The Story of Verona
by Alethea Wiel · English · Gutenberg #46384 · 439,407 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Story of Verona
Author: Alethea Wiel
Illustrator: Nelly Erichsen
Helen M. James
Release date: July 23, 2014 [eBook #46384]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46384
Credits: Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF VERONA ***
Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images available at The Internet Archive)
[Every attempt has been made to replicate the original as printed.
Archaic spellings (i.e. divers, skilful, stopt, etc.) have been
retained. Some typographical errors have been corrected; a list follows
the text. (note of etext transcriber)]
_The Story of Verona_
_The Mediæval Town Series_
ASSISI.* By LINA DUFF GORDON. [_4th Edition._
BRUGES.† By ERNEST GILLIAT-SMITH. [_3rd Edition._
BRUSSELS.† By ERNEST GILLIAT-SMITH.
CAIRO.† By STANLEY LANE-POOLE. [_2nd Edition._
CAMBRIDGE.† By CHARLES W. STUBBS, D.D.
CHARTRES.† By CECIL HEADLAM.
CONSTANTINOPLE.* By WILLIAM H. HUTTON. [_2nd Edition._
DUBLIN.† By D. A. CHART.
EDINBURGH.† By OLIPHANT SMEATON.
FERRARA.† By ELLA NOYES.
FLORENCE.† By EDMUND G. GARDNER. [_8th Edition._
LONDON.† By HENRY B. WHEATLEY. [_2nd Edition._
MOSCOW.* By WIRT GERRARE. [_2nd Edition._
NUREMBERG.* By CECIL HEADLAM. [_4th Edition._
OXFORD.† By CECIL HEADLAM.
PARIS.† By THOMAS OKEY.
PERUGIA.* By MARGARET SYMONDS and LINA DUFF GORDON. [_5th Edition._
PRAGUE.* By COUNT LÜTZOW.
ROME.† By NORWOOD YOUNG. [_5th Edition._
ROUEN.† By THEODORE A. COOK. [_3rd Edition._
SEVILLE.† By WALTER M. GALLICHAN.
SIENA.† By EDMUND G. GARDNER. [_2nd Edition._
TOLEDO.* By HANNAH LYNCH. [_2nd Edition._
VERONA.† By ALETHEA WIEL. [_3rd Edition._
VENICE.† By THOMAS OKEY.
_The prices of these (*) are 3s. 6d. net in cloth, 4s. 6d. net in
leather; these (†), 4s. 6d. net in cloth, 5s. 6d. net in
leather._
[Illustration: _Centrepiece by A. Mantegna, behind the High Altar of S.
Zeno._]
_The Story of_ Verona
_by Alethea Wiel Illustrated
by Nelly Erichsen and
Helen M. James_
[Illustration: colophon]
_London: J. M. Dent & Co.
Aldine House, 29 and 30 Bedford Street
Covent Garden, W.C. 1907_
_First Edition, July 1902_
_Second Edition, August 1904_
_Third Edition, August 1907_
_All rights reserved_
_To_
_My Husband_
PREFACE
The story of Verona is no simple record of a simple town with a
continuous rule guiding her fortunes and directing her destinies. Her
tale is mingled with that of other nations and languages; and Greek,
Ostrogoth, Longobard and Frank have held sway in Verona as well as
Etruscan and Roman. The influence of these diverse nationalities has
left its trace on the art and history of the city to a marked extent.
The architecture alone of Verona is of a nature to demand a long and
deep study, and calls for an expert’s hand to do justice to its
different developments of variety and beauty. Her school of painting too
is a subject that has not yet met with sufficient attention, and that
deserves a study which hitherto has been but scantily bestowed upon it.
I have tried in a humble and limited way to put before the reader some
idea of this school, and to render him familiar with the names and works
and methods of the masters of painting with whom he will come most in
contact in his wanderings through Verona. Many of their masterpieces are
to be found in the grand old churches which form one of the chief
features of Verona, and within whose walls it is well to linger if we
wish to grasp fully the character of the town and of the men who raised
these noble buildings, and who now lie buried in or beside them. The
history of Verona is all-absorbing, but I have tried to give it only
that prominence which is necessary for such an understanding of the town
as will interest the traveller and enable him to enjoy a stay amid
surroundings that will not now perhaps seem “foreign” to him.
I have drawn much of my knowledge on the Veronese school of painting
from Sir A. Henry Layard’s excellent work, _Handbook of Painting. The
Italian School; based on the Handbook of Kugler_ (London: Murray, 1887),
which was most kindly lent to me by Lady Layard; and to Mr Selwyn
Brinton’s _The Renaissance in Italian Art_, Part II. (London: Simpkin,
1898). My grateful thanks are also due to Prof. Commendatore Carlo
Malagola, Head of the State Archives in Venice, for the loan of books
and for help as to the means whereby to arrive at much of the
information I required. I am also indebted to Cav. Giuseppe Biadego,
Bibliotecario of the Biblioteca Comunale of Verona; and to Cav. Dr
Riccardo Galli for help during my stay at Verona. Nor must I omit to say
a word in praise of the Hôtel de Londres in that city, where comfort and
economy are very happily and successfully blended by a most courteous
and diligent landlord. My chief thanks though are due to Cav. Pietro
Sgulmero, Vice-Bibliotecario of the Library and Vice-Inspector of the
Monuments in Verona, who devoted many a spare hour to introducing me to
every part of the town, and in imparting to me all he could of the
knowledge he possesses in an eminent degree of the history and legends
of his native town. My book owes more to him than I am able to express.
“Few towns,” says Mr Selwyn Brinton, “have an individuality more
delightsome than Verona--Verona the Worthy (Verona la Degna) as she was
called”--and if I shall succeed in endearing that individuality and
making it familiar to the traveller wandering through this “worthy” and
glorious city, I shall not have laboured in vain.
PALAZZO SORANZO,
VENICE, _January 1902_.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
.....PAGE
_Origin and Growth of the City--Verona under the Romans--Goths and
Lombards in Verona--The Adige_.....1
CHAPTER II
_The Arena_.....23
CHAPTER III
_The Middle Ages--Ezzelino da Romano_.....43
CHAPTER IV
_The Scaligers_.....66
CHAPTER V
_From the Fall of the Scaligers to the Present Day_.....103
CHAPTER VI
_Men of Letters--School of Painting_.....124
CHAPTER VII
_The Duomo--S. Giovanni in Fonte--Biblioteca Capitolare--Vescovado--St
Anastasia--Piazza delle Erbe_.....150
CHAPTER VIII
_Piazza dei Signori--Sta. Maria Antica--Tombs of the Scaligers_.....178
CHAPTER IX
_Via Cappello--San Fermo--Museo Civico and Picture Gallery_.....199
CHAPTER X
_S. Paolo di Campo Marte--SS. Nazzaro e Celso--The Grotto di S.
Nazzaro--St Thomas of Canterbury--Giardino Giusti--Sta. Maria in
Organo--S. Giovanni in Valle--Teatro Antico--SS. Siro e Libera--Castle
of Theodoric--S. Stefano--S. Giorgio in Braida_.....222
CHAPTER XI
_Sant’ Eufemia--Porta dei Borsari--S.S. Apostoli--S. Lorenzo--S.
Bernardino--Sta. Trinità--Tomb of Romeo and Juliet--Ponte
Rofiolo--Piazza Brà_.....250
CHAPTER XII
_San Zeno_.....267
CHAPTER XIII
_Verona and its Crown of Castles_.....281
CHAPTER XIV
_Plan for seeing the Town--Hotels_.....299
ILLUSTRATIONS
.....PAGE
_Centrepiece by Andrea Mantegna behind the High Altar at San Zeno_
(_Photogravure_) _Frontispiece_
_Castel S. Pietro from the Adige_.....5
_A Vendor of Fresh Water_.....20
_The Arena_.....22
_The façade of the Duomo_.....45
_Tower of the former Convent of S. Zeno._ (_The only remaining
fragment of the building where the mediæval German emperors stopt on
their way to Rome_).....50
_Church of S. Zeno. Capital in the Nave_.....54
_The Tribuna--Ancient Seat of Judgment, Piazza delle Erbe_.....63
_Old Seal of Verona_.....65
_The Costa. Palazzo of Cangrande in the distance where he entertained
Dante_.....75
_The back of Casa Mozzanti. Once inhabited by Alberto della
Scala_.....85
_Tomb of Mastino II. della Scala_.....91
_Ponte Scaligeri. Bridge of Castel Vecchio_.....95
_Fountain in the Piazza delle Erbe._ (_Statue said originally to be of
the third century_).....99
_Shield of the Scaligers, with the “Holy Bird,” the badge of their
dignity as Vicars Imperial_.....102
_The Piazza delle Erbe, with the Venetian Column_.....111
_Palazzo del Consiglio. Architect Fra Giocondo_.....125
_Madonna and Child, V. Pisanello, Museo Civico_.....137
_Madonna, SS. Zeno and Lorenzo Giustiniani, Girolamo dai Libri, Church
of St George in Braida_.....141
_The Arms of Verona_.....149
_South Door of the Duomo_.....151
_Side Door of Duomo. Detail of Column_.....155
_Detail of Side Door of Duomo_.....158
_Church of St Anastasia from the Adige showing the Houses which stood
there before the “muraglioni,” built to defend the town against the
Inundations of the Adige, were erected_.....161
_Holy Water Basin in St Anastasia_ (_Figure carved by Gabriel
Cagliari, father of Paul Veronese_).....164
_Madonna and Saints, St Anastasia_ (_ascribed alternately to Francesco
Morone and Girolamo dai Libri_).....167
_Tomb of Guglielmo da Castelbarco_.....170
_Piazza delle Erbe_.....173
_Piazza dei Signori_.....179
_Outside Staircase, Palazzo Publico or della Regione_.....182
_The Outside Staircase, Palazzo della Ragione_.....183
_Fifteenth Century Well in Via Mazzanti_.....186
_Effigy of Cangrande_.....189
_Monument of Giovanni della Scala, Verona_.....192
_Tomb of Cansignorio della Scala_.....193
_Juliet’s House_ (_traditionally_).....201
_Church of S. Fermo Maggiore: The Madonna and Child and St Anne in
Glory, with other Saints below_ (_G. Francesco Caroto_).....205
_Cavazzola’s Deposition from the Cross_.....211
_Museo Civico, The Madonna and Child enthroned, with St Joseph and the
Archangel Raphael_ (_Girolamo dai Libri_).....216
_Virgin and Child with Saints in Glory_ (_Paolo Morando detto
Cavazzola_).....217
_Window and Balcony in Via Seminario_.....225
_Giardino Giusti_.....227
_The Giusti Garden_.....231
_Doorway of Carved Wood in the Sacristy of S. Maria_.....235
_Choir Stall of Intarsio Work in S. Maria_.....239
_Church of S. Giorgio in Braida, Martyrdom of St George_ (_Paolo
Veronese_).....243
_The Madonna with Holy Women_ (_Moretto du Brescia_).....247
_Balcony in Via St Eufemia_.....251
_Corso Cavour_.....253
_Fresco by Domenico Morone in the Library of S. Bernardino_.....260
_S. Zeno Maggiore. Choir Screen and Entrance to the Crypt_.....269
_Church of S. Zeno_.....273
_Cloisters, S. Zeno Maggiore_.....277
_Ruins of the Villa of Catullo_.....283
_Castle of Sirmione_.....289
PLANS
_Map of the Town of Verona, from an Engraving in the Biblioteca
Comunale of the year 1671_ _face page_.....103
_Plan of the Town of Verona showing the old walls, from an engraving
in the Biblioteca Comunale of the year 1535_.....303
_Map of the Town_....._at end_
All the half-tone illustrations are reproductions from photographs by
Alinari, Florence.
The Story of Verona
CHAPTER I
_Origin and Growth of the City--Verona under the Romans--Goths and
Lombards in Verona--The Adige_
Verona is no exception to those great cities of Italy whose origin is
wrapt in a background of uncertainty and mystery. A few scattered huts
on the hillside, now known as the “_Colle di San Pietro_,” were probably
the beginnings of the town which was soon to spring up on both sides of
the Adige--that mighty river that formed then as now such an important
feature all round the country through which it flows, and whose waters
have carried as great an amount of woe in their train as ever they have
of weal. These faint beginnings of a mighty town bore probably some
resemblance to the hamlets we now see in Umbria or Tuscany, dotted as
they are on the slopes up which they seem to crawl with difficulty, and
marking the sites where bastions, castles and strongholds were to stand
in after times. For Verona was above all else a fortress. Her existence,
as soon as she had assumed the proportions of a town, was essentially a
military one, and the character stamped on her in those early days
remains untouched to the present hour. It may be said of this beautiful
city as of Zion of old: “Walk about Verona, and go round about her, and
tell the towers thereof. Mark well her bulwarks. Set up her houses that
ye may tell them that come after.” This injunction to chronicle the
story of the older city applies equally to the one on the banks of the
Adige, and sharpens the desire to do so as faithfully and lovingly as
may be.
The position of Verona, its vast military construction, its fortress
guarded by three lines of separate forts, its arsenal and barracks, have
made it, if not the first, at least one of the first military towns of
Italy, and cause an ever-growing longing to investigate as to its origin
and that of the people who founded it. That longing however has to be
repressed, for all is dark and vague with regard to the early days of
Verona. Her historians indeed claim for her an ancestry of fabulous
antiquity: some asserting that she existed before Troy came into
celebrity; others declaring that she was founded soon after the flood.
Veronese writers lose themselves equally in discussions as to the race
from whom sprang the inhabitants of their city and province. They devote
pages to the subject and consider in turn the probability as to whether
Etruscans, Rhetians, Euganeans, Celts, Cimbrians or Gauls were the
founders. No satisfactory conclusion is reached. The mystery remains
unsolved; and time and thought are alike wasted in attempting to lift a
veil which has been inexorably drawn by the Past, and which she defies
us to remove. There can be no doubt whatever that Verona dates from very
early times, even if it is beyond the knowledge of man to assert when
that date exactly was. It may be assumed however that the Etruscans had
a part in her foundation, and when we bear in mind that this implies a
period embracing the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., the age of the city
is carried back indeed to a remote epoch. The supposition most generally
accepted among Veronese writers is that their town came into being about
the fourth century before the Christian era, and proofs of this are
forthcoming to this day in the discoveries made in and around Verona of
remains of arms, utensils, vessels, tombs, and so forth, which bear
witness to the different peoples who, at one time or another, were
living or ruling there, and to the period of their rule. By this means,
too, evidence can be found of the dominion of the Barbarians, Gauls, and
Cimbrians; and indeed to remoter times still when the age of bronze, and
also the neolithic age and the prehistoric age are reached in turn.
The uncertainty as to the Past clings still to the period when Rome
stretched forth her conquering arms over the north of Italy. No date can
be mentioned accurately as to when Verona became part of the great
Republic; nor when, nor by whom the Amphitheatre, and the Theatre, which
form her most classic monuments were erected. It may however be assumed
that at the beginning of the third century B.C., Verona was subject to
Rome. This subjection though was of a voluntary nature, and in no way
arose from the right of victory. Verona was doubtless wise in time: she
saw how she had everything to gain by throwing in her lot with that of
Rome; and by expressing a desire to be under Roman authority and
protection forestalled what would inevitably have been brought about by
invasion and conquest. That this was so may be safely affirmed by the
absence of all documents recording such a conquest, nor is there a
chronicle which adds the name of Verona to the list of triumphs gained
by any general--a triumph which would not have been omitted had it been
made, nor would history have been silent over the conquest had it been
there to record. It is probable that some Veronese troops came to the
assistance of the Roman legions at the battle of Cannae (216 B.C.), and
also that they fought for Rome against the invading forces of the
Teutons and Cimbri at the close of the second century. This invasion of
the Cimbri presented a danger to Rome greater than was at first
imagined, and greater perhaps than any hitherto experienced by the
Eternal City. The early chroniclers of Verona maintain that their city
bore an important part in staving off the impending danger. They also
declare that a large band of the invaders took up their abode in the
neighbourhood, enchanted with the soft climate, the delicious wines
(those of the Valpolicella being renowned even then), and the charms of
the sunny sky of Italy. Here it is said that their descendants dwell to
this day, and are still to be identified by the difference of their
language, which is neither Italian nor German, though more nearly allied
to the latter. The district where this diversity of language is to be
found is known as the “_XIII Comuni Veronesi_,” and the “_VII Comuni
Vicentini_.” Modern writers by no means endorse the Cimbrian legend, and
declare that it has no foundation at all. They ascribe other causes to
the philological difficulty and explain it away as follows: The
proximity of Germany to this part of Italy, they contend, explains the
familiarity of the Teuton tongue, together with the intercourse of the
two countries and the trading that was carried on between them.
The influence exercised by Rome over Verona was great; and though the
chroniclers of the latter city are eager to maintain that she was in no
way dependent on Rome, or unduly subjected to her, the fact remains
[Illustration: CASTEL S. PIETRO FROM THE ADIGE]
that she was under the dominion of the Eternal City, and that Roman laws
and habits were felt and adopted in the northern town. She was not
admitted at once to the full rights and privileges of citizenship,
though the “_lex Pompeia_” was extended to her B.C. 89, which entailed
on her the rights of a Latin colony. After the battle of Philippi (B.C.
42; year of Rome 712) the privileges of Roman citizenship were granted
to Transpadane Gaul; though when Verona herself was admitted to such
rights cannot be affirmed with certainty. There can be however little
doubt that this occurred but a short time afterwards, when she was
included in the tenth region into which Cæsar Augustus partitioned
Italy; a region which was known as that of “_Venetia et Histria_.” On
the architrave of the Porta dei Borsari, when by order of the Emperor
Gallienus the city was enclosed afresh by a wall, there was an
inscription recording this fact, and proclaiming that Verona was
“Colonia Augusta Nova Gallieniana.” This inscription is of the more
value as there is nothing beyond it to tell of the relation between Rome
and Verona. No mention is made of the latter city in the records
concerning the Augustan colonisations; nor is she enumerated in the list
of colonies given by Pliny the Elder in his history. Tacitus speaks of
her as a colony in the second century, and in the fourth century we read
of Pompeius Strabo sending a colony there.
In the early days of the Roman Empire, Verona was a town of much
importance; the chief cause that contributed to this importance being
without doubt her geographical position. She stood at a spot where
several great highways met; and all the chief roads that connected the
Empire with its principal towns in the north of Italy and into Germany
passed through her streets. The Gallican way (Via Gallica), coming from
Brescia and leading through Vicenza to Aquileja (thus ensuring
intercourse with the eastern provinces) went through Verona. So too did
the Via Postumia coming from Bedriaco. Another road led from Verona to
Mantua. Another again led to Bologna. The great road to the north also
started from Verona, and carried the communication from Italy into
Germany, and right away to the Danubian provinces.
Ruskin[1] has described the position occupied by Verona when speaking of
the view over the town as seen from the road going to Illasi. He says,
“Now this promontory is one of the sides of the great gate out of
Germany into Italy, through which the Goths always entered: cloven up to
Innsbruck by the Inn, and down to Verona by the Adige. And by this gate
not only the Gothic armies came, but after the Italian nation is formed,
the current of northern life enters still into its heart through the
mountain artery, as constantly and strongly as the cold waves of the
Adige itself.”
A great part was played by Verona at the time of the war between the
Vitellians and Flavians. The latter who represented the partisans of
Flavius Vespasian, and who aimed at depriving the feeble Emperor
Vitellius of his crown, had taken possession of Aquileja, Vicenza,
Padua, and Verona. Much fighting took place around Verona, and in the
end the Vitellians were defeated, and Vespasian--whose cause had been
espoused by the Veronese--became Emperor. During the third century the
weakness and decay of the Empire did but gain ground. This
demoralisation proceeded chiefly from internal seditions and military
revolts. The host sent by Philip the Younger, surnamed “the Arab,”
against the Barbarians of Pannonia rebelled, and proclaimed their
general Decius Emperor. Philip journeyed from Rome to quell the revolt,
but when near Verona he was overcome and slain. In the meanwhile the
vigour and audacity of the Barbarians did but increase. The town of
Verona was looked upon as one of the keys of Upper Italy, protected as
it was by the river Adige and fortified besides by walls and
fortifications. Considered as a stronghold, even in the days of
Augustus, its renown in that respect was but to gain ground as time went
on. The Emperor Gallienus had extended the outer city walls, and in this
way had rendered the town almost impregnable against the attacks of the
Barbarians. This extension of the walls had been made to include the
Amphitheatre, an edifice which might well be of untold advantage to a
foe; for unless rescued from its outlying position it could easily be
taken and turned into a formidable fort by any enemy of skill and
daring. This strengthening of the walls and fortifications of Verona was
accomplished none too soon. A vast federation of northern hordes,
determined to take advantage of the corruption and feebleness of Rome,
crossed the Alps in 268, and aimed at the conquest of Verona. They were
met by the Emperor Claudius II. near the Lake of Garda, and overthrown
in a great fight, when more than half their numbers were left dead on
the field of battle.
In the year 312, Verona was besieged by Constantine, who bore down upon
it from the pass of the Mount Cenis. Gibbon[2] gives an account of this
event as follows: “From Milan to Rome the Aemilian and Flaminian
highways offered an easy march of about four hundred miles; but though
Constantine was impatient to encounter the tyrant (Maxentius), he
prudently directed his operations against another army of Italians,
who, by their strength and position, might either oppose his progress,
or, in case of a misfortune, might intercept his retreat. Ruricius
Pompeianus, a general distinguished by his valour and ability, had under
his command the city of Verona, and all the troops that were stationed
in the province of Venetia. As soon as he was informed that Constantine
was advancing towards him, he detached a large body of cavalry, which
was defeated in an engagement near Brescia, and pursued by the Gallic
legions as far as the gates of Verona. The necessity, the importance,
and the difficulties of the siege of Verona, immediately presented
themselves to the sagacious mind of Constantine. The city was accessible
only by a narrow peninsula towards the west, as the other three sides
were surrounded by the Adige, a rapid river, which covered the province
of Venetia, from whence the besieged derived an inexhaustible supply of
men and provisions. It was not without great difficulty, and after
several fruitless attempts, that Constantine found means to pass the
river at some distance above the city, and in a place where the torrent
was less violent. He then encompassed Verona with strong lines, pushed
his attacks with prudent vigour, and repelled a desperate sally of
Pompeianus. That intrepid general, when he had used every means of
defence that the strength of the place or that of the garrison could
afford, secretly escaped from Verona, anxious not for his own but for
the public safety. With indefatigable diligence he soon collected an
army sufficient either to meet Constantine in the field, or to attack
him if he obstinately remained within his lines. The emperor, attentive
to the motions, and informed of the approach of so formidable an enemy,
left a part of his legions to continue the operations of the siege,
whilst, at the head of those troops on whose valour and fidelity he
more particularly depended, he advanced in person to engage the general
of Maxentius. The army of Gaul was drawn up in two lines, according to
the practice of war; but their experienced leader, perceiving that the
numbers of the Italians far exceeded his own, suddenly changed his
dispositions, and, reducing the second, extended the front of this first
line to a just proportion with that of the enemy. Such evolutions, which
only veteran troops can execute without confusion in a moment of danger,
commonly prove decisive: but as this engagement began towards the close
of the day, and was contested with great obstinacy during the whole
night, there was less room for the conduct of the generals than for the
courage of the soldiers. The return of light displayed the victory of
Constantine, and a field of carnage covered with many thousands of the
vanquished Italians. Their general, Pompeianus, was found among the
slain; Verona immediately surrendered at discretion, and the garrison
was made prisoners of war.”
Aquileja and Modena surrendered also to the victor, and the path into
Italy lay open to Constantine.
For the remaining part of that century Verona remained under the sway of
the Emperors of the West, many of whom sojourned there often and
willingly, attracted either by the charm of the place, or by the
convenience afforded by its central position. Nor is this to be wondered
at seeing how it was a very junction for Milan, Aquileja, and Germany in
turn, and how it was also provided with all that was needful for the
reception and accommodation of its Imperial guests.
In the following century the Veronese territory was invaded anew by
Barbarians, the first inroad being that of Alaric and his Visigoths
(402); the next that of the Huns under Attila. There can be little
doubt that Verona fell before the armies of the “Scourge of God,” but
his speedy withdrawal from Italy--at the intercession it is said of St
Leo--left the town again free.
The influence exercised by Rome over Verona ever since she had included
her among her colonies had been felt not only in the laws and habits
adopted by the northern city, but also in the religious creeds and rites
practised in her midst. The worship of false gods had flourished there
in early times. Eastern deities had had their services and altars, nor
was the Augustan worship omitted. That this worship, which represented
not only the homage rendered to the person of Cæsar but to the
world-power of Rome as well, was celebrated in Verona is evident from
the mention made of the “_flamen divi Augusti et Romae_” as ranking
among her religious observances.
The introduction of Christianity into Verona is placed at a very early
date, and one legend declares that no less a person than St Peter
appointed the first bishop who was one St Euprepio. This divine, who is
also said to have been one of the seventy appointed by our Lord (see St
Luke, ch. x., v. i), was indeed the first bishop of Verona, but the date
of his episcopate cannot be definitely affirmed, and can only be vaguely
spoken of as amongst the earliest bishoprics instituted in Italy. The
first bishops of Verona all attained to the rank of saints; the fourth
being St Procolo, and the sixth St Lucillo, who took part in 347 at the
Council of Sardis. In 380 (or according to Maffei 390) occurred the
death of St Zenone, or Zeno, the eighth bishop, a man famous for his
learning and saintliness of life, and who according to some traditions
“reduxit Veronam ad baptismum.” The writings of St Zeno have come down
to the present day, and beside their doctrine and devotion have also
some literary merit. It is not known where the services of the early
Christians were held in Verona. The so-called grotto of San Nazzaro, of
which mention will be made later on,[3] is generally looked upon as the
place, and tradition has it that Divine worship was actually celebrated
there. The frescoes that adorn the church are of later date than the
building, and were probably added when the church was restored in the
tenth century, after it had suffered much damage at the hands of the
Hungarians.
That Verona possessed a bishop as early as the third century of the
Christian era would point to the fact that even at that time the town
contained many believers, though the martyrdoms of S. Fermo and S.
Rustico in the reign of Diocletian would again demonstrate that at that
epoch at all events the pagan world was in the supremacy. St Zeno’s
writings on the other hand assume that Christianity was widespread
through the city, but this point in common with many others relating to
the early days of Verona cannot be affirmed with certainty. The diocese
of Verona up to the beginning of the fifth century was subject to the
metropolitan jurisdiction of the See of Milan which extended (especially
at the time of St Ambrose), over the greater part of the north of Italy,
and was known under the Roman administration as the “vicariatus
Italiae.” After the death of St Ambrose and when the Imperial Government
fixed its seat at Ravenna, Milan declined, its metropolitan jurisdiction
was split up, and Verona with other cities in the district passed under
the jurisdiction of the patriarchate of Aquileja.
The advantages that accrued to Verona from her geographical position
have already been dwelt on. The disadvantages must equally be noted,
chief among them being the facility with which her territory could be
overrun by the wild and undaunted tribes of the North, who looked upon
Italy--the garden of Europe--as the lawful reward for their labours, and
who considered the trained cohorts of the Roman legions as foes worthy
of their mettle.
Odoacer was the first of these invaders. He bore down upon Italy at the
head of a large force of warriors, possessed himself of Rome, where he
deposed Augustolo, the last Emperor of the West, and after he had
imprisoned him at Ravenna, he caused himself to be proclaimed King of
Italy. This was in 476, and there can be little doubt that he held sway
in Verona, from whence however he was driven out in a pitched battle by
Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths. Odoacer lost heavily in the fight
(489), his soldiers were carried away in the rushing, swirling waters of
the Adige, when according to Eunodius “their corpses choked that
grandest of rivers.” Odoacer himself withdrew to Ravenna, where he was
murdered in 493.
Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, is a name and personality associated
with song and legend. His love for Verona was great, and though his
official residence, so to speak, was at Ravenna, it was at the city
beside the Adige that he preferred to dwell. Its strong fortifications,
the convenience of its position for repelling any attack from Germany,
added no doubt to the attraction felt for Verona by “Dietrich von Bern,”
as Theodoric was called in German ballads. Theodoric’s love for Verona
took shape in the several buildings which either for beauty or utility
he raised in it. Baths, palaces, strongholds, and external walls were
built in turn by him, and to him too is due the restoration of the
aqueduct. The remains of the great palace that he built for himself on
the hill of S. Pietro are still to be seen, and point to a style of
architecture that had its origin in Rome. The later years of Theodoric’s
life are dimmed (from a Veronese point of view) by the hatred he is said
to have shewn towards the Catholics. To this is ascribed among other
things his destruction of the oratory of S. Stefano, at that time the
Cathedral church of Verona. This deed which coincided with the German
legends which easily spread to Verona confirmed the story of the
demoniacal chase which was circulated about Theodoric, and which is to
be found engraved among the bas-reliefs carved on the façade of S. Zeno.
The legend runs as follows: Theodoric on leaving the bath mounts his
horse, and followed by his hounds gives chase to a stag. The stag
however always manages to escape. The hunter pursues in reckless haste
and eagerness, till he finds himself brought to the gates of hell. An
allegorical lesson that might have a warning not only for the king of
the Ostrogoths, but for all of every class and nation who choose to heed
it!
Tradition ascribes to Theodoric at one moment the building of the whole
city, at other times the Amphitheatre itself, giving to this latter the
name of the “House of Theodoric,” just as in Rome the same name of
“House of Theodoric” was once given to Hadrian’s mole. Nor did legends
of different sorts cease to be circulated about Theodoric in and around
Verona till the fourteenth century.
The Gothic rule began to decline in the days of Totila (543), and wars
in different directions around Verona, generally ending in the defeat of
the Goths, proved at last their undoing. An invasion of the Greeks was
however successfully withstood, though more perhaps by fortune than by
skill. The Greeks had actually possessed themselves of Verona, but
their greed for booty had made them careless as to securing their
conquest, and before they were aware of it they were attacked by the
Goths and expelled. An expedition headed by Totila’s chief general Teias
against the Emperor Justinian’s forces under Narses was not so
successful. Nor did a fresh expedition led by Totila in person fare
better. The Roman and Gothic armies met at Brescello on the Po, the
Goths were defeated, and Totila was slain. Teias was appointed king in
his stead (560), only to die by the hand of Narses two years later, and
with him the Gothic rule came to an end in Italy.
Fresh incursions from Germany again followed; but it was not till the
year 568 that any permanent rule was established in Verona. That year
however saw the Longobards or Lombards, under their king Alboin, pour
down from the North and spread over the fertile plain which to this day
bears their name. Their rule extended to Verona, where all traces of
Gothic and Grecian power disappeared before that of the new-comers.
It was at Verona that the famous banquet took place, when Alboin ordered
his wife Rosamund to drink wine out of her father’s skull. Alboin had
conquered and killed his father-in-law, Cunimund, king of the Gepedoe,
and carried about with him the trophy of his victory in the shape of the
dead man’s skull converted into a drinking cup. He had no settled
capital in Italy, but, as Theodoric had done before him, he dwelt gladly
at Verona. The story of his orgie is a well-known one, though it may be
that in his drunken debauchery he was hardly conscious of the sacrilege
that he called upon his wife to commit. His brutality was amply avenged.
Rosamund caused her husband to be murdered (June 28, 572, or according
to Maffei 574) and then fled with Elmicho (who had acted for her as
Alboin’s murderer) to Ravenna, taking with her Alsuinda, Alboin’s
daughter, and the royal treasure. The fugitives sought the protection of
Longinus, the exarch of Constantinople; but soon after they reached
Ravenna they were tragically put to death, and Alsuinda together with
King Alboin’s treasure was sent to Constantinople. According to the
writings of Paul the Deacon, the Lombard historian of the eighth
century, the “body of Alboin was buried by the Longobards with tears and
great mourning under a staircase adjoining the palace. In our days
Gilbert or Giselbert, Duke of Verona, opened the case, drew from it the
sword and ornaments, and then with the vanity peculiar to the ignorant,
boasted that he had seen Alboin.” The whole story of the banquet, the
indignity forced upon Queen Rosamund, the king’s death, and all its
sequel is often called in question and doubt thrown on the whole matter.
The certainty of it cannot perhaps be asserted definitely, but the
legend is a well-established one; and the historian Paul quoted above
tells how he saw the fateful goblet, and speaks of the murder, the
flight of the wife and of her accomplice, in a way which proves that he
at least believed it all.
The Lombards established duchies throughout Italy, and after Alboin’s
death we find dukes in Verona, one of whom, Autari, married (_cir._ 589)
the famous Theodolinda, daughter of Garibaldo, king or duke of the
Bavarians, who exercised an important influence over the Lombard people,
and who after her second marriage with Agilulf, Duke of Turin, converted
them from Arianism to the Catholic faith.
In the year said to have been that of the marriage of Theodolinda and
Duke Autari, the year A.D. 589, a terrible inundation of the Adige took
place in Verona. The part this river played, and for the matter of that
still plays, in the history of the town which it bathes and divides is
marked. It rises in Lake Ressen in South Tyrol, and after a course of
some 190 miles, during which it is joined by a multitude of mountain
streams and torrents, it empties itself into the Adriatic. The Adige (in
German the Etsch) flows down through the Brenner pass, now enclosed in
narrow channels, now spreading out through lakes and wide openings,
gathering force and volume, till from small beginnings it becomes the
impetuous mass of waters which rushes headlong through Verona. The
floods and over-flowings from this river have on several occasions
wrought untold damage to the town; and but a few years ago when the
spring or autumn rains had fallen in extra abundance, or when the snows
were melting after an unusually hard winter, the rumour that “L’Adige
ě in pieno” carried dread to all who heard it. This fear is almost
entirely set at rest now. Great dykes and walls have been erected; the
latter known as “muraglione,” which are calculated to ensure perfect
safety to the city, and which certainly have stood more than one test of
extraordinary severity.
The inundation alluded to above is the first recorded in history; and
one old chronicler asserts that so fearful a deluge had not occurred
since the universal one when mankind was destroyed in the days of Noah.
The country around Verona was submerged for miles, many inhabitants were
drowned, and the number of corpses of beasts, as well as of human
beings, floating about in the waste of waters may doubtless be held
responsible for the outbreak of a grievous sickness which shortly after
visited the city. The month was that of October, and the decay of autumn
following close upon a long spell of heat may well have accounted for
the pestilence; but the Veronese saw only the wrath of God in the
calamities which befell their land and considered themselves as under a
curse. This first noted inundation was not only a mark in history, it
was also the occasion for a miracle--at least in the eyes of the
faithful. The waters which rose to the height of several feet restrained
themselves when in the neighbourhood of the church of S. Zeno. Although
on a level with the windows they forbore to enter the sacred edifice,
though the doors were open and would have admitted them readily had
their reverential attitude not kept them outside in an upright position!
There were three churches dedicated to S. Zeno in Verona, and it is
impossible to say around which of the three the miracle took place. The
story relating to it was told to St Gregory I. by one who came from
Verona, and is spoken of by him in his Dialogues. Many investigations
have been made on the subject, all alike leading to nothing and leaving
the locality of the scene unestablished. In the fourteenth century the
mystery was still unsolved, for Benvenuto da Imola in his Commentary on
Dante was evidently in doubt over this vexed point and records as
follows: “Three churches are named after San Zeno at Verona, one on the
hill, another by the Adige, but this is only a small oratory or chapel,
and I think it is this San Zeno of which St Gregory writes in the
Dialogues, that on one occasion the Adige had inundated Verona, but did
not enter the windows of the church of San Zeno. The third church is
about a javelin cast from the river, and there is no fairer church that
I have seen in all Verona.”[4]
The Adige, though famed chiefly for the violence of its ways and habits,
has however another side to its character. Its services from a
commercial point of view are great. It acts also as a highway whereby to
convey heavy bales of goods, and many a raft laden with timber comes
floating down its waters, which season the wood at the same time that
they carry it to its destination.
[Illustration: A VENDOR OF FRESH WATER]
[Illustration: THE ARENA]
CHAPTER II
_The Arena_
Before leaving too far behind us the days when Roman art and influence
held sway in Verona it may be well to pause and study the monument of
that past epoch which exists to this day in the shape of the
Amphitheatre, and consider carefully its history in all its detail.
Great uncertainty exists as to when the Arena was built. Its
chroniclers, jealous to claim for it an antiquity beyond the bounds of
probability, wish to ascribe it to the Etruscans; but it is Roman as to
its architecture, the lettering over the arches is Roman, as is also the
manner of numbering the seats of the spectators. Its age must for ever
remain a mystery; the only certainty on that point being that it is very
great. Some writers declare that it dates from the time of Diocletian
only, and ask how is it likely that a mere Roman colony should boast a
stone amphitheatre when the capital itself was lacking in such a
possession? It may be answered that other towns of less importance than
Verona, colonies too of Rome, were provided with arenas, some indeed
grander and more elaborate than the Veronese one. It will suffice to
mention those of Capua, Lucca, Pozzuoli, and Pola, to show how many
existed even before the days of Augustus Cæsar, and that there was
nothing strange in Verona also having such a building long before the
Colisseum came into being. It probably was erected shortly before Rome
became an Empire; and it is interesting to trace the uses to which it
was put as the ages rolled on their way, and brought in their train
different habits and customs.
The first use for all amphitheatres was only for fights of beasts:
elephants, tigers, lions, panthers, bears, even crocodiles being
introduced for the purpose of warring among themselves, and proving who
was the victor in the struggle for supremacy. These sports gained in
extent and luxury (so-called) according to the number and variety of
beasts that could be obtained; and the rarer the animal exhibited in the
arena, the greater the success of the entertainment. Thus when a
hippopotamus and five crocodiles appeared on the scene, the triumph was
well-nigh complete! Rhinoceroses and cameleopards were introduced by
Julius Cæsar, and skilled hunters on the backs of elephants were set in
array to combat against them. These sports were first held in the
theatres or in the circuses, but the latter were intended really for
horse and chariot races; the theatres for scenic representations. The
difficulties both as to seeing and performing experienced in these
buildings called for another kind of edifice, and led promptly to the
formation of the arenas or amphitheatres of which such beautiful
specimens remain to this day showing us even in their ruined or
mutilated condition on what grand and colossal lines they were erected.
The theatres of Greece and Rome served to give an idea on which the
needed building should be erected. A semicircle of steps, spacious and
uncovered, would serve to seat the audience, then in order to
accommodate more spectators and fill in the space destined for the
stage, another semicircle was added, leaving a vacuum in the middle
suitable for games, sports, or fights. The first amphitheatres ever
built were generally of wood, a material little adapted for this kind of
building, and that on more than one occasion came to grief either from
fire, or from the collapse of the entire structure. The latter event
occurred during the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, when at Fidena, a town of
Latium, five miles from Rome, the building subsided, and 20,000
spectators according to Suetonius, 50,000 according to Tacitus, were
among the number between killed and wounded.
The Arena of Verona was built of great blocks of stone, in a slightly
oblong shape, 168 yards long, and 134 wide, and its arrangements for the
coming in and going out of the 20,000 persons whom it could seat were
admirable. The outer wall consisted originally of four stories, but of
the upper one only a fragment remains, sufficient however to show how
the huge curtain or veil (velarium) which covered the whole arena, and
protected the spectators from the sun, was arranged and manipulated. The
interior is in an excellent state of preservation; and the care lavished
on this magnificent ruin ever since the fifteenth century, and continued
scrupulously to this day, is beyond all praise. The plan of the building
shows that it consisted of an arcade of seventy-two arches, with two
tiers of boxes, and another tier with large windows. The exits
(vomitori), seventy-four in number, communicated with internal
staircases which led up to the steps where the spectators were seated.
Nor was the question of class distinctions ignored. Seats of costly
marble and highly ornamented were reserved for those of high degree; the
knights were allotted places in the centre; the Roman matrons had their
special quarters; the crowd was relegated to the upper part.
The first gladiatorial fights witnessed in Verona are said to have been
at the beginning of Trajan’s reign. These were either given as public
festivals or held by private individuals; and they took place on such
occasions as demanded either the celebration of a triumph, or the
propitiation of the deities who watched over the dead and guided the
departed spirits to the shades of the Blest. One of these latter
ceremonies, judging from the letters of the younger Pliny, was
celebrated in Verona during the second half of Trajan’s reign. A private
citizen named Maximus gave many of these sights in the Arena in honour
of his dead wife, though on one occasion the entertainment failed to
come off owing to a heavy storm at sea having detained the vessels which
should have conveyed some panthers from Africa. Against these and other
wild animals different conditions of combatants were engaged: there was
a class of gladiators known as “Bestiarii,” who were trained especially
for the purpose; prisoners taken in war were also used; and in later
times the Christians furnished many a martyr and saint, St Paul himself
being of the number and telling us how he had “fought with beasts at
Ephesus.”
The spot where the wild animals were confined at Verona is not certain:
some writers say that they were kept in subterranean cellars close to
the Arena, and introduced through the gates that support the Podium.[5]
Others again say, and with a greater show of reason, that they were kept
in cages either of wood or iron, which were wheeled up to the
Amphitheatre as they were needed. The dress of the “Bestiarii,” who were
also called “Hunters of the Arena,” resembled that of the gladiators,
and their weapons consisted only of a short dagger and a small shield.
They were famed for their dexterity and their cold-bloodedness; and
their address lay in avoiding the animal whom they fought, while at the
same time teasing, enraging, and finally slaying him.
The Arena was also the scene of many a gladiatorial fight when men only
engaged, and several mural tablets in the Museo Lapidario exist to
recount the prowess of the boldest “secutore,” or the most skilful
“retiarius” or net thrower. One of these latter, a certain “Generoso” by
name, fought no less than twenty-seven times in the Arena, while other
monuments speak of the different kinds of gladiators who also performed
there. The mention of their various callings shows too how every sort of
combat was practised, as well as the mixed nature of the fights. These
forms of sport however paled after a time, and instead of a fair trial
of strength, of beast against beast, or armed men contending for the
mastery, it was judged more exciting to see men, and even women and
children exposed to the rage and hunger of the animals with no weapon
worthy of the name in their hands and no chance of escape from a death
of shame and agony. To the honour of Verona it must however be said that
the number of such scenes was very limited in their midst, and that the
Arena was only on rare occasions put to the purposes which so often
disgraced the Colisseum at Rome.
The Arena however witnessed the martyrdoms of S. Fermo and S. Rustico,
who suffered during the persecutions of Diocletian and Massimianus about
the year A.D. 300. Their story is this: Fermo was a nobleman of Bergamo,
and an accusation laid against him in high quarters denounced him as a
Christian. A quæstor was accordingly sent to take him, and Fermo who
offered no resistance was carried off with one Rustico, a humble friend
who threw in his lot with him. They were brought to the Emperor, and by
him consigned to the keeping of one of his councillors named Anolino.
Threats, promises, tortures were employed in vain to induce them to
adjure their so-called errors; and it was thereupon decided to bring
them into the Arena and delight the inhabitants of Verona with an
exhibition. The night before their trial the prisoners were joined by
the old and saintly bishop of Verona, St Procolo, who had been wrapt in
prayer with the few Christians to whom he ministered outside the town,
and who now determined publicly to declare himself a Christian, ready to
suffer with his brethren for Christ’s sake. He came into the town,
joined Fermo and Rustico, and together they were brought into the
Amphitheatre. The councillor, Anolino, on beholding the old man bound,
uncondemned, and a willing victim, demanded who he was, and on being
told, he refused to accept St Procolo’s self-sacrifice. He would not
sanction a death which had not been decreed by the Emperor, and declared
that the Bishop had become childish through excess of age. The poor old
saint was thereupon driven out of the Arena with hootings and blows, and
had no choice but to retire to his flock, lamenting that his name might
not be added to those of “the noble army of martyrs.” Fermo and Rustico
in the meanwhile were called on to sacrifice to false gods, and their
refusal to comply was followed by every kind of torture--one being that
they should be roasted alive. The pile was erected, and the victims
placed thereon. The flames however seized upon the executioners, and
left the saints untouched, according to one legend. Another one though
says that a heavy shower of rain fell at the very moment when the fire
was about to be kindled, and extinguished it. This may very probably
have been the case, and may too account for the power ascribed to these
saints of causing rain to fall whenever it is needed. Their names are
in any case invoked whenever a lengthened drought prevails, and the
response generally obtained ought to convert every sceptic as to the
marvellous powers possessed by these godly men. The deliverance from
this form of death was declared to be miraculous; their enemies
denounced them as magicians, and dragged them off to the banks of the
Adige, where they were finally beheaded. This occurred on the 9th of
August, and their bodies, rescued by their friends, were eventually
buried under the high altar of the magnificent church which bears the
name of S. Fermo Maggiore, and which is dedicated to the memory of S.
Fermo and S. Rustico.
The practice of gladiatorial fights of all kinds came to an end A.D.
435; and the use of an amphitheatre seemed as though it too had reached
its consummation. The invasion of the Goths and Huns brought with it a
spirit of destruction as to most public buildings already in existence
coupled with a need for walls, towers, and castles that was urgent and
peremptory. Theodoric with all his love for Verona had no respect for
this its greatest monument, and freely encouraged the removal of stones,
architraves, and blocks of marble from the Arena to serve for the
bastions, aqueducts, and other buildings with which he enriched the
town. Nor did the Amphitheatre fare better at the hands of Berengarius.
He allowed its mighty stones to be used whenever a building, private or
public, required any massive addition, and the only marvel is that it
was not absolutely ruined by the wholesale plunders committed within its
walls. Its use in those days was almost exclusively reserved for
judicial trials, for appeals to Divine Justice, and for duels and
tournaments. It also served as the place for public executions, and for
the doing to death of heretics. The largest number who ever suffered
for their faith was over a hundred of the sect of the “Paterani,” who
were brought from Sirmione in 1276, and were burned at the stake in the
Arena, by order of Martino and Alberto della Scala.
Several jousts and tournaments were held here during the reigns of the
Scaligers, but the only one deserving of special notice in these pages
is the one given in 1382 by Antonio della Scala the illegitimate son of
Cansignorio. The reason for this particular tourney was to wipe out a
deed of murder, and to obliterate from the minds of the people of Verona
the fact that a fratricide and a villain ruled over them. Cansignorio
della Scala had laden his soul with the murders of two of his brothers
in order to secure the succession to his illegitimate sons Bartolomeo
and Antonio. Bartolomeo was beloved by the people, and in all ranks of
society his presence was hailed with joy and affection. He was a
frequent guest in the house of the Nogarola family whose palace stands
not far from the church of Sant’ Anastasia in the narrow street of “The
Two Moors” (I due Mori). The daughter of the house, a young and
beautiful maiden, aroused the love of the young lord of Verona, who had
however a powerful and evidently favoured rival in the person of a noble
youth of the family of Malaspina. Antonio della Scala, whose jealousy of
his brother was only equalled by his ambition to reign alone, determined
to turn this state of things to his own advantage, and compass his
brother’s death. On the evening of July 12, 1381, Bartolomeo came home
from the chase weary and worn, and attended only by his secretary, one
Galvani. They flung themselves to rest unconscious of the presence of
some hired assassins in the room who had been concealed there by
Antonio’s orders. The murderers but waited till their victims were
buried in sleep. They then stole quietly from their recesses and stabbed
the weary hunters to death. Bartolomeo received no less than twenty-six
wounds in his breast, and the murderers, favoured by the silence and
darkness, proceeded to wrap the bodies in two black hooded mantles, and
then dragged them to the little square of Sta. Cecilia where they threw
them down close beside the Nogarola palace. The news of the murder
spread like wildfire through the city, and amid clamours of horror and
indignation the name of the assassin was eagerly demanded. Antonio
declared that his brother had been foully done to death at the
instigation of Malaspina and with the connivance of Nogarola, who had
willed in this manner to avenge an outrage committed on his daughter by
the murdered man. To give colour to his accusation he then proceeded to
order the arrest of Malaspina and Nogarola together with the maiden, and
caused them to be put to the torture so as to acknowledge their crime.
Not one of the victims confessed. They preferred death to perjury; and
the luckless girl succumbed to the agony of the rack sooner than declare
herself guilty of a sin which she had never committed. The assertion of
such innocence, even unto death, aroused the suspicions of the people,
and it was not long before Antonio was denounced as his brother’s
murderer. The fratricide was in too secure a position to suffer the
vengeance due to him, but the growing indignation and wrath throughout
the city made his life far from pleasant, and he deemed it prudent to
distract the thoughts of his subjects and to drown ugly facts and
recollections in scenes of revelry and feasting. He was betrothed to
Samaritana da Polenta, daughter of the lord of Ravenna, and he resolved
to make his bride’s reception in Verona the occasion for such merriment
as would drive out all remembrance of the past. Troops of gaily mounted
cavaliers rode out to meet the bride; others patrolled the town
imparting a sense of festivity, and preparing men’s mind for the welcome
that all were required to extend to the fair Samaritana. Her beauty is
said to have been extraordinary, and when she rode into the city in a
robe of dazzling whiteness covered with gems and seated on a magnificent
white steed, she was hailed with transports of delight. Courtiers,
heralds, pages and trumpeters preceded and followed her, flags waved
throughout the city, joyousness pervaded every heart, and the
recollection of the corpses wrapped in their grim sere cloths and crying
for vengeance seemed to have faded from the memory. For twenty-seven
days the revels lasted; and among the jousts which took place in the
Arena was one called the “Castle of Love,” a joust much in vogue at that
period. It consisted of an erection set up in the middle of the
Amphitheatre, and representing a rock which was covered with hangings of
costly velvets and silks. The loveliest maidens in Verona stood inside
to defend the castle from its besiegers, armed with flowers, sweetmeats,
and jets of perfumed waters. The attack was gallantly conducted and
gallantly withstood! After several assaults however a host of youths
from Vicenza perceived that one side of the rock was left undefended.
They rushed forward, and though checked for a moment by a rain of the
most exquisite comfits they stormed the breach, gained an entry into the
castle and the damsels were vanquished! The rage and jealousy of the
other combatants at the success of the Vicentins threatened for a moment
to convert this toy war into real and deadly strife; but peace was
decreed by the directors of the sports, and a grand feast given by the
bride herself became the signal for universal harmony and goodwill. The
cost of this banquet and of the other festivities celebrated on this
occasion was enormous, and laid the taste for the expenditure and
extravagance which now became the rule at the Court of the Scaligers,[6]
and proved, according to one old chronicler, “the destruction of
Verona.”[7]
For several centuries after the fall of the Scaligers the Amphitheatre
was used chiefly for tournaments and feats of arms, though for some time
during the fifteenth century it was set apart as the abode of the
prostitutes of the town, and stern laws were passed with regard to their
inhabiting no other quarter save that alone. Under the Venetian
government measures were also taken for the preservation of the Arena,
and from that time forward Verona has studiously used all the means in
her power to guard with scrupulous devotion this glorious memory of the
Past. Some excavations made of late years have led to the discovery that
water could be conveyed into it by pipes, so that nautical games and
naval displays could also be given when any occasion called for such a
pastime. There were also, according to Seneca, some hidden tubes laid in
connection with these water-pipes, which spurted odorous water from the
base of the Amphitheatre right up to the top. From there they spread
like a fine drizzle through the air and were known as “the sweet-scented
rains.”
The last joust mentioned in history that took place in the Arena was at
the beginning of the eighteenth century, when some tilting at the ring
was given in honour of the Elector of Bavaria, afterwards the Emperor
Charles VII. The entertainment however failed to please the jaded tastes
of that age, and it was decided to introduce bull-fighting into Verona,
and degrade the Arena with exhibitions of this all unworthy order. The
first bull-fight was held July 21, 1789, and met with immediate
approbation. This form of sport, though new at that time in Verona,
dates from a very remote epoch. It is said to have been introduced into
Italy in the days when Julius Cæsar was dictator, and it was patronised
later by Nero. At Verona the taste for it spread quickly, and no
foreigner of note or distinction who went there failed to be present at
the bull-fight which would be sure to be given in his honour in the
Arena. The inscriptions which are studded about in the building,
recording many of the events which have taken place there, has one which
tells how the Emperor Joseph II. together with several other princes was
present at a bull-fight in the month of August 1782. Another tablet
records a very different scene that took place earlier in the same year
when the Pope Pius VI. on his way from Vienna halted at Verona, and
thousands of spectators flocked to the Arena to receive the Papal
benediction. Truly the building cannot be accused of having served for
nothing, nor of having reserved its walls for one kind of spectacle
only! The scene must have been striking, for every corner of the vast
edifice was packed, and thousands who could not find admittance
overflowed into the Piazza Bră, and awaited there in solemn and
respectful silence till the Pontiff raised his hands to invoke a
blessing on the expectant multitude.
At the beginning of the following century the Emperor Napoleon I. sent a
donation of 30,000 lire (about £1,200) towards the repairs of the Arena,
and shortly after he came in person to Verona and expressed his desire
to be present at a bull-fight. These fights were conducted chiefly at
that time with dogs, whose training required that they should seize the
bull by the ear, when the latter was considered vanquished, and the
toreadores gave him the _Coup de grace_. The peril run by the
hounds--generally mastiffs--was great. The utmost agility and vigilance
was needed on their part to escape being gored by the horns of their
adversary, and to seize his ear before he ripped up their sides. On the
16th of July 1805 Napoleon took his seat amid a vast crowd who gazed on
the mighty conqueror with mixed feelings and emotions, while he
doubtless felt himself to be Cæsar indeed, surrounded by the pageantry
and _mise en scène_ befitting his new state. A kind of shelter of a
circular form was erected in the middle of the Arena wherein the
assistants of the fight could take refuge if the bull became too savage.
These assistants were dressed half in white and half in red, and their
business was to incense the animal by waving red rags in his face,
goading him with prongs and sharp sticks, and other devices tending to
aggravate him beyond endurance. On the present occasion a young and
vigorous bull was turned loose into the Arena, who came on snorting,
tossing the sand from beneath his feet, and showing every symptom of
courage and sport. The mastiffs were let loose on to him one by one, but
all in turn were overcome, and lay in the sand so many heaps of
quivering, mangled flesh. At last a splendid hound, spotted black and
white, was let loose, and the public admiration and expectation was
centred on the graceful movements and wary gait of the dog. His mode of
approach and defence was excellent, and he made more than one attempt to
pin his adversary by the ear. But his skill and training were of little
avail. His final leap up to the bull’s ear proved fatal; the horn ripped
him from end to end, and a groan of disappointment and compassion went
up from the crowd as they saw the poor beast stretched on the sand in
his death agony. Napoleon’s interest was aroused to such an extent that
he shouted out, “Loose two against him,” an order promptly obeyed, but
attended with no better fortune. The hounds were again gored to death,
and the Emperor shouted anew, “Loose three.” Again the bull was
victorious. “Loose them all,” cried Napoleon, and the pack was let
loose. The bull surrounded by a host of foes held them at bay for a
while, and with bloodshot eye and lashing tail made a gallant stand. But
the numbers were more than he could contend with, and bitten, beaten and
overcome, he sank upon the floor, yielding only to the inexorable doom
of force. The story goes on to say that a general in Napoleon’s suite,
and who stood high in the Imperial favour, turned to his master and bade
him draw a lesson from the scene which had just been enacted before him.
He warned him to beware of any alliance that the European Powers might
form against him, adding that singly he might defeat each of them in
turn, but that united they might prevail against him. Another writer,
describing this scene and alluding to the Emperor’s presence at it,
says: “A fine lesson from which he drew no profit.”[8] Napoleon was
present again at another bull-fight in the Arena on the 28th of November
1807. When we read that the entertainment only began at 4.30 in the
afternoon, we are not surprised to learn that the Emperor left before
the end, probably driven away by the gloom of evening falling ere the
entertainment was half over. The last bull-fight given in Verona was in
1815, on the occasion of the Archduke John of Austria being proclaimed
governor of the “Veneto.” The following year the Emperor Francis I. came
with his wife to Verona, but the intention of holding a bull-fight in
their honour was changed to horse-racing, the reason being that the
failing health of the Empress forbade of her being present at such
harrowing scenes. The poor lady indeed died but a few days after in
Verona on the 7th of April.
A sight of unprecedented splendour took place in Verona on the occasion
of the Congress of Sovereigns that was held there in 1822. The citizens
vied with each other in doing honour to the crowned heads assembled
within their city walls, and among marks of revelry it was settled to
illuminate the whole town, including of course the Arena. This latter
part of the programme was carried out by a multitude of small lamps
being ranged along the lines of the architecture, and thereby creating
an impression of lightness and beauty that was almost magical in its
effect. The royal guests consisted of the Emperors of Russia, and
Austria, the King of the two Sicilies, the King and Queen of Sardinia,
the Archduchess of Parma, the Viceroy, and the Duke of Modena. A tablet
in the Arena records this Congress and the festivities held to celebrate
it.
Some mention of the game of Pallone--a game peculiar to Italy, and for
that reason not unlikely to prove of interest in these pages--may be
made here, together with an account of how it was played in the Arena at
Verona. The game itself had its origin in Greece; the Romans adopted it
in their turn, introducing it into Spain and into the southern parts of
Gaul, where specially walled-in spaces were built for it to be played
in. At Verona it was originally played near the Ponte dei Rei Figli or
Rofiolo, along the wide street known to this day as that of the Via or
Caserma Pallone. The “pallone” (a huge kind of football) was over one
foot and a half in diameter; it was formed of an internal bladder
covered with buckskin, and inflated by means of a tool specially and
very accurately made for the purpose. In modern times the players are
armed with a kind of wooden bat covered with large, wooden,
diamond-shaped teeth, which are so placed as to prevent the “pallone”
running up the bat. The handle of this bat is hollowed in such a way as
to admit of the fist passing through to grip it firmly. The players,
divided in two sets, donned a costume of red and white or red and
yellow. At one time all ranks took part in it, and some famous matches
took place in the Arena between the champions of Verona and those of the
neighbouring cities, some at times coming even from Rome.
The next use for which the Arena served was as a theatre. A small stage
was set up in the grand Amphitheatre of old, and strolling companies
performed there with unqualified success. Many a good cast too performed
there willingly, and it was in the Arena Theatre of Verona that both
Adelaide Ristori and Ernesto Rossi made in turn their début. It was then
used for representations of acrobatic feats, pantomimes, gymnastics, and
such like displays, finishing up with dancings on the tight rope and
conjuring tricks.
All thoughts of games and frivolous entertainments were however to
vanish for a while from the minds of the Veronese by the turn political
events took in the year 1866, and which engrossed all Italy during the
whole of that summer. Victor Emanuel II. with the aid of his ally,
Napoleon III., Emperor of the French, had conquered Lombardy in 1859,
and the peace of Villafranca signed after this conquest had but
heightened the expectancy which then animated every patriot’s breast as
to the deliverance of the “Veneto.” A new alliance between Victor
Emanuel and the King of Prussia in 1866 had led to a declaration of war
against Austria, and was quickly followed by the opening of hostilities
on the banks of the Mincio. The first engagement of note was at Custozza
on June 24 of that same year. The day was one of unrivalled splendour,
but also of excessive heat. Since early dawn the inhabitants of Verona
had flocked to the Porta Nuova, and listened with feverish anxiety as to
what the issue would be of the heavy sounds which roared across the
plain from the oft firing guns of the two forces. The dread and strain
was not lessened when after mid-day a file of prisoners began to arrive.
These were Italian soldiers taken captive by the Austrians, and they
were at once lodged in the Arena, now adapted for the time being for
military purposes. The grand old Amphitheatre of the Romans had served
for many a baser use than that to which it was now put--a prison house
for the men who had fought for their country’s freedom! At eventide the
wounded were brought in, and though grief over their defeat filled the
heart of every citizen of Verona, the whole city was given over to the
care of those who had fought so gallantly on that day. Churches and
houses were all equally placed at the disposal of the wounded, and no
class distinctions held back men, women and children from doing all that
in them lay to succour the sufferers, be they friend or foe, victor or
vanquished. The victory of Sadowa however more than obliterated the
overthrow of Custozza, and the restoration of the “Veneto,” and
consequently of Verona, to Italy followed shortly in its train. This was
in October of 1866, and in the following month Victor Emanuel came to
Verona to present himself in person to his subjects as their king. The
monarch’s entry was greeted with cheers and acclamations, and the next
day he presented himself in the Arena accompanied by his two sons,
Prince Humbert and Prince Amedeus, and escorted by the Bishop of Verona,
the Cardinal Marquis of Canossa; and in this historic spot the first
king of a united Italy received the homage of the people of Verona. A
tablet let into the wall records this visit, and, as on a previous
occasion, the amphitheatre was illuminated with its myriads of little
lamps.
The next occasion on which the Arena was in requisition was in 1872 when
a fair was held in it for charitable purposes, and it was made to assume
the appearance of an Alpine village. Forests and Swiss châlets were
dotted here and there on its broad steps, booths and bright pagodas
brought their note of colour into the midst of the solemn stone-work,
and the locality that is said to have suggested to Dante the plan for
some regions of his _Inferno_ was transformed into a laughing hamlet,
fitted only for merriment and brightness. In one spot were to be found
light and good refreshments; in another the houses of Romeo and Juliet
appeared unexpectedly on the scene; lower down the wheel of fortune
offered its allurements to those who chose to make trial of its
seductions; and humour, goodwill and hilarity held sway amid
surroundings that certainly had never thought originally of harbouring
such elements. The centre of the Arena was laid out as a garden. In the
middle gurgled a fountain of wine, while round the podium a sale was
carried on of the choicest wines from the Valpolicella and the
Valpantena. The success of this Fancy Fair, which was held for the
benefit of the Home for Children, was so great in every way that it was
determined to repeat it at the end of Carnival the following year. It
was accordingly done so, with the sole difference that in the centre
instead of the Fountain of Wine was a most finished reproduction of the
Arco de’ Gavi, remodelled exactly as to size and proportions.[9]
Another weird and lovely effect obtained in the Arena was on one
occasion when the citizens had all been bidden to be present at a
concert given in the venerable building. Each person on arrival was
presented with a small candle which they were requested to light at a
given signal. The effect of these thousands of little lights starting
into life as the shades of night fell, and that too from every part of
the building, was very beautiful and striking, and reflected great
credit on the mind which had planned so original and novel a style of
illumination.
Hare and stag-hunting were also tried in the Arena, but the spot was not
suited for those forms of sport, which did not besides commend
themselves to the people of Verona, and they were at once abandoned.
Pigeon shooting was also tried here, but that too was soon given up.
The interest aroused by aeronauts and their endeavours to travel through
space had appealed in early days to the Veronese. The first efforts in
such directions had been made in 1782, and the first ascent made from
the Arena was nine years later. The most successful one however was in
1886, when the Marchese Pindemonte, one Signor Galletti, and the
Frenchman Blondeau who directed the operations rose from within the
Arena on the 6th of September and surveyed the town and country around
from aerial heights. The Arena viewed from a great elevation presented,
they said, the appearance of a small ribbed basin speckled with black
spots, the houses beside it looked like so many dice, the belfries like
small chimneys.
A new phase of gymnastic life was afterwards represented in the Arena in
the shape of velocipede races, together with athletic displays, horse
shows, races, and exhibitions of skill on horseback. “Buffalo Bill” also
gave proof of his prowess within the Arena, and he and his Indian
cowboys delighted their Veronese audience with the agility shown by
themselves and by their ponies.
Thus the old walls of the Arena of Verona have looked down on scenes as
varied in their nature as the ages that have witnessed them. The spirit
that called such edifices into being, has certainly passed away taking
with it much of the cruelty, the power, the intolerance of those days,
but leaving at the same time less stamina, less endurance of soul, and
less strength of character.
CHAPTER III
_The Middle Ages._--_Ezzelino da Romano_
The power of the Lombards, after lasting for over two centuries in Italy
was now tottering to its fall, and about to give way to that of the
Franks in the northern part at least of the Peninsula. The Popes seeing
to their dismay that the long-bearded invaders far from confining
themselves to their northern conquests were planning to add to their
possessions in the South, called in the aid of the Franks. Pepin I. then
King of France, answered readily to the summons; and after his death his
son Charlemagne was only too glad to retain a foothold in the land where
he meant to establish his dynasty. Desiderius, at that time King of the
Lombards, saw clearly the danger threatening his realm. To propitiate
the French monarch and bind him to his cause he gave him his daughter
Desideria in marriage, little foreseeing how such a step was but to
aggravate his difficulties. Desideria was repudiated shortly after her
marriage, and came back to her father’s house an injured, outraged
woman. Desiderius swore to be revenged, though he had to conceal his
intentions, and outwardly appear subservient. He sought to raise up foes
against Charlemagne, who to avert the threatened sedition marched at the
head of an army into Lombardy. Desiderius was defeated at Le Chiuse di
Susa, and forced to fly to Pavia. At the same time his son Adelchi,
whom he had associated with him on the throne, withdrew to Verona, which
he fortified--a fact that proves how even at that date the town was a
stronghold and able to endure a siege. It was at once beleaguered by the
Franks and compelled to open its gates to them while Adelchi had to
retire and seek shelter and help at Constantinople.
The changes brought about at Verona under the Carlovingian rule were
many. Counts were appointed in the place of the dukes who had held sway
till then; and Verona was converted from a duchy into a county, though
as far as transpires the extent of territory belonging to the new
condition remained unaltered. Charlemagne was in Rome in the year 781
when Pope Adrian I. baptised his two sons, Pepin and Louis, and
afterwards anointed them kings. Their father’s intention had been to
appoint the eldest son, Pepin, King of Italy, and leave his French
kingdom to Louis the second son. Pepin, as other monarchs had done
before him, loved to dwell at Verona, though fate willed it, that he
should die and be buried at Milan (810). The legends relating to the
Carlovingian period in Verona have left a visible form in the statues of
Roland and Oliver which adorn the façade of the Duomo, where the two
paladins stand as though to guard the beautiful entrance to the
Cathedral. Many fables are circulated as to Pepin, around whose memory a
halo of love and respect has arisen which is not wholly dimmed to this
day. His tomb was said to be outside the church of S. Zeno, resting
between it and the church of S. Procolo; and the seat of justice where
he sat and administered the affairs of state, was pointed out among the
excavations on the Colle di San Pietro. There is however nothing but
tradition whereon to base either of these assertions,
[Illustration: THE FAÇADE OF THE DUOMO]
though the people cling to them as tokens that their loved monarch lived
and died in their midst.
The years that followed Pepin’s death and wherein the Carlovingian kings
extended their sway over Italy, brought no events of moment to Verona. A
new line of rulers came in after the Carlovingian monarchs in the person
of Berengarius I., Duke of Friuli, and his successors. This Berengarius
overcame his competitor Guido, Duke of Spoleto (886) and reigned in
North Italy till the year 923. The close of Berengarius’s life is tragic
and pathetic in the extreme. He had retired to Verona after a defeat
which he had sustained at the hands of Rudolph, Duke of Burgundy. A
conspiracy was here set on foot to murder him, headed by one Flambert, a
noble of Verona, who stood high in King Berengarius’s favour, and whose
son had been held at the font by the king in person. Berengarius was
apprised of the plot, and sent for Flambert to warn him in his turn. He
reminded him of the love which existed between them; of the favours he
had heaped on him, he pointed out to him the enormity of his crime, and
the small gain that could accrue to him therefrom. At last taking a gold
cup he gave it to him bidding him keep it as a pledge of the goodwill
henceforward to exist between them, and reminding him that he, the king,
was also his son’s godfather. The same night Berengarius, to show that
no trace of suspicion lurked in his mind, slept without guards, and
instead of staying even within his fortified palace he caused his bed to
be placed in an arbour in the garden. The next morning, as he was about
to betake himself to church, Flambert, followed by some armed men, came
to meet him, and making as though he would embrace him, stabbed him to
death. No cause has come to light to explain the reason that prompted so
foul a treachery, and the fact that Flambert was executed by the order
of Milo, Count of Verona, who rushed to avenge the king, carries with it
very little satisfaction.
Berengarius was succeeded in turn by Rudolph, Duke of Burgundy; then by
Hugh, Duke of Provence, and his son Lothair; afterwards by Berengarius
II. and his son Adalbert. These rulers were for the most part also
marquises of Tuscany, and their connection with Verona did not affect
her history to any great or stirring extent. Their power came to an end
with Berengarius II. who was overthrown by Otho I. of Saxony, Emperor of
Germany, and for a while German supremacy was paramount throughout the
land. During that time a series of counts and marquises filled the
office of chief magistrate in Verona. They acted, it is true, as vassals
of the Emperor, but occasionally they shewed a spirit of independence
and insubordination that cannot always have been reassuring to their
feudal lord.
Verona was often the gathering place for Councils and Diets; and a noted
one took place there in June 983, under the presidency of Otho II., when
warriors, prelates, and men of letters flocked to the town from Saxony,
Franconia, Suabia, Bavaria, Lorraine, and from many parts of Italy as
well. The Duke of Bohemia sent his representative, nor were ladies
excluded from the assembly, for not only was Otho’s wife there, the
beautiful Greek Theophania, daughter of the Emperor of the East, but
also his mother Adelaide of Burgundy, the widow of Otho the Great. The
diet was held in order to consider the ever vexed question of the
sovereignty of the kingdom of Italy, and the Emperor was successful in
procuring the unanimous nomination of his son Otho as future king of the
Peninsula as well as of Germany.
No incident of importance disturbed the history of
[Illustration: TOWER OF THE FORMER CONVENT OF S. ZENO
The only remaining fragment of the building when the mediæval
German emperors stopt on their way to Rome.
]
Verona now for some time. Her intercourse with Germany kept her trade
and interests active beyond the limits of ordinary existence, without at
the same time involving her in wars and dissensions over the rights and
powers to be adjudged to the monarchs whether of France or of Germany,
or to their rivals and foes the Popes of Rome. This state of things
however came to an end when the struggle between Henry IV. and Gregory
VII. blazed forth in all its violence; and men and cities were forced to
take sides with either the Pope or the Emperor. Verona threw in her lot
with Henry IV. Two bishops of Verona in turn subscribed to edicts
published against Hildebrand, and Henry was supported anew by the town
when he passed through it to wage war upon the Countess Matilda of
Tuscany. Even when the Lombard cities forsook the Emperor Verona
remained faithful to him, foreseeing that only in this way could
religious peace be maintained, and anxious at the same time to put an
end to feudalism, and to compass the introduction of the Free Communes
by her own severance from the Empire.
The adhesion of the Veronese to the Imperial cause did not blind them
however to their religious duties, and though no abundance of documents
exists to record their prowess, there is sufficient evidence to show
that the people of Verona took their share in more than one crusade, and
that on two occasions their Bishops went with them.
In the meanwhile the power of the Italian Communes was working its way
to the fore, establishing its principles, and binding one town after
another to its cause. It failed though in laying that substratum of
unity that where so many were involved could alone ensure strength; and
though ignorant of its action it was gradually preparing the way for the
incoming of the “signori” or tyrants who were to domineer over each
town of importance throughout the Peninsula. The arrival of Frederick
Barbarossa in Italy in 1154 was to test to the utmost the new power of
the Communes. Verona, and many another city besides, had at first
intended to stand by the Emperor, and “maintain the Imperial crown and
all its honour in Italy.” But such a course was rendered impossible by
the Emperor’s own action. His cruelty towards Milan, his ambition, his
rapaciousness, convinced every inhabitant south of the Alps that they
had in him an enemy of no mean order, and that every effort was
praiseworthy which sought to expel him from their midst. The Veronese
were eager to give evidence of their readiness to aid in so laudable an
effort, and the following incident will serve to show how keen they were
to hasten Frederick’s departure out of Italy by fair means or foul. The
story though is told only by German writers. Some native historians
indeed question the narrative. They maintain that the events related
never took place, and seek to exculpate their fellow-citizens from a
charge of treachery over an act which, if it occurred, may be considered
as that of desperate men bent on freeing their land from an invader and
his forces. The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa had made one successful
descent upon Italy; he had been to Rome to be crowned, and was then
forced to return to Germany, his soldiers being weary of a longer
absence from their homes. His way back led through Verona, “where,”
according to Otto von Frisingen (a contemporary chronicler and a cousin
of the Emperor’s), “it not being customary for the Veronese to grant a
passage through their city to the Imperial arms, it was decided to build
a bridge for them outside the town. On Frederick’s arrival in their
midst, with an army which had laid waste all Italy, the Veronese
flattered themselves that the work of avenging the whole of Lombardy lay
in their hands. The bridge of boats built above the city was designed
for vengeance, and was a trap rather than a bridge--the boats being tied
together in such guise as only just to withstand the force of the
current. Huge beams of timber were in the meanwhile to be floated down
the river, which beating against the bridge were to break it at the
moment when the Imperialists would cross it. The plot failed through a
miscalculation as to time. The Imperial troops had hastened their march
so as to escape from the bands of peasants who were known to be arming
against them, and crossed the bridge in safety. The timber launched for
their destruction arrived only to work havoc among their foes, for it
broke up the bridge, and separated a great number of Veronese who had
followed on the track of the Germans from their friends; and the
Imperialists falling on them put them all to the sword. The Emperor was
not strong enough at that moment to avenge the intended insult; he had
no choice but to continue his journey, which he did crossing the
mountains into Bavaria by the way of Trent and Botzen.”
This at least is the account given by the Imperial biographer; while the
Veronese writers say that there is another side to the story, and that
no treachery was intended. Be that as it may it certainly did not tend
to improve the feeling entertained by the Emperor towards the people of
Verona, while it confirmed on their side the advisability of protecting
themselves as strongly as they could against the Imperial power and
vengeance. For this intent they joined the League then forming in
Lombardy (1164), which had for its object to arm against the common foe
and fight till they had vanquished him. The League was warmly
[Illustration: CHURCH OF S. ZENO. CAPITAL IN THE NAVE]
supported by Pope Alexander III., and subscribed to by the towns of
Verona, Padua, Vicenza, and the cities of the Marches. This federation
was soon afterwards joined by Venice, and aroused such anxiety in
Frederick’s mind that he hurried into Italy, collected as formidable an
army as he could get together at Pavia, and determined to lay waste the
country round Verona. The allies obtained a great triumph at Vigasio, in
the Veronese territory, when the Emperor without striking a blow retired
from before his foes, after having stood looking them in the face for
five whole days. The League gathered fresh strength from this graceless
retreat. More towns threw in their lot with the Guelph faction, and
Frederick’s cause losing ground daily was finally overthrown on May 29,
1176, at the battle of Legnano. The peace signed after this great fight
at Venice was witnessed by Bishop Ognibene of Verona, and the chief
magnates of the city, among whom were the Podestă Turrisendo; Sauro
di San Bonifacio, Count of Verona; two of the Avogadri family, and the
Judge Cozone. The peace was signed actually at Chioggia in July, and
soon after the Veronese delegates returned to their city where they
were received with honours and rejoicings. Their return coincided with
the completion of the basilica of S. Zeno “in pure, simple, most
beautiful Romanesque style, the most perfect work of art of Veronese
mediævalism.”[10] An inscription tells how the works were finished in
1178, and records that in the same year in which the campanile was
completed “peace was restored between the Church and the Emperor.”
Peace was however far from being the general order throughout the land.
Civil and intestinal wars were rife on every side; and each town of any
size or weight was split up into two factions which held either for the
Pope or Emperor, or occasionally for its own cause exclusively,
regardless of any interest outside the walls.
In the factions that raged between private families in Verona that of
the Montecchi and Cappelletti has obtained a renown as lasting as Time
itself, noticed as it is by no meaner writers than Dante and
Shakespeare. The Montecchi, as head of the Ghibelline faction in the
town, were also in constant strife with many other of their neighbours,
especially those who belonged to the opposite faction. A contest of more
than ordinary violence occurred on May 16, 1206, when the family of San
Bonifacio were at the head of the Guelph party. After a fierce encounter
the Montecchi were worsted and expelled from the city. Their rivals, in
order to strengthen their cause, appointed Azzo VI., Marquis of Este, to
be Podestă of Verona. This Azzo had formerly belonged to the
Ghibelline cause, but thought it more to his advantage to change his
politics and side with the Guelphs. The Montecchi though defeated were
not disheartened. They allied themselves with Bonifacio d’Este, the
uncle of Azzo, and his enemy from private as well as public reasons,
and, their ranks swelled by Ghibelline partisans, they returned in force
to reinstate themselves once more in their native city. This was in the
month of August of the same year. Azzo was seated in his council chamber
when his foes burst in upon him. He barely escaped with his life, and
had to retire from Verona leaving all he possessed behind him. Help
however came to him from Mantua and from his own followers in Verona,
and he likewise returned to the charge. The struggle lasted for over a
month; each tower and stronghold held by the two factions changing hands
constantly during that time. The Ghibelline faction was however the
weaker one; and though they knew their cause to be hopeless they
resolved to make a final and steady resistance in the only castle that
yet remained to them. No hope of mercy or of pardon deceived or
encouraged these desperate men. On the night of Saturday, September 8th,
they awaited the on-coming of the foe, who were equally determined on
their side to bring matters to an end. The attack was so well directed,
the number of assailants so overwhelming, the besieged had to surrender,
and were either put to the sword or taken captive. The castle was
dismantled and burnt; the prisoners were sent to different dungeons; and
the civil strife in the town was brought to a close for the time being.
Peace however was not the normal condition of those days, and this
example, cited from an old document which has come to light in recent
years, is only given to show the nature and duration of these civil
dissensions in a mediæval town.
The towns were not however blind to their own interests in so far as it
behoved them to unite against the Emperor of Germany and prevent his
gaining such a foothold in Italy as to jeopardise their liberties. The
Lombard League, which had originally been formed against Frederick
Barbarossa was renewed against his grandson Frederick II. in 1226 for a
period of twenty-five years; and in it the cities of Lombardy swore to
stand by one another, to preserve each other’s rights, and to maintain
mutual peace. The question of peace exercised the minds of all men in
Italy at that moment absorbingly. The Pope preached it from Rome in the
hopes of furthering the cause of the Crusades; the towns advocated it
from motives of commerce and industry; the nobles stood in need of it
for the quieting of those feuds and rivalries which were fast draining
their resources and undermining the life-blood of their families. In
Verona the plea for peace was advocated by a powerful Dominican
preacher, Fra Giovanni of Vicenza, a member of the noble family of
Schio. He met with an enthusiastic reception, for he was armed not only
with the Pope’s protection, but also with a purity of intention and zeal
for his mission which furthered his cause immeasurably. He convoked a
great assembly on the plain of Paquara, three miles outside Verona on
the banks of the Adige; and on August 28, 1233, no less than 400,000
people flocked to hear him preach, and to renounce their rivalries and
enmities at his bidding. “The whole population of Verona, Mantua,
Brescia, Padua and Vicenza,” says Sismondi, “was gathered on the plain
of Paquara, and the citizens of each of these Republics collected round
their magistrates and their _carroccios_ (war-chariots). The inhabitants
of Treviso, Venice, Ferrara, Modena, Reggio, Parma and Bologna were also
there, ranged round their standards; the bishops of Verona, Brescia,
Mantua, Bologna, Modena, Reggio, Treviso, Vicenza, Padua, the Patriarch
of Aquileja, the Marquis of Este, the lords of Romano, and all those of
the Veneto were there too at the head of their vassals.”[11]
The scene must have been a striking one, and unparalleled till then in
the annals of history. Fra Giovanni ascended a pulpit in the midst of
this vast concourse and harangued the crowd. He took for his text the
words, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you,” and commanded
his audience to forgive each other their offences and to follow after
peace. His injunctions were obeyed. Peace became for the moment the
universal law; the factions between the families of Este and da Romano
were laid aside; Guelphs consorted with Ghibellines, and foes who a few
days previously had met only to stab and outrage one another now
exchanged the kiss of peace and swore to remain friends.
The preacher’s injunctions to forgive injuries were not observed by him
himself when an excess of enthusiasm had raised him to the office of
chief magistrate of Verona. He ordered the execution of sixty men and
women belonging to the most respectable families of the town, whom he
condemned as heretics, and who were all burnt alive.
The success obtained by Fra Giovanni at the assembly at Paquara proved
his undoing. He became proud and ambitious; he aimed at becoming a ruler
in those towns where he had preached peace and goodwill, and after a
period of war, rebellion and imprisonment he retired to Bologna, shorn
of all glory and leaving Lombardy a prey to insurrection and strife.
Verona was no exception to this condition of affairs. Her state was torn
by rival factions, the one headed by the Counts of San Bonifacio; the
other by the Montecchi (or Monticoli), the latter of whom Shakespeare
has immortalized for us under the name of Montague. Their faction was
supported on more than one occasion by Ezzelino da Romano, who finally
succeeded in making himself lord of Verona, and who was thus the first
of the tyrants to oust the power of the Communes and introduce that of
the “_Signori_” in their stead. Ezzelino has left perhaps the most
unenviable record among all the bloodthirsty tyrants of the Middle Ages.
The Florentine historian Villani says of him that “he was the cruellest
and most redoubtable tyrant that ever existed among Christians. By his
might and tyranny he lorded it for a long time ... over the March of
Treviso, and the town of Padua, and a great part of Lombardy. He made
away with a fearful part of the citizens of Padua, and blinded a great
number, ever of the best and noblest among them, taking away their
possessions and sending them adrift to beg through the world. And many
others by divers torments and martyrdoms he put to death, and in one
hour caused 11,000 Paduans to be burnt.”
Nor has modern criticism passed a milder judgment on Ezzelino. Symonds
speaking of him in his history of _The Renaissance in Italy_, says:
“Ezzelino, a small, pale, wiry man with terror in his face and
enthusiasm for evil in his heart, lived a foe to luxury, cold to the
pathos of children, dead to the enchantment of women. His one passion
was the greed of power, heightened by the lust for blood. Originally a
noble of the Veronese Marches, he founded his illegal authority upon the
captaincy of the Imperial party delegated to him by Frederic. Verona,
Vicenza, Padua, Feltre and Belluno made him their captain in the
Ghibelline interest, conferring upon him judicial as well as military
supremacy. How he fearfully abused his power, how a crusade was
preached against him,[12] and how he died in silence like a boar at bay,
rending from his wounds the dressings that his foes had placed to keep
him alive are notorious matters of history.... Ezzelino made himself
terrible not merely by executions and imprisonments, but also by
mutilations and torments. When he captured Friola he caused the
population, of all ages, sexes, and occupations, to be deprived of their
eyes, noses, and legs, and to be cast forth to the mercy of the
elements. On another occasion he walled up a family of princes in a
castle and left them to die of famine. Wealth, eminence, and beauty
attracted his displeasure no less than insubordination or disobedience.
Nor was he less crafty than cruel. Sons betrayed their fathers, friends
their comrades under the fallacious safeguard of his promises. A
gigantic instance of his scheming was the coup-de-main by which he
succeeded in entrapping 11,000 Paduan soldiers, only 200 of whom escaped
the miseries of his prisons. Thus by his absolute contempt of law, his
inordinate cruelty, his prolonged massacres, and his infliction of
plagues upon whole peoples, Ezzelino established the ideal in Italy of a
tyrant marching to his end by any means whatever.”[13]
He must indeed ever rank as one of the most inhuman and brutal of
monsters as far as bloodthirstiness and cruelty are concerned, but not
even his bitterest foes can deny his talents as a warrior, his
indomitable pluck, his energy, his presence of mind, no matter how great
a difficulty encountered him, and his resource in the hour of danger. No
defeat daunted him; no failure depressed him. He would originate some
way out of a dilemma however inextricable it might seem; and in spite
of overwhelming conditions he was never at his wits’ ends for an
expedient. He succeeded in making himself recognised as lord of the
towns of Verona, Vicenza, Padua, Feltre, Belluno, and Trent; and no
Imperial league was formed in the North of Italy which did not include
him as one of its most powerful members. In May 1238 his marriage with
Selvaggia, a natural daughter of the Emperor Frederick II., was
celebrated at S. Zeno at Verona; and a month later on the green in front
of the same church Ezzelino and the Podestă of Verona, Bonaccorso del
Palŭ, swore fealty to the Emperor and to his son Conrad. Their oath
was received by Pier della Vigna, the Emperor’s famous chancellor, who
according to Dante, “held both the keys of the heart of Frederick.”[14]
Ezzelino made as short work of his foes in Verona as in other towns.
Their houses were thrown down; their persons tortured and killed. The
house of San Bonifacio fared badly at his hands: the castle was
dismantled (1243) and stands to this day in ruins; and most of the
partisans of that noble house shared grimly in the discomfiture of their
chief. After a successful career of thirty-three years Ezzelino’s star
began to wane. His enemies--and he had many--resolved to make head
against the designs he was now beginning to formulate against Milan, and
opposed his forces on the Adda. He was defeated and taken to Soncino,
where he died October 1, 1259, tearing open, it is said, his wounds with
his own hands, preferring death rather than to see the overthrow of his
schemes. The legends and fables which are circulated round Ezzelino are
numerous and fantastic. Some have insisted that he was the child of the
devil, no human mind and intellect being capable of committing the
horrors and bloodthirsty deeds which he is said to have perpetrated.
Dante places him in Hell in the “Bolgia” among the “tyrants who
delighted in blood and gave themselves thereto.”[15]
The death of Ezzelino da Romano marks a change in Italian politics. The
power of the Communes was henceforward to disappear entirely, and that
of the “_Signori_” to come to the fore. In Verona the news of Ezzelino’s
death, far from rousing the citizens to rejoicings over their restored
liberty, awoke in them only the desire to re-establish the dignity and
power of the Podestă so that in the hands of a chief magistrate their
rights should be respected. Their choice fell upon Mastino della Scala,
the son of one Jacopino della Scala, whose name first appears among
those who formed a covenant with the people of Cremona in 1254.
The mention of the Scaligers brings with it the period of Verona’s
greatest prosperity. The art, the literature, the romance of the city
centres round the years in which the della Scalas reigned as lords of
Verona, and in which they brought the town to a degree of prominence and
splendour and importance which she had never reached before and to which
she never attained again. The cruelties of Ezzelino da Romano were
instrumental in bringing the della Scala family into notice. No less
than three persons of that name had been put to death by Ezzelino, who
were supposed to be some relations, even if not very near ones, of the
new Podestă. The efforts made by some writers to claim an old and
exalted lineage for the Scaligers has not been crowned with much
success. One legend, based however on no very trustworthy
[Illustration: THE TRIBUNA--ANCIENT SEAT OF JUDGMENT, PIAZZA D’ERBE]
foundation, says that they sprang from a man of poor, nay vile
condition, of the name of Jacopo Fico, who made ladders and sold them,
and that from this the family took its name. The most generally accepted
idea is though that Mastino della Scala, the first of the name who
sprang into notability and who may be considered as the founder of the
family, was a man of modest origin, and whose line in life was of a
commercial nature. His position was a prominent one during Ezzelino’s
reign of oppression and bloodshed; and that the tyrant had shown him
some regard implies in itself that Mastino had known how to merit it. He
was an absolute Ghibelline as to politics, a warrior ever ready to serve
his country, and a worthy ancestor of the great men who followed him.
Cipolla meanwhile bids us observe that neither as Podestă, nor as
Captain was he lord of Verona in the literal sense of the words; he was
only the first of the citizens, and never more than that.
[Illustration: OLD SEAL OF VERONA]
CHAPTER IV
_The Scaligers_
The rule of Mastino I. in Verona was marked by the endeavours he made to
assuage the factions in the town, and to conciliate by a policy of
pardon and goodwill those nobles whose politics and actions were opposed
to his own. He recalled Lodovico di San Bonificio, the head of the
Guelph party, and regardless of the fact that this deed excited much
opposition, and provoked an attempt on his life, he followed it up by a
grant of fresh pardons to Turrisendo dei Turrisendi, Pulcinella delle
Carceri, and Cosimo da Lendinara, other Guelph leaders. These nobles
repaid Mastino’s magnanimity by organizing a rebellion to restore Guelph
influence in Verona. The plot however failed; and Mastino, seeing the
uselessness of showing mercy to those who had repaid him in so sorry a
way, put many of the conspirators to death, and exiled the Count of San
Bonificio anew.
In 1262 by the “unanimous wish” of the populace Mastino was elected
“Captain of the People”; an election which proved his popularity among
the lower classes of the town irrespective of that felt for him by the
patricians and upper classes. Mastino was moreover successful in an
expedition he organized against Trent; he also reduced Piacenza to his
rule; and gained over Cremona to the Ghibelline faction. He espoused the
cause of Conradin, the last of the Hohenstauffens, and received the
luckless youth at Verona in 1267 when on his way to claim the throne of
Sicily. After a stay of two months Conradin left Verona, being
accompanied to Pavia by Frederick of Austria and Mastino della Scala.
The boy-king appointed Mastino “Podestă,” or Rector of Pavia, and at
the end of March 1268, he started on the fatal expedition to Sicily
which cost him both his kingdom and his life.
Mastino returned to Verona to find fresh disorders and tumults in the
city; and wars and fightings ensued when Bocca della Scala, one of his
brothers, was killed. After much strife an important point was gained in
the submission of the town of Mantua; a town that for years had headed
every rise of the Guelph party, and shown the keenest animosity against
Verona. This was in 1274, and Alberto della Scala, another brother of
Mastino’s and who was to succeed him as lord of Verona and in carrying
on the dynasty, was sent at once to Mantua as “Podestă.”
Three years later, on October 26, 1277, Mastino della Scala was
treacherously murdered together with Antonio Nogarola who happened to be
with him at the moment. No reason has been discovered for the cause of
this murder. Some accounts declare that Mastino fell a victim to a
conspiracy planned against him by the families of Scaramelli and
Pigozzi; others that he was striving to make peace between two inimical
parties who stabbed him in return for his good offices. It has even been
hinted that his brother Alberto was the real author of the
assassination, but no conclusive evidence exists to countenance so foul
an accusation. The scene of the murder was close to Mastino’s own house,
in a courtyard known as the “Volto Barbaro,” not as most writers assert
from the “barbarous” act here committed, but from its being the quarter
inhabited by the family of the Barbaro who had their dwelling-place in
that spot.[16]
Mastino’s murder was fully avenged. Alberto hastened from Mantua, and
passed sentence of death or of exile on those assassins who had escaped
the summary justice meted out to them by the mob at the moment of the
murder. Alberto was formally installed in his brother’s stead, and
became more powerful than his predecessor, being in fact absolute lord
of Verona, and able to establish the succession firmly in his dynasty.
Nor was his state confined to the limits which had bounded it in the
days of Mastino. Besides confirming his rule over the Trentino, Alberto
became lord of Riva, Castel d’Arco, Reggio, and Parma. Este and Vicenza
voluntarily recognised him as their chief, and he also added Feltre and
Belluno to his possessions. Thus an extensive territory owned the
dominion of the Scaligers and the capital of this newly-formed
principality was Verona. Alberto’s rule was a wise one, and to some
extent a peaceful one too. There were occasional wars with many of the
neighbouring towns, but none of such duration or importance as to hinder
the development of art, or prevent Alberto from enlarging and
beautifying the town and adding to the number of its fine edifices. “He
beautified Verona with buildings,” says a modern writer, “with bridges,
fortified it with new walls, and in the spring of 1301 laid the first
stone of the ‘Casa dei Mercanti.’ ”[17]
Alberto was ambitious for his family, and determined to unite them by
marriage with some of the princely families of Italy. His daughter
Constance became the bride of Obizzo d’Este, the powerful leader of the
Guelphs in Northern Italy; but the union brought more position than
peace with it. Alberto allied himself soon after with Padua and Vicenza,
rivals of the House of Este; and war was the consequence. The war was
successful for the allies, and its conclusion was celebrated by a
“curia” of a truly princely nature. A “curia” was the word in those days
to signify an entertainment given to commemorate any event of moment
brought to a satisfactory issue. The “curia” on this occasion was held
on St Martin’s day (Nov. 11), when Alberto della Scala began by
conferring the honour of knighthood on some of the Nogarola, and
Castelbarco family, as well as on his own sons. Bartolomeo, the eldest,
was raised to this rank, as was also the youngest Francesco, afterwards
so famous as Cangrande, who can then have been only about three years
old. The gifts presented by the lord of Verona were not only costly but
numerous, and as the condition of the donor was judged by the abundance
and value of his presents, any parsimony on that head had to be avoided
as certain to prove fatal to his renown. Alberto at this festival gave
no less than 1500 pairs of garments, lined with fox or lamb skin, of
divers colours such as scarlet, purple, deep red, green, yellow. Soon
after this Alberto’s eldest son, Bartolomeo, married Constance, the
daughter of Conrad IV., and grand-daughter of Frederick II.
Another “curia” was held in 1298, when Alberto’s second son, Alboino,
was made a knight at the same time that his marriage was celebrated
with Constance, the daughter of Matteo Visconti, lord of Milan. The
encomiums pronounced on Alberto della Scala, who died September 3, 1301,
by a contemporary Veronese historian are unbounded, and declare him to
have been: “Sublime in soul, perfect in his ways, foreseeing in council,
pious, merciful, sagacious”;[18] and that he ardently desired all that
made for the welfare of his people and of his city. In fact, according
to this chronicler every virtue abounded in Alberto, who apart from his
merits ranks also as the first absolute ruler of the house of the
Scaligers.
He was followed by his son Bartolomeo who, according to the writer just
quoted, ruled over Verona, “thinking ever of governing his people in
perpetual peace.” If such were indeed his object he was not always able
to attain it, for several wars were waged in his reign, always though as
heretofore with neighbouring towns and states. Bartolomeo della Scala
may be said to have acquired more renown from literature than from
history. He not only welcomed Dante to his court during the exile of the
great Florentine, but his bearing towards him was ever such as to elicit
from his guest expressions of praise and gratitude, tributes which the
poet did not bestow readily or where he was not fully persuaded that
they were deserved. In the seventeenth canto of the _Paradiso_, Dante
puts into the mouth of his prophetic ancestor Cacciaguida the following
lines which refer to Bartolomeo della Scala, and further on to
Bartolomeo’s brother Cangrande:--
“Lo primo tuo rifugio e il primo ostello
Sarà la cortesia del gran Lombardo,
Che in sulla scala porta il santo uccello,
Che in te avrà sì benigno riguardo
Che dal fare e del chieder, tra voi due,
Fia prima quel che tra gli altri è più tardo.
Con lui vedrai colui che impresso fue
Nascondo sì da questa stella forte,
Che notabili fien l’opere sue.”[19]
Nor did the literary interest attaching to Bartolomeo cease with Dante.
His name is also associated with the story of Romeo and Juliet; and it
is supposed that the tragedy of the two lovers, immortalised for all
time by Shakespeare, took place at this epoch. There is no historical
foundation for the tale of “the star-cross’d lovers,” but Shakespeare
has willed that it should be “in fair Verona where we lay our scene,”
and since a date must be determined why should it not be that which
tradition has assigned to the reign of Bartolomeo?
Sufficient glory centres round Bartolomeo della Scala through Dante and
Shakespeare to make the fact that he is not considered a great ruler or
warrior somewhat beside the mark. He gained moreover the love of his
people, of the lower classes especially, and Saraina says that when he
died “it was not the great folk or the nobility who accompanied him to
his grave, but the poor of the town in tears.”
He was followed by his brother Alboino, a good man, but feeble, and
whose anti-Ghibelline tendencies may perhaps explain Dante’s contempt
for him (see _Convito_, iv. 16). Commerce though flourished under
Alboino, and special treaties were concluded with Venice, who saw how
advantageous it would be for her to have friendly relations with a town
whose position could insure such handy means of transport as those
offered by the navigation adown the Adige. It is perhaps needless to add
that the Queen of the Adriatic knew how to draw up the treaty in such a
way as to be the chief gainer in the transaction and to secure for
herself greater concessions than those granted to the Veronese.
The monotony which might have attached to Alboino’s reign was relieved
by his associating his brother Cangrande with him as joint ruler in
Verona. This youngest son of Alberto I. was the greatest of the
Scaligers, and certainly one of the greatest princes of his age. The
legends that surround his life are unending and “seize on him,” says
Biadego, “as an infant; they follow him as a child, they environ him in
his bold and lucky career as a warrior, and they accompany him to his
glorious tomb.”[20] The same writer tells how his mother bare him
without any of the pains of child-birth, though the first sound that the
new-born babe uttered reverberated through the palace. When still a
child, he goes on to say, his father took him to see a great pile of
gold, when the lad performed an act expressive of disdain on the heap to
mark his contempt for riches. His impulsiveness in the moment of peril,
his indifference to danger, and his gift of attaching his followers to
him made him a keen and successful soldier; while his readiness to
receive and welcome men of letters and of genius, stamp him as a prince
fond of learning and of the fine arts. “The story of his conquests” (to
quote again from Biadego) “is noted; his personal valour, his skill as a
leader, made him in a few years lord of Feltre, of Vicenza, of Cividale,
of Belluno, of Monselice, of Bassano, of Padua, and of Treviso. The
rapidity of his movements, his boldness, and above all his lust of glory
were all gifts possessed by Cangrande, and celebrated by his
contemporaries. Nor, say they, was he wanting in defects. He was violent
with the Veronese and Vicentins in order to wring money from them; he
obtained the Vicariat of Verona by purchase; nor was he free from vices.
Such are the accusations brought by Ferreto of Vicenza, who, however,
praises him in that he never showed himself by nature bloodthirsty. And
in fact under his rule Vicenza and Padua improved; he treated his
prisoner Giacomo da Carrara kindly and honourably; Albertino Mussato ...
was often visited in prison by his victor, who knew how to honour his
genius and the integrity of his character. Let us agree hereupon:
Cangrande was a man of his times, but his great virtues redeem his small
vices and place him above the princes of his day.”[21]
He was also very religious; he founded the church of Sta. Maria della
Scala, and together with Guglielmo del Castelbarco he gave largely to
the church of S. Fermo Maggiore. His praises too were sung by Boccaccio,
who pronounced him to be “one of the most noted and magnificent lords
who was known in Italy since the time of Frederick II.,”[22] while the
Guelph historian Villani declares him to be “the greatest tyrant and the
richest and most puissant prince that has been in Lombardy since
Ezzelino da Romano.”[23]
At the coronation of Louis V. of Bavaria, Cangrande was present with
2,000 knights and 500 foot soldiers, all armed; and he spent more on the
occasion than the Emperor and the Visconti put together. The festivals
he held after the conquest of Padua lasted a month, when tournaments
were held, and jugglers and minstrels were present from all parts of
Europe. Cangrande was also a sportsman, and it is recorded that he kept
no less than 300 hawks. Music, singers and troubadours found favour with
him; a table was kept ever spread for all who flocked to it;
theologians, astrologers, philosophers, met with a ready welcome from
him, as did also travellers from distant lands who came probably on
errands of commerce. As has been said Cangrande was a patron of learning
and of the arts. Giotto came to Verona at his invitation, and though
nothing remains of his labours it is known that several frescoes painted
by him at one time adorned the palace of the Scaligers. The following
extract taken from the _Comento Storico_ of Arrivabene, gives a good and
graphic account of Cangrande’s court at that time:[24] “Cangrande
gathered around him those distinguished personages whom unfortunate
reverses had driven from their country; but he also kept in his pay
buffoons and musicians, and other merry persons, who were more caressed
by the courtiers than the men famous for their deeds and learning. One
of the guests was Sagacio Muzzio Gazzata, the historian of Reggio, who
has left us an account of the treatment which the illustrious and
unfortunate exiles received. Various
[Illustration: THE COSTA
PALAZZO OF CANGRANDE IN THE DISTANCE WHERE HE ENTERTAINED DANTE]
apartments were assigned to them in the palace, designated by various
symbols; a Triumph for the warriors; Groves of the Muses for the poets;
Mercury for the artists; Paradise for the preachers; and for all,
inconstant Fortune. Cangrande likewise received at his court his
illustrious prisoners of war: Giacomo da Carrara, Vanne Scornazano,
Albertino Mussato, and many others. All had their private attendants,
and a table equally well served. At times Cangrande invited some of them
to his own table, particularly Dante, and Guido di Castel di Reggio,
exiled from his country with the friends of liberty, and who for his
simplicity was called “the simple Lombard.”
Verona became in this way the home for every exile of note or of worth
who sought to it, and hospitality and courtesy were, as has been seen,
extended freely to all. Petrarch alludes to this when he speaks of
Cangrande as “the consoler of the houseless and the afflicted,” and he
then goes on to dilate on what may have been some of the causes which
led to the estrangement between Dante and the lord of Verona, and that
brought about for a time a coldness between Cangrande and his haughty
client. “When banished from his country he (Dante) resided at the court
of Cangrande, where the afflicted universally found consolation and an
asylum. He at first was held in much honour by Cane, but afterwards he
by degrees fell out of favour, and day by day less pleased that lord.
Actors and parasites of every description used to be collected together
at the same banquet; one of these, most impudent in his words and in his
obscene gestures, obtained much importance and favour with many. Cane,
suspecting that Dante disliked this, called the man before him, and,
having greatly praised him to our poet, said: ‘I wonder how it is that
this silly fellow should know how to please all, and that thou canst
not, who art said to be so wise.’ Dante answered: ‘Thou wouldest not
wonder if thou knewest that friendship is founded on similarity of
habits and disposition.’ It is also related that at his table, which was
too indiscriminately hospitable, where buffoons sat down with Dante, and
where jests passed which must have been repulsive to every person of
refinement, but disgraceful when uttered by the superior in rank to his
inferior, a boy was once concealed under the table, who, collecting the
bones that were thrown there by the guests, according to the custom of
those times, heaped them up at Dante’s feet. When the tables were
removed, the great heap appearing, Cane pretended to show great
astonishment and said: ‘Certainly Dante is a great devourer of meat.’ To
which Dante readily replied, ‘My Lord, you would not have seen so many
bones had I been a dog.’ ”
Other noble refugees who found an asylum at Verona were Uguccione della
Faggiuola, lord of Pisa and Lucca, who died at Vicenza while in
Cangrande’s service and was honourably buried in Verona; Spinetta
Malaspina, and Fazio degli Uberti.
The importance and position occupied by Cangrande in the world of
letters and amongst men of note must not however make us forgetful as to
the part he played as a politician. Tradition saw in him the rightful
heir of Imperial ideas; and many a writer has made it clear (at least
from his own point of view) that in the “Veltro” prophecy Dante intended
this lord of Verona, and that it was he who was to be the “Veltro”
(Greyhound) whose reign was to bring widespread good to Italy. (_Inf._
I. 101.) The controversy on that point, as is well known, has lasted for
centuries, and is by no means ended yet.
Nor is this Dante’s only allusion to Cangrande--assuming, that is to
say, that he is indeed the “Veltro” of the first Canto of the _Inferno_.
There is a fresh allusion to this lord of Verona in the thirty-third
Canto of the _Purgatorio_, V. 43, which, according to Scartazzini,
refers without doubt to Cangrande. The passage is one of those mystic
allusions which have puzzled the great poet’s commentators in all ages,
and whose enigma is yet unsolved. Dante says how that--
“Verily I see, and hence narrate it,
The stars already near to bring the time,
From every hindrance safe, and every bar,
Within which a Five-hundred, Ten, and Five,
One sent from God, shall slay the thievish woman
And that same giant who is sinning with her.”[25]
“To decipher the number given by Dante,” says Mr Vernon,[26] “one ought
to know whether he was thinking of the symbolic value of the Latin
letters, or only thinking of the letters themselves, D.X.V., which
transposed, give the word D.V.X., _i.e._ a leader or captain.” Whichever
way one takes it, the passage evidently implies the hope that a
personage would shortly appear, who would reform the Church, and
re-establish the Imperial authority. It is also clear from the context
that Dante is pointing to some well-known contemporary personage, on
whom he could found his hopes. Scartazzini feels assured, moreover, that
if this passage is compared with the prophecy of the Veltro (_Inf._ I.
100-102), it will be distinctly proved by evidence that the D.X.V. and
the Veltro are one and the same person. Again, the context proves that
the person foretold by Dante can only be a captain, or secular leader,
and not by any means a pope or a churchman. Let us look at history. On
the 16th December 1318, Cangrande della Scala, lord of Verona, was
elected by the congregation of the Ghibelline Chiefs, as Captain of the
League against the power of the Guelfs. It was then he actually received
the standard of the Eagle, as the Leader in Italy of all the followers
of the Empire. And (according to Scartazzini), it was just at the end of
1318 and at the beginning of 1319, that Dante was putting the last
finishing touches to the Cantica of the _Purgatorio_. Hence Scartazzini
feels quite clear that it was Cangrande della Scala who is the D.V.X.
foretold by Dante. Giuseppe Picci (I luoghi più oscuri e controversi
della Divina Commedia, page 158 _et seq._), observes: “If we write down
the name and qualifications of Cangrande as Kan Grande de Scala Signore
de Verona,” and compute numerically the initials and propositions, we
have the following result:--
K 10
G 7
d 4
e 5
S 90
S 90
d 4
e 5
V 300
---
515
“All things therefore concur in making it intelligible and probable that
the D.V.X. is Cangrande della Scala--an opinion adopted by the majority
of ancient commentators.”
This is not the place to enlarge on the question, but the fact that
Cangrande is considered by many Dante scholars to have been present
twice over in the poet’s mind as the ideal ruler of a united Empire in
Italy shows how high he ranks in the opinion of thoughtful men.
There is a legend that Cangrande was among the princes present at the
deathbed of Henry VII. at Buonconvento (1313), and that the dying
monarch confided his empire to “lo Scaligero,” “Constituens
vicarium--Fidelem commissarium--Canem de Verona.”
Cane tried in vain to repudiate this charge, but overcome by the
pressure put on him by the other princes ... admittit--Augusti
desiderium.[27]
Cangrande did not accompany Henry VII. on his progress through Italy
beyond Genoa, nor was he present at his death. The legend is therefore
historically impossible; “although under a mythical form,” says Cipolla,
“it places before us the unbiassed judgment that the Ghibellines had of
the life and character of Cangrande della Scala.”[28]
It was on this expedition into Italy that the Emperor conferred the
office of Vicar Imperial in Verona on the Scaliger brothers, an office
that owing to the death of Alboino soon after (1311) was held and
exercised by Cangrande alone. On the death of Henry of Luxemburg (1313)
the hopes of the Ghibellines in Italy centred round the lord of Verona;
and his hopes again were set on forming a large state in the Peninsular
free from suzerain lord or Emperor, and holding in his own hands the
destinies of the greater part of Italy. With this object in view he
asked leave of the new Emperor, Louis of Bavaria, to build a bridge over
the Po at Ostiglia whereby to facilitate communication and commerce from
Italy into Germany. The leave was granted, but the bridge was never
built.
This scheme of Cangrande’s is dwelt on by all his biographers without
however arousing at the same time any accusations of ambition against
the Scaliger. And this is as it should be. Cangrande’s views for his
country’s good were of too pure and lofty a nature to be prompted by
personal ambition. The greatness of soul which Dante recognised in him,
and which in spite of small differences between them made the poet rank
him ever as a friend, rose to visions of grandeur for his country’s weal
which had in them nothing sordid or self-seeking. His desire to rule
over the state which in his mind’s eye foreshadowed the glory of Italy
was but natural, and was altogether void of any touch of
self-aggrandizement. Who indeed but he could have carried out the
schemes which were in his mind? Or how could another execute the designs
which had originated in his brain, and that his brain alone could cope
with successfully? Before however these visionary glories could take
shape Cangrande died. His end came quickly and unexpectedly at Treviso
on the 22nd July 1329, when he was only about thirty-eight years of
age,[29] and at the very height of his glory. It is supposed that his
death was brought about by an illness caused by the heat, and the
fatigue consequent on his unending labours. He died, entrusting his
friend and brother-in-law Bailardino Nogarola with the care and
education of his two nephews Mastino and Alberto, the sons of his
brother Alboino, he himself having no legitimate heirs. His body was
taken to Verona, and buried in the beautiful tomb erected for him
outside the church of Sta. Maria Antica, close beside the parcel of
ground which forms the cemetery of the Scaliger family. Cipolla speaking
of this greatest of the della Scala family says: “more fortunate than
Uguccione (della Faggiuola) who lost in a moment all that he had gained,
less fortunate than Matteo Visconti, who left to his valiant sons a
state firmly established, Cangrande, by daily and continual wars
acquired an extensive lordship, but one without stability; based only on
the valour of him who formed its head. The Scaliger power disappeared
rapidly in a few years after it had been founded.” And again a little
further on the same writer says of Cangrande: “On the field of battle
brave and almost reckless as to his person, he exposed himself to every
danger; he was his own general in all his warfares; though eager to rule
he was faithful to his promises, and persevering in political aims. He
was humane, even at times generous to the conquered; and a Paduan
chronicler tells us how from having been a hard foe to the Paduans, he
was as their father when he had conquered them. He coveted glory as well
as dominion; and while other lords had not yet learned to hold in esteem
the gifts of learning, he--not from political motives alone--received
those who, through factions, had been forced to abandon their countries,
and opened with splendour his palace to Dante, to Giotto, to Ferreto of
Vicenza, to Sagacio Muzzio Gazzata, to Albertino Mussato. In his gilded
halls he entertained with princely hospitality poets, theologians,
musicians. The exile Alighieri, who had already visited Verona when
Bartolomeo was lord thereof, returned under Cangrande, and although he
went away thinking how
... sa di sale--
Lo pane altrui, e come è duro calle
Lo scendere e il salir per l’altrui scale, ...
he preserved all the same an ever grateful memory of the “magnifico e
vittorioso signore di Verona,” to whom he dedicated the third of his
Canticles”[30] (_i.e._ the _Paradiso_).
The character of Cangrande is an extremely attractive one. His valour,
his consideration for his foes, his hospitality to all who needed it,
his patronage of art and learning, make him not only an admirable but a
loveable figure. Nor should his labours for the good of his people and
for his native town be forgotten. He revised the Statutes that Mastino
I. had caused to be compiled for the government of Verona, and added
another book to the five which already existed. His love of building--a
love shared by well-nigh every member of his house--took shape in a
fresh circuit of walls, which he caused to be erected round the city in
1324, when wars and wranglings throughout the greater part of Lombardy
made the outlook threatening for Verona, and persuaded Cangrande of the
advisability of protecting his city from any possible invasion. His
early death must ever be deplored; and there can be no doubt that had it
not been for that catastrophe many of his schemes for the greatness of
Italy would have been effected, and the state of the country for one or
two successive centuries materially altered. The chief stain on his
memory is the share he had in the murder of Passerino Bonaccolsi, lord
of Mantua (1327), from which not even his warmest panegyrists can
entirely exonerate him. It can only be pleaded that considering the
times in which he lived, and the habits and customs of his
contemporaries, he was remarkably
[Illustration: THE BACK OF CASA MAZZANTI, ONCE INHABITED BY ALBERTO
DELLA SCALA]
free from the crime--only too common in those days--of murdering every
suspected foe, and that with this one exception his hands were never
dyed with the blood of his neighbours.
Ruskin sums up Cangrande’s doings in the following words: “He fortified
Verona against the Germans; dug the great moat out of its rocks; built
its wall and towers; established his court of royal and thoughtful
hospitality; became the chief Ghibelline Captain in Lombardy, and the
receiver of noble exiles from all other states; possessed himself by
hard fighting of Vicenza also, then of Padua; then, either by strength
or subtlety, of Feltre, Belluno, Bassano; and died at thirty-seven--of
eating apples when he was too hot--in the year 1329.”[31]
The successors of Cangrande were men of a different and entirely
inferior order. Mastino, the elder of his two nephews, had certainly
much of his uncle’s ambition; but he had none of his greatness and
loftiness of mind, still less of his talents and intellect. Alberto
cared only for a life of pleasure, and was but too ready to leave the
cares of office and government to his brother, provided he might follow
his vicious, frivolous existence undisturbed. Verona at that moment was
at the very apogee of her glory. Cangrande’s victories over the
neighbouring towns were bringing in rich interest as to money and
position; and the Florentine historian Villani, writing of the
Scaligers, says: “The rents which accrued to them from those ten towns
and from their castles were more than 700,000 florins of gold, which no
other Christian king possesses, unless it be the King of France. Apart
from the following and the friendship of the Ghibellines, never were
there tyrants in Italy possessed of such power.”
The ten towns alluded to were Verona, Padua, Vicenza, Treviso, Brescia,
Feltre, Belluno, Parma, Modena, and Lucca, and had Mastino but been
contented with this ample heritage, his dominion would in all
probability have been more firmly established. His craving to add to his
state, and convert it into a united kingdom, led however to the downfall
of his house. The jealousy of one or two powerful neighbours was
aroused; and a sense of the danger about to spread from Verona and
envelop the North of Italy became patent to all. The Florentines and the
Venetians were the first to stir in the matter, and to unite against the
common foe. Florence was not only afraid of an invasion of the Veronese
troops, but she also wished to regain possession of Lucca, which had
been wrested from her at a very inopportune moment. The Venetians had a
grievance, and that a serious one, though of a different nature, against
Mastino. He had built a salt factory between Padua and Chioggia, where
every Venetian vessel as it passed along the Brenta was called on to pay
a tax. The Venetians were not disposed to accept quietly an affront
offered them on territory which they considered as strictly their own,
and they at once put in a claim for redress. No notice being taken of
this appeal, Venice gladly threw in her lot with Florence, and the
league between the two Republics was soon after joined by the houses of
Este, Visconti, and Gonzago. The league was further strengthened in a
strange and unexpected way by Marsilio da Carrara’s desire to unite
himself with the other allies against the lord of Verona. This son of
the former lords of Padua was keen to expel the Scaligers from his
native town, where Alberto della Scala had been appointed governor by
his brother Mastino. Alberto, as has been said, lived only for pleasure.
He had outraged the wife of Ubertino da Carrara, Marsilio’s cousin, but,
far from imagining that such an insult could rankle in the husband’s
mind, he placed blind confidence in him and in Marsilio, never dreaming
that they were determined to avenge the outrage which he for one had so
completely forgotten. Marsilio was well aware of the enmity felt towards
the della Scalas at Venice, and determined to turn it to his own
account. Chance also favoured him. Mastino sent him on an errand to
Venice, where the legend goes that one night at supper sitting next to
the Doge, Francesco Dandolo, Mastino whispered to him, “I wish to speak
to you.” Upon this the Doge dropped his napkin, and both men bent down
to pick it up. “What will you give to him who gives Padua to you?” asked
Marsilio. “The lordship thereof,” was the reply; and when the two heads
reappeared above the board the bargain was struck, and the league which
was to end in Mastino’s overthrow was formed.
Marsilio returned to Padua, and set to work at once to put his schemes
into execution. Mastino’s fears were aroused, and hints of what was
brewing found their way to his ears. Again and again he wrote to Alberto
warning him against the Carraresi, and bidding him be on his guard.
Alberto gave no heed; and Mastino finally wrote a letter ordering him to
arrest them and arrange for their execution. This letter arrived with
instructions that it was to be given into no hands save Alberto’s; but
he, absorbed at the moment in a game of chess, handed it to Marsilio,
and bade him read it. Marsilio did so, and in answer to Alberto’s
queries as to its contents, replied that it was only a request from
Mastino to send him some more falcons. He then left the room, sent
directions to the allied force under the ill-fated and peerless Pietro
de’ Rossi to march upon Padua when he would admit them through one of
the gates into the city. These directions were all successfully carried
out. Padua was lost to the Scaligers; Alberto was sent as a prisoner to
Venice, and Mastino’s power received a shock from which it never
recovered. He had presently to cede Belluno to Charles, King of Bohemia,
who had also joined the league against him; and shortly afterwards that
monarch possessed himself of Feltre, Cividale, and the Cadere as well.
Brescia and Bergamo surrendered to the Visconti; and in December 1338
Mastino was glad to make peace with the allies and content himself with
a state reduced to the four towns of Verona, Vicenza, Parma, and Lucca.
It was not long however before the two latter cities were also wrested
from him.
These concessions and humiliations exasperated Mastino past all bearing.
He became suspicious and irascible, a prey to doubts and fears, and in
August of that same year in a fit of ungovernable fury he transfixed
Bishop Bartolomeo della Scala with his own sword. This murder brought
down on him the thunders of the Church. He was excommunicated by Pope
Benedict XI., and it was not till after much negotiation and the payment
of a fine that the ban was removed. There is a legend in Verona that
after the murder of the Bishop and the Papal excommunication Mastino II.
never shewed his face again even to his faithful and beloved wife Taddea
da Carrara. This legend may arise from the fact that the equestrian
statue over his tomb is represented with the visor drawn--a proof, it is
said, of the desire he had to veil himself from every eye, and to
prevent everyone, even after death, from gazing on his features.
Before Mastino’s death two brilliant marriages took place in his family;
the first being that of his daughter Caterina with Barnabŏ Visconti,
the heir to the duchy of Milan. The bride’s name, originally Caterina,
was changed to Beatrice, to denote her worth and
[Illustration: TOMB OF MASTINO II. DELLA SCALA]
merits; and then on account of her queenly bearing it was turned again
to Regina.[32] The other marriage was that of Cangrande II., Mastino’s
eldest son, with Elizabeth, daughter of Louis of Bavaria. Mastino lived
but a short time after these marriages. He died in 1351, leaving three
legitimate sons: Cangrande II., Cansignorio, and Paolo Alboino. His
brother Alberto did not survive him long. He gave over the cares of
office absolutely to his three nephews, and died in the month of
September of the following year.
Cangrande II. who now succeeded to the chief power was neither a great
nor a good man. He was nicknamed “Canis rabidus,” though who gave him
the name, or why it was given, has not come to light. He loaded his
people with taxes, and made his rule so unpopular that a rebellion
raised against him by his natural brother, Fregnano, met with ready
support from Cangrande’s subjects and almost proved his undoing.
Cangrande had gone from Verona to Botzen to confer with his
brother-in-law the Margrave of Brandenburg, leaving the town in the
charge of Fregnano and Azzone di Correggio. Fregnano roused the citizens
to revolt; the Gonzagos of Mantua--to whom every rebuff given to the
Scaligers meant a gain to them--joined the rebels; and it is generally
supposed that Barnabŏ Visconti, lord of Milan, was not as opposed to
the rising as in his capacity of a loyal brother-in-law he ought to have
been. Fregnano, according to Giovanni Villani, was “beloved by the
people of Verona and Vicenza,” and his cause was warmly espoused by the
great mass of the populace. Cangrande however retraced his steps as
soon as he heard of the rebellion; he entered Verona with haste, and at
once attacked and defeated Fregnano, who fell fighting at the head of
his troops on the Ponte delle Navi.
The danger was averted, but Cangrande’s confidence in his so-called
allies of Milan and Mantua was destroyed for ever. His plans for
insuring his personal safety at all events against any further peril
took shape in the erection of the “Old Castle,” the Castel Vecchio,
which he now caused to be built beside the Adige, adding to it that fine
bridge which spans the river, and across which he could receive aid from
Germany whenever he required it. The building took three years to
complete, and when it was finished Cangrande removed into it and passed
the rest of his life there. He also introduced a special bodyguard of
soldiers from Brandenburg, who have left traces of their sojourn in
Verona in the shape of the little church of St Peter Martyr, said to
have been founded by these Knights of Brandenburg.
Cangrande II., who was neither loved nor respected by his people, died a
violent death on December 14, 1339, being put to death by his brother
Cansignorio, who slew him with his own hand. Cangrande left three sons:
Tebaldo, Guglielmo, and Fregnano, none of whom reigned as lords of
Verona, and of whom history has no stirring deeds to relate.
Cansignorio was proclaimed lord of Verona and Vicenza together with his
younger brother Paolo Alboino. The latter however was never admitted to
any share in the government; and after a few years Cansignorio, fearing
the young man’s ever-increasing popularity in Verona, caused him to be
imprisoned. Opinions as to the character of Cansignorio are not
invariably unanimous. Some writers, among them our
[Illustration: PONTE SCALIGERI. BRIDGE OF CASTEL VECCHIO]
own Ruskin, have been carried away by a fictitious glamour concerning
this last legitimate ruler of the Scaligers which facts and history
cannot altogether support. Others see in him only a fratricide, stained
whenever it suited his purpose with the blood of his brothers, with no
redeeming virtues save that of an interested solicitude for the welfare
of his people and for his native town. As usual in such judgments, there
is doubtless a good deal of truth on both sides, though few, perhaps,
can be found to agree altogether with Ruskin, who speaks of him as “a
prince who had in every way beautified and cared for the city; and among
other minor gifts, bestowed on it one by which it profits to this day,
the fountain of the great Square. He was deeply religious; meditated
constantly on his death, and believed that he should be entirely happy
in the next world if only he were assured of the prosperity and secure
reign of his children in this one.”[33]
Cansignorio, in common with all the princes of his house, had an
insatiable love of building, and many an edifice in Verona bears witness
to his taste and munificence in this respect. The greatest proof of it
is to be seen in the magnificent tomb which he caused to be erected for
himself during his lifetime, and of which mention will in time be made.
He also embellished and improved the town in every possible way,
spending with a lavish hand, and with a recklessness which almost
savoured of extravagance. He rebuilt the Ponte delle Navi; he laid out
the public gardens near his palace; he added to the frescoes in his own
house; and the many statues and adornments that he caused to be set up
in Verona gained for the town the surname of “Marmorina.” The greatest
public benefit he ever conferred was that mentioned by Ruskin of
bringing drinkable water into the city. This he did by means of leaden
pipes laid down to the Piazza delle Erbe, where the beautiful fountain
in the middle stands as a record to this day of the good deed wrought
for the city by Cansignorio della Scala. He also did all that lay in his
power to alleviate the sufferings of his people, when from the years
1369 to 1371 they were stricken with famine; and in many ways he shewed
himself a wise and considerate ruler.
His love for his two natural sons however blinded him as to all sense of
right and wrong; and his eagerness to secure the succession for them
after his death made him absolutely unscrupulous, and a murderer. These
sons, Bartolomeo and Antonio, were Cansignorio’s only children, but
their illegitimacy barred their right to reign after their father, and
made Paolo Alboino, Cansignorio’s youngest brother, the rightful heir.
Cansignorio however was determined that his sons, and they only, should
be lords of Verona when he died. Though still a young man--he was not
yet thirty-six--he knew that his end was approaching, and he laid his
plans accordingly. A few years previously, as has been said, he had
imprisoned Paolo Alboino at Peschiera. The unfortunate youth, who was
much beloved by the people, was now put to death at the instigation of
his brother, it is generally supposed, though some writers lay the
murder at the door of Cansignorio’s sons. The most honourable and
exalted of the citizens were then called on to take the oath of
allegiance to Bartolomeo and Antonio; the youths were entrusted to the
care of Cansignorio’s most faithful councillors and friends; and on
October 19, 1375, this last great lord of Verona died.
Bartolomeo and Antonio reigned for a few years conjointly. Bartolomeo,
the elder, and who was generally acknowledged as the best of the two,
was treacherously
[Illustration: FOUNTAIN IN THE PIAZZA DELLE ERBE
(Statue said originally to be of the 3rd century)
]
murdered July 12, 1381, and his brother was declared to be the
murderer.[34] As sole ruler of Verona Antonio strove to protect himself
from the perils which were fast gathering up against him from the lords
of Milan and of Padua. He entered into an alliance with Venice, little
foreseeing that the great maritime republic had no idea of protecting
him, but dreamt only of increasing those possessions on the mainland
which it was now her ambition to add to her dominions. The doom of the
Scaligers was sealed. Antonio had alienated the two friends, Guglielmo
Bevilacqua and Giacomo del Verme, whose wisdom and prowess in the
council-chamber or on the battle-field could yet have upheld his power.
His extravagance, joined to that of his wife, Samaritana da Polenta, was
hastening to exhaust a failing exchequer; the power of the Visconti, and
of the Carraresi was every day assuming proportions of a threatening and
overwhelming nature; and help was nowhere to be looked for nor obtained.
Antonio endeavoured to restore his fallen fortunes by resorting to arms,
and more than one important engagement took place between his forces and
those of Padua under the famous English condottiere John Hawkwood, and
Giovanni d’Azzo. The Veronese troops were commanded first by Cortesia
Serego, and after the first defeat when he was taken prisoner, Guglielmo
degli Ordelaffi and Ostasia da Polenta were appointed as generals. They
met with no better fate: the armies of Verona were again routed, and
Antonio without a friend to stand by him or advise him, stole secretly
away from Verona the night of the 18th November 1387, handing his town
over to the ambassador of Wenceslaus, king of the Romans. Verona was
apportioned to the duchy of Milan, and the day after Antonio’s flight
the banner of the Visconti waved over the town. Antonio fled to Venice,
but he did not give up all hope of returning to Verona and resuming his
sway there. The following year he opened negotiations with Carlo
Visconti, a son of Barnabŏ’s, and he also essayed to gain the Pope
Urban VI. over to his cause. He died though before any of these dealings
could be concluded (August 1388) leaving his wife and family in such
straits that they had no choice but to accept the bounty that the
Venetian Republic vouchsafed to bestow upon them. Antonio left one only
son, Can Francesco, who died in 1392, only four years after his father,
and in him the male line of the Scaligers came to an end.
Several years later an effort was made to restore the rule of the della
Scalas in the person of Guglielmo, one of the illegitimate sons of
Cangrande II. The plot however failed; Guglielmo died a few days after
he had been proclaimed lord of Verona, and the hopes of restoring the
dynasty of the Scaligers were at an end for ever. Their rule had lasted
for one hundred and twenty-eight years, and it certainly comprised the
brightest, most stirring period in the annals of the town of Verona.
[Illustration: OLD SHIELD OF THE SCALIGERS]
[Illustration: VERONA]
CHAPTER V
_From the Fall of the Scaligers to the Present Day_
The head of the house of Visconti at the moment when Verona was added to
the duchy of Milan was Gian Galeazzo, one of the most treacherous and
ambitious tyrants of his age. In the league formed between him, the
Republic of Venice, and the Carraresi of Padua, it had been arranged
that Verona should be ceded to the Visconti, and Vicenza to Padua. This
compact was now carried out, though Gian Galeazzo by guile and force
soon after wrested Vicenza from its destined owner. At Verona the
princely system of building carried on so grandly by the Scaligers was
still maintained. The fortifications already existing round the town
were renewed; the castles of S. Pietro and S. Felice (this latter
sometimes known as Castelnuovo) were erected by order of the lord of
Milan, who doubtless hoped in this way to ingratiate himself with the
Veronese besides providing for his own safety. Gian Galeazzo did not
however win the love of his new subjects, who, though they had hated
Antonio della Scala, hated still more the man who had stepped into his
rights and usurped all the power of the Scaligers. The lord of Padua, as
was natural, had also little cause to love the Visconti, who had failed
in keeping his engagements towards him and tricked him out of his right
to possess Vicenza. A plot was organised to reinstate Can Francesco,
Antonio della Scala’s only son in his father’s rights; and da Carrara
and his son lent their services on the understanding that in case of
success Vicenza should be restored to them. The plot failed however and
Ugolotto Biancardo, who governed Verona in the Visconti’s name, ordered
the town to be given over to fire and the sword, and for three whole
days a hideous pillage went on.
Can Francesco died in 1394, and no further revolts for the restoration
of the Scaliger dynasty disturbed the rest of Gian Galeazzo’s reign. His
life however was not a long one, he died aged only fifty-five years on
September 3, 1402, leaving his sons too young to administer his vast and
scattered states and appointing his widow, Catherine Visconti (who was
also his cousin), regent of the duchy.
The confusion that ensued on the duke’s death spread throughout the
greater part of Italy, and raised the hopes of those lords who had been
dispossessed by him of their states to regain their own again. Each one
in turn thought the moment had come for this purpose, and that no time
should be lost in bringing about so laudable an object. The Carraresi
thought it advisable for them to further the cause of the della Scalas,
and help them to regain the lordship of Verona, seeing that in such an
act many advantages would accrue to them. Francesco di Carrara
consequently persuaded Nicolŏ III. of Este to unite with him in
advancing the claims of Guglielmo the illegitimate son of Cangrande II.,
on Verona, and for a short while success attended their schemes. The
attention of the Visconti party was exclusively absorbed by affairs in
Lombardy; the allies were free to march upon Verona, where the
inhabitants greeted Guglielmo with enthusiasm, and shouts of “Scala,
Scala,” echoing throughout the town proved what a hold the once loved
dynasty still had on the hearts of the citizens. Guglielmo was however a
dying man when he entered Verona; weariness and disease had almost done
their work on his exhausted frame, excitement and emotion doubtless did
the rest. He died the very day after his joyful entry into the home of
his ancestors, leaving two sons, Brunoro and Antonio, who for a few days
remained in Verona under the delusion that they would succeed to the
honours which had seemed to be within their father’s very grasp.
Guglielmo’s death has been laid at Francesco da Carrara’s door, but
there is no evidence to prove this accusation, though the fact that the
Carraresi seized on the persons of Guglielmo’s sons and carried them off
prisoners, does not altogether help to lighten the charge. Francesco da
Carrara was then proclaimed lord of Verona, though his enmity with
Venice ought to have made him wary as to the acquisition of power and
territory which he knew were coveted by her. The great Republic, ever
since she had become possessed of Treviso, had watched with a jealous
eye any increase of dominion on the part of her neighbours. In an
ill-advised moment for herself, she coveted property on the mainland,
forgetful that her strength and wealth sprang from the sea, and in that
quarter only should she have concentrated all her energies. The
proclamation of the Carraresi as lords of Verona filled the Venetians
with envy, and determined them to secure so fair a possession for
themselves. They despatched an army under Jacopo del Verme into the
Veronese territory, but the first engagements were won by the troops of
Jacopo da Carrara, Francesco’s son. This was early in 1405, and in the
spring the fighting began again. The Veronese however were tired of this
condition of things: they were not anxious to own the house of Carrara
as their lords; and they willingly consented to place themselves under
the Venetian rule. Verona accordingly passed under the dominion of
Venice, and the act testifying to this surrender was signed, June 22,
1405.
The Venetian yoke cannot be said to have pressed heavily on Verona. Her
independence, it is true, no longer existed, but the blessing of peace
was hers; the conditions as to the forms of government were honourably
maintained, and though Venice studied the preservation of the city for
her own advantage more than for that of the inhabitants, this
self-interest did not fail to benefit all concerned. The Republic of St
Mark busied itself with the completion of the walls and fortresses which
the Visconti had begun; and also made good the damage done to those
buildings in the past days of insurrection and pillage.
A slight demonstration in favour of the Scaligers took place early in
the fifteenth century when Brunoro, the son of Guglielmo della Scala,
prevailed on the Emperor Sigismund (with whom he was a great favourite)
to plead for him with Venice, and obtain some at least of his ancestral
rights in Verona. The Venetian Republic refused however to listen to
this appeal, and Brunoro aware of the hopelessness of his cause
dedicated himself entirely to the service of the Emperor, and died at
Vienna, November 21, 1434, without leaving any lawful issue.
The wars waged by Venice against Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan,
brought reflected suffering upon Verona; and the honour--as far as it
went--of receiving such famous generals as Francesco Sforza, and
Gattamelata was poor compensation for the sums of money the town had to
give the “condottieri” of the Republic in order that they might keep
their troops from pillaging the city.
The effects of the League of Cambray were also fraught with momentous
issues for Verona. This league, formed with the object of compassing
the overthrow of Venice, was supported by most of the crowned heads of
Europe. The jealousy aroused by the “insatiable cupidity,” the ambition,
and the prosperity of Venice was felt principally by the King of France,
the Emperor of Germany, and the Pope. In the distribution that these
potentates had made of the Venetian territories on the mainland Verona
was allotted to Germany; and Maximilian I., who was then Emperor, had
already formed visions of an extended empire into Italy, of which he had
settled that Verona was to be the capital. The condition of Venice was
indeed critical. The combination of forces destined to crush her was
colossal, and she was in need of all her statecraft and ingenuity to
avert a catastrophe that seemed bound to overwhelm her. She took a
desperate resolution which has in turn been ascribed to the subtlest
heights of diplomacy, and to the very depths of despair and terror. She
released all her subjects on the mainland from their oath of allegiance,
setting them free to meet the emergency of the moment in the way they
judged most expedient, and absolving them from any after reproach of
infidelity should they elect to bow to the on-coming storm. Up till now
Verona had always stood loyally by Venice in her warfares and struggles
with other states, but the present danger was of a kind involving risks
which she would not and could not run. The upper classes had not become
enamoured of Venetian rule, and the remembrance of the Scaligers had
left its hold fondly in their hearts. The populace on the other hand
were wholly Venetian in their thoughts and affections, but they were not
strong enough to maintain their opinions unaided, and had to succumb to
the inevitable. Their attitude however to the Venetian forces, when
after their defeat at Ghiarraddada they presented themselves
discomfited and weary outside the gates of Verona was hardly that of
subjects who had lived for years under a just and liberal rule. A modern
writer,[35] himself a Veronese and an ardent patriot, admits that not
only should they have allowed the armies of their countrymen to find
shelter within the walls, but they should gladly and courageously have
shared with them in the discomforts and chances of a siege. The
population, as we have seen, was divided: one part holding for the
Venetians, the other for the Imperial cause. To this latter faction
known as that of the Marani, from the name of their leader and captain,
the famous painter Falconetto belonged. He himself lived in the
neighbourhood of S. Zeno, and he persuaded a large number of the
inhabitants of that district to side with him. One reason of this strong
feeling for the Imperialist cause is to be found in the traditions of
Veronese history. Verona was essentially a Ghibelline city; her
brightest era was associated with Ghibelline rulers; she was the
metropolis in Italy of the Emperors of Germany, the capital of their
vicars, and when the days of her splendour were over, then, and then
only, had she become a provincial town of the Republic of Venice. Her
sympathies were for the Empire as opposed to the Republic, and at a
solemn meeting convened on May 30, 1509, in the church of St
Anastasia--when the entire population was present--the Emperor
Maximilian was unanimously accepted as sovereign lord of Verona.
The Venetian governors and commandants withdrew quietly and without
uttering one word of protest, and in October of the same year the Bishop
of Trent (George of Neudeck) entered the town in his capacity of
Imperial lieutenant. The Emperor himself arrived in Verona a day or two
after, in full pomp and state, under a panoply of cloth of gold, his
raiment being of the same costly material and his appearance, according
to the Venetian chronicler, Sanudo, being that of a “Cæsar of the days
of old.”
He at once issued a Proclamation, which is a quaint bit of reading, now
full of loving words and phrases, now reminding his new subjects of the
vileness of their former masters, and insidiously hinting that they had
better remember their duty and allegiance to the Cæsar of to-day. This
Imperial decree also congratulates the Veronese on their good fortune in
having escaped from “the intolerable servitude and the cruel tyranny of
the Venetians.” It holds out the happiness that is in store for them,
the first they will enjoy under the shadow of the Just and Puissant Lord
who they now obey. They are not to be deluded nor deceived, but must
persevere in the faith and devotion and observance towards this Liege
Lord. If they will but confide absolutely in him they shall be embraced
with that benignity, favour, and grace with which that same Lord
embraces all his faithful subjects ever ready as he is to succour them,
to load them with increase, honour, and comfort. To prove still more his
goodwill to the town, the Emperor restored the mint which had fallen
into disuse since the days of the Carraresi, and went so far as to cause
some coins to be struck with the proud motto, “Verona Civitas
Metropolis.” How these flattering and caressing promises were to be kept
Time soon showed! The town was reduced to the state of a vast and
disorderly barrack. German, French, Spanish, Italian soldiers, without
discipline, without pay, rampaged through the streets bent only on
booty, and reckless as to their way of securing it. Many a house and
shop, the abode till then of quiet citizens and honest burghers, was
ruthlessly sacked and ruined, and many a one who, rightly or wrongly,
was suspected of favouring the Venetian party, was wantonly murdered in
the streets without more ado. Money was also exacted on all sides in
order to furnish the vast sums needed for the expenses of the war, and,
as the writer above quoted justly remarks, the luckless city was indeed
the “civitas metropolis” of every public and private misfortune. The
internal divisions became daily more accentuated under this condition of
things. The aristocracy upheld the authority of the Emperor in the hope
that by so doing they would augment their own; the lower classes in the
meanwhile sighed for the quiet they had enjoyed under the Venetian
Republic. Nor were these divisions and tumults the only trials that
overtook Verona at that time, for a terrible pestilence fell on the city
in the years 1511 and 1512, filling up the cup of woe that seemed
already full to overflowing. Another burden was however about to be
added to those that had gone before. In 1516 the Venetians besieged the
town, assisted by the French, who but a few years previously had been
their deadliest foes, but were now their allies and friends. The treaty
of Brussels at the close of the year fortunately put an end to the
siege, and Verona was soon after restored to Venice. A series of forms
had to be gone through before the transfer was effected. Verona was
handed over first to Spain, then passed on to the French general
Lautrec, who received it in the name of his master Francis I., and from
him again it was restored to Venice. The act of restitution was
accompanied by a great religious function in the Cathedral: high mass
was celebrated, and a general pardon was proclaimed on the part of the
Signory of Venice to all at Verona. It is strange to read how that here
and there some stone lions of St Mark, which had been stowed away during
Maximilian’s reign in Verona, were now brought out from their
[Illustration: THE PIAZZA DELLE ERBE, WITH THE VENETIAN COLUMN]
hiding-places covered with decorations, and set up with every sign of
rejoicing. Peals of bells rang out cheerily, cries of “Marco, Marco,”
re-echoed through the streets, fireworks and illuminations lit up the
darkness of the winter night, and the French invaders could not contain
their surprise over the kindly feeling entertained by the people of
Verona for Venice. To mark still further the satisfaction felt by the
people over the restoration of the Venetian rule, the beautiful column
that stands at the northern end of the Piazza delle Erbe was erected in
1523. It is a magnificent block of white Veronese marble, and the year
following the winged lion was placed on the top, that emblem of the
wavering Evangelist whom the great Republic took for its Patron and its
Saint.
That wary Republic, fully alive to the dangers through which she had
passed, was resolved to provide against any which might assail her in
the future. The fortifications around Verona were consequently ordered
to be put into a condition to meet the modern requirements of war; old
fortresses were to be demolished, and new ones put in their stead with
bastions, moats, and all the contrivances then considered requisite to
render the town impregnable. The old walls were only retained on the
side towards the hills, where assaults were considered unlikely, or at
the most harmless. It was while these works were in construction that
new entrances into the town were voted necessary, and the following were
therefore erected, namely--the Porta Nuova (1541-42), that of the Palio
(1542-57), Porta Vescovo (1520), Porta S. Zeno (1541-42), and the far
less well-built one of S. Giorgio (1525). These works were done by
Michele San Micheli, a native of Verona, and one of the greatest
architects Italy ever produced. His fame chiefly rests on all buildings
connected with military matters, though in other edifices, whether of a
religious or a lay nature, his work ranks very high.
An insurrection was set on foot in 1522 to stir up the Veronese against
the dominion of Venice, and to restore, in the person of a pretender,
the line of the Scaligers. The wars between Francis I. of France and
Charles V. of Spain had let loose a great number of restless, turbulent
spirits, whose aim was to attain to some position of eminence and honour
by the upsetting of the existing forms of government. One of these
intriguers, a Spaniard it is supposed, gave himself out as Bartolomeo
della Scala, and managed so far as to secure a promise of provisional
support from Spain, and from the House of Gonzaga. The Venetian Republic
was fully aware of the intrigue. She just waited for the moment when it
suited her best to strike, and then she did so effectively. She accepted
the offer of a hired assassin to remove the pretender from her path, and
when he was soon after poignarded in the streets of Mantua (1529), she
clenched matters by condemning the dead man’s son, Brunoro, to be
imprisoned for life in the fortress of Famagosta.
For over two centuries no movement of political importance stirred the
even tenor of life at Verona. A terrible plague in 1630 swept away more
than half the population, and reduced the number of inhabitants, it is
said, from over 50,000 to barely 20,000. Another misfortune overtook the
town in 1757, when the Adige overflowed its banks (September 2), swept
away two arches of the Ponte delle Navi, and wrought untold damage.
Greater and graver disturbances were, however, in store for Verona at
the close of the eighteenth century. It was then that, after a sojourn
of twenty months, Louis XVIII., under the assumed name of Count de
Lille, left the town owing to the political intrigues gathering on all
sides, and threatening to involve every state which harboured him.
Bonaparte’s victories were now bringing that great general every day
nearer to the Veronese district; and after his victory over the
Austrians at Borghetto di Valeggio he feigned great indignation against
Verona for harbouring the royal fugitive. He announced his intention to
possess himself of the town, and the Venetian Republic, now too weak to
claim an authority it was unable to exercise, had quietly to acquiesce
in Bonaparte’s occupation of Verona on June 1, 1796.
The following digression as to the Comte de Lille’s sojourn in Verona,
taken from a “Raccolta ... di Documenti[36] Mediti” belonging to the
diplomatic story of the Revolution and Fall of the Venetian Republic may
prove of interest here. The Comte de Provence (to give him his real
name) had fixed his abode in Verona towards the end of the year 1794,
under the incognito of “Comte de Lille.” His mode of life was quiet and
private, and though his suite recognised him as Louis XVIII., King of
France, he himself avoided every outward semblance of majesty so as not
to compromise the Venetian Republic, which had afforded him an asylum
and hospitality in its territory. The nobles of Verona took no heed of
him; and even the French emigrants in the city abstained from paying
their court to him, keeping themselves prudently in the background. The
Count was lodged in the palace of the patrician family of the Gazzola,
and while there, with the help of his most trusted followers, he set to
work to prepare some despatches, which he intended eventually to send to
the sovereigns of Europe, in order to ascertain their measures with
regard to him. In the meantime he meant to remain quietly at Verona, and
there to await the tide of events. Several persons of note came
expressly to Verona to greet him, among them being the Count
d’Entragues, the Prince of Nassau, and the Spanish Ambassador, the
Chevalier de Las Casas. That he had received every courtesy from Venice
is evident by a letter that he wrote to Alvise Mocenigo the Venetian
envoy, on the expiration of that nobleman’s term of office in Verona, to
thank him for the civilities that had been extended to him, and begging
him likewise to convey his gratitude to the Doge. This letter bears date
June 18, 1795. The Comte de Lille however wrote other letters, which
were not altogether of so simple an order. The very next month it was
discovered that he had despatched two letters to the King of Sardinia,
the first of these being to announce his succession to the throne of
France, and written as though he were actually a king; the other in a
confidential strain, implored the King of Sardinia to continue his
hospitality to the writer’s wife, Marie Josephine of Savoy, Countess of
Provence. The King of Sardinia took notice only of the second of these
letters, though explaining at the same time that he could take no line
of action about it till he knew what would be the conduct of the Allied
Courts, especially those of Vienna and London. The Countess of Provence
was allowed to stay on at the Royal palace, where but a few Frenchmen
went to pay their homage to their so-called queen.
Early in August of this same year a slight Royalist movement was known
to be on foot, and the suspicions of M. Lallement, the French
Plenipotentiary from Paris in Verona, began to be aroused. The Venetian
Government shared the uneasiness clearly shown by the Frenchman at the
state of affairs, the more so, as they were strangely, not to say
nervously anxious, to maintain scrupulously the terms of armed
neutrality on which they stood with regard to other nations. Their
uneasiness was in no way lessened at M. Lallement’s objection to the
residence in Verona of His Royal Highness the Count of Provence, whom
the French journalists styled derisively “the King of Verona.” In the
meantime the French army was preparing to invade Italy, a measure that
was frustrated for a short while by the opposition offered to such a
step by the joint action of the Piedmontese and Austrian forces. The
Venetian Government all this time remained passive, making no
preparation to meet the on-coming danger, and careful only not to
infringe the neutrality to which they considered themselves exclusively
bound. This attitude of theirs, and their apathy as to the suspected
plots on behalf of the Comte de Lille at Verona, provoked the
indignation of the French powers in Paris. A ministerial note was
addressed to Alvise Querini, the Venetian ambassador in the French
capital, to remonstrate. It dwelt on the harmony to be desired and
maintained between the two Republics, a harmony however that could not
tolerate “so crying a scandal as that of the residence in Verona of
Louis Stanislaus Saverio, the so-called Louis XVIII., who proclaimed
himself, and acted as King of France.” It further stated that “since
Louis Stanislaus Saverio had not feared to compromise the Venetian
Republic in behaving while in Venetian territory as King of France, he
had forfeited all claim to the asylum which he had obtained ... and the
Minister of Public Affairs asked that he should be deprived thereof
throughout all the states of the Venetian territory.” A string of
complaints followed this verbose note, together with a remark couched in
a truly ironical spirit, as to the improbability of the French Republic
allowing so indiscreet a guest to be tolerated any longer, and the sad
dilemma in which the Venetian Government must doubtless find itself. The
agitation subsequent on the publication of this despatch in Venice was
great. The “Savii,” urged by M. Lallement to send a prompt answer,
invoked the assistance of the Inquisitors of State, and they again
despatched their secretary Giuseppe Gradenigo to Verona, while the Count
d’Entragues sent a special messenger to inform the Comte de Lille of the
turn things were taking. The Marchese Carlotti was deputed to present
himself to the Royal exile, and break to him that the Venetian
Government could not but carry out the injunctions laid on them by the
French rulers. The luckless Count could offer no opposition to this law
of the strongest, but he made an effort to maintain the dignity of the
House of Bourbon, and claimed the right to erase his family’s name from
the “Libro d’Oro” of Venice, and to take back the suit of armour
presented of old by Henry IV. to the Republic. He wrote to the Russian
ambassador in Venice, complaining of the treatment he had received at
the hands of the Venetians, and entrusting him with a power of attorney
to execute his commission as to the Libro d’Oro and the suit of armour.
His letter ran as follows:--“Louis, by the Grace of God, King of France
and of Navarre to Monsieur Mordino, Privy Councillor to H.M. the Emperor
of all the Russias, and his Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republic of
Venice, Chevalier of the Order of Vladimir, greeting.
“The Senate of Venice having notified in an offensive manner that the
asylum which We had elected to choose ceased from this instant, and that
they expected Us to leave Verona in the shortest possible time, We have
replied in these terms to the Marquis Carlotti, charged to deliver this
commission directly to Us:--I shall depart, but I exact two
indispensable conditions:--1st, that the Libro d’Oro, where the name of
my family is inscribed, be brought to me, that I may with my own hand
erase it therefrom; 2nd, that the suit of armour be restored to me which
was given by my ancestor Henry IV. as a token of friendship to the
Republic of Venice. The lawful impatience which We have to withdraw from
the Venetian states determines Us to empower you on Our part to execute
the fulfilment of these two conditions, to cancel the name of Our family
from the Libro d’Oro, and to receive in custody the suit of armour of
our ancestor Henry IV. of glorious memory.
“L.S. Given at Verona under Our sign and ordinary seal the 20th April,
year of grace 1796, and of Our reign the first.--Louis.”
These conditions of the would-be King of France could not however be
complied with. The reply to his demand was only arrived at after a long
correspondence had been carried on between the Venetian Republic and the
Court of St Petersburg, and was altogether unfavourable to the Count’s
wishes. The name of the Bourbons, it said, could not be erased from the
Libro d’Oro without causing dire offence to the sovereigns of Spain,
Naples, and Parma, all of whom belonged to the family of the Bourbons,
nor for the same reason could the armour presented by Henry IV. to
Venice, and jealously guarded by her, be now given back. Thus Venice
gained her point on all sides. The Count of Lille was banished from the
territory of the Republic, and on the 15th April 1796, at three o’clock
in the afternoon, he wended his way from Verona to seek in the direction
of the Tyrol for the shelter and safety that were no longer to be
afforded him beside the banks of the Adige, and where for twenty months
he had enjoyed a calm, if not a real home. Nor did Venice forego her
possession of the princely gift bestowed on her by Henry of Navarre.
That suit of armour is to be seen to this day at the arsenal at Venice,
though the sword which belonged to it was stolen in 1797, and not the
least clue exists as to where it is now to be found. To return however
to Verona.
The occupation of the town by the French was of short duration, for the
Austrian troops under General Wurmser swept down on the valley of the
Adige the very next month, and entered the town the 30th of July. Their
stay however was also brief. The French returned as conquerors on August
8, and the victories of Arcole and Rivole confirmed them in their
possession. They were not beloved by the people of Verona, of whom the
greater part considered themselves still subject to Venice, and resented
the military occupation foisted on them by Napoleon. What brought
matters to a climax is unknown, but on the evening of April 17, the
first shot was fired, and the Veronese rose up in arms against the
French. A very wholesale massacre ensued, though the assertion that the
inhabitants of Verona spared none of their foes, and even fired on the
hospitals, slaughtering both sick and wounded in their fury, is probably
an exaggeration. Fighting, firing, cannonading, the ringing of bells to
call to arms went on for three whole days. French troops came hurrying
in to the defence of the French, who poured a ceaseless rain of bullets
on to the town from the forts, till the Veronese had no choice but to
surrender. The Venetian authorities commenced the negotiations for
ceding the town, and on April 27 the French again took possession of
Verona without--and to their honour be it said--this time insulting the
vanquished or abusing of their victory. The “Pâques Véronaises,” the
Veronese Vespers, as this rising and massacre has been styled, may be
considered in a twofold light. It may either be looked upon as the only
effort made to uphold the dying power of Venice; or it may be reckoned
as a useless waste of blood and treasure. It certainly did not tend to
conciliate the French towards the inhabitants of Verona; and it gave
Bonaparte an excuse for avenging the blood of his soldiers--an excuse he
was not the man to forget. Heavy taxes were laid on the city; citizens
of renown and high degree were executed; and wherever tyranny and
oppression were possible they were indulged in freely.
The French yoke became so obnoxious that when in 1798 the town was
handed over to the Austrians it seemed to the Veronese as though a
stroke of good fortune had befallen them. The Austrian possession this
time lasted till the peace of Luneville, early in 1800, when the city
was divided between the French and Austrians, the French retaining the
half on the right bank of the Adige, the Austrians reserving that on the
left bank. This condition of affairs lasted till 1805, when the whole
town was declared to be French, and when Napoleon caused himself to be
proclaimed king of Italy, appointing Eugène de Beauharnais as his
viceroy. In 1814 Verona again changed hands, being placed once more
under the Austrian dominion, after Napoleon was fallen from his high
estate, and when the might and determination of England had stopped him
from enslaving and oppressing the greater part of Europe.
For many years Verona belonged to Austria. The Lombard-Veneto kingdom,
ruled over by the Archduke Rainer, brought outward peace to the country
from which it took its name, though the longing to expel the foreigner
and create a united and independent kingdom of Italy was growing and
developing in the heart of every true patriot throughout the Peninsula.
This longing took shape in 1848, when the war of independence was begun.
The hopes of freedom and unification centred round Charles Albert and
the small kingdom of Piedmont, and at the outset fortune smiled on the
gallant undertaking. The Austrians however were not to be driven lightly
out of the country; they reconquered Milan; possessed themselves anew of
the “Veneto”; and inflicted a severe defeat on the Piedmontese army at
Novara (March 23, 1849). No sooner were they firmly established again in
Verona than they set to work to restore the fortifications and build new
ones all around and about the town. They converted it into a fortress of
the very first rank, and made certain that from the great
quadrilateral--formed of Verona, Mantua, Legnano, and Peschiera--they
had a base of operations which would render them impregnable against any
attack. And indeed it seemed as though Austrian rule was fixed for all
time in the North of Italy. Plots and intrigues, it is true, were
constantly being formed, but they collapsed without accomplishing their
aim, and were never sufficiently serious to unsettle the ruling powers.
It was not till the year 1859 that the patriotic hopes which had dawned
more than eleven years previously began again to see the light, though
the perfect day was not to be reached even then. Napoleon III., Emperor
of the French, did all that in him lay at that period to help his ally
Victor Emanuel II. to the possession of his entire realm. The peace of
Villafranca, however, put to flight the hopes that Solferino and S.
Martino had formed, and though a part of the Veronese territory was
restored to Italy, the town itself and much of the province remained
subject to Austria. This state of things lasted till 1866, when the
Prussians became the allies of Italy, and the Austrians were finally
driven out of the Peninsula. The great battle of Sadowa, resulting in
the peace of Vienna (October 3, 1866), settled definitely the vexed
question as to the rights of ownership, and on the 16th of the same
month the Italian army entered Verona in triumph. Far different must
have been the feelings with which the Austrians quitted it. True, the
town did not stand on their native soil, nor was the language spoken
therein their mother tongue. But years of possession had endeared it to
them; they had guarded it with unceasing love and care; they had made it
one of the finest fortresses of Europe. Now all was to be changed. They
must hand it over to the young and newly-formed kingdom of Italy, and
who could assure them that all would be well with the town in other and
inexperienced hands? Time alone was to furnish the answer.
On November 18th, 1866, King Victor Emanuel II. and his sons Humbert and
Amedeus of Savoy came to Verona. The day following they were present at
a great concourse of people held in the amphitheatre. An enthusiastic
welcome awaited them; the national joy burst spontaneously from
thousands of spectators, proving the affection of the Veronese for their
rightful princes, and convincing the king and his children of the love
and loyalty that existed for them in the grand old city of Verona la
Degna.
CHAPTER VI
_Men of Letters_--_School of Painting_
A love of letters and a regard for men of learning has ever been a
marked characteristic throughout the history of Verona, and stamped the
early and after days of her existence with a special and distinctive
note.
The first name on a long and honoured roll is that of Valerius Catullus,
who was born at Verona about B.C. 84. As all classical students know he
owned a villa at Sirmione, where the ruins of an old mansion are pointed
out as the abode of the “tenderest of Roman poets nineteen hundred years
ago”--the poet who might well be called the Heine of his age.
The province of Verona claims Cornelius Nepos as one of her sons, though
the actual town in which he was born has never been satisfactorily
determined. Cornelius Nepos was the contemporary and friend of Catullus,
who addressed some of his poems to him, and together they passed most of
their lives in Rome, where Cicero formed one of their circle.
Æmilius Macer, a well-known poet and philosopher, the friend of Virgil
and of Ovid, was also a Veronese. There is a work in verse “treating of
the virtues of herbs and of the qualities and instincts of reptiles and
birds,” by one Macer, but opinions are divided as to whether the author
hailed from Verona or was another writer of the same name.
During the Augustan age in which the above named
[Illustration: PALAZZO DEL CONSIGLIO. ARCHITECT FRA GIACONDO.]]
authors lived, Verona also claimed among her citizens the celebrated
architect Vitruvius Cerdone; a claim not always, nor very generally,
recognised. His statue however stands among those of her greatest men
outside the Palazzo del Consiglio, and perpetuates the fame of the man
who designed the once glorious Arco de’ Gavi, that arch which formed one
of Verona’s greatest monuments up till 1805, when it was wantonly taken
down. Other writers who were natives of Verona, or of the surrounding
province, were Pomponius Secundus (a writer of tragedies, and who, in
his capacity of Veronese consul at Rome, gave a great supper to the
Emperor Titus, when according to Pliny who was one of the guests, some
wine one hundred and sixty years old was drunk); Cassius or Catius
Severus; Pliny the Elder, the famous naturalist whose misplaced zeal led
him to meet with his death by too close and too curious an investigation
of the eruption of Vesuvius, A.D. 81. Pliny the younger, though born at
Como, may almost rank as a Veronese. His mother was the elder Pliny’s
sister, his uncle looked upon him and loved him as his own son, and much
of his time was spent at or near Verona.
Verona too was early endowed with a University, or as it was termed in
those days, a “Cathedral School.” The great impetus given by Charlemagne
to public instruction in Italy is one of the traits which redounds most
to his honour, and Verona which had always been considered as a spot
where learning had met with encouragement, was one of the first towns to
profit by the French monarch’s generosity. Indeed it is declared that
she has done more for Italy with regard to learning than ever Greece or
Athens did. This assertion can easily be believed when we read that only
nine years after Charlemagne’s death an Imperial decree ordained that a
public school or college should be founded there, a decree that was
endorsed by the Emperor Louis XI. in 824. A bull of Pope Benedict XI. in
1339 sanctions this “University,” or more properly, public school, and
confirms to it the right of conferring degrees in law, in medicine, and
in the arts.
A goodly list could be given of several other writers, many of them
bishops and men of saintly lives, whose erudition added to the fame of
Verona and spread her renown as a centre of learning into ever-widening
circles. Nor were minstrels and troubadours excluded from the list,
especially at the beginning of the twelfth century. We read of singers
known in the history of minstrelsy, such as Hugues de St Cyr, Pietro
Villems, and Sordello, all coming to Verona and finding a welcome there.
All names however pale before that of Dante Alighieri, who, though in no
sense a Veronese, found here a haven in his day of adversity and exile,
and whose acknowledgment of the hospitality accorded him is of
world-wide renown. The causes that brought Dante to Verona have been
much discussed. It may be that the strong Ghibelline feelings which
predominated in the city made the Florentine exile certain of being
understood there--at least as far as his political sentiments were
concerned. The renown too possessed by Verona as to the encouragement
given within her walls to learning and men of letters may have attracted
him. Or more probably still, the knowledge that at the court of the
Scaligers he would find not a welcome only, but also a home where his
talents would be recognised and appreciated, may have induced him to
come to Verona. This last hypothesis may to some extent be borne out by
the opening words of the “epistola” written by Dante to Cangrande della
Scala at the time he dedicated the _Paradiso_ to him. This letter,
whose authenticity has given rise to much discussion, but which in these
latter times is generally accepted as being his, begins by saying: “I
heard the praise of your celebrated magnificence; I came to Verona to
assure myself of the same. There I saw your magnanimous doings; I saw, I
experienced your benefactions; and while I had at first believed that
the fame of them was superior to the deeds, I became convinced that the
deeds were superior to the fame.”
Dante’s choice of Verona was a wise one; and he found there a reception
and a refuge that must have soothed to some extent the angry wounded
susceptibilities of that “spirito sdegnoso.”
The first of the princely house of della Scala to receive Dante was
Bartolomeo, who, though he is not mentioned by name by the poet, was
without doubt the “grand Lombard” spoken of by Dante’s ancestor
Cacciaguida in _Paradiso_, canto xvii. 70. For Bartolomeo and Cangrande
della Scala Dante has only words of praise; but some other members of
their family come in for the full force of the poet’s wrath, and he
speaks in scathing terms of Alberto and Alboino, the former the
predecessor, the latter the successor of Bartolomeo. Nor is he less
bitter against an illegitimate son of Alberto della Scala, whom his
father had made abbot of S. Zeno, and who exercised that office from
1291 to 1314. Speaking of this deformed priest he says,
“ ... in his whole body, sick
And worse in mind, and who was evil born”
( ... mal del corpo intero--E della mente peggio, e che mal nacque.
_Purg._ xviii. 124, etc.), and how his father “with one foot in the
grave” (con un piè dentro la fossa) had “put him in the place of the
true pastor” (ha posto in loco di suo pastor vero).
The reason of Dante’s dislike for Alboino, who he must have known
intimately, has never come to light. The man’s want of energy, his
indifference as to the Ghibelline cause, his inefficiency as a warrior,
may perhaps have aroused that contempt for him which Dante expresses
most openly in the _Convito_, iv. 16. Cangrande on the other hand calls
forth his admiration; and that Dante dedicated to him the last part of
the _Divine Comedy_ is proof enough of the esteem and affection in which
he held him. Another proof too is forthcoming in the fact adduced by
Boccaccio and Giovanni Querini that Dante was wont to send the cantos of
the _Paradiso_ as he wrote them, and before submitting them to any other
eye, to the lord of Verona. The poet recognises too the renown of
Cangrande’s deeds by putting into the mouth of Cacciaguida the prophecy
as to “how notable his works shall be” (che notabile fien l’opere sue);
words so concise and so forcible in their depth and truth that they are
introduced in the epitaph above Cangrande’s tomb in a Latin form.
“Little is known for certain of Dante’s actual residence in Verona,”
says Cipolla; though he quotes from Ampère’s _Voyage Dantesque_ to show
the favourable impression that the town made on this pilgrim not
generally prone to be satisfied, nor minded to refrain from a sharp and
unfriendly criticism. “Here at last is an Italian city of which Dante
has said nothing injurious. She owes this almost unique exception to the
hospitality which she offered him.”
Dante alludes several times to the town itself in his writings. He
speaks so graphically of the game of the Palio (_Inf._ xv. 121) as to
make one fancy he must have witnessed it in person. It has been said
that his idea of the “bolgie” of the _Inferno_ came to him from the
shape of the arena at Verona, and that standing on the summit of that
vast building he conceived the notion of creating his Hell on the same
lines as those presented before his eyes. Whether this is really so or
not cannot be definitely affirmed, but it is certain that no other poet
has mapped out an Inferno on the same lines as that of Dante, while the
form he has given it resembles very closely that of the amphitheatre of
Verona.
Other memories than those which spoke to him only of the town were also
present to Dante’s mind when he was writing his great poem. The country
in the heart of the valley of the Adige is depicted by him at the
opening of the twelfth canto of the _Inferno_; and the surroundings of
the Lake of Garda are spoken of equally in the _Inferno_ at canto XX.
64, etc.
It was at Verona that the remarks as to Dante’s powers of visiting the
Infernal regions first arose. As his “melancholy, pensive” form walked
silently through the streets and byeways of the city, the women of the
lower classes pointed him out one to another as “he who went to Hell and
returned when he listed, and brought news up above of those who were
there below.” It may be that such unsolicited fame would bring a smile
to the solemn, set features, and prove more acceptable than the applause
vouchsafed by Cangrande’s herd of courtiers.
Another distinguished poet came to Verona in 1348, and indeed visited
the town several times. This was no other than Petrarch; and it was on
the occasion of his first visit to his friend Guglielmo da Pastrengo
that he dreamed the dream which came only too true, of Laura’s death
(April 6). This does not seem however to have given him a distaste for
Verona, where he had many friends, and from where he wrote in ecstasies
of the beauty of the Lake of Garda and of the country around.
The wives of the lords of Verona, with but one exception, were not
given to literature or the arts. The only one who endeavoured in any way
to attract men of letters to her court was Samaritana, wife of Antonio
della Scala. This daughter of the house of da Polenta of Ravenna was in
reality too vain and frivolous to care for learning for its own sake.
She thought it would redound to her glory to collect round her men whose
studies or writings would add to the lustre of her name, and for this
cause it came to pass that late in the fourteenth century the court of
the Scaligers was again frequented by “litterati.” The most conspicuous
among them was Gidino da Somma Campagna, who dedicated a book entitled
_Trattato dei Ritmi Volgari_ to Antonio della Scala. The original
manuscript of the _Trattato_ is preserved in the Biblioteca Capitolare,
and the beautiful designs and scrolls that adorn the margins of its
pages are an example of the miniature drawing of the day, deserving both
of study and admiration. Besides Gidino da Somma Campagna, mention may
be made of Leonardo da Quinto, a learned jurisconsult, astrologer, and
man of letters. He was, as Guglielmo da Pastrengo had been before him,
an ardent bibliophile, and both men were possessed of libraries as fine
as any which existed in private houses at that time. When Antonio della
Scala was in straits for money in 1386, Leonardo da Quinto was one of
the two emissaries whom he sent to Venice to sell his jewels. Marzagaia
and Matteo da Orgiano can also be added to the above literary set; the
former was Antonio’s tutor; and the latter, really of Vicenza, was a
Humanist of high repute who became chancellor at the court of Verona.
The possession of a fine library in those days was by no means the
privilege of the few. Not only did many of the churches own libraries of
no mean order, but most of the private individuals of note in Verona had
collections that were at once numerous and costly. The noble houses of
Ottolini, Trevisani, Pelligrini, Pindemonte, Moscardo, Maffei, and
Muselli had all famous libraries, while English readers will be
interested to learn that the great Ashburnham collection had its origin
in Verona. This collection was begun by the Marchese Giovanni Saibante
of Verona, who devoted many years of arduous and loving devotion to the
formation of this unique library. In 1734 it contained 5189 volumes, and
1321 manuscripts, of which 102 were Greek and 70 were Hebrew. The larger
part of this collection was sold in Paris; from there it passed into the
Earl of Ashburnham’s hands, and in 1884 the Italian Government bought it
back for the sum of £23,000.
To set down here the names of the Veronese whose fame in connection with
letters has added to the glory of their native land would be beside the
mark. Suffice it for the present purpose to mention the
following:--Guarino dei Guarini, the student of Greek and of Greek
science; Girolamo Fracastoro, whose statue by Danese Cattaneo in the
Loggia of the Palazzo del Consiglio, set up only two years after his
death, shows how generally his talents were recognised as a poet, a
philosopher, and an astronomer; Fra Giocondo, whose fame as an architect
was widely spread through France and Italy, and was so great as to leave
but little room wherein to speak of him as a writer and a scientist;
Giovanni Antonio Panteo, an author of various works in Latin, and a
friend of all the learned men of his day; Torello Saraina, whose book
_De Origine et amplitudine Urbis Veronæ_, published in folio at Verona
in 1540, and printed in 1586, is one of the first histories of Verona
both as to date and merit; Onofrio Panvinio, a finished Latin scholar,
and an elegant writer on all the Roman remains in his native town;
Giulio Cesare Bordoni, surnamed Scaligero, as famous as a doctor as he
was as a writer and man of science, who is universally known by the name
which he added to his own, and which was taken for the purpose of
deluding those who knew no better that he was a descendant of the
Scaligers. He was without doubt one of the most learned and scientific
men of his age, and was honoured and welcomed in every country in which
he set foot.
This list must not draw to its close without including the name of
Scipione Maffei, whose work _Verona Illustrata_, in eight volumes, and
often consulted in the construction of these pages, is one of the most
trustworthy and complete histories of Verona as far as it goes. Other
writings by Ma
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