments. 
 
 f Murat. Antich. Ital. diss. 38. At a diet held in Verona, anno 
 987, it was decided that whenever there should arise a doubt upon 
 a legal document recourse should be had to duelling : in this diet 
 were many ecclesiastics.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 213 
 
 impotence of the laws had sanctioned such a bar- 
 barity * ; as, however, the exercise of public and private 
 affairs was interrupted by this continual war, religious 
 chanty and common interest invented the celebrated 
 Truce of God, almost generally received ; whereby it was 
 ordained there should be a truce from Thursday to 
 Monday, during which time no person could assault his 
 enemy t, but in the other days the field was open to 
 civil battles. In the mean time the interested eccle- 
 siastics made superstitious ignorance believe that the 
 best work by which crimes could be expiated and eternal 
 life gained, was to give their wealth to the monasteries ; 
 and in those ages and by this maxim they greatly 
 enriched themselves. Frequently various monasteries 
 disputed for the same prey with shameful contention . 
 At another time they spread a belief the end of the 
 world was approaching, particularly at the close of the 
 tenth century ; whence many rich and ignorant persons, 
 in order to gain heaven, gave their whole to the monas- 
 
 * V. Pier. Damiani, lib. 4. Epist. 17., and elsewhere. 
 
 f Landulfus senior, lib. 2. cap. 30. " Quatenus omnes homines 
 ab hora prima Jovis ad primam horam die lunae cujuscumque 
 culpee forent, sua negotia agentes permanerent: et quicumque hanc 
 legem offenderet videlicet Trequam Dei in exilio damnatus, &c., at 
 qui eamdem servaverit ab omnium peccatorum vinculis absolv.atur, 
 &c." This passage deserves reflection ; from which we learn the 
 strange customs of the times, and the universal belief that whoever 
 submitted to this sacred law might without scruple in the other 
 days kill his enemy, and nevertheless having observed the truce 
 " ab omnium peccatorum vinculis absolvetur." Various councils, 
 and the popes Urban II., Pascal II., and Innocent II. confirmed 
 the Truce of God. 
 
 I See the Dissertation 67 Antich. Ital. of Muratori, in which 
 thirteen motives are adduced for the immense riches of the eccle- 
 siastics.
 
 214 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 teries*. As the lords of those times were overbearing 
 and cruel, it is easy to suppose that many rich villains 
 upon their death-bed would have recourse to the expe- 
 dient they thought the most easy to expiate their 
 atrocious crimes, by leaving to the church the riches 
 which nature obliged them to abandon. 
 
 It must not be denied, that some holy ecclesiastic f, 
 some wise sovereign^, did not declaim against such 
 abuses, but without correcting them. But what painted 
 the brutality of the times in the most vivid colours was 
 the traffic made of men like beasts of burden. Pri- 
 soners of war, and persons on the sea, who had the 
 misfortune to meet with ships, the masters of which, 
 without war being declared against any, carried it on 
 with all where opportunity offered itself to rob, were 
 
 * Many of these donations have for principle, " Pro remedio 
 animse succ, others " adventante mundi termino." 
 
 f See Epistle of S. Jerome " ad Rusticum," &c. and in the 
 Epitaph of Nepos, " alii nummum addunt nummo, et matro- 
 narum opes venantur obsequiis : sunt ditiores monachi quam 
 seeculares." 
 
 t See Capitolari di Carlo Magno, ami. 811. " Inquirendum est si 
 ille ssECulum dimissum habeat, qui quotidie possessiones augcre quo- 
 libet modo qualibet arte non cessat, suadendo de coelestis regni bca- 
 titudine ; comminando de supplicio inferni, et sub nomine Dei, aut 
 cujualibet sancti, tarn divites, quam paupcres, qui simplicioris naturrc 
 sunt, si rebus suis expoliant, et legitimos eorum heeredes exheere- 
 ditant : a'c per hoc plerosque ad flagitia et scilera prppter inopiam, 
 ad quam per has fuerunt devoluti perpetranda compellunt; ut 
 quasi necessaria furta et latrocinia exerceant, cui paternarum rerum 
 haereditas, ne ad eum perveniret ab alio preerepta est." And below 
 " Quid de his dicendum qui quasi ad amorem Dei, et sanctorum, 
 give martyrum, sive confessorutn ossa et reliquias sanctorum cor- 
 porum de loco ad locum transferunt ; ibique novas Basilicas con- 
 itruunt, et quoscumque potuerunt ut res illic tradant instantissime 
 adhortantur."
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 215 
 
 taken and sold as slaves. The Venetians themselves 
 carried on this odious traffic, feeling no reluctance at 
 selling the unfortunate Christians to the Jews and 
 Saracens*. And what is more; the cruel fathers 
 themselves, not unlike the African negroes, sold their 
 own children, to redeem themselves from the penalty of 
 tributes. The country parts of Italy were so full of 
 robbers, that travellers were obliged to unite in caravans, 
 as in the deserts of Arabia. Customs so ferocious, so 
 dissolute, and brutal, in all ranks of persons, were 
 accompanied by the most stupid ignorance. All nations 
 were probably at one time savage ; but since the exist- 
 ence of historical documents, we have no account of 
 such profound ignorance in Italy as in the ages we have 
 mentioned. The barbarous conquerors attached a de- 
 gree of shame and degradation to the culture of letters, 
 by asserting that sciences tend to corrupt, unnerve, and 
 debase the mind ; and that those who are accustomed 
 to tremble under the whip of the pedagogue, will not 
 dare to look with intrepid eye upon a lance or a sword f. 
 Many of the greatest sovereigns and principal minis- 
 ters could neither write nor readj; and in the most 
 important affairs were accustomed to put the sign of the 
 
 * Murat. Antiq. Ital. diss. 30. 
 
 f Procop. de Bello Goth. lib. 1. Voltaire has made Loredano 
 speak the language of his age. (Tancredi, atto 1. sc. 1.) 
 
 Combien des citoyens aujourd'hni prevdnus 
 
 Pour cos arts s6duisauts que 1' Arabe cultive, 
 
 Arts trop pernicieux ; dout 1'eclat les captive, 
 
 A DOS vrais chevaliers noblement inconnus. 
 
 J In the ninth century, Herband, comes Palatii, although supreme 
 judge of the empire, did not know how to write his name. (Traite 
 de diplomatic par deux Benedictins.) Theodoric, one of the greatest 
 kings, although passionately fond of learned men, could not write 
 his name. The same is suspected of Charles the Great. What 
 shall we say of the rest ?
 
 216 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 cross in lieu of a signature. The very clergy, with whom 
 the little knowledge of these dark ages was to be found, 
 for the most part, vied in ignorance with the Seculars ; 
 and often unable to affix their signature to the acts of 
 councils, of which they were members*: and it became 
 necessary at times to suspend them from their functions, 
 on account of their ignorance f. It must not be denied, 
 that there were some learned fathers of the church, 
 even in these times ; but however they may have been 
 superior to their age, they betray a tint of barbarism in 
 their style, and are like scanty and weak lights in a desert 
 of darkness. Pavia, which was the seat of the Lom- 
 bard kingdom, and where consequently persons of the 
 greatest genius and education were assembled ; Rome, 
 the capital of the ecclesiastical kingdom, and where the 
 study of dogmas and of the Latin tongue, consecrated 
 already to religion, was introduced, were the cities 
 indeed the most learned : but what learning J ? Gre- 
 gory II. sending his legates to the sixth Ecumenic 
 Council, who also were chosen from the most learned, 
 clearly speaks of their ignorance, not only of good 
 letters, but even of the Holy Scriptures . All the know- 
 ledge of Pavia was confined to the study of grammar, of 
 
 * One of the questions put to whoever sought ecclesiastical 
 orders was, if he could read the gospel. An author of this age, with 
 a style worthy of him, thus reproaches the clergy : " Potius dediti 
 gulee, quam glossae, potius colligant libras quam legunt libros, 
 libentius intuentur Martham, quam Marcum, malunt legere in 
 Salmone, quam in Salamone." Alanus de Arte pudicandi, apud 
 Lebeuf. 
 
 t Concil. Rom. ann. 825. 
 
 t If any of the clergy preached to the people, he availed himself, 
 knowing how to read, of the ancient sermons that existed in the 
 churches. Murat. diss. 42. Antiq. Ital. 
 
 S Murat. diss. 42. Antiq. Ital.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 217 
 
 which Flavian is celebrated by Paul the deacon as a very 
 great professor, and uncle of his master; but even this 
 science was in such decay, that the writings are ren- 
 dered almost unintelligible from their grammatical incor- 
 rectness*. If such ignorance reigned in Rome and 
 Pavia, every one may conceive the darkness that covered 
 the rest of Italy. Let us for a moment consider two 
 important reflections : the first offers us the consolation, 
 that we have been reserved to live in less unhappy times ; 
 and shews us the error of those, who, blaming the pre- 
 sent, praise the ancient as a golden age, whilst they are 
 ignorant of its errors : the second discovers to us the 
 greatest unhappiness of nations, actions the most 
 wicked, customs the most ferocious and brutal, united 
 with the most profound ignorance of sciences and let- 
 ters ; a fact which is the most eloquent answer to the 
 detractors of knowledge, who must be always numerous, 
 since it is the greatest consolation of the ignorant to sup- 
 pose sciences and letters prejudicial to morality. The 
 paradox, maintained with so much ingenuity by the 
 philosopher of Geneva, is belied by observation ; by 
 which, and not by subtle reasonings, questions must be 
 decided. But following our detail, the history of human 
 vicissitudes shews us that there is a final limit both in 
 good and evil, to which when things arrive they must 
 retrocede. Already the repeated acts of oppression 
 which foreigners and the native princes exercised over 
 
 * A fragment of a letter of the Pope Adrian II., referred to by 
 Mabillon in the Appendix to his Diplomacy, is full of incredible 
 incorrectness. We find therein the expressions, " eorumque novi- 
 lissimis suvoles, ut inter eos dissentio fiat, et divisis inveniantur :" 
 " Una cum Judiculum :" " Una cum omnes benebentari :" " Aut 
 tarn de recipiendi eos quamque de nostro misso, una cum nostrum 
 Judiculum." Thus the pope, or his secretaries, wrote in Rome.
 
 218 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 the miserable nations of Italy, began to excite symp- 
 toms, the forerunners of a movement destined to end 
 in a memorable revolution. Oppression disheartens 
 nations ; but when exercised too severely drives them to 
 despair, which finally excites a courage capable of any 
 thing. The passage of the emperors through Italy was 
 wont to be marked with one track of desolation ; which, 
 frequently repeated, roused the sensibility of the Italians, 
 and produced very sanguinary scenes. Already under 
 Henry, on this account, after a furious rencontre between 
 the imperial soldiery and the citizens, Pavia had been 
 almost entirely destroyed ; and in the passage through 
 Italy of the Emperor Conrad, his soldiers had come to 
 blows with the citizens of Ravenna ; and at his corona- 
 tion in Rome, a fierce battle had ensued between the 
 Romans and the former. Parma, by the same motive, 
 was dismantled and sacked by the soldiers of Conrad II. ; 
 nor was there any passage of foreign troops (and these 
 were very frequent) without the cities and lands being 
 desolated, the women dishonoured, and the country inun- 
 dated with blood. If the temporary vexations of fo- 
 reigners were grievous, the domestic were rendered still 
 more intolerable, because they were perpetual. Italy 
 was, according to the Gothic system, governed by many 
 dukes and marquises, who all depended upon the King 
 of Italy and the emperor; but, in fact, they only 
 acknowledged the supremacy when force obliged them, 
 and did so as independent sovereigns. These princi- 
 palities were divided again into smaller fractions of 
 sovereignty, governed by inferior lords, obliged to depend 
 upon the duke or principal marquis, from whom they 
 originally received this small feud. These lords, in 
 imitation of their principals, constituted themselves, when 
 they had the power, into independent sovereigns. Be-
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 219 
 
 sides this hierarchy of princes, whose legal and natural 
 existence was to have a place in that system, the em- 
 perors, excited by greediness of money, had created 
 many others of a new description. By that supreme 
 right, of which they thought themselves in possession, 
 they detached from the dominion or dependance of some 
 city, a portion of territory, a mountain, a rock, or a 
 precipice, and granted to whoever paid them for it the 
 rights of feudal lord*, who fortifying himself in it, and 
 thinking himself a sovereign, exercised the right of sove- 
 reignty over the few wretched persons who had the mis- 
 fortune to inhabit that tract of country. But, as the exer- 
 cise of this authority would not have satisfied them, they 
 put themselves at the head of whatever bullies thtj had the 
 means of maintaining, and scoured the country : thus en- 
 nobling the trade of assassin, rich travellers were despoiled, 
 often imprisoned, and obliged to pay a large ransom. 
 The tale of Ghino of Tacco, is only a fable as far 
 perhaps as it concerns the Abbot of Clugny f. Italy in 
 the mean time was covered with a crowd of lords, or 
 little tyrants, who acknowledged no other code for 
 
 * To distinguish them from the others they were called Comites 
 Pagani. They are also called Castellani. Mur. Ant. Ital. 
 
 t Decamer. Giorno 10. Nov. 2. Among the others Nicolo, 
 Marquis d'Este, on a journey was taken by the Castellan of San 
 Michael. Azzolino, bishop of Sienna, returning from the court of 
 the pope at Avignon, was made prisoner at Mantua by Charles 
 Grimaldi, and obliged to pay 500 florins of ransom. Janus of the 
 Alberti, Count of Monte Carelli, robbed travellers with his ruffians ; 
 being taken along with them by the Florentines, his head was cut off 
 and his associates hanged. Thus the same Florentines dismantled 
 the castle of Monteboni, because the lords who had given it the 
 name arrested the merchants and made them pay heavy taxes: they 
 recalled to their duty also the Count Uggieri: the Counts of 
 Cutaldo, of Figline of Mangona, &c.
 
 220 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 governing their subjects, than that of caprice or violence. 
 The solitary life they led in their castles surrounded by 
 brutal rabble, the profound ignorance of the times did 
 not render them sensible to the stimulus of honour and 
 compassion, and in vain did religion either preach obe- 
 dience, or terrify them with future punishments*. The 
 celebrated knight-errants, so much ridiculed by those 
 who have not well understood the institution and its 
 duties, served sometimes as a check to the ferocity of 
 these illustrious assassins and chastised their crimes. 
 Greedy of glory and of arduous enterprises, they had 
 sworn in girding on the sword to protect innocence op- 
 pressed, to revenge wrongs, and it was frequently their 
 fortune t tp exterminate from the earth several of these 
 monsters. These ages, from the cruelty of the little 
 despots, and the illustrious actions of knight-errants, 
 much resemble the heroic age of Greece; and Hercules 
 and Theseus, and so many other heroes, may be called the 
 knight-errants of ancient times. But a government so 
 unjust and violent could not last: popular sufferance has 
 its limits, nor was it difficult to ruin a despotism founded 
 upon so unstable a basis. The feudal government was 
 a hydra with a thousand heads and few arms. Jea- 
 lousies, rivalities, different interests must naturally have 
 divided this crowd of little sovereigns into various parties, 
 kept them always at war, and shewn the people, even 
 brutalized as they were, the weakness of their rulers, and 
 the facility of freeing themselves from the yoke. Cir- 
 cumstances became continually more propitious to this 
 revolution. There were intervals, in which the superior 
 
 * In the archives of the chapter of the canons at Modena there 
 is found a sagramentario of Gregory the Great, written in the ninth 
 or tenth age, wherein is read " Missa contra Tyrannos." Murat. 
 Aatiq. Ital. diss. 46.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 221 
 
 force which should have kept these members united, was 
 strangely weakened : this took place particularly after 
 the death of Otho II. In the Chronicle of the kings of 
 Italy* this time is described, as an interregnum, in which 
 superior force was without activity : and during the 
 infancy of Otho III. the Italian cities had leisure to shake 
 off the yoke of the emperors and kings. Arrived at the 
 age of manhood, Otho III. came to Italy and endea- 
 voured to reduce the rebellious cities to obedience ; dying, 
 however, in the year 1002, without progeny, two kings 
 of Italy, Henry and Arduin contended for the possession, 
 a contention very favourable to the rising liberty of the 
 Italian cities. These contentions were succeeded after- 
 wards by one more tedious, and more tempestuous 
 between the clergy and the empire, which relaxed still 
 more the ties of dependance which bound the Italian 
 cities to their rulers, and gave them leisure to shake off 
 the yoke entirely. Such a revolution, however, is only 
 slowly to be brought about. In some kingdoms the 
 principal sovereign has set on foot a stable and regular 
 militia that not only has rendered him independent in 
 urgent cases, of his powerful vassals, but has given him 
 time to hold them in rein, and finally to deprive them of 
 their abusive prerogatives. In other countries, as in 
 Italy, particular cities armed themselves, and by driving 
 out or paying no regard to their despots established a 
 republican government: -some of these more quietly 
 obtained from the emperors, either gratuitously or by gold, 
 the privilege of governing themselves : whilst others, 
 finally, of the feudal governments have remained until 
 our times, as Poland for instance, and there is still a ves- 
 tige of it in Germany. Respecting the other smaller 
 
 * Tom. 2.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 feudal lords who reigned in castles, or on mountainous 
 rocks, in proportion as the regular governments took 
 footing they were in a great part destroyed, and a few of 
 them still remain, deprived for the most part of their 
 privileges. 
 
 In this general movement of Italy for liberty, fanatic 
 enthusiasm, however it may be adapted to make efforts of 
 valour because it is blind to danger, is for the same 
 reason incapable of cold deliberation, transported the 
 minds of men beyond just limits to a kind of intem- 
 perance of liberty. Thinking themselves more free as 
 far as they were more independent one of the other, the 
 Italian cities not only established themselves each in a 
 single and isolated republic, but all the towns and even 
 the small boroughs frequently divided themselves into so 
 many republican fractions not larger than San Marino*. 
 This operation would have been the same as if the inha- 
 bitants of cities who were once savages, and yielded a 
 part of their natural liberty to enjoy the advantages of 
 civil society and become citizens, should at an instant 
 renounce those rights for love of liberty and return to 
 the forest. Savages carry on a continual war with each 
 other : so did the crowd of republics with which Italy 
 was covered, whose divided interests kept them always 
 under arms. That same intemperance of liberty, by 
 agitating the spirits of the same republic, rendered them 
 disobedient to the same laws which they had made, and 
 divided them into many parties. This reasoning is proved 
 by facts. Florence, Pisa, Lucca, Sienna, Pistoia, Arezzo, 
 Cortona, were often stained by civil contentions. In Lorn- 
 bardy the same fatal vicissitudes took place. The unfortu- 
 nate people, after long agitations and sanguinary contests, 
 
 * For example, Poggibonsi was a republic^
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 223 
 
 knowing how unhappy they were in the democratic con- 
 stitution finally sought for repose under the government 
 of one alone. Thus Milan reposed under Azzo Vis- 
 con te *; Modena and Reggio under Obizo d'Este, and 
 the Paduans under Jacob of Carrara, &c. The cities 
 of our Tuscany were more obstinate and therefore sub- 
 jected to longer convulsions. The greatest of metaphy- 
 sicians has demonstrated f what power mere words have 
 upon the opinions of mankind, and how pernicious is 
 their abuse. There is nothing more vague, or more 
 abused than the words liberty and equality. Civil liberty 
 consists in nothing more than obeying a wise legislation 
 vigorously carried into execution, whereby every one is 
 at liberty to do what the laws do not forbid. As, how- 
 ever, a geometrical equality is certainly impossible among 
 citizens, true equality consists in all being equally sub- 
 jected to the laws, so that they may act upon the rich 
 and powerful, as upon the weak and the humble, with the 
 same impartial force : this is true equality ; every other 
 is chimerical. Whether the problem is solved more easily 
 in a republic or a monarchy, the history we are now 
 writing will be judge ; it will be a school, in which the 
 discerning reader may fix the good or evil of democracy 
 or a monarchical government. All the more subtle and 
 learned researches upon the nature of governments are use- 
 less : in politics, as in philosophy, we must finally appeal 
 to experience. If we see the republics, turbulent and 
 agitated ; if the massacre, the exile of their citizens are 
 
 * Calvaneus Flamma. " Prima lex fuit, quod omnes civitatis 
 sibi subjectae absque omni personarum acceptione suis civibus 
 essent habitatio tutissima, et istius sanctissimae legis incoeptor fuit 
 illustris miles Azo Vice Comes, ob cujus meritum possidet Para- 
 disum." 
 
 t Locke, on Human Understanding.
 
 224 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 almost continual, and their lives never secure ; whilst, on 
 the contrary, we find a long calm in the monarchy, the 
 question will be decided by experience. History being 
 the mistress of life, it is necessary to contemplate the 
 events which we are about to relate, not as mere narra- 
 tions but as instructive lessons.
 
 OF 
 
 THE ART OF WAR 
 
 IN THE LOWER AGES. 
 
 IN the frequent wars, which took place after the esta- 
 blishment of the republican constitution between the 
 Italian and Tuscan cities, operations are often described 
 which are little understood because historians have not 
 given themselves the trouble to explain the Art of War 
 of those ages, and the warlike instruments in use. For 
 the better elucidation of our future History we will give 
 a brief account of them. 
 
 During the times of feudal oppression all subjects were 
 obliged to take up arms at the nod of their sovereign ; 
 ecclesiastics were not excepted without a particular pri- 
 vilege, and since the profession of arms was the most 
 honourable, the bishops and abbots rarely requested to 
 be exonerated from it, but were ambitious of the dis- 
 tinction which military valour afforded them ; thus 
 seeking to unite ecclesiastical opulence with military 
 renown. The canonical laws in vain forbade them the 
 exercise of arms; whoever obeyed them became an 
 object of ridicule, like any person in our own days who 
 would quote the civil laws in order to avoid a duel *. 
 
 * The pious abbot Ermoldo Nigello, forced to take arms in spite 
 of his coat, sacredly boasts of not having wounded any one, and 
 
 VOL. I, Q
 
 226 AN ESSAY ON 
 
 Under the feudal government the nerve of the troops 
 consisted in the cavalry, composed of nobility who felt 
 an interest in conquest, and a stimulus to distinguish 
 themselves ; whilst the infantry, composed for the most 
 part of a miserable mob, who perceived little glory, and 
 felt no interest in victory, fought with little energy. 
 For many ages, even after the overthrow of that 
 government, the cavalry continued to form the principal 
 strength of the army. The horsemen who were admirably 
 equipped, took the field with numerous horses led by 
 their esquires and pages* ; and at different periods have 
 received the names of lancers, men of arms, c. The 
 history, however, of the nations most skilled in this 
 art shews us that the best troops have been always 
 infantry; that the Macedonian phalanx and Roman 
 legion were able to oppose and break through numerous 
 squadrons of the Persian and Parthian cavalry. This 
 description of troops maintained the superiority until the 
 times of the great Consalvo of Cordova, who, changing 
 his tactics in the wars of Italy, formed that celebrated 
 Spanish and Italian infantry, superior to the cavalry, 
 which was for a long period the glory of the Spanish 
 
 carried a proof of it upon his shield, for which he was much 
 laughed at. 
 
 Hoc egomet scutum liuineris ensemque revinctiim 
 
 Gessi, sed nemo me feriente dolet. 
 Peppin bee aspiciens risit, miratnr, et infit, 
 Cede annis Crater, litera amato magis. 
 
 De Reb. Gest. Ludov. Pii, p. 2. torn. 2, Rcr. Ital. Script. 
 
 * At the right of the esquires was conducted the noble horse of 
 battle, with no one on his back, in order that he might be the 
 more fresh in time of need, whence the name of Dextrarii and 
 afterwards Destrieri : the cavalier in the mean time rode a horse of 
 inferior value which was called palafreno or ronzino. Mur. Diss.
 
 THE ART OF WAR. 227 
 
 nation, and proved invincible for two ages down to the 
 battle of Rocroi *. 
 
 The military force of the Italian cities, become re- 
 publics, experienced various fortunes. Even the citizens 
 armed themselves to maintain their liberty, or animated 
 by the frenzy of party, formed courageous corps ca- 
 pable of opposing the best imperial soldiery, who were 
 frequently defeated under a brave emperor, and particu- 
 larly at the celebrated battle of Legnano (an. 1176) in 
 Lombardy, by which the power of Frederic I. in Italy 
 was greatly humbled. Even in Tuscany the sanguinary 
 battles of Monte Aperti, and of Campaldino, prove the 
 obstinate valour with which the citizens fought; but no 
 sooner did they neglect the profession of armsf by 
 taking mercenaries into their pay, than wars became 
 scandalous and ridiculous. The captains of these mer- 
 cenaries either would not fight in order that they might 
 maintain their troops entire, or were easily corrupted by 
 the enemy ; the troops united with them, formed either of 
 mob or country people neither inured to arms nor 
 danger, shamefully took to flight at the first onset ; and 
 Machiavel laughs with reason at these feats of arms, 
 which sometimes lasted for several hours, the soldiers 
 fighting at a distance without the loss of a single indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 When the citizens began to disdain the profession of 
 arms, they made themselves dependant upon the con- 
 ductors, (condottieri,) who for nearly two ages in Italy 
 were as celebrated for their treachery as their valour. 
 
 * After much decay in its discipline, it was defeated in this 
 battle, and ruined by the great Conde. 
 
 t Ammir. 1st. Fior. During the thirteenth century and beginning 
 of the fourteenth, the troops of the Italian cities were brave, be- 
 cause composed of citizens ; after this time they began to decline.
 
 228 AJ KSSXV O\ 
 
 They put their soldiers up to auction selling them to the 
 highest hidder, and it did not unfrequently happen that a 
 body of troops, who were enemies to the Florentines or 
 Milanese, gained hy money, fought for them. These troops 
 lived only by war : in times of peace they united under 
 one head ; sacked peaceable countries, and exacted from 
 the richest cities heavy contributions. These bands of 
 robbers were called companies. Thus Lodrisio Visconte, 
 Malerba, and Duke Guarnieri, in the fourteenth century, 
 did much injury to Italy, and the most powerful cities 
 did not disdain to receive their laws, and pay them a 
 shameful tribute. The meanness of the Italians in tole- 
 rating them is discovered in the facility with which they 
 might have destroyed them ; since the peasantry alone 
 of Mugello, as we shall see in the course of this History, 
 nearly annihilated one of the greatest of those com- 
 panies *. 
 
 After the decline of the Roman tactics, the arms of 
 offence and defence of the soldier were often changed. 
 We have seen that the Romans themselves in the time of 
 Gratian threw off their iron armour, put on by the 
 robust warriors of the north, and afterwards, according 
 to the effeminacy or hardiness of the Italians, by turns 
 abandoned and put on again. Sometimes the iron was 
 changed into leather, and the Corian armour has pro- 
 bably given name to the corazza f or breastplate. The 
 weight of the iron shields has .been lightened by making 
 them of wood, of leather, or osier, and the different 
 forms have given rise to the names of target, buckler, 
 wheel, small buckler, pavicej: the swords sometimes 
 
 * Mattco. Vill. Cronic. f Mur. Diss. 26. 
 
 t The shields of Pavia, quadrates iu form. Aulici Ticinen de 
 Laud. Papiae. In the mock wars, the Pavians had shields of osier. 
 See the same author in the above dissertation, where he learnedly
 
 THE ART OF WAR. 229 
 
 shortened have taken the name of rapiers (stocchi*.) 
 The bow and the cross-bow gave name to the archers 
 and cross-bowmen. The former threw out darts smaller 
 than the arrows, (quadrelli,) muskets, (moschetti,)^ or 
 short and sharp darts (verratoni) thrown from the cross- 
 bows ; but the velocity compensated for the smallness of 
 the arms^. Some cross-bows were so large, that it 
 became necessary to discharge them with the foot; and 
 for this purpose there was a stirrup attached to the 
 cord. A light and irregular troop used to precede the 
 army, scour and lay waste the country : these were 
 called gualdane . Wounders (feditori} were those who 
 began the battle. They were generally of the best 
 troops : the issue of the fight depended upon them ; 
 since when the first rank was put out of order, the 
 remainder of the army was frequently thrown into con- 
 fusion. We will now take a view of the machines for 
 attacking and defending the cities. Unfortunately for 
 mankind, the cruel trade of war has been interrupted 
 only by very short intervals, at least since we have his- 
 
 remarks, that even the ancients had shields of osier, by testimony of 
 Vegetius. Scuta de vimine in modum cratium rotundata tenebant. 
 The small buckler (brocchiere) was probably a shield, which had in 
 the middle a spontoon, or kind of half pike, to strike or ward off 
 the enemies' arms. 
 
 * Pugionibus uti cceperunt ensibus obsoletis. Prater Pipinus in 
 chron. Rer. Ital. script, torn. 9. 
 
 t Muskets, (moschetti or moschette) were a kind of darts. 
 Mur. Diss. 
 
 J Villani, lib. 2. cap. 66. When the Genoese darted out an 
 arrow from the cross-bow, these threw out three from their bows. 
 Corridor vidi per la terra vostra 
 O Aretini, e vidi gir gualdane, &c. 
 
 Dante, canto 22, Inf. Probably the poet saw this spectacle, 
 when, after the rout of Campaldino given to the Aretines, the Flo- 
 rentine army laid waste the territory of that city.
 
 230 AN ESSAY ON 
 
 torical documents. It is, therefore, easy to imagine, 
 that the instruments of destruction in use with the Greeks 
 and Romans have never heen lost. Military discipline 
 may have been altered : the courage, together with the 
 Greek and Roman tactics, may have been lost : but the 
 various machines for attacking and defending towns 
 must be handed down from generation to generation, 
 with the change probably only of the name. Thus the 
 battering ram, (TarieteJ the wild ass, (Vonagro) the 
 engines, (catapulte) and those for casting stones, ( bal- 
 liste). The towers put in work by the Jews, the Greeks, 
 the Romans, have been transmitted to later times under 
 the names of cranes, or cross-bows, (manganelli,) destruc- 
 tions, (trabocchij &c. ; and only the terrible invention 
 of artillery is the cause of their being forgotten. The for- 
 tified towns were frequently surrounded by double walls: 
 after the first inner wall there was another lower enclosure, 
 made probably to hinder the action of the battering ram 
 against the former*. A ditch, where this was possible, 
 full of water, and a pallisade extended before the second 
 line of wall : upon the walls there were many towers, the 
 body of which projected, to afford an opportunity of 
 striking the assailants on the 6ank. The frequent 
 inroads of the barbarians had made it necessary to choose 
 the most mountainous places for the situation of their 
 towns and castles; so that Italy became almost a wood 
 of towns and fortresses, especially in the mountains, 
 where art was assisted by nature. In the cities, the 
 continual suspicions arising from factions had converted 
 the houses into fortified castles : there were few of any 
 note without towers, which made a display of archi- 
 tecture t ; and hence the ten thousand towers which 
 
 It was called outward wall, (barbacaneor antcmurale). 
 t Ainniir. 1st. Fior. lib. 2.
 
 THE ART OF WAR. 231 
 
 Benjamin of Navarre reckoned in Pisa do not much 
 excite our astonishment. Castles or bastions* of wood 
 or stone, for offence and defence, were built around the 
 walls, the towers, upon the banks of a river, upon a hill, 
 or wherever the ground was thought most adapted to the 
 purpose. The battifollilf were nearly the same thing, 
 and contained rooms for lodging infantry and cavalry. 
 The terrible catapulta of the ancient Greeks and Romans, 
 which hurled such enormous weights, is not clearly 
 described by ancient historians. The celebrated commen- 
 tator of PolybiusJ has guessed at the construction J, 
 although in many instances his imagination has not com- 
 pensated for the defects of history. By means of elastic 
 ropes, made particularly of catgut, and even of horsehair, 
 twisted upon beams, a cylinder of wood appears to have 
 been projected, upon the top of which there was a large 
 basin, in which they placed the materials that were to be 
 ejected ; freed from the tension, the cylinder shot like a 
 bow, throwing enormous masses to an immense distance^. 
 The balista, different in its construction from the cata- 
 pulta, produced the same effect : perhaps it was a very 
 large cross-bow, (balestra,} as its name indicates, formed 
 of a large cylinder of elastic matter, which being extended 
 by means of some machine, could eject very heavy sub- 
 stances. Those which, in the lower ages, were called 
 mangano, trabocco, asino\\, troja, volpe, &c., coulo! not 
 greatly differ from these two machines. We even infer 
 from some obscure description, that in the mangano 
 
 * Thence the name of bastions. 
 
 f Villani considers the bastic and battifolli the same thing. 
 J II Cav. di Folard. 
 
 * The figure of it is seen in the notes to Polybius of Cav. Folard. 
 H Also the ancients had the onayer.
 
 23* AN ESSAY ON 
 
 there was a sling or cross-bow*: this machine, there- 
 fore, must have much resembled the ancient balista\ and, 
 in fact, very heavy masses were hurled with itf- Large 
 animals, such as horses and asses, were often thrown by 
 way of contempt into the besieged towns J. With the 
 trabocchi, although of different construction from the 
 mangano, they also threw out immense stones. Ezze- 
 lino made use of these in the siege of the tower of Este ; 
 and in the annals of Modena, one of these machines || is 
 described as very large. In order to break the force of 
 the masses thrown from the mangani,they made use of nets 
 of large ropes or cloths, or a kind of lattice- work, extended 
 before the towers : thence the origin of the crates, the 
 hurdles, or gatti^, under which same machines the sol- 
 
 * Instrum. de Resignat. Castri fumonis, si trova: fundade Manga- 
 nello. Mur. Antiq. Ital. Diss. 26. 
 
 f In the Genoese Annals of Stella, anno 1372, is mentioned a 
 troga, which threw out masses of the weight of twelve to eighteen 
 cantara, that is to say 2,700 pounds. The mangano is called in 
 Latin balearica machina, which shews that there was a kind of sling, 
 for which the inhabitants of the Baleari were celebrated. 
 Extruitur mine balearica machina motis 
 Quae valido longum transverberat sera jactu. GUST. lib. 3. 
 
 I Frequent is the expression of historians were thrown out 
 asses. After the defeat of Campaldino, the Florentines, in order to 
 mock the Bishop of Arezzo, Guglielmino, killed in that battle, 
 having come to besiege the city, threw out by the mangano an ass, 
 with a mitre on his head, as will be mentioned in its place. 
 Rolandinus. 
 
 | " Trabuccum mutinensium,qui factus fuerat inplateacommunis 
 
 mutinaecujus postica erat quantum sex paria bourn ducere poterant." 
 
 1T Qatti, by mistake, were taken by the academicians of the 
 
 Crusca for instruments to beat the walls ; they were only a cover 
 
 and defence. Berni Orb. Innam. 
 
 Gatti tcssuti di viuco e di legno. 
 
 Hue faciunt rep tare cat um tectique sub illo 
 
 Suffudiunt niuros GLILELM. lirito. lib. ? 
 
 An
 
 THE ART OF WAR. 233 
 
 diers advanced to batter the wall. The formidable bat- 
 tering ram of the ancients had never gone out of fashion. 
 Sometimes it was conducted upon cars, driven against 
 them ; but oftener this long and large beam, with its 
 iron point, was suspended floating in the air, and, 
 being made to dangle, was hurled forcibly against the 
 walls: the loosened stones were afterwards made to fall 
 with crooked perches, which were like one of the 
 many kinds of cars of the ancients*. Another instru- 
 ment not well known is spoken of by Gottfred, of 
 Viterbo, called a molef, (talpa,) adapted to excavate 
 ground subterraneously, and remove the foundation from 
 the walls so that they fell down : it is certain these kind 
 of mines were made use of, and that the miners advanced 
 under ground towards the walls ; counter-mines were also 
 in fashion, that is, they endeavoured to find out the sub- 
 terraneous road, which was done by excavating obliquely 
 one or more uncovered trenches which might lead to the 
 discovery J. Hooks for twisting round the combatants, 
 
 As sometimes under this cover, or as it may be gatto, motion 
 was given to the battering ram, with which the walls were 
 shaken ; thence may have arisen the confusion of the one with 
 the other. Veget. lib. 4. cap. 15. " Vincas dixerunt veteres, quas 
 nunc militari barbaroque uso cattos vocant. Aimonius apud Du- 
 change. Erant carri vimineis catibus tabulisque lignais, in quibus 
 latentes milites fundamenta suffoderent murorum." 
 
 * Folard. in Polibio. 
 
 t It is called talpa cavans arces. 
 
 J Read a passage of Matteo Villani, lib. 2. c. 30. " The leaders 
 of the host with great expense and labour conducted a subterra- 
 neous cave to knock down the walls of the Scarperia, and provided 
 those within with means of getting out of the ditches to find the 
 cave of their enemies before they arrived at the walls ; but their 
 adversaries used great endeavours to draw them away from this 
 work and hinder their miners, who, working with great diligence,
 
 234 AN ESSAY ON 
 
 and pulling them down from the walls, were much in 
 vogue, as well as iron thistles or thorns to throw in the 
 fields, to injure or obstruct the cavalry. There was also 
 a kind of Friesland horse, or large pieces of wood of a 
 triangular figure, which, turned upon any side, remained 
 straight, were put together in a moment and formed a 
 sufficient rampart*. Among the most dangerous ma- 
 chines for besieged cities were the turrets of wood ; these 
 were very high, of a proportionate breadth, and raised 
 above the walls and full of combatants, the besieged 
 woVking at every elevation, at times fighting on a level 
 with those who stood upon the walls; at times showering 
 upon them stones and darts from on high, giving impulse 
 to the undulating ram : a part of the upper side of the 
 tower was suddenly detached from the top, and wheeling 
 upon the hinges to which it was attached, was lowered 
 and extended upon the walls, forming a bridge over 
 which the most daring entered the city. The ancients 
 made use of it : the tower of Demetrius, called Hele- 
 polus, is well known f, and at the siege of Marseilles 
 the towers used by Caesar were of so disproportionate a 
 size that the Gauls, ignorant of the assistance mechanical 
 genius affords, considered the Romans more than men, 
 because they moved such enormous machines with so 
 
 arrived at the cave of their enemies, which was brought forward 
 one hundred and eighty arms and near the walls twenty arms, where 
 they drove away the miners and spoilt their work." 
 
 * Nicolaus de Tamsilla Rer. Ital. script, t. 8, p. 565, speaking of 
 Manfredi king of Sicily. " Facta sunt de ingenio Marchionis 
 Bertholdi qutedam lignea instrumenta triangolata sic artificiose 
 composita quod de loco in loco leviter ducebantur, et semper ex 
 uno capite erecta stabant: his instruments exercitus se circuin- 
 cinxit, et vallavit, ut non facile posset ex illd parte irrumpi. 
 
 t Folard. in Polib.
 
 THE ART OF WAR. 235 
 
 much celerity *. Among the immense towers, seen in 
 the times of which we are now speaking, were those 
 brought by Frederic I. to the walls of Crema. The 
 difficulty of moving them has excited the astonishment of 
 the mechanics of our times: and among the rest the 
 commentator of Polybius, who, in order that this opera- 
 tion may less surprise us, reminds us of that wonderful 
 instrument, by which the architect Aristotle in the fifteenth 
 century transported a tower of stone from place to place. 
 Sacks of wool, of straw, and every yielding matter, were 
 put in use to evade the strokes of the battering ram and 
 the other machines : but every care was taken when it was 
 possible, to burn them, and therefore they had invented 
 various mixtures of sulphur and bitumen which attaching 
 itself to the wood, it was not so easy to extinguish itf. 
 
 The mysterious Grecian fire, inextinguishable by water, 
 was for a long time greatly celebrated. The admirable 
 secret of its composition, brought probably to Constan- 
 tinople by Callinicus of Heliopolis in Syria, in the year 
 7 1 8, was kept concealed for a long time as the palladium 
 of the state. To this the Grecian empire owed its safety, 
 when the Arabs, conquerors on every side in the begin- 
 ning of the eighth century, in vain conducted numerous 
 fleets into the port of Constantinople. A thousand eight 
 hundred ships were burnt with their captains and crew, 
 till panic-struck they abandoned the undertaking, and if 
 the Grecian, empire maintained itself for seven ages more 
 it was indebted for it to that terrible secret. Although 
 
 * " Non se extimare Romanes sine ope Deorum bellum gerere, 
 qui tantse altitudinis machinationes, tanta celeritate promovere 
 possent." Ca?s. de Bell. Gall. 
 
 f See the Life of Cola di Rienso, where " they plastered toge- 
 ther sulphur, pitch, oil, turpentine and wool, and burnt the little 
 ass."
 
 236 AN ESSAY ON 
 
 the mystery in which this fire is involved may have 
 covered its composition with obscurity*, it has for the 
 most part been guessed at. The principal ingredient 
 appears to have been a kind of burning gum, the 
 lightest of all oils, and when it is pure and scarce in con- 
 tact with the air it bursts into a flame ; sulphur and pitch 
 were mixed with it, and water was not sufficient to ex- 
 tinguish itf. In burning, it produced great explosions, 
 and was thrown from afar, attached to darts or machines, 
 which, imitating the figures of dragons, or other ferocious 
 beasts, vomited from their throat this infernal fire. For 
 four ages the important secret was faithfully preserved : 
 finally, it was revealed to the Saracens, who, in the 
 expedition of St. Louis into Egypt, employed it against 
 the Christians :. Grecian fire continued to be made use 
 of until the middle of the fourteenth century ; it has since 
 been thrown into oblivion by the more terrible invention 
 of powder. The period of this discovery, which has 
 wrought so great a change in the art of war, is not pre- 
 
 * See Ducange. Anna Commena it is who speaks thereof most 
 clearly. Alexiad. lib. 11 and 13. Leon. cap. 19- Tactica. Meurs. 
 torn. 6. 
 
 f According to the account of the chymist Marius, quoted by 
 Bomare Dizion. art. Nepta, a candle made of burning gum and 
 rosin, in equal parts, burns under water. Sand alone and urine 
 were capable of extinguishing the Grecian fire ; Pliny believes 
 that the fire of Medea was awakened by naphtha. Plin. Hist. Nat. 
 2. 109. 
 
 t Memoiresdu Chevalier de Joinville. The chevalier Joinville 
 was companion of St. Louis in his unfortunate expedition against 
 Egypt: the history, written in the thirteenth century, in which they 
 lived, contains the memorials of it, and is one of the most interest- 
 ing books. In vain has the extravagant Arduino attempted to 
 challenge its authenticity, demonstrated by the best evidence by 
 Sig. de la Bastie. Mem. de 1'Acad. de Belles Lettres, torn. 15.
 
 THE ART OF WAR. 237 
 
 cisely established. Two epochs must be distinguished, 
 viz., the time of the invention of powder and its applica- 
 tion to the purposes of war. Roger Bacon, a monk who 
 died in Oxford, anno 1292, is regarded with reason as 
 the inventor of powder, as he is the first who speaks of 
 its composition*: at the beginning of the fourteenth 
 century it was applied to war. Petrarch, writing before 
 the year 1 344, speaks of fire arms as already invented 
 some years, and that at his time they had become com- 
 mon -f. The celebrated battle of Crecy happened in 
 the year 1 346, and the victory of the English was owing 
 in great part to these arms, according to a contemporary 
 writer;}:. If there really exists, too, as Stetonius says, 
 in Amberg in the Palatinate of Bavaria in the public 
 armoury, a piece of artillery on which there is*an inscrip- 
 tion of the year 1303, if no doubt arise of the authen- 
 ticity of this inscription, it becomes the most ancient 
 document of the use of fire arms. We have already 
 spoken of the most certain documents of so celebrated 
 a discovery, leaving those to navigate in the dark ocean 
 of conjecture who, upon very uncertain hints in the 
 fable of Salrnoneus, and other equivocal tales have pre- 
 
 * De Mirab. Pot. Art. et Nat. ep. 106. 
 
 t " Glandes eenese quse flammis injectis horisono senitu jaciuntur. 
 Erat ha2C festis nuper rara, nunc communis, &c. Petrar. de 
 Remed. utrius Fort. Dial. 99. 
 
 ; Gio. Villani, lib. 12. cap. 65. " They shot forth balls of iron 
 with fire, and made so great a shaking of the earth and noise that 
 it appeared as if God was thundering. Three years before this battle, 
 the Moors, besieged by the Spaniards in Algeziras, had made use of 
 them (Marian. 1st. di Spagna) ; in Denmark they used them at the 
 same time ; whence it appears that after the year 1330, this destruc- 
 tive arm became common in Europe." 
 
 Acta Erudit. 1769, pag. 19.
 
 238 AN ESSAY ON 
 
 tended to trace the use of powder among the ancients*. 
 The use of other arms continued however some time 
 after this discovery, but as the artillery was carried to 
 greater perfection, bows, cross bows, and other missile 
 weapons were by degrees forgotten. 
 
 An entire revolution took place in warfare, but the 
 principal change has happened in sieges. Many fortresses 
 were at that time invinciblef; at present there is none. 
 
 * See M. Dutens, in the work Discoveries of the Ancients 
 attributed to Moderns, who sustains this opinion, as if Sal- 
 rnoneus, Caligola, and others quoted by him, could not have 
 imitated thunder and lightning like actors in a theatre, as if a 
 foundation could be laid upon the manuscript of a Grecian sign, 
 which we know not what it is or what time it existed in. Such a 
 dream of the ingenious author may be united to others upon the 
 use of the electric conductor, of the Telescope, $c,, which he finds 
 among the ancients. The assertion of a great man like Lord 
 Bacon, that in India and China, fire arms were known nearly two 
 thousand years ago, merits more respect and better examination, 
 but cannot be blindly embraced upon his word. Bacon's Essay 
 on the Vicissitude of Things. 
 
 f The artifice and modes by which they sought to conquer and 
 defend places, are excellently described by Tasso in the siege of 
 Jerusalem. L' Ariete : 
 
 Gia 1'ariete alia muraglia appressa 
 
 Macctiine grand!, e. smisurate travi, 
 
 Che liau testa di monton ferrata e dura : 
 
 Tcnion le porte il cozzo, e 1' alto imira. 
 
 The action of the mole (talpa) to undermine the walls : 
 
 Altri percuote i fundament! a gara : 
 
 Ne crolla il muro, a ruinoso i tianchi 
 
 Gia fessi mostra all' impeto de' Franclii. 
 Means employed to oppose the action of the ram: 
 
 Che ovuiique la gran t rave in Ini si stendo, 
 
 Cala fasci di lana, e li frappone. 
 
 Prende in se le pcrcosse, e fa piu lente 
 
 La materia arrendevole e cedente. 
 The attack by means of towers : 
 
 Questa e torre di legno, e s'erge tanto 
 Che pud del muro pareggiar le cime,
 
 THE ART OF WAR. 239 
 
 Although particular writers, too fond of antiquity, cele- 
 brate the force of the catapulte, batiste, or mangani, 8cc. 
 
 Torre, clie grave d' uornini ed armata 
 Mobile sulla rote, e vien tirata. 
 Viene avventando la volubil mole 
 Lancie e quadrella, e quanto puo s'accosta : 
 E come uave in guerra a nave snole 
 Tenta <!' uuirsi alia muraglia opposta. 
 Ma chi la gnarda, ed impedir cid vuole, 
 L'urta la fronte, e 1' una e 1' altra costa; 
 La rispiuge con 1' aste, e le percote 
 Or con le pietre i merli ed or le rote. 
 Tanti di qua, tanti di la fur inossi 
 E sassi e dardi, ch' oscuronne il cielo. 
 S' urtar duo nembi in aria, a la fermossi 
 Talor respinto onde partiva il telo : 
 Come di fronde sono i rami scossi 
 Dalla pioggia iudurata in freddo gelo 
 E ne caggiono i pomi anco immaturi 
 Cosi cadeano i Saracin, dai nun i : 
 Pero che scenda in lor piii grave il Dauuo 
 Che di ferro assai meno eran guerniti. 
 Parte de' vivi aucora in fuga vanno 
 Oella gran mole al fulminar smarriti. 
 Ma quel, che gia fu di Nicea tiranno 
 Vi resta, e fa restarvi i pochi arditi. 
 E' ii fero Argante a contrapporsi corre 
 Presa una trave, alia nemica torre. 
 E da se la respinge e tien lontana 
 Quanto 1' abete e lungo e'l braccio forte 
 I Franchi intanto alia peudente lana 
 Le fnni recideano e le ritorte 
 Con lunghe falci ; onde cadendo a terra 
 Lasciava il muro disarmato in guerra. 
 Cosi la torre sovra, e piu di sotto 
 L' impetuoso il batte aspro ariete 
 Onde comincia omai forato e rotto 
 A discoprir le interne vie secrete, &c. 
 
 And in the eighteenth canto is an admirable description of a 
 tower composed of various machines of offence : 
 Si scommette la mole, e ricompone 
 Con sottili giunture in un congiunta : 
 E la trave che testa ha di montone 
 Dal!' ime parti sue cozzando spunta. 
 Lancia nel mezzo un ponte, e spesso il pone 
 SulP opposta muraglia a prima giunta; 
 E fuor di lei su per le cime n' esce 
 Torre minor, ch'in snso & spinta e cresce.
 
 240 AN ESSAY ON 
 
 as equal in the effect of blows given against the walls to 
 cannon, it is easy to perceive their inferiority in the 
 celerity of the operation. Few were these instruments 
 at a siege, and the no small interval between one blow 
 and another requiring considerable time to adapt the 
 heavy bodies to the machine, and to charge it*, the 
 blows which were frequently badly calculated failed in 
 striking the important post. The little damage done to 
 the walls in a day of assault was easily repaired in the 
 night ; and thus if the besieged city was sufficiently sup- 
 plied with defenders and provisions, it was rarely taken, 
 the besieged having the advantage of situation. The 
 rapid and continual action of the cannon day and night 
 destroys in the end every strong rampart, when directed 
 with mathematical certainty to the point particularly 
 aimed it. The art of the engineer is arrived at a per- 
 fection to calculate nearly the time in which the place 
 will be taken. In battles of the field the effect of 
 the cannon has been less. The formidable bayonet has 
 exceeded it. As soon as a body of troops is animated 
 by a blind valour, and possesses sufficient resolution to 
 march to the attack of a battery over the bodies of its 
 
 * Voltaire having interrogated Count D' Holstein of Bavaria, 
 if the piece of artillery was in existence (Remarque sur 1' Essai des 
 Moeurs,) &c., received for answer that after the most diligent 
 researches it could not be found ; whence he infers the falsity of 
 the assertion; but it might once have existed, and have been 
 destroyed by neglect. The same illustrious writer, who has the 
 frequent defect of passing too lightly over questions, would not 
 have asserted it to have been false that artillery was made use of 
 at the battle of Crecy and on other occasions at those times, if 
 he had before his eyes the alleged passages of Villani and 
 Petrarch, which form positive proofs superior to the negative 
 deduced from the silence of the acts of the tower of London : 
 he would not have denied Roger Bacon the invention of powder, 
 if he had originally consulted the works of the same.
 
 THE ART OF WAR. 241 
 
 companions, experience has shown that the battery is 
 taken in a few moments. Thus of hand arms modern 
 warriors have only retained this terrible instrument, and 
 the sabre. 
 
 A reform in tactics has taken place in almost every 
 war, and the celebrated author of this art if alive would 
 have to make important changes in his excellent work. 
 But we cannot forgive him for the assertion, that after 
 the ruin of the Roman tactics there was no other until 
 the times of Nassau and Gustavus. Leaving Castruccio 
 and the Duke Francis Sforza out of the question, we 
 have already taken notice of the reform made by Con- 
 salvo in the militia, which rendered the Spanish infantry 
 the first troops in Europe. Who would say this great 
 man knew nothing of tactics ? or Pescara, or Alexander 
 Farnese, a general to be compared to the greatest of 
 antiquity? His march to Paris is well known. This 
 city was besieged by the troops of Henry IV. Farnese, 
 who was in Flanders, received an order from Philip II. 
 to march to Paris, and raise the siege without hazarding a 
 battle. The problem was one of the most difficult, being 
 obliged to advance into an enemy's country, with one of 
 the most resolute warriors, like Henry, in his front, on 
 his flanks, and at his rear, at the head- of his valiant 
 troops. Nevertheless Farnese arrived at Paris ; caused 
 the siege to be raised with the finest and most masterly 
 tactics, and returned to Flanders still molested by that 
 active sovereign, who not being able to bring him to 
 battle, sent him a ridiculous challenge*. Can it be 
 
 * See for all these operations, Davila particularly. Nothing 
 proves better the masterly operations of Farnese and the superiority 
 of his enemy than the impetuous rage of Henry, who not being 
 able to bring him to battle, sent him a challenge. His wise 
 answer is well known; that he was not accustomed to fight when 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 ON THE ART OF WAR. 
 
 said that such a general and such troops were ignorant 
 of tactics*? Nor can Italy be denied the glory of ihe 
 ingenious discoveries, by which Vauban has restored the 
 art of defending fortresses. The unprejudiced French 
 themselves have confessed that in the work of Captain 
 Marchi the principles are to be found, upon which 
 Vauban has reformed the art of fortifications. 
 
 it pleased the enemy, and that if he forced him to it, he would 
 then see he would not refuse battle. 
 
 * If Ghibert means by not having tactics, not having those of 
 Nassau and of Gustavus, he is in the right, neither Consalvo, nor 
 Farnese were acquainted with them ; but as the tactics of our 
 times are perhaps more different from those of Gustavus, &c., 
 than the latter from those of Farnese, &c., it might upon the 
 same foundation be asserted that Nassau and Gustavus knew 
 nothing of tactics.
 
 ESSAY I. 
 
 UPON THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE ITALIAN 
 LANGUAGE. 
 
 AMONGST the many changes which the fall of the 
 Roman empire effected in Italy, that of language was 
 certainly one. As the birth of this new tongue interests 
 Tuscany more than the other provinces of Italy, it be- 
 comes necessary, in the history to trace the origin and 
 progress which appertain precisely to the ages which we 
 have hitherto gone through. 
 
 Two of the greatest inventions of mankind are lan- 
 guage and writing: with the former they have expressed 
 their ideas Jby a kind of music, with the latter by means 
 of a painting. In all assemblages of men however 
 savage, the first has never been wanting, and rarely a 
 rude sketch at least of the second. But the language of 
 
 C O 
 
 savage men differs as much from that of the cultivated 
 and learned, as the men themselves ; the few wants of 
 rude nations have only suggested syllables corresponding 
 to them, whilst the multiplied wants of a cultivated so- 
 ciety, the greater variety of physical objects, the much 
 more numerous artificial passions, and the long gradation 
 of moral sentiments unknown to savages, have given 
 rise to the necessity of expressing these new ideas ; and 
 consequently enrich the language. Even the brutes 
 possess a kind of speech, by which they clearly express 
 among themselves the strongest passions such as anger, 
 love, jealousy, desire; and we ourselves comprehend 
 it in that brute particularly which is, as it were, as- 
 sociated with civil society, and is become a guardian to 
 
 Rg
 
 244 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 
 
 the faithful shepherd, a companion and helpmate to the 
 sportsman. The formation of tongues has not been 
 hitherto, and probably never will be, the work of philo- 
 sophers ; hence their irregularities and caprices are not 
 to be wondered at : they are daughters less of reason than 
 of imagination, which latter being very lively amongst 
 savages, even in this imperfect state possesses words in 
 consequence highly picturesque. 
 
 Besides the natural formation of language amongst 
 men recently brought together, there is another to which 
 most of the modern languages owe their origin,, viz. the 
 great and sudden mixture of one language with another, 
 which occurs amongst a conquered people. The English, 
 the French, the Spanish and the Italian acknowledge 
 this cause. Our own had for its principal mother the 
 Latin, which it so much resembles. Even in the times 
 in which Rome was mistress of the world, so many 
 strangers flocking to it, attracted thither by curiosity, or 
 in search of riches, honours, and establishments, the Tul- 
 lian purity must necessarily have been insensibly changed, 
 as even Tully himself* very much complains of having 
 occurred in his days, and after him the Latin satiric f. 
 Nevertheless so long as Rome was the mistress, and 
 foreigners came thither only as tributaries, they were 
 obliged to learn the language of their conquerors, and 
 the alteration was very slow : but when the barbarians 
 had subjugated Italy and established their empire in it, it 
 then became necessary for the conquered Italians to learn 
 
 * ^tatis illius ista fuit laus tanquam innocentise sic Latine lo- 
 quendi, sed hanc rem deteriorem vetustas fecit et Romse et in 
 Grsecia: confluxerunt enim, et Athenas, et in hanc urbem multi 
 inquinata loquentes ex diversis locis quo magis expurgandus est 
 sermo. Cicer. de Clar. Orat. 
 
 t Jampridem Sims in Tiberim deflnxit Orontis, 
 Et liognam et more* .... vexit. Juv. Sat. a.
 
 THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. *45 
 
 the language of these barbarians. Numerous however 
 as the conquerors were, their Italian subjects were still 
 more so, and the foundation of the Latin language was 
 consequently preserved, but assumed new forms, com- 
 plying, as it were, with the laws of the language of the 
 conquerors. 
 
 That the Italian language with little variation from 
 what is now spoken by the vulgar existed even with the 
 ancient Romans, and was the language of the common 
 people, is an opinion I can hardly believe to have been 
 seriously maintained by learned men. Such was the 
 opinion of Leonardo Bruni, and being supported too by 
 Hercules Strozzi, in the dialogues of Bembo, proves that 
 this opinion had even followers in those times. Even 
 in our own days a man of merit, Quadrius, has main- 
 tained it. Their arguments are so frivolous as scarce to 
 merit confutation, since nothing more can be inferred 
 from them but that the Roman common people spoke a 
 corrupted Latin, which differed from that of the elegant 
 writers, as much as the Italian language of the mob 
 differs from that of Redi and of Cocchi. Nor less 
 singular is the opinion of Marq. Maffei, who does not 
 believe the languages of the barbarous conquerors have 
 contributed any thing to the formation of the new tongue, 
 which he thinks has arisen alone from the continued 
 alteration of the Latin. There is only one ingenious 
 argument of this writer, which in truth goes little way 
 to establish his opinion, but rather to give rise to a diffi- 
 culty not easy to be explained. " The northern lan- 
 guages of the conquerors being so harsh, discordant, and 
 full of consonants, how is it possible that from their 
 union with the Latin should rise a language so soft and 
 so full of vowels?" We can only reply, that this is one of 
 those whims of chance, the irregular and innumerable
 
 246 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 
 
 directions of which human genius can neither foresee nor 
 follow ; and that this soft language is born in the same 
 manner, as from deformed parents beautiful children, or, 
 as Ariosto expresses it, 
 
 Che dalle spine ancor nascon le rose, 
 E dauna fetid' erba nasce il giglio. 
 
 But it is certainly impossible, that, when two nations are 
 united and confounded together, the words particularly of 
 the predominant nation should not be mixed with those 
 of the language of the other, since we know from a long 
 experience, that foreign nations and not absolute masters 
 of Italy, as the Spanish and the French in the time they 
 ruled over us with their fashions and influence, have insi- 
 nuated into it many words. This must have 'happened 
 still more with respect to the language of a people mas- 
 ters and stationary in Italy, and who spoke with slaves. 
 Besides which laborious etymologists clearly point out to 
 us many of the northern vowels which have been intro- 
 duced into it * : we must, however, confess that these 
 bear a very small proportion to the words of Latin origin, 
 of which for the most part our language is composed f. 
 
 The Italian language, born in this manner, has lost 
 one of the finest qualities of her mother, viz., the declen- 
 sions, and has therefore been obliged to refer to the 
 articles of which the Latin was deprived, in order to in- 
 dicate with them the case which was shewn in the 
 former by the various terminations of the word : by this 
 change it has become as it were more heavy and certainly 
 more monotonous, as in lieu of the hyperbole so gen- 
 
 * See particularly Muratori nelle Antich. Ital. Dissert. 32, 33. 
 
 t Let us take up only an Italian book and begin to read, and we 
 shall often run through a whole page in which all the words will be 
 found of Latin origin.
 
 THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 247 
 
 leelly varied by the Latins, and which affords so much 
 majesty to the diction, the Italian is obliged on account 
 of the articles to present, in an order little varied, the no- 
 minative, the verb and the accusative. In vain Boccaccio, 
 and others of the early writers have endeavoured by 
 transposition to give the daughter this beauty of the 
 mother. Experience has shewn that she is not capable 
 of it. 
 
 The essential mutations began after the ruin of the 
 empire of the West, when the Goths in the sixth century, 
 and subsequently the Lombards, established themselves 
 in Italy. The temporary inundation she has so often 
 been exposed to from the Greeks, who under the com- 
 mand of Belisarius and Narses came to re-conquer a 
 patrimony re-claimed by the Emperors of the East, and 
 long resided here, from the Franks, the Hungarians, and 
 other nations, like the inundation of rivers and tor- 
 rents, must have left upon the soil of Italy heterogeneous 
 and foreign particles, which mixed with the disfigured 
 Latin, have finally composed the Italian tongue. The 
 period it has taken to form itself, is sufficiently long and 
 comprehends many ages, but as we have no respectable 
 testimony that it was begun to be written before the end 
 of the eleventh century, we must allow nearly six cen- 
 turies for its formation. This languid and long infancy 
 is owing particularly to the barbarity and profound ig- 
 norance in which the Italians remained immersed. We 
 cannot with precision fix the period at which the lan- 
 guage acquired sufficient form to be written, because all 
 was written in Latin, but in the most ancient papers of 
 this Latin we meet with words of the vulgar tongue 
 already created, words which ignorance of the equivalent 
 Latin ones obliged the barbarous writers to latinize, 
 exactly as the lower orders of Hungary in our days
 
 248 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 
 
 speak Latin, or like those which the whim of imagination 
 has so facetiously latinized in the poetry of Merlin 
 Coccai. There are papers of this kind which by learned 
 antiquarians are referred to the eighth and even to the 
 seventh century * ; whence we must confess, that from 
 this time, the vulgar language had began to be formed, 
 and that there were already two languages, one the Latin 
 for writing, the other the vulgar which was commonly 
 
 * There are some very important ones to prove our proposition, 
 referred to in Murat. Antiquit. Ital. Diss. 24. In a paper of the chap- 
 ter of Lucca, of the year 777, are found the expressions: " Offero 
 a Deo omnipotent ed ad ecclesia monasteri," &c. We see the 
 articles already created in the vulgar and transported by ignorance 
 into the Latin (Offro a Dio e alia Chiesa). In the legibus Ala- 
 manuis cap. Balusii, we findposare arma josum (posar giu le armi) 
 the word iosum for giu are found also in the works of St. Augustin. 
 In a paper of the eighth century, in which the confines of possessions 
 are distinguished, written in Latin, we find the words: da pars (da 
 un Lato) da uno capu corre via publica. Another paper of the ninth 
 age : avent in longo perticas quatordice in traverse de uno cnpo 
 pedes dece, de olio nove in traterso. But one of the papers, which 
 merits observation above all the others, is found in the archive 
 above mentioned of the canons of Lucca. Vid. Murat. Diss. 24. 
 Therein is given a description of various receipts for dyeing Mosaics, 
 and skins, and for writing with liquid gold. This paper is believed 
 by the learned Mabillon to belong to the times of Charles the Great. 
 The following expressions are read therein : " egeis ut refridet 
 secondo quod (secondo che) cusa ipsas pelles, laxas desiccare 
 flascia seccare) batte lamina, et post ilia battuta per martellum 
 adequatur tarn de latum, quam de longum scaldato illo in foco 
 batte e tene ilium cum tenaba ferrea sed tornata de intro in foras 
 destende eum ibi scalda pone ad battere ad denante satacciatur 
 modicum laxa stare adplanare cum maliola lignea ossa granci." 
 This paper written in Latin shews that many words of the Italian 
 tongue were already created. Various learned men believe that 
 exactly in the seventh age the Latin language ceased to be com- 
 monly spoken, and an imperfect cant of the vulgar began. Blair, 
 Chronolog.
 
 THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 240 
 
 in use : nor is it probable, as some have believed, that 
 there was only one language, viz., the Latin, such as we 
 find it written in those times. The documents, we have 
 quoted in the notes, are at variance with this opinion, 
 and as the Italian language was certainly written in the 
 twelfth century, it becomes necessary to allow a sufficient 
 time before it could be written, a work not speedily 
 accomplished. The most specious argument employed 
 to prove that the common people spoke and understood 
 Latin in the eleventh and twelfth centuries is, that Latin 
 was preached to the people : but this is one of those 
 frequent contradictions and scarcely intelligible extra- 
 vagances which we find in human affairs. The Latin 
 language was used for greater majesty ; it was the sacred 
 language, the language of the learned, and in the same 
 manner as at that time they preached in a language un- 
 intelligible to the common people, the same common 
 people in our time direct their prayers to heaven in the 
 same language, which they do not understand. That the 
 Latin sermons moreover were not understood by the 
 people, who listened to them, is clearly inferred from 
 the interpretations that were made of them after the 
 Latin discourse*. 
 
 * See Antich. Estensi, par. 1. cap. 36. pag. 356. Speaking of a 
 homily of the Patriarch of Aquileja, it is said, " quura praedictus 
 patriarcha liberaliter, sapienter praedicasset, et per eum (cioe pro eo) 
 Gherardus Paduanus Episcopus maternaliter ejus prsedicationem 
 explanasset," &c. This account removes every difficulty by shew- 
 ing the use of the two languages, the Latin and the vulgar. Even 
 in later times when the Italian language was formed and began to 
 be written, the custom has been followed in the public acts, in 
 public and solemn orations to speak Latin. Dante, sent ambassador 
 to the Venetian senate, had begun his oration in Latin, but the 
 senate made him silent, or demanded that he should bring with him 
 an interpreter, of which he highly complains. See Lett, di Dante.
 
 250 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 
 
 From the great number of vulgar words found in the 
 Latin papers of the eighth century, it may with great 
 reason be asserted that, until that time, they commonly 
 spoke the vulgar tongue. Although we cannot with pre- 
 cision establish the time in which they began to write it, 
 it is clear, however, that it happened before the middle 
 of the twelfth century. If they would not admit as a 
 certain proof the Italian verses that were written in 
 Mosaic, in the tribune of the ancient cathedral of 
 Ferrara*, (since the doubt may be started that they have 
 been written some time after, to confirm a memorial 
 handed down by tradition,) every doubt is removed by a 
 parchment referred to by Ughelli f. In the following 
 age it was commonly written; and Tuscany possesses 
 the most authentic document of it in the History of Ri- 
 cordano Malaspina, the first that has been written in 
 the Italian language^. 
 
 Scarce was the Italian genius roused from its long 
 slumber of ignorance, when particularly the Tuscans 
 began to temper it, softened its roughness, enriched it 
 with new spoils, and gradually raising it from the degrada- 
 tion to which it was condemned in the mouth of the 
 
 * Baruff. Pref. to the Ferrarese Poets : here are the verses 
 In millf cento trempta cinque uato 
 Fu q nest o tempio, e a Zorzi dedicate : 
 Fu Niccolas scolptore 
 E Glielmo fu 1' au tore. 
 
 t Ital. Sacr. The skin is written in vulgar language, and belongs 
 to the year 1 122 ; in it are established some limits. 
 
 t It excites great astonishment, that the learned Tiraboschi, to 
 give an essay upon the rudeness of the Italian language, in the 
 thirteenth century, refers to some very rough verses, written in the 
 year 1264 by a Milanese poet, when he might have had a better 
 and a purer model in the History of Malaspina, written certainly 
 before that time.
 
 THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 251 
 
 vulgar, elevated it to a rank corresponding with the dig- 
 nity of the mother, without losing by the comparison. 
 Like in young people, the first faculty developed is ima- 
 gination before mature reason ; so, in rising languages, 
 the daughter of imagination, Poetry, precedes Philosophy. 
 The poets were the first to distinguish themselves in 
 polishing and enriching our language. When, however, 
 we read the rude, harsh, and insipid verses written in 
 Italy, even after the middle of the thirteenth century, 
 and at the close of it the greater part of the wonderful 
 poem of Dante, we cannot look upon the progress of 
 the language without the greatest admiration, or rather 
 the divine genius of that great bard. We cannot form a 
 just idea of the merits of Dante, without reading the 
 writings of his predecessors, in order to ascertain the 
 poverty of the language. He has been, in fact, the 
 creator, and particularly of the poetical. The greatest 
 poets are even more rare than great philosophers; because 
 the talents of the former are formed from two elements, 
 rarely found united, and which appear, on the contrary, 
 incompatible, namely, a very lively imagination, and a 
 cold and settled judgment. Innumerable are the images 
 which present themselves to the fancy when set in 
 motion, and succeed rapidly to each other: tranquil 
 reason must select the few capable of forming the beau- 
 tiful picture. Imagination is a fiery steed, which, left 
 alone, would leap irregularly out of the road over rocks 
 and precipices, at the frequent risk of breaking its neck. 
 Judgment is the rider that guides him, not with a rugged 
 halter, but a string of silk. If the bridle is too hard, if, 
 by indiscreet treatment, the rider makes too great a use 
 of it, the steed loses his sensibility, nor any longer risks 
 such fine leaps. Hence it is that the poems of great ima- 
 gination arise in times in which that severe criticism is
 
 252 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 
 
 not yet formed, which often extinguishes the fine poetic 
 fire with its cold circumspection. This very rare talent, 
 composed of these two ingredients in their proper dose, 
 was granted by nature to Dante as a singular gift ; and 
 he was enabled to create not only the poetic language, 
 but many words and phrases with which prose was also 
 enriched. Scarcely do we perceive how much we are 
 indebted to this great writer ; because the riches he has 
 brought into our language have become common to suc- 
 ceeding authors : and we never refer to the fountain, like 
 an opulent family in the enjoyment of its riches, which 
 rarely considers with gratitude the person who first 
 laboured to amass them. This is not the place to point 
 out his successful labours. It would require too minute 
 and too tedious an analysis. He may be said to have 
 done what Augustus did, who found Rome built of 
 brick, and left it of marble*. 
 
 It would not be proper to enter anew into an odious 
 and disgusting question, which, in the sixteenth century, 
 kindled so much animosity amongst the Italian literati, 
 whether this language should be called Tuscan or 
 Italian, but rather this is the place to absolve the 
 Tuscans from the imputation of exercising a despotism 
 over the language, and of receiving only with difficulty 
 the words of the other Italian provinces, of erecting a 
 kind of tribunal, and making themselves exclusive judges 
 of it. 
 
 We will no\v examine impartially, whether the Tus- 
 cans have a greater right than the other Italians to this 
 judgment. It accidentally happened, that the first great 
 writers have been Tuscans. Dante, Petrarch, and Boc- 
 caccio wrote their language. True is it, that the Tuscan 
 
 * Sueton. vit. August.
 
 THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 253 
 
 dialect was that which they wrote in preference to any 
 other in Italy * ; the same which, with very little varia- 
 tion, is still spoken in Tuscany. The pure language of 
 Boccaccio and other old writers is better preserved by 
 the vulgar Florentine artisans and the people of the 
 country, than by the more polished and noble classes of 
 Tuscany, whose intercourse with foreigners has not a 
 little altered the ancient language; and it not unfre- 
 quently happens, that some words of those writers, now 
 obsolete, are found in the mouths of shepherds in the 
 country, as we still trace their ancient simplicity of man- 
 ners. The Tuscan language, fortunately boasting of the 
 first illustrious writers, became the learned language, 
 the language of writing. These writers have always 
 strove to adorn it with new and rich ornaments: all the 
 additions were modelled after the Tuscan dialect ; from 
 them alone it acquired that purity and elegance, of which 
 it is now no longer possible to deprive it; and indeed 
 what is purity and elegance of language |? Recurring 
 
 * Against this assertion we may quote the authority of Dante, 
 who, in his book de vulgari eloquentia, has been of a contrary opi- 
 nion. I shall not doubt, as some have done, of the authenticity of 
 this book ; I shall only observe, that Dante cannot be quoted upon 
 this head. The language was at that time uncertain and wandering; 
 it had taken no form and character until they were stamped upon it 
 by him. Romulus could not speak of the greatness of Rome before 
 he had built it. Dante, with his two great successors, Petrarch 
 and Boccaccio, founded the language, and founded it too upon the 
 Tuscan basis. If these three used in preference the Tuscan, the 
 preference is decided. This appears to me demonstrated from 
 observing that, of all the terms and dialects of Italy, the Tuscan 
 are those which for the greater part are found in them, and that 
 these are constantly in the mouths of the common people of 
 Tuscany. And what is the reason we do not find the dialects and 
 terms of the other provinces, unless very rarely? 
 
 t It excites great astonishment, that one of the most illustrious 
 living Italians should deny the existence of purity of languages.
 
 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 
 
 to rude times, when a language is without authors, there 
 exists neither purity nor elegance, all the words are 
 equal, like men in a state of nature, some few alone are 
 distinguished from the number which express the ideas 
 represented by sound. Before the great writers, all 
 words, either Tuscan, Lombard, Venetian, or Neapo- 
 litan, each dialect possessed an equal merit ; but since a 
 great writer, full of imagination, has undertaken to couple 
 the Tuscan words with fine images; since they have so 
 often been the vehicle to the spirit, and to the heart of 
 great thoughts, of soft and delicate sentiments ; since we 
 have been horror-struck by means of them at the atro- 
 cious spectacle of Ugolino, and shed compassionate tears 
 over the two unfortunate brothers-in-law ; the mind and 
 the ears associate the words with these ideas, and the 
 same being said in all other cases, hence it is that great 
 writers give to a rising dialect, (and consequently have 
 given to our Tuscan,) purity, nobility, and elegance. 
 Subsequent authors have regulated themselves after the 
 first, and have only cultivated the same ground. Men 
 are creatures of habit ; association of ideas is to them a 
 
 (Essay upon the Italian Language, by the Abbe Melchior Cesarotti.) 
 Here are his words : " No language is pure. Not only does there 
 not exist at present any one such, but there never was, and can 
 never be: because a language, in its primitive origin, is formed 
 from a complication of various idioms ; thence the supposed purity 
 of languages, which, besides being entirely false, is, moreover, 
 a chimera, because a language quite pure would be the most 
 poor and barbarous of any that exist." The same writer, however, 
 forgetting what he had asserted, adds below : " Hence it is ridicu- 
 lous to believe, as it is thought and affirmed, that the Latin language 
 was less Latin in the age called of bronze than in that of gold, 
 although perhaps it might be called less pure. 'Is not this an evident 
 contradiction, in spite of the perhaps? The work quoted is full of 
 strange assertions of a similar tenor, which appear particularly 
 directed against the Tuscans. I hope, whoever has read them will
 
 THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 25$ 
 
 second nature*: from the former arise innumerable 
 pleasures and displeasures, the finest pictures of nature 
 being presented to us in the Italian language through 
 the vehicle of the words and the Tuscan dialect, 
 the ideas of purity, elegance, and nobility being conse- 
 quently so closely connected with the Tuscan phrases ; 
 we listen to them with a kind of reverence for the 
 images, with which they have been coupled, even when 
 not pronounced by Tuscans. When various celebrated 
 writers, the first who appeared in a language, have given 
 course to words, and elevated them, as it were, to the 
 dignity of representing noble ideas and great thoughts, 
 they become noble ; the more so when continued by 
 writers of celebrity who succeed the first : when the most 
 illustrious men, foreigners to Tuscany, as an Ariosto or 
 a Tasso, have subjected themselves, with few exceptions, 
 to the same law, a period succeeds wherein language, 
 which was poor at the beginning, continues to be en- 
 riched until it has acquired the colours, words, and 
 phrases, which are sufficient to give a lively picture both 
 of the delightful scenes of nature, and the strong pas- 
 sions, with all their modifications. These words and 
 phrases, first put in course by writers who formed the 
 language, and afterwards accepted and confirmed by 
 their successors, have formed what is called purity of 
 style. When time has, as it were, put the seal upon, 
 and given an authenticity to, those words and phrases as 
 pure, it would be labour lost to dispute their rank by 
 metaphysical subtilty, by maintaining that there exists 
 neither purity or impurity of language. Language is 
 
 find them fully confuted in the present argument, without the 
 necessity of analyzing them one by one. 
 * Locke on Human Understanding. Book 2.
 
 256 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 
 
 like a river, which, small at the beginning enlarges itself 
 continually by pure waters, and becomes gradually deep, 
 but limpid and transparent* when arrived at its pleni- 
 tude, it begins to receive rivulets continually more 
 muddy; the more it flows it enriches itself, but too 
 great riches, as happens to a nation, corrupt it. Facts 
 are worth more than reasonings ; compare only Tully 
 with Seneca, Virgil with Lucan, &c. Persons of taste 
 have no necessity to reason but to feel ; for example, 
 we feel our delicate ears which are accustomed to what 
 we call elegance, unpleasingly wounded by new or 
 foreign words, and which are not in course, like a culti- 
 vated and polished society, offended by any clownish and 
 rude person who may be introduced into it: although 
 considered philosophically and without the rules of gen- 
 tility which habit has established, neither one manner 
 or another can be called rude or inelegant. 
 
 It appears to me that I have sufficiently demonstrated 
 the origin and continuation of what is termed purity of 
 language. Tuscany having enjoyed the good fortune that 
 the first great writers brought the Tuscan dialect and its 
 terms into fashion, and so little difference existing in this 
 province between the language that is spoken and that 
 which is written, and so great a one between it and the 
 dialect of the greater part of the other provinces of 
 Italy, it follows that Tuscany has endeavoured (without 
 charge of arrogance,) not to erect to herself a tribunal, 
 or to claim the exclusive right of judging of the merit 
 
 * The style of a language brought to perfection may be ex- 
 pressed in two verses written upon the Thames by one of the most 
 celebrated English poets, Denham, verses so much celebrated by 
 his fellow citizens : 
 
 Though deep yet clear, though gentle, yet not dull, 
 Strong without rage, without o'crflowing, lull-
 
 THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 257 
 
 of the writers of other provinces, and pronouncing upon 
 them an irrevocable sentence ; but to collect together in 
 many volumes, the phrases originally her own, because 
 put in course by her first writers, together with those 
 phrases which other celebrated authors, foreigners to 
 Tuscany, have added ; in order that she might establish 
 the language, and give its true signification to foreigners. 
 The celebrated academy of the Crusca, and that which 
 has succeeded it, have never pretended to draw a line 
 or a barrier to any new word, or to receive and reject 
 at caprice and without just reasons whatever it pleases, 
 with which it has been often bitterly accused by the 
 other provinces of Italy. The number of writers not 
 Tuscans, admitted in the vocabulary as respectable 
 authors, and fit to give sanction to phrases used by 
 them, shews the falsity of the first proposition ; for the 
 second, it is only necessary to observe with what 
 caution we ought to admit a new word into a language 
 
 o o o 
 
 and give sanction to it. An emperor was told that he 
 might give the Roman citizenship to a man, and not to 
 a word ; the cultivated and elegant part of the public 
 alone have the right to admit or to reject the latter. 
 When all the academies make solemn decrees that a 
 word should be admitted and acknowledged as noble 
 and pure, if one judge persists in rejecting it, the 
 decrees are useless : but the judge cannot be called 
 capricious ; because in rejecting it he has always a tacit 
 reason, which frequently he does not himself know, but 
 which habit makes him feel; in the same manner, as 
 without knowing the physical reasons for it, the palate 
 rejects a new dish, which the cook thinks ought to have 
 been commended. And, in fact, what are the conditions 
 upon which a foreign word can be received into a 
 language ? It is first necessary that in this language 
 VOL. I. S
 
 253 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 
 
 there should be no equivalent; otherwise it would be 
 capricious and unjust to take away from a citizen, 
 without reason, his employment, in order to give it to 
 a foreigner; but this is not sufficient: it is necessary 
 that this word should be universally understood, should 
 have come into course and be found generally in the 
 mouths of polished persons ; and if Tuscany asserts 
 that this second condition can be verified upon her soil, 
 she is not in the wrong, as this being the soil upon 
 which the language written is born, it is proper that the 
 trial should be made upon this soil whether it thrives 
 happily. If this right had not been conceded to her 
 in preference, every province of Italy might arrogate it 
 to herself; the Piedmontese put words in course that 
 the Venetians w r ould reject, and those again become 
 disagreeable to the Genoese which the Bolognese had 
 adopted. Without this rampart placed by wise acade- 
 micians against the intrusion of foreign terms, at this 
 time a general inundation would have so much disfigured 
 the ancient cultivation of this ground, that it would be 
 scarcely discernible by those who converse with the 
 learned ancients. It is true, however, that in the long 
 course of ages, time, that changes every thing, alters 
 also languages ; and however those wise academicians 
 may have sought to fix it, many sensible changes must 
 necessarily occur, either through accident; or because 
 such is their nature. Some words grow old and out of 
 use ; perhaps some had reference to customs, which 
 being gone out of fashion, the words that represented 
 them are also decayed : the turn of phrases is sometimes 
 changed, new discoveries in philosophy, and the analysis 
 of moral sentiments, have given rise to new manners of 
 expression. It is not necessary that we should obsti- 
 ately adhere to all the ancient phrases and words.
 
 THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 Whoever would write the language of three centuries 
 back, without adapting it to the style of language spoken 
 in his own times, will not only forfeit the approbation 
 of the public, but appear unnatural and affected. This 
 is a rock upon which even illustrious modern writers 
 sometimes strike ; we may, as far as possible, make use 
 of the paste of the ancient pure language, but mould it 
 after modern forms ; we may dress in the best cloth and 
 brilliant silk of our ancestors, but the form of the coat 
 must be in the present fashion. Every thing yields to 
 time, every thing at least undergoes a progressive 
 change, and particularly languages ; our own, however, 
 has resisted more than others, and where is there among 
 the living languages one that has preserved its dispo- 
 sition, and its character, from its birth down to our 
 times, so well as the Italian ? What language can shew 
 writers, who, born in the first development of it, have 
 maintained themselves fresh, to use the expression, and 
 flourish in the same language for five ages, and are still 
 relished, like Dante ? The Italian owes this advantage 
 to the great writers, who after a long infancy conducted it 
 rapidly to the vigour of strength : Dante, Petrarch, and 
 Boccaccio, having been always read, have preserved the 
 language fresh and vigorous. I shall not venture to 
 decide whether this vigour still continues, or whether it is 
 declining towards old age ; I trust only no one will deny, 
 that finally, in the lapse of so much time, the language 
 has formed its character, taken the road best adapted to 
 it, long in use, and that its education, as it were, has 
 been long since finished. This being allowed we shall 
 perceive the impossibility of making the language 
 comply with new customs, as is advised by great writers. 
 New words may be acquired : since natural philosophy 
 and morality having made such great progress, arid 
 
 S 2
 
 260 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 
 
 introduced so many new ideas, it becomes necessary that 
 in accepting the ideas we should acknowledge the signs 
 that indicate them ; but it will be as difficult to make 
 it adopt new forms, as it would he to a person in the 
 decline of age. For example, our language is deficient 
 in a merit, viz., that of compound words, a quality 
 that so much embellishes the Greek, and is adopted 
 by various of the living languages, particularly the 
 English; the want of this advantage is unpleasing, 
 but it is no longer time to acquire it. A man of fifty 
 years of age may regret not having learnt music ; but 
 it is no longer time for him to do so. Our lan- 
 guage, the first-born child of the Latin, has followed 
 in this way its disposition; for the Latin possesses 
 only a small share of compound words. The learned 
 Quinctilian did wrong to excite writers to form them : it 
 was no longer time for the same reason. The Italians 
 have made vain attempts in our times, or shortly prior to 
 them, to create compound words. Experience has shewn 
 that they are fruits which do not thrive in our soil, as 
 they wither in a short time : the use of them alone has 
 been tolerated in Dithyrambic poets, from an indulgence 
 to a kind of poetry, which supposes the mind exalted 
 more than usual ; of which kind we have only one fine 
 example, and it is not to be desired we should have 
 more. I know that it will be contended by many, that 
 languages form to themselves a character, a disposition 
 which prevents them afterwards from adopting new cus- 
 toms. I could answer by experience which decides in 
 my favour ; but I will endeavour to examine this theme 
 more at bottom. Every language in its birth is poor, 
 possessing only the words adapted to express the wants 
 of life, and the ideas which that society, more or less 
 extended, has already formed : the great writers appear ;
 
 THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 261 
 
 endowed with that fine touch which nature has imparted 
 to few, they begin to select, in the midst of a confused 
 mass, the words which to the ear, the judgment, the ima- 
 gination, appear to them the finest ; new words are also 
 produced, taken from foreign languages, which have the 
 greater affinity with their own, create new phrases, by 
 uniting together many words, and accustoming the 
 language to certain modes. They are not capricious 
 legislators; but legislators, like Solon or Lycurgus, being 
 made such by nature. They risk novelties, which are 
 not afterwards permitted to successors. Frequently suc- 
 cessful, and some times unfortunate, time and the public 
 give the seal, and put out of use what has been established. 
 The liberty which those writers possess is very great; 
 and very many expressions, particularly metaphorical, 
 created by them, although very bold, are received gra- 
 dually by posterity, which in remembrance of so many 
 other beauties shew a favour even to phrases too daring. 
 But these, which no one at present would venture to 
 create, frequently become the received phrases, and the 
 ear and the mind accustomed to them to a degree, that 
 nobody finds any thing further against them. Who would 
 at present dare to say, for the first time, II sole tace il 
 lume fioco il visibile parlare*, and many other bold 
 figures used by Dante ? Thus it is that every language 
 possesses expressions which would appear ridiculous in 
 another, because the genius is different. Who would say, 
 in our own, to express suicide, those who have brought 
 forth death to themselves, and, hating the light, have 
 thrown away the soul? We should laugh at such 
 metaphors : nevertheless, such are the expressions of 
 
 * Observe the similarity of some bold phrases, created by great 
 men of different nations. Dante has said il visibile parlare ; as 
 Milton, oscurita visibile, visible darkness ; Paradise
 
 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 
 
 Virgil, the most chaste among the Latin poets, and the 
 most moderate in his colours: 
 
 qui sibi Lethum 
 
 Insontes peperere manu, lucemque perosi 
 
 Projecere animam. 
 
 Hence it is, therefore, that the genius, the disposition, 
 the character of every language are formed from the 
 labours of great authors. When they have given the 
 tone and the law to that nation when, during many 
 ages, she has read, learnt by heart, and repeated with 
 pleasure, those phrases, they have received a sanction; 
 and, as reasoning has no place in affairs of sentiment, 
 metaphysical disquisitions upon works of taste are of 
 little avail. This is so true, that when a dispute arises 
 upon the goodness of a phrase, upon its justness, upon 
 its boldness, every one being able by the same right to 
 approve or disapprove it, we are accustomed to refer, if 
 possible, to the examples of great writers, as to infallible 
 judges. When, therefore, the latter have formed the 
 language, when they have given it a disposition, a par- 
 ticular character, it would be in vain, after many ages, to 
 accustom it to new ways. These may do much good 
 and much evil to a language ; and if a great writer has 
 introduced therein bad habits, it is as difficult not to 
 maintain them in it, as it would be to take away from a 
 vase the smell of the fluid poured into it when new. We 
 meet with an example of this in the language of one of 
 the most learned and most cultivated nations, the 
 English. Shakspeare has certainly been a great founder 
 of their poetical style, but not unfrequently, amidst the 
 most sublime expressions, are found too daring tropes, 
 like those of our seventeenth century, with thoughts too 
 far fetched. The defects of this great man, like his 
 prominent beauties, have had a great influence in the
 
 THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE, 263 
 
 style of that great nation ; and a mark of the defects of 
 Shakspeare appears also in the writings of their greatest 
 poets, if we except Pope. That the founders of the 
 English language did not possess the purest taste is not 
 my opinion alone. One of their most respectable writers 
 (Hume) says : It may be considered as a misfortune for 
 English literature, that, on the restoration of letters, the 
 English writers were furnished with great genius, before 
 possessing taste in the smallest degree, and, therefore, 
 gave a kind of sanction to far-fetched manners and to 
 forced sentiments. Nevertheless, such is the secret and 
 unexpected influence of great writers ; such the force of 
 habit, that although that learned nation, endowed with 
 the finest taste, knows and reproves the greater part of 
 these defects, some of them still flow in their writings. 
 Their metaphors appear to us more bold than our own ; 
 and they would call timidity in us what we call carica- 
 ture. Either that the ridiculous spectacle, which in the 
 seventeenth century we have given to Europe, of the 
 most extravagant metaphorical style, and of false con- 
 ceits, has made us ashamed of our faults, after we have 
 returned to our reason, and rendered us too timid; or 
 that our eye-balls, too much torn by the impudent 
 colouring of that style, have become exceedingly sensible 
 and delicate, many of those which one of their greatest 
 writers calls Words that burn, and thoughts that 
 breathe*, appear to many Italians and foreigners very 
 bold expressions. Let me show one example, and draw 
 a comparison. One of the poems, considered by the 
 English amongst their most perfect, is the celebrated 
 Elegy of Gray upon the Country Churchyard. He has 
 
 * Thoughts that breathe and words that burn. GRAY, on the 
 Progress of Poetry.
 
 264 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 
 
 begun it with an idea drawn from Dante, which he does 
 not deny : on the contrary, whose verses he quotes : 
 
 se ode squilla di lontano 
 Che paja il giorno pianger che si muore. 
 
 The idea is genteel : the bell that rings at the dusk of 
 evening is adapted to awaken a noble melancholy. The 
 English is thus literally expressed : la campana batte il 
 funerale del giorno che muore *, but the funeral of the 
 day will appear to many an expression a little bold, and 
 of a colouring that shoots, to use a painter's phrase. 
 Observe how judiciously Dante, in his original verses, 
 has put the word paja, which softens the colouring, and 
 reduces it to its real rank. I could observe, also, how 
 much more true and touching the image of Dante 
 becomes with that di lontano ; as it cannot be denied, 
 that the effect of waking a melancholy sentiment is not 
 greater when far around in the country we listen in the 
 evening to that sound, rendered more melancholy and 
 obtuse from the distance itself. Other examples might 
 be adduced ; but perhaps some will accuse me of too 
 much boldness, because I have ventured to decide upon 
 the phrases of a foreign language: and they will be in 
 the right. Perhaps my opinion is national prejudice : 
 the fruits of every climate have a flavour suited to the 
 soil in which they are cultivated, and to the palate of the 
 inhabitants. 
 
 Returning into the road from this little deviation, it 
 appears to me that I have justified that little authority, 
 which accident or the genius of its first writers have 
 given in the language to the Tuscans, , authority against 
 which so much has been declaimed, as if it were most 
 cruel despotism. 
 
 Let us now impartially examine what advantages or 
 
 * The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.
 
 THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 565 
 
 disadvantages the Italian language has derived since the 
 Tuscan dialect became the ruling one. It has certainly 
 acquired the merit of an extraordinary sweetness which 
 rises from the many vowels and few consonants ; and, 
 with the exception of the eastern tongues, it is superior 
 in this quality to every other, and particularly to the 
 northern languages, in the words of which the eye 
 beholds with a kind of disgust a wood of consonants, and 
 hardly understands how it is possible to pronounce them. 
 Of the Italian provinces, the Tuscan dialect is the 
 softest, particularly the Florentine, the sweetness of 
 which is even excessive, as by cutting off too much, and 
 swallowing (as it were) the consonants, and even the 
 vowels, it converts itself into a defect. This sweetness, 
 so adapted to song and to tender poetry, has given rise 
 to such a number of poets, (as no other nation counts a 
 third part of those of Italy,) a great part of whose verses, 
 void of images and of graceful sentiments, a mere har- 
 monious sound *, flatter only the ears by the sweetness 
 of the language and rhyme. If in the midst of this 
 abundant harvest were not found the greatest pupils of 
 the Muses, that quality would have done, us more harm 
 than good ; but as one of the poetical merits is harmony, 
 when this is united to soundness of thought and the viva- 
 city of images, we have a poetical perfection superior 
 to all other nations: this harmonious softness is car- 
 ried to a degree, that often the common people sing 
 verses they do not understand, contented alone with 
 the amusement which the melody of the language affords 
 the ears. This merit, however, is perhaps compensated 
 by a defect : in the Tuscan dialect all the words finish 
 
 versus rerum mopes 
 Nugseque canorae. HOR. Poet.
 
 266 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 
 
 with a vowel, nor do we ever cut off in the pronunciation 
 unless another succeeds, consequently the longest words 
 are composed of more syllables than in many other 
 tongues. If we compare our words with the English 
 and the French, and give attention to their pronunciation, 
 we shall see what an economy of syllables there is in 
 them. The syllables are formed by vowels, and these 
 are cut off in so large a quantity; almost all the last are 
 so certainly, whilst ours must be pronounced and conse- 
 quently form a syllable. Not only the final vowels, but 
 many of the intermediate ones vanish from the lips of 
 foreigners ; hence frequently a word, which, when pro- 
 nounced in the Italian, would form three syllables, in 
 French, and still more so in the English, is reduced to 
 one. From this quality their poets derive particular 
 advantage, which include more images in a very short 
 space, and the shorter the picture is wherein without 
 clashing together or confusion, the images are restrained, 
 so much the more it strikes us. There are Italian 
 dialects, and particularly the Genoese and Piedmontese, 
 which cut off many vowels, and in which the words are 
 consequently very short. If the first writers had been 
 born in Genoa or Piedmont who had raised up their 
 dialect to the dignity of the ruling language, as has hap- 
 pened to Tuscany, the language would have acquired the 
 merit of brevity of words, but at a great sacrifice of its 
 sweetness : I will leave to delicate critics to decide if the 
 sacrifice would have been equal to the gain. Besides 
 surpassing in sweetness almost all the living languages, 
 the Italian perhaps does not yield to any in richness of 
 expression, and surpasses many : this richness, much as 
 it favours poetry and eloquence, is very unfavourable to 
 philosophical precision. The word is never wanting 
 when necessary which exact reason requires as preferable
 
 THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 267 
 
 to every other to say whatever may be taught without 
 ornament ; and Galileo, Macchiavello, Redi, Cocchi, and 
 Magalotti have taught us this ; but amidst such an abun- 
 dance of words, the one which precise philosophical 
 language requires, does not so soon present itself to the 
 writer, who is buried frequently and embarrassed amidst 
 the rich variety of flowers, or of similar and analogous, but 
 not the precise terms. The author not rarely finds himself 
 poor in the midst of plenty. A language less rich, such 
 as the French, and which hardly knows poetical colour- 
 ing, lends itself immediately to philosophical precision. 
 It is like to a person not rich but economical, who is per- 
 fectly well acquainted with money and spends it at proper 
 times and with judgment: an unprecise Italian writer 
 is like a rich prodigal, who throws pieces of gold away 
 to get rid of the trouble of choosing from amongst 
 them those of silver or copper which would be fitter 
 for the circumstances. We are deficient in eloquent 
 writers because we are without the causes that produce 
 true eloquence, viz., the opportunities of speaking of great 
 interests in public, as first in Greece, afterwards in Rome, 
 and now in England and France, where, consequently, 
 eloquence is arrived at its highest pitch. There would 
 have been room for sacred orators to have distinguished 
 themselves, but we must confess with sorrow we can 
 reckon few above mediocrity, nor do we know of any 
 we can confront with a Masillon, a Bourdaloue, a 
 Fletcher, and a Boussuet, among the French, or a Salis- 
 bury, a Sherlocke, and many others, amongst the English. 
 We shall not seek too minutely for the reason which 
 would lead us perhaps to disgusting and odious conse- 
 quences ; but it is certain that with the fine themes which 
 religion presents us with, and the morality adapted to 
 raise the spirit and inflame the heart, we cannot, since
 
 263 ON THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 the birth of our language, shew a single book which ap- 
 proaches those quoted. In the greater part of our ser- 
 mons we seek to introduce subtle theological disputes, 
 unintelligible certainly to the common people, who always 
 praise and applaud what they do not understand. The 
 rule should be to speak more to the heart than to the 
 spirit, as rarely men are ignorant of their own duty, 
 which is written in plain terms in the breast of every one. 
 The sacred orations are, moreover, written for the most 
 part in a far-fetched and emphatic style ; it is a poetical 
 prose, where we discover the flight of a whimsical imagi- 
 nation rather than the inspiration of Apollo. Does the 
 preacher wish to tell you that it is day ? he introduces before 
 you Aurora, who with her rosy fingers opens the windows 
 of the East. Will he relate to you the adventure of the 
 prophet Jonas? He describes to. you a tempest with the 
 whistling of winds and the bellowing of the waves found 
 in the description of the torn pieces of Virgil, or in the 
 deformed images of Ariosto, like fine faces in a carica- 
 ture. Does he wish to draw a similitude? Desirous of 
 making shew of what he thinks he knows, he draws it 
 from some philosophical phenomenon, forgetful that the 
 similitude should illustrate and further ex plain the thought, 
 and therefore be drawn from common objects, and not 
 become to the public more obscure than what we would 
 wish to have explained. I know many may accuse my 
 judgment which they will call false and indiscreet, but I 
 only ask them to produce me an original to be compared 
 with those quoted ; they can only shew me Segneri or 
 Tornielli, who, however superior to all other Italians, are 
 far behind the former. But it is this deficiency which 
 should continually excite the Italian genius to strike into 
 a new course, by pointing out to them a glorious post 
 vacant, which they ought to occupy.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 STATE OF TUSCANY AFTER THE DEATH OF THE COUNTESS 
 MATILDA. POWER AND ENTERPRISES OF THE PISANS. 
 CRUSADES. 
 
 ANCIENT Tuscany extended from the mouth of the 
 Magra to that of the Tiber. Under the dukes and 
 marquises it was distinguished into three parts by the 
 names of Royal, Ducal, and Roman* Tuscany, the 
 confines of which were often varied. The Florentine 
 republic conquered a part of it ; and when the sovereigns 
 of the house of Medici, and their successors obtained 
 the dominion over it, the name of Tuscany was pre- 
 served by the ancient Florentine state, with the ad- 
 dition of the Siennese and Pisan territories. 
 
 This is the country with the history of which we 
 shall employ ourselves at present; referring to the 
 times, in which the feudal bond being broken, which 
 held them so slenderly united to the empire, the cities 
 of Tuscany, like those of the rest of Italy, became tur- 
 bulent republics. Among these, Florence will parti- 
 cularly claim our attention ; since, aiming at the 
 conquest of Tuscany, she connects with her own events, 
 the most important vicissitudes of the other cities. 
 
 Tuscany still preserved a shadow of dependance upon 
 the Countess Matilda, as long as she was alive, more 
 from a timid respect than from her real power. Already 
 many cities obtained independent governments ; and we 
 often find Pisa and Lucca making war upon each other, 
 
 * Chrorograph. nxedii JEvi. Mur. Script.ltal. torn, 10. T. iii.
 
 270 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 although governed, at least in appearance, by Matilda. 
 We may be certain, that if any dependance existed as 
 long as she lived, it was removed entirely at her death ; the 
 more so, as the succession was contended for by various 
 pretenders. Her successors, Conrad, Ulric, and Guelph, 
 are hardly mentioned. The tie of dependance of the 
 various cities of Tuscany was continually becoming 
 more slender, and finally was dissolved ; but at various 
 epochs. 
 
 One of the cities of Tuscany, perhaps the first to 
 relieve herself from the feudal government, was Pisa. 
 Strabo, and other authors have given her a Grecian 
 origin *. Situated near the sea upon the triangle formed 
 in past ages, by the confluence of the two rivers, the 
 Arno and the Serchio f ; she was highly adapted to 
 
 * Strabo (Geograph. lib. 5.) relates that it was built by the 
 Pisei of Peloponnesus, who having gone with Nestor to the siege 
 of Troy, on their return were driven upon the Tuscan coast, where 
 Pisa is situated; others at Metoponto, upon the confines of Italy : 
 according to the same author, Pisa was less celebrated in his time 
 than she had once been ; she was distinguished, however, for the 
 fertility of her soil, for wood for building, and for stone-cutting. 
 
 + Such is the position of Pisa, noted by Strabo, lib. 5. Thus it 
 is described by Rutilius Numazianus some time after, in the fol- 
 lowing verses : 
 
 Alpbeee veteris contemplor originis urbem 
 
 Quam geminis cingunt Arnus et auxer aquis. 
 
 Conum pi ram id is coeuntia fhimina ducunt 
 
 Intratur medico frons patefacta solo. 
 
 Sed proprium retinet common! in gurgite noinen, 
 
 Et pontum solas scilicet Arnus adit. 
 
 It is not well known at what time the Serchio was divided from the 
 Arno ; both these rivers throw themselves into the sea at a 
 distance of six miles. It is strange how such an account should 
 have escaped the diligence of the exact Gibbon, (Antiquities of 
 the House of Brunswick,) who has considered them always united. 
 That they have been always disunited, and that the small Oseri is 
 indicated in the Auxer, cannot be sustained because the dedcrip-
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 271 
 
 commerce and navigation ; particularly in times when 
 these were carried on with small vessels. We conse- 
 quently find that she was rich and mercantile in early 
 times, and frequented by all the barbarous nations; 
 which can be inferred from the ridiculous complaint 
 made against her by the still more ridiculous poet, 
 Donizone*. Maritime nations have always been pow- 
 erful, both in riches and the useful knowledge acquired 
 by navigation. 
 
 Down to the end of the fifteenth century, almost all 
 the navigation of the nations of Europe, as well as those 
 of Asia and Africa, which kept a correspondence and 
 commerce with the former, was limited to the Medi- 
 terranean, Adriatic, Archipelago, and Euxine seas ; and 
 the first three Italian republics, Pisa, Genoa, and 
 Venice, were for a long time mistresses of it. Pisa, as 
 far back as the year 925, was the principal city of 
 Tuscany, according to Luitprand f. In the beginning 
 of the eleventh century, that is, in the year 1004, 
 we find in the Pisan annals, that the latter waged 
 
 tions of Strabo and Rutilius consider the Auxer as a river almost 
 equal to the Arno ; as if this had been a small rivulet, the latter 
 would not have said of the Arno after the conjunction, 
 
 Seel proprium retinet communi in gurgite nomen 
 Et pontutn solus scilicet Arnus adit. 
 
 * Donizone, in his Life of the Countess Matilda, written in bar- 
 barous Latin verses, laments bitterly that her mother Beatrice 
 should have been buried in Pisa rather than in Canossa, and 
 makes Canossa say thus : 
 
 Qni pergit Pisas vidit illic monstra marina 
 
 Hue urbs Paganis, Turchis, Libicis, quoque Parthis 
 
 Sordida Chaldaeis sua lustrant littora tetri, &c. 
 
 t This author, in relating to us that Ugo, invited to the kingdom 
 of Italy, disembarked at Pisa, adds qua est Tuscitf Provincial 
 caput.
 
 172 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 war with the Lucchese and beat them * ; this is the first 
 
 enterprise of one Italian city against another, which 
 
 proves that she already acted for herself, and was in 
 
 great part, if not wholly, liberated from the dominion of 
 
 the Duke of Tuscany. In the Pisan annals, and 
 
 Christ, in other authors, we meet with a series of enter- 
 
 1004. 
 
 prises, many of which are obscurely related, or 
 perhaps exaggerated. Thus we find that in the year 
 1005, in an expedition of the Pisans against the mari- 
 time city of Reggio, Pisa being left unprovided with 
 defenders, Musetto, king, or head, of the Saracens, who 
 occupied Sardinia, seized the opportunity of making an 
 invasion ; and having sacked the city, departed, or was 
 driven out of iff. Whilst in the mean time the Pisan fleet 
 discomfited them near Reggio, and if we are to believe the 
 same documents took possession of the place, (which how- 
 ever is not asserted by any contemporary writer,) these 
 barbarians stationed in Sardinia, continued, under the 
 
 conduct of Musetto, to infest the shore of Italy, and 
 
 1016 
 
 suddenly occupied the city of Luni. The Pontiff 
 
 * " Fecerunt bellum Pisani cum Lucensibus et vicerunt eos ad 
 aquam longam." Ann. Pis. 1004. 
 
 f Ann. Pis. Tronci relates that a woman, called Kinseca Gis- 
 mondi, in the moment of invasion ran crying to the palace of the 
 rectors, and caused the alarm bell to be rung by which the Pisans 
 being assembled, the Saracens were driven out ; that a statue was 
 erected in the quarter inhabited by that woman, attacked by the 
 Saracens ; and that she has given her name to the said quarter ; 
 but the whole account is a fable. More probably this was the 
 quarter inhabited by the Arabs or Chaldeans who carried on traffic 
 in Pisa. In the three languages, Arabian, Chaldean, and Hebrew, 
 the word Kinza or Kinsaia, (although variously pronounced,) sig- 
 nifies meeting, synagogue, and sacred or profane congregation. 
 This probably was the quarter where those foreigners inhabited, 
 and where their church might have been.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 273 
 
 Benedict VIII., fearing that they would remain there, is 
 said * to have sent an army ; but the pontiffs not being 
 at that time in a condition to have armies, it is more pro- 
 bable that they excited the Genoese and Pisans to chase 
 from a post a powerful enemy, whom, from being equally 
 near to both territories, these two cities had the same 
 interest to expel f . It is related that Musetto could 
 hardly save himself by flight, and that the greater part 
 of those barbarians were cut to pieces, with the queen 
 herself, whose precious ornaments were sent by the pope 
 to the King Henry II. It was very natural for the 
 Pisans and Genoese, who must have been in continual 
 fear of the piracies and invasions of the barbarians as 
 long as they occupied Sardinia, to think seriously of 
 exterminating them from that country : the pope himself 
 sent the Bishop of Ostia in haste to the Pisans as legate, 
 to encourage them to the enterprise : who, joining with 
 the Genoese, conquered Sardinia by driving out the 
 Saracens ; and the pope, by the right he thought he 
 possessed over all the kingdoms of the earth, invested the 
 Pisans with the dominion ; not however without exciting 
 the jealousy of the Genoese, who, as they were less 
 powerful in those times, were obliged to yield to force. 
 The mutual necessity of defence from the common enemy 
 kept them united : the barbarians having disembarked 
 in the year 1020 in Sardinia under the same leader, they 
 were again repulsed, and all their treasure which remained 
 
 * Ditmar. Chron. Lib. VII. 
 
 t It is mentioned in the Pisan annals, anno 1017, " Pisani et 
 Januenses fuerant bellum cum Mugeto et vicerunt ilium. Ditmarus 
 places the expedition quoted in the year before, but either some 
 error very common in those times, or the different manner of com- 
 puting the year, may explain the chronology.^ 
 
 t Ann. Pisan. Herum Hal. Script, torn. 6. 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 a booty of the conquerors, was conceded to the Genoese 
 as an indemnity for the expense. 
 
 The naval power of Pisa continued increasing ; but it 
 is not necessary to say much upon other events, enve- 
 loped in the uncertainty and darkness of the times*. 
 The year 1063, however, was very glorious for Pisa. 
 The Pisans sailed with a powerful fleet to attack the city 
 of Palermo, but hardly can we believe they succeeded in 
 taking it, as the Pisan annals tell us : a city so populous, 
 and a warlike people like the Saracens, who occupied it, 
 would not easily concern themselves about the maraud- 
 ing troops that might be in the Pisan fleet : it is there- 
 fore more probable, as Malaterra relates, that a host of 
 mussulmen pouring down to its defence from the neigh- 
 bouring country at the appearance of the fleet, and 
 uniting with the citizens, the Pisans contented themselves 
 (after having broken the chain which shut up the port) 
 with burning four ships, and bringing away the richest of 
 them ; the very large value of which enabled them to 
 commence their magnificent cathedral f. 
 
 The enthusiasm for Crusades was in the mean time 
 kindling; an enterprise so much commended in ancient 
 times, and reprobated in the present. The religious 
 enthusiasm and ignorance of the age concealed what 
 reason and sound policy might have clearly demonstrated. 
 
 * Such are the taking of Carthage, anno 1035, of the city of 
 Lipari with the sacking of that island, and the conquest of Rome 
 (Sigon. de Regno Ital. Ann. Pis. Tronci)] and other similar enter- 
 prises that are related in the Pisan annals Rerum Italic. Script., 
 and in those of Tronci. 
 
 f This is related in one of the principal inscriptions placed in 
 the faqade of the Dome, where however no mention is made of 
 the taking of Palermo ; which, if it had been true would not have 
 been passed over in silence in the inscription.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 275 
 
 An expedition so distant would then have been disap- 
 proved, of which, even if attended with a happy issue, it 
 was easy to foresee the conquest could not be long held 
 by the Christians: nor should an enlightened religion 
 
 */ ' O O 
 
 have suffered the effusion of so much innocent blood. 
 It was certainly honourable for Christians to possess a 
 soil, on which the Author of their religion was born, 
 lived, and by his death fulfilled the mystery of redemp- 
 tion; the sight of this soil might inspire sacred thoughts 
 and incite to virtuous acts ; and however these may be 
 acceptable to heaven in all countries, still the enterprise 
 will be always looked upon with a respectful eye, not so 
 much for the religious veneration attached to it, without 
 examination; as from being rendered immortal, and 
 placed in the mouths of both learned and unlearned, by 
 one of the most sublime and sweetest pieces of poetry 
 which human genius has produced, in which all is 
 heroism, and almost all religion. The cool historian, 
 however, who views these events with an impartial eye, 
 sees many millions of deluded people led to sacrifice ; 
 obliged to plunder for subsistence ; inspiring an equal 
 horror both in friends and foes ; dying for the greater 
 part of fatigue or by the sword, losing themselves on the 
 road, few arriving at the difficult conquest, and wading 
 up to the holy sepulchre through the plunder, cruelty and 
 blood with which they inundated Jerusalem*. 
 
 * The horrible slaughter made by the pious warrior in the 
 temple of Solomon, described by Tasso, (Canto 19,) is an historical 
 fact, with the sole difference that instead of Rinaldo, with whom 
 Tasso chose to honour the house of Este, there was Tancredi. 
 
 " In templo se concluserunt, ergo Tancredus cum suis adve- 
 
 niens, expugnare eos coepit nee mora fores patefactae csedes 
 immensa peracta est, adeo ut in cruore peremptorum, pedes nostro- 
 num tenus suras pene tingerentur, neque foeminis, neque parvulis 
 pepercerunt," Gesta Dei per Francos,
 
 276 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 To this enterprise, at this time so glorious, the mari- 
 time powers of Italy advanced; the Venetians, the 
 Genoese, the Pisans, induced equally by love of religion 
 and of lucre. They were the purveyors of those armies, 
 and carried with them provisions, arms, and ammunition, 
 and enriched themselves with the spoils of Asia. Tasso, 
 who has followed the true events of the holy war with so 
 much precision, who frequently makes honourable men- 
 tion of the Genoese, and in whose verses the Ligurian 
 William, builder of the fatal tower, is so much dis- 
 tinguished, has forgotten the Pisans*. But he was not 
 to blame ; since, commanded by their Archbishop Daim- 
 bert, they arrived late at the enterprise f- Although 
 they had so little right to conquest, the power of the 
 Pisans and their archbishop is evinced in his indiscreet 
 pretensions. 
 
 Created Patriarch of Jerusalem, by that authority by 
 which the popes arrogated to themselves the temporal 
 sovereignty of the world, of which Daibert was the 
 viceroy, the latter pretended to be arbiter of the new 
 kingdom. The pious Geoffrey condescended to receive 
 
 * Guarini, no friend of Tasso, notes this omission as animosity 
 in that sonetto upon the game of the bridge. 
 
 Quale or di guerre in simulacro armata 
 
 Di valore indivisa Arno divide, 
 
 E qnal fu sempre, ove piii Marte ancide, 
 
 Pisa a pugnare invitta, a vincer nata ; 
 
 Tal da pennafamosa intidlata 
 
 1'ngnar Goffredo in sul Giordan la vide 
 
 E schiere dissipar Perse, e Numide 
 
 Di sarre spoplie, e pin di gloria ornata. 
 
 Se tal era d' Etrnria il > into Muolo 
 
 Al periglioso varco, allor che volse 
 
 I .' intrepido Romano a lei la fronte ; 
 
 La fama, che canto d' Orazio solo 
 
 Contro Toscann, or naneria, che toUe 
 
 IH sol Torano a tutta Roma il pom> 
 f St Gesta Dei per Franco*.
 
 HISTORY OT TUSCANY. 277 
 
 the possession of it from him : a quarter of the city Was 
 granted to the church upon the condition that at the 
 death of Geoffrey without succession, or when new 
 acquisitions had increased the kingdom, the holy city, 
 together with Jaffa, should return to the sovereign power, 
 that is, to the church. The extent of the Pisan authority 
 in that city is confirmed by the name of Pisan Castle, 
 which was given to the ancient tower, called the tower 
 of David, where Tasso, after the taking of the city, makes 
 Soldan seek shelter with Aladin.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ORIGIN OF FLORENCE. HER INCREASE. SITUATION OF 
 HER WALLS. PANDECTS FOUND BY THE P1SANS IN 
 AMALFI. VARIOUS REPUBLICS IN TUSCANY GOVERN - 
 MENT OF SIENNA. ENTERPRISE OF THE BALEARI, 1 \- 
 DERTAKEN BY THE PISANS. OTHER ACQUISITIONS 
 AND POWER OF THE SAME. 
 
 FLORENCE became free, although later than Pisa, 
 by the same causes, which, in their slow operation, first 
 weakened, and afterwards destroyed, the power of the 
 emperors and dukes over the cities of Tuscany. The 
 greater power, which riches, the fruit of commerce, gave 
 the latter city, was probably the cause of her enjoying 
 her freedom prior to Florence. 
 
 For a long time Florence was only a small city, and of 
 little consequence. Indebted for her rise probably to 
 the industry of those who transported their merchandise 
 from the sea, and the rich and commercial city of Pisa, 
 by the convenience of the Arno to the populous Fiesole, 
 her inhabitants first established themselves upon the shore 
 of that river, particularly on the side of the latter place : 
 when, either by art or the slow operations of nature, the 
 stony obstruction at the golfolina*, was broken and laid 
 open, which probably prevented the free course of the 
 Arno, the waters left the Florentine plain uncovered f. 
 Industry and commerce, bringing with them riches and 
 
 * Small basin of water in the river Arno, so called, 
 t Sec the Introduction. Landini too attests it : 
 
 Sillanus primus fugiens aspen ium montis, 
 
 1'urgavit nostros arte colonns agros, 
 
 Atqtie A i limn recta contractum undique Uin|>ln 
 
 Obicc durupto compulit ire via.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 279 
 
 population, the city increased, and its convenient situa- 
 tion gradually allured to it the inhabitants of Fiesole. 
 Thus Florence, the daughter of the latter, increased by 
 drawing away from her mother her inhabitants* ; parti- 
 cularly when the inroads of the barbarians of the north 
 having ceased, the secure situation of a mountain became 
 less necessary ; and the rising strength of the daughter 
 had increased to a degree to enable her to resist, equally 
 with her mother, the casual violence both of feudal lords 
 and of rival cities. 
 
 That Florence was a Roman colony, descended from 
 Sylla, was a common belief of the historians of that city, 
 supported rather upon uncertain tradition than authentic 
 documents. Poliziano has demonstrated that the colony 
 was,(Jerived from the Triumvirs, Augustus, Mark Antony, 
 and Lepidusf; and if, when speaking as a poet, he has 
 called Florence a Syllan city;];, when writing afterwards, 
 as a critic, he shews us her true origin from the authority 
 of Frontinus. To the Caesarian colonist soldiers two hun- 
 dred acres of land were assigned ; and it is very probable, 
 that by these veteran warriors the statue of Mars was 
 afterwards erected, which was in preservation down to 
 the lower ages ; and, the temple to this god being built, 
 it was afterwards converted into that of the Baptist |j. 
 
 * E il fiorentino popolo maliguo 
 Che discese da Fiesole ab antique, 
 E tiene ancor del sasso, e del maciguo, &c. DANTE. 
 t Epist. lib. 1. epist. 2. ad Petrum Medic. 
 J Elegia in obitu Albierse Albitise. 
 
 Juli Front, de Agrorum Mensuris. See Borghini upon the 
 Origin of Florence'. 
 
 || Antiquarians are divided upon this temple, some believing that 
 it has always been a baptistery, even the statue of Mars is believed 
 by many to have been the statue of some ancient Roman, patron of 
 the colony : and if it really was equestrian, the opinion is just,
 
 CSO HISTORY OF 1 TUSCANY. 
 
 Even the name of Florentia is a matter of great contro- 
 versy. Among so many conjectures, the most probable 
 appears to be that which deduces it from the name of 
 flowers, (fiori,) or Florentine lilies, with which the country 
 was covered*. Be this as it may, the infancy of cities, 
 
 because the god Mars was not represented on horseback. Besides 
 these monuments, antiquarians have found in the city vestiges of 
 the circus, baths, and other ancient edifices. Whoever finds plea- 
 sure in such accounts may consult Borghini, Dissertation upon the 
 Origin of Florence, Manni in many dissertations, &c. For the 
 temple of St. John look at Mai, Letter to Borghini ; but particularly 
 Oio. Battista Nelli, who upon very solid reasons believes it erected 
 in the times of the Lombards. 
 
 * Perhaps Arva Florentia was converted into Fiorenza, which is 
 confirmed too from the coin of the florin, on which is stamped the 
 same flower, from Santa Maria del fiore, and from many testimonies 
 it being easy too to convert one lily into another, or change the 
 colour of it, as often happens in factions. " Campus erat ad 
 Munionis ripas florum oinni genere, sed prsecipue liliorum fecun- 
 dissimus." Scala Hist. Flor. ; and at that time the Mugnone passed 
 through the city. Vettori (Fior. illust.) maintains that the word alone 
 Florentia signifies gigli, (lilies,) quoting the same from the second 
 book of the Paralipomeni, &c. Mensachio explains the word Flo- 
 rentia by flores liliorem. Doctor Lami, in his lessons of Tuscan 
 antiquities, (Lesson 1, 2, &c.), has pretended to maintain that Flo- 
 rence was built by the ancient Etrurians ; many of his conjectures 
 are very weak, some ingenious, but all together incapable of proving 
 it. To believe it an Etrurian city, because its building is not men- 
 tioned in the Roman history, is a very weak argument. Few cities 
 have been solemnly built in a manner that historians might give an 
 account of them; many have risen from a few houses joined together, 
 and increased insensibly; and from favourable circumstances, from 
 obscure castles become great cities, as has happened at Florence. 
 Etrurian documents having been excavated in Florence, or rather 
 in the neighbourhood, proves only that Florence has been built 
 upon Etrurian soil. If upon some desert land, under which have been 
 found important Etrurian monuments, towns or castles, had been 
 built before, the discovery of those documents would not charac- 
 terize those castles as Etrurian: to conclude, all the dark conjectures
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 281 
 
 for the most part, as well as of men, is buried in oblivion. 
 This infancy continued long enough in the city of Flo- 
 rence ; and, if we except the transient flame of valour in 
 the Florentines in sustaining the siege of Radagasius, she 
 did not begin her course of splendour until constituted 
 a republic. 
 
 The extent of her walls was very small, and the whole 
 city was on the right bank of the Arno. This was the 
 first line : beginning at the east, at the corner of the 
 Pazzi, was the gate called St. Peter's from the church of 
 this name, which was situated outside it ; hence the walls 
 extended towards the north to Santa Maria in Campo, 
 and afterwards towards the Canto alia Paglia, but 
 making a bow where at present the street of the Servi 
 begins, there was a small gate, and another similar to it 
 where the Via de' Martelli at present commences ; the 
 second principal gate was at the Canto alia Paglia, called 
 Gate of the Dome or the Bishop; after which, by a 
 curve of the walls, the third gate was arrived at, called 
 St. Pancras, from the church of that name situated 
 without it. Turning towards the south was a small 
 gate, or postierla, called Rossa, near the place which 
 still retains the name; then was the last gate, called 
 Santa Maria, also from a church of the same name * ; 
 whence making a circuit of the walls to the place 
 
 of that learned man are of no avail, to counterbalance the perpetual 
 silence of writers upon the existence of Florence in times anterior 
 to the derivation from the colony, and if it was a considerable 
 Etrurian city, adorned with theatres, amphitheatres, baths, &c.<fec., 
 of Etrurian work and ages, as the author maintains, it would have 
 been sometimes mentioned as Etrurian by ancient historians and 
 geographers. 
 
 * That church being destroyed, or its name changed, and the gate 
 altered, the place has continued to be called Porta Santa Maria. 
 Ammirato says, " We should in vain seek to find any trace of the
 
 282 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 where the palace of the Judges of Rote stands, and at 
 that time probably a castle, called Altafronte, including 
 S. Piero Scheraggio and the abbey, the gate of St. Peter 
 was returned to. Within this small space was included 
 ancient Florence, and a single bridge at that time 
 without the city, where the Arno is most narrow, 
 served for this small population, which, being the most 
 ancient of all the bridges, still preserves the name of pont& 
 Vecchio (old bridge)*. The city, beginning to be libe- 
 rated from an oppressive government, and increasing 
 in strength, the population also soon increased ; and 
 many suburbs were built without the first line, which 
 becoming very extensive, it became necessary to cover 
 them from the assaults of the enemy, and to augment 
 the public revenue by the taxes of the gates, surrounding 
 the new part of the city with walls. The church of 
 St. Peter's being situated here, the gate of this name was 
 built near it, whence turning towards the street that 
 passes before Santa Maria Nuova, Saint Lawrence 
 appeared, which was comprehended in it, and that gate 
 took the name. Hence the Arno was arrived at by a cir- 
 cular road, in which space were two gates, that is, Gate 
 of St. Paul, (Porta a San Paolo,) and Porta Carraga 
 upon the Arno, and between these two small gates ; 
 afterwards the walls flanked the river as far as the Castle 
 of Altafronte, or Palace of the Judges, where, leaving the 
 river, they again united with the Gate of St. Peter. This 
 work was begun in the year 1078, and continued for 
 many years. In the space of the two following ages it 
 had so much increased, particularly upon the left bank 
 of the Arno, that it became necessary to surround it 
 
 church from which it took its name, being situated further back, and 
 called S. Biagio. 
 
 * Malasp, Villani, Varchi, Amin.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 283 
 
 with new walls, ann. 1285,) which was carried into 
 execution by an illustrious architect, Arnolfo di LapOj 
 a line which remains, with some variation, in our times. 
 
 The precise epoch in which Florence, wholly liberated 
 from the dominion of the dukes of Tuscany, formed 
 herself into a republic, is not well known. As, however, 
 the bridle with which they governed her was becoming 
 continually more slack, we frequently discover acts of a 
 free city exercised by Florence and other cities, perhaps 
 in those intervals when the power of the dukes was either 
 weakened, or in their absence. Some however of the 
 facts related by ancient historians, are with much reason 
 denied by moderns*. Thus it is now regarded as a fable, 
 that the Florentines, to whom Fiesole gave umbrage, 
 although the latter had so much decreased, in the solemn 
 festival of San Romulus, which was solemnized in that 
 city, went up in a numerous body when the Fiesolans 
 least expected it, took possession of the town by force of 
 arms, and dismantling the houses, obliged the inhabitants 
 to come down to Florence f. We have only scanty and 
 uncertain accounts of the events of this city until the 
 end of the twelfth century, in which we perceive the 
 republic was established, and begin to be better ac- 
 quainted with the constitution of the government. 
 
 In this no small space of time, in which Florence was 
 not wholly either subject or free, we find events in the 
 ancient historians which participate greatly of romance, 
 and we shall therefore pass rapidly over them. 
 
 * Murat. Ann. d' Ital. an. 1010. 
 
 t The documents of the year 1027, shew us in the diploma of 
 Conrad I., the Fiesolan district distinct from the Florentine; its 
 bishop still existed, and the letters of Jacopo, bishop of that city, 
 mentioned by Ughelli, speak of Civitatis Fesulance: that city was 
 not therefore destroyed.
 
 284 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 The maritime power of these republics caused their 
 assistance to be sought for frequently by various powers : 
 Robert II., Prince of Capua, in spite of the possession 
 and the succours of Pope Honorius II., had been driven 
 from his dominion by the celebrated Ruggieri II., count, 
 and afterwards king of Sicily ; and, notwithstanding the 
 crusade proclaimed in his favour, Robert found himself 
 obliged by the pope himself to take shelter in Pisa, and 
 ask the aid of the republic. Moved by religious zeal 
 and by gold, the Pisans got a fleet ready, and upon the 
 report of Ruggieri being dead, transported Robert to 
 Naples with twenty large ships, where, being received 
 with that applause which the instability of the people are 
 accustomed to shew to every prince newly arrived, he 
 thought he would make himself master of the kingdom 
 in one moment. The Pisan fleet was afterwards in- 
 creased with twenty ships more, with which the coast 
 was laid waste, towns sacked, and among these Amain"; 
 decayed indeed from her ancient glory and power, but 
 still very rich*. The booty of the Pisans was great, but 
 the most precious part of it is said to have consisted in 
 the pandects which had been lost or almost forgotten in 
 Italy. The fact, however, is controverted, and this is 
 not the place to examine it critically t; but supposing it 
 true, it is very honourable to the Pisans, that, in that 
 age so little enlightened, in the midst of ferocious and 
 greedy warriors, any person should be found who es- 
 teemed this work sufficiently to think it worthy of 
 adorning his country. The Florentine republic deemed 
 the precious manuscript a trophy worthy of her victories ; 
 and after the conquest of Pisa, transported it to Florence, 
 
 * Chrouiea varia Piaana, Mural. Rerum Ital. t. 6. 
 
 t We shall speak further upon this subject in its place.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 285 
 
 where it is still regarded by foreigners with a 
 venerable curiosity. The supposed acquisition of 
 the pandects has made the Pisan expedition more cele- 
 brated than the conquest of the Baleari or islands of 
 Majorca or Minorca, and the questions subsequently 
 started upon that code have contributed to illustrate the 
 history of that republic; but the enterprise did not end 
 happily for the Pisans. 
 
 Ruggieri was still alive: the death of his endeared 
 wife had thrown him into a deep melancholy by which 
 invisible to every one he kept himself shut up in his 
 room, and the public always greedy of novelty and ready 
 to convert it into fact, had imagined he was dead. Re- 
 covering from his melancholy, the active Ruggieri, at the 
 news of the invasion of Robert and the Pisans, flying 
 rapidly from Sicily to the continent, and having found 
 the Pisans at the siege of Fratta, defeated them, 
 making many prisoners* and obliged them to 
 retreat precipitately with Prince Robert to Pisa. At 
 the arrival however in Italy of the Emperor Lotharius 
 III., who supported the Pope and occupied Calabria 
 and Puglia, the Pisans with a great army assisted the 
 enterprise by occupying and sacking many cities of the 
 coast and besieging Salerno, from whence, either by spite 
 conceived against the Emperor and the Pope, or from 
 another motive not well known, they retired f. For a 
 long time the Pisans signalized themselves in maritime 
 expeditions, were almost always enemies of the Genoese, 
 and frequently of the Venetians ; these were the powers 
 that contended for the empire of the seas. 
 
 * Breviar. Pisanae Historiae Mur. Rer. ItaL torn. 6. 
 t Romual. Paler. Chron. Rer. Ital. torn. 7. 
 I Dandol. in Chron. Rer. Ital. torn. 13.
 
 286 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 The land expeditions which took place in Tuscany 
 at these times amongst the cities recently become free, 
 are not of great importance. Besides the Florentine and 
 Pisan various other republics had risen in Tuscany, 
 as we have already observed. Lucca, mentioned often 
 by classic writers*, was an ancient colony of the 
 Romans. In the lower ages, however, her celebrity 
 became greater ; having been frequently the capital of 
 Tuscany or the seat of the dukes and marquises f, and 
 having shortly afterwards changed the form of govern- 
 ment, for the power to which she was raised by the 
 genius and valour of one of her citizens J. 
 
 The origin of Sienna is not so recent as has been the 
 
 o 
 
 opinion of many writers . This city was also a colony 
 of the Romans || ; and from being created such in the 
 
 * Cicor. Liv. Veil. Pater. Tolom., &c., was an established Roman 
 colony one hundred and twenty-eight years before the Christian 
 era. Veil. Pater, lib. 1. Liv. lib. 41. Disputes are mentioned 
 between the Pisans and Lucchese respecting territory. Liv. lib. 45. 
 
 f Fiorentini, Memorials upon the Countess Matilda. 
 
 J Castruccio. Castracani Antelminelli. 
 
 The history of Giov. Vill., book 1. c. 56., is full of anacronisms 
 upon the origin of Sienna. Biondo Flavio and Leonardo Bruni sup- 
 port their assertions upon unstable foundations. Strabo, Tolomeo, 
 and Pliny mention it among the cities of Tuscany. The Sena 
 Gallica or Sinigaglia is of more ancient origin, called by the Senon 
 Gauls, " et Claris, et rubicon, et Senonum de nomine Sena." To 
 the Tuscan Sennese must be applied the story of Tacitus, that by 
 them probably the senator Manlius was beaten with fists (as no 
 mention is made of sticks). A conjectural antiquarian might find 
 in such an event the disposition of that people to the game with fists. 
 " Manlius patritius senator pulsatum se in colonia Senensi coetu 
 multitudinis, et jussu magistratum quserebatur vocati qui argue- 
 bantur et cognita causa in convictos vindicatum, additumque 
 senatus consultum, quo Senenses modestiae, admonentur. 
 
 || In the ancient itineraries, we find Julian Sienna often put to 
 indicate Tuscan Sienna. Pliny relates the colonies established,
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 287 
 
 reign of the Julian family, probably of Augustus, was 
 called Julian Sienna. Her celebrity, however, begins at 
 the epoch of the Italian republics. Like Florence and 
 Pisa she continued enlarging her territory by subjugating 
 the feudal lords, and extended as far as the sea over the 
 desolated places of Populonia and Roselle, engaged in 
 commerce, to which the port of Talamone opened a con- 
 venient passage, and which became serviceable afterwards 
 to the Florentine republic, when the Pisan port was 
 shut against the Florentine vessels. Her government 
 was similar in a great degree to that of Florence; mixed 
 of nobility and people, and consequently turbulent, those 
 two orders frequently contending for the supreme au- 
 thority, and alternately wresting it from each other's 
 hands. 
 
 Sienna rivalled in power for a short time even Florence 
 herself. Pisa and Florence, at this time always allies, 
 were at war with Lucca and Sienna, also confederates ; 
 the Count ^Guido Guerra of the celebrated family that 
 had so much dominion in Italy was united with them, 
 but the Lucchese and Siennese were defeated, and the 
 
 " Falisca, Rusellana, Senensis," &c. lib. 3. c. 5. The ingenious 
 author, Chorographice Italics Medii JEvi, corrects Cluverius, who as- 
 serts that Sienna was not mentioned before the times of Augustus, 
 quoting a passage of Appian, Alessand. Guerr. civil, torn. 1., where 
 we read that Pompey in the war of Sylla against Marius and Car- 
 bone, beat Marius near Sienna, and gained the city. But does he 
 mean the Tuscan Sienna or the Gallican, that is, Sinigaglia? It is 
 at least uncertain. Knowing too from the prior account that 
 Pompey had defeated Carbone near Rimini, that Sylla, in whose 
 favour Pompey carried on the war, besieged Marius in Praeneste, it 
 is easy to conjecture that Pompey, after the first victory advanced 
 towards Sylla to give him aid, and that Sienna, where the fact took 
 place, was the Gallic Sienna. The tale of Plutarch too may con- 
 firm our conjecture. Life of Pompey.
 
 288 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 castles of Count Guido destroyed by the Florentines : 
 the Siennese, taken in ambush, were nearly all made 
 prisoners, and the territory of Lucca was sacked by the 
 Pisans*. The courage with which the republics we 
 have mentioned fought amongst themselves, either by 
 impulse of factions, or ambition of surpassing each other 
 gives rise to the sorrowful reflection, that if united, they 
 would have been able to arrest and drive back the foreign 
 invaders, who have desolated Italy for so many ages. 
 
 The Pisans, who were becoming one of the first mari- 
 time powers, having prepared the expedition against 
 Majorca possessed at that time by the Saracens, 
 were disturbed by the Lucchese their neighbours and 
 enemies. In these expeditions they put the greater part 
 of the nation, fit to bear arms, upon their vessels ; the 
 women, children, and old people only remaining at home, 
 a body ill adapted to defence, the city might easily be 
 taken and many of the inhabitants made slaves ; hence 
 they had recourse to the Florentines, who sent people to 
 Pisa sufficient for its defence. The Florentine captain, 
 wishing to avoid the irregularities that even a friendly 
 body of troops usually introduce into a city where it is 
 stationed, encamped two miles without Pisa, issuing the 
 strictest orders that none of his soldiers should dare 
 
 1114 
 
 to enter it. One alone disobeyed, was taken and 
 condemned to death : the Pisans interceded in his favour 
 with the greatest earnestness ; but the captain, inexorable 
 to all intercession, ordered him to be hanged. 
 
 The expedition against the Baleari is one of the most 
 glorious for the Pisans. Religion, honour, interest, alike 
 animated them to destroy a nest of Saracen corsairs, who, 
 in the midst of the Mediterranean, insulted the coasts of 
 
 * Annal. Pis. torn. V. Rer. Ital.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 289 
 
 France and Italy infested the sea by carrying the Chris- 
 tians into captivity, interrupting and ruining commerce. 
 The pontiff Pasqual II. instigated them to this useful and 
 glorious undertaking, and twelve ambassadors were sent 
 to him to concert upon it ; at the head of whom was their 
 Archbishop Peter, afterwards the leader of the expedition. 
 The pope sent the Cardinal Bosone as his legate, and 
 gave the Pisans standards and indulgences. 
 
 It was difficult to attack islands peopled with a warlike 
 nation, and which might receive assistance from the 
 neighbouring coasts of Africa and Spain, governed in a 
 great part too by the Saracens, nor was it sufficient to 
 make a successful disembarkation ; it became necessary to 
 lay siege to very strong places, which siege, according to 
 the method pursued in the wars of those days, lasted very 
 long : the provisions and the complicated machines for 
 this purpose were also to be brought from afar. Not 
 deterred however by these obstacles, the Pisans undertook 
 the enterprise. Besides the Archbishop Peter, principal 
 leader, we read of the names of Gherardeschi, Gualandi, 
 Visconti, which were always celebrated in the Pisan His- 
 tory. The feudal lords, who, ruling over the coasts of 
 Provence, Languedoc and Catalonia, desired the destruc- 
 tion of those barbarians, such as William Lord of Mont- 
 pelier, Almeric of Narbonne, Raimond Count of Barce- 
 lona, came in person with great reinforcements. The 
 Genoese alone, although they had the same interest, 
 made only vain promises : perhaps they looked upon the 
 enterprise as very difficult; but they were not at all 
 sorry that the Pisan power, perhaps the predominant 
 in the Mediterranean, might be humbled by misfortune. 
 If accounts are not exaggerated, the Pisan fleet con* 
 sistedof three hundred vessels* large and small. 
 
 * Tronci Ann. Pis. Ann. 1114. 
 VOL. I. U
 
 290 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 The islands that extend from the coast of Valencia 
 towards the south are three; Ivica the nearest to the 
 shore, Minorca the most distant, and Majorca, situated 
 in the middle. It appears that the Pisans began the 
 attack upon the first*; and after repeated assaults during 
 ten days, made themselves masters of the principal cities, 
 the fortifications of which they completely ruined, setting 
 at liberty great numbers of Christian slaves ; then passing 
 on to the principal island, viz., Majorca, where the 
 enemy had collected his principal force, they met with 
 the greatest resistance. Before the Pisans approached 
 the principal city, they sustained fierce attacks from the 
 Saracens, who assailed them both in the open field and 
 in battle array f. More than once defeated, however, 
 they retreated to their chief town, where they were 
 besieged ; and for a long time the fortune of war was 
 various. In the different assaults, William of Montpe- 
 lier, Americo of Narbonne, and the Count of Barcelona, 
 who was badly wounded, besides various Pisans, distin- 
 guished themselves greatly ; the Pisans, however, were 
 repeatedly repulsed and insulted by the Moors. The 
 length of the siege, the bad nourishment, and unwhole- 
 some air gave rise to a dangerous epidemic in the army : 
 the auxiliary lords threatened to abandon the enterprise ; 
 provisions and money were deficient, despondency had 
 taken possession of them, accompanied with the desire 
 of retreat. This news arriving at Pisa, fresh attempts 
 were made and the defenders took new courage, who 
 
 * Tronci confounds it with Minorca, which he calls Ebusus. It 
 is known that Ebusus was Ivica. Cluver. Introd. ad Geograph. 
 lib. 2. cap. 7. 
 
 t We must not give credit to the exaggerations of the Pisan 
 Annals, and of Tronci, who makes the Saracens amount to 70,000 
 infantry, 3,000 cavalry and 4,000 archers.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 291 
 
 having at various times gone beyond the triple circuit 
 of the walls, finally took the city by assault; but 
 the Moors contended for it inch by inch. Minorca 
 soon followed the fate of the principal island*. The 
 number of Mussulmen slain, of Christians freed from 
 their chains, exceeds all probability: the booty was 
 immense, the gold, gems, and precious spoils, fruits of 
 so many years' rapine of those corsairs, fell a prey to 
 the conquerors, and were divided amongst them. The 
 fame of this victory filled the whole Christian world with 
 joy. The Pisans returned in triumph. The conquered 
 soil did not appear a decent sepulchre for their dead, 
 whence the most distinguished amongst them were em- 
 barked ; and, in order not to cloud the joy of the return by 
 this mournful spectacle, they were buried in Marseilles 
 in the abbey of St. Victor, with an inscription which 
 was still in existence in the times of Tronci. Among 
 the prisoners that adorned the triumph, were the wife 
 and son of the king of Majorca, Nuzzaradeolus, who was 
 killed during the siege, and Burabe* who had succeeded 
 him. The queen and the son became Christians'!". This 
 young man, who is described as wise and modest, who 
 is numbered among the canons of the cathedral of Pisa, 
 and who was afterwards, according to Tronci, sent 
 back to govern his native country Majorca, as king, or 
 at least governor, is one of the many examples of the 
 
 * Tronci Ann. Pisan. Ann. 1116. " Breviarum Hist. Pisanaj 
 Rerum Italic. Script, torn. 6. Gesta Triumphal. Pisan. ibid. 
 
 t These facts are attested by the following inscription placed 
 in the faade of the cathedral: 
 
 Regia me . . . genuit, Pisse rapuere .... 
 
 Hie ego cum nato bellica prseda fui. 
 
 Majoricae regnum tenui, nunc condita saxa 
 
 Quod cernis jacesfine potita meo 
 
 Qnisquis es ergo . . memor esto conditionis, 
 
 Atque pia pro me mente precare Deuin. 
 
 U 2
 
 292 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 chance of fortune. The Pisans, out of the rich booty 
 they had gained, made a present to the Florentines of 
 the two columns of porphyry which are still standing 
 near the gate of St. John, in token of gratitude to them 
 as guardians of their city. This enterprise was finished 
 in the space of about two years*; it might have been 
 a theme worthy of an epic poem, since the religion, 
 glory, and public advantage of the nations that navigate 
 in the Mediterranean were adapted to awaken heroism 
 more than the enterprise of the Argonauts, or the siege 
 of Troy ; and if the deacon Peter Vernese, who, in a 
 barbarous style, has sung that enterprise in seven books 
 of Latin verses, had possessed the imagination and edu- 
 cation of Homer, of Virgil, and Torquato, the deeds 
 of the Gherardeschi, of the Gualandi, of the Visconti, 
 which are now covered with oblivion, would be re-echoed 
 in the mouths of the Italians f. 
 
 * Tronci says that the Pisans set out in the year 1 1 14, 6th Aug., 
 and that the enterprise was finished 3d April, 1117. But he is 
 mistaken. There is, however, much confusion in the chronology, 
 since in the chronicle, entitled " Gesta Triumph Pisan," the taking 
 of Majorca and the return of the Pisans is placed in the year 1116. 
 Ughelli, in the catalogue of the Pisan archbishops, infers with 
 more certainty, that the enterprise was finished in the years 1114 
 and 15, and the poet L. Vernense, more respectable than all, 
 because a contemporary writer and author of a Latin poem where 
 the expedition is described, finishes it with these verses : 
 
 Tune fnit a Christo tccto velaminc carnis 
 
 Centeuus quinttis decimus uiillcsinius annis. 
 
 He was deacon of the Archbishop Peter; his country, however, is 
 not known; some have thought him a Veronese, by changing 
 Vernensis into Veronensis : might he not have been of Vernio? 
 His poem is found in Tom. 6. Murat. Rer. Ital. Script. For this 
 enterprise see the quoted poem ; Tronci ; " Gesta Triumphalia per 
 Pisanos : Breviarum Pisana? Historiae, &c.," joined fragments in 
 Tom. 6. Rerum Italic. Script. 
 
 t The power of letters, and particularly of poetry, in giving or
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 293 
 
 Such a conquest greatly increased the power of the 
 Pisan republic. On the principal coasts of the seas at 
 that time navigable, she had great establishments : by 
 the possession of Corsica, of Sardinia, of the Baleari, 
 she ruled over a great part of the western Mediter- 
 ranean, with those of Syria the eastern, possessed a 
 fort near Asof in the Black Sea, to which she had given 
 the name of Pisan Port, and which she still preserved 
 down to the fifteenth century. These establishments 
 made her commerce very flourishing ; it is not, therefore, 
 to be wondered at, that her perpetual rival Genoa, 
 which had seen the enterprise of the Baleari terminate 
 with a success so different from what she had antici- 
 pated, increased in jealousy. War broke out between 
 them ; they fought with various fortune, but the suc- 
 cesses are differently related by the Genoese and Pisan 
 historians *. To the jealousy of commerce they 
 
 1 1 20 ' 
 
 added vanity; the Genoese ill brooked that the 
 bishops of Corsica should be subject to the archbishop's 
 seat of Pisa. The Pope Callistus II., who took from 
 the Archbishopric of Pisa that ornament, instead of 
 quenching, added fuel to the flame. This piratical war 
 continued a* long time, and the issue of it appears not 
 to have been favourable to the Pisans t- 
 
 taking away reputation, will be always very great in spite of its 
 detractors, and the golden saying of Horace will always prove 
 
 true : 
 
 non seniel Ilios vexata non pugnavit ingens 
 
 Idome-neus, Stenelusve solus 
 
 Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona 
 
 Multi, sed omnes illacrimabiles 
 
 Urgentur orco ignotique longa nocte, careiit quia nate sacro. 
 
 Lib. 4. Ode 9. 
 
 * See Caffrar. lib. 1. Ann. Pis. Murat. Rerum Italic, torn. 6. 
 t CafTar. lib. 1. Ughelli Ital. Sacra.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DESCENT IN ITALY OF FREDERIC THE FIRST. DIET OF 
 RONCAGLIA, IMPERIAL RIGHTS TO THE REGALIA 
 ADMITTED. REBELLION OF THE ITALIAN CITIES, AND 
 THE LOMBARD LEAGUE. PEACE OF CONSTANCE. NEW 
 LEAGUE OF THE CITIES OF TUSCANY. POSSESSION OF 
 SARDINIA GIVEN BY FREDERIC TO THE PISANS. 
 EVENTS IN THE EAST. ENMITY BETWEEN THE PISANS 
 AND GENOESE. 
 
 J-HE republican governments of the Italian cities 
 continued to be more and more consolidated, and even in 
 the midst of the turbulencies which agitated them, became 
 rich and powerful by commerce. Against their rising 
 liberty and industry, however, a dangerous tempest was 
 forming itself. The want of strength and wisdom in the 
 past emperors had so much weakened the reins of the 
 royal government over them, as finally to give them 
 the opportunity of setting themselves at liberty. 
 
 Frederic I. of the house of Suabia had succeeded to 
 the imperial throne; a prince full of talent, courage, 
 and pride, greedy of glory and of dominion, who ill 
 brooking the loss of his imperial rights over Italy came 
 with a powerful army to re-conquer them. His presence 
 scattered terror on every side. The Lombard cities, 
 against which his inarch was principally directed, were 
 disunited among each other, and could not 
 oppose to him any effectual resistance. The 
 Milanese, already guilty in his eyes of having 'despised 
 the imperial orders, particularly incurred his anger: Milan, 
 closely besieged, was constrained to the most humiliating 
 capitulation; a prelude to its total destruction, which
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 295 
 
 happened four years afterwards by the same arms. In 
 the mean time all the cities of Lombardy, alarmed by 
 this active emperor, having received an intimation to 
 send their deputies to the diet of Roncaglia, immediately 
 obeyed. In this diet Frederic explained at length the 
 imperial rights over Italy, remonstrated against the viola- 
 tion of them, and in order that a tint of equity might 
 colour what was not sufficiently maintained by force of 
 arms, among the ecclesiastic and secular princes and the 
 deputies of the cities*; he caused some of the most cele- 
 brated professional lawyers of the university of Bologna 
 to be present at the diet, Bulgaro, Gosia, Jacopo and 
 Hugo, who were to decide upon the right of the regalia, 
 which were become a controversy between the Italian 
 cities and the empire. No science is more flexible than 
 law, and the subtilty of interpretations is capable of dis- 
 covering reasons invisible to the eye of common sense. 
 Those lawyers, who were highly honoured and rewarded 
 by Frederic, failed not in rinding the imperial pretensions 
 most just, which the deputies of the cities did not contra- 
 dict, considering, that a powerful sovereign at the head of 
 a numerous army could not be in the wrong. The regalia 
 were therefore unanimously conceded to himt- The 
 officers however and the mayors, sent by the emperor to 
 govern the subject cities, exercised with severjty a com- 
 mand, which even rrlild would have been ill borne by a 
 
 * Pisa was of the party of Frediric, and as deputies and lawyers 
 to the diet for that city Tacito Dusdi, Onorio Lanfranchi, and 
 Rosso Bottacci, all three doctors, were honourably received by 
 the emperor. Tronci Ann. Pis. 
 
 f The regalia are explained by Radevico, lib. 2. cap. 5 " Turn 
 episcopi quum primates et civitates uno assensu, uno ore in manum 
 
 principis regalia reddi olere Ducatus, marchius, comitatus, 
 
 consulate, monetus, felonia, fodrum, vectigalia, portus, pedatica," 
 &c. .
 
 296 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 people accustomed to a free government. The oppressed 
 cities rebelled, and taking a lesson from prior events 
 united together, forming the celebrated Lombard league; 
 -which was fomented by the pope, the king of Naples, and 
 even by the Greek emperor, enemies of Frederic. This 
 alliance was sufficiently powerful to oppose the force of 
 Frederic, whose army being consumed at the siege of 
 Rome by an epidemic common enough in that air, found 
 himself obliged to retreat with the miserable 
 remains of his warriors, and after slight skirmishes 
 and fruitless endeavours, he abandoned Italy, preci- 
 pitately, and was obliged to save himself in disguise. 
 Anxious, however, to recover his authority over the 
 rebelled cities, he returned with a larger army. After 
 various useless negotiations the imperial army came to 
 action with that of the allied cities between Legnano 
 
 o 
 
 and the Ticino: the battle was bloody and obstinate, 
 but the imperial army was completely defeated, in spite 
 of the greatest proofs of talent and personal valour 
 evinced by Frederic. This blow overturned his power 
 in Italy. He began to listen to the voice of agreement; 
 and finally, after various negotiations, the celebrated 
 peace of Constance was concluded, whereby the privileges 
 and the liberty of the Lombard cities were established*. 
 No Tuscan city had interfered in these events, nor had 
 joined the confederacy; but even these, irritated at the 
 intolerance of the German government, shook off the 
 yoke, and the principal cities of Tuscany, Florence, 
 Lucca, Sienna, Arezzo, Perugia, (excepting Pisa, still 
 adhering to the empire), formed amongst them a new 
 confederacy f. 
 
 * Sigon. de Regno Ital. lib. 15. 
 
 t Vita Innocen. III., apud Mura. Diss. 48. " Civitates Tuscise 
 propter importabilem Alcraannorum tirannidem, societatem iiivicem
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 297 
 
 By the treaty of peace of Constance, besides acknow- 
 ledging the liberty of the Lombard cities, Frederic was 
 obliged to cede the regalia. The emperor alone retained 
 the supreme command. The cities elected their consuls, 
 who were to be approved by the emperor, a duty that 
 shortly came into disuse; the appeals to his authority 
 were reserved, together with the right of deciding ques- 
 tions between the community and neighbouring lords : 
 an imperial viceroy was therefore appointed to Italy, 
 and Obizzo D' Este selected for the office: such was 
 the basis upon which the Italian liberty was established. 
 
 The Lombard league formed a federative republic, in 
 which every city regulated its own internal affairs, inde- 
 pendent of the rest: for the foreign, in which were 
 included the questions of peace, war, and the common 
 safety, a general council was formed of rectors deputed 
 by the various communities, which directed the public 
 and common business. This council decided the disputes 
 which arose amongst the confederate cities : and what- 
 ever city refused, such decision, was abandoned by the 
 Lombards. This alliance became very strong, and 
 much benefit was experienced from it, whenever any 
 foreign power threatened Italy ; and if it had lasted, 
 would have secured her from the foreign invasions, which 
 became so freuent. Unfortunately, however, for this 
 unhappy country, it was maintained for little more than 
 a century, being destroyed in the faction of the Guelphs 
 and Ghibellines which afterwards arose, and not only 
 divided city from city, but citizen from citizen, and children 
 from their parents by the most sanguinary convulsions. 
 
 Pisa, as we have observed, had no share either in the 
 Lombard league, or that of Tuscany. Frederic had 
 
 inierunt praeter Civitatem Pisanum, qute nunquam potuit induci 
 ad hanc societatem."
 
 298 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 endeavoured by every artifice to gain the friendship of 
 the maritime powers*; it being his design to make use 
 of their power against William King of Sicily. 
 
 The importance this warlike sovereign attached to 
 the friendship of the Pisans, is shewn by many facts. 
 Besides the various privileges that he granted to Pisa, 
 he frequently submitted to the arrogant tone, in which 
 she ventured to address him, wherever she thought 
 herself offended : Barisone, a Pisan citizen, one of the 
 judges or governors of the part of Sardinia called 
 Arborea ; had the vanity to cause himself to be declared 
 king of that island ; and offering Frederic 4,000 marks 
 of gold, through the mediation of the Genoese he 
 obtained the title. Not being prepared, however, to pay 
 the money,- he was nearly going captive into Germany, 
 when the Genoese paid it for him ; but Barisone met 
 with the fate of King Theodore, and remained the 
 insolvent prisoner of the Genoese. The Pisans sent 
 a consul to Frederic, who reproached him for this 
 unjust concession, in lofty terms f 5 and protested that 
 the Pisans would oppose it with all their power, as in 
 fact they did by the occupation of the Arborea by dint 
 of arms. 
 
 * The ample concessions made by Frederic to the Pisans are 
 seen in the diploma obtained by Tronci, in which especially cities 
 and lands of Sicily are granted to them under the hope of future 
 conquest. Guntero the Ligurian, lib. 3, describing the passage of 
 Frederic says : 
 
 Occnrrere dnoi procercs qnos bellica Pisa 
 Miserat Equoreis celebeirima Pisa trinmphis, 
 Pisa peregrinis static bene nota carinis, 
 Hos jubet in Sirulum condicto tempore rcgem 
 Cogerc belligeras atqne etnunire carinas. 
 See Tronci, Annali Pisani. 
 
 t How, said they to him, can you for a little money give to 
 others what is not your own ? Foliet Hist. Genuen. lib. 2.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 299 
 
 The following year, however, Frederic, in order to 
 effect a reconciliation with them, and tempted still more 
 by gold, revoked the privilege by ceding Sardinia to the 
 Pisans, and giving the possession of it to their consul ; 
 and, in short, Pisa always espoused his interests. 
 
 As far back as the year 1 1 67 the Pisans, at the 
 instigation of Frederic, sent twelve galleys upon the 
 Roman coast, which passing up the Tiber near Rome, 
 infested the neighbourhood, by preventing the transport 
 of provisions, and obliged the people to yield to the 
 imperial demands*. Frederic, desirous of the 
 same services from the Genoese, had endeavoured, 
 but in vain, to effect a reconciliation between the two 
 republics, although his archchancellor Christian, Arch- 
 bishop of Mayence, when the Pisans would not agree 
 to the conciliatory propositions, banished them the 
 empire. Frederic, however, succeeded afterwards in 
 establishing at least a temporary suspension of hostilities 
 between these two powers f. 
 
 The Christians did not preserve Jerusalem, the fruit 
 of so much blood and labour, more than 1 88 years. 
 Saladin, Soldan of Babylon and Egypt, made the 
 conquest of it. This prince is described both by his 
 friends and enemies, as full of heroism, of generosity, 
 and prudence ; and the many accounts of him, several 
 of which probably are fabulous, prove, at least, the 
 opinion of his great qualities ; which, when universal, 
 has generally a true foundation. This is probably the 
 hero prognosticated by Ismen in the " Jerusalem Deli- 
 vered" to the fugitive Soldan, to console him in the 
 midst of his misfortunes, in elegant and sublime verses, 
 
 * Ann. Pis. torn. 6. Rer. Ital. 
 
 t Annal. Pisan. Caffar. Ann. Genuen lib. 3,
 
 300 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 full of grandeur and truth*. Soldan endeavoured to 
 expel the Christians from the rest of the country which 
 they held in Syria : in the valorous defence that the city of 
 Tyre made against the Asiatic arms, a defence that did so 
 much honour to Conrad, son of the Marquis of Piedmont, 
 the Pisans took no small share, by whose aid he had twice 
 
 * Istnen, interrogated by Soldano upon the exit of the war, 
 
 replies: 
 
 Ma cirin scnopra il future, c ch'io dispieghi 
 Dell' occulto dcstin gli eterni annali, 
 Troppo e' audace desio, troppo alti preghi, 
 Non e tantQ concesso a noi mortal! : 
 C'iascuii quaggiu le forze, e il senno impieglii 
 Per avanzar fra le sciagure e i mail, 
 Che sovente addivien clie il saggio, il forte 
 Fabbro di se stesso e di beata sorte. 
 
 Ma pur dim perche piacer ti debbia 
 Cio che oscnro vegg' io quasi per nebbia : 
 Veggio, o parmi vederc anzi che lustri 
 Molti rivolga il gran pianeta eteruo 
 Uom che 1'Asia omera co'fatti illustri, 
 E del fecondO Egitto avr& il governo : 
 Taccio i pregi dell' ozio, e 1'arti industri 
 Mille virtu che mm ben tutte io scemo ; 
 Basli sol questi a te, che da lui scosse 
 Non pur saranno le cristiaue posse, 
 Ma intin dal foncio suo 1'impero inginsto 
 Svelto sara nelle ultime contese ; 
 d' afflitte reliquie entro un augtisto 
 Giro sospinte, e sol dal mar elifese, 
 Questi siu del tuosangue, &c. 
 
 It is not to he omitted what Bernardo Tesoriara relates, (Chronic. 
 cap. 165. Rerum Ital. Script.), that a great number of Christians, 
 driven from Jerusalem, took shelter at Alexandria in Egypt, where 
 they were well treated and fed by the ministers of Saladiu, that 
 the Venetian, Genoese, and Pisan fleets appearing there in March, 
 those were embarked who could pay the passage and the others 
 rejected. Hearing this, the Saracen governor warmly reproached 
 the commanders upon their little charity towards their brethren, 
 whom the generosity of Saladin had saved from slavery ; he caused 
 them to be received on board the fleet and provisioned them with 
 biscuit at his own expense.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 301 
 
 before beaten the enemies' ships. The Pisan fleet 
 scouring the seas, took many vessels employed in 
 bringing provisions to the army of Saladin: and fol- 
 lowing up nine galleys full of ammunition and pro- 
 visions, obliged the barbarians to set fire to them in 
 order to save them from the enemy *. These repeated 
 losses obliged Saladin to raise the siege of Tyre, who 
 caused his own horse's tail to be cut off, from anger 
 and grief, in order to spur on his soldiers to revenge f . 
 This, however, was but a trifling advantage to the 
 Christians for so many losses, since the three cities, of 
 Tyre, Antioch, and Tripoli, alone remained to them of 
 all their conquests. 
 
 The news of the loss of Jerusalem, by spreading 
 sorrow and shame throughout Europe, infused a new 
 warmth into hearts which had grown indifferent to the 
 enterprise. The principal personage in this war was 
 the celebrated Frederic Barbarossa, Emperor, who, im- 
 pelled either by love of glory, by religion, or remorse 
 at so much bloodshed, and outrage done to the pontiffs, 
 thought of satisfying all these passions in an enterprise, 
 taking even his son with him; many Italians joined 
 him, and a large fleet was put to sea by the Venetians, 
 united with the Pisans, commanded by their archbishop 
 Ubaldo. 
 
 Whilst the Emperor Frederic was detained in Greece 
 by the treachery and cunning of the Greeks, Guido, 
 king of Jerusalem, whom Saladin had set at liberty, 
 having put himself at the head of the crusaders, who 
 
 * Rerum Ital. Script. Bern. Tesor. 
 
 f Licar. Epist. Chronic. Rer. Ital. torn. 7. It is conjectured 
 that this act of Saladin gave rise to the custom of the Turks 
 attaching their horses' tails to the standard for a warlike signal. 
 Mur. Ann. d'ltal. an. 1187.
 
 302 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 arrived in great numbers at Tyre from various parts of 
 Europe, and particularly Italy, laid siege to Acri : at the 
 head of the Pisans was their archbishop Ubaldo : whilst 
 the siege was carrying on with the greatest ardour, the 
 vigilant Saladin hastened there with a powerful army, 
 and took up a position in a manner that the besiegers 
 were nearly converted into the besieged. Both sides 
 evinced the greatest proofs of valour; the Christians 
 were nearly overpowered, and were deficient in provisions, 
 when the arrival of a numerous squadron from Friesland 
 and Denmark brought them a supply of troops and all 
 that was necessary. 
 
 In the mean time Frederic, who had gone into Asia, 
 after many brave actions, bathing, in order to avoid the 
 heat, in the cold waters of the river Solef in Armenia, 
 had the misfortune, like Alexander the Great, to be 
 surprised by a morbose inflammation, but dissi- 
 milar in the result ; for in a few hours he was a 
 corpse*. 
 
 His son Frederic took the command of the army, and, 
 following his journey towards Acri, lost the greater part 
 of his people ; he arrived, however, with a small body at 
 that city, where he shortly after died. The siege con- 
 tinued for nearly two years, the Christians continually 
 receiving fresh succours ; when the kings of France and 
 England, finally arriving with very large reinforcements, 
 the city was taken ; and the ferocious Richard, King of 
 England, ordered 5,000 Saracens to be cut to pieces. 
 This barbarous action formed a melancholy contrast to 
 the generosity of Saladin we have already related. 
 
 In the mean time Henry VI. had succeeded Frederic 
 in the government of the empire ; a prince very unlike 
 
 Others say that he was drowned.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 303 
 
 his father both in greatness of mind and courage. He had 
 married Constantia, who, being daughter of the King 
 William of Sicily, who had no other progeny, brought 
 with her her rights to that kingdom. At the death, 
 however, of William, his states were usurped by Tan- 
 credi, Count of Lecce. The premature death of this 
 Usurper, and of his eldest son Ruggieri, the infancy of 
 a boy left under the care of the Queen Sipilla, invited 
 Henry to re-conquer those states. Ambitious of making 
 an invasion upon Naples and Sicily, he wanted maritime 
 power, and gained the Genoese and the Pisans by the 
 most magnificent promises*. The progress of his 
 armada was at first successful ; but an inveterate enmity 
 between the Pisans and Genoese gave rise to great 
 disorder. Their fleets were stationed at Messina : the 
 reciprocal insults, which national hatred always generates, 
 brought them to blows both by sea and land. 1 The 
 destruction and plunder of their magazines in Messina 
 became reciprocal, and the means employed to adjust 
 them by the imperial mediator proved only palliatives. 
 
 Henry, having got possession of Sicily, exercised his 
 short command with an iron sceptre. Violating the 
 promise he had given, he imprisoned the queen with her 
 son, whom he had promised to create Duke of Lecce ; 
 he ordered many of the principal barons to be put to 
 death or blinded ; and insulting even the ashes of the 
 dead, he uncovered the sepulchre of Tancredi and his 
 son Ruggieri, and caused the crown to be torn from 
 
 * To the former, besides promising Syracuse, he said that 
 after God he would acknowledge that kingdom from them; 
 Eritque non meum sed vestrum. Caflfar. Ann. Gen. To the Pisans 
 henceforth he conceded the half of Palermo, Messina, Salerno, and 
 Naples, all Gaeta, Trapani, and Mazzera, when they might be 
 conquered.
 
 304 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 their heads. He maintained none of his magnificent 
 promises to the Genoese and Pisans; the former he 
 deprived of the right of keeping a consul in the ports of 
 Sicily, and upon their complaining of this great injustice, 
 he threatened them u ith the destruction of Genoa. He 
 returned to Germany loaded with the gold and execra- 
 tions of the despoiled provinces. 
 
 The enmity and hostilities between the Pisans and 
 Genoese still continued. The former had occupied 
 Syracuse. The Genoese, hearing of this and coming 
 down from the islands of the Levant where they kept 
 a squadron, and not daring to attack them, when arrived 
 at Malta joined to their party Arrigo or Henry, 
 count of that island, a celebrated admiral or pirate of 
 those times, and the two flotillas uniting, attacked 
 Syracuse, and after seven days of obstinate contest, got 
 possession of it, making great slaughter of the Pisans*. 
 In vain did the Pisans, in the following year, endeavour 
 to regain it, although they assailed it both by sea and 
 land. The Count of Malta, who remained governor, 
 bravely repulsed them. 
 
 * Caff. Ann. Genuens. lib. 4.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT IN FLORENCE. DEMOLITION 
 OF VARIOUS FEUDAL CASTLES. INTERNAL DISSEN- 
 SIONS. FACTIONS OF THE GUELPHS AND GHIBELLINES. 
 WARS WITH PISA AND SIENNA. WARS OF THE PISANS 
 WITH THE GENOESE. THE EMPEROR FREDERIC THE 
 SECOND AND PETER OF THE VINEYARDS, (PIER DELLE 
 VIGNE.) DIFFERENT FACTIONS IN TUSCANY. MONEY 
 COINED IN FLORENCE. ENTERPRISES OF THE FLOREN- 
 TINES. NEW WARS AND ENTERPRISES OF THE PISANS. 
 DISTURBANCES IN FLORENCE. BATTLE OF MONTK 
 APERTI BETWEEN THE GUELPHS AND GHIBELLINES. 
 
 AN the mean time the city of Florence had been increasing 
 in population and riches. Her citizens, like the industri- 
 ous bees, were peaceably employed in manufactures, (par- 
 ticularly in that of cloth, of such universal utility,) which 
 received every encouragement, and the manufacturers 
 were recompensed with premiums. Although the period 
 is not mentioned with certainty, in which Florence 
 became a firm and stable republic, this must have taken 
 place much before the end of the twelfth century. The 
 imperial authority being overthrown by the Lombard con- 
 federacy, the independence of the latter, which was ac- 
 knowledged by the emperor in the treaty of Constance, 
 paved the road to the freedom of the Tuscan cities ; and 
 although the latter formed the Tuscan alliance later, and 
 some remains of authority still continued in the hands of 
 the emperors, or rather of their ministers, it soon vanished, 
 and at the beginning of the thirteenth century we find 
 the government of Florence established in a true repub- 
 lican form. 
 VOL. I. X
 
 306 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 The first magistrates of the free cities were the con- 
 suls; a title sacred to the liberty of Roman greatness. 
 The cities of Italy were scarcely free when they appointed 
 these rulers : at different times their number varied ; 
 some administered political affairs, and were called 
 greater consuls*; others were intrusted with the civil 
 and criminal pleas. Such magistracies were adopted by 
 the small towns and castles from the desire of imitating 
 the great republics. In the early times, loo, the bishop 
 had a share in the political government, particularly when 
 he had received any privilege from the emperor, if he was 
 decorated with the title of count, and when his riches and 
 dominion gave him an extraordinary power, like the 
 Bishop of Arezzo. Some time afterwards, however, either 
 the partiality of the consuls for their friends; the dissen- 
 sions that arose in the administration; or the discords 
 of the citizens at the elections, occasioned first a dimi- 
 nution of the authority of those magistrates, and gradually 
 the abrogation of it by the institution of the office of 
 mayor. The law ordained that he should be a foreigner, 
 in order that having no ties of friendship or connexions 
 of blood, he should exercise justice with greater integrity, 
 and when the period of his duty had expired, he might 
 resign it without being exposed to the resentment, to 
 which justice, however scrupulously administered, fre- 
 quently exposes the most immaculate judge. This post 
 was not disdained by the first signiors. The mayor was 
 generally honoured with the military sash; when neces- 
 sary, he marched at the head of the troops, taking with 
 him a splendid court, and several assessors, or civil and 
 criminal judges, to administer justice. His office was 
 limited to the term of a year, and he rarely obtained a 
 
 * Statutes of the city of Pistoia.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 307 
 
 re-confirmation in it; no relation, seldom even his wife, 
 could accompany him; the mayor and his servants were 
 also forbidden to enter into familiarity with the inhabi- 
 tants, or to give or accept dinners or suppers. Upon its 
 first institution the authority of this office being so great, 
 either that the mayor abused it; that the people con- 
 sidered that he favoured the nobility too much, or that 
 republican jealousy could not see without fear the civil 
 and criminal power, and command of the troops united 
 in the same person ; the authority became divided, and a 
 captain of the people was created, who riot only con- 
 ducted them to war, but interposed his authority and 
 force in seditions and tumults. The office of the mayor 
 became afterwards limited when the priors were elected, 
 and after them the Gonfaloniere, (o\ standard-bearer.} 
 These magistrates were for the most part common to 
 the free cities of Italy, and consequently of Tuscany, 
 not without many variations and modifications at various 
 times, which would be too tedious to detail minutely, and 
 we shall only mention them when the importance of the 
 subject requires it*. At this time Florence had consuls; 
 they are found here and elsewhere even before, but this 
 is no certain proof of perfect liberty!". Besides the 
 consuls whose number is uncertain^, there were priors 
 of the arts or trades, a mayor, a senator, ten good men, 
 (Biionuomini) a council general and another private one. 
 To these hands was the government confided : the office 
 
 * Murat. Antiq. Ital. Diss. 
 
 f In the diploma of peace of Constance it is said that the consuls 
 must be confirmed by the emperor, whence we see that such magis- 
 trates already existed even before the complete liberty of the 
 Italian cities. 
 
 t Anjm. 1st. Fior. lib. 1.
 
 308 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 of mayor, which we find taken notice of even some time 
 before, was firmly established in this year. 
 
 For a long time the Florentines took little share in the 
 wars of Italy, and were rather occupied in securing their 
 territory from foreign aggression. Tuscany had been, 
 like the rest of Italy, full of feudal lords, who, situated 
 in mountains, in fortresses, in very strong castles, 
 infested the public roads, by robbing and making pri- 
 soners of rich travellers, and making others pay a large 
 price of ransom, who had the misfortune to pass 
 in their vicinity. Such were the Fortress of Monte- 
 buoni possessed by the Signiors Buondelmonti ; the 
 Mountain of the Cross, by the Counts Guidi ; the 
 Castle of Pogna, Mount Orlandi, Mount Caciolli, the 
 nests of these overbearing gentry* The Florentines, 
 unable to bear such grievances, had already chastised 
 them at various times, either by dismantling the Fortress 
 of Montebuoni, Mountain of the Cross, the strong Castle 
 of Pogna, and many others, or by reducing them to obe- 
 dience. Semifonte was one of the places which had 
 given most annoyance to the Florentines. Situated in 
 the valley of the Elsa, (Valdelsa,) between Lucardo and 
 Vico, upon a hill, it was very strong in position, walls, 
 and towers. The Counts Alberti had been lords of it, 
 who either conquered or kept in fear by the Florentine 
 power, whilst they were treating of giving it up to this 
 Republic, the Semifontese got intelligence of it, rose, 
 and threw from the windows of the public palace the 
 ruler of the Albert! family, and appointed a small republic 
 of popular government, which, being encouraged by the 
 Siennese to acts of violence against the Florentines, often 
 caused their people to make inroads upon the Floren- 
 
 * Amm. Iston. Fior. lib. 1.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 309 
 
 tine territory. Although the arms of the latter afterwards 
 reduced them to submission, they again rebelled ; and in 
 the year 1202, the war against Semifonte was undertaken 
 with all vigour by the Florentines, and one of their 
 consuls appointed general. The people of the place 
 defended themselves with an unexpected courage, and 
 often refused an accommodation upon the best condi- 
 tions which the consuls*, who were discouraged by their 
 bold resistance, offered them ; but even with the bravest 
 defence, a place of not more than three hundred houses 
 could not finally oppose the continually increasing power 
 of the Florentines. It was taken by storm ; and, although 
 the lives of the inhabitants were spared, and an agree- 
 ment entered into whereby they were to remain subjects 
 of the Florentines, either they rebelled again, or whatever 
 might be the cause, Semifonte was at last totally destroyed, 
 and at present we can only point out the naked hill upon 
 which it was situated *. Florence interfered in some other 
 wars of little note, either against the Lucchese or Siennese, 
 and was generally in alliance with the Pisans. The 
 badly-framed republican constitution of Florence, how- 
 ever, soon gave rise to internal divisions. The family of 
 the Alberti was the most rich and powerful. Ill brooking 
 to be subject, like the rest of the citizens, to the common 
 laws, they had already caused Florence sufficient un- 
 easiness; since in the year ] 182 they formed a powerful 
 
 * Peace of Certaldo. War of Semif. Giov. Vill. 1st. lib. 5. 
 cap. 29. I can hardly believe that the Florentine republic dis- 
 mantled that castle from jealousy, and that its increasing greatness 
 might give them umbrage as Manni and Borghini have believed, 
 (Origin of Florence,) quoting the saying that was in common vogue, 
 Fiorenza, fatti in Id die Semifonte si fa Cittd. This may have 
 been said ironically, or in derision of the pride of the Semifontese, 
 a castle of three hundred houses only not being able to give 
 umbrage to a city like Florence, but was dismantled to prevent 
 new rebellions.
 
 310 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 association with other families against the government. 
 The city was divided into two parties, and a civil war 
 ensued, which, although it ceased and was renewed 
 according to circumstances, lasted nearly five years*, 
 and terminated only from the weariness of both parties. 
 
 This was a prelude only to the sanguinary turbulencies 
 which were about to agitate the Florentine republic. 
 This year gave rise also to the most fatal discord, the 
 cause of which was female beauty. The family of Buon- 
 delmonte was one of the first and most wealthy, a family 
 which was once tyrannical and powerful in the country, 
 had been brought to duty by the Florentines, and had 
 established itself in Florence. Buondelmonte, head of 
 the family, an elegant young man, promised to marry 
 a daughter of the Amidei, a family equally powerful. 
 The beauty of another young lady of the family Donati, 
 also of the first rank, struck him so forcibly, and the 
 insinuations of her mother were of such influence, that, 
 abandoning his first engagement, he married Donati. 
 This offence in our days would have no further conse- 
 quence than that of affixing a kind of stigma upon a 
 frivolous young man, who would incur no other chastise- 
 ment than the universal execration attendant upon a 
 man without character ; but it was otherwise in those 
 times of ferocious and sanguinary habits. The Amidei 
 and their relations considered it a stain to be wiped off 
 only by blood ; and on Easter-day, whilst Buondel- 
 monte, dressed in white upon a white horse, was riding 
 from the other side of the Arno towards the houses of 
 the Amidei near Saint Stephen's, passing over the old 
 bridge, they attacked him near the statue of Mars, 
 situated at the foot of the bridge, and killed him f. This 
 
 Ric. Malas. Atntnir. 1st. Fior. lib. 1. 
 t Malasp. cap. 104.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 311 
 
 murder threw the city into confusion, which became 
 divided immediately into two parties. The citizens, 
 having taken up arms, and barricaded the roads, fought 
 in the streets, squares, and from the houses and turrets ; 
 and continued for years to fight in the most cruel 
 manner. 
 
 Upon this occasion another political epidemy infested 
 the city, which already desolated Italy, the origin of which, 
 however much blood it may have cost, has been much dis- 
 puted, viz., the faction of the Guelphs and Ghibellines*, 
 the former attaching' themselves to the Buondelrnonti, the 
 latter to the Uberti, the most powerful family of the other 
 party, and which consequently became the head of it, in 
 lieu of the Amidei. The civil war raged amongst the citi- 
 zens for a considerable time; but the actions of barba- 
 rous valour, which stained the common country, remain 
 buried in an opportune obscurity. A city like Florence, 
 the principal source of her existence being commerce, 
 could not long remain at war without exposing herself 
 to ruin : the citizens therefore, combating between ani- 
 mosity and their own interests, frequently made tem- 
 porary truces > and again took up arms. The 
 ardour, however, awakened by a new crusade 
 
 * The most probable opinion is, that this faction took its rise in 
 Germany : here is the passage most authentic to confirm it. " Fac- 
 tum est sub Conrado II. Suevo qui circiter annum 1025, imperium 
 iniit in pugna quam gessit cum Guelpho Bavariae Duci . . . cum in 
 ed pugna Guelphi Bavariae Ducis auxiliares simbolum hoc habe- 
 rent Hie Guelphi qui vero sub Conradi Caesaris hie Guibe- 
 ling clamarent, quod Conradus in vetustse nobilitatis pago Waib- 
 lingen nutritus esset, inde primum Caesarianis Guibellini,Pontificiis 
 Guelphi nomen hsesit quod Guelphus Italica Pontificis auxilia 
 contra Conradum Csesarem adduxit. Felic. Osi. nota 38 rubr. 
 6 Histor. Albertini Muss. Muratori. Antic. Estens, torn. 1. cap. 31. 
 Her. Ital. disser. 3.
 
 312 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 afforded a palliative to this evil. Many Florentines, of 
 a ferocious and warlike disposition, laying aside all 
 domestic disputes, hurried to this enterprise*; among 
 the rest the name of Buona Guisa, of Galigari, is 
 celebrated, who, in the assault of Damiata, was the first 
 toecale the walls, and plant the standard upon them, or 
 
 the white and red ensign of their country, which, 
 1219. i r -ii .- 
 
 as a memorial of so illustrious an action, was hung 
 
 up in the temple of St. John f. The descendants of 
 this man, in order to do themselves honour hy his name, 
 abandoning the old family name of Galigari, assumed 
 that of Buonaguisi. 
 
 The peace which had lasted so long between 
 
 1220 
 
 the republics of Pisa and Florence was this year 
 broken. The Pisan ambassadors came to words with 
 the Florentines in Rome, where they met to assist at the 
 coronation of Frederic II. The motive (if indeed it is 
 true) was ridiculous enough, and unworthy of the effects 
 it produced J. But probably there was some other cause, 
 which is not mentioned by historians. It would have 
 been easy to have adjusted a misunderstanding, which 
 had arisen from a very trifling motive, without coming 
 to a dangerous rupture. 
 
 The Pisans probably began to look upon the increasing 
 power of the Florentines, whose commerce was conti- 
 nually increasing, with an eye of jealousy. Their 
 
 merchandise was obliged to pass through Pisa, and 
 
 
 
 * Ricord. Malasp. cap. 106. 
 
 t Malaspina relates, that at his time they showed it on the 
 day of St. John. Giov. Villani confirms it, and adds that it was 
 there in his time. 
 
 I A dog, promised by a forgetful cardinal, first to one of the Pisan 
 ambassadors, and afterwards to one of the Florentines, caused them 
 to come to blows. Malasp. cap. 131.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 313 
 
 leave the continent by means of the Pisan port ; an 
 opportunity was now afforded them of interrupting the 
 course of it, and indeed they immediately confiscated 
 whatever merchandise of the Florentines could be found 
 in Pisa. The obstinacy of the Pisans, not only in 
 retaining this merchandise, but even in refusing to restore 
 in lieu of it some bales of tow, with which the Floren- 
 tines would have been contented, (thus preserving their 
 honour by this apparent restitution*,) clearly shews how 
 adverse the Pisans were to a reconciliation, and confirms 
 our conjecture. It was necessary to have recourse to 
 arms. The Pisans, masters of the art of war by sea, 
 were not equally powerful by land ; the two small armies 
 coming to blows near Castel del Boscof, the Pisans were 
 defeated with 1,300 prisoners, besides the killed. We 
 will not detain our reader with the war the Florentines 
 maintained with the Siennese in defence of Montepul- 
 ciano, which was taken and half demolished by the 
 Siennese. The Florentines took revenge by laying waste 
 the Siennese territory, by the fruitless siege of Sienna, 
 and by mean insults towards the city. This little war 
 of inroads lasted about six years, when peace was 
 32, 33, made through the medium of Cardinal Prenestino, 
 34>35 ' deputed by the pope for that purpose . 
 
 The civil discords, which the holy war had somewhat 
 appeased by removing from Florence the diseased hu- 
 mour that kept her in agitation, were now renewed. 
 The disputes between the priesthood and the empire had 
 never been abandoned : worldly interest, and not a zeal 
 
 * Malasp. cap. 113. 
 f Malasp. cap. 114, 115. 
 
 $ There was the custom of insulting a city by throwing into it 
 asses and human ordure, &c. 
 % Annal. Senen. Rer. Ital. Script, torn; 15. -
 
 314 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 for religion, had always given fresh rise to them; hence 
 the emperors and the popes, who disputed for the tem- 
 poral possession of Italy, were supported by the t\vo 
 powerful factions; the Guelphs adhering to the pope, 
 and the Ghibcllines to the emperor. The one or the 
 other faction was predominant according to the vigour 
 and the talent of their respective chiefs : we have seen 
 the activity and power of the Emperor Frederic I., pro- 
 tector of the Ghibelline faction, and enemy of the pope. 
 His son, Henry VI., with more vices than his father, 
 without inheriting any of his virtues, soon died, loaded 
 with the public execration, leaving a young son who, 
 however he inherited the rights to the throne of Sicily, of 
 Germany, and made pretensions to the Empire, was of loo 
 tender an age to give umbrage to the court of Rome. In 
 the mean time Otho IV. of the Guelphan family, and con- 
 sequently of the pontifical party succeeded to the imperial 
 crown; but coining into Italy to exercise his rights, the 
 court of Rome regarded him no longer as a friend. Pope 
 Innocent III. finally excommunicated him, and for- 
 getful of the enmity of the house of Suabia 'towards 
 Rome, endeavoured to oppose to him the young Frederic, 
 not foreseeing how far more terrible an enemy he would 
 find in a prince equal or superior to his grandfather 
 Barbarossa, in talent and in valour. After the prema- 
 ture death of Otho, the pontiff' gave the imperial crown 
 to the young Frederic, making him however first promise 
 to carry war into the holy land. He thus obtained two 
 ends; he promoted an enterprise always dear to the 
 court of Rome, and removed from Italy a man who 
 might give annoyance to the pontifical sovereignty. The 
 new emperor, anxious first to adjust the aftairs of Italy, 
 did not care much about fulfilling his promises; for this 
 failure, and other errors, Frederic was struck by the
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 315 
 
 accustomed arm of the popes, by the excommunication 
 thundered against him by Gregory IX., and the excuse 
 of being sick availed him nothing. The convenient 
 opportunity occurring, he made sail from Otranto with 
 various ships and arrived at Acri, took no notice of the 
 censures, and thought he received a tacit absolution from 
 them, by fulfilling his promise. But he found all the 
 clergy and his adherents his declared enemies, who, 
 instead of conjointly promoting the enterprise of the 
 Holy Land, full of fanatic zeal, crossed his designs by 
 issuing a proclamation that no communication was to be 
 had with an excommunicated prince: at the same time 
 his Apulian dominions were invaded by the pontifical 
 army, which, from wearing the keys of St. Peter as coat 
 of arms upon their uniform, were called sign of the keys 
 (chiavisignato). 
 
 The active Frederic triumphed over all obstacles; 
 forced Soldan to a capitulation, by which the cities of 
 Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and Sidon were ceded 
 to him; but, in spite of these holy acquisitions, being 
 looked upon with horror ,by the ecclesiastics, and not 
 finding any one to crown him King of Jerusalem, he 
 placed the crown upon the altar, and, as if in derision of 
 the ceremony, put it upon his own head, and returning 
 rapidly into Apulia, soon re-conquered his lost domi- 
 nions. After so many mutual insults, it is easy to 
 imagine, no reconciliation was to be hoped for between 
 him and the pontiff*. 
 
 The cities of Tuscany were divided, but Pisa had 
 always adhered to the imperial party. To the ancient 
 favours received from the house of Suabia was added a 
 
 * Many are the writers of these events. For all of them, see 
 the Annals of Murat. ann. 1228, 29.
 
 316 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 measure of the court of Rome, adapted to irritate the 
 Pisans. That court constantly anxious for her own ad- 
 vancement, had sent friars into various parts of Italy, 
 particularly of the minors and Dominican orders, for the 
 laudable purpose of preaching peace and concord, but at 
 the same time exacted from the people the oath of 
 fidelity to the pope, and carried letters to the bishops, 
 wherein they were commanded to exact the same. These 
 religious persons were expelled by Rinaldo duke of 
 Spoleti, and their dangerous missions prohibited by 
 
 Frederic*. Sardinia was governed by the Pisans; 
 
 hither one of these sacred envoys, called Alex- 
 ander, chaplain of the pope repaired, in the quality of 
 apostolic legate, and succeeded in seducing the Pisan 
 feudatories. Ubaldo Visconti held in feu from the 
 Pisan Republic the jurisdiction of Gallara ; Adelasia, 
 that of Torri, and Peter of Capraja, that of Arborea. 
 The apostolic legate obtained that the respective juris- 
 dictions should be given over to his hands f against the 
 oath already given to the republic, and that they should 
 receive them again in feu from the pope. This act 
 exasperated the government of Pisa, and there being 
 citizens in it accustomed to an implicit obedience towards 
 Rome, even in affairs where religion was not concerned, 
 disorders and divisions arose, although those who held 
 the government in their hands remained sound to the old 
 imperial party J. Frederic repaired to Tuscany to excite 
 
 * Cronic. di Rice, da S. Germane Rer. Ital. torn. 7. Petr. de' 
 Vine. Epis. lib. Leap. 19. 
 
 t The judges were called also reges a regendo. Enzo, son of 
 Frederic II., married the mentioned Adelasia, become a widow, and 
 united various jurisdictions, either by the imperial authority of the 
 father, or by the concession of the Pisans, and became therefore 
 king or governor of Sardinia. 
 
 I Cav. Flamm. dal Borgo dell' Istor. Pis. Disser. 4.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 317 
 
 those cities against Rome, and to make sure of his parti- 
 zans. He stopped some time in Pisa to concert measures 
 for undertaking a more vigorous war against the pontiff, 
 who in the mean time multiplied his censures against him. 
 In order to give them greater solemnity, he ordered a 
 XJlouncil in Rome at St. John the Lateran, (St. Giovanni 
 Laterano), by calling thither the clergy from the Christian 
 provinces. Frederic, not alarmed at these threats, 
 against which he was now grown obdurate, being at the 
 siege of Faenza, not only arrested all the ecclesiastics 
 who were repairing to that council, but hearing a large 
 body of French prelates was assembled in Genoa, toge- 
 ther with the cardinals Jacopo Bishop of Palestrina, and 
 Otho of St. Nicholas in Prison, (San Niccolo in Carcere) 
 in order to go to Rome by sea, persuaded the Pisans to unite 
 their forces with those brought from Sicily by Enzo his 
 son, and attack the Genoese fleet in the passage. Although 
 great e.nemies of the Genoese, through respect to the 
 clergy the Pisans warned the prelates and Genoese not 
 to hazard the passage. The imprudent Genoese, de- 
 spising the menace, although inferior in number and with 
 ships crowded with weak crews, instead of bearing out 
 to sea, and avoiding battle, went boldly to meet the 
 enemies' fleet, and not far from Meloria, between the 
 Lilly island and Mount Christus, on the third of 
 May, a sanguinary conflict ensued, in which the 
 Genoese were worsted, twenty-two galleys taken by the 
 Pisans, and three sunk : four thousand prisoners, 
 among whom two cardinals and a crowd of ecclesiastics 
 were led to Pisa in triumph, and the only distinction 
 shewn to the latter was being bound with silver chains*. 
 
 * Bartol. Script. Rer. Ital. torn. 6., and particularly an authentic 
 paper quoted by the Cav. Flamm. dal Borgo, Diss. 4. dell' Istor. 
 Pisana. Villani. lib. 6. cap. 20.
 
 318 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 Frederic did not fail to boast of this victory as a judg- 
 ment of God, which favoured his cause; and his secretary 
 and friend, Piero delle Vigne, made use of all his elo- 
 quence to prove to him that the hand of the Lord was 
 manifest in the event*. In the mean time Frederic, 
 flushed by victory, forced his passage through the ponti- 
 fical states, occupied various cities, and advanced even 
 as far as the walls of Rome. Pope Gregory, worn down 
 by age, and probably by chagrin, died. 
 
 The Pisans carried on the war with Genoa with the 
 greatest vigour, raised the siege of Savona, and, in the 
 month of September, left the Pisan port with one hundred 
 and five galleys and one hundred smaller vessels f, bearing 
 down against Genoa: which magnificent armament 
 probably terminated in the vain and useless satisfaction 
 of throwing arrows tipped with silver against the town^. 
 The imperial and Pisan fleets frequently approached the 
 shores of Genoa, but, instead of doing any thing impor- 
 tant, they appeared rather to fly from the Genoese arma- 
 ments . Gregory IX. had been succeeded by Celestine 
 IV., who lived but a short time, and therefore had little 
 to do with the Emperor. Innocent IV., of the family 
 of Fieschi, was elected in his place, whose friendship 
 with the Emperor gave hopes of an easy adjustment; but 
 interest makes enemies of the closest friends. After 
 many useless negotiations, Innocent, dreading the arms 
 and treachery of Frederic, had fled into Italy, whence, 
 
 * Petrus de Vine, Epist. cap. 8 and 9. 
 
 \ This great armament is not at all exaggerated by historians, 
 being attested by the public inscription that was hung up in the 
 palace Lung* Arno, called delle Vele, and which has been lately 
 transported to the Campo Santo of Pisa. 
 
 I Bartol. Ser. Convin. Caffar. Rer. Ital. torn. 6. 
 
 Bartol. Scr. Loc. c. Tronci Annali. -
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 319 
 
 proceeding to France, they held a council at Lyons, in 
 which he excommunicated and deposed the Emperor. 
 He, in the mean time, ruled over Italy. Amongst the 
 cities of Tuscany, although Florence had been divided 
 into the two factions, nevertheless the Guelfan prepon- 
 derated. The Emperor, by fanning the dying embers, 
 rekindled the Ghibelline fire, particularly by 
 rousing the Uberti and promising aid to their 
 party : they again took up arms, and sanguinary conflicts 
 took place in many parts of the city*, when, finally, the 
 son of the Emperor, arriving with 1 ,600 G erman horse, 
 the Guelphs were obliged to give way ; they retreated 
 indeed from Florence, but with a ferocious air, and with 
 their arms in their hands ; and just before their departure, 
 Rustico Marignolli, chevalier of the first order among 
 the Guelphs, dying of the wounds he had received in 
 the last actions, was buried on the very day of their 
 retreat, in St. Laurence, with the honours of war, as in 
 air of triumph, the only doleful token being the ensigns 
 reversed and dragging upon the ground. The following 
 night the Guelphs, finding all resistance useless, left the 
 city f . 
 
 The fury of civil discord knows no limits: the Ghi- 
 bellines, who remained masters, unable to wreak their 
 vengeance in any other way against the Guelphs, razed 
 their dwellings to the ground, and particularly the towers 
 with which Florence was at that time adorned, like other 
 cities of Italy. That of Tosinghi, formed of columns of 
 marble, which decorated the old market, (mercato 
 vecchio) stood ninety arms above the ground ; another 
 as high as one hundred and thirty, which, together with 
 many others, were thrown down. Their brutal rage 
 
 * Malasp. cap. 137. Amm. lib. 2. f Amm. lib. 2.
 
 3*0 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 is discovered in the barbarous attempt made to ruin 
 St John's temple, which was guilty of no other crime than 
 being the place where the Guelphs were accustomed to 
 hold their assemblies. A beautiful and lofty tower 
 stood at the beginning of the street of the Adimari: they 
 endeavoured to make it fall upon that temple and thus 
 crush it, and having propped it up with large beams 
 towards the part opposite the temple, and cutting it in 
 great part on the same side, they set fire to the props ; 
 but accident saved this fine edifice by the tower falling 
 elsewhere*. The Guelphs had retired in great numbers 
 to Capraia, where they were closely besieged by the 
 Ghibellines, who had been reinforced by the Germans, 
 and animated by the Emperor Frederic, who kept his 
 position at Fucecchio : the Guelphs, deficient in provi- 
 sions, were obliged to surrender at discretion, and submit 
 to the cruelties of the barbarous conquerors ; some were 
 blinded, others killed, and a part led captive by Frederic 
 into the kingdom of Naples f. These misfortunes 
 
 instead of humbling only irritated the Guelphs; 
 
 they defended themselves bravely in the valley of 
 the Arno ( Val d'Arno), discomfited the Ghibellines, who 
 returned to Florence in disgrace. 
 
 The people had already began to perceive they were 
 sacrificed to the discords of the great, who sought only 
 to serve their own private revenge under the fallacious 
 pretext of the public good : taking courage at this defeat, 
 and crying out loudly, particularly against the Uberti, the 
 heads of the ruling faction, they openly demanded a new 
 form of government. The nobles, unable to oppose 
 them, "were obliged to yield ; the new government was 
 constituted in a manner that the people, who probably 
 
 * Malasp. cap. 137. f Malasp. cap. 140.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 321 
 
 had hitherto been excluded, or had but a small share in 
 it, were now more freely admitted. The supremacy was 
 taken away from the mayor, twelve seniors of the people 
 were created, and the city was divided into six parts, 
 two for each sixth were elected, and a captain of the 
 people in lieu of the mayor, whose office was abolished, 
 and again renewed in the following year, but with a 
 greater limitation of authority. In order to secure this 
 new form of government against the overbearing conduct 
 of the signiors who frequently thought it greatness to 
 insult the laws, a public force was established : twenty flags 
 or ensigns were given to twenty chiefs in the city, three 
 for a sixth part, and four to the sixth on the other side 
 of the Arno* and to that of St. Peter Scheraggio, probably 
 the most populous quarter of the city. At the sound of 
 a bell when necessity demanded it, the persons capable 
 of arms were to assemble under their banner : the same 
 order was given in the country : the banners were con- 
 fided to ninety-six precincts, the young men of which 
 were to be ready in arms to support the government, 
 and protect it both from internal and external enemies. 
 
 The pope's sentence against, Frederic did not fail to 
 produce very bad consequences : Germany, Lombardy, 
 Puglia, and other places, broke out into rebellion 
 against him, and he was abandoned by many of his 
 friends. Even the Pisans, who were involved in the 
 same excommunication, were desirous of joining the 
 holy see ; the pope received them with open arms, but 
 demanded of them to abandon the party of an emperor 
 
 * As the most extensive part of the city has been always upon 
 the right bank of the Arno, it was a common custom to call 
 Oltr'arno that situated on the left: whoever wishes to know all the 
 whimsical figures painted on the flags, may consult Malasp. 
 cap. 41. 
 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 322 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 who was separated from the bosom of the church : they 
 hesitated for a moment, but remained firm to the impe- 
 rial party*. Even that singular man, for so long a time 
 the friend, favourite and principal minister of the 
 emperor, Peter of the Vineyards, (Piero delle Vigne,) 
 finally incurred his indignation ; his crime is uncertain, 
 but a favourite, who has so many enemies may very 
 easily be ruined when the affairs of his master do not 
 prosper. The public, always discontented with every 
 government, is ready to condemn the minister, and 
 absolve the prince. To this cause may be added, what 
 Dante adduces, the envy and persecution of the cour- 
 tiersf. The unfortunate minister, who had faithfully 
 served for so many years, was blinded in San Miniato, 
 and sent to Pisa to be exposed to the derision of the 
 populace. Falling from a mule he died of a heavy blow 
 in the head J. At last, after a life of continual agitation, 
 Frederic died at Fiorentino, a castle of Apulia. He 
 was buried in Palermo, and amongst all the sepulchral 
 inscriptions presented to his son Manefroi, it is said that 
 the one that most pleased him was the work of an 
 
 * Flamm. dal Borgo Diss. 4 dell' 1st. Pisan. 
 t La meretnce, che mai dall' ospizio 
 Di Cesarc non torse gli occhi putt i 
 Morte comune, e delle Corti vizio, 
 Infiainmo contro me gli animi tntti ; 
 E gl' infiammati infiammar si Augusto, 
 Che i lieti onor tornaro in tristi lutte. 
 L'animo mio per disdegnoso gusto, 
 Credendo col morir fnggir disdegno, 
 Inginstofece me contro me giusto. 
 
 Whence it is thought that Piero killed himself. 
 
 I The most authentic document of the death of Piero is that of 
 the Hospital of Santa Chiara in Pisa, mentioned by Cav. Flammingo 
 in the fourth dissertation upon the Pisan history, where it is said 
 that he was buried in San Andrea.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANV. 323 
 
 Aretine clergyman *; but another less elegant appears to 
 have been placed upon it. 
 
 No sensible writer has denied this sovereign great 
 talents ; the opinion formed of him, however, would have 
 been more general if he had not had the misfortune to incur 
 the excommunication ; the ecclesiastics, therefore, have 
 described him as impious and irreligious. Others, on the 
 contrary, have thought him full of that vigour of intellect 
 which knows so well how to distinguish true religion 
 
 D O 
 
 from the contentious ecclesiastical prerogatives; hence 
 he had the courage to resist the temporal arms of Rome 
 as well as the spiritual. The prudent reader, however, 
 will form his opinion of his character according to his 
 own manner of thinking. Following the system of his 
 grandfather Frederic the First, he became an enemy of 
 the Italian republics, considering them as disposed to 
 rebellion against the empire. Like him he favoured 
 sciences and letters. The former, however, was more 
 liberal of his honours and premiums to the professors of 
 law, particularly to the Bolognese, giving them an interest 
 in undertaking the defence of the imperial rights: the 
 latter loved learned men from love of letters, nor did he 
 disdain to enter into the list of authors ; he touched the 
 poetic lyre, and we look with veneration upon the poeti- 
 cal fragments of a great sovereign, who is reckoned 
 amongst the founders of Italian poetry. He transmitted 
 a love of learning to his natural children. Enzus, King 
 
 * This was the inscription: 
 
 Si probitas sensus, virtutum copia, rensns 
 Nobilitas osti possent resistere moiti; 
 Non foret extinctus Fridericus qui jacet intns. 
 
 The anonymous writer of the Sicilian Chronicle mentions an- 
 other: Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, torn. 25. 
 
 Y2
 
 324 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 of the Sardinians, distinguished himself as a poet, and 
 Manefroi was a great protector of letters. 
 
 The Florentine people, encouraged by the death of 
 the protector of the Ghibellines, after having settled the 
 government in the prescribed form, in order to keep the 
 great that were Ghibellines more in rein, having heard 
 of the death of the Emperor Frederic, recalled the 
 Guelphs, and the two parties were pacified. It was 
 difficult, however, to preserve them of accord. The 
 Guelphs, who were become superior, pretended that the 
 exiled Guelphs should be restored to Pistoia; the Floren- 
 tine republic was ready to regard as pious and just a 
 measure which she had herself undertaken, and took an 
 interest in supporting it. The Pistoiese resisting, the 
 Florentines wished to force them by arms; the 
 
 1252. . . 
 
 Ghibellines refused to have any share in the enter- 
 prise, and to march against their friends : this was the 
 reason that the Guelphs, after having returned from that 
 expedition in which, although they did not succeed in 
 restoring their friends to Pistoia, they had however discom- 
 fited the Pistoiese, drove the Ghibellines from Florence; 
 and what shows the animosity and desire of perpetuating 
 rather than extinguishing the party, they changed the 
 arms of the community : the white lily in red ground 
 was changed into red lily in white ground, the Ghibel- 
 lines retaining the ancient insignia of the community, 
 changes which however they may appear small con- 
 tributed with the distinction of the insignia to support 
 and encourage the divisions*. Thus the factions that 
 they wished to extinguish had arisen anew, and the 
 government of the republic was always wavering between 
 
 ^ Ric. Malas. cap. 1. 4.5.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 325 
 
 the one and the other party. If the expulsion of one 
 faction produced internal quiet, it almost always produced 
 war without. The exiled Ghibellines united at Montana 
 
 f^t 
 
 with some Germans, who had been once followers of the 
 Emperor Frederic ; and receiving succours from the 
 Siennese and Pisans, the Florentines went out to meet 
 them and disperse them, which became only the prelude to 
 a greater battle. The Florentines had turned against the 
 Pistoiese when the news was brought to them that the 
 Pisans had discomfited the Lucchese their allies at Mon- 
 topoli. They hastened, therefore, to their succour. Coming 
 up with them near Pontedera a fierce battle ensued, in 
 which the Pisans were defeated with great loss, the num- 
 ber of their prisoners amounting to 3,000, amongst whom 
 was the mayor of Pisa*. The arms of the Florentines 
 were every where successful : Figline, where many Ghi- 
 bellines had taken refuge was taken ; and Montalcino was 
 liberated from the siege of the Siennese. 
 
 The city was now rapidly increasing in population 
 and riches : an increase which had taken place parti- 
 cularly in the space of thirty-four years, as various 
 observations clearly prove. The old bridge (Ponte 
 Vecchio) was the only one that existed in the year 
 1218 ; the same year that of Carraja was built; 
 eighteen years afterwards Rubacon of Mandella, a 
 Milanese, mayor of Florence, gave the name to the 
 bridge which is now called of the Graces, (delle 
 Grazie); and in the present year that of the Holy 
 Trinity, (Santa Trinita), was also erected, Golden 
 coin was struck for the first time : the fine florin of 
 Florence, which acquired celebrity in all commercial 
 countries, was now admired upon the shores of Africa 
 
 * Malasp. cap. 150. Aiura. lib. 2.
 
 326 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 by the King of Tunis, perhaps to the envy of the 
 Pisans; and their derogatory answers to the Florentine 
 republic prove the continued animosity between the two 
 states, if, indeed, this is not one of the many deceitful 
 anecdotes with which history abounds. 
 
 The golden florin, its component parts, and generally 
 the money of a republic of so much commerce merit a 
 more detailed illustration. Until this time silver and 
 copper money only had been made use of, and were pro- 
 bably coined in the eleventh century. As Tuscany had 
 no particular money of her own under the dukes and 
 marquises, nor any documents of such having existed, 
 we may with very great probability conclude she had 
 none, and began only to coin it when the republic was 
 established. If it appears strange that a city of so 
 much commerce began so late to coin golden money, 
 let us reflect upon the greater value of silver in those 
 days ; and we shall see that this alone was sufficient, 
 with the addition of the foreign golden coins which then 
 circulated in Italy, such as the Agostori, &c. Venice, 
 which earlier than all the other cities of Italy, carried 
 on an extensive commerce, coined money of gold later 
 than Florence, that is, in the year 1285. That Pisa 
 struck golden coin before this time, may be inferred 
 from three golden pieces with the name of the Emperor 
 Frederic II., and the name and Pisan insignia which are 
 to be seen in the copious collection of Monsignor Fran- 
 ceschi, Archbishop of Pisa*, if a doubt indeed does not 
 arise of their being struck by Frederic upon his entrance 
 into that city, in order to endear the people to him. 
 The question acquires greater validity when we reflect 
 that neither Venice or Genoa struck golden coin, and 
 
 * Now possessed by his heir?.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 327 
 
 that John Villani, who lived about those times, asserts 
 the same of Pisa. It would have- been strange that this 
 man, who was one of the deputies to the mint of 
 Florence, who has taken care to cause the ancient 
 Florentine coins to be registered under the names of 
 the mint directors, and who is versed in such matters, 
 should be ignorant of the fact, and that if he was 
 acquainted with it, he should expose himself to the 
 ridicule, into which any author falls who writes things 
 notoriously false. But leaving this question, it is 
 certain that Pisa, Genoa, and Lucca, coined money by 
 authority and imperial permission, as the arms of the 
 emperor stamped thereon, demonstrate ; whilst Florence 
 coined by her own authority, and stamped it only with 
 St. John the Baptist and the Lily. It is true that the 
 cities have in our times pretended that it was rather an 
 honour granted by the emperors to affix their arms, like 
 those families who have had the license to imprint 
 the lily or the eagle upon them from the emperors and 
 the kings of France ; but as the emperors always pre- 
 tended it belonged to them to grant the right, the title 
 of those cities remains doubtful. Perhaps, too, they 
 solicited that privilege in order to give more authority 
 to their coin in foreign parts, and to facilitate its course 
 under shadow of the imperial authority. In whatever 
 sense we may please to understand it, greater real power 
 was evinced by that city which struck coin for herself 
 without need of license, or other privilege than the 
 goodness of its alloy, (which is soon known to the dis- 
 cernment of merchants,) and which immediately gave the 
 golden florin of Florence so much credit in foreign 
 countries and made them prefer it to all others *. This 
 
 * Oftentimes foreign lords and governments asked permission 
 of the Florentines to strike the golden florin for its celebrity. : 
 Borghini, loc. cit.
 
 328 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 florin was struck from the finest gold of the weight of 
 a drachm, three denari or seventy-two grains : this is 
 the weight of the lilied sequin, which still retains its 
 stamp and value. At that time the proportion of gold 
 to silver was as one to 10 + T V * ; hence the florin of gold 
 was divided into twenty florins of silver, called also 
 popolins, soldi, &c., the sum of which formed the weight 
 of 10 drachms and -^ or about 770 grains. The stamp 
 was the same and the size nearly so, hence the joke of 
 the gilded popolins related by the facetious Boccaccio 
 may be probable. This twentieth part of the florin of 
 gold was subdivided into twelve denari, each of which, 
 if the proportion of gold to silver had continued the 
 same, would correspond to one of our common soldi of 
 Lira, with a third of a farthing more, or quattrina. 
 
 The names of the golden florin were various, only two 
 of which deserve explanation, viz., the florin of the galley, 
 and that of the seal. The former received that name 
 from having been stamped in the year 1422, in which 
 galleys were armed by the Florentine republic, and com- 
 merce entered into with Egypt. Having obtained from 
 the soldan the same privileges as the Venetians enjoyed, 
 they coined this florin to confront the Venetian, which 
 was in great credit there. The other was called of the 
 seal, because a given number of golden florins, weighed 
 carefully by the public office, were put into a skin bag, 
 and marked with the public seal ; these parcels were paid 
 away without being counted, and were of great conve- 
 nience in large contracts. Besides this material and 
 serviceable division, the golden florin was also divided 
 into an imaginary coin, invented for convenience of com- 
 merce; that is the lira, formed also of aliquot parts, 
 soldi and denari, which must frequently have given rise 
 
 * It maintained itself such until the sixteenth century, or at the 
 discovery of America. Carli sulle Zecche.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 329 
 
 to much confusion with the soldi and denari of the golden 
 florin. Even before, the imaginary lira had existed in 
 Florence, and in the twelfth century was equal to the 
 value which the golden florin passed for afterwards* ; 
 but when it became a fraction, it was subjected to con- 
 tinual and important changes, both from the various 
 operations of commerce, and particularly the deteriora- 
 tion of the silver coin, into which the golden florin was 
 changed : and, in truth, the agio of the latter continued 
 greatly increasing. As long as the augmentation was mo- 
 derate, it might be imagined that the convenience and the 
 greater price in which gold was held was the cause of it ; 
 but going beyond the thirty per cent., it is easy to see 
 that the motive arose from the alteration of the fine silver 
 with which the florins, popolins, guelfi, or soldi of silver 
 were struck ; since if the mixture of which twenty of these 
 were composed, instead of containing seven hundred and 
 seventy grains of silver as was necessary to be equivalent 
 to seventy-two grains of gold, contained only seven hun- 
 dred, and even less, and the remainder copper or other 
 metal, the discernment of the bankers reduced them to 
 their just value; and in the exchange as much more 
 money of silver was necessary to make up the deficiency. 
 From this cause arise the strange changes and the leaps, 
 as it were, made by the lire as fraction of the golden 
 florin ; sometimes a lire and a half was equivalent to the 
 florin, sometimes 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, &c. Without such 
 information innumerable mistakes are made by readers, 
 and writers themselves, in computing the lire of the 
 florin"}", being particularly deluded by the word lira, 
 
 * Rico. Malasp. Stor. Fior. c. 98. 
 
 t Even the celebrated English writer, of the Life of Lorenzo the 
 Magnificent, finding in the Ammirato that the golden* florin was 
 valued at three lire ten soldi, has thought to be able generally to
 
 330 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 which from an imaginary coin became finally a real one 
 under Cosmo I., and is become a constant fraction of 
 the golden florin or sequin, composed of 13 J of these. 
 
 This was a glorious epoch for the Florentines ; they 
 had become powerful by commerce, accompanied with 
 that frugality which is the basis of it ; a picture painted 
 in lively colours by Dante *, as a contrast to the luxury 
 and profusion of his own times. They followed up their 
 enterprises with success. Pistoia, frequently attacked, 
 was finally obliged to receive the law from the Floren- 
 tines, and release the Guelphs; they attacked Volterra, 
 where the Ghibelline party reigned, and which, being 
 situated in a very strong position, it did not appear pos- 
 sible to take according to the manner of fighting in those 
 times. It was probably only the intention of the Flo- 
 rentines to lay waste the country, according to the 
 practice of war as then carried on. Whilst this was going 
 on under the eyes of the Volterrans, the latter ill brooking 
 that the enemy should act with impunity, suddenly 
 opened a gate, and rushed out upon them ; but being 
 furiously repulsed and followed up, the Florentines en- 
 tered with unexpected good fortune, mixed with the 
 
 establish that this was the value of the florin, when it was only so 
 of that year. In a word, we have always a fixed term that ia the 
 florin of gold or sequin, which from the year 1252 to now has 
 suffered at most only the alteration of four grains; it is'more proper 
 from the golden florin to infer the value of the lire than from this 
 the florin, whence the more the number of the lire increases, so 
 much the more their value diminishes ; for example, when it was 
 composed of four lire, each of these corresponded to five of our 
 pauls, the same proportion being placed between the gold and 
 silver, which however is varied. For all the variations of these 
 coins, and their number and names, we may consult Conte Carli, 
 and the author of the Decimal. 
 
 * Fioren/a dento delle Cerchia Antiche, &c.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 331 
 
 fugitives, into Vol terra, and thus gained the strongest 
 place in Tuscany. It may be mentioned to the honour 
 of the conquerors, that Vol terra, although taken by assault, 
 was saved from being sacked. All their enterprises had 
 so well succeeded this year, that they justly gave it the 
 name of the victorious year*. They had defeated 
 the Siennese, obliged them to raise the siege of 
 Montaleina, and receive laws from them ; the Pistoiese 
 being brought to allegiance, the Guelphs were again 
 received into the city, and a castle was built upon the Flo- 
 rentine gate to command it; Poggibonzi was occupied; 
 and crowning their prosperity by the recent capture of 
 Volterra, they excited the astonishment and terror of the 
 other cities of Tuscany. 
 
 After the expedition of Volterra, the Florentine army 
 repaired to the Pisan territory, and passing the Era began 
 to lay waste the country. The fame of the Florentine 
 victories had disheartened the Pisans, and internal dis- 
 sensions had weakened them. According to the custom 
 of the times, the Pisan people were become clamorous 
 against the nobility, formed a popular government, and 
 if the nobles wished to participate in it, they were obliged 
 to enter among the people. Many abandoned the city f, 
 which divided had now no courage to oppose the enemy, 
 and sued for peace, leaving the conditions at his discre- 
 tion and judgment. The Florentines agreed to this, and the 
 army returned in triumph to Florence to consult thereon. 
 They were in alliance with the Lucchese and Genoese 
 against the Pisans ; a congress, therefore, was held n Flo- 
 rence of the ambassadors of those two republics $ with the 
 Florentine government, and the conditions were dictated 
 
 * R. Malasp, c. 55. t Tronci Ann. Pisani, an. 1254. 
 
 i Ann. Genuen. lib. VI. Rer. Ital. torn. 6.*
 
 332 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 to the Pisans. The principal and most important for the 
 Florentines was exemption from all taxes and duties upon 
 their merchandise, which were obliged to pass through 
 the Pisan territory ; that the castles of Lerice and Treb- 
 biano should be restored to the Genoese; Mutrone to 
 the Lucchese ; Montopoli .to the bishopric of Lucca : 
 that they should evacuate the castles of Carvaja and 
 Massa which they had lately occupied; give up to the 
 Florentines, either the castle of Ripafratta, or 
 
 1255. _,. . . . . r f . 
 
 Piombmo ; with some other provision of minor 
 importance*. Much praise cannot be given to the con- 
 querors for moderation ; the Pisans temporized in ful- 
 filling the conditions, and if they were finally obliged to 
 yield to circumstances, it was easy to foresee they wished 
 only to violate a shameful peace at the first) opportunity. 
 This moment was not distant: the Ghibelline party, 
 which had lost itself in Italy by the death of Frederic, 
 and the little activity of Conrad, began to rise anew 
 through the activity of Manefroi, natural son of Frederic. 
 This prince, to whom nature had been bountiful of many 
 gifts, the worthy son of Frederic II., possessed the talents 
 of his father; graceful, amiable, full of activity and genius, 
 he had been created by his father, Prince of Tarentum, 
 and soon became the most important person in the 
 kingdom of the Sicilies, first as tutor of the young Con- 
 radin, afterwards as sovereign. The court of Rome being 
 his enemy, which wished to dispose as she pleased of 
 that kingdom, he endeavoured to gain over to him the 
 party of the Ghibellines, who easily followed him as son 
 of their first protector. Seeing Florence governed by the 
 contrary party, he excited the Pisan republic to break 
 
 * These conditions are mentioned as more or less heavy by the 
 Bartolom. Historians, Scriba Ann. Genuen. lib. 6., by Tronci Ann. 
 Pisa, by Malasp. cap. 155., who adds some other.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 333 
 
 the conditions with which she had been lately obliged to 
 
 purchase a shameful peace*. It was easy to instigate 
 
 the Pisans, who did not however directly take up arms 
 
 against the Florentines, but against their allies, the 
 
 Lucchese. 
 
 This infraction of treaty soon determined the Floren- 
 tines to put themselves in motion. Their troops join- 
 ing the Lucchese, attacked the Pisans near the bridge 
 at the Serchio, and defeated them with great losst- 
 The victorious Florentines advanced to S. Jacopo, very 
 near Pisa, where they coined money in token of juris- 
 diction and contempt of the Pisans J. The conquered, 
 obliged to sue for an immediate peace, obtained it, but the 
 conditions were very heavy : the treaty stipulated in 1 254 
 was now increased by the cession of various castles to 
 the Lucchese and Florentines. Among the former which 
 were ceded was Mutrone : the loss of which greatly hurt 
 the Pisans, since, being situated upon the sea, it might 
 become a convenient port to a commercial and industrious 
 nation, which not only would no longer have occasion for 
 the Pisan port but acquired the means of becoming a 
 maritime power. No longer able to do so by force, 
 they endeavoured to induce the Florentines with gold to 
 ruin Mutrone ; a laudable action of Aldobrandino Otto- 
 
 * Ammir. 1st. Fior. lib. 2. 
 
 t L'Atnmir. lib. 2. copying Malaspina, tells us that besides the 
 killed and drowned in the Serchio, there were 3,000 prisoners, pro- 
 bably these losses are almost always exaggerated, 
 
 J They had caused a very high pine to be cut, and in order to 
 express it in the coin was seen a trefoil at the feet of St. John. 
 Villani attests to have lost many of these florins, whence it ap- 
 pears that the doubt cannot arise which the Cav. Flammingo dal 
 Borgo wishes to start, the more because the Pisan Tronci himself, 
 annalist in times so much lower, affirms that he has had in his* hands 
 more than one of these golden florins.
 
 334 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 buoni must not be passed over in oblivion. In the dis- 
 cussions about Mutrone this virtuous citizen had given it 
 as his opinion, that it should be done away with as 
 useless to the Florentine republic ; his companions were 
 almost persuaded, and the day following the measures 
 were to be carried into effect : the Pisan minister, who 
 had got a hint of it, employed a friend to offer secretly 
 Aldobrandino 4,000 florins of gold, if he succeeded in 
 making his opinion good. Aldobrandino perceived from 
 the offer that his opinion was wrong; lie treated the 
 mediator with good words, but when he came to the 
 senate, asking excuse for his change of sentiment, he 
 argued with such powerful eloquence for the contrary 
 opinion that he succeeded (although not without diffi- 
 culty), in effecting a change in the measure the magis- 
 tracy was about to take. Aldobrandino was ill supplied 
 with the gifts of fortune ; hence his disinterestedness being 
 made known, which, notwithstanding his silence came to 
 the ears of the public, he was received with the greatest 
 acclamations*. He performed only the duty of a good 
 citizen, and the praises which are wont to be bestowed 
 on such occasions are an indirect satire upon the human 
 race; since the rarity of such actions make them rather 
 exceptions than common rules of life. This honourable 
 citizen died the following year: his country paid him 
 funeral honours attended with magnificent pomp in Santa 
 Reparata, and erected a mausoleum to perpetuate his 
 memory, 
 
 The humiliation of the Ghibelline party in Tuscany 
 had particularly caused the losses of the Pisans. 
 Manefroi, whose assistance they had reckoned upon, was 
 absent, and involved in the wars excited against him by 
 
 * Giov. Vil. 1st. lib. 6. c. 64.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 335 
 
 the pope and his subjects : the support they had always 
 received from the emperors failed them at this time, in 
 which the empire, agitated by various factions, was 
 vacant. The cities of Italy had enjoyed the right of 
 participating in the election* of the king of the Romans 
 and of Italy : it is true that a short time before, in the 
 council of Lyons, Innocent IV., upon the deposition 
 of Frederic II., had given the power of electing for that 
 post to seven princes of Germany or electors : but the 
 Italian cities probably did not think they had lost that 
 right. Pisa among these, considering her critical circum- 
 stances, and how much she would gain in power by the 
 election of an emperor, who was friendly to her, and almost 
 her creature, made an act that may appear ostentatious in 
 our days, but which was at that time dictated by politics 
 and by the consideration the republic enjoyed. She 
 sent to give her voice for the election or really to elect 
 emperor the King Alphonso of Castile, who received the 
 honourable embassy very graciously: Bandinoof Guidone 
 Lancia, of the family Casalci of Pisa, was the ambassador, 
 and with solemn rites elected him King of the Romans 
 and Emperor for his republic, who conceded the most 
 ample and extensive privileges to the city of Pisaf. 
 This great and respectable act shews the consideration 
 which Pisa enjoyed ; and if, as it appears J in the schism 
 
 * Murat. Diss. 3. de Imp. Rom. et Regum Ital. &c. 
 
 | The diploma, referred to by Ughelli, by Tronci, by the Cav. 
 Flam, del Borgo, is still in existence, in which are the words, " Ego 
 
 Bandinus Lancea, &c in Romanorum regem et imperato- 
 
 rem Rom. imperii, nunc vacantis eligo et assume, promoveo atque 
 voco, &c.," as well as the acceptation of Alphonso and the diploma 
 of privileges to the Pisans. 
 
 I The diplomas of election, and concession of privileges, are 
 marked in the year 1256, and the election made by the princes 
 named in 1257 or 58.
 
 336 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 in which the electors found themselves, the nomination 
 which the archbishop of Treves, the King of Bohemia, 
 the Duke of Saxony and the Marquis of Brandenburgh, 
 made of the same Alphonso was posterior to the Pisan 
 election, the latter acquires greater lustre and a dignity 
 from having been supported by such powerful princes. 
 The other electors, with many princes of Germany, had 
 already elected King of the Romans, Richard Count of 
 Cornwall, brother of the King of England. In the time 
 of suspension between the two candidates, the Floren- 
 tines thought perhaps Alphonso more favourable to their 
 party, whence they sent to him their illustrious citizen 
 Brunetto Latini. But the misfortunes that happened to 
 the Florentine Ghibellines rendered the embassy useless*. 
 Pope Alexander IV. remained for some time neutral, 
 afterwards began to call Richard the elect; and, finally, at 
 the death of the latter, refused to acknowledge Al- 
 phonso. The anxiety of the Pisans in electing him, 
 and of the Italian Ghibellines in acknowledging him, ren- 
 dered him suspicious to the court of Rome, which, after 
 long agitations, excluded him from the empire. 
 
 The inactivity of the imperial power in Italy, 
 and the inability of the Pisans to favour it, or to 
 be assisted by it, rendered their reconciliation more easy 
 with the church, from the bosom of which they were 
 separated for sixteen years, that is, from the time in 
 which the Genoese being overcome, they led the prelates 
 prisoners into Pisa, who were going to the Lateran 
 council. They had refused a reconciliation with Inno- 
 cent -IV, on account of their considering the condition 
 not generous, to abandon their ally and friend Frederic 
 the Second. Such an obstacle existed no longer, ami 
 
 o 
 * Ric. Malasp. c. 162.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 337 
 
 having demanded of Alexander IV. absolution from the 
 censures, it was granted to them, and the obligation 
 imposed upon them was, to follow the party of the 
 emperor, which would be acknowledged by him, and 
 the useful and salutary penance of building a hospital, 
 which was that of Santa Chiara. The foundation was 
 laid by Mansueto Tanganelli of Castiglion-Aretino, peni- 
 tentiary of the pope, and many prelates and S. Bonaven- 
 tura himself assisted at the public function *. The wise 
 pontiff wished to pacify them too with the Genoese, who 
 contending with them for Sardinia, and invading the prin- 
 cipality of Cagliari, held S. Gilia in siege. The pope 
 ordered two gentlemen residing in Sardinia to repair 
 thither as his legates, intimate to them a suspension of 
 hostilities, that they should give up the place in contest 
 into their hands, and that he would afterwards pronounce 
 his sentence; but before these arrived, the Pisans 
 having conquered the place, had recovered the princi- 
 pality of Cagliari which they gave in feu to three Pisan 
 families, to the Visconti, to the sons of the Count of 
 Capraja and to the Gherardeschi. This took place in the 
 following year, at the time in which in the East near Acri 
 in unison with the Venetians, the Pisans discomfited the 
 Genoese with an immense slaughter, the loss of twenty- 
 five galleys, and their expulsion from the port of Acri. 
 The Pisans and the remainder of the Tuscan Ghibel- 
 lines could not avail themselves of the imperial aid ; 
 they received it finally from Manefroi, who, always active, 
 continued to foment the Ghibelline party in Florence. 
 The latter was tyrannized over by the ruling Guelphs ; 
 excluded from public employments and guarded with a 
 vigilant jealousy : they buried their real sentiments in 
 
 * Crouic. Pis. Flam, dal Borgo Diss. 5. Tronci, &c. 
 VOL. I. Z
 
 :m HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 silence ; but encouraged by Manefroi, were secretly plot- 
 ting innovations. The conspiracy was headed by those 
 of the Uberti, who being thought less dangerous, had 
 remained in Florence after the expulsion of the Ghibel- 
 lines. The conspiracy was discovered. Being called to 
 judgment they refused to appear, and taking up 
 arms, were bold enough to insult the ministers of 
 justice. The people however turning all against them, 
 arrested some of them, who lost their heads under the axe. 
 Many other families, accomplices in the conspiracy, fled 
 from Florence: in this misfortune was involved the 
 Abbot of Vallombrosa, of the family Beccheria of Pavia, 
 suspected of being an accomplice ; torments made him 
 confess what was not true, and he lost his head *. The 
 exiles retired to Sienna which was at that time become 
 the refuge of that party. Among the Florentine outlaws 
 was Manente, or Farinata of the Uberti, head of the 
 family, of a ferocious disposition, eloquent, and equally 
 skilled in arms and in councilf. He was the soul of the 
 Ghibelline faction, inflamed the Siennese to arms against 
 the Florentines, irritated the mind of King Manefroi 
 against them by all his artifice J, who sent to their suc- 
 
 * Malasp. cap. 159. 
 t Filipp. Villani degli Uomini illus. fior. 
 
 J That king had sent no more than two hundred German horse ; 
 this small succour discouraged the Ghibellines : Farinata however 
 made the best advantage of it; having made them drunk, he sent 
 them together with other troops against the Florentines who were 
 near Sienna. They pushed on with so much fury that in the begin- 
 ning the Florentines took to flight, but afterwards seeing the small 
 number of combatants they turned back with shame, and rushing 
 into the midst of them cut all the Germans to pieces, and then in 
 sign of contempt dragged the ensign of Manefroi upon the ground. 
 This event being made known by Farinata to the king, who exagge- 
 rated the valour of his men to him, and the contempt shown to his
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 339 
 
 cour a chosen troop of eight hundred German horse, led 
 on by Count Giordano an experienced warrior : 
 ' another thousand were taken into pay ; all the 
 Ghibellines of Tuscany flocked to it, and a very nume- 
 rous host of the most ferocious enemies of the Floren- 
 tine government was collected at Sienna : of this body 
 however the German horse formed the nerve, they were 
 taken into pay for three months, whence Farinata, seeing 
 that if he did not gain upon them before this term, he 
 would be without money to continue them in his service, 
 endeavoured to draw the Florentines to an action*. 
 
 Having by means of trusty emissaries, who were two 
 friars, made the first people of the Florentine republic 
 believe that if their army had moved towards Sienna, 
 under pretext of reinforcing Montaleino, a gate would 
 be opened to them to liberate the city from the tyranny 
 of Provengano Salvano, a powerful and lofty citizen; 
 the fradulent invitation was believed by the Florentines, 
 and although many, and particularly Fogghiago Aldo- 
 brandi of the Adimari, with the strongest obstinacy]* 
 
 flag, engaged the king in the enterprise with great fervour, as 
 Farinata had foreseen. Malasp. cap. 164. 
 
 * In the account of the memorable deed of arms of Monteaperti, 
 and in the events which preceded it, we have followed Ricordano 
 Malaspino a contemporary writer, whose authority appears there- 
 fore superior to every other. Nevertheless the Siennese historian 
 Malevolti denies many of these facts, asserts that Count Giordano 
 had come since December of the foregoing year with eight hundred 
 horse, whence the story of the insults offered to the ensigns, &c., 
 cannot be true. If really in the public books of Sienna authentic 
 documents are found of his assertion, there is no reply. But it 
 would not have been rnal-a-propos, if he had repeated the words 
 of the public books, as he often does. 
 
 t In the same tone spoke Gherardini : he was ordered by the 
 Anziani to hold his tongue under pain of one hundred lire, he 
 chose to pay the fine but to speak ; the fine was doubled and he 
 
 Z2
 
 340 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 tried to dissuade them from a useless enterprise, since they 
 would have conquered by patience, and time would have 
 fought for them, a very numerous army took the field, of 
 people, hut not of soldiers. It is said there were not 
 less than 30,000, and auxiliary troops came from all 
 the allied cities, or those subjected to the Florentines, 
 but as the Ghibellines had been expelled from these 
 cities, the latter had united at Sienna and the Guelphs 
 at Florence, and the two armies presented the sad spec- 
 tacle of division and civil war in the whole of Tuscany. 
 From Arezzo alone it is asserted that nearly 5,000 came 
 to the succour of the Florentines under the command of 
 Donatello Tarlati, whilst another band of outlaws, con- 
 ducted by their bishop * had joined in Sienna, and if we 
 are to believe Raffaello Roncioni, a chosen body of 3,000 
 Pisans also came to Sienna. The army of the Guelphs 
 was superior in number to the Ghibellines, that faction 
 being predominant in Tuscany, but probably there was 
 not that disproportion which some historians wish to make 
 us believe. The army of the Guelphs marched on as 
 to certain victory, hoping to enter Sienna without fighting ; 
 arrived upon the hills of Monteaperti they halted to receive 
 advice from the Sienese to proceed further. Nothing is 
 more capable of disconcerting a leader and an army than 
 to see an enemy courageously advancing to meet them, 
 whom they had believed either beaten or fugitive: thus 
 the Florentine generals, who went to the certain conquest 
 of Sienna, when they perceived the enemy advance 
 boldly, at the head of whom was the German troop, so 
 
 even paid the penalty of three hundred lire for the sake of telling 
 useless truths. He was finally made silent by the threat of penalty 
 of his head. Malasp. cap. 166. 
 
 * Leonar. Brun. His. lib. 2. Giugurta Tomm. 1st. Sanese par I. 
 lib. 5. Malavolti, lib. l.p. 2. Ptolcemeus Lucens.-Ann.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 341 
 
 formidable an enemy to them, began to despair. They 
 came to blows, and both sides fought with great valour ; 
 but the Florentines, unable to resist the attack made 
 upon them by the Germans, gave way. Treachery 
 added to increase the consternation. Many Ghibellines, 
 hidden in time of the battle, went over to the enemy. 
 Among the rest, Bocca, of the Abati, before going over 
 to the other side, aimed a treacherous blow at Jacopo 
 Vacca, of the family of the Pazzi, who carried the ensign 
 of the republic, and brought him to the ground with the 
 loss of an arm*. This act spread terror amongst the 
 Florentines, who could no longer distinguish friends 
 from foes : the only opposition was made around the 
 triumphant chariot which contained the flags, and around 
 the better part of the defenders f, who were disposed 
 rather to purchase for themselves an illustrious death by 
 valour, than their safety by flight. A part of the broken 
 army had taken refuge in the Castle of Monte Aperti. 
 The castle being taken by force, the refugees were cut to 
 pieces J. It is not easy to ascertain the number of the 
 killed in a battle, since the conquerors always exaggerate 
 it, and the conquered conceal it ; the latter, or the Flo- 
 rentine writers, acknowledge only 2,500 killed, and 1,500 
 prisoners, but the number must have been far greater, 
 though not equal to the exaggeration of the Ghibelline 
 historians . This battle is reckoned among the most 
 
 * Malesp. cap. 167. 
 
 t Leonar. Bruni, Hist. Fior. lib. 2. 
 
 I Ammir. Hist. Fior. lib. 2. Dante. 
 
 . . . . la strage, e il grande scempio 
 
 Che fece Parbia colorata in rosso. 
 
 $ The most authentic monument would be the letter of the 
 Siennese written to King Manfredi, wherein the killed are made to 
 amount to 3,000 only, but probably it is apocryphal. VediCromc. 
 San. Rer. Ital. scr. torn. 15, e nota del Benvoglienti.
 
 342 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 bloody of those times, and was fought on the 4th 
 of September. The Siennese celebrated the vic- 
 tory \vith solemn pomp, in which the triumphant chariot, 
 (carroccio,) of the Florentines, was seen dragged upon the 
 ground, and the name of City of the Virgin was taken 
 by Sienna on this occasion, as a devout attestation of 
 gratitude to heaven for the happy issue *. 
 
 * Malvotti 1st. de f fatti e guerr. de' Sen. On the coins to the 
 words Sena Vetus was added Civitas Virginis. This historian, in 
 order to give the whole glory of the day to the Siennese, excludes the 
 succour of the Pisans. Benvoglienti too wishes to exclude the in- 
 fluence and the aid of King Manfredi. Read the victorious answer 
 of the Cav. Flam, dal Borgo, Diss. 6 dell' 1st. Pisana, who confutes 
 the two writers without leaving them time to reply. We have par- 
 ticularly followed the account of Malespina, contemporary writer, 
 and the most ancient, and consequently more respectable.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 DECLINE OF THE GUELPH PARTY. COUNCIL OF EMPOLI. 
 MAGNANIMITY OF FARINATA, OF THE UBERTI FA- 
 MILY. WAR WITH LUCCA AND THE EXILED GUELPHS. 
 ARRIVAL OF CHARLES OF ANGERS IN ITALY. BATTLE 
 NEAR BENEVENTO, AND DEATH OF MANEFROI. REFORM 
 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF FLORENCE. DISTURBANCES 
 
 WHICH ENSUE DESCENT OF CONRAD OF SUABIA INTO 
 
 ITALY. ENTERPRISES OF THE PISANS ARMED IN HIS 
 FAVOUR. BATTLE OF TAGLIACOZZO. FLIGHT OF CON- 
 RAD, WHO IS ARRESTED, AND DELIVERED OVER TO 
 CHARLES. DEATH OF CONRAD. PEACE OF CHARLES 
 WITH THE PISANS, AND WITH THE OTHER CITIES OF 
 TUSCANY. PEACE BETWEEN THE GUELPHS AND GHI- 
 BELLINES OF NO EFFECT. CIVIL WAR BETWEEN THE 
 PISANS FOMENTED BY KING CHARLES. DEATH OF POPE 
 GREGORY X. NEW AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE GUELPHS 
 
 AND GHIBELLINES IN FLORENCE. AFFAIRS OF SICILY. 
 
 CELEBRATED SICILIAN VESPERS. NEW CHANGE OF 
 
 GOVERNMENT IN FLORENCE. 
 
 . I 
 
 L HE defeat of Monteaperti was a very fatal blow to 
 the Guelph faction in Tuscany and throughout Italy. 
 The consternation into which the vanquished were thrown 
 was such, that they did not venture to remain and defend 
 themselves in Florence. Nine days after the defeat all 
 the Guelphan families voluntarily departed ; the greater 
 part retired to Lucca, which was the only Guelphan place 
 remaining in Tuscany, as Prato, Pistoia, Volterra, &c., 
 followed the fate of the conquerors ; and the Guelphs 
 were obliged to remove from these cities *. The con- 
 querors were not long in arriving at Florence, where, 
 unable to vent themselves further against their enemies, 
 * Malasp. cap. 170.
 
 344 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 they began to destroy their houses ; but what shews the 
 blindness, fury, and injustice, of party rage, not content 
 with destroying the sepulchre on Santa Reparata, erected 
 by public vote a short time before to Aldobrandini Otto- 
 buoni, they took his body out of it, dragged it through 
 the city, and threw it into the ditches*. The estates of 
 the Guelphs were confiscated, and the city began to be 
 governed under the influence or dependance of the King 
 Manefroi. Count Jourdan being obliged to depart, a 
 numerous meeting of the Ghibellines was held in Empoli, 
 to concert upon the means of securing to their party the 
 superiority in Tuscany. This assembly was composed 
 of persons, who, although of various interests, were all 
 enemies to Florence. The Pisans, the Siennese, the 
 Aretines, and the other Tuscans, dreaded the increasing 
 power of the Florentines, who threatened them with 
 slavery. The feudal lords, the Counts Guidi, Alberti, 
 of Santa Fiora, and the Ubaldini, whose excessive inso- 
 lence had been frequently chastised by the Florentines, 
 were anxious for their ruin; it was, therefore, agreed 
 upon that nothing could give more consolidation to the 
 Ghibelline power than the destruction of the city of 
 Florence, in which the Guelphan party had always 
 prevailed over the Ghibelline, and the unstable vicissi- 
 tudes of fortune might again establish it. This was the 
 proposition of the ambassador of Sienna, supported by 
 that of Pisa, the cities principally hostile to Florence f. Al- 
 most all the assembly adhered to the same opinion, and so 
 respectable a city was about to be condemned to destruc- 
 tion, when Farinata loudly protested in vulgar words, but 
 full of meaning, that he had not exposed himself to so 
 
 Giov. Vill. Is. lib. 6. cap. 64. 
 t Giugurta Tomnnisi 1st. di Sienna par. 2. lib. 6. 
 
 I
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 345 
 
 many dangers in order to ruin his country, but to live in it 
 honourably; and that as long as he had blood in his 
 veins he would not permit it*. The Ghibellines did not 
 venture to oppose him, dreading the valour, genius, and 
 the great party, which this man, worthy of immortal 
 memory, carried with him, since Florence is indebted to 
 him for her existence f. The succour which the cities, 
 castles, and confederated lords, should contribute upon 
 necessity was determined upon ; and this was called tax 
 or tally (taglia). Count Guido Novello was elected 
 mayor of Florence for two years, and required the city 
 to swear an oath of obedience to King Manefroi. 
 
 1 2fi 1 
 
 He held a discourse in the old palace of S. Apol- 
 linare ; and, in order to introduce his people from Ca- 
 sentino with more facility into the city and palace, he 
 opened a new gate in the nearest -walls, which gate and 
 the corresponding street were called Ghibelline. The 
 Siennese succeeded in obtaining the destruction of five 
 castles, situated on the confines between them and the 
 Florentines, and which formed a strong defence to the 
 latter ; the Pisans, the restoration of many castles taken 
 from them by the Lucchese, taken possession of in the 
 last war with the Florentines. Lucca, of the Guelphan 
 faction, had given refuge to a great number of exiled 
 Florentines; the count marched against that city with 
 the army of the taglia, scoured and greatly harassed the 
 territory. The Lucchese resisted bravely ; since by the 
 union of the outlawed Guelphs with them from various 
 
 * See Dante Infer, can. 10, where the character of Farinata is 
 nobly described, who prophesies exile to the poet: 
 
 Ma fu io sol col&, dove sofferto 
 
 Fu per ciascnm di torre via Fiorcnza, 
 
 Colui che la difesi a viso aperto. 
 t Malesp. cap. 170. Amm. lib. 2.
 
 346 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 cities of Tuscany, despair inspired valour, and thus they 
 
 defended themselves for nearly two years against the 
 
 force of the Ghibelline league of that city so much 
 
 1262. 
 
 more powerful. The most vigorous war against 
 them was carried on by the Pisans, who aimed at the 
 destruction of Lucca ; they were the most active and 
 numerous in the army of the taglia. Although many 
 people left the army, nevertheless the Pisans, united with 
 the Siennese, continued to infest the territory of the Luc- 
 chese, and, after having repeatedly defeated them, they 
 got as far as the walls of Lucca, struck coin there, threw 
 arrows into the city, and represented their celebrated 
 mock battle, commonly called the game of the bridge*. 
 At last the Lucchese sued for peace, and obtained it 
 from the Florentines, upon the conditions of entering into 
 the taglia, and expelling all the Florentines and other out- 
 lawed Guelphs. This miserable flock of men, women, 
 and children, went wandering and exposing their misery 
 to the eyes of all Italy. 
 
 Unstable fortune, however, was preparing to 
 
 give them vengeance. The popes with their 
 party, continually vexed by Manefroi and by the 
 Ghibellines, seeing the thunders of excommunication 
 
 * Breviar. Histor. Pisanse. Rer. Ital. torn. 6. There this game 
 is called Ludus ad Massascutum, perhaps from Massa and Scudo; 
 and this is the first mention of this celebrated spectacle, and not 
 saying that it was instituted at that time, it is to be believed it was 
 practised much before. In Pavia too a similar game is described 
 by Anonimus Ticinense. Perhaps the two arms of Scudo and 
 Mazza were afterwards united in one into the buckler, arm of 
 offence and defence. Lorenzo, of the Medici, is asserted to have 
 resumed this arm, but without proof. Its first institution is 
 unknown, but probably it is of Lombard origin ; it is true that in the 
 Anon. Ticinense the Scudo only is described, with which they ran 
 from afar to thrust against each other ; but it is not called there 
 Lttdut ad Massascutum.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 347 
 
 against that king of no avail, had frequently implored 
 the French arms to invade the kingdom of Naples, 
 Charles of Angiers, brother to the holy King Louis of 
 France, inferior in sanctity as he was superior in talent 
 to his brother, had accompanied him in the sacred war 
 into Egypt, where their arms met with such ill success *. 
 Returning to France, and still animated by that spirit 
 of enterprise already awakened in him by the crusade, 
 he easily listened to the propositions of the pontiffs 
 Urban IV. and Clement IV., who invited him to the 
 conquest of the kingdom of Puglia and Sicily, and 
 created him Senator of Rome. He made the most 
 vigorous preparations for it ; his wife Beatrice employed 
 all her industry, and pawned even her jewels. She was 
 very ambitious of the title of queen, and female vanity 
 had been severely wounded at a time when in company 
 with her three sisters, queens, she had been obliged to 
 bet a step lower because she did not enjoy that title f. 
 Charles, Lord of Provence, collected a powerful 
 
 1265. _ . iii i T\ 
 
 army or warriors, which he sent towards Rome, 
 and going on board a fleet of not more than twenty 
 galleys with only 1,000 men of arms, picked and 
 courageous troops, he put to sea, and being singularly 
 favoured by fortune after having exposed himself to the 
 risk of being taken, (as the fleet of Manefroi was under 
 sail which amounted to 80 galleys in Pisan, Genoese, and 
 
 * See Memoires du Chevalier de Jonville, companion in the 
 expedition of St. Louis. 
 
 t Rico. Malesp. c. 75. e Gio. Villani, lib. 6. cap. 92. The elder 
 was wife of the King of France, the second of the King of 
 England, the third of the brother elected King of the Romans ; 
 these four princesses were daughters of Raimond Count of 
 Provence, which province, the youngest, that is, Beatrice, brought 
 in dowry to Charles.
 
 348 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 Sicilian ships, but a storm had dispersed it), he passed 
 unmolested, and entering the mouth of the Tiber, dis- 
 embarked at Rome. 
 
 His army, too, advanced successfully into Italy, com- 
 manded by Count Guido of Monforte with whom was 
 Beatrice, the wife of Charles : the hopes of the Guelphs 
 revived, and 400 Florentine horse under command of 
 Count Guido Guerra went to meet the French in 
 Lombardy, and conducted them through Romagna 
 and La Marche, as far as Rome. Charles, 
 crowned with his wife by the pontiff, King of 
 Sicily on both sides of the Faro, did not delay a 
 moment in marching against the enemy, although in 
 the depth of winter, and in need of expedition, from 
 the want of the means of subsistence. Near Benevento, 
 on the last day of February, the sanguinary battle took 
 place which decided the fate of that fine kingdom ; the 
 exiled Florentines highly distinguished themselves : and 
 King Manefroi after having fought with the greatest 
 valour, seeing his army defeated, and unwilling to 
 survive the defeat, threw himself into the midst of the 
 affray, and was slain. The conquerors, united in the 
 crusade, and full of benedictions and indulgences, 
 horribly pillaged Benevento, a papal city, despoiled the 
 churches, dishonoured the women, and murdered the 
 old men and boys* The body of Manefroi, found 
 three days afterwards, was meanly buried in a ditch 
 near the bridge of Benevento, to which it was con- 
 demned by the hatred, superstition, and little generosity 
 of his rival f. He had the misfortune to give dis- 
 
 * This horrid scene lasted eight days, and is described by Saba 
 Malaspina, Guelfan historian, and partial to the faction of Charles. 
 
 f See Dante, Purgat. canto 3, who in spite of the excommuni- 
 cation in which Manefroi died, has placed him in the site of
 
 -HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 349 
 
 pleasure to a body at that time very powerful who painted 
 him in the blackest colours : the most atrocious crimes 
 were ascribed to him, such as the death of his father and 
 brother Conrad; there is, however, no substantial proof 
 of this. Imitating his father, he was a great protector of 
 sciences and letters : the Sicilians and Neapolitans 
 remembered his government shortly afterwards with 
 pleasure; impartial posterity has regarded him with 
 great esteem, and a glorious memorial of this prince 
 remains in the name of Manfredonia built by him. 
 His ruin drew along with it that of the Ghibellines 
 in Tuscany and the remainder of Italy. The Guelphs 
 thus encouraged occupied many castles; the people, to 
 whom the present government is always odious, and 
 who found their hopes in the future, murmured at the 
 burthens imposed upon them by Count Novello to 
 carry on the war. 
 
 Whilst the secret groan of discontent was announcing 
 the approach of a storm, the most prudent and devout 
 persons were endeavouring to appease the two factions. 
 Two of the chevalier friars Gaudenti*, were called 
 from Bologna to Florence, who, amongst the virtues of 
 
 salvation, softening by poetical imagination the harshness of the 
 theological condemnation which requires, that for every year in 
 which he has lived in ecclesiastical censures, he might pass thirty 
 
 in purgatory. 
 
 Vero c che quale in contumacia muore 
 Di Santa Chiesa, ancor che alfin si penta, 
 Star gli convien da questa ripa fuore 
 Per ogni tempo, ch'egli stato trenta. 
 
 * They were called Chevaliers of St. Mary (Sta. Maria), dressed 
 in white, with the grey mantle ; on taking the cloak, they made a 
 promise like the other cavaliers to defend widows and children, 
 and to interpose to make peace. Loderingo of Don Leandolo was 
 their institutor ; one of the two who came to Florence, and the 
 other Messer Catalano Malevolti. Malesp. cap. 83.
 
 350 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 which they made profession, practised that of pacifying 
 enmities, and power was given to them to reform the 
 state. They elected thirty-six citizens for the most part 
 from the people and merchants, to consult upon the 
 public affairs : at that time the people were distinguished 
 into seven arts, which were subsequently called greater, 
 when the lesser were added to them ; to each of these 
 was given the ensign, banner or standard, (gonfalone,) in 
 order that the captains of them, upon necessity, might 
 be ready with their followers*. No distinction was 
 better adapted to a commercial city. 
 
 In the mean time the Florentine people, for the most 
 part still of Guelphan heart, had indulged the hope of 
 retaking the state and manifesting their sentiments for 
 the victory of Charles ; the thirty-six reformers, together 
 with the two heads or mayors, Chevaliers Gaudenti, 
 appeared to favour this sect. Count Guido, who saw 
 the discontent growing, called to Florence the soldiers 
 from the confederate cities to support himself; but as a 
 great contribution was to be raised to maintain them, 
 the ill-humour of the people increased, who, with 
 Messer Gianni Soldanieri at their head, fortified them- 
 selves in trenches at the foot of the tower of the 
 Jeromes, (Girolami). The Count with his troop, and 
 the Ghibellines, made head at the square of St. John ; 
 but the assailants increasing who attacked them with 
 
 These seven greater arts comprehended first the judges and 
 notaries ; secondly, the merchants of French cloths ; thirdly, the 
 brokers of exchange ; fourthly, those of the art of wool ; fifthly, 
 the physicians and apothecaries ; sixthly, the silk merchants and 
 mercers; seventhly, the fur merchants. To these were subse- 
 quently added five lesser ones, which were afterwards increased 
 and diminished in various reformations, and brought to fourteen, 
 making with the greater, the number of twenty-one. Macchi. 1st. 
 Fior. lib. 3.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 3ol 
 
 bows, with stones from the windows and towers, he 
 thought himself no longer secure, and retreated cowardly 
 with his followers from Florence to Prato on the 
 1 1 th of November. The Ghibellines, however, soon 
 perceiving their error, returned to Florence the day 
 following with intention of re-entering it: but were 
 repulsed from the gate of the bridge of Carraia*. The 
 court of Rome seeing what advantage would be derived 
 from the total expulsion of the Ghibellines from 
 Florence, had omitted no means of encouraging that 
 people, by threats even of interdiction, to expel from 
 the city the Germans, who formed the greatest obstacle 
 to her desire, which having obtained, she endeavoured 
 all methods of recalling the city to her allegiance "f. 
 The Pisans, from their disobedience to the pope both in 
 the war against Sardinia and against the Lucchese, and 
 for having committed crimes against the court of Rome 
 by their adhesion to the Ghibelline party, had incurred 
 the ecclesiastical censures. The Ghibelline power being 
 overthrown, they now sought a reconciliation with the 
 apostolic see : gold has been always the shortest method 
 of getting out of all difficulties ; and the Pisan republic 
 was pardoned upon depositing 50,000 lire in the hands 
 of the pontifical ministers J. 
 
 There was a moment in Tuscany when men 
 
 1267 * 
 
 divesting themselves of the frenzy of faction, 
 appeared willing to return to their reason : after the 
 pious offices of the Chevalier Gaudenti it was thought 
 of uniting minds in another manner; many of the 
 Guelphs were recalled and various matrimonial alliances 
 
 * Rico. Malasp. cap. 185. 
 
 f Marteni Anecd. Thesaur., where are mentioned various letters 
 of the pope. 
 
 t Breviar. Hist. Pis. Rer. Ital. Scr. torn. 6.
 
 352 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 concluded between the hostile families; among the 
 rest that of Guido Cavalcanti, one of the fathers of 
 Italian poetry, with the daughter of the celebrated 
 Farinata of the Uberti. He was no longer alive, and 
 since the year 1264 death had opportunely snatched 
 him from the sight of the ruin of his party, leaving 
 various children, some of whom met with a melancholy 
 end. This peace, however, was only apparent, and 
 had been dictated more from party politics than a spirit 
 of reconciliation : the falling party of the Ghibellines 
 who still remained with some force in the cities of 
 Tuscany, had been obliged to put on the tone of 
 moderation, and the Guelphs not yet sufficiently pow- 
 erful to oppress it, answered them with the same senti- 
 ments : they were both, however, in mask, which soon 
 fell off; for the Guelphs who had been oppressed, 
 wished in their turn to become the oppressors, or 
 assumed, at least, the reins of government. They saw 
 the facility of it. They were certain of the favour of 
 the two first powers of Italy, of the Pope and King 
 Charles, who were interested in so rich a city being 
 devoted to them ; added to the favour of the people 
 always ready to despise their old rulers, and well dis- 
 posed towards new ones. The Florentine Guelphs, 
 therefore, secretly demanded succour from King Charles, 
 who sent them Count Guido Monforte with eight 
 hundred horse; the Ghibellines, not waiting for the 
 arrival of the latter, but foreseeing their fate, for the 
 most part abandoned their country. The Guelphs in 
 gratitude to King Charles offered him the government of 
 the city of Florence for ten years, as the Ghibellines 
 had done to Manefroi ; at first the king refused, politely 
 thanking them, but upon new and urgent request being 
 made to him, sent one of his viceroys or vicars, who
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 353 
 
 was to be changed annually, and who governed with 
 the council of the twelve Buonuomini *. The estates 
 of the vanquished were according to custom confiscated : 
 a question arising, however, upon their destiny, and 
 ambassadors being sent to have the opinion of the Pope 
 and King Charles, the following provision was agreed 
 to, viz., that three shares should be made, one conceded 
 to the community ; with the second the Guelphs to be 
 indemnified who had lost their property in the revo- 
 lution : the third should be deposited for the wants of 
 their cause, and belong to the Guelfan party. In order 
 to consolidate, however, still more, the government in 
 the hands of the party, it was finally decided that the 
 whole amount of these estates, without division, should 
 appertain to the Guelphs, which gave to them a stable 
 preponderancy ; thus forming a deposit which they took 
 care to increase upon every occasion, and which 
 admirably served, as well in war as in peace, to remu- 
 nerate the faithful and animate the hopes of the needy. 
 The administrators of this property were three, elected 
 by three sixths of the city, whose office lasted two 
 months, and passed to the other three sixths : 
 
 1267. 
 
 and hence the origin of the celebrated captains of 
 the Guelphan party, whose power shortly afterwards 
 increased so greatly, that they became, as we shall see, 
 the tyrants of the republic. The mayor, or vicar of 
 King Charles, with the twelve Buonuomini who corre- 
 sponded to the twelve aldermen or anziani, could only 
 deliberate and make the propositions : these were to be 
 approved the following day in the council of the eighty, 
 composed partly of the great, and partly of the people, 
 united to ttie chiefs of the arts ; and finally, when the 
 
 M alasp. cap. 185. 
 VOL. I. 2 A
 
 
 354 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 resolution was passed in the council of the three 
 hundred, it took the force of a law *. By the common 
 revolutions, in which men follow the party of the con- 
 querors, the cities of Tuscany turned Guelphan, except 
 Pisa and Sienna: the ruling party persecuted the 
 conquered through Tuscany with hostility, and all their 
 meetings were distinguished by mutual acts of passion, 
 of which the following is an example. A number of 
 Ghibellines had taken refuge in St. Hellero, or Hilario, 
 whence they made inroads upon the Florentine terri- 
 tory : the viceroy of Charles marched there, and 
 conquered it with great slaughter of the enemy ; among 
 the rest was a youth of the Uberti, who, rather than fall 
 into the hands of his enraged antagonists, threw himself 
 from a tower t The Guelphs, anxious to take revenge 
 for the defeat of Monteaperti, turned all their force 
 against the Siennese ; attacked Poggibonsi where many 
 Ghibellines were assembled ; the latter defended them- 
 selves with so much valour that Charles himself having 
 arrived at Florence, consumed nearly four months in the 
 conquest of that place; and finally from the total want 
 of provisions obtained it by capitulation. Pisa and 
 Sienna in Tuscany, as the most powerful, continued 
 united in order to support the remains of the Ghibelline 
 faction. 
 
 The establishment of the Pisans in Sardinia had been 
 viewed by various adventurers, in search of kingdoms, 
 who turned themselves towards the pope, who gave them 
 away. Don Henry, brother of Alphonso, king of 
 Castile, of a turbulent and restless spirit, and obliged on 
 that account by his brother to leave his court, after a 
 long sojourn in Tunis, arrived in Italy. Cousin of king 
 
 Rico. Malasp. ap. 1JB6. f Rico. Malasp. cap. L87.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 355 
 
 Charles, who, in midst of the riches of Sicily and Naples, 
 was always poor, he had furnished to him considerable 
 sums of money, and was ambitious of being declared king 
 of Sardinia : his cousin opposed it, pretending himself to 
 the right of possession of that island, which gave an 
 opportunity to the pope not to grant it to any one, as he 
 had views upon it himself. The mother of Enzus was 
 still alive, and at the time in which he remained prisoner 
 of the Bolognese, had badly governed the province of 
 Torri, with the assistance of Michele Zanche, one of the 
 celebrated receivers, condemned by Dante to hell, as the 
 minister or husband of that old lady *. The court of 
 Rome, which lost no opportunity of increasing her do- 
 minion, kept with her a master father as papal vicar, who 
 had introduced not a few Guelphan military: the Pisans 
 became jealous of this, and expediting a powerful army, 
 commanded by Count Ugolin, of the Gherardeschi family, 
 drove out the Guelphs, and established the Pisan govern- 
 ment. The pontiff grew angry, threatened the Pisans with 
 the customary ecclesiastical thunderbolts, but abstained 
 from brandishing them ; perhaps because this republic, 
 which had long and patiently endured them, was grown 
 tired of them, and finally minded them no longer 'f. 
 All the pretenders to the dominion of this island being ex- 
 cluded, the restless Don Henry of Castile succeeded in 
 getting himself created senator of Rome. In the mean- 
 time King Charles, who acted with the title of imperial 
 vicar he had received from the pope, after the taking of 
 Poggibonsi, repaired to the Pisan territory, occupied 
 Castles, and demolished the towers of the Pisan port. 
 
 * Dante Infer. Canto 22. See the Comment of Benvenuto of 
 Imola. 
 
 t See Martene Anegd. torn. 2. et Cav. Flamm. del Borgo Diss. 
 7. upon the Pisan History. 
 
 2 A 2
 
 3.56 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 The Pisans complained to the pope that this king, his 
 creature, after having persecuted them in his states, and 
 despoiled them of their property, should come to disturb 
 Tuscany : he answered them in a letter singular enough, 
 in which he fully approved of the conduct of King 
 Charles, and threatened the Pisans, if they persisted in 
 their party, with a thousand misfortunes*. Pisa, how- 
 ever, and the Ghibelline faction had taken fresh courage 
 at the news of the approaching arrival of the young 
 Conradin, who was preparing to reconquer his hereditary 
 kingdom of the Sicilies by arms. This put all Italy in 
 motion: the people of the Sicilies, always discontented, 
 rose in various places, and Rome herself, agitated by the 
 turbulent senator Don Henry, declared in favour of 
 young Conradin ; the Guelphs were persecuted and 
 despoiled. Charles retreated hastily from Tus- 
 cany, to the defence of his kingdom, leaving a 
 small body of troops under the command of William 
 Braisleve. 
 
 The young Conradin was between fifteen and sixteen 
 years old, and, on account of his tender age, his mother 
 opposed the enterprise ; but the warlike ardour which 
 animated him, overcame all the obstacles of maternal 
 fear. Frederic of Austria, another young man and 
 friend, about the same age, accompanied him. Enter- 
 ing Italy with a fine army, they halted in Verona, where, 
 from want of pay, many of their troops turned back. In 
 the mean time the outlawed Ghibellines joined them in 
 great numbers ; and the cities of that party vied with 
 
 * This singular letter is mentioned by Martene Tesaur. Anegd. 
 SeetheCav. Flamm. dal Borgo, Diss. 7. upon the Pis an History, 
 who, hurt at seeing his fellow citizens compared by the pope to 
 Herod, takes up the anachronisms of the pope.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 357 
 
 each other in furnishing money. Pisa was distinguished 
 above the rest, sent ten galleys to the port of Vado, where 
 Conraclin embarked, arrived safe at the f Pisan port, and 
 made his solemn entry into Pisa on holy Saturday, the 
 7th of April. A short time afterwards his army arrived, 
 which traversing Lombardy had passed into the Pon- 
 tremolese territory, and was furnished by the Pisans with 
 provisions. During their stay in Pisa they made sorties 
 against the Lucchese. The Florentines had joined them 
 together with the French corps left by Charles ; these 
 troops marched in observation of the enemy, and de- 
 fending themselves against a superior number, the two 
 armies, divided by the Guscianella, remained for 
 
 1 ^fi8 
 
 some time in front of each other. Conradin con- 
 tented himself with devastating the Lucchese country, 
 and did not choose to engage in an action, which might 
 either diminish his forces or distract him from his prin- 
 cipal enterprise. Thirty or forty galleys* with more than 
 5,000 Pisans on board were furnished by the Pisans for 
 the service of this prince, which were to aid his opera- 
 tions by land, and in fact not only laid waste the 
 Neapolitan coast, but made the most daring attacks. 
 Twenty-two galleys had arrived from Provence at 
 Messina, M-here nine Messinese galleys joining them, they 
 found themselves in face of the Pisans. The latter kept 
 out at sea, perhaps to gain the wind : the Messinese, 
 thinking they were retiring, began the chase after them, 
 but not being followed by the Provencals, and finding 
 themselves alone and sharply engaged by the Pisans, they 
 fled towards the coast, upon which they saved themselves 
 by abandoning their vessels : the Pisans, however, not 
 content with the galleys, boldly disembarked upon the 
 
 * Writers differ; Saba Malasp. reckons only twenty-five.
 
 358 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 shore, and attacked the fugitives, who took refuge in 
 Messina, and in the very port, burnt the captured gal- 
 leys* ; they afterwards sacked Milazzo, and would have 
 obtained greater successes had it not been for the discord 
 amongst the commanders. 
 
 Conradin had left Pisa the 15th of June, a great 
 number of Pisans joining him, led on by Gerard 
 ' (Gherardo) of the family of the Counts of Dono- 
 ratico. He took the Sienna road, avoiding Florence, 
 where he was looked upon with a suspicious eye : he was 
 readily received at Poggibonsi and Sienna: at that time 
 Braisleve, who saw his troops of no use in Tuscany, 
 thought of directing his march towards the kingdom, in 
 aid of his King, Charles, and took the Arezzo road with 
 the French alone : Conradin, advised of this, secretly 
 sent a part of his troops towards Laterine, who lay in wait 
 at a narrow passage, shut in one side by the mountains, 
 on the other by the Arno at Ponte a Valle, where this 
 body, taken by surprise, were either killed or taken pri- 
 soners'!". Conradin continued his march towards Rome ; 
 the pope had shut himself up and fortified himself in 
 Viterbo, where he had begun his war against the enemies 
 of Charles by excommunicating Conradin and the Pisans, 
 and depriving the latter of the honour of the archbishop's 
 seat. After the applauses and the festivals with which 
 he was received in Rome J, Conradin advanced with a 
 large army to meet the enemy, who had come to 
 oppose him near Tagliacozzo, where they came to 
 blows on the 23rd August. This battle is sufficiently 
 
 * Saba Malasp. Rer. Ital. torn. 8. 
 
 t Rico. Malesp. c. 191, forse il Ponte a Romito. 
 
 t The singular festivals and the pomp and ostentation of the 
 precious ornaments which the Romans displayed on this occasion, 
 may be seen in the History of Saba Malesp, loco cit. e lib. 4. c. 0'.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 359 
 
 known, as well as the victory which Charles owed to 
 Arald of Valery : he was well acquainted with the habit 
 of the Germans of falling into disorder at the beginning 
 of the victory from avidity of plunder : and he caused 
 the best troops to be hidden behind a hill together with 
 King Charles. The action commenced ; and the French 
 being broken at the first onset, the Germans fell into 
 confusion in their haste to seize the booty just as Alardo 
 had foreseen ; when Charles sallied forth with his chosen 
 band, and entirely defeated them *. The army being 
 dispersed, Conradin, with Frederic Duke of Austria, 
 and Gerard of Pisa, finding themselves alone, disguised 
 themselves for safety, and hiring a small vessel in 
 Astura, embarked in it. A suspicion arising that 
 they were persons of importance, from a precious ring 
 which Conradin, wanting money, offered to the master of 
 the boat, chase was made after them by Frangipane, lord 
 of the place ; they were taken and fell into the hands of 
 Charles. The barbarous sentence, by which this san- 
 guinary king condemned Conradin to lose his head upon 
 the scaffold, without any other crime than having endea- 
 voured to recover his paternal kingdom by arms, is -well 
 known. The royal youth suffered death with intrepidity, 
 
 * This is the account of all the historians of the times ; it is 
 true that in the letter of King Charles to the pope, written upon 
 the field of battle, mentioned by Martene (Tesaur. Anegd. epis. 690). 
 no mention is made of the stratagem of Alardus ; but it being sup- 
 posed that the king would not attribute to others the merit of so 
 great a victory, has passed over this circumstance, it has been 
 thought necessary to conform ourselves to the universal consent of 
 the historians of those times. Vedasi Ric. Malasp. c. 192. Giov. 
 Vill. Nicobald. Rer. Ital. torn. 9. Saba Malasp. Rer. Ital. torn. 8. 
 Sozom. Istor. Charles, in commemoration of the victory, caused 
 an abbey to be built near Tagliacozzo, with the name of Santa 
 Maria della Vittoria.
 
 360 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 and only complained of the affliction the tidings of it 
 would cause his unfortunate mother, and of the fate of 
 his companions, whom he had involved in his disgrace ; 
 and having embraced and kissed them, he suffered the 
 fatal blow. In him finished the house of Suabia, ren- 
 dered so illustrious by the two Frederics and by Mane- 
 froi. The Neapolitans even could not look upon the 
 cruel execution without tears ; the tender age, the beauty, 
 the innocence, and courage of the young man had ren- 
 dered him more interesting: after him Frederic of 
 Austria and Count Gherardo of Donoratico lost their 
 heads. Galvano Lancia first saw his son put to death 
 before his eyes, and then suffered himself the same fate, 
 with many other princes and barons. Charles sig- 
 nalized himself in cruelty : cities sacked, the people 
 slaughtered, soldiers who had done their duty hanged, 
 sealed his victories. By the comic representation of the 
 formalities of a trial, Charles endeavoured in vain to give 
 a colour of equity to a barbarous action ; the death of 
 Conradin was necessary to his safety, and rarely obsequious 
 judges offer an opinion different from that of their 
 sovereign *. The Pisan fleet, hearing of the misfortune 
 and sad catastrophe of the Suabian prince, retired to its 
 port. 
 
 The ruin of Conradin spread consternation amongst 
 the Ghibellines of Italy, and particularly those of Flo- 
 
 * Ricobaldo, a Ferrarese historian, relates having heard from 
 Giovacchino of Reggio, who was present at the trial, that among 
 the rest, Guido of Suzzara, reader of laws in Modena, and Reggio, 
 who was then in Naples, publicly maintained that Conradin could 
 not be condemned. Mur. Ann. d'ltal. The thrust given at the 
 breast of the judge who was reading the condemnation by Robert 
 of Flanders (Rico. Malesp. c. 93) the glove thrown by Conradin, 
 in token of taking possession of his rights, at D. Pietro of Arragon, 
 (JEn. Silvius, hiator. Austr.) smell strong of fable.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 361 
 
 rence. Many of the latter were in Sienna, where Count 
 Novello had also retired after his shameful flight. 
 Some squadrons of Germans and Spaniards, 
 remains of the army of Conradin, had been paid by 
 Provenzano Salviani, who was almost Lord of Sienna*; 
 by the aid of the Pisans, and outlaws led on by Count 
 Guido Novello, a large army had been collected, which 
 marched against Colle. There were only four hundred 
 French horse in Florence: without losing an instant the 
 vicar of Charles, Giov. Bertaldo, advanced with them, 
 and the Florentine troops that could follow him, against 
 his more numerous enemies ; and availing himself of 
 the disorder into which the camp was thrown by chang- 
 ing position, attacked and discomfited them with great 
 slaughter to the Siennese. The remembrance of Mon- 
 teaperti made the Florentines cruel. Provenzano being 
 taken, had his head cut off with many others: Count 
 Guido however, either more cautious or timid, saved 
 himself in time. Peace was made with the Siennese 
 upon condition that the Ghibellines should be driven 
 from Sienna, and in this manner Sienna became Guelphan. 
 Amongst the Ghibellines who were obliged to 
 fly, there were three respectable personages of the 
 Uburti family, perhaps sons of Farinata, and one Grifone 
 of Figline. Being overtaken in their flight, and con- 
 ducted to Florence, the sanguinary King Charles, when 
 asked about their fate, condemned them to death; the 
 youngest of the Uberti was alone pardoned on account 
 of his age ; but met with even a worse sentence, being 
 sent prisoner to Capua, where he finished his days 
 unhappily. Of the other two brothers, Azzolin, on 
 going to death being asked by Nericozzo, whither they 
 
 * Guido da Cor. His. Pis. Fragm. Rer. Ital. torn. 24.
 
 362 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 were being conducted ; courageously answered, to pay a 
 debt left to them by their ancestors, thus proving himself 
 the worthy son of Farinata *. Poggibonsi at every time 
 the centre of this faction, and now in rebellion against 
 the Florentines, was dismantled; it was at that time 
 large and populous, and had more the appearance of a 
 city than of a borough. Ostina shortly before had met 
 with the same fate. 
 
 The Guelphan party was now predominant in Tus- 
 cany : Pisa almost alone preserved her attachment to the 
 Ghibellines; she was however incapable of opposing 
 so many enemies, supported by a victorious and powerful 
 monarch. The Pisans met with a happy opportunity 
 of entering into conditions with him, and their enemies 
 
 o 
 
 the Guelphs. His brother, the holy King Louis of 
 France, always animated by a zeal of righting the Sara- 
 cens, and generally unlucky in his enterprises, led a 
 powerful army against Tunis, to which he invited his 
 brother Charles; the latter, who dreaded the fleets of 
 the Pisans, and the consequences of a war that he left 
 kindled in Tuscany during his absence, easily made 
 terms with them, and did not disdain to send four 
 ambassadors to the republic, who soon agreed upon 
 conditions. The other cities of Tuscany held a congress 
 in Pistoia, and at the intercession of the royal viceroy 
 and the other ambassadors, an agreement was entered 
 into. 
 
 The affairs of Tuscany being settled, peace was made ; 
 and the Florentine republic continued some lime tran- 
 quil under the protection of King Charles. The hatred 
 however between the two parties in Italy was still alive; 
 and although in Florence the fire was covered over with 
 
 * Guidus de Corvara, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores. torn. 24.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 363 
 
 the ashes, (the concealed Ghibellines wanting the power 
 and not the ill-will) it was ready to burst out at the first 
 stir. Whoever was not interested in it, saw the necessity 
 of removing so great a scandal. Such was the Pontiff 
 Gregory, who although an Italian, had lived a long 
 time out of Italy*, knew neither worldly interests nor 
 the importance to his secular dominion of supporting a 
 faction adherent to the popes ; the Pisans easily there- 
 fore were reconciled with him, upon the condition of 
 receiving a garrison of the pope in some controversial 
 castles. They were absolved, and the honour was restored 
 to Pisa of an Archbishop's seef. 
 
 In the mean time the pontiff arrived at Florence on 
 his way to Lyons, where he had ordered a general coun- 
 cil, in order to excite the faithful once more to the expe- 
 dition against the Holy Land. Florence was at the same 
 time honoured with the presence of Charles, King of 
 the Sicilies, and of the Greek Emperor Boldovin the 
 Second, who, after having passed his early youth as a 
 royal mendicant to the European courts, after having 
 sat upon the throne of Constantinople for several years 
 amidst wants and difficulties driven out of Greece, had 
 returned to his former miserable and vagabond life. 
 Many cardinals and barons accompanied these sovereigns. 
 Before them, the virtuous pontiff, full of apostolic zeal, 
 endeavoured to pacify minds and appease discords ; the 
 Guelphs did not dare to resist his authority, and in a 
 solemn function, rendered more majestic by the presence 
 of so many august personages, many of the exiled Ghi- 
 bellines having been recalled, peace was publicly made 
 
 * He had been Archdeacon of Liege, whence having passed into 
 Soria he had heard the news of his election in Acri. 
 f Guid. de Coro. Rer. Ital. torn. 24.
 
 364 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 between the two parties. Scaffolds had been erected 
 Upon the shore of the Arno near the Rubicon Bridge ; 
 Here the principals of the two factions embraced and 
 kissed each other. The pope thundered out his strongest 
 censures against the violators; but King Charles, more 
 politic than pious, did not like the reconciliation so con- 
 trary to his interests, and which would have taken away 
 his influence over this powerful republic. Four 
 days had not elapsed, when the Ghibellines, 
 insulted by the ministers of the king, and by others of 
 the Guelphan party, thought better to seek safety in flight, 
 than in the promises and pontifical censures. The pope 
 enraged, departed, leaving the city under interdict*. 
 Arriving in Lyons he held a solemn council, the princi- 
 pal object of which was the usual one of that time, and to 
 which the hitherto unextinguished enthusiasm of Europe 
 was directed, viz., the conquest of the Holy Land : 
 measures were taken ; and in order to remove every 
 obstacle to the passage from Europe to Asia, one of the 
 many apparent reconciliations was effected between the 
 Greeks and Latins. 
 
 In the peace made in Tuscany all the cities, either by 
 good will or force, had become Guelphan, or at 
 least took laws from this faction, except Pisa, 
 which with more dignity than the others in peace, 
 '' remained Ghibelline: it had been tolerated by the 
 Guelphan Tuscan faction, in order not to rekindle a 
 dangerous war, as it appeared that the Pi sans were 
 united in that party: but shortly tumults arose even 
 there. The Visconti and Gherardeschi, principal fami- 
 lies of Pisa, were Guelphan ; the first possessed the juris- 
 diction of Gallura, in Sardinia, and affecting that 
 
 * Malasp. cap. 198. Amm. lib. 3.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 365 
 
 overbearance of which the nobles made so much 
 
 1275. 
 
 glory in those times, had, since former years, excited 
 dangerous tumults. John Visconti, after having caused 
 the GhibellineGualfreducci to be assassinated, and having 
 taken away by violence even assassins from the hands of 
 public executioners, being summoned before the tribunal, 
 was bold enough to appear there, and openly confess 
 his crime. The weak government, although it pro- 
 nounced against him and the Count Ugoline Gherar- 
 deschi, by whom Visconti had been maintained in his 
 overbearing proceedings, a condemnation of the former 
 to Rosignano and Vada, and of the latter to Montopoli; 
 was obliged fifteen days afterwards to recall them. Return- 
 ing to Pisa, proud of their impunity, John became more 
 insolent, caused two other Pisan citizens to be assassi- 
 nated, and seeing that the irritated populace were about 
 to rise against him, fled into Corsica to his jurisdiction 
 of Gallura. Being pursued thither by the arms of the 
 Pisans, conquered and fugitive, he mounted upon the 
 Galleys of King Charles, repaired to the courts of Santa 
 Flora, and was exiled from Pisa. Count Ugoline of 
 Gherardesca refusing to pay the tax of a lordship he 
 possessed in Corsica, had been deprived of it, and sent 
 to prison. Other powerful families were discontented 
 because they were obliged to obey the laws, Count 
 Ansel mo of Capraia, and the Upegginghi went away, 
 and joined the exiled Visconti. The discontent of these 
 Pisans gave courage to the Guelphs to change the 
 state of that republic: the greater part of the 
 Tuscan cities made league with the rebels, and gave 
 them their assistance. The fierce old John Visconti 
 marched against his country, laid siege to the castle 
 of Montopoli, and made himself master of it. The 
 Pisans in vain reclaimed to King Charles, with whom
 
 366 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 they had concluded peace. He gave them good words 
 and letters for his viceroy in Tuscany, with an order to 
 desist from the war ; but probably sent them secretly a 
 contrary order, since the viceroy continued to act against 
 the Pisans, nor was the transgression punished with his 
 recall ; and on the other hand, it was of much consequence 
 to King Charles, that Pisa alone in Ghibelline Tuscany 
 changed faction. In the mean time John Visconti died in 
 Montopoli with his son Lapo, but the war did not cease*. 
 Other citizens fomented it. Count Ugoline came out of 
 prison panting for revenge, departed with his sons for 
 Lucca, and, encouraged by the Florentines, carried on 
 the war against Pisa, which was unable to resist all the 
 forces of Tuscany, united to the French soldiers, led on 
 by the royal vicar : the consequences, therefore, 
 were not very advantageous to the Pisans. The 
 barrier of the Rinonico ditch was useless f, excavated 
 between Pisa and Pontedera, at a distance of about eight 
 miles from Pisa, and nearly ten in length, which began 
 with the Arno ; although defended by military engines, 
 it was taken by the Florentines J. Pisa saw herself 
 under the necessity of accommodating and receiving 
 
 * For this series of events, read Guido da Corvara, quoted 
 place, the manuscript history of Cav. Roncioni, Cav. Flamm. dal 
 Borgo Diss. 8. 
 
 f Thus called from the neighbouring village Rinonichi, and 
 called by mistake by the Florentine historians Arnonico, as the 
 Cavaliere Flamm. dal Borgo, dissertation the eighth, upon the Pisan 
 history, has shewn. The ditch passed to the place now called the 
 Fornacette, where it discharged into the Arno the waters that it 
 brought from the marshes, serving thus for two objects which shortly 
 became useless. The defence was small, as well as the declivity, 
 a defect which the rise of the bed of the Arno rendered still 
 greater. 
 
 t Ric. Malasp. c. 203.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 367 
 
 laws from the conquerors, was obliged to restore the 
 place to Count Ugolino, other castles to his colleagues, 
 and to restore the expelled Guelphs to Pisa pardoned 
 and free from the penalty of banishment*. The Count 
 Ugoline, the Visconti, the Count Ansel mo, and Capraia, 
 returned to Pisa triumphant with the Upezzinghi and 
 other Guelphs; and although Pisa maintained herself 
 Ghibelline, the former, and particularly Count Ugolino, 
 had great influence in the government; since supported 
 by the ruling party in Tuscany, their operations could 
 
 not be questioned without danger to the public 
 1276. ;.:* 
 
 tranquillity. 
 
 The holy Pope Gregory, always just in his views, 
 without any worldly interest, indifferent to the Guelph 
 and to the Ghibelline party, had even from Lyons 
 exclaimed against this war, and fulminated his excom- 
 munication, by means of his legate in Pisa, against 
 the obstinate Guelphs, although ancient favourites of the 
 holy seef ; hence having returned to Tuscany, he was 
 still more irritated at the Florentines, who were already 
 placed under excommunication. In his journey he 
 wished to avoid Florence, but was hindered by the flood 
 from fording the Arno on the other side of it. It not 
 being decent for a pope to pass through a city that was 
 cursed, he passed his benediction again upon it on 
 re-entering it, and again excommunicated it when he 
 departed; following his journey he arrived in Arezzo, 
 . where he died, and his body beatified is still preserved 
 there. This pope had ordered that, in case of a pontiff 
 
 * Ric. Malasp. c. 203, All the other conditions may be read 
 in the eighth dissertation upon the History of Pisa, by the Cav. 
 Flamm. dal Borgo. 
 
 t Quid, de Corv. loco, citat.
 
 368 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 dying out of the curia, in the same place without loss of 
 time they should proceed to elect a new one*. The 
 palace, therefore of the Aretine bishop had the honour 
 to become conclave, where the new pontiff. Inno- 
 cence V., was elected. 
 
 Florence had remained some years tranquil 
 enough; the ferment of the Ghibelline faction was 
 wanting, but the desire of ruling over others is too inhe- 
 rent in the heart of man ; a useful plant when it leads them 
 on to seek a distinction by virtuous actions, and perni- 
 cious when they seek to obtain it by force. This dan- 
 gerous plant unfolds itself more easily in republics; 
 the nurses, therefore, both of great virtues and of 
 great crimes, but for the most part turbulent and agi- 
 tated. From envy of riches and emulation of power 
 another faction was rising in Florence, between the 
 Donati and the Adimari, which drew along with it other 
 powerful families, and partly insensibly mixed with it the 
 masked Guelphan and Ghibelline animosities. 
 Men of sense in those lucid intervals, in which 
 reason ruled over the passions, seeing the importance of 
 peace, having agreed with the community, sent ambas- 
 sadors to the pope, praying him to unite minds. No- 
 thing will appear more puerile to the sensible reader than 
 the frequent reconciliations of the Florentines, violated 
 almost immediately afterwards; but men, blinded by 
 party, are always children in sense. Nicolas III. 
 accepted the arduous undertaking, and charged with the 
 execution of it the Cardinal Frangipane his legate in 
 Romegna. He had been a religious Dominican and 
 celebrated preacher. He came to Florence with three 
 hundred chevaliers. The exiled Ghibellines endeavoured 
 
 * Decretal. 6. Bonifaci 8 de Elec. e Elec. Poss.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 369 
 
 to get themselves included in this reconciliation; after 
 much negotiation, an agreement was entered into between 
 the factions, the Ghibellines were recalled, and upon 
 various scaffolds, erected in the old square of Santa Maria 
 Novella, the chiefs of each faction embraced each 
 
 1280 
 
 other, in face of the people and all the magistrates, 
 on the 18th of January; the cardinal at the same time 
 exhorted them in an eloquent oration to concord*. 
 Fourteen Buonuomini were elected, eight from the Guelphs, 
 and six from the Ghibellines ; and in their hands was 
 placed the government of the city. Many citizens, how- 
 ever, of each party, whose presence was dangerous in 
 Florence, were confined within the patrimony of the 
 church, others abandoned the city, and retired to 
 their country-seats. A general peace was solemnly 
 confirmed on both sides; bails were given, and very 
 heavy pecuniary fines fixed for whoever failed in 
 paying due regard to them. By such an act the 
 Pope acquired in Florence a greater influence 
 than Charles, whose power was feared by the Flo- 
 rentines ; since, although he was regarded as a friend and 
 creature of the church, the excessive power of a king 
 gave always jealousy to the dominion of the popes and 
 the Florentine republic. He had, however, suffered 
 blows sufficiently painful ; Sicily, that groaned under his 
 iron sceptre, finally threw off the yoke. John of 
 Procida, follower of the Swabian faction, was the 
 principal author of the motion. Charles had confiscated 
 his estates. He incited to this enterprise Peter of Ar- 
 ragon, whose wife Constance, daughter of Manefroi, 
 had inherited the rights. John himself came disguised 
 into Sicily, in order to inflame the people to the rebel- 
 lion, and obtained from the Greek emperor subsidies in 
 
 * Malasp. cap. 205. Amra. lib. 3. 
 VOL. I. 2 B
 
 370 HISTORY OF TL SCANT. 
 
 money, promising him a powerful diversion from the 
 enterprise which Charles was preparing against him. 
 Peter had already moved with his fleet when the Paler- 
 mitans, unable any longer to suffer the insults and 
 tyranny of the French, chanted the celebrated Sici- 
 lian vespers wherein they massacred all the French 
 that were in the city; the whole of the island was 
 shortly lost, and Peter of Arragon was received in it 
 as a liberating angel. These misfortunes of Charles did 
 not greatly displease the Florentines, as his power had 
 begun to make them suspicious, that a prince, so greedy 
 of dominion, might domineer over them. 
 
 The last reform of the government, by which the Ghi- 
 bellines were admitted among the first regulators of the 
 republic, could not be stable ; dictated by a momentary 
 expansion of heart, and by conscience more than by 
 politics, it must have appeared dangerous to the jealousy 
 of the Guelphs so greatly superior in number: and, on 
 the other hand, it was difficult at every change of rulers 
 to find six Ghibellines to the common satisfaction; the 
 conditions of the established peace were broken ; the 
 Ghibellines, excluded from employments; their revenues 
 withheld from the exiled, who were finally declared 
 rebels. The flame of discord was now rekindled ; the 
 wisest sought for remedies ; and a meeting was called, in 
 order to propose to them six citizens, among whom was 
 the historian Dino Compagni, although very young, and 
 consequently untried in the dangers of popular discords; 
 his voice however was listened to, and advice accepted. 
 The government was again changed, and three persons 
 were elected, called priors of the arts, who were to be 
 changed every two months ; this was the supreme ma- 
 gistracy, and with the captain of the people managed 
 the most important affairs of the republic. It began the
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 371 
 
 15th of June: after two months the number was 
 increased to six, elected by each sixth part of the city. 
 Such was the beginning of the celebrated magistracy that 
 maintained itself for so long a time in Florence. It 
 appears to have held the executive power, and to have 
 assembled whenever there was any necessity of councils 
 for their deliberation. The Florentines, attentive also 
 to whatever might still more secure the republic, and 
 remembering that the nobles had been always the insti- 
 gators of discord, studied how to keep them at 
 their duty ; not thinking it right to exclude them 
 from the exercise of the public employments, they 
 required at least that when they had taken the name o f 
 citizen, they should enroll themselves amongst one of the 
 arts*, trades, (arfa*,) or professions. 
 
 * Giac. Malasp. Seguito dell' 1st. cap. 214. Gio. Vill. lib. 7. 
 c. 82. Dino Compagni, lib. 1. 
 
 2 B 2
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 POWER AND RICHES OF PISA. WAR WITH THE GENOESE. 
 BATTLE OF MELORIA AND DEFEAT OF THE PISANS. 
 LEAGUE OF THE GUELPHAN CITIES AGAINST THEM. 
 TREATY WITH THE FLORENTINES, AND CESSION OP THEIR 
 CASTLES. FACTION OF THE VISCONTI AND GHERAR- 
 DESCHI IN PISA. HORRIBLE PUNISHMENT OF COUNT 
 UGOLINO WITH HIS SONS AND NEPHEWS. REFLECTIONS 
 UPON THE CRIMES ATTRIBUTED TO THEM. VICISSI- 
 TUDES OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SIENNA. DEATH OF 
 KING CHARLES OF NAPLES. 
 
 .r ISA had been humbled in the last war and obliged 
 to receive laws from the conquerors ; but even in her 
 misfortunes had given proofs of her power, since alone 
 she had courageously defended herself for a considerable 
 time against the whole of the Tuscan confederacy, 
 supported as it was by King Charles, and if she finally 
 yielded, she still preserved a fierce and imposing 
 attitude. Rich and powerful, the opulence of her 
 citizens had rendered her one of the most considerable 
 cities of Italy ; the Visconti, the Gherardeschi, and 
 many other families who possessed lordships and 
 estates in Corsica and Sardinia, however they may 
 at times have disturbed her tranquillity by their great 
 influence, lived there in magnificence and splendour. 
 The costly and sumptuous sacred edifices of the 
 cathedral, of St. John, of the leaning tower, erected in 
 the two last centuries, and the Holy Field, (Campo 
 Santo,) which was completed in this year, are authentic 
 and ocular proofs of her riches. Her dominions lay 
 particularly upon the maritime coast, and extended from
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 373 
 
 the Corbo* to Civita Vecchia. She ruled, too, over 
 the islands of Sardinia, Corsica, Capraia, Elba, Pianora, 
 Gorgona, Giglio, Monte Christo f ; hence her maritime 
 dominions were more extensive than those by land, which 
 is proper for a maritime people. Her power, indeed, was 
 particularly naval, since in the seas, which in that 
 age were called remote, in the Levant, and upon the 
 coasts of Syria, she held establishments, which, however 
 precarious, were sufficient for commerce ; and as late as 
 the fifteenth century she preserved a port at the bottom of 
 the Black Sea, which was even then called Pisan Port, 
 (Porto Pisano)lj:. The numerous fleets of one hundred, 
 and even two hundred, ships, often armed by this republic, 
 display the riches which had been derived from industry 
 and commerce. Her maritime force formed her real 
 power, which made her respected and feared by 
 emperors and kings, and her friendship often sought 
 for; but she was now rapidly approaching her decay. 
 The Pisans had been hitherto one of the three principal 
 maritime powers, and had divided with the Venetians 
 and Genoese the empire of the seas at that time known. 
 Jealousy of commerce had brought them frequently to 
 arms, and each sought her own aggrandizement upon the 
 ruin of the other. Pisa had seen another industrious 
 republic rise by the side of her, the Florentine ; whose 
 
 * The Corbo, or Corvo, is the eastern part of the Gulf of 
 Spezia, a little distant from the mouth of the Magra. 
 
 t This dominion is known from two solemn treaties made by the 
 Pisans; one in the year 1265, with the King of Tunis, Elmiro di 
 Momino; the other in 1230, with Mico, one of the African kings, 
 and in which, on account of mutual interests, the places governed 
 by the Pisans are mentioned. See Flamm. dal Borgo of the Pisan 
 History, Diss. 4. 
 
 t See the History of the Commerce of the Tuscans, mentioned 
 hereafter.
 
 U74 HISTORY OF TLSCAJNY. 
 
 riches and power were continually increasing. She 
 should not have been jealous of the latter, because, 
 unskilled as Florence was in maritime arts, which 
 
 . 
 
 gave her strength, and being in need of the sea, 
 she would have always remained in a certain dependance 
 upon Pisa, if she had not been tyrannically treated. It 
 would have been the interest of Pisa to have remained 
 in alliance with Florence, the two republics being 
 frequently able to assist each other with their mutual 
 succours. A false policy, however, had rendered them 
 rivals, from a diversity of opinions respecting the 
 Guelph and Ghibelline faction, (which was the scourge of 
 Italy,) as well as the pitiful interest of miserable castles. 
 The vanity of extending a steril dominion upon land 
 had given rise to obstinate wars between them, wherein 
 the blood, industry, and gold were lavished, which, had 
 they been employed in the great object, by which these 
 two republics became great, navigation and commerce, 
 would have rendered them, probably, arbiters of Italy. 
 Pisa fell from her ancient grandeur, first, by losing her 
 maritime power, afterwards, her liberty, at a time when 
 she maintained a dangerous rivalry with the Florentine 
 republic. She was at war with the Genoese: had in 
 past times fought against them with various fortune, and 
 unlucky events had been balanced with the most pros- 
 perous. We have already seen, that by her fleet, united 
 with that of Frederic II., the Genoese had been 
 defeated near the Meloria, a rock at that time as 
 glorious to the Pisari arms as it was hereafter destined 
 to be fatal to them. In 1258 the Pisans had 
 fought in the seas of the Levant, united with the 
 Venetians, against the Genoese, and gained a complete 
 victory by the capture of twenty-four galleys; these 
 victories of the Pisans, and their alliance with the
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 37 
 
 Venetians, had somewhat disheartened their rivals, and 
 until the year 1282, peace had subsisted between them ; 
 or at least, that repose which grows out of weariness 
 and mutual dread. 
 
 The turbid and unstable genius of Sinoncelio, judge 
 of Ciriarca, furnished the principal motive for a new 
 war. This man, having lost, in his early youth, by the 
 death of his father, his estates in the Island of Corsica, 
 had fled to Pisa, had been promoted, and made himself 
 great in arms, by her assistance and support, and was 
 sent into Corsica as governor and judge. One part of 
 this island was at that time held by the Pisans, another 
 by the Genoese : the active Sinoncelio, by his name and 
 valour not only regained his lands, but extended them 
 even to Bonifacio. Dreading, however, the power of 
 the Genoese, and in order to conciliate them, since the 
 year 1249, forgetful of the benefits received from the 
 Pisans, he agreed to acknowledge his estates in feud 
 from Genoa ; but becoming afterwards more secure and 
 insolent, after having offended the Pisans, he began to 
 molest the Genoese themselves, and all the other 
 merchants who arrived at that island. Genoa was 
 under the necessity of keeping him in rein, sent troops 
 into Corsica, who in a few days occupied his lands and 
 obliged him to save himself by flight. He took 
 shelter at Pisa, where, having repented of the 
 rebellion, he protested he would acknowledge the ancient 
 sovereignty of the Pisans. The latter wished to give 
 him protection. A Genoese ambassador came to 
 persuade them, that they ought not to take a rebellious 
 scoundrel under their shield ; the pride of the Pisans 
 received this embassy with disdain, continued obstinate 
 in protecting Sinoncelio, dismissed the Ligurian am- 
 bassador, and sent their own people to Genoa to declare
 
 376 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 their intention of defending the vessel by arms. The 
 Pisans were treated by the Genoese with equal hauteur ; 
 hence the fatal \var was resolved upon*. Perhaps the 
 latter hoped, by the valour and influence of that man, 
 who was supported by their arms, to regain the part of 
 Corsica which the Genoese held ; and, in fact, when sent 
 back there with a small reinforcement of a hundred and 
 twenty horse, and two hundred foot, he was enabled to 
 recover his lost estates. Various battles, for the most 
 part to the disadvantage of the Pisans, preceded the 
 decisive day ; some of which we will briefly mention. 
 The Pisans insulted Porto Venere by disembarking 
 troops upon it, and sacking it; but the Genoese were 
 revenged by a tempest which wrecked seventeen galleys 
 upon the Tuscan coast with the loss of the greater part 
 of the crew f. Reciprocal insults were multiplied 
 during the whole year ; many merchant-ships of 
 the Pisans were taken, and in the mean time both sides 
 made use of extraordinary alacrity to equip the most 
 formidable armaments. A Pisan fleet of fifty-four 
 galleys had been conducted by Andreotto Saracini 
 towards Sardinia in trace of the enemy, and not meeting 
 them, having landed, the people re-conquered various 
 rebellious cities: after this enterprise the fleet sailed 
 towards Piombino, imprudently detaching fifteen galleys 
 as corsairs to another station, whilst she might run the 
 risk of meeting the enemies' fleet either equal or 
 superior ; fifty-four Genoese galleys came out in search 
 of the Pisan fleet commanded by Uberto Doria, and 
 not meeting with it near Sardinia, sailed towards 
 Piombino. Saracini did not think it prudent, with his 
 
 Filippini Istor. di Corsica, lib. 2. 
 
 t Foliett. Hist. Genuens. lib. 5. Aur. Ann. Genuen. Rer. Ital. 
 torn. 0.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 377 
 
 inferior force, to cope with the enemy, and kept himself 
 shut up in the port of Faleria, fortifying the entrance, 
 which Doria blockaded. In the mean time the fifteen 
 Pisan galleys that were separated, joined again. Doria 
 having discovered them, detached thirty-two of his own 
 to attack them : the Pisans attempted to fly ; and 
 wishing to avoid being taken, driven by a strong scirocco 
 upon the coast, one of them went to pieces, and three 
 became a prey to the Genoese, with six hundred 
 prisoners. The Pisan admiral not having been accused 
 of cowardice, we must suppose that the fleet shut up in the 
 port was either not in a state to go out, or was prevented by 
 the wind; since it might at that time have attacked the 
 fleet that blockaded it with a superiority of number. A 
 storm afterwards caused the Genoese to leave Faleria, 
 when Saracini came out, and returned to Pisa with the 
 disgrace of having been blockaded, and a spectator of 
 the ruin of a part of his fleet*. 
 
 The two republics, heated with animosity, prepared 
 with the greatest vigour, in the following year, for the 
 most bloody contests : twenty-four Pisan galleys escorted 
 two large ships laden with troops to appease the 
 rebellions which had been excited in Sardinia by the 
 Genoese. One of these vessels, in which was Bonifacio 
 Gherardeschi, having separated, found herself in the midst 
 of the Genoese fleet of twenty-two galleys, which were 
 making for the same place, and was taken ; as the 
 Genoese saw the enemies' fleet approaching, they took 
 out the best of the crew from the captured ship, 
 set fire to her, and advanced courageously to the 
 combat, which was ferocious and obstinate, but victory 
 finally declared for the Genoese; the Pisans lost thirteen 
 galleys and one sunk, and near 6,000 between killed 
 
 * Foliett. Hist. Gen. Jacob. Auria, Ann. Gen. loc. cit.
 
 378 HISTORY OF TUSCAXY. 
 
 and prisoners : this happened on the 7th of April *. 
 These repeated losses ohliged the Pisans to ask succour 
 from the Venetians, in alliance with whom, in the 
 Levant, they had often beaten the Genoese. Albertino 
 Morosini, a Venetian, mayor of Pisa, endeavoured to 
 effect a confederacy, but in vain ; the Venetians chose 
 to remain neutral. True policy, however, ought to have 
 counselled them to support a power, by the ruin of 
 which, their determined enemies, the Genoese, increased 
 so much in strength ; and they had reason enough after- 
 wards to perceive their error. The last misfortune, 
 instead of discouraging the Pisans, inflamed them still 
 more with a desire of vengeance; they made one of 
 their greatest efforts by arming seventy-two galleys, the 
 command of which was given to Count Ugolino, already 
 very powerful in Pisa ; the flower of the nobility and 
 Pisan citizens accompanied it, to which were added 
 other smaller vessels. But instead of attacking the 
 
 o 
 
 Genoese fleet, only thirty galleys strong, which were in 
 
 Sardinia under the command of Giacaria, and which 
 
 they might easily have overpowered, they lost a 
 
 precious time by insulting the city of Genoa, 
 
 * See Guido da Corvara, (Rer. Ital. torn. 44.), who places 
 the battle on the 1st of May: the fragments of Pisan history 
 in Italian, (loc. c.), and the Genoese annals, (Rer. Ital. torn. 6.), 
 all these agree upon the number of galleys described by us, 
 and are the documents least respectable. Cav. dal Borgo, fol- 
 lowing more authentic documents, and having little regard for 
 the glory of his citizens, although in every other place he is most 
 zealous for them, numbers thirty-four galleys on the part of the 
 Pisans, and twenty-two of the Genoese. During the battle he 
 makes a reinforcement arrive to the Genoese, led on by Arrigo del 
 Mare; but it does not appear, that as the indicated disproportion 
 existed at the beginning, the Genoese would have hazarded, nor 
 would it have been glorious to the Pisans, with a third more of 
 the galleys, not to have gained immediately a decided superiority.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 379 
 
 shewing themselves before the port, throwing against it 
 a few mortars, and challenging the Genoese to battle ; 
 and after these useless bravadoes returned home*. 
 Nothing is more valuable in war than season and 
 opportunity. The Genoese had recalled the army of 
 Giacaria with all expedition from Sardinia, and soon 
 equipped a fleet of eighty-eight galleys with many other 
 smaller vessels, the command of which was given to 
 Obert Doria. Putting to sea, and hearing that 
 
 
 
 the Pisan armament was near Meloria they 
 advanced to that port. Doria, fearing that the superior 
 number of their vessels might oblige the Pisans to refuse 
 battle, and retire into harbour, advanced only with 
 fifty-eight galleys, ordering the division of Giacaria to 
 remain behind with the remaining thirty f. The Pisans 
 accepted battle, which was fought on the 6th of August 
 
 * It is strange that no Genoese writers give an account of this 
 bravado, and content themselves with saying that they boasted of 
 doing it, but no one says that they executed it. See Gio. Villani, 
 lib. 7. c. 91. 
 
 f Historians vary much upon the circumstances that are of little 
 moment, and upon the number of the ships on the one side and 
 the other, making the Pisans amount to one hundred and the 
 Genoese to a hundred and fifty, but it is agreed that the Genoese 
 fleet was very far superior. If, however, at the approach of the 
 enemy, new ships were armed in Pisa ; if the archbishop made the 
 benediction upon the Arno, although almost all the Pisan histo- 
 rians attest it, and Villani among the Florentines, it may still be 
 doubted ; since the necessary time appears to be wanting, as 
 Cav. dal Borgo has laboured to prove, and therefore denies the 
 calumny of having little religion, imputed by Foglietta to some 
 Pisans, who, seeing in that ceremony the Christ, which stood upon 
 the top of the standard, fall down by accident, and that the same 
 was taken by some for a bad omen, exclaimed, " Sia pur Cristo, 
 per i Genovesi, e per noi il vento." Let Christ be for the Genoese, 
 and the wind for us. See Foglietta, lib. 5. Giac. Malesp. c. 221. 
 Vill. lib. 7. c. 91. Contin. Caff. Marangone Giust. Bezari.
 
 380 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 with all the fury and animosity of two nations seeking 
 to destroy each other. The succour which arrived to 
 the Genoese with Giacaria, and which the Pisans did 
 not expect, probably decided the fate of that day. The 
 galley upon which was the mayor of Pisa, Alberto 
 Morosini, fought furiously with the admiral's ship, 
 commanded by Admiral Doria, who was joined, 
 however, by other principal galleys commanded 
 by Admiral Giacaria. Even the galley which bore the 
 great Pisan standard, was taken by the galley called 
 St. Matthew, (Sari Matteo), where were many of the 
 family of Doria, and by the galley Finale the great 
 standard was torn and broken down, and the defeat was 
 complete. Twenty-seven Pisan galleys were taken, and 
 seven sunk ; the remainder rendered unserviceable, with 
 the advantage of night they saved themselves in the 
 neighbouring Pisan port, and with three of these the 
 Count Ugolino escaped. The killed amounted to 4,000, 
 and many prisoners, among whom was the son of 
 Count Ugolino. These losses, with those in anterior 
 battles, amounted to about 1 1,000, and all of the most 
 considerable persons *. This event destroyed the mari- 
 time power of Pisa, which could never again recover 
 itself and assume the rank of her rivals. Many illus- 
 trious republics, as ancient and modern history demon- 
 strate, have risen after the most heavy losses. Pisa, 
 however, was no longer in this condition, and various 
 causes combined to prevent her regaining it ; the first of 
 which was the loss of her bravest and wisest citizens 
 taken prisoners, and whom the Genoese, actuated by a 
 cruel and useless policy, refused to set at liberty ; and 
 
 * Some make the number greater : the proof of the greater 
 number is the saying of that age, that whoever wished to see Pisa 
 should go to Geuoa.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 381 
 
 being kept in prison for nearly fifteen years, or so long 
 as the war lasted, the greater part of them finished their 
 life in wretchedness*. 
 
 Without such men Pisa became a ship without a 
 pilot, and could more easily be governed by those fac- 
 tions who had not the public good in view, but their 
 own private interest. The second cause is to be found 
 in the formidable war that the rival republics of Florence 
 and Lucca declared against her, with all the Guelphan 
 Tuscan league united with the Genoese. The Genoese 
 and Lucchese ambassadors came to Florence, where an 
 alliance was formed for the total ruin of fisa. The 
 celebrated Brunetto Latini attended this meeting with 
 the other heads of the government, probably as secretary 
 of the Florentine republic^. The effects were not long 
 becoming visible, for the army of the Florentines entered 
 into the valley of the Era (Val D' Era,) that of the 
 Lucchese occupied some castles, among the rest Ponte 
 a Serchio, and at the same time Spinola with a powerful 
 fleet attacked the Pisan port, and gained the tower 
 
 1284 
 
 of the Lantern J. Seeing the doleful aspect that 
 affairs wore, a general consultation was held in Pisa 
 upon the common safety. In this confusion one of the 
 most respectable persons was the Count Ugolino, to whom 
 the city looked for counsel and assistance. It is probable 
 that this cunning man had views from that time upon 
 the sovereignty over Pisa, and perhaps on that account 
 proposed rather an accommodation with the Florentines 
 than with the Genoese, in order that those citizens 
 should not be liberated and sent back to Pisa, who 
 might contend with them for the government. The 
 
 * Flamm. dal. Borgo dell' 1st. Pis. Diss. 11. 
 
 t Auria Rer. Ital. loc. cit. 
 
 J Quid, da Corv. Cron. Pis. Rer. Ital. torn. 24.
 
 N: HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 discourse, however, that Leonardo Bruni puts in his 
 inouth is very sensible, when asserting that Pisa, as a 
 maritime power, should regard as an enemy Genoa, her 
 rival at sea, rather than Florence which depended upon 
 Pisa for her commerce. The count was not attended 
 to at the beginning, and an arrangement was sought for 
 rather with Genoa ; but the latter, thinking the period 
 arrived for the ruin of her rival, sternly refused *. It 
 then became necessary to embrace the counsel of the 
 count. He had been always a friend of the Florentines 
 because they were followers of the Guelphan party, and 
 through their influence he had been sent back to Pisa 
 with the restitution of his estates: he was considered 
 therefore the person most adapted to treat for 
 
 1285. 
 
 an accommodation, and the Pisans created him 
 mayor and captain of the people. It was not, therefore, 
 difficult for him to conclude an agreement upon very 
 grievous conditions for the Pisans. They were obliged 
 to cede to the Florentine republic various important 
 places, St. Mary on the Mountain, (Santa Maria a 
 Monte,) Trucchio, the Holy Cross, (Santa Croce,) 
 Mount Calvoli, (Monte Calvoli,) and to exile the most 
 zealous Ghibellines from Pisa; which city returned to 
 the Guelphan party. 
 
 The cession of so many castles was considered 
 treason \. It is very probable that the count, aiming 
 at becoming sovereign of Pisa upon the favour and 
 support of the Florentines, made presents in the con- 
 
 * Caff. Ann. Gen. Rer. Ital. torn. 6. 
 
 t Such was the report spread by the enemies of Count Ugolino, 
 and upon which says Dante, 
 
 Che se il Con to Ugolino aveva voce, 
 
 Di aver tradita te delle Castella, 
 
 ISon dovevi i figltuoli portt a tal croce.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 383 
 
 cessions: but, on the other hand, peace could not be 
 obtained without great sacrifices, and if the war had 
 continued, the whole of Tuscany pouring down upon 
 Pisa by land, and the victorious G.enoese by sea, her 
 total extermination would have been certain. If too it 
 is true, as fame relates, that the bottles of Verdea, (a 
 kind of white grape,) sent as a present by the count to 
 the heads of the Florentine government, were full of 
 florins of gold, this adds nothing to the supposed 
 crimes of the count, and is only another proof among 
 
 the many of the imperious power of that metal. 
 
 Human opinions are so often uncertain and 
 unjust, that the heads of the Florentine government 
 were accused of the same crime laid to the count, who, 
 having a rare and propitious opportunity of destroying 
 Pisa, and seduced probably by the gold of Ugolino, 
 had neglected it*. And, in fact, their allies, the Luc- 
 chese and Genoese, making loud complaints, it became 
 necessary to quiet the former by new concessions, and 
 Bientina, Ripafratta and Viareggio were ceded to 
 them. 
 
 The Count Ugolino, thus invested with the offices of 
 mayor and captain of the people, conferred upon him for 
 ten years, became, by the support of the Guelphs, the 
 arbiter and lord of Pisa; but his nephew, Nino Visconti, 
 judge of Gallura, although of the same party, was his 
 rival in the government, and having influence enough to 
 obtain an equal share in it, Pisa had at that time two 
 
 * Giov. Villani, lib. 7. cap. 97., says " that the Florentines pre- 
 pared in the spring to besiege Pisa, and that they were very much 
 blamed on this account," and adds " and certainly if the Floren- 
 tines had followed up this promise and vow, the city of Pisa would 
 have been taken, destroyed, and reduced to a village, as it was 
 ordained."
 
 384 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 rulers with paramount authority. But supreme power, 
 1286 ^' v ^ ec ^' nas rarei y held a government tranquil ; 
 and dangerous rivalships immediately took place 
 between the two governors. In this dispute, the nephew 
 probably perceiving that he was eclipsed in Pisa, by the 
 power of the other, had gone with his consent to govern 
 or rule over Sardinia*. But, dreading his insubordina- 
 tion, and in order to watch over his proceedings, and to 
 keep him in rein in case it became necessary, Count 
 Ugolino sent into Sardinia his son Guelf, who not only 
 took possession of the government of the feuds of his 
 own house, but of all the province Colleritana-f. This 
 event kindled more furiously the flame of discord be- 
 tween the Visconti and Gherardeschi ; their quarrels 
 threw the city and vicinity into the greatest agitation, and 
 frequently the streets of Pisa and its castles were deluged 
 with blood by the rival factions. Visconti, with his 
 party, took upon him to accuse Ugolino of resisting the 
 peace with the Genoese, by unveiling a dangerous secret, 
 forgetful, when blinded by the rage of ambition, that 
 those means had assisted both. Whilst the Guelphs of 
 Pisa were thus divided into two parties, the ancient Ghi- 
 belline faction existed in that city, which had been obliged 
 to yield to imperious circumstances, and conceal its sen- 
 timents in silence. Seeing its persecutors torn by divisions, 
 this party now took courage. It was composed for the 
 most part of the people, priests and friars, persons well 
 adapted to instil into the minds of the vulgar whatever 
 sentiments they think the most opportune. The head of 
 this party was the Archbishop Ruggero Ubaldini, who, 
 however, for a long time dissembled his sentiments, 
 
 * Frag. His. Pis. Rer. Ital. torn. 24. 
 t Ptolem. Lucan. loc. cit.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 385 
 
 shewing himself the favourer at times of the one, and 
 at times of the other rival. It would be too tedious and 
 disgusting to go minutely through the series of calami- 
 ties in which the Pisan republic was involved for nearly 
 two years : in these civil wars the two rivals were exposed 
 to various vicissitudes ; they renounced the government 
 in order to appease discords, but having once tasted the 
 cup of supreme power, they were so inebriated with it, as 
 not easily to abandon it. The grandfather and the 
 nephew, who had so often fought for the sovereignty, 
 having abandoned it, and feeling the pain of the loss, 
 became friends again, and united, in order to re-conquer 
 it by force ; for this purpose they entered with arms in 
 hand into the palace of the community, and in that of 
 the people, driving out the vice-regent Messer Guidoc- 
 cino; and the nobility, both Guelphan and Ghibelline ac- 
 companied them officiously, and consented that 
 they should re-assume the supreme power. The 
 cunning Archbishop Ruggiero, not seeing the time 
 for vengeance yet ripe, not only gave his consent to the 
 change, but, mastering his anger, was able to deny even 
 the death of his nephew, who had been killed barbarously 
 by the hands of the same Count Ugolin. This ferocious 
 old man, however, wished to be alone in the government, 
 and having re-assumed the reins with the assistance of 
 his nephew, thought of getting rid of him : the archbi- 
 shop seconded him with the view of ruining him also. 
 Ugolin had retired on purpose to his villa of Settimo, 
 that in the mean time, the sedition might break out 
 against his nephew, which the archbishop was fomenting. 
 Visconti perceived the storm rising against him, and 
 when he saw the Count Ugolin obstinate to the reite- 
 rated invitations made to him to support the common 
 cause, and foreseeing what was preparing for him, 
 VOL. I. 2 C
 
 386 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 departed suddenly from Pisa. The Count returned and 
 found they wished to give him, as companion in the 
 government, the Archbishop Ruggiero, which he refusing 
 disdainfully, the two parties took to arms, led on by their 
 respective heads, the Count and Archbishop. Much 
 blood was shed ; Ruggiero was conqueror, and the Count 
 yielding with his sons and nephews and other followers, 
 retired and fortified himself in the palace of the people ; 
 which, being also attacked by the conquerors, and fire set 
 to the gate, he was obliged to surrender himself at dis- 
 cretion. The Count Ugolin and his two sons Uguccione 
 and Count Goddo together, with two young nephews, 
 Anselmuccio son of Count Lotto, and Brigata son of 
 Count Goddo, were taken and loaded with chains. The 
 whole were shortly afterwards shut up in the tower, since 
 called of Hunger, (dellafame)*, from their fatal catas- 
 trophe, depicted in sublime and black colours by Dante. 
 The count was guilty of many crimes in face of the 
 Pisans ; his sons were less so than himself, and still less 
 his young nephews. Confounded together in the same 
 atrocious punishment, they awaken the compassion of all 
 writers ; and it is a misfortune for Pisa, that one of the 
 most sublime pieces of Italian poetry, that no polished 
 Italian is ignorant of, and which many foreigners are 
 well acquainted with, should be united with a satire upon 
 her. 
 
 A learned Pisan has employed much genius and 
 learning to swell the crimes of the unfortunate Ugolin, 
 and make him more odious than is necessary, excusing 
 
 * This tower is situated on the square now called of the Cava- 
 lieri, the remains of which form a piece of the palace where is the 
 clock, it is composed of two ancient towers united together with an 
 arch ; the part nearest to the conventual palace was the celebrated 
 tower of Hunger. -See Flam, dal Borgo, sull' 1st. Pis. diss. 11.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 387 
 
 his fellow-citizens: as we are treating of so cele- 
 
 1283 . . 
 
 brated a period of Tuscan history, it will not be ill- 
 timed to offer a few brief reflections upon it, and impar- 
 tially to give the just weight both to the crime and the 
 punishment. The first crime of which that learned writer 
 makes the count guilty, refers to the expedition prior to 
 the battle of Meloria, commanded by Ugolin himself. 
 Having found the port of Genoa without armed ships, 
 he ought, says he, to have disembarked the troops, to 
 have attacked and made himself master of the city. 
 There is little ground for this accusation, since the enter- 
 prise would have been very imprudent; nor could he 
 have expected, with the troops that were with his fleet, to 
 conquer a populous city like Genoa, full of brave people 
 and animated by national hatred. After the great 
 victory gained by the Genoese, the latter never thought 
 proper to try the conquest of Pisa, now so much dis- 
 heartened, and deprived of her best citizens. Nor is the 
 second accusation of greater weight, in which the loss of 
 the battle of Meloria is attributed to him because he ad- 
 vised it. No writer of any note imputes this blame to 
 him; the Pisans almost uniformly demanded battle*, 
 
 * All writers, both Pisan and foreigners, attest it. Flamm. dal 
 Borgo himself, although he accuses him of that crime adds : " and 
 in them (the galleys), as if they were going to a certain victory, 
 were sumptuously equipped all the flower of the nobility and Pisan 
 youth." This indicates general consent. Maragone, quoted by him 
 in proof of his opinion, says nothing of the advice to fight given by 
 the count, on the contrary, even he exaggerates the wish that the 
 Pisans had to fight ; here are his words : " Messer Oberto Moresino 
 mounted the first upon the said galleys, and the same did all the 
 rest, with such a desire to fight that it appeared to them a thousand 
 years before coming to blows, fearing they might turn back," &c. 
 It is necessary, however, to observe that this- writer is not of that 
 
 2C 2
 
 388 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 and Count Ugolino could not, among so many naval 
 warriors far more experienced than himself, have 
 an influence sufficient to make them determine 
 against a preponderating party. Morosini was mayor of 
 Pisa, a naval man, and consequently of greater authority 
 than the count ; and if the latter, at the end of the battle, 
 retired with three galleys into the port, an unseasonable 
 and useless resistance would have increased the number 
 of the Pisan prisoners. The third crime of which more 
 notice was taken in those times, and of which the greater 
 part of the historians who speak the public opinion, 
 accuse him, is, of having betrayed Pisa, by consigning 
 many of the castles of the Pisan republic to the Floren- 
 tines and the Lucchese in order to purchase peace. We 
 have already seen what weight may be given to such an ac- 
 cusation : we will only add, that with the advice of the same 
 prisoners of Genoa, full power was given to Count Ugolin 
 to conclude the peace*, and it was necessary to do so at 
 
 respectable antiquity that merits the most credit. He wrote at the 
 beginning of the sixteenth century, and is full of errors : of which we 
 will give a single example. Relating the battle of the Pisans with 
 the Genoese, in which the prelates and cardinals were taken, which 
 happened, by testimony of the Pisan, Florentine and Genoese 
 writers, in the year 1237, he makes admiral thereof, Count Ugo- 
 lino Buzzacherino ; when afterwards he relates the atrocious death 
 of Count Uggolino, he adds : " The just judgment of God, who 
 willed thus to him for having caused to die and be drowned in the 
 sea so many prelates, and for his acting against Christ." It appears 
 that he has confused one Count Ugolino with another, since the 
 Count Ugolino ofDonoratico had no part in the firstbattle of Meloria. 
 Such a writer is no great authority. Marangone has copied the 
 chronological error from Rico. Malespini, and Tronci has copied 
 from Marangone in giving the title of Count to Buzzacherini, 
 whom Villani calls Messer Ugolino. 
 
 * Ann. Genuen. C. Caff. Pisani cognoscentes se non posse re-
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 389 
 
 all events. The Lucchese and Florentines with all 
 Tuscany united by land; the Genoese conquerors by 
 sea against the Pisans alone, broken down and ruined by 
 the last misfortune, rendered the final destruction of Pisa 
 inevitable. It. can alone be doubted, that the count 
 from being favoured by the Florentines, in governing 
 Pisa, might have been a little generous with them, but it 
 was finally necessary to receive laws from the con- 
 querors. A crime far more probable is, that the 
 count prevented, as far as was in his power, the peace of 
 Pisa with Genoa : he had an interest in doing so ; the 
 peace was connected with the return of the prisoners, 
 among whom were persons of the greatest importance, 
 who would have bridled his ambitious views. In fact, he 
 was many times accused of this crime, there are, how- 
 ever, no direct proofs of it : the contrary party frequently 
 went shouting through Pisa, Death to those who do not 
 wish for peace with Genoa. Nevertheless a very ancient 
 Pisan writer affirms .no one moved, because it was per- 
 ceived the cry was raised more in order to ruin the count 
 than from any other motive*. Four of the prisoners came 
 afterwards from Genoa, bearing the conditions of peace 
 that were offered to them : these are not known, but 
 must have been very heavy: the count, with many of the 
 first citizens, would have refused it, but as it was supported 
 by the contrary party, in order to put him to shame, he 
 yielded at last, and the peace was concluded -j*. He is,, 
 
 sistere societati prsedictse, volentes suae civitatis evadere ruinam, 
 de consilio carceratorum, qui erant Januee, data est potestas et 
 plenum dominium Comiti Ugolino, &c. 
 
 * Fragm. Hist. Pis. Rer. Ital. script, t. 24. " E conoscendo li 
 Pisani che non lo facevano per pace volere, ma per confondere le 
 .Conte Ugolino, non si levonne a romore." . 
 
 t Fragm. Hist. Pis. loc. cit. " There came to Pisa Messer
 
 390 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 however, accused of having secretly hindered it by 
 causing the Genoese merchant vessels to be attacked, 
 after the agreement by the Pisan corsairs ; the 
 accusation is not without foundation : the corsairs 
 armed themselves in Caglieri and in Orestano, places 
 subjected to Count Gaddo, son of Ugolino, who was 
 in Sardinia ; hence by the connivance of the father and 
 son, and perhaps of both, the armament was made : and 
 the conjecture increases in force, since the Genoese 
 taken by the corsairs were brought into Orestano and 
 there put in prison *, what they would not have done 
 without being certain of the approbation of the 
 governor. Of this crime, which is very probable, 
 Count Ugolin could not excuse himself: although the 
 peace was very grievous to the Pisans, it was necessary 
 to make it in order to re-establish in the bosom of tran- 
 quillity, navigation and commerce, which had 
 been ruined, and to liberate so many unhappy 
 persons from a cruel imprisonment. Lastly, a kind of 
 tyranny he exercised over the Pisans, his cruelties 
 towards them, the disturbances and the tumults, are 
 his crimes which are proved by the series of events 
 
 Guglielmo of Ricoveransa to make peace between the Commune 
 and the Commune of Genoa, who had treated of the conditions with 
 the Commune of Genoa. And in order that the peace might be very 
 harsh and impossible, because Visconti was on the side of the pri- 
 soners, and wished it in order to confute and destroy Count Ugolin 
 who did not wish it, nor any of the wise men of Pisa, the Count 
 Ugolin, in order not to create a noise and call the people upon him, 
 consented to repair to a greater council in the Dome where they 
 met, and order that it should be made according to the conditions 
 entered upon with the Genoese," &c. 
 
 * Ann. Genuens. Contin. Caflar. loc. cit. Even in these annals 
 it is not positively assured that the Corsairs were armed by those 
 who did not wish, for the peace, but they make use of the words, 
 ut fertur.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 391 
 
 related. It is true that the supreme power he exercised, 
 with the title of mayor and captain of the people, was 
 not entirely a violent usurpation, because the will of 
 the Pisans concurred in it : the influence, however, of 
 his riches and his adherents made him aspire to it ; but 
 * the same has happened in every country where the 
 powerful citizens, with all the means either of force or 
 favour, hope or fear, have determined the unstable and 
 factious populace. The disposition of the Count was 
 truly sanguinary and cruel, qualities common to the 
 feudal lords of those times, the disputes, the tumults, 
 the civil battles were very frequent in all the turbulent 
 republics of Italy, and not alone in Pisa ; the ambition 
 of Ugolin, of Visconti, of the Archbishop Ruggiero, 
 placed arms in their hands ; and if in the latter contest 
 the archbishop had yielded, he would have met with 
 the fate of dying in the tower, with the name of 
 
 1288. J . 
 
 traitor; since the conquered are always in the 
 wrong. The discreet and impartial reader, from the 
 observations here made, has before him a just view of 
 the criminality .of Count Ugolin, and may judge whether 
 the punishment was correspondent to it. The atrocity 
 of the punishment will not be lessened at all, even 
 adopting the story of an uncertain author, who asserts 
 that a fine of 20,000 lire was imposed upon the impri- 
 soned family, with privation of food until they had 
 paid it ; nor will any sensible person, I think, believe, 
 that, able as they were to pay it, they chose rather to 
 die of so cruel a death *. The most respectable writers, 
 
 * Mur. Rer. Ital. Script, torn. 14. Frag. 1st. Pis. The narration 
 of the fine comes from an author, whose name is neither known, 
 nor the age in which he wrote. If, however, as it appears, the 
 whole of the code referred to by Muratori with an interruption, 
 was written by the same author, he lived after the year 1337,
 
 392 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 either Pisan or Florentine, uniformly mention the dolefal 
 occurrence as it is generally known. The Pisan writer 
 has been more successful in shewing, that the sons, and 
 even the nephews of Count Ugolin, were not innocent 
 children; a circumstance probably imagined by Dante 
 in order to increase the pathos of his tale. The whole 
 of the family of the Counts of Donoratico did not perish 
 in that tower; the Count Lotto was still prisoner in 
 Genoa, and Count Gaddo, governor of a province in 
 Sardinia, besides other nephews, whose vicissitudes are 
 detailed at length by the historiographers of Pisa, and 
 of that illustrious and unfortunate family, whose ruin, 
 instead of bringing peace to Pisa, kindled against her a 
 fiercer war, the Florentines marching on one side to 
 revenge their friend and ally, and on the other the 
 Lucchese, who had been joined by Nino Visconti, judge 
 of Gallura, a fugitive from Pisa. The latter occupied 
 the castle of Asciano, and in the mean time the other 
 outlaws devastated the country, spreading everywhere 
 desolation and terror. 
 
 down to which year he comes, and therefore less respectable than 
 Guido da Carvara, a contemporary writer with Count Ugolin and 
 inhabitant of Pisa, who relating how the Count with his son was 
 thrown into prison, and died there of hunger, does not speak of 
 the pecuniary fine. Mur. loc. cit. Something analogous to the 
 story of the anonymous writer is mentioned by Bartolommeo of 
 Lucca, Rer. Ital. torn. 11. An. Dom. 1288. " Dominus Ugolinus 
 capitur a Pisanus, favente e coadjuvante Archiepiscopocum niultis 
 clericis, cum duobus filiis Gaddo e Brigata et uno nepute Henrico 
 ponuntur in carcere, ibique post longam extorsionem pecuniarum 
 fame ibidem pereunt." To deny credit to Giov. Villani because 
 he is a Guelphan, and enemy of Pisa, is an injustice : this writer, 
 instead of defending Count Ugolin, regards him as a traitor, upon 
 the common opinion, for which we have seen how little foundation 
 there was ; hence he deserves credit when he speaks of his punish- 
 ment. ViU. lib. 7. cap. 120, 127.
 
 ^ HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 393 
 
 Of the three principal republics of Tuscany, Florence, 
 Pisa and Sienna we have already frequently seen the 
 two former agitated by jealousy and pre-eminence of 
 government. Sienna was not less so, nor did she less 
 rapidly change her political constitution. As in these 
 times very essential changes took place, it becomes neces- 
 sary to connect the principal of them together in a 
 short picture. 
 
 In the beginning the government of the Siennese 
 republic was in the hands of gentlemen, (Gentiluomini). 
 They might have preserved it in stability, if discords on 
 account of the Guelph and Ghibelliue factions had not 
 divided them. Each of the factions, in order to make itself 
 stronger, endeavoured to draw over to its party a portion 
 of the people, and having often come to arms taught the 
 common people by experience, that they possessed the 
 power, if they had the wish, to make themselves masters 
 of the government. They began to ask it peaceably ; 
 neither party dared to oppose them, and they received 
 the people into the government, who at the first parti- 
 cipated only of the third share, creating instead of two, 
 three consuls, one of whom was taken from the body of 
 the people. The General Council of the nobles was 
 formed of one hundred persons, nor could more than 
 one person for a house be admitted ; five families alone, 
 being very numerous, viz., the Piccolomini, Tolomei, 
 Malevolti, Salimbeni, and Saracini, were permitted to 
 have two. In that reform, however, wishing to preserve 
 the same proportion, fifty of the people were added to 
 the hundred gentlemen*. The people knowing their 
 strength, and having tasted the pleasure of governing, 
 after some time wished for a larger share, and shewing 
 
 * Malov. Istor. Sene. frag. 1. lib. 3.
 
 394 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 themselves ready to make pretensions to it by force, 
 they obtained it peaceably. The authority of the 
 consuls by the introduction of the mayor, (as we have 
 seen already,) was very diminished ; it was determined 
 that twenty-four persons should be the rulers, chosen 
 indifferently from the nobles or people, who were to be 
 renewed every year. This appears to have happened 
 about the year 1232, to these were afterwards added 
 twelve others. The gentlemen did not much like this 
 diminution of authority, and by their quarrels and 
 insults irritated the people still more, who taking greater 
 courage finally drove out the nobility entirely from the 
 government, in the year 1280. The magistracy of 
 thirty-six appeared to the reformers too numerous, both 
 on account of the difficulty of being all of one accord, 
 and the necessary secrecy in affairs, and it was reduced 
 to fifteen, called governors and defenders of the com- 
 munity and people of Sienna. Even this number was 
 thought afterwards too extensive, consequently, four 
 years afterwards it was reduced to nine; and this is 
 the origin of the celebrated magistracy, or Mountain of 
 Nine, (Monte di Nove). It was agreed, for the neces- 
 sary ex{>edition of affairs, that they should inhabit the 
 same palace, and the period of their government was 
 not to exceed two months. From the magistracy of the 
 nine supreme rulers of the republic, (such was the dread 
 and jealousy of the powerful), were not only excluded 
 the nobility, but the citizens and merchants who were 
 too rich, the doctors and notaries. This was the 
 government that was fixed in these times, that is, in the 
 year 1284; it long maintained itself amidst continual 
 agitations, some of the principal of which will be 
 explained in their place. 
 
 Charles of Naples now died, a dangerous enemy of
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 395 
 
 the Florentines. He had experienced both prosperous 
 and adverse fortune ; favoured by her in battle, he sub- 
 dued two powerful kings, Manefroi and Conradin, and 
 gained the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily whilst he was 
 still Lord of Provence, and held great influence over 
 the Florentine republic. Fortune, however, changing 
 cohered his last days with bitterness. He saw himself 
 hated by his subjects; lost Sicily where all his men 
 were put to death in the most horrible manner; was 
 deluded by Peter of Arragon, who after having wrested 
 Sicily from him, treated him with contempt, by 
 making him go uselessly to Bordeaux to the con- 
 certed challenge, to which the former had feigned to 
 adhere in order to gain an important time ; and to this 
 was added the captivity of his eldest son, in the battle 
 that this imprudent young man accepted from Ruggieri 
 Loria. Charles died amidst the agitations of prepa- 
 ratives for his revenge ; a great example of the variety 
 of fortune, and a useful lesson to governors, since he 
 owed a great part of his misfortunes to his own cruelties. 
 His son was proclaimed King of Puglia, but after 
 having saved his own life with great trouble, amidst the 
 irritated Sicilians, was sent prisoner into Spain; the 
 rival of Charles, King Peter of Arragon, died also at this 
 time. Alphonzo, his eldest son, succeeded him in the 
 kingdom of Arragon, and James his second son, in that 
 of Sicily.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 REPUBLIC OF AREZZO. POWER OF THE BISHOPS. EX- 
 PULSION OF THE GUELPHS FROM THE CITY. WAR BE- 
 TWEEN THE FLORENTINES AND SIENNESE. BATTLE OF 
 CAMPALDINO. WAR BETWEEN THE FLORENTINES AND 
 THE PISANS. CAPTURE OF CALCINAIA AND OF PORTO 
 PISAJVO. CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT IN FLORENCE. 
 PEACE WITH THE PISANS. 
 
 ANOTHER republic in Tuscany had begun to be dis- 
 tinguished, and to display her power against the 
 ' Florentines. 
 
 Arezzo, according to the dubious records of ancient 
 history, wa3 respectable among the Etrurian cities, pow- 
 erful during the greatness of the Roman republic, and 
 particularly so in the second Punic war*; was involved 
 in the common misfortunes when the Gothic and Lom- 
 bard invasion spread desolation and ignorance over Italy, 
 and began to rise again under the conqueror of the Lom- 
 bards, Charlemagne. That pious and powerful sovereign, 
 ruler of so large a portion of the globe, and who, conse- 
 quently, gave away whole provinces, as well as cities and 
 castles, who was at the same time so generous to the 
 altar, particularly distinguished the Aretine church, when 
 he honoured the city of Arezzo with his presence. 
 He appears on that occasion to have made mag- 
 nificent presents to. the bishops, among the rest, probably 
 the city of Cortona, which long remained subject to him 
 (the bishop), both in her spiritual and temporal govern- 
 
 * Tit. Liv.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 397 
 
 nient*. In the following ages the Aretine bishop became 
 one of the most powerful lords, not only of Tuscany, but 
 of all Italy; his secular dominions were immense, ex- 
 tending from the Tiber to Montalcino, from the Alps of 
 Bagno to Trasimeno; so that they comprehended the 
 half of the Casentine, of the upper valley of the Arno, 
 (Valdarno,) of Chianti, a considerable part of the terri- 
 tory of Sienna as far as within two miles of the city, 
 Pienza, Montalcino, Cortona, Montepulciano, with all 
 the valley of Chiana, the captainship of Arezzo, the 
 vicarage of Anghiari, and part of the modern diocese of 
 St. Sepulchre f. The bishop held not an absolute em- 
 pire over Arezzo, which pretended to govern herself as a 
 republic, and elected her mayors and other rulers ; but 
 his power and riches would have given him an influence 
 almost sovereign, had he possessed sufficient political 
 talents. The bishop was, moreover, prince of the empire, 
 and thus, uniting the spiritual with the temporal power, 
 he became the person best adapted to govern those 
 people, and keep them in allegiance. Cortona rebelled 
 from her lord about the year 1230, and for nearly twenty- 
 six years maintained herself independent : the admoni- 
 tions and ecclesiastical threats, thundered from Rome 
 against the Gortonese, were tried in vain to recall them 
 to the ancient government, until a man succeeded to that 
 seat, who employed force in lieu of the weak ecclesias- 
 tical arms. 
 
 The bold young William (Guglielmino) Ubertini was 
 a prelate more fitted, according to the testimony of a 
 contemporary writer J, to wield the sword than to wear 
 
 * Guazzesi, dell' ant. Dom. del. Viscovo d'Arezzo. 
 
 t Guazz. loc. cit. 
 
 J Dino Compagni. The bishop, who was better acquainted with 
 the business of war than of the church, &c. Cron. Rer. Ital. Script, 
 tom.
 
 398 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 the gown. Ill brooking the rebellion of Cortona, in 
 1258, he collected a numerous body of troops, and as- 
 sisted by the community of Arezzo, and Astoldo, of the 
 Rossi family, the mayor, he inarched upon Cortona; 
 and penetrating into it, either by open force, or nocturnal 
 stratagem, carried dismay ; destroyed the walls and the 
 fortresses. The first class of citizens fled to Castiglione 
 del Lago ; but that population, from a timid policy, not 
 receiving them, they were obliged to live for a long time 
 under tents *. The Florentines looked upon such a con- 
 quest with an evil eye, and perhaps would have attempted 
 some enterprise against the bishop of Arezzo, 
 whom they perceived to be of the Ghibelline party ; 
 but the dread of this faction, which was still increasing 
 through the influence of the King Manefroi, the fear of 
 the Siennese, and the defeat of Monteaperti, prevented 
 them from succouring the exiles, who, finally, in the year 
 1261, returned to Cortona, and quietly acknowledged 
 the dominion of the bishop of Arezzo f- 
 
 During his long government of that church, young 
 William (Guglielmino) continued of the Ghibelline party; 
 and although sometimes according to the circuitous roads 
 which the heads of governments are obliged to take 
 from interest, he evinced an inclination to the Guelphs, 
 nevertheless, whenever he could follow his own wishes, 
 he promoted the interests of the Ghibellines. Thus when 
 Florence, Sienna, and the greater part of Tuscany, fol- 
 lowed the Guelph party, he made a strong castle rebel, 
 in 1286, from the Siennese, called the hill of St. Cecilia, 
 and maintained it with such vigour, that the forces of 
 the Florentines and Siennese which were united to con- 
 
 Giov. Vill. lib. 6. cap. 6. Guazz. loc. cit. 
 t Guazz. loc. cit.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 399 
 
 quer it, consumed no less than five months ; after which 
 the rebels, despairing of pardon, attempted to escape 
 by night, but many of them were taken, put to death, 
 and the castle was destroyed *. This useless attempt ex- 
 cited great noise throughout Tuscany, ruled by the 
 Guelphan party, whence it may be supposed the bishop 
 was blamed too by the Aretine government, which fol- 
 lowing the fate of other cities, was governed by B the 
 Guelphs with popularity under a ruler called the prior 
 of the people, who kept down the power of the great. 
 Hence must have arisen the change of Arezzo, in the 
 year following 1287, in which the bishop, taking ad- 
 vantage of the period of the death of the Pontiff Hono- 
 rius, and of King Charles, having joined the Ghibellines 
 of the city, and the powerful lords of the country, drove 
 the Guelphs from Arezzo, taking into his own hands the 
 supreme power of that republic. These changes were 
 not effected without blood, and the unfortunate prior, 
 perhaps in recompense for his justice and impartiality, 
 had his eyes taken outf- 
 
 The Florentines, moved by this blow which proved to 
 them that the enemies' faction was increasing in strength 
 every day, thought they ought no longer to dissimulate 
 with the bishop, and the community of Arezzo, and de- 
 termined upon war. The Aretines engaged in it with a 
 courage that approached to imprudence J, since they 
 had to contend both with the Florentines, and Siennese, 
 and were even the first to commence hostilities, scouring 
 the neighbourhood of Monte Varchi, and according to 
 
 * Giov.Vill.lib. 7. c. 109. 
 
 f Giov. Vill. loc. cit. 
 
 t It is on this account that Dante has called them Battoli, that 
 
 is, little dogs : 
 
 Ringhiosi pui che non cbiede lor possa.
 
 400 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 the ruinous method of making war in those times, 
 burning and laying waste the country ; whence they en- 
 tered the Siennese territory, drove the Guelphs from 
 Chiusi, and restored it to the Ghibelline faction. The 
 Florentines, no longer able to support such insults, took 
 up arms, and called from the cities of the Guelphan con- 
 federation, all the troops which, by the convention of the 
 Taglia, they were obliged to keep in pay. With the aid 
 therefore of Sienna, Lucca, Pistoia, Prato, Volterra, and 
 the other cities and confederated lords, they collected the 
 greatest army since that of the unfortunate battle of 
 Monteaperti, and marched towards Arezzo; pitching 
 their camp at Laterine, a very strong castle, and got pos- 
 session of it in eight days by the treachery of Captain 
 Lasso. The Aretines, not having strength to cope 
 with them, remained shut up within their walls ; the con- 
 federate troops arrived, and finding no opposition, devas- 
 tated the country, and, by way of insult, on the eve of 
 St. John the Baptist, run their races before one of 
 
 1288. . . , 
 
 their gates, as they were wont to do in the quiet 
 occupation of Florence. They did not, however, venture 
 to attack the town ; and, after devastations, and confla- 
 grations, retreated towards their own city. The Siennese 
 separated themselves from the Florentines, and took the 
 road of Val di Chiana. The Aretines, getting know- 
 ledge of this division of the army, marched rapidly after 
 the Siennese with not more than three hundred horse 
 and two hundred foot, and waiting for them at the pass 
 of the Pieve al Toppo, attacked and routed them, made 
 many prisoners of the principal families of Sienna, and 
 their leader, Rinuccio Farnese, was killed*. The power 
 
 * Giov. Vill. lib. 7. cap. 119. Malav. 1st. di Sienna, par. 2. lib. 
 3. Cron. Sanens. Rer. Ital. torn. 15. Dino Compa. lib. 1.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 401 
 
 and courage of the Aretines continued to increase after 
 that Pisa, having putUgolin to death, and returned Ghi- 
 belline, joined them. Many inroads were made by the 
 Aretines, and the Florentines with reciprocal losses ; the 
 two armies remained inactive in front of each other, near 
 Laterine, divided by the Arno, whence the Are- 
 
 1289. 
 
 tines being dislodged, sent a body of light troops 
 by the road of Bibbiena, and Casentino, which rushed 
 into the valley of Sceve, (Val di Sceve), scattering such 
 terror amongst the Florentines, that they speedily 
 recalled their army*. This war continued for some 
 time, and the country was everywhere laid waste. 
 
 In the mean time, Charles II., King of Naples, who 
 had come out of prison, passed through Florence ; and 
 after being received with the highest honours by the 
 Florentines, as son of their great ally, prosecuted his 
 journey towards Naples. The Aretines thought of 
 attempting a bold stroke, by imprisoning King Charles, 
 who was considered as an enemy, and was travelling 
 with a small escort : for this purpose they silently put in 
 motion a resolute and active body of troops. The Floren- 
 tines, however, getting tidings of it, and having assem- 
 bled a sufficient force in the greatest haste, joined the 
 King, and escorted him in safety as far as the Siennese 
 confines. The animosities ex cited by reciprocal offences had 
 increased to such a degree between these two rival cities, 
 as to occasion various bloody rencontres. The Floren- 
 tines collected a numerous body of troops, and received 
 succours both from the confederate cities, and Bologna 
 and Romacrna. Americ of Narbonne commanded the 
 
 o 
 
 army, a general given them by King Charles : the army 
 
 * Giov. Vill. 1st. lib. 7. cap. 23. Leonard. Bruni, Hist. Flor. 
 lib. 3. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 D
 
 402 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 of the Aretines, inferior in number, at least, by one third, 
 had the brave Bishop Guglielmino at their head, with 
 the troops of their friends Count Guido Novello, at that 
 time mayor of Arezzo, Buon Conte of Montefeltro, and 
 Guglielmino of the Pazzi family. The Florentines made 
 a feint of approaching Arezzo by the Valley of the Arno 
 (Val. D' Arno) having planted their standards at Ripoli 
 on the 1 3th of May ; but on the 2d of June, having 
 suddenly transported them to the right bank of the 
 Arno, the army moved towards Casentino to attack the 
 castles of the count : the Aretine bishop, in order to 
 defend Bibbiena, marched his troops on the same side ; 
 the two armies met near Poppi a Certomondo, and the 
 Aretines, although inferior in number, did not refuse 
 battle, which was given them in the plain called Cam- 
 paldino on the llth of June. The Florentines were 
 routed in the onset, and although by their number they 
 made amends for the extraordinary ferocity of their 
 enemy ; terror and confusion was spread through their 
 ranks to a degree that they were about to give way, and 
 would have suffered a total defeat, had it not been for 
 the courage and resolution of Corso Donati. The body 
 of reserve of horse and foot, particularly from Lucca 
 and Pistoia, where he was mayor, had been confided to 
 him : but the general, knowing his natural ferocity and 
 impatience, had forbidden him, under penalty of his 
 head, to accept battle without an express order. In the 
 ardour and confusion of the conflict, it appears the 
 general forgot this body*. Donati stood firm 
 for some time under the restraint of vigorous 
 
 * In the famous battle of Pavia, the Viceroy Lenay forgot to 
 order a considerable body of troops to enter into the fight. See 
 Robertson's History of Charles V.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 403 
 
 orders; but seeing the Florentines upon the eve of being 
 defeated, and that no directions were sent to him, he 
 chose rather to run the risk of being condemned than 
 fail in duty towards his country; and haranguing his 
 troops in bold language, he darted upon the enemy, 
 who, in the arclour and expectation of approaching 
 victory, had suffered his troops to widen their ranks 
 even to excess : this corps not only re-animated the 
 combat, but threw the Aretines into complete disorder. 
 The latter had also a body of reserve, commanded by 
 Count Guido Novello, which they ordered to enter into 
 battle ; but this man, who, in the affair near Colle and 
 in other places, had given but little proofs of valour, 
 belied not his character even here, and either thinking 
 affairs lost, or wishing to spare his troops, he abandoned 
 the Aretines, and retired to his castles. 
 
 Disheartened by this defection, the Aretines were 
 completely routed : the fierce Bishop Guglielmino, after 
 having borne the character of an excellent general and 
 soldier, chose not to survive his defeat, and died fighting 
 valiantly*. The custom, or rather the abuse of those 
 times, which tolerated the use of arms in ecclesi- 
 astics, may serve as some excuse for the bishop f. It 
 cannot be denied that he possessed political and military 
 
 * Although brave, the bishop had a great defect as a general, 
 that is, short sight. The shields of the Florentine soldiers had a 
 white ground: he asked what walls are those? He was answered, 
 " the shields of the enemy." Dino Comp. Cron. 
 
 f The abuse was such, that war being made by the pope against 
 the sons of Frederic II., the Archbishop of Mayence refusing to 
 take arms, upon the excuse that they were not fit for a priest, was 
 deprived of the benefit of the church by the pope. Rer. Magun. 
 lib. 5. 
 
 2D2
 
 404 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 talents ; age had neither broken down his vigour nor his 
 warlike courage *. Arezzo was never greater than under 
 him ; he had raised her to a degree of power to strike 
 terror into the republics of Florence and Sienna. Many 
 of the chiefs of the same army, Gugliehno de' Pazzi, with 
 two of his nephews Bonconto of Montefeltro, &c., 
 followed the fate of the bishop f. Various other per- 
 sonages of note were slain, and about 2,000 soldiers, 
 besides prisoners. On the side of the Florentines the 
 number is not mentioned. In this battle, the most 
 sanguinary that had happened in Tuscany since 
 that of Monteaperti, the poet Dante fought in 
 the Florentine army, and in his verses, more than once 
 makes mention of the persons who distinguished them- 
 
 * He governed the church of Arezzo for forty years: it is to 
 be supposed that he was elected bishop at an age little below thirty, 
 whence when he fought in Campaldino he must have been, at least, 
 in his seventieth year. 
 
 f His body could not be found. Dante, who feigns to find his 
 shade in Purgatory (Canto 5} speaks to him thus: 
 
 qual forza, o qnal Ventura 
 
 Ti travio si fuor di Campaldino 
 
 Che DOD si seppe mai tua sepoltura ? 
 
 Oh, rispos 'egli, a pie del Casentino 
 
 Traversa un* acqua, che ha nome 1' Archiano, 
 
 Che sovra 1' Ermo nasce in Appennino. 
 
 La' ve'l vocabol suo diventa vano, 
 
 Arriva' in, forato nella gola, 
 
 Fuggeudo sempre e insanguinaudo '1 piano. 
 
 Quivi perdei la vista e la parola . , . . . 
 
 Ben sai come nell' aer si raccoglie 
 
 Quell 'timido vapor, che in acqua riede, 
 
 Tosto che giunge dove '1 freddo il coglie ..... 
 
 Lo Corpo mio gelato in sulla foce 
 
 Trovd 1' Archian rubesto ; e quel sospinse 
 
 Nell' Arno, e sciolse al mio petto la eroce, 
 
 < 'li 'in fe di mi-, quando '1 dolor mi vinse : 
 
 Voltommi per le ripe, a per lo fondo, 
 
 Poi di sua preda mi coperse e ciose.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 405 
 
 selves in it *. The conquering army did not choose to 
 leave strong places behind them in the hands of the 
 enemy, and delayed eight days in arriving at Arezzo; a 
 delay which probably prevented them getting possession of 
 that city, which was not only disheartened by this great 
 defeat, but almost laid open, since a considerable part 
 of the walls was wanting. Collecting here what troops 
 survived the battle, and knowing that the general salva- 
 tion depended upon defending that line of wall, the 
 Aretines speedily filled up, with bars and beams, the 
 piece wanting in the walls, and intrepid alike in the face of 
 attack as in assault, made the most obstinate resistance f. 
 In vain did the Florentines attempt to enter the city, by 
 setting fire to the wooden part of the walls ; the aperture 
 was defended with extraordinary valour; and the besieged 
 making a sortie, even burnt the principal machines of 
 war of the enemy, who was obliged to retire . 
 
 The city of Florence that had been in the greatest 
 apprehension , never rejoiced so much for any victory. 
 The army re-entered Florence in triumph ; among the 
 other trophies the shield and helmet of Guglielmino were 
 borne in public, and suspended at the supposed temple 
 of Mars, or at St. John's [], where they remained until the 
 
 * Vill. lib. 7. cap. 130. Dino. Comp. Cron. Leonardo Bruni Hist. 
 Fior. lib. 4. Cron. Sanes. Rer. Ital. torn. 15. 
 
 t The Florentines, wishing to insult the deceased leader of the 
 Aretines, with the machines used in those times, flung into the city 
 an ass with a mitre on his head. 
 
 J Vill. Leon. Bruni, lib. 4. 
 
 The fable of the Priors, who were asleep, awakened by an 
 unknown voice, which announced to them the victory before the 
 advice arrived, sufficiently shows the anxiety in which the city was 
 placed. 
 
 || Bruni His. lib. 3. Guazzesi of the ancient dominion of the 
 bishop of Arezzo, &c.
 
 406 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 time of the Grand Duke Cosimo III, who caused an 
 eternal monument of the abuse of arms, which was made 
 by the ecclesiastics, to be removed from the public eye. 
 The greater part of the people went out to meet them 
 in festive attire, together with the ecclesiastics in solemn 
 procession. Although the Aretines defended themselves 
 in the line of their walls, this loss gave a great blow to 
 their power, and was to them what the defeat of Meloria 
 had been to the Pisans. The Florentines attempted, at 
 various times, both by treachery and arms to 
 occupy Arezzo, but always in vain. At one time 
 they received secret intelligence, that the gates were to 
 be opened to them. They marched immediately, and 
 had arrived at Civitella, where one of the conspirators 
 having fallen from a precipice, confessed the conspiracy 
 in his dying words to his confessor, who revealed it to 
 Messer Tarlato, and thus it failed*. Count Guido 
 Novello alone paid the penalty of his defection, as the 
 Florentine army occupied and pillaged his estates of 
 Poppi, Castel S. Angelo, Chiazzolo, Cietica and Mon- 
 tauto of Val d' Arno. The war was carried on with 
 mutual losses, particularly to the Aretines, whose country 
 was every where laid waste. 
 
 Having humbled the power of Arezzo, the Florentines 
 
 turned their attention towards the Pisans, the allies of 
 
 the Aretines. The Florentines were joined by the Luc- 
 
 chese and Genoese. Although the Pisans were not 
 
 sufficiently strong to cope with so many enemies, they 
 
 continued to insult them with considerable success, 
 
 from the ability of their leader Count Guido of 
 
 Montefeltro. History presents us only with trifling 
 
 actions of countries laid waste, and castles taken and 
 
 * Vill. lib. 7. c. 137. Bruni, lib. 4.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 407 
 
 lost. Amongst these events, the capture of Calcinaia is 
 distinguished by some particular circumstance. This 
 place was occupied by the outlawed Pisans, and particu- 
 larly by the family Upezzinghi. Count Guido had 
 held a secret correspondence with some persons of the 
 castle. A body of troops having approached it by night, 
 and secretly passing the ditch that surrounded it, began 
 to scale the walls : the partisans within the castle hastened 
 to shut outside the greater part of the doors of the 
 houses, in order that the people of the place might not 
 go out. Walter Upezzinghi, hastening to the defence, 
 was struck by a lance, the castle was taken, and the 
 Upezzinghi led prisoners to Pisa with many other 
 Guelphs, part of whom were shut up in the Tower 
 
 of Hunger. The negligence of Walter occasioned 
 this loss and his own death. In the evening preceding 
 it a letter was handed to him, in which he was advised 
 of the conspiracy. He was playing at the royal table, 
 or at chess; put it in his pocket without opening it, and 
 forgot it ; it was afterwards found sealed in the pockets 
 
 of the deceased, and the writing served to discover 
 
 1292 
 
 the traitor, who was one of the elders of Pisa, 
 and was in consequence beheaded*. 
 
 Whilst the Florentines on one side, and the Lucchese, 
 united with the Genoese, on the other, were attacking 
 the Pisan territory, a Ligurian squadron, led on by Henry 
 of the seas, (Arrigo de' mari,) attacked the Pisan port, 
 destroyed the towers, and endeavoured to block up the 
 harbour with boats laden with stone. The enmities 
 
 * The letter was without a signature ; but, as the treaty was 
 known to these alone, Count Guido, by keeping the letter secret, 
 found a pretext to make all the elders write, and thus discovered 
 the guilty. Marang. Cron. di Pisa. Tronci. Ann. Pis.
 
 408 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 between these two rival nations had arrived to such a 
 pitch, that one of the towers being near falling, from 
 being cut at the foundation, and only propped up, the 
 defenders that were shut in it, being advised of it, and 
 receiving a summons to surrender, chose rather to die 
 under the ruins than fall alive into the hands of the 
 enemy *. 
 
 The Aretines and Pisans being beaten, and the fear 
 of external enemies having abated in Florence, internal 
 disturbances began anew. The provisions made 
 by the people in the past revolutions had not been 
 sufficient to restrain the overbearance of the great, the 
 wars in particular that were carried on with their counsel 
 and assistance rendered them daring, as victory made 
 them proud and superior to the laws. Thus it happened 
 at this epoch. They insulted with open insolence, and 
 domineered not only over the lower orders, but even the 
 honest citizens ; molested their property, and used vio- 
 lence towards them f- Before them the laws were 
 silent ; there was neither criminal or civil judge who 
 dared to call them to account, nor any one who bore 
 testimony against them. Giano della Bella, of the 
 class of the people, being insulted in vulgar terms by 
 Berto Frescobaldi, one of the great, held a council, toge- 
 ther with many of the first citizens, in order to deliberate 
 upon the manner of putting a bridle upon them ; and it 
 was resolved, that the present was the most opportune 
 moment, when the great were disunited by private enmi- 
 ties. Thus the change was easily executed : such was 
 the power of the people that the great did not dare to 
 
 * Ann. Genuens. Rer. Ital.tom. 6. Marang. Cron. Pis. Tronci. 
 Ann. Pis. 
 
 t Diuo. Comp. Crom. lib. 1. Gio. Vill. loc. cit. Amm.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 409 
 
 oppose them. It was determined that the priors 
 should be elected from among the tradesmen who 
 
 o 
 
 really exercised any trade ; that it was not sufficient to 
 have caused a name to be described in a matricular book : 
 hence the great were deprived of this office. The im- 
 portance of the reform, however, consisted in the crea- 
 tion of a mayor, or gonfaloniere, whom the priors, by 
 plurality of votes, were to elect from twelve citizens, two 
 for every sixth part. The period of the duration of 
 this magistracy was fixed at two months, so that in the 
 course of the year the office fell by rotation upon 
 every sixth part ; and the priors and the gonfalo- 
 niere could not be elected from any one family at the 
 same time*. When necessity required it, the gonfalo- 
 niere was to be ready to cause the bell to be rung, and 
 exhibiting the standard or banner formed of white, with 
 a large red cross, assembling a thousand infantry, (which 
 was afterwards increased to four thousand,) he should 
 cause justice to be carried into execution. 
 
 Thus by degrees, and almost piece by piece, the Flo- 
 rentine government proceeded in forming itself according 
 as the republic was governed by experience ; hence 
 finally the celebrated magistracy of the priors, with the 
 gonfaloniere at their head. If the reform had 
 
 S3 ' stopped here, it would have been well ; but as 
 hitherto the crimes of the great could be proved with 
 difficulty ; it was therefore ordered that the public voice 
 and report, attested by two witnesses, alone was sufficient 
 to prove it, and that one companion should be held 
 responsible for the other. At the same time two drums 
 were established, one at the palace of the mayor, the 
 other at that of the captain of the people, where it was 
 
 * Gio. Vill. Macchiav. 1st. Fior. lib. 2. . Bruni. His. Flor. lib. 4.
 
 410 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 lawful for any one to attach accusations against the 
 great. The injustice of this law is evident to all persons 
 of common sense. The criminal code is the thermo- 
 meter of a good or bad legislation, when well governed 
 and impartially executed, it is the palladium of true 
 liberty, both personal and politic ; but this was not to be 
 found in Florence. Hence factious tumults arose so 
 frequently, in order that parties might gain greater 
 strength against the great. 
 
 The peace with the Pisans was accelerated by the new 
 
 government. The following were a few of the 
 
 conditions : a mutual restitution of prisoners ; the 
 Florentines and their allies to be exonerated from duties 
 in Pisa ; the fortifications of Pontedera to be dismantled, 
 and Count Guido obliged to leave Pisa, whereby the 
 Florentines paid a tacit homage to the valour of the man 
 they feared : to which was added, that the Pisans for 
 some years were not to elect a mayor or ruler, except 
 
 from the estates of the Florentines or their allies; 
 
 finally, that the estates should be restored to the 
 judge of Gallura and the other Guelphs, who were per- 
 mitted to return to their country*. 
 
 With the last change in the Florentine government, 
 the powerful body of the great had received a wound in 
 its most sensible part, as they were not employed, like 
 the rest of the city, in commerce. The lust of com- 
 mand was their idol ; and they had been deprived of the 
 means of satisfying it, particularly by the work of Giano 
 della Bella. This man, who was just in his intentions, 
 frank and loyal, was attacked with low machinations and 
 the most vile cabals, the account of which, as given by 
 his friend Compagni, excite disgust. Besides the hatred 
 
 * Gio. Vill. lib. 8. cap. 2. Tronci, Marang.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 411 
 
 of the great, he had incurred the jealousy and envy of 
 his own order, on account of the authority and consi- 
 deration he acquired in the last reform : the only persons 
 that were attached to him were the common people, who 
 had often felt the benefit of the protection of the laws ; 
 but this description of people, from their necessities and 
 want of education, is the most changeable. 
 
 In a dispute between the followers of Corso Donati 
 and of Simoni of Galastrone an homicide was com- 
 mitted, and many were wounded ; the act was generally 
 attributed to Corso, or to his bullies. A process being 
 made, the attestation of the witnesses was falsified by 
 one of the ministers, and the deceived mayor pardoned 
 Corso. The people would not suffer this, and collecting 
 in numbers hastened to the house of Giano della Bella, 
 author of the reform, and urged him to order it to be 
 carried into execution. Giano sent them back to the 
 gonfaloniere, who held the executive power. The people, 
 in their unreasonable fury, sacked the palace of the 
 mayor, and in the midst of these tumults Corso found an 
 opportunity of saving himself by concealment. 
 But the enemies of Giano, who waited for him at 
 every step, took the opportunity of accusing him of 
 tumult, as if he had encouraged the people to sedition, 
 instead of advising them to lay down their arms, made 
 a formal accusation against him. The two parties of 
 the great and the rich among the people, although ene- 
 mies among themselves, were united in enmity towards 
 him, and prepared to support the accusation by arms. 
 He enjoyed the protection of the humbler classes of the 
 people ; and, although he might have defended himself, 
 Giano did not think fit to have recourse to this dan- 
 gerous remedy, chose rather to go into voluntary banish- 
 ment; and the people, whose defender he had been,
 
 412 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 saw him depart indeed with sorrow, but did not stir*. 
 The punishment being confirmed and aggravated by his 
 enemies, and even approved by the pontiff, gave courage 
 to the nobility to resume their ancient condition. Their 
 hopes were increased by seeing a division between the 
 rich citizens, who held the government in their hands, 
 and who, from the disgrace of Giano, had the humbler 
 classes of the people for their enemies. In the mean 
 time they sent a pacific supplication to the priors, that 
 they might be pleased to annul the provisions made 
 against them ; but in order to give them greater weight, 
 they had joined and had given arms to many of their 
 adherent citizens and ruffians. The enraged people then 
 took to arms, and the two parties, ready to engage, were 
 already in front of each other, when some of the more 
 prudent citizens interfered to appease them, nor could 
 the great obtain other conditions than that the witnesses 
 in the accusations against them were to be three instead 
 of two ; a trifling remedy, which was also afterwards 
 annulled f. 
 
 * Dino. Comp. Cron. lib. 1. Giov. Vill. lib. 8. cap. 8. 
 
 f Giov. Vill. lib. 8. cap. 12. Ammir. lib. 4. Macchiav. 1st. 
 lib. 2. This tumult might have been doubted from not being 
 spoken of by Dino Campagni, who lived and was among the 
 actors; but his chronicle, however true and even minute, some- 
 tim/es leaves out facts.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE ERECTION OF MAGNIFICENT EDIFICES IN FLORENCE. 
 THIRD ENCLOSURE OF WALLS. SUPERIORITY OF THE 
 FLORENTINES IN COMMERCE AND LETTERS. FACTION 
 OF THE BIANCHI AND THE NERI IN PISTOIA. PISTOIA 
 SURRENDERS TO THE FLORENTINES. THE GHIBELLINES 
 JOIN THE BIANCHI, THE GUELPHS THE NERI. ENTRANCE 
 OF CHARLES OF VALO1S INTO FLORENCE. POWER GIVEN 
 HIM TO REFORM THE GOVERNMENT. EXILE OF THE 
 BIANCHI. ROBERT, DUKE OF CALABRIA, IS CALLED BY 
 THE GUELPHS TO FLORENCE. DEATH OF CORSO DONATI. 
 DISTURBANCES IN THE OTHER REPUBLICS OF TUS- 
 CANY. DESCENT OF THE EMPEROR HENRY VII. UPON 
 ITALY. ARRIVES AT PISA. GOES TO ROME; WHENCE 
 HE MARCHES TOWARDS FLORENCE. RAISES HIS CAMP, 
 AND DIES AT BUON CONVENTO. ORIGIN OF UGUCCIONE 
 OF THE BEECH-TREE (DELLA FAGGIOLA.) MAKES HIM- 
 SELF MASTER OF LUCCA. BATTLE OF MONTE CATINI. 
 PRINCIPLES OF CASTRUCCIO, WHO IS ARRESTED BY THE 
 SON OF UGUCCIONE; LIBERATED BY THE PEOPLE, AND 
 DECLARED LORD OF LUCCA. 
 
 J. HE seditions which were so frequent in the Florentine 
 republic, arose from her excessive prosperity and 
 riches, like the return of repeated diseases to 
 a body which is too vigorous and plethoric. Although 
 a people despondent from the effects of extreme misery, 
 and broken down under a government of iron, may be 
 excited lo rebellion in the frenzy of despair ; still this 
 happens but rarely, and only when they are goaded 
 with exorbitant taxes and impositions ; whilst power 
 and riches, that render pride their usual attendant, 
 so very irritable, find a motive for discontent in the 
 smallest circumstance, and keep men constantly prepared 
 for seditious movements.
 
 414 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 Such were the causes of the Florentine tumults, as 
 pointed out by cotemporary historians*. That this 
 republic, in spite of the civil tempests with which she was 
 agitated, was in a flourishing condition of opulence, 
 power, and increasing prosperity, may be deduced from 
 the few facts we shall now mention, as well as from the 
 proofs that will be given hereafter, in elucidating the 
 history of her commerce. A mercantile and parsimo- 
 nious republic does not employ herself upon great and 
 ornamental expenses, unless she be very rich. In the 
 course of a few years many sumptuous edifices had been 
 erected, and generosity appeared to go hand in hand 
 with religious charity in embellishing Florence. Shortly 
 before, in the year 1288, a Florentine citizen, better 
 known on account of his daughter Beatrice, who is 
 divinized by Dante, than by the pious and useful work 
 he began, Falco Portinari, founded the hospital of 
 Santa Maria Nuova, one of the most useful establish- 
 ments of Tuscany, and the first in its kind. Five years 
 afterwards the genius of Calimala was employed in 
 adorning the temple of St. John with white and 
 black marble ; in the preceding year, in the 
 month of May, on the day of the Holy Cross, the 
 church of this name was begun with that magnificence 
 which we now admire ; and in September, in the place 
 where the church of Santa Reparata stood, a beginning 
 was made, with all possible splendour, of the superb 
 cathedral of the Holy Mary of the Flower, (Santa Maria 
 del Fiore,) and the foundation laid for carrying on the 
 edifice. Nor were the pious edifices, to which merchants 
 voluntarily devoted a part of their gains, the only object 
 of the Florentines ; in order still more to secure the 
 republic from the aggressions of some feudal lords, and 
 
 * Dino. Comp. Cron. Gio. Vill. 1st. in various places.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 415 
 
 particularly of the Pazzi and the Ubaldini, who reigned 
 in the upper Valley of the Arno, (Val d' Arno,) they 
 built two castles, peopled them, and gave privileges 
 to the inhabitants : these were St. John, upon the left 
 bank of the Arno, and Castelfranco upon the right. The 
 signiory also, which had now so much increased in power 
 and riches, considered themselves entitled to a more digni- 
 fied place of assembly than what the private house of the 
 family of the Cerchi, where they had hitherto met, afforded : 
 they consequently commenced the magnificent Palace of 
 the Priors, now called the Old Palace (Palazzo Vecchio,) 
 under the direction of one of the restorers of architecture, 
 Araolfo di Lapo. Public animosities interfered with 
 the design, which they chose rather should be irregular, 
 than the building should stand upon Ghibelline ground, 
 
 which had now become infamous and accursed ; 
 
 nor were the professional remonstrances of the 
 architect at all attended to ; consequently, the houses of 
 the Uberti family, and others of the same faction, which 
 were already demolished, made room for the spacious 
 square. Finally, the third line of walls was began with 
 all possible ecclesiastical and secular pomp ; the three 
 bishops, of Florence, of Fiesole, and Pistoia, assisted in 
 giving their benediction to the first stone, with many 
 other prelates, the signiory, all the other orders of the 
 city, and an immense concourse of people. Private 
 individuals too had begun to cover the neighbouring hills 
 with numerous and delightful villas *. 
 
 * See Dante, 
 
 Non era vinto ancora M outeraalo 
 Dal vostro Uccellatoio, &c. 
 
 The Aviary is a place upon the Old Bologna road, whence a pretty 
 prospect is had of the neighbourhood of Florence, as from Monte 
 Mario of Rome, a prospect which, in the times of Dante, was 
 exceeded by that of Florence. Dante wrote exactly at this time,
 
 416 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 The Florentines at this epoch surpassed all other 
 people, not only in commerce, but in letters and poli- 
 tical affairs. In literature, it is sufficient to mention 
 Brunette Latini, Guido Cavalcanti, and, above all, 
 Dante, so superior to his age, not only in poetry, 
 but in every other science. The political talents of 
 the Florentines are proved by a single event which 
 occurred in this year, when the solemn jubilee was insti- 
 tuted by Boniface VIII. This pontiff imparted the spi- 
 ritual treasures, not only to the Romans, but to all the 
 faithful who came to visit the sepulchres of the Apostles 
 Peter and Paul. The novelty of the devotion attracted 
 an innumerable host of pilgrims to Rome ; and an ocular 
 witness asserts, there were above 200,000 foreigners 
 every day in the city*, who failed not in affording great 
 profit to the inhabitants. Sovereigns sent ambassadors 
 to compliment the pope, and to receive for them the 
 spiritual grace. Among the rest, twelve Florentine 
 ambassadors, from twelve different princes, appeared 
 before his Holiness, which made the astonished pontiff 
 exclaim, that the Florentines, in human affairs, 
 
 1300 
 
 were the fifth element, a fact truly singular, and 
 exhibited in a large picture of the palace Strozzi (Casa 
 Strozzi) which represents the whole embassy t 
 
 or at least was now contemplating so fine a prospect, of which he 
 was soon deprived for the rest of his life, being sent away two years ' 
 afterwards an exile. 
 
 * Gio. Vill. lib. 8. c. 36. One thousand pounds of silver a day 
 were offered. Ptol. Lucensis Rer. Ital. torn. 1. ; to which may be 
 added the testimony of Guglielmo Ventura, of Asti : de Roma, in 
 Virgilia Nativitatis Christi, vidi turbam magnam, quam nemo dinu- 
 merare poterat. . . . Papa innumerabilem pecuniam ab iisdem 
 recepit, quia die ac nocte duo clerici stabant ad altare S. Petri 
 tenentes in eorum manibus rastellos rastellantes pecuniam infinitam. 
 Chron. Rer. Ital. Script, torn. 2. Mur. Diss. 68. 
 
 f See the series of portraits of illustrious Tuscans, torn. 1 ., where,
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 417 
 
 So brilliant a figure did the Florentine republic make 
 in a few years of peace ; but it was her excessive vigour 
 which prepared her for new disease. The power of 
 various families, either noble, or citizens, together with 
 the desire of mutually surpassing each other, become 
 manifest upon every occasion, a proof that the volcano was 
 not far from an eruption, when a new fatal discord arose 
 in the neighbouring city of Pistoia. The blood-thirsty fac- 
 tions, in which the history of these times abounds, are the 
 disgrace of Italy; since we rarely discover therein that ge- 
 nerosity and valour, which make even enemies esteem 
 and admire each other. They rarely fought with open 
 arms, but for the most part, by snares and treachery ; nor 
 one enemy seek to revenge himself against his real foe ; 
 in order to give vent to his sanguinary rage, the father, 
 the sons, and the relations of the offender, were quite 
 sufficient, who were barbarously massacred, without 
 
 1300. . , _ . . 
 
 any other crime than that of consanguinity. A 
 short history of the sanguinary division of Pistoia, will 
 give some idea of the cruel temper of these factions. 
 
 There lived in this city a rich and very powerful family, 
 descended from a certain Ser Cancelliere, from whom 
 they had taken the name of Chancellors (Cancellieri). 
 From two wives this man received a very numerous pro- 
 geny ; which divided the family into two branches, and 
 continued increasing ; and as there were no other fami- 
 lies of a rank sufficient to dispute with them the supre- 
 macy, the two branches became, from jealousy of power, 
 rivals to each other ; the one was called of the White 
 Chancellors (Cancellieri Bianchi), the other of the Black 
 (Neri). The individuals of these two families were more 
 
 in the beginning, the print of the picture is given. In one of the 
 four great pictures in the saloon of the Palazzo Vecchio, there is 
 the same representation from the pen of Ligozzi. 
 VOL. I. 2 E
 
 418 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 than one hundred in number, and reckoned eighteen che- 
 valiers or knights of the golden spur. This emulation had 
 been long fomenting without coming to open hostilities ; 
 but when the combustible matters are once prepared, 
 every spark is sufficient to create an explosion. Some 
 young men of the Biauchi and the Neri party, having 
 drank to excess in a wine cellar quarrelled ; when one 
 of the most respectable of the Neri party, called Dore of 
 the family of Mr. William (Messer Guglielmo), was 
 struck by one young Charles Walfred, (Carlino di 
 Messer Gualfredi) one of the first of the Bianchi party. 
 Dore, seeing himself the weakest, did not dare to return 
 the blow as the other was accompanied by his brothers, 
 but having prepared himself in the evening for revenge 1 , 
 and seeing Vanni, brother of Carlino, pass by, he called 
 him to him ; who, being ignorant of what had happened, 
 approached Dore without the least suspicion, when 
 the latter immediately gave him a blow with his 
 sword upon the head ; in endeavouring to ward off, 
 which, Vanni had his hand cut in such a manner, that 
 his great finger alone remained hanging upon it, and 
 his face was much cut at the same time. This ag- 
 gression roused the resentment of his family, who 
 prepared immediately for revenge ; when the father of 
 Dore and his brothers, seeing the fatal consequences of 
 what he had done, endeavoured to appease the offended 
 party by a tone of humility, and placed the offender in 
 their hands. Dore was sent therefore to the house of 
 Wilfred, in hopes that the pardon he would ask, and this 
 act of humiliation would awaken the generosity, and cool 
 the anger of the offended family : but, instead of being 
 satisfied, they laid hands upon the young man, and taking 
 him into a stable, cut off the hand upon a manger, with 
 which he had wounded Vanni, disfigured his face, and
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 419 
 
 thus ill-treated, sent him home*. These atrocities 
 roused both sides to arms and blood : and the whole 
 
 1300- 
 
 city and vicinity became divided between the two 
 parties. Hardly a day passed without citizens coming 
 to blows, and many barbarous murders were committed 
 in that ill-fated town, some of which we will take notice 
 of. During one of these civil contests, a stone had been 
 thrown from the house of Pecoroni, upon the head of a 
 Pistoiese gentleman who was fighting, named M. Detto, 
 (Messer Detto), who was somewhat stunned by the blow : 
 his nephew, Mr. Simone, (Messer Simone), without 
 knowing who had thrown the stone, observing a person 
 of that house called Pero, going to the palace of the 
 mayor, hastened with a whole brigade of bullies to the 
 palace, and in the presence of the mayor and his family, 
 
 * This fact being differently related by various historians, I have 
 thought proper to follow the chronicle, entitled : " Istoria Pistoiese," 
 as it appears that the historian was alive, and present at many of 
 the events which he relates with so minute a detail and candour. 
 Ferrato of Vicenza, (Rer. Ital. torn. 9.), who at the time of the event 
 must have been a boy, adds, that from two brothers, one of white 
 hair, and the other of black, the families took the names of Neri and 
 Bianchi, whilst others say, that of the two wives of Ser Cancelliere, 
 one was named Bianca, the other Nera. All this is of little im- 
 port: what, however, appears certain against the assertion of Vil- 
 lani and all the Florentine historians is, that the factions of Bianchi 
 and Neri did not begin in this year, but had already began some 
 years ago. The Pistoiese historians attest it, who suppose them 
 existing in the beginning of the history, and Tolomeo Lucchese, 
 who, in the year 1295, says: " Item in gestis Lucentium inveni 
 hie incepisse ferventem discordiam Cancellariorum de Pistorio ut 
 nominarentur Albi et Nigri quod nomen fermentavit Florentiae et 
 Luces, et ex quo nomine utrobique exorta sunt multa mala et adhuc 
 perseverant." Ptol. Lucem. Ann. Rer. Ital. t. 1. It appears, 
 however, that the vulcano, already on flame, made this year another 
 terrible eruption. Ciampi, Accounts, not edited, of the Pistoiese 
 Sagresty, &c. page 56. 
 
 2 E 2
 
 420 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 murdered the supposed culprit, and departed with impu- 
 nity. This insult to the administrator of justice was not 
 the only one ; for his own family having thought proper 
 to protect a person who had been assaulted in the palace, 
 were insulted, wounded, and some of them killed ; and 
 becoming himself an object of persecution, he threw the 
 baton of the signiory upon the ground, and left the 
 palace. The humane reader becomes horror-struck in 
 running over the enormous atrocities mentioned by the 
 historian, which were carried into execution for the most 
 part by tricks and treachery. The horror increases the 
 more when we reflect that, even when the insulted 
 majesty of the laws could exercise its power, the culprits 
 were only sentenced to a fine or a short confinement ; 
 a punishment too which was rarely observed *. Amongst 
 these two furious sects, there were a few moderate per- 
 sons, called on that account, the grave (posati), who, 
 seeing the city and country going to ruin, in those lucid 
 intervals which discover one solitary flash of reason, per- 
 suaded the greater party to offer the government of the 
 city to the Florentines, in order that the latter might 
 regulate it. The Florentines were desirous enough of 
 putting an end to the growing discords, and taking the 
 government of the city into their hands, with the consent 
 of the Pistoiese, they removed many of the guilty, 
 and exiled them to Florence. But these persons intro- 
 duced there the poison of discord, which, meeting with 
 minds sufficiently disposed to receive it, worked only with 
 greater effect. As the seeds of dissension still existed in 
 Florence, between two powerful families, Cerchi and 
 Donatifj it was sufficient that the party Neri was sup- 
 
 * Istor. Pistol. Rer. Ital. torn. 11. 
 
 f Whoever wishes to see the detail of the pernicious effects pro- 
 duced^in Florence by these divisions, and the disturbance and
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 421 
 
 ported by the Donati, in order that the Cerchi might 
 join the Bianchi, and, like a new disease in the human 
 body, which increases the old ones which have been 
 badly cured, so the Guelphan and Ghibelline parties 
 were roused anew by the Bianchi joining the latter, 
 and the Neri the Guelphs. Various sanguinary ren- 
 contres took place in the city. The pontiff endeavoured 
 in vain to appease the factions ; first by calling to Rome 
 Vieri de' Cerchi a powerful citizen ; who, with an ob- 
 stinacy not expected by the pontiff, refused to make 
 peace with Corso ; and afterwards by sending to 
 Florence the Cardinal d'Acqua Sparta as legate, 
 who found no obstacles to making the peace he designed, 
 but thinking it necessary that the discretion of reforming 
 the city should be left to him, the Bianchi or Ghibelline 
 faction which had the principal share in the government, 
 fearing to lose it, would not consent ; on the contrary, 
 the disinclination of the cardinal towards the Cerchi 
 being made known, an arrow was shot at him whilst he 
 was standing at a window of the bishop's house, which 
 remained fixed in the wall *. The cardinal at last took 
 his departure in anger, but left the city under interdict. 
 
 The Bianchi party, on account of its riches and con- 
 little security of the citizens, the irregularity of judgments, &c., 
 may read the chronicle of Dino Compagni, who lived in that age, 
 who occupied the first offices, and who might have said : 
 . . . . qnaeque ipse miserrima vidi, 
 Et quorum pars magna fni. 
 
 * Being very angry, the Florentines, in order to appease him, 
 presented him with 1,300 new florins, and " I (says Campagni,) took 
 them to him in a cup of silver, and I said, My Lord, do not dis- 
 dain them on account of there being few, because without public 
 counsel we cannot give more money." He answered, they were 
 dear to him, looked much at them, and would not have them. 
 DinoCompa. Cron. lib. 1. .
 
 422 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 nexion with the family of the Cerchi, was now become 
 the most powerful; and its influence extended even over 
 the unfortunate Pistoia, where governors being sent, 
 instead of uniting the citizens, began to persecute the 
 Neri with open violence, attacking them in the streets, in 
 the houses, in their fortresses, both with sword and fire, 
 and obliged them finally to fly, and seek shelter else where. 
 Even in Florence the Bianchi prevailed to an ex- 
 
 1301 
 
 tent, that many of the first citizens were about to 
 leave it ; and among the rest Cerso Donati. The in- 
 fluence of the most powerful city of Tuscany operated 
 upon the rest, and the party Bianchi, amalgamated with 
 the Ghibelline, was becoming the ruling one; when 
 Corso Donati went to meet the pontiff and the Cardinal 
 of Acqua Sparta, and shewed them the danger of suffer- 
 ing the Bianca or Ghibelline faction, the ancient enemy 
 of the pontiffs, to increase and spread itself through the 
 whole of Tuscany. 
 
 Boniface VIII. was now on the pontifical throne. This 
 pontiff was ambitious of surpassing kings, republics, and 
 nations, and ready to embrace whatever party could best 
 increase his secular power *. He was pleased with the rea- 
 sons of Corso, and having called Charles of Valois into 
 Italy, in order to take Sicily from King Frederic, he secretly 
 concerted with him the ruin of the Bianchi party. The 
 ambassadors of the latter being sent to Rome, the pontiff 
 persuaded them to leave the differences to him ; and they 
 readily confided them to the father of the faithful. He 
 ordered Charles to be declared by both parties pacificator 
 of Florence ; but, in fact, he was commissioned to give 
 the Neri the preponderance. The chiefs of the Bianchi 
 
 * See Dante Inferno, Canto 191, and the character that he often 
 draws of him.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 423 
 
 possessed much good faith, a virtue very praise-worthy 
 among private persons, but not always commendable in 
 political affairs; since it is frequently sacrificed to arti- 
 fice, which, when it succeeds in its ends, is always ap- 
 proved, and the former becomes despised*. Charles 
 approached Florence, accompanied by an escort of five 
 hundred, or at most eight hundred, horse, with the addi- 
 tion of a great number of outlaws, and lovers of novelty. 
 The citizens deliberated whether entrance should be 
 granted him : it was not difficult for the Bianchi, both 
 from the numerous companions which had joined him, 
 all of whom were their enemies, and from the eagerness 
 for his arrival, which the contrary faction evinced, to 
 foresee that Charles was coming to destroy them : the 
 government, too by one vigorous act, could have prevented 
 him ; since by refusing to receive him, by taking up arms 
 and fortifying Poggibonsi, when Charles was at Sienna, 
 he would not have risked an advance, as he had no force 
 to confront the Florentines. Nothing is more dan- 
 gerous than weakness in times of faction : the govern- 
 ment had not courage to oppose him, to make an enemy 
 of the house of France, and to encounter the greater 
 enmity of the pontiff. He was therefore received, and 
 power given him to reform the government j\ Corso 
 
 * Dino Com pagni, himself an actor in this scene as one of the lords, 
 discovers himself from his chronicle to have been made more for a 
 missionary than a statesman ; and, in fact, besides the many ho- 
 milies made to the citizens, the beginning of the second book is a 
 piece of sacred declamation : "Rise up, ye wicked citizens, full of 
 scandal, and take the sword and fire in your hands, and extend 
 your malice," &c. 
 
 t Villani, who is followed by all, says that Charles entered 
 Florence on the day of Ognisanti : Compagni, present too on the 
 4th of November, adds a curious circumstance, and that he was 
 only entreated (being at the end of October) not to enter Florence
 
 424 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 Donati appeared at the same time with many followers, 
 and entered the city by forcing the gates ; many others 
 joined him from the people, who are always inconstant ; 
 he ordered the gates of the prisons to be forced open; 
 went to the palace, and discharged the mayor and priors ; 
 assailed the Bianchi with their partisans, killed many 
 of them, and pillaged their houses and shops ; the French 
 standing by, as spectators, and even as abettors of such 
 cruelties, which were continued six days. 
 
 The Neri party, now victorious, made them- 
 
 1301. 
 
 selves masters of the government, and sent many 
 into exile. The pontiff, who alone wanted the change 
 of government, but had not advised these violences, 
 blaming both Charles of Valois and Corso Donati, sent 
 the Cardinal of Acqua Sparta again to Florence, who 
 was little attended to, and took revenge in the usual ec- 
 clesiastical manner by placing the city under interdict. 
 Even relations respected each other so little, that the son 
 of Corso Donati, being on horseback on Christmas-day, 
 hearing a sermon in the square of the the Holy Cross, 
 
 the day of Ognisanti, " because the lower class of people on such 
 days make merry with new wine, and great scandal they would have 
 incurred." Dino Comp. Cron. lib. 2. Another circumstance is, 
 that not only the council, but all the trades being interrogated 
 whether Charles was to be received, all were for yes, " except 
 the bakers, who said that he neither ought to be received 
 nor honoured, because he came to destroy the city." See the same 
 loc. cit. The date of the entrance is of very little consequence, 
 but the wise reader can only infer from it how easy it is to alter 
 circumstances by the most accredited historians as were Vil- 
 lani and Compagni, both present at the arrival of Charles, and 
 who had no interest to fix it more in one day than another : if it 
 was of importance to establish that date, the authority of Compagni 
 might be preferred, who was among the Signiors of the government, 
 both by the curious circumstance of the wines and because he wrote 
 day by day.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 425 
 
 (Santa Croce), and seeing Nicholas of the Cerchi family, 
 (Niccola de' Cerchi), his uncle pass by, ran after him 
 out of the gates of Florence, joined him at the bridge of 
 AfricOj where a contest ensuing between them and their 
 partisans, both the uncle and nephew were killed. All 
 was now disorder and confusion. Charles, who favoured 
 and had restored the Neri party, wishing to appear 
 neutral, persecuted the unfortunate Bianchi under the 
 pretext of conspiracy and crimes. Many of the richest 
 citizens were frequently arrested in their habitations, and 
 made to pay a large ransom, if they wished to be set at 
 liberty : the houses of others, who had betaken them- 
 selves to a place of safety, were burnt ; domiciliary visits 
 were made at night with all possible rigour, and so great 
 was the anxiety of making discoveries, that even the 
 straw mattresses were perforated with steel. Finally, on 
 the second of April, what still remained of the Bianchi 
 party were exiled, and among the rest two celebrated names, 
 viz., Dante, at that time ambassador to the pope ; and 
 Petracco of Parengo, the father of the celebrated Petrarch, 
 who retired to Arezzo, where that illustrious poet, his 
 son, was born. It would appear that the innocent medi- 
 ocrity of talent of Compagni, was the cause of his being 
 forgotten in this general shipwreck of the Bianchi party. 
 After this cruel dose, Charles departed, thinking he 
 had sufficiently regulated affairs. The greater part of the 
 Bianchi being now expelled, it might have been expected 
 that the atrocious executions and murders which were 
 continually taking place under the most trifling pretexts, 
 would have ceased ; but a letter of Gherardino Diodoti, 
 who had taken refuge in Pisa, to his companions, in 
 which he gave them hopes of the return of the exiles, 
 was sufficient to cause the arrest and decapitation of two 
 of his nephews, together with others; nor could the
 
 426 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 wretched mother, who, with dishevelled hair, threw 
 herself in the public street at the feet of the mayor, 
 ohtain any thing but deceitful words *. Messer Donat 
 Alberti was taken with arms in his hand, and having 
 been brought to Florence upon an ass, was drawn 
 up by a rope and left to hang ; all the windows 
 and doors of the palace were opened in order that the 
 people might enjoy the cruel spectacle, and finally, as 
 if it were an act of mercy, the mayor obtained per- 
 mission to order his head to be taken off, and thus 
 terminate in death the cruelties and insults used towards 
 him "j". Only a very small part, however, of such 
 excesses are mentioned here. This was the peace made 
 in Florence by Charles de Valois, who had been invited 
 there by Boniface VIII. as pacificator. That prince 
 was a descendant of the holy king Louis, whom a few 
 years before the same pontiff had canonized, and whom 
 the devout historian of the atrocious revolution piously 
 and uselessly invokes J. The expelled Bianchi or 
 Ghibellines wandered in search of a place of refuge 
 through the cities where their party most prevailed, and 
 where they might at least be tolerated : Pistoia, Arezzo, 
 Bologna, Pisa, and many other cities sheltered them. 
 The greater part of the gentlemen of the country being 
 Ghibellines the exiles easily joined them, and with the 
 assistance of the above-mentioned cities, began a dis- 
 astrous war, of trivial, but sanguinary, actions, such as 
 stabbing, burning, laying waste, and pillaging. Sienna 
 alone prudently remained neutral; but in times 
 of factions, prudence becomes a crime, and the 
 
 * Dino. Comp. Cron. lib. 2. t Dino. Comp. loc. cit. 
 
 J " Oh good King Louis who so much feared God ! where is 
 the faith of the royal house of France ?" &c. Dino. Gomp. loc. cit.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 427 
 
 rn raged factions of the two parties called Lupa a 
 strumpet*. 
 
 In the mean time the Neri, or Guelphs, were masters 
 of the government of Florence, and the great who 
 were respected and feared, had acquired considerable 
 influence; although they had not been able to annul 
 the law, which excluded them from the govern- 
 ment. Among the principal were the families of 
 Buondelmonti, the Pazzi, the Spini, but particularly 
 Corso Donati, who, having taken the first part in the 
 revolution, wished to assume it also in the government. 
 Ever restless and impatient of novelty, and surrounded 
 by worthless people, who were fed at his table, he was 
 more like a lord of a castle than a citizen of a republic. 
 Discontented with the rulers and with the government, 
 he tried every means to excite tumults, and 
 
 1304. . . 
 
 probably entertained loftier views. Affecting 
 integrity, and the anxiety that the public should not 
 be defrauded, he pretended that an account should be 
 given of a large sum of money employed in the purchase 
 of grain, at the time of a dearth which had afflicted 
 Florence. The Gonfaloniere resisted with many great 
 citizens, either because fraud had really been used, 
 which would have been discovered, or because the 
 demand appeared to them an insult ; or angry, probably, 
 that this turbulent man should every moment find 
 motives for disturbing the peace of the city. 
 Corso had the dexterity to draw over to his party the 
 Bishop of Florence, Tosinghi, an eloquent and clever 
 man, and who brought with him greater respect to that 
 party. The country was again divided into two 
 factions: people took to arms and fortified themselves 
 
 * Pino. Camp. loc. cit.
 
 428 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 in the houses and streets ; the public palace, and even 
 the bishop's house, presented the appearance of two 
 fortresses. The new priors and gonfaloniere unable to 
 restore calm, invited the Lucchese as their friends to be 
 pacificators, who accepted the invitation, and a depu- 
 tation from them came to Florence with many armed 
 men ; they held the government in their hands, and were 
 for some days masters of Florence. They ordered arms 
 to be laid down; commanded that a general veil of 
 oblivion should be thrown over past injuries, and left the 
 city in momentary tranquillity. In order to render this 
 more permanent, the pontiff, Benedict XL, with better 
 intentions than Boniface, and secretly instigated by the 
 Bianchi, who still in small numbers remained masked in 
 Florence, sent there the Cardinal of Prato. He was of 
 a 'family of Bianchi Ghibelline ; hence he either began 
 to favour it from party inclination, or really saw the 
 advantage the city would derive from receiving again the 
 outlaws ; he saw that a great part of the people would be 
 easily persuaded to it, since laying aside the names of 
 Bianchi and Neri, Ghibelline or Guelph, he had per- 
 ceived, that, in the last factious attempts of Corso, 
 the party of the Neri wished to oppress the citizens, and 
 perhaps drive them from the government. The cardinal 
 seeing his design favoured by not a few, and persuading 
 many to it by his intrigues and affected eloquence, 
 commenced a treaty, and some deputies of the Bianchi 
 were already arrived in Florence to confer with him, 
 when the contrary party, perceiving their imminent 
 ruin, thought of preventing it by a fraud. Having 
 counterfeited the seals of the cardinal, letters were 
 written in his name in which the heads of the Bianchi 
 faction were invited to hasten as speedily to Florence 
 as possible, with as many armed people as they could
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 429 
 
 obtain. These letters they feigned to have been inter- 
 cepted, which upon being read in public, excited indig- 
 nation and hatred against the cardinal ; who, in order to 
 avoid the first movements of a tumult, was advised to 
 go to Prato, his native country ; where he was not more 
 successful in procuring the restoration of the Bianchi: 
 hence, highly incensed at the Florentines, he finally 
 departed *. 
 
 The city was now involved in civil discord, and 
 returned to arms, when the heads of the Neri party 
 wishing particularly to ruin the Cavalcanti, the 
 most powerful of the Bianchi party who were in 
 Florence, threw a firework upon their houses and shops 
 situated near the New Market, (Mercato Nuovo), 
 which taking fire, and communicating with the neigh- 
 bourhood, the damage done was immense f; that 
 part of the city being the richest in mercantile ware- 
 houses : the unfortunate proprietors, and the public 
 force, alike unable to extinguish the conflagration, 
 
 * O O ' 
 
 became spectators of the common ruin. The tumult of 
 the city, the cries of the miserable, the thieves who 
 
 * The history of the falsification of the seals is mentioned by 
 Giov. Villani, although Compagni does not mention it ; both these 
 historians were in Florence. 
 
 f It appears that they availed themselves of a kind of Grecian 
 fire (see cap. 1. del lib. 3.) since it was thrown " Di mercato 
 vecchio si saetto fuoco in Calimala." Dino Compagni Cron. lib. 3. 
 Gio. Vil. lib. 8., &c. 71., asserts that the fire extended itself so 
 much that of palaces and towers more than 1,700 were burnt, 
 and that the best and most important part of the city was 
 destroyed. That mixtures of such fire were known at that time 
 is shewn in a tale of Francesco Sacchetti. Compagni adds, that 
 the fire was worked in Ognissanti, that Ser Neri Abati, Prior of 
 S. Piero Scheraggio, who was one of the first actors in this 
 infamy, carried it in a pot which was of such a kind, that when it 
 fell on the ground it left a blue colour.
 
 430 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 risked every thing in order to plunder with impunity, 
 formed one of the most melancholy spectacles. When 
 the fire was over, many of the richest citizens found 
 themselves plunged into the greatest misery. 
 
 In the mean time, the favour the Cardinal of Prato 
 entertained towards the Bianchi, a favour which had been 
 strengthened by the unbending pertinacity of the contrary 
 party, urged him to attempt the restoration of the former 
 to Florence, either by stratagem or force. Having 
 exasperated the Roman court against the Neri by an 
 exaggerated account of the events that had taken place, 
 he induced the pope, who was at Perugia, to call 
 together their most powerful and able heads, in order to 
 treat for the tranquillity of Florence*. They obeyed 
 the call ; and among the rest was Corso Donati ; when 
 the cardinal gave the outlaws secretly to understand 
 that it was time for them to enter their own country by 
 force, whilst the adverse party was deprived of its most 
 valiant defenders. The outlaws did not neglect the 
 opportunity, and if they had been guided by courage 
 and judgment, the blow would have been struck. 
 Joining from all parts, they advanced towards Florence, 
 in number of 1,600 horse and 9,000 foot, and were 
 already arrived at the Lastra above Montughi, before 
 any tidings of their approach had reached Florence : 
 hence, if they had profited of the dismay and confusion 
 which surprise created, and had attacked the city 
 without loss of time, victory would have been certain. 
 But having delayed a night in order to wait for further 
 succours, penetrating into the town that had given 
 
 * Thus says Villani. Compagni says that they moved spon- 
 taneously to excuse themselves of the pope for the conflagration 
 that had happened: but the former appears better informed of the 
 secret springs of government.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 431 
 
 orders for defence, they encamped in a place where they 
 were without water, instead of occupying a bank of the 
 Arno; fought with little energy and retired at the first 
 onset ; whilst the Bolognese, too, instead of advancing to 
 their succour, retired panic-struck, at the news of the first 
 ill success; and the blow failed. Here to must be added 
 the want of union in action of so many corps that were 
 to come from various parts, and that not attacking 
 Florence on the appointed day, their secret corre- 
 spondents in the city would not stir: the assail- 
 ants were driven back, leaving many unhappy victims 
 to the fury of the enraged and victorious party*. 
 The latter then carried their arms against some castles 
 attached to the enemy, among which may be noted the 
 Castle of Stinche de' Cavalcanti, situated in Val di 
 Greve, because after a short defence, the inhabitants 
 having surrendered, and being brought to Florence, were 
 shut up in the new prisons built near St. Simone, upon 
 the ground of the Uberti, and thus gave them the 
 name of Stinche f. The Neri party, in spite of 
 the victory, discovered with sorrow, that the Bianchi 
 were still very powerful in Tuscany since Pistoia, Pisa, 
 Arezzo, and Bologna favoured them : wishing to make 
 war against them, they sought for a captain of name 
 and authority, and invited Robert, Duke of Calabria, 
 son of King Charles. This prince arrived, and the 
 command was given him of the Florentine troops joined 
 with the Lucchese. The siege of Pistoia was now 
 carried on with the greatest vigour, and the citizens 
 defended themselves with a courage that disheartened 
 the enemy. The pontiff) Clement V., who, as Father of 
 
 * Gio. Vill. lib. 8. c. 72. Dino Comp. Cron. lib. 3. Both these 
 writers were present at the fact. Ammir. cit. lib. 4. 
 f Gio. Vill. lib. 8. c. 75.
 
 432 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 Peace wished to put an end to this war, which had 
 arisen from the enmities of parties, sent two cardinals, 
 who endeavoured, first by entreaty, and afterwards by 
 threats, to reconcile minds ; but all was in vain, 
 and they departed, excommunicating those who 
 did not obey them. The Duke of Calabria alone, who 
 had reasons for not disgusting the pope departed, leaving 
 there, however, all his people. The Pistoiese defended 
 themselves bravely from the month of April until the 
 10th of Jan., and did not surrender until they had 
 suffered all the horrors of famine*. They capitulated 
 upon the most favourable conditions : the place was 
 to remain free ; the buildings and fortifications were 
 to be left untouched : terms that the Florentines 
 offered them, knowing that Napoleone Orsini, Cardinal 
 Legate, was coming, who would have declared that the 
 city belonged to the church : the conditions, however, 
 were not observed. 
 
 The pope, seeing his spiritual arms against Florence 
 ineffectual, wished to try his temporal ones by sending 
 the legate to make war against them, but these proved 
 equally vain, and the legate put an end to his temporal 
 war with little honour, again having recourse to his 
 spiritual arms, and excommunicating Florence. It would 
 appear that the city could not remain tranquil, and few 
 years passed without civil discords : we must, therefore, 
 conclude the political constitution to have been 
 defective ; and even had the universal epidemy of 
 the Guelphs and Ghibellines, of the Bianchi and Neri, 
 not existed, it would have been divided, as it had been 
 
 * Dino Comp. Cron. lib. 3. Gio. Vill. lib. 8. c. 82. The former 
 says, that when they surrendered they had only victuals for one 
 day, and that some days before they had sent away the useless 
 mouths, women, old men, and children.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 433 
 
 before by the Uberti. The powerful wished to ge the 
 government into their hands to the exclusion of the 
 people, and this they would have easily done, since the 
 people who are employed in mechanical arts, or com- 
 merce, have little time to apply themselves to the arts 
 of government, and for the most part suffer themselves 
 quietly to be ruled when not oppressed. But an eager- 
 ness to occupy the first offices of the state, divided the 
 minds of the first citizens, and factions arose between them, 
 in which the innocent were drawn in with them : 
 
 1 308 
 
 besides which, they either considered it right, or 
 wished that their liberty should consist in being superior 
 to the laws, and united in a faction, disturbed the execu- 
 tion of them to a degree that the captains and the mayors 
 of Florence had neither courage or power to keep them 
 in awe*. Nothing exasperates the people more, or is 
 capable of driving them to rebellion, than such violence. 
 Amongst the overbearing citizens, Corso Donati was 
 always conspicuous, nor could so ambitious a disposition 
 be contented with republican equality. It was thought 
 he aspired to become tyrant over the republic : the new 
 ties of kindred with Uguccione of the beech-tree (della 
 Faggiola) and his secret alliance with him rendered him 
 suspicious ; suspicions which were encouraged by his 
 manner of living; whereby he aimed at gaining the 
 
 * A few years before the mayor had caused to be arrested Talano 
 de' Caviciulli for a crime. The mayor returning from the house 
 of the priors was assaulted by the parents and companions of 
 Talano, was badly wounded by them, and the culprit was liberated, 
 whence the angry mayor abandoned his charge, and returned to 
 his country. Giov. Vill. lib. 8. c. 73. See Dino Compagni, who in 
 the end of his Chronicle says, In questa Citta. . . . gli uomini vi si 
 uccidono, il male per legge non si punisce, ma come il malfattore 
 ha degli amici, e pu6 moneta spendere, e liberate dal maleficio. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 F
 
 434 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 dispositions of the most daring and notorious characters, 
 by entertaining them at his house and table, and appear- 
 ing on horseback with them in public. He was accused ; 
 but his boldness being dreaded, as well as the force he 
 could have collected, if lawful time had been given him to 
 answer the accusation, the government, being his enemy, 
 passed over all forms : and as he did not appear 
 an hour afterwards, condemned him as a rebel, 
 and, without loss of time, marched the public force 
 against him. In spite of the gout with which he was 
 afflicted, he defended himself with his followers, in the 
 streets and houses, with the most obstinate valour, and 
 exposed the city to great danger. "The magistracy, how- 
 ever, supported not only by the people, but by the 
 foreign troops that were there, attacked him on every 
 side, and finally overpowered him. He retreated without 
 the gate of Santa Croce, seeking safety ; but was over- 
 taken by his enemies, and killed near S. Salvi, and 
 buried in that church. 
 
 Thus died a man who was at once the support, and the 
 terror of his country : courageous and eloquent, he was 
 equally able in council as in the field ; qualities, which 
 were adorned by a noble and courtly demeanour. 
 
 All the small republics of Tuscany suffered from the 
 same agitations, whether of the Guelphan or Ghibellino, 
 the Bianchi or the Neri, parties; whether the nobles or 
 the people had the ascendency, they could not live tran- 
 quil. At San Miniato, the Margiadori and the Mal- 
 pigli, having collected their forces, fought and beat the 
 people, and took the government from them. In 
 Prato the Bianchi drove out the Neri, but were 
 themselves expelled the day following ; the Volterrans 
 and the S. Geminianesi mutually laid waste their terri- 
 tories, and were afterwards restored to tranquillity by
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 435 
 
 the Florentines. Arezzo had, for some time, been 
 governed by the Tarlati, who, as feudal lords, and there- 
 fore Ghibelline or Bianchi, had driven out the Guelphs 
 or Neri party, and had become enemies to the Floren- 
 tines. In the foregoing year the Tarlati were expelled, 
 and had made peace with the Florentines, filling the 
 employments in common with the citizens, without privi- 
 lege of name, and the ruling party was called the Green 
 party ; but that ray of sense lasted but for a short time ; 
 in the present year the Tarlati returned, expelled the 
 Guelphs, and began the war anew with the Floren- 
 
 1310- 
 
 tines, who laid waste the Aretine country. In the 
 following year a more serious affair took place between 
 them, the Aretines had attacked the city of Castello, 
 which demanded aid from the Florentines: they marched 
 there hastily with 6,000 men shortly before joined by 
 the Catalan bands, led on by the quarter-master of King 
 Robert of Naples. Passing the Aretine territory, these 
 troops extended themselves imprudently under Cortona, 
 in a difficult passage where the Aretines, led on by 
 Uguccione della Faggiola, waited for them ; a captain, 
 
 who was one day destined to be so terrible to the 
 
 1310. 
 
 Florentine republic ; but his soldiers and the 
 Aretines themselves did not display their accustomed 
 valour. The Florentines, who would have been, for the 
 most part, massacred or taken, drove the enemy back 
 with great slaughter ; and among the rest, Vanni Tarlati, 
 one of the first of the Aretine government, was slain. 
 
 In the mean time fame resounded that the new 
 emperor, Henry VII, was preparing a descent upon 
 Italy. It was a long time since so great a luminary, 
 which had been the forerunner at all times of novelty 
 and revolutions, had appeared in the horizon of Italy ; 
 and in the mean time, her political constitution had been
 
 436 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 greatly changed. The Lombard league no longer existed ; 
 which had been able to crush the power of one of the 
 most formidable emperors, and constrain him to acknow- 
 ledge their independence. This confederacy, so advan- 
 tageous to Italy, and so well adapted to repel the 
 invasion of foreigners, had been dissolved in the fury 
 of factions; and Italy, particularly Lombardy, at this 
 moment, instead of those vigorous arid energetic repub- 
 lics, which had resisted the house of Suabia by their 
 union, presented only one sanguinary theatre of civil 
 war. Guido della Torre governed cruelly in Milan, from 
 whence he had driven Maffeo Visconte ; Simone of 
 Colubiano in Vercelli and Novara; Alberto Scotto in 
 Plaisance ; the Count Filippone, in Pavia; the Passerini, 
 in Mantua ; in Parma, the Lords of Correggio ; in Corno, 
 Martino Lavetario ; Alboin della Scala in Verona ; in 
 Rovigo Ricciardo di Camino; in Brescia, Maffeo de* 
 Maggi. Cremona, ruled by a turbulent alternative 
 government, was at times governed by the nobles, at 
 times by the common people ; Lodi and Crema by 
 Anthony of Fixaratico ; Modena and Reggio by the 
 Ghiberti. Bologna was free ; Ferrara, which had been 
 snatched from the hands of the Venetians, and given 
 over to those of the house D' Este, was recovered by 
 the legate of the pope, and held in vice royalty by King 
 Robert. All these princes, who trembled in their little 
 states, must have dreaded such an arrival ; and common 
 interest should have dictated to them to join in one com- 
 pact, and boldly oppose his passage : but they hated 
 each other still more, than they feared the emperor. 
 In Tuscany, Pisa, and Arezzo alone desired his arrival. 
 Pisa, which was always devoted to the imperial faction, 
 hoped to aggrandize herself upon the ruin of the Floren- 
 tines, who had proudly treated the ambassadors of Caesar;
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 437 
 
 in order, therefore, to clear the road for him, he made 
 them pay 40,000 florins of gold, and promise him more 
 upon his arrival. Sienna continued in alliance with 
 Florence, and decided upon not permitting the 
 emperor to enter the city, and would not acknow- 
 ledge his authority ; on the contrary, they failed not to 
 send ambassadors to the Lords of Lombardy, advising 
 them to oppose his passage ; and particularly to Guido 
 della Torre, Lord of Milan, who had so much reason 
 afterwards to repent of not having followed their advice*. 
 Florence possessed riches and courage, and her history 
 contains examples of the intrepidity with which she 
 opposed former Caesars. It is true, the emperor would 
 not listen to the names of Guelph or Ghibelline, 
 and declared he came only to restore concord to Italy : 
 but the prudent Florentines had a recent example 
 before their eyes in the arrival of Charles de Valois ; 
 who, coming to Florence with the specious title of paci- 
 ficator, had introduced so much mischief. Ano- 
 
 131 1 
 
 ther revolution had altered the system of Italy. 
 The pope was a powerful rival of the emperor, and fitted 
 to curb his usurpations by his presence and activity. 
 The pope's see was no longer in Rome ; but in Avignon. 
 Philip the Handsome, King of France, who had felt of 
 the formidable power of Boniface, at the death of his 
 successor Benedict entered into a treaty for the election 
 of his subject, the Bishop of Bordeaux; and succeeded 
 not only in getting him elected, but in transferring the 
 pontifical seat near to his own capital, in order that he 
 might have greater influence over himf. The Italians, 
 therefore, would have done well to imitate the Floren. 
 tines, and shut the gates of Italy upon the new emperor. 
 
 * Istor. Pistolesi. t Murat. Ann. D' Italia.
 
 438 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 The wise King of Naples, Robert, made every prepara- 
 tion to defend the kingdom, and even sent his brother to 
 Rome with troops, to encourage the Romans to oppose 
 his entrance. He entered into a close alliance with the 
 Florentines, and on his passage through Florence and 
 Sienna, at his return from Avignon, exhorted the citizens 
 to unanimity that they might be stronger against the 
 foreign enemy. That emperor had already begun to 
 give unequivocal demonstrations of the obedience he 
 exacted, as well as the control he pretended to exercise 
 over Tuscany, and the whole of Italy. His ambassadors 
 came to Florence, and intimated to the Florentines that 
 their army should abandon the territory of Arezzo, which 
 was under the protection of the empire ; and that the 
 republic should send him ambassadors to pay him 
 homage. At this imperious demand, Betto Brunelleschi, 
 a daring and arrogant man, who was become more so 
 by the fall of Corso Donati, which he had occasioned, 
 upon the answer being intrusted to him, replied with 
 pride and indecent insolence, which the signiory disap- 
 proving of, begged the ambassadors would return for 
 another answer, which was given them in polite 
 terms, but with firmness and decision : after which 
 the Florentines made the necessary provisions for defence. 
 Henry was already arrived at Turin. The earnest invi- 
 tations which the Ghibellines gave him were seconded 
 by a letter from Dante. It is written with a certain 
 loftiness ; the character of that great man, which he 
 always maintained even when speaking with an emperor; 
 there are expressions in it which savour of reproach 
 towards him for having staid so long at Milan. He 
 encourages him to march against Florence, which city, 
 he tells him, fomented that hydra of rebellions, which 
 arose so successively one after the other in Lombardy:
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 439 
 
 nor was he in the wrong. If, however, such a letter 
 may appear little charitable towards his country, it must, 
 at least, be confessed that generosity deterred him from 
 bearing arms against her, when the emperor besieged the 
 city. But this letter was fatal to him : the enmity of 
 the citizens towards him, that time was beginning to 
 appease, became stronger, and in the year 1315 his exile 
 was again confirmed, and he lost every hope of returning 
 to his native country. 
 
 In the mean time, as if, although dead, Corso Donati 
 
 had been destined to agitate the city, the followers of 
 
 his party were seeking vengeance for him, and killed 
 
 Betto Brunnelleschi who had armed the people 
 
 1311. 
 
 against Corso; and finding themselves sufficiently 
 strong went to the monastery of S. Salvi, where his body 
 had been buried without honours, dug it from the ground, 
 and gave it a splendid funeral, and even armed the guard, 
 in order that the divine service might not be disturbed. 
 This homicide, and that which happened subsequently 
 of Pazzino de' Pazzi, by work of the cavalcanti, would 
 probably have immersed the city in her ancient civil 
 disorders, had it not been for the dread of Henry, who, 
 having conquered Brescia, prepared to march into Tus- 
 cany; but probably as he did not consider it so easy an 
 enterprise, and wished first to try peaceable means, he 
 sent new ambassadors, who were forbidden to enter 
 the city. The Florentines fought with the arms with 
 which they were most powerful, viz., money; with this 
 they had maintained Brescia, and, after Henry had 
 departed, made her rebel ; and by the same means 
 gained Messer Ghiberto, Lord of Parma, over to 
 them, who raised against the emperor the standard of 
 rebellion in Lombardy. The Florentines were then sum-
 
 440 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 moned to send twelve persons to Genoa to excuse them- 
 selves, and upon refusing, were placed out of the pro- 
 tection of the empire. 
 
 After so many insults to the majesty of royalty, it be- 
 came necessary to prepare for the most vigorous defence. 
 Henry's fame was great ; all Lombardy, subdued either 
 by dread of him or his arms, had surrendered to him. 
 The Pisans were impatient to have him within their 
 walls ; and their ambassadors in Genoa hastened his 
 departure. Although Pisa, since the fatal defeat 
 
 1 312 
 
 of Meloria, had never regained her ancient power, 
 she was still commercial and rich; that war, so fatal to 
 her, only terminated in the year 1 300, in which she con- 
 cluded with the Genoese a very unfavourable peace by 
 the ransom of prisoners, who in fifteen years of impri- 
 sonment, had for the greater part perished. A mortal 
 epidemy, by which the empress herself lost her life, and 
 the bad disposition of the Genoese, made him finally 
 embark for Pisa, where he arrived at Porto Pisano on 
 the 6th of March, and was received in the city with 
 extraordinary joy and pomp. All the outlaws and dis- 
 contented in Tuscany were assembled together with a 
 multitude of foreigners, many of them attracted either 
 by hope or curiosity, or by the desire of paying their 
 court to him ; such as the Bishop of Arezzo, Uguccione 
 della Faggiola, and Frederic of Montefeltro. The Pisans 
 offered him, together with the keys, the sovereignty over 
 their republic. This, indeed, was a mere formality; but 
 the exorbitant sums he drew from the republic, sums 
 which, if we are to give credit to a contemporary histo- 
 rian *, made the people murmur greatly, were far from 
 
 * Ferreto Vicent. Hist. lib. 5. Rer. Ital. torn. 9. 1st. Pist. 
 Marang. Cron. Pis.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 441 
 
 being so. On the 1st of April, in the garden of 
 Gambacorti, where he was accustomed to hold his 
 councils, together with his first nobility, he solemnly 
 declared enemies of the empire many Lombard princes, 
 who had rebelled against him, as well as the Florentines 
 and Lucchese. His troops made some trifling inroads 
 upon the Florentine and Lucchese territories; no enter- 
 prise of note, however, was undertaken, because Henry 
 was anxious for his coronation in Rome, and marching 
 rapidly by the way of the Maremma, in spite of the 
 party formed against him by the agents sent by the Flo- 
 rentines, united with those of King Robert and the 
 Orsini, with whom every day he came to blows, when the 
 road to St. Peter's was contested with him; he assumed 
 the crown in St. John's the Lateran f. Leaving Rome, 
 he advanced towards Tuscany by the road of Perugia, 
 was joyfully received in Cortona and Arezzo, where he 
 remained two days, and gave audience to the ambassadors 
 of San Sepolcro, who came to implore his pardon. He 
 now moved on towards Florence ; Monte Varchi, with its 
 weak fortifications, detained him only three days. San 
 Giovanni was surrounded by a ditch full of water ; 
 but scarcely were the waters drawn off when she surren- 
 dered. The imperial army met with no resistance of 
 consequence as far as Incisa, where a large body of 
 Florentines were encamped to guard the passage in a 
 very strong position. The emperor did not find it con- 
 venient to lose time here ; and seeing how difficult it was 
 to face them, with the advantage of position they enjoyed, 
 made his troops ascend by another mountainous pass, 
 which was pointed out to him by the outlaws, and took 
 Montelfi. A troop of Florentines seeing the enemy 
 
 f Albert. Muss, Gio. Vill. lib. 9. c. 42. Ferr. Vicen. loc. cit.
 
 442 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 advancing to occupy that post, soon made use of every 
 means to prevent them, but, being overtaken by a band 
 of Germans, who descended from the mountain, they were 
 beaten, and obliged to retreat precipitately to Incisa ; 
 the enemy in the mean time occupied Montelfi. By this 
 operation all communication with Florence was cut off 
 to the Florentine army, which, being without provisions, 
 would have been reduced to great difficulty had the 
 imperial army known the advantage of the position, and 
 maintained itself in it. But breaking up, and arriving at 
 the gates of Florence, before the Florentine army, the 
 imperialists filled the city with dismay and terror, which 
 subsided only upon the arrival of the Florentines in the 
 night by another road ; and when the succours from 
 Lucca, Sienna, and many other cities of Tuscany and the 
 Romagna, were come up, which the common terror had 
 drawn together, a very numerous body of troops was col- 
 lected in Florence, of not less than 4,000 cavalry 
 and 24,000 infantry. This army, which was very 
 large for those times, had so little dread of the imperial- 
 ists, that the gates, except that which corresponded with 
 the enemies' camp, were always left open. It is true 
 that the imperial army was inferior in number to the 
 Florentine; but the cavalry of the former, which was 
 accustomed to war and very courageous, struck terror 
 into the weak Italians * ; nor did the Florentines ven- 
 ture to cope with them in the open plain. They well 
 knew, however, that time was fighting for them, and that 
 the emperor would soon be in want of both money and 
 provisions. On the part of the imperialists the war was 
 now reduced to laying waste the country, having no troops 
 
 Istor. Pistol. " Lo imperatore aveva duomila cavalieri in 
 fra i quali n' aveva 800, che avrebbero coinbattuto con tutti quelli 
 di dentro."
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 443 
 
 to lay siege to the city in due form, the Florentines only 
 stood on the defensive, and under the walls some of the 
 most daring youth occasionally made a sortie, followed 
 by little skirmishes and paltry attacks, which served as an 
 amusement to the citizens, and even to the women who 
 were drawn up upon the walls. The Florentines carried 
 on the war with considerable skill from the tower of the 
 church of San Miniato, from the fort of Fiesole, from 
 the villa of Benincasa at Ripoli, places they had strongly 
 fortified. They continually observed the motions of the 
 Germans ; and whenever they saw a little party straggling 
 from the camp, they came down upon them with superior 
 force, and generally overpowered them. By this means 
 the provisions were frequently intercepted : fifty beasts 
 of burden laden with them, that were corning in from 
 Arezzo, were taken, and of two hundred soldiers, who 
 were escorting them, seventy were killed and sixty taken 
 prisoners. Bernardino of Polenta, captain of the Flo- 
 rentines, occupied the Castle of Leccio, afterwards the 
 tower that stood upon the bridge of Incisa, and Ganghue- 
 reto. A large convoy of provisions had been intercepted 
 at Castiglion Fiorentino by the Siennese, in junction with 
 the Florentines. The passes and the mountains of 
 Mugello were taken, whereby no other passage remained 
 free to the imperial camp than that of Casentino*. The 
 imperialists, therefore, began to feel the want of provi- 
 sions ; Henry fell sick at S. Salvi of a tertian ague, 
 arising probably from the unwholesome Roman air, in 
 which he had passed the summer. At last, seeing the 
 difficulty of the enterprise, after two months he raised 
 the camp in the last night of October ; and Florence had 
 the glory of having driven away the emperor with a brave 
 
 * Albert. Muss. Hist. Augu. lib. 9. rer. ii. torn. 10.
 
 444 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 army, which for three years had been the terror of Italy. 
 Henry retired to San Casciano, where he remained about 
 two months attacking the neighbouring castles*, 
 some of which were burnt and others spared. Arriv- 
 ingatPoggibonsi, he ordered the castle, which had been 
 already dismantled by Charles of Valois, to be rebuilt 
 upon the hill, which was soon carried into execution, 
 and the name given it of Castle or Imperial Hill. The 
 emperor prosecuted his journey to Pisa, \vhere he stayed 
 only a short time ; he then took the road to Rome, con- 
 tinually molested by the confederates of the Florentines. 
 Finally, the disorder, with which he had been attacked 
 at S. Salvi, increased, and he died at Buon Convento. 
 His body was carried to Pisa, and buried there f- 
 
 * Among the castles spared was Lucardo, perhaps on account 
 of its good cheese. Vedi Iter. Ital. Henrici VII. Nicolai Episcopi 
 Botrontinensis. The writer was travelling companion to the 
 emperor, and says, " Aliqua castra combussit, alia retinuit sicut 
 Lucardum ubi fiunt boni casei." 
 
 t It was thought that he was caused to be poisoned by the 
 Florentines in the wafer communicated to him by means of the 
 Dominican friar. This opinion increased to a degree that, upon 
 his corpse being brought to Pisa, some of the friars of that order 
 were killed by the people ; more than three thousand Pisans put on 
 mourning, and went to meet the corpse. Cron. Bolognese Mura. 
 Rer. Ital. Scrip. In order to give the lie to such a calumny, we 
 have only to read the History of Ferreto Vicentino, who describes 
 at length the disease of the emperor, with all its progress, and the 
 little care which he took of it, and we shall see that it was this which 
 caused his death. Nevertheless, it is sufficient that calumny be 
 once pronounced, that it may be repeated by a hundred pens. For 
 this expedition, see Gio. Vill. lib. 9. Istor. Pistol. Ferr. Vicen. Hist., 
 and the Itinerary of the Emperor, written by the Bishop of Butrinto, 
 all cotemporary writers. Whoever has the wish to mix the comic 
 with a tragic event, has only to compare the long and tiresome 
 reflections upon the Siennese Chronicle, made by Benvoglienti, 
 (Rer. Ital. torn. 15,) upon the death of the emperor with a passage
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 445 
 
 During the whole of this war Sienna adhered with 
 firmness to the confederacy with the Florentines; and 
 whenever the enemy approached the walls, or came upon 
 her territory, she defended herself with great courage, 
 and attacked him at various times with repeated success, 
 causing no little loss to the imperial army, particularly 
 by intercepting the provisions the Pisans sent to it *. The 
 remainder of the Tuscan league also, with the exception 
 of Pisa and Arezzo, remained firm, and proved what 
 union and concord are able to effect against foreign 
 invaders. The death of the emperor excited at once in 
 Italy joy and grief, gladness and consternation, and various 
 emotions, according to the different parties and interests. 
 Florence had reason to rejoice, as well as the remainder of 
 the Tuscan confederacy ; because, although she had glo- 
 riously repulsed him, as long as he remained in Italy, he 
 was the centre of union for all the outlaws and dis- 
 
 1313. 
 
 contented, as well as those who hid themselves in 
 disguise within her walls. Pisa was one of the cities 
 which was thrown into the greatest consternation by this 
 death, and probably foresaw that the Tuscan confederacy 
 was conspiring for her ruin. 
 
 Frederic, King of Sicily, who had entered into an 
 alliance with them, with the Genoese, and with the 
 emperor, against King Robert, and who, with a powerful 
 fleet united to that of the Genoese, was already at sea in 
 
 of the Pisan Chronicle of Marangi. The latter pretends that he 
 died through too much chastity and continence, making a false 
 censure of the vocabulary of the Crusca; but is it necessary to 
 search for either poison or other causes, in order to explain the 
 death of a patient under malignant fever, accompanied by a car- 
 buncle ? See, besides those quoted, Albertino Muss. Rer. Ital. 
 torn. 10. 
 
 * Malevol. Istor. di Sienna, par. 2. lib. 4.
 
 446 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 the expedition to which the deceased emperor was 
 marching by land, was greatly surprised upon being made 
 acquainted with the doleful news, came to Pisa to 
 ascertain the truth of it, and to mingle his sorrows with 
 those of the Pisans. The latter offered him the command 
 of the republic, as the Florentines had done King 
 Robert; but neither Frederic nor Amadeus, Count of 
 Savoy, nor Americ, of Flanders, chose to accept it. 
 
 Seeing the tempest that was now lowering over them, 
 they took many troops of the emperor into their pay, and 
 made Uguccione della Faggiola captain of them, who 
 was the hero of those times. The origin of this man, one 
 of the most illustrious warriors of his age, who has made 
 the Florentine power totter, and the royalty of Naples 
 shed tears, is not very clear. The family of Faggiola 
 was not known before Uguccione ; and to him it owes 
 all its splendour. In the district of Arezzo, in those 
 times very extensive in the Apennines, which overlook 
 S. Sepolcro, Faggiola existed in the midst of steep rocks 
 and beeches, (faggie,) from which he probably took his 
 name, and the ruinous remains, that are seen even to this 
 day, may be those of the houses of Uguccione*. Born 
 of an obscure origin, but a rich proprietor, endowed 
 with a warlike mind, he commenced his military career, 
 together with Maglinardo, of Susinana, and other Ghi- 
 bellines against the Bolognese; afterwards with Azzo, 
 Marquis d' Este ; with the Aretines, of whom he was 
 mayor and captain, and, being very acceptable to the 
 emperor, he sent him as viceroy to Genoa. Returning 
 from thence, the Pisans chose him for their leader ; but he 
 was as dangerous to the Pisan liberty as he had been to 
 
 * Guazzesi upon the ancient dominion of the Bishop of Arezzo. 
 par. 2. 6. note.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 447 
 
 the suspicious Aretines. His warlike celebrity was con- 
 firmed by a ferocious aspect, which makes the greatest 
 impressions upon the minds and expectations of the 
 vulgar. Of a lofty stature, and very robust in limbs, he 
 made use of larger and heavier arms than the common, 
 
 G> ' 
 
 and various wonderful feats are recounted of him : 
 amongst the rest, that being abandoned in a battle by all 
 his men, wounded, in the midst of the enemy, and sorely 
 trampled upon, he had even retired into a place of safety, 
 carrying with him four halberts and thirteen darts stuck 
 in his great shield, which had been thrown against him 
 by the enemy. He was not less valuable in council than 
 formidable in arms ; nor was he scrupulous in the choice 
 of the means that were to conduct him to greatness. His 
 arrival alone gave fresh courage to the Pisans. It would 
 have appeared that, upon the death of the emperor, the 
 Ghibelline faction in Italy, and particularly in Tuscany, 
 would have been extinguished ; since King Robert was 
 against it, the powerful sovereign of Italy,- master, 
 besides the kingdom of Naples, of Provence, of Rome ; 
 and who ruled by means of his viceroys in Florence and 
 in Lucca ; which republics kept the greater part of Tus- 
 cany united with the same party. But so much can a 
 single individual sometimes effect, that Uguccione made 
 the balance turn against this confederacy. He lost no 
 time, and drove back the German bands which were 
 united with the Pisans against the Lucchese. They had 
 been reinforced by the Florentines, the Siennese, by the 
 people of Malespini, and the Fieschi, but were neverthe- 
 less defeated by Uguccione, who at one time, having fol- 
 lowed them into the suburbs of Lucca, which were set fire 
 to, he even carried away statues, and raised up trophies in 
 derision of the Lucchese* : and, after having laid waste 
 
 * Alber. Muss. lib. 3. Rer. Ital. torn. 10. Tronci Ann. Pis.
 
 448 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 their country in various places, he obliged them to restore 
 different castles to Pisa, which they had usurped since the 
 times of Count Ugolin. But, what was of greater 
 moment, he commanded them, if they wished to be at 
 peace, to restore the Ghibellines to the city, among whom 
 he had a great party ; and thus the road was opened to 
 him of making himself master of Lucca. This city was 
 divided between the Bernarducci and the Obizzi ; the 
 latter, however, ruled, and Ger,ard of S. Lupidio, the 
 viceroy of King Robert, used all his efforts fruitlessly to 
 keep peace amongst them. 
 
 The cunning Uguccione well knew how to take ad- 
 vantage of circumstances, and holding a secret treaty in 
 that city with the discontented, who had returned, and 
 among them with Castruccio Antelminetti, who made 
 himself so celebrated afterwards, marching to Lucca with 
 his choice troops on the 14th June, a gate was opened to 
 him by his favourers, which he entered at, and being as- 
 sisted by the latter, he made himself master of the city, 
 which was abandoned by the principal of the contrary 
 faction, together with the royal viceroy. Lucca was 
 sacked, particularly the palace: nor was the pontifical 
 treasure more respected, which had been brought from 
 Rome and its neighbourhood, by the Cardinal of 
 Sta. Flora, by pontifical order, and deposited in S. Fre- 
 diano ; a treasure which amounted to a million of florins 
 in gold: this became also a booty of the greedy soldiers, 
 who spared no insults even to innocent virgins and 
 
 1314. 
 
 the most noble matrons*. The Ghibellines, or 
 Bianchi, and the Pistoiese in particular, distinguished 
 themselves by the rage of persecution towards their ene- 
 mies; after which excesses, which lasted eight days, the 
 
 * Giov. Vill. lib. 9. c. 59. Istor. Pistol. Alberti. Muss. Rer. Ital. 
 torn. 10.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 449 
 
 Pisans returned in triumph, and Uguccione left his son 
 Francis master of the city with a strong guard. 
 
 Florence was thrown into consternation at the news of 
 this disaster, and she now made vigorous preparations for 
 a dangerous war, which she saw imminent. Already 
 some time before the death of the Emperor, when she 
 made a close alliance with King Robert, she had con- 
 ceded to him for some years the government of the city, 
 upon conditions that the system should not be altered, and 
 he sent her a viceroy with a small body of troops. Now 
 that the danger was increasing, he sent his brother Piero, 
 Count of Gravina, there with three hundred horse, a youth 
 of graceful aspect, and of pleasing manners, who gained 
 the affection of the Florentines ; and as the creation of 
 the priors and other magistrates was at his discretion, he 
 endeavoured in the election to satisfy the wishes of the 
 public. It was of importance to lessen the number of 
 enemies as much as possible ; he therefore attempted an 
 accommodation with the Aretines, who, if they had joined 
 Uguccione, would have been dangerous to him ; he made 
 peace with them upon equal conditions*. Uguccione, 
 however, was not quiet; he made continual inroads, 
 sometimes upon the Volterran territory, at others upon 
 the Pistoiese as far as Cormignano to the terror of 
 the Florentines: took Serravalle and attempted to 
 surprise Pistoia; the stratagem was well concerted; he 
 gained some country people over to him, who were 
 keeping guard upon the walls ; these men, according 
 to the plan agreed upon, let fifty of the enemy scale 
 them in a dark night on the 1 1 th of December, 
 who, having either broken down or opened the gate, 
 entered with about eighty horse and three hundred in- 
 
 * Vill. lib. 9. cap. 63. Amm. Istor. Fior. lib. 5. 
 VOL. I. 2 G
 
 450 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 fantry, their comrades. Being, however recognised, the 
 whole of Pistoia was in motion, the alarm hells were 
 rung, and arms were taken up. If Uguccione had ar- 
 rived at this time, the stroke would have been decisive : 
 the people armed, and the small number being known, 
 they assailed them courageously : after a long contest, 
 seeing the dawn of day coming on, and the succour not 
 appearing, they were obliged to retire from the city. 
 Scarcely were they gone, when Uguccione appeared, but 
 it was too late, and it became expedient for him 
 to retreat*. 
 
 The Florentines, who saw the war becoming conti- 
 nually more dangerous, sent to request new suc- 
 cours from King Robert. His brother, Philip, 
 Prince of Taranto, with his son Charles, solicited to join 
 them ; the prudent Robert, who was well acquainted 
 with his incapacity, consented, but with great unwilling- 
 ness; he brought with him five hundred chosen horse. 
 After the fall of Lucca, the Florentines strongly fortified 
 Monte Catini, as an important barrier. Uguccione 
 thought of attacking it ; and foreseeing that the Flo- 
 rentines would be against him, he collected with all pos- 
 sible alacrity as many troops as he was able ; Pisans, 
 Lucchese, from the Bishop of Arezzo, the Counts of 
 Santa Fiora, together with many Ghibellines and 
 outlaws. A numerous army was immediately 
 called together by the Florentines, with the assistance of 
 the confederate cities of Bologna, Perugia, Gubbio, 
 Sienna, Pistoia, Prato and Volterra, which, with the 
 Neapolitan troops, amounted to 3,000 horse, and 30,000 
 infantry according to some authors ; but force in those 
 times consisted in cavalry. The prince marched at the 
 
 * fetor. PistoJ.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 451 
 
 bead to liberate Monte Catini, which Uguccione was 
 besieging. The troops of Uguccione were far inferior in 
 number, but alike superior in valour, and the ability of 
 their commander. The two armies came in front of 
 each other. They halted for some time, divided by the 
 Nievole, a small river that runs through a valley, sepa- 
 rating the heights of Monte Catini and Monsulmano. 
 Philip, commander of the Florentines, was ill of fever. 
 They made inroads near the camp of the Pisans, in order 
 to excite them to battle ; and seeing them immoveable, 
 as they imagined from fear, they increased their au- 
 dacity; the shrewd Uguccione was seeking only to 
 increase the inconsiderate confidence of the enemy. 
 Finally, thinking the road for his provisions intercepted, 
 he either determined upon retreating, or feigned to do 
 so, but in good order, holding himself ready for battle 
 whenever the opportunity offered*. The Florentine 
 army followed him up as if he had been beaten, alert 
 and in good order, when Uguccione on a sudden making 
 a halt, from being the assailed became the assailant, or- 
 dered the weak vanguard to be attacked, which was com- 
 posed of Siennese and people of Colle, by one hundred 
 and fifty of his best soldiers, led on by his son, and Jacob 
 Malaspini a Florentine outlaw. They soon routed it ; 
 and hastened imprudently upon the flank of Piero, where 
 was the nerve of the army; great as the danger was 
 not a man turned his back, and they were nearly all cut 
 to pieces. Uguccione, with eight hundred German horse, 
 the flower of his troop, attacked the disordered enemy with 
 so much vigour, that he easily beat them. The greatest 
 opposition was made by Count Gravina, who had the 
 best troops; but even these were put to flight. The 
 
 * Istor. Pistol. Rer.Ital. torn. 11. 
 
 2 G 2
 
 452 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 battle was most bloody ; ^and the Florentines expe- 
 rienced one of the most memorable defeats. A son 
 of Uguccione was slain, at which the intrepid warrior 
 never changed countenance : but the heat of revenge, 
 and bitterness of hatred, towards the Florentines, 
 made him issue an order, that neither prisoners were 
 to be made, nor lives spared ; and the carnage was 
 immense. Villani reckons nearly 2,000 killed of the 
 defeated ; but the number must have been greater, as we 
 learn from other writers, that many were drowned in the 
 Nievole, and few made prisoners. The defeat of Monte 
 Catini was attended with a doleful celebrity in the death 
 of Piero, brother of the king, who was drowned, 
 probably, in a marsh, and his body could never be 
 found ; of Charles, son of the Prince of Taranto, his 
 nephew; and of many of the principal nobility of 
 Florence and the confederate cities*. Amongst the 
 combatants were persons of the first families; and 
 Naples, Florence, Bologna, Sienna, and Perugia, were 
 for a considerable period shrouded in mourning. 
 Among the most distinguished, were reckoned a 
 hundred and fourteen of the first families of Florence, 
 Charles, Count of Battifolle, Caraccio and Brusco of 
 Arragon, the most celebrated of warriors : on the 
 
 1 i 1 *i 
 
 other side, besides the son of Uguccione, was 
 slain his comrade Malaspini, who bore the imperial 
 ensign, and which he never quitted, even when mortally 
 wounded. Castruccio Antelminelli, who bore arms 
 under Uguccione, was wounded. The remains of the 
 broken army dispersed towards Pistoia, Fucecchio, 
 Cerbaia, and many were drowned in the marshes of the 
 
 * Gio. Vill. lib. 9. c. 70. Istor. Pistol. Albert. Mass. lib. 6. 
 Tronci. Ann. Pis. Cron. Sanese di Andrea Dei.
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 453 
 
 Gusciana. The booty of the conquerors was immense ; 
 the Florentine effeminacy and luxury had introduced 
 among the arms, carpets and silken beds fringed with 
 gold, with the most costly furniture, which made them 
 resemble the Sybarites, more than the Spartans*. 
 Many ensigns were taken : among them were two royal 
 standards. This battle happened on the 29th of August. 
 The body of Prince Charles was respected, and a decent 
 funeral granted it : that of the son of Uguccione was 
 buried in one of the tombs of the Campo Santo of Pisa, 
 with his name inscribed thereon. The Count Ranieri 
 of Donoratico f was in this battle with his Pisans ; who 
 still maintained his hereditary hatred towards the royal 
 family of Naples, the author of whom, Charles I., had 
 caused his grandfather Gherard to be beheaded, 
 ' together with Conradin : and when the body of 
 Prince Charles was found amongst the slain, it is 
 related that Ranieri, treading upon it with a barbarous 
 complacency, invoked the shade of his grandfather to 
 taste the cruel pleasure of revenge, and execrating that 
 of Charles, he caused himself to be created chevalier 
 upon the corpse J. Monte Catini and Monsulmano 
 surrendered soon after to -the conquerors, and many 
 castles followed the same fate. Disheartened by these 
 losses, the Prince of Taranto returned to Naples, and 
 King Robert sent his new vice-regent, the Count of 
 
 * Ferr. Vicent. Hist. lib. 7. 
 
 f Alber. Muss, calls him Neri, son of Fazio. 
 
 t Many writers relate the fact : among the rest Alber. Muss, de 
 Gest. Ital. lib. 4. Rer. Ital. torn. 10., repeats the words of Ranieri 
 more precisely : " Et tollite, inquit, Avi Gerardi manes : este hujus 
 muneris mei longitione felices : Tuque Canis Senex Carole, Cor- 
 radini vere Romanorum regis, atque Avi mei carnifax, accipite 
 dignam tua feritate propaginem.
 
 464 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 Monto Scaggioso and Andria, called also the Count 
 Novello. Public misfortunes, however, which are wont to 
 produce discontent against the rulers of the government, 
 had excited a party in Florence against the royal family 
 of Naples, of which party Simone della Tosa was head, 
 whilst Pino, of the same family, directed the contrary 
 party, maintaining that they ought not to dissolve a tie 
 of friendship which had subsisted for so many years 
 with that royal house. The contest terminated 
 
 i o i f J 
 
 by limiting greatly the power of the royal viceroy. 
 Dangerous tumults would probably have arisen, had it 
 not been for dread of Uguccione. But fortune was 
 beginning to grow tired of her favours towards him. 
 There was an extraordinary man in Lucca, who 
 possessed greater talents than Uguccione, without his 
 cruelty. 
 
 Castruccio Antelminelli Castracani, one of the greatest 
 men that Italy has produced, had passed through various 
 vicissitudes before he arrived at the celebrity to which 
 his talents destined him. An exile from Lucca with his 
 father, for being enemies of the ruling faction, he lost 
 his parents in Ancona, and went to England under the 
 auspices of his relation Alderic, a rich Lucchese mer- 
 chant, and was probably brought up at that time to 
 commerce. His elevated spirit, however, made him 
 seek access to the court of King Edward, to whom he 
 was highly acceptable. Playing with the king and other 
 courtiers at ball, one of the latter, on account of a 
 dispute about the game, gave him a box on the ear in 
 the presence of the king*. The generous Castruccio 
 
 * Tigrini, Vita Cas. Rerum Ital. 5. torn. 11. Aldo Manag. Azioni 
 di Castruc. Incomparable as Macchiavello is in the historical 
 style, and in the profound reflections with which he enriches it, by 
 so much is he negligent in facts. This negligence, however, is
 
 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 455 
 
 could not brook the affront, and drawing forth a dagger 
 killed him on the spot. By the speedy interference of 
 his friends, and probably by the connivance of the king, 
 he was immediately embarked, and passing through Flan- 
 ders, where the war was raging between the English and 
 French, he took the side of the latter under Musicatto 
 Francesi, a Florentine, who was carrying on the war 
 with four hundred horse and 1 ,500 Italian infantry, and 
 distinguished himself by many proofs of valour. When 
 Uguccione obliged the Lucchese to receive again the 
 exiles, Castruccio returned to his country ; and by his 
 valour and conduct the Obizi were expelled, and Uguc- 
 cione made master. In the battle of Monte Catini* he 
 highly distinguished himself, and became one of the most 
 active and courageous followers of Uguccione. But 
 although the latter owed him so much, the valour and 
 the talents of Castruccio, which had gained him universal 
 affection, began to give such jealousy to the suspicious 
 Uguccione, that he resolved upon getting rid of him. 
 
 carried to its greatest pitch in the life of Castruccio ; of which he 
 has woven rather a romance than a history : the order of facts is 
 confused, the circumstances wandering : the birth and uncertainty 
 of condition in Castruccio not supported by any testimony. This 
 loom of falsehood is crowned by the assertion that he had neither 
 wife nor children, when he had so many, &c. All this will appear 
 clearly to whoever will compare him with contemporary writers, 
 and particularly Villani with Macchiavello, who wrote a century 
 and a half afterwards. 
 
 * Macchiavello, in the life of Castruccio, attributes to him 
 entirely the victory of Monte Catini, asserting that Uguccione was 
 not there, being prevented by illness. Tigrini, in the life of Cas- 
 truccio, says the same: but contrasts with this assertion the autho- 
 rity of Gio. Villani, a writer cotemporary with the fact. That 
 Castruccio had great share in the victory cannot be doubted, as he 
 was wounded in a leg, and did not choose to be attended to until 
 the action was over.
 
 456 HISTORY OF TUSCANY. 
 
 He was at Pisa whilst his sort, governed Lucca: the 
 latter receiving orders from his father, invited Castruccio 
 to supper, and caused him to be arrested. But as the 
 good inclination of the Lucchese towards this man was 
 equal to their hatred of Uguccione, the son did not dare 
 to attempt so dangerous a blow without the presence of 
 his father, whom he called, in the greatest haste to Lucca, 
 in order to carry it into effect. Pisa, equally with 
 Lucca, was tired of the tyranny of Uguccione, who had 
 ordered Banduccio Bonconti, and his son, to be beheaded, 
 merely because they gave him umbrage, under vain 
 pretences of treason *. The Pisans, who were irritated 
 by this fresh cruelty, hardly was Uguccione gone, 
 raised a clamour, put his partisans to death, and gave 
 the government to Count Gaddo della Gherardesca. 
 This news arrived at Lucca, when the Lucchese were 
 tumultuously demanding the liberty of Castruccio. 
 Uguccione not daring to oppose the general wish, Cas- 
 truccio was taken from prison, and presented to 
 the public, loaded with chains. At this spectacle 
 the people grew still more furious : T Tguccione was obliged 
 to fly ; and the chains being taken off Castruccio, the 
 latter, by a rare good fortune, was declared Lord of 
 Lucca f on the very day which had been destined for his 
 death. 
 
 * Vill. lib. 9. c. 74. Tigrini Vita Cas. 
 
 t Vide Gio. Vill. lib. 9. cap. 76. Tigr. Vita Cas. Aldo Manuzio. 
 Istor. Pistolesi. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
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