Chapter VIII: Rome to Loreto 180 (5)

[60] During the mediæval wars Siena always favoured the French party. Villani (i. 43, 56) gives the legendary French origin of the place: how in the eighth century Charles Martel marched against the Lombards in Apulia, and left those of his troops who were old and unfit for service at this place. Two refuges were built, and the name _Senæ_ given to them, on account of the old men who dwelt therein. Villani calls it, for this reason, one of the most modern of Italian cities, ignoring Julius Cæsar’s foundation altogether.

[61] The Fonte Gaja, which was completed in 1343. The sculptured reliefs were added by Jacopo della Quercia, 1412-1419. The sculptor subsequently enjoyed the epithet “della Fonte.” It was well restored by Signor Sarocchi in recent times. Dante’s eulogy of the market-place is well known:--

“Quando vivea pui glorioso, disse
Liberamente nel Campo di Siena,
Ogni vergogna deposta, s’affise.”

_Purg._, xi.

[62] These names all belong to the ancient Sienese nobility, and it is almost certain that Montaigne is referring to palaces and not to streets.

[63] He was one of the most celebrated captains of the age. He fought in almost every country in Europe, and was equally distinguished as a man of affairs and a courtier, as he managed to retain to his death the favour and confidence of successive Grand Dukes of Tuscany. His son, Ottavio, was the well-known general of the Thirty Years’ War. He died in 1614, and is buried in the church of S. Agostino at Siena.

[64] This house is probably No. 32 in what is now the Via Cavour. It was an hotel as late as 1852.

[65] A town near Bordeaux.

[66] After the capture of Siena by the Spaniards in 1555 a number of the people of Siena, nobles as well as burghers, withdrew to Montalcino with the intention of founding there a new republic. With them went the French mercenaries who, under the Marshal de Monluc, had helped to defend the city. Montaigne was, no doubt, inquiring after the tombs of these men.

[67] This bridge crosses a stream called La Paglia, to which Montaigne probably refers when he speaks of the village of La Paille.

[68] Ronciglione. The Farnesi had one of their finest seats here.

[69] A piece of money first coined by Julius III., worth about sixty centesimi.

[70] Montaigne evidently feared the effect of the dew. Just before he reached Roveredo (vol. i. p. 187) he writes to the same effect.

[71] This inn still exists at the corner of the Via di Monte Brianza and the Via dell’ Orso.

[72] In the Via di Monte Brianza.

[73] He makes the same complaint of Padua.

[74] Gregory XIII. Ugo Buoncompagni di Bologna.

[75] Alessandro Farnese, nephew of Paul III.

[76] Ferdinando dei Medici, the cardinal whom Montaigne had recently met at the Grand Duke’s table in Florence.

[77] This Caraffa was first advanced by his kinsman, Paul IV., but banished on the accession of Pius IV. Pius V. restored him to his offices, and Gregory XIII. made him librarian of the Vatican. In _Essais_, i. 51, Montaigne writes “d’un Italien, que je vien d’entretenir, qui a servy le feu Cardinal Caraffe de maistre d’hotel jusques à sa mort.”

[78] The fistula, or pipe, through which the Pope drinks the consecrated wine. It would hardly give, as Montaigne suggests, any security against poison; this would be compassed by “pregustation” on the part of the sacristan and the butler.

[79] Louis Chasteignier de la Roche Posay, seigneur d’Abain. He went with Henry III. into Poland, and was subsequently sent by Henry as ambassador to Rome. He was afterwards charged by the Pope to carry the papal absolution to Henry IV.

[80] The text from which the passage within brackets is translated was written by Montaigne himself on the margin of the MS.--_Querlon’s note._

[81] Giacomo Buoncompagni, the illegitimate son of the Pope. His mother was a servant in the house of Girolamo, the Pope’s brother, in Bologna, where Giacomo was born in 1548. He was brought up by his father, and his mother was afterwards dowered by Girolamo and married to a Milanese mason. After his education was finished he was appointed to numerous offices, his father having been made Pope in 1572, and the lordships of Vignola, Sora, Arce, Arpino, and Aquino were purchased for him. He was a soldier and a patron of letters, and a favourable example of his kind. He died in 1612.

[82] Montaigne is probably referring to the Pope’s banishment of Giacomo to Perugia in 1576, on account of an attempt made by his son to protect a servant from the due operation of the law. With regard to nepotism Gregory was moderate. He made two of his nephews cardinals, but the well-known story tells how he ordered his brother back to Bologna when he heard he was on his way to Rome to ask for preferment. Ranke, i. 290.

[83] Probably Montaigne and the ambassador. The Cardinal de Sens was Nicolas de Pelvi, afterwards Archbishop of Reims.

[84] _Essais_, ii. 11: “Je me recontray un jour à Rome, sur le poinct qu’on defaisoit Catena, un voleur insigne: on l’étrangla sans ancune émotion de l’assistance, mais quand on vint à le mettre à quartiers, le bourreau ne donnoit coup, que le peuple ne suivist d’une voix plaintive, et d’une exclamation, comme si chacun eust presté son sentiment à cette charongue.” Catena was thirty years of age, and was charged with fifty-four murders.

[85] “Je conseillerois que ces exemples de rigueur, par le moyen desquels on veut tenir le peuple en office: s’exerçassent contre les corps des criminels. Car de les voir priver de sepulture, de les voir bouillir et mettre à quartiers, cela toucheroit quasi autant le vulgaire, que les peines qu’on fait souffrir aux vivans.”--_Essais_, ii. 11.

[86] The employment of fowls in this connection was generally curative. Pepys writes, in describing the treatment of a half-drowned man (vol. vii. p. 288, ed. 1896), “and they did lay pigeons to his feet while I was in the house, and all despair of him and with good reason.” In the case of these criminals the remedy may have been applied to revive them for the next stage of the torture.

[87] Probably the Sala Ducale, painted by Mattheus Bril.

[88] There had been considerable activity in the reconstruction of the city under Pius IV. The reigning Pope had continued this work as far as the disorder in the finances would permit. The most important building operations were carried out a little later under Sixtus V.--operations which were accompanied unfortunately by the destruction of many interesting remains of antiquity.

[89] Monte Testaccio. Gurson was a village in Périgord, the seat of the Marquis de Foix, an intimate friend of Montaigne.

[90] This is incorrect: the present position and aspect of the Temple of Janus indicate very little alteration of the level of the surface.

[91] Eugenius IV. laid a fine of 1130 scudi on the Jews of Rome, which was spent in Carnival festivities and sports, of which Jew-baiting was one of the most popular. The Jew races began under Paul II. in 1468, and became more and more barbarous till their abolition by Clement IX. in 1668.

[92] Exorcism is still a portion of the baptismal rite in the Roman Church.

[93] Sent by Ivan the Terrible.

[94] This was not the Athenian, but Ælius Aristides, a rhetorician of Smyrna, who lived in the time of M. Aurelius. The inscription on the pedestal is ΑΡΙΣΤΙΔΕΣ ΣΜΥΡΝΕΟΣ.

[95] The polyglot version printed by the famous Antwerp Press in 1569.

[96] Assertio septem sacramentorum. It was presented to the Pope by the English Ambassador in 1521. The scansion of the couplet is not perfect.

[97] Cardinal Sirleto, one of the most learned and benevolent men of the age. He was the tutor of Carlo Borromeo. He died in 1585, and lies buried in S. Lorenzo. Ranke, i. 347.

[98] Probably the Codex Romanus of the fifth century.

[99] Marc-Antoine Muret, a learned Frenchman, who passed many years in Italy. Montaigne mentions him, _Essais_, i. 25: “Et Nicolas Grouchi, qui a escrit _De Comitiis Romanorum_, Guillaume Guerente, qui a commenté Aristote; George Bucanan, ce grand Poëte Escossois; Marc-Antoine Muret (que la France et l’Italie recognoist pour le meilleur orateur du temps), mes precepteurs domestiques....”

[100] This is almost certainly an allusion to Claude Mangot, a French jurisconsult, who died in 1579, and left two sons. (A.)

[101] Ὁρος. The passage runs: Ὁρους ἀνειλε πολλαχὴ πεπηγότας πρόσθεν δὲ δουλεύουσα νῦν ἐλεύθερα. Amyot’s rendering is, “Car il se vante & glorifie en ses vers d’avoir osté toutes les bornes qui paravant faisoient les separations des heritages en tout le territoire de l’Attique laquelle il dit avoir affranchie au lieu que paravant elle estoit serue.”

[102] Maxima pars novis tabulis aiunt semel fuisse pacta conventa universa circumducta quibus consonare citius carmina Solonis. Gloriatur etiam in his agri se ante pignori nexi fixos passim terminos removisse, quæ pridem serviebant, nunc libera esse.

[103] Montaigne’s frank acceptance of this censure on Amyot, whom he held in the highest esteem, is a remarkable instance of his liberality of mind.

[104] The Sala Regia adjoining the Sistine Chapel. The frescoes representing the fleet of Don John and the battle of Lepanto are by Vasari; who likewise painted the scenes of the massacre of S. Bartholomew and the murder of Coligny. The meeting of Pope Alexander and Frederic Barbarossa is by Giuseppe Porta.

[105] There is some uncertainty as to the identity of this person. The Marshal Blaise de Monluc, Montaigne’s friend, died in 1577, his brother Jean in 1579, and in the _Essais_, ii. 8, he notices the death of Pierre, a son of the Marshal, in 1568. The passage may refer to a son of the Marshal.

[106] An obvious misprint for the Port of Claudius.

[107] At Porto. Fulvio della Cornia, a native of Perugia, and a nephew of Julius III. He was deprived and imprisoned by Paul IV., who suspected him of favouring the Spanish interests; but the reigning Pope had advanced him to the bishopric of Porto.

[108] Ostia, though already in decay, was not in Montaigne’s time the wretched place it is at present. La Rocca is possibly the castle built by San Gallo for Julius II. At Castel Fusano, a mile to the south, is one of the watch-towers alluded to, with stone figures of soldiers on the roof.

[109] The salt works of Ostia are said to go back to the time of Ancus Martius.

[110] On the death of Henry the Cardinal, in 1580, there was a disputed succession in Portugal, and Philip II. of Spain succeeded in taking possession of the kingdom. The states alluded to are, no doubt, the Low Countries. The name of the ambassador was Don Juan Gomez de Silva.

[111] Sono stati presi undeci fra Portoghesi et Spagnuoli, i quali adunatisi in una chiesa ch’è vicina San Giovanni Laterano, facevano alcune lor cerimonie, et con horrenda scelleragine bruttando il sacrosanto nome di matrimonio si maritavano l’un con l’altro, congiongendosi insieme come marito con moglie. Vintesette si trovavano et più insieme, il più delle volte: ma questa volta non ne hanno potuto coglier più che questi undici, i quali anderanno al fuoco et come meritano.--Tiepolo, _Relazioni Ven._, August 2, 1578.

[112] The pilgrimage churches: S. Giovanni in Laterano, S. Pietro, S. Paolo, S. Lorenzo, S. Maria Maggiore, S. Croce in Gerusalemme, and S. Sebastiano. The first five were the original patriarchal churches.

[113] _Essais_, i. 33, has for title, _La fortune se rencontre souvent au train de la raison_.

[114] _Essais_, ii. 19.

[115] _Essais_, i. 25.

[116] Probably, _La république des Suisses_, by Simler: Paris, 1578.

[117] Filippo Buoncompagni, a nephew of the Pope. He was born in 1548, died in 1581, and lies buried in S. Maria Maggiore.

[118] Paul de Foix. He began his career in the magistracy; and, having fallen under suspicion of favouring the Huguenots, was imprisoned by Henry II. He was released by the influence of Catherine dei Medici, and sent on diplomatic missions to England and Venice. Under Henry III. he entered the Church and became archbishop of Toulouse. He died in Rome in 1584. There is mention of him in _Essais_, iii. 9. “Cette perte (of M. de Pibrac) et celle qu’en mesme temps nous avons faite de Monsieur de Foix, sont pertes importantes à nostre couronnes. Je ne sçay s’il reste à la France de quoy substituer une autre couple, pareille à ces deux Gascons.”

[119] The romantic story of this Pope is well known. Gerbert was an Auvergnat, a youth of great promise, and after studying at the Cluniac school of Avrillac, and under the Arabic teachers at Cordova, he became a teacher in the school at Reims. He became archbishop in 991 and for a time enjoyed the favour of Hugh Capet, but in 996 he fled to the imperial court and accompanied Otho III. to Italy in 998, being created archbishop of Ravenna at once, and elected Pope as Silvester II. in the following year. He died in 1003.

The myths which gathered round Silvester’s personality are fully set forth by William of Malmesbury, and by Vincentius Bellovicensis in the _Speculum Historiale_. Having won the heart of his Arabian master’s daughter, he stole his books and fled, helped on, it is hinted, by the devil, who was anxious that he should be preserved and sit in the chair of Peter. Like Friar Bacon, he made a brazen head with power of speech, and besides this a clock and a musical instrument which worked by steam. The head aforesaid prophesied that he would become Pope, and would die in Jerusalem, a prediction which was held to be fulfilled by the fact that he died after performing mass at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. The belief in his unlawful knowledge was widespread and persistent, and in the _Vitæ Pontific._ _Ravennat._ it is written, _Homagium diabolo fecit et male finivit_.

It is strange that Montaigne, with his mind always sceptical of the marvellous, should have been led to regard Silvester’s character in a sinister light. He had evidently read the laudatory epitaph in S. John Lateran written by Sergius IV., but he seems to have been inclined rather to credit the fables of the inscription in Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. The epitaph of Pope Sergius runs as follows:--

♰ IS̅E̅ LOCUS MUNDI SILVESTRI MEMBRA SEPULTI
VENTURO DOMINO CONFERET AD SONITUM
QUEM DEDERAT MUNDO CELEBRE DOCTISSIMA VIRGO
ATQ. CAPUT MUNDI CULMINA ROMULEA
PRIMUM GERBERTUS MERUIT FRANCISGENA SEDE
REMENSIS POPULI METROPOLIM PATRIÆ
INDE RAVENNATIS MERUIT CONSCENDERE SUMMUM
ÆCCLESIÆ REGIMEN NOBILE SITQ: POTENS
POSTANNUM ROMAM MUTATO NOMINE SUMPSIT
UT TOTO PASTOR FIERET ORBE NOVUS
CUI NIMIUM PLACUIT SOCIALE MENTE FIDELIS
OBTULIT HOC CÆSAR TERTIUS OTTO SIBI
TEMPUS UTERQ: COMIT CLARA VIRTUTE SOPHIÆ
GAUDET ET OMNE SECLUM FRANGITUR ROM̅E̅ RE̅U̅
CLAVIGERI INSTAR ERAT CÆLORUM SEDE POTITUS
TERNA SUFFECTUS CUI VICEPASTOR ERAT
IS̅E̅ VICEM PETRI POSTQUAM SUSCEPIT ABEGIT
LUSTRALI SPATIO SECULA MORTE SUI
OBRIGUIT MUNDUS DISCUSSA PACE TRIUMPHUS
ÆCCLESIÆ NUTANS DEDIDICIT REQUIEM
SERGIUS HUNC LOCULUM MITI PIETATE SACERDOS
SUCCESSORQ. SUUS COMPSIT AMORE SUI
QUISQUIS ADHUC TUMULUM DEVEXA LUMINA VERTIS
OMNIPOTENS DOMINE DIC MISERERE SUI
OBIIT ANNO DOMINI CE INCARNATIONS M̅III INDI̅C̅