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Title: The journal of Montaigne's travels in Italy by way of Switzerland
and Germany in 1580 and 1581, Volume 3 (of 3)
Author: Michel de Montaigne
Translator: William George Waters
Release Date: May 24, 2023 [eBook #70840]
Language: English
Produced by: Turgut Dincer, Krista Zaleski and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JOURNAL OF MONTAIGNE'S
TRAVELS IN ITALY BY WAY OF SWITZERLAND AND GERMANY IN 1580 AND 1581,
VOLUME 3 (OF 3) ***
THE JOURNAL OF
MONTAIGNE’S TRAVELS
IN ITALY
[Illustration: _Medal of Pope Gregory XIII._]
THE JOURNAL OF
MONTAIGNE’S TRAVELS
IN ITALY BY WAY OF SWITZERLAND
AND GERMANY
IN 1580 AND 1581
TRANSLATED AND EDITED
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY W. G. WATERS
AUTHOR OF “JEROME CARDAN,” ETC.
IN THREE VOLUMES
VOL. III
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1903
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
IX. LORETO TO THE BATHS OF
LUCCA 1
X. THE BATHS OF LUCCA 37
XI. FLORENCE 95
XII. PISA 111
XIII. RETURN TO LUCCA 132
XIV. SECOND VISIT TO ROME 151
XV. JOURNEY HOME 172
INDEX 206
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOL. III
POPE GREGORY XIII (_Photogravure_) _Frontispiece_
ANCONA _To face page_ 1
URBINO ” 12
FLORENCE ” 94
THE AQUEDUCT OF NERO ” 166
THE BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN ” 168
ROME ” 170
PONTE MOLLE ” 172
[Illustration: ANCONA
_From Civitates Orbis Terrarum_
_To face p. 1_, vol. iii.
]
THE JOURNAL OF MONTAIGNE’S TRAVELS IN ITALY
IX
LORETO TO THE BATHS OF LUCCA
On the Wednesday after dinner I travelled through a fertile open
country of a varied character, and after a journey of fifteen miles
I arrived at Ancona in time for supper. Ancona is the capital of the
Marches, which district was called by the Latins _Picænum_. The city is
populous, swarming especially with Greeks, Turks, and Sclavonians, and
a busy place of traffic. It is well built, flanked on either side by
lofty hills, which project into the sea, one of these being occupied by
a strong fort, by which we entered, and the other by a church. Between
these heights and the slopes thereof the town is built, the main part
being placed in the bottom of the valley and along by the sea, where
there is a very fine port, and near thereto a magnificent arch built in
honour of the Emperor Trajan, his wife, and his sister. The sea passage
over into Sclavonia is often made in eight, ten, or twelve hours, and
I believe that for six crowns, or a little more, I might have hired a
bark to take me to Venice. I paid thirty-three pistoles for the hire
of eight horses as far as Lucca, eight days’ journey, the _vetturino_
agreeing to feed the horses and to give me the use of the same for
four or five days in addition, if necessary, provided I should pay the
outlay on the horses and servants.
I saw many setting dogs in this country, and could have bought one for
six crowns. I never ate so many quails before, albeit they were very
lean. I put off my departure on the 27th until after dinner, in order
to enjoy the beautiful prospect of the town and its situation. At S.
Ciriaco,[1] the church placed on one of the hills before-named, there
are more famous relics than in any other church in the world, but these
were not exhibited. We had it from the people here that the quails
fly over hither in great numbers from Sclavonia, and that nets are
set for them every night on the shore, the hunters luring them on by
imitating their cry and calling them down from their high flight in the
air. It is said, moreover, that in September they return to Sclavonia.
During the night I heard cannon shots in the Abruzzi, which is in the
kingdom of Naples, and from parts yet more remote. All along the coast
towers are built a league distant one from the other, and whenever any
sentinel espies a pirate ship he gives warning by firing a gun to the
tower next to him. So rapidly is intelligence sped by this method that
it has been found that word may be passed from the extreme point of
Italy to Venice in an hour.
The name Ancona is derived from the Greek word[2] describing the corner
which the sea makes in this spot. The two horns of the coast project
and leave between them a deep depression in which the town stands,
protected in the front by these two headlands, and in the rear by a
high ridge where formerly stood a fort. The Greeks still have their
church, over the door of which is an ancient stone inscribed with
certain characters which I take to be Sclavonic.[3] The women here are
for the most part good-looking, and I saw many decent-looking men and
good artisans. After dinner we followed the road by the sea, which
is calmer and less turbulent than our western ocean. The land is
cultivated almost to the water’s edge. After travelling twenty miles we
arrived at Sinigaglia in time for bed.
This is a pretty little town, situated in a fine level country and hard
by the sea, possessed of a good harbour, and washed on one side by a
river which comes down from the mountains. The port is excellently
fitted, the quays on either side being covered with wooden framework,
where the ships lie in safety, and the entrance furnished with chains.
I saw no remains of antiquity. We lodged outside the town in an
excellent inn, the only one in the place, which they say was called
of old _Senogallia_, after our forefathers who settled there in the
days when they were overthrown by Camillus; now it is under the rule
of the Duke of Urbino.[4] At this time I felt somewhat unwell, for on
the day I left Rome when M. d’ Ossat[5] was walking with me, I saluted
a gentleman we met, and I did this in so maladroit a fashion that
I injured the corner of my right eye with my right thumb, so much
so that it bled and remained much inflamed for a long time. When it
healed--_Erat tunc dolor ad unguem sinistrum_. I forgot to mention
that I saw at Ancona in the church of San Ciriaco a tombstone to the
memory of a certain _Antonia Rocamoro, patre: matre, Valletta: Galla,
Aquitana: Paciocco Urbinati, Lusitano nupta_, who was buried ten or
twelve years ago. We quitted Sinigaglia early in the morning, and
followed a very agreeable road running by the sea coast. Near dinner
time we crossed the Metro, _Metaurus_, by a large wooden bridge, and
dined at Fano, fifteen miles on our road.
This is a small town in a fine and fertile plain, and close to the
sea. It is badly built, with narrow, confined streets; but we found
excellent provision of bread and wine and fish, though the rooms were
poor.[6] Fano has an advantage over the other towns of this coast,
such as Sinigaglia, Pesaro, and others, in that it is abundantly
supplied with fresh water, which is laid on to many public and private
fountains, while the people of these other towns must needs fetch their
water from the hills. We saw there a fine ancient arch[7] bearing an
inscription in the name of Augustus, _qui muros dederat_. The town was
known as Fanum Fortunæ. Here, as in other places in Italy, they use a
wheel for boulting flour, wherefore their bakers get through more work
in one hour than ours in four. At almost every inn are to be found
rhymesters, who will reel off on the spur of the moment a string of
doggerel appropriate to their hearers. There is a musical instrument in
every shop, even at the stocking-darner’s at the corner of the street.
Fano is famous beyond all the other towns of Italy for its fair women,
but all those we saw were very ugly indeed. I heard from a goodman of
the town, of whom I made inquiry on this matter, that the days for the
blooming of such beauty were past and gone. On this route the charge
for dinner is about ten soldi, each person paying some twenty soldi
per diem for everything, and thirty soldi per diem for the hire and
maintenance of each horse. This town belongs to the Church.
We failed to see certain towns which lay a little farther along the
sea-coast road: Pesaro, a fine city, and well worth a visit; Rimini,
and the ancient city of Ravenna--Pesaro being especially interesting,
according to report, on account of a fine house which the Duke of
Urbino[8] has recently caused to be erected on a remarkable site. This
same road goes on to Venice. We quitted the sea-coast, and, turning
to the left, we traversed a wide plain watered by the _Metaurus_. On
either hand delightful hillsides came in sight, the aspect of this
country being not unlike that of the plain of Blaignac about Castillon.
On the other side of this river was fought the battle[9] between the
Romans under Salinator and Claudius Nero and Hasdrubal, who was there
slain.
Fossombrone,[10] fifteen miles distant from Fano, and belonging to the
Duke of Urbino, stands at the entrance to the mountains, which close
up towards each other at the end of the flat country. The town stands
close to the mountain slopes, and in its lower parts possesses one or
two fine straight streets, uniform and well built. Nevertheless, report
says, the people are much poorer than those of Fano. In the public
place is a large marble pedestal with a long inscription of the age of
Trajan, written in honour of a certain inhabitant of the place;[11]
and set against the wall is another without any sign to proclaim its
date. This place was formerly called _Forum Sempronii_, and the people
now maintain that the original town stood farther towards the plain,
and that ruins of the same are still to be found on a vastly better
site. Here is a stone bridge which carries the _Via Flaminia_ over the
_Metaurus_. Seeing that I arrived in good time--for the miles are short
ones, and we are seldom in the saddle more than seven or eight hours--I
had plenty of time to talk with the good folk of the place, and to
glean from them information concerning their town and its surroundings.
We visited a garden belonging to the cardinal of Urbino,[12] in which
were many vines grafted upon other stocks, and I had some talk with one
Vincentius Castellani, a worthy man of letters and a citizen of the
place.
On the following morning I departed, and at the third milestone
I turned to the left; and, having crossed the bridge over the
Cardiana,[13] a stream which joins the Metaurus, I went three miles
through the mountains, over a narrow and difficult road, at the end of
which we came upon a passage, fifty good paces in length, which had
been fashioned through a high rock.[14] On account of the magnitude
of the work, Augustus, who had first set his hand thereto, caused an
inscription to be put up in his name. This, however, has perished by
time; but another inscription in honour of Vespasian is still to be
seen at the other end of the pass. Everywhere round about are remains
of vast constructions of great height for the conveyance of water, and
below the road rocks of enormous thickness have been cut through or
levelled. All along this road, the Via Flaminia, which leads to Rome,
are traces of the great stones used for paving, but most of these are
buried; and the road, which was originally forty feet wide, is now
not more than four. I went out of my way to visit this spot, and then
retraced my steps to get once more on my road, which took me at the
foot of a range of fertile, gently sloping hills. Towards the end of
our journey the road ran now up and now down hill, and at the end of
sixteen miles we found ourselves at Urbino.
[Illustration:
URBINO
_Reproduced from Civitates Orbis Terrarum_
_To face p. 12_, vol. iii.
]
I could discover no remarkable merit in this place. It is set on the
top of a mountain of moderate height, but the town straggles all
over the acclivities of the site so that there is scarcely a level
foot, and it is up hill or down hill wherever you go. It was Saturday
and a market day. We saw the palace,[15] which is renowned for its
beauty, a huge mass, the foundations of which rest upon the very foot
of the hill. The view extends over a thousand other of the adjacent
mountains, but is not especially beautiful. To make up for the want
of amenity in the palace without and within--there is only one little
garden about twenty-five paces wide--they declare that it contains as
many chambers as there are days in the year. This may well be true,
for the number of rooms is very great, as at Tivoli and other Italian
palaces. Looking through one doorway you may often see twenty other
doors in succession on one side, and twenty or more on the other. Some
portions of the palace are ancient, but the greater part of it was
built in 1476 by Federigo Maria della Rovere, who has set forth therein
the style and dignity of his various offices and his exploits in
war.[16] The palace walls are covered in many places with inscriptions
of this sort, and one of them declares that this is the fairest
dwelling in the world. It is built of brick and vaulted throughout,
with none of the wooden ceilings so common in Italy.
The present duke is grand-nephew of the builder of the palace:[17]
the princes of this family having all been good rulers, and beloved
by their subjects. The love of letters has come down from father to
son, and the library of the palace is a fine one, but the key of it
was not to be found. The duke is all in the Spanish interests, and the
arms of Spain appear everywhere in favoured positions: the order of
England[18] and the Golden Fleece are also displayed, but none of ours.
They showed to us a portrait of the first Duke of Urbino, a young man
who was slain by his subjects for his unjust dealing,[19] but he was
not of this family. The present duke has to wife the sister of the Duke
of Ferrara,[20] who is ten years his senior, but they are on bad terms
and live apart, for no other reason, according to rumour, than the
jealousy of the duchess. Thus, besides the disparity of age--she being
forty-five years of age--there is little hope of children, and if heirs
fail the duchy will revert to the Church, an event which would be very
distasteful to the people.
I saw there the life-size portrait of Picus Mirandula:[21] the face
pale, very handsome, and beardless, of a youth of seventeen or
eighteen, with a long nose, soft eyes, scant of flesh, and with blonde
hair, which came down over the shoulders. The costume he wore was
a strange one. In many places in Italy they are wont to build the
staircases very level, with shallow steps, so that a man on horseback
can easily reach the top. Here the stairs are thus built, and laid with
tiles set on edge. The place is by report very cold, and the duke as a
rule lives here only during the summer; this statement being confirmed
by the fact that in two of the ducal chambers are to be seen other
apartments contrived in a corner, and closed on all sides save by
one window, which lets in light from the chamber aforesaid. In these
apartments the state beds are arranged.
After dinner I again turned aside from my road and went about five
miles to visit a spot which has been known in all ages as the Tomb of
Hasdrubal. It stands on a high abrupt hill called Monte Deci,[22] where
are four or five mean cottages and a little church, and a building of
thick bricks or tiles, about twenty-five paces in circumference and
the same height in feet, and surrounded by seats fashioned of the
same bricks and set at intervals of three feet. I cannot say what name
masons give to these constructions, something like flying buttresses,
which they use as supports. We entered the place from above, there
being no door below, and found within a vaulted chamber and nought
else--no hewn stone, no inscriptions; but the people of the place
affirmed that it formerly contained a marble tablet bearing certain
marks, which tablet had been removed not long ago. How the tower got
the name it bears I cannot say, and I hardly believe it can be what it
claims to be, but it is certain that Hasdrubal was defeated and slain
close to the spot. The road became very hilly and deep with mud for an
hour after a shower of rain which fell. We crossed the Metaurus by a
ford, the stream being here a torrent and too shallow to carry a boat,
indeed we had crossed it once before since dining, and found a good
road to Castel Durante, fifteen miles from Urbino.
This small town, belonging to the Duke of Urbino, is built on level
ground along the Metaurus. The people were firing guns and making
merry over the birth of a son to the Princess of Bisignano, the duke’s
sister.[23] Our _vetturini_ here unsaddled the horses and unbridled
them as well, and then, without any discrimination, let them drink what
water they would. Both here and at Urbino the wine was adulterated.
On the Sunday morning we came to a plain which, as well as the slopes
adjacent, seemed fertile enough, and then passed through Sant’ Angelo,
a pretty little town belonging to the Duke of Urbino, and lying on the
banks of the Metaurus, the approaches thereto being very handsome.
Because it was the eve of May-day they served us some of the little
frogs that were wont to be eaten at Mid-Lent.[24] Continuing our course
along the plain we passed through another village, called Marcatello,
and having travelled ten miles along a road which, after quitting
Marcatello, began to go uphill, we arrived for dinner at Borgo a Pasci,
a small village with a wretched inn at a corner of the mountain. We
took only a sup. Then we followed at first a wild and stony track, and
had to mount for two miles to the top of the pass, after which came
a descent of four miles, the road being stony and wearisome, but not
frightful or dangerous, seeing that there were no precipices so abrupt
that the eye could not find some point whereon to rest. We had followed
the Metaurus to its first home, its source being in these mountains,
and had seen it lose itself in the sea at Sinigaglia. As we descended
from this height there came in sight a broad and lovely plain, through
which ran the Tiber, here some eight miles from its source, and other
mountains beyond; a view not unlike that which presents itself in the
Limaigne of Auvergne to those who may come down from the Puy de Domme
to Clermont. At the top of the pass we emerged from the dominions
of the Duke of Urbino into those of the Duke of Florence, those of
the Pope lying on the left hand. We arrived for supper at Borgo San
Sepolcro, thirteen miles from our last halt.
This little town belongs to the Duke of Florence, and contains nought
worth notice. We left it on the first of May, and a mile from the town
we passed by a stone bridge over the Tiber, which is here a clear and
beautiful stream, a proof that the dirty tawny hue which it bears at
Rome--Flavum Tiberini--is caused by the admixture of some other stream.
We went for four miles over this plain and came upon a little town on
the top of the first hill we ascended. Here, as elsewhere along the
road, divers young girls came to meet us, and took hold of our horses’
bridles, singing and begging a gift for the feast of the day. From this
hill we descended into a deep stony valley which we followed for some
time, riding beside the bed of a torrent, and then we had to mount
another barren, stony hill, from the top of which we caught sight of
a wide plain. In traversing this we crossed the Chiasso and the Arno
by stone bridges, the bridge over the last-named stream being very
fine and large; and, having ridden eighteen miles, we put up for the
night at Ponte Boriano, where there was but one small house in which we
were very badly lodged, as on the three previous nights, and indeed at
well-nigh every halting-place on this route.
It would be the height of folly to bring good horses into these parts,
seeing that no hay is to be got. After dinner we travelled over a
long level track which was full of horrible gaping cracks made by the
water in very strange fashion; a vile place to traverse in the winter,
I can well imagine, but they are now repairing the road. After this
we passed, about two miles to our left, the town of Arezzo, which
stands in this same plain on a site which seemed somewhat higher than
the surrounding country. We crossed the Ambra by a very high and
handsome stone bridge, and supped at Levanella after a journey of
ten miles. The inn stands a mile outside the village and has a great
reputation, being reckoned--and with reason--to be the best in Tuscany,
and indeed, judged by the Italian standard, it is one of the best
anywhere. So excellent is the cheer that the neighbouring gentry--so
we were told--often meet there, as at Le More’s[25] in Paris or at
Guillot’s[26] at Amiens. They served us on pewter plates, a luxury
very rare in these parts. The inn stands by itself, finely situated
on level ground, out of which rises a spring of water. We left in the
morning and travelled over the plain by a fine straight road, passing
through four little walled towns, Montevarchi, S. Giovanni, Figline,
and Ancisa,[27] and reached Pian della Fonte in time for dinner, after
riding twelve miles.
The inn here is indifferent: near by is a spring, a little above
Ancisa in the Val d’Arno, which is celebrated by Petrarch; indeed, it
is held by some that Ancisa was his birthplace. Certainly they claim
this honour for a house some mile distant, of which now only a few
paltry fragments remain: in any case they point out the place.[28]
Here they were planting melons amongst others which had been planted
some time before, in the expectation of gathering the same in August.
This morning I felt my head heavy and my sight troubled, these being
symptoms of those headaches with which I have been affected for the
last ten years. This valley was formerly a morass, and Livy relates how
Hannibal was forced to ride an elephant when he traversed it, and lost
one of his eyes on account of the severity of the season:[29] it is
assuredly a flat and low-lying country and greatly at the mercy of the
floods of the Arno. I refused to eat at dinner, but I repented of this,
for had I eaten I might have vomited, and I always find the speediest
remedy thereby. Otherwise I am troubled by my head for a day or two,
as was now the case. The road was crowded with country-folk taking
provisions to Florence, where we arrived after crossing one of the four
stone bridges over the Arno, having ridden twelve miles.
On the morrow, after we had heard mass, we set forth and turned a
little from our direct route to go visit Castello,[30] of which I
have spoken in another place; but it chanced that, when we arrived
there, the duke’s daughters, who were in residence, were just passing
through the garden to hear mass, wherefore we were requested to wait a
while, but this I was not disposed to do. On this road we met several
processions. First came the banner, then the women, most of whom are
very good-looking, and all wearing straw hats, which they make better
here than anywhere else;[31] these moreover were very well clad for
villagers, some wearing heeled shoes and some white slippers. After the
women the priest walked, and after him the men. The day before we had
met a procession of monks, almost every one of them wearing a straw hat.
Our road led us through a plain very fair and wide, and here, in
sooth, I was bound to admit that neither Orleans, nor Tours, nor even
Paris, can boast of environs so richly set with villages and houses as
Florence; which, with regard to fine houses and palaces, comes first
without a doubt. Continuing our way, we came, after riding ten miles,
to Prato in time for dinner. This small town, belonging to the Duke
of Florence, is situated on the river Bisenzio, which we crossed by
a stone bridge at the entry to the town. In no other country are the
bridges so numerous or so well maintained; moreover, along the highways
we frequently saw large stone pillars inscribed with notices as to
what State was responsible for the repair of the roads. At Prato, in
the palace, we saw the name and the arms of the Legate Du Prat,[32]
who was, as they told us, a native of this place. Over the door of
the palace is a large statue, crowned and holding an orb in the hand,
and at the feet thereof is written _Rex Robertus_.[33] The people here
affirm that the town once belonged to us, and, certes, the _fleurs de
lys_ are everywhere to be seen, and the arms of the town are fleurs
de lys _or_ on a field _gules_. The cathedral here is a fine one, and
adorned with a quantity of black and white marble.
On leaving Prato we again went off our road and journeyed some four
miles to visit Poggio,[34] a house belonging to the duke, situated on
the Ombrone, of which they make great boast. It is built on the plan
of Pratolino, and what is remarkable about it is that the builders
were able to find room for a hundred fair chambers in so small a
space. Amongst other things I saw there many sets of very beautiful
bed furniture, albeit of no great value, seeing that they were of that
light variegated stuff made entirely of fine wool, interwoven with a
fourfold thread of taffetas of the same shade. We saw there also the
laboratory of the duke, and his work-room fitted with a lathe and other
instruments, this prince being a great mechanician. Thence we went
fourteen miles by a direct road running through an exceedingly fertile
country, the road being fenced in by a hedge formed by the vines
attached to the trees, a very beautiful sight, and arrived at Pistoia
in time for supper.
This is a large town on the Ombrone, with broad streets, paved,
like those of Florence, Prato, Lucca, and other places, with large,
wide slabs of stone. I forgot to say that, from the apartments at
Poggio, Florence, Prato, and Pistoia may be seen when sitting at
table. While we were there the duke was at Pratolino. At Pistoia we
saw very few people about the streets; but the churches are fine, as
well as many of the houses. I inquired concerning the sale of the
straw hats, which they make at fifteen soldi apiece, and which, in
my opinion, would be well worth as many francs in France. In ancient
times Catiline was overthrown in a battle close to the town.[35] In
one of the rooms at Poggio is some tapestry representing hunting of
all sorts, and I remarked that one of these was an ostrich chase, the
birds being followed by men on horseback and pierced with javelins.
The Latins called Pistoia _Pistorium_,[36] and it now belongs to the
Duke of Florence. Legend records that the ancient feuds of the houses
of Cancellieri[37] and Panciatici reduced its population greatly, so
that now it does not contain more than eight thousand people, while
Lucca, which is no bigger as a city, numbers twenty-five thousand or
more. Messer Taddeo Rospigliosi, who had received from Rome a letter
written in my favour by Giovanni Franchini, invited me and all those
of my company to dine at his house on the morrow. His palace was
full of ornament, but the service at table was somewhat rough, and
the supply of meat and of attendants was scanty. Additional wine was
served after dinner as in Germany. We went to the principal church, and
remarked that the elevation of the Host was accompanied by the sound of
trumpets, while amongst the boys in the choir were several priests who
played upon sackbuts. This poor city pretends to make up for its lost
liberties by maintaining a vain semblance of its ancient state. There
are nine priors and a Gonfalonier, who are elected every two months,
and have the charge of public order. They are maintained by the duke,
as they were formerly by the Republic, and lodged in the palace, which
they scarcely ever quit, save when they go out all together, being
kept continually under restraint.[38] The Gonfalonier walks in front
of the Podestà, the ducal officer who possesses all the real power,
and returns no salutation made to him, simulating a dignity which is
altogether imaginary. I felt pity at the sight of men thus satisfied
with these apish tricks; moreover, the Grand Duke now wrings from them
a tax tenfold greater than what was paid formerly.
In most of the large gardens of Italy the principal alleys are laid
down with grass, which is kept mown. Just at this season the cherries
began to ripen, and on our way from Pistoia to Lucca we met divers
villagers, who offered baskets of strawberries for sale. We set out on
Ascension Day after dinner, and for a time kept to the plain; then the
road became somewhat mountainous, but we soon emerged upon another fine
wide stretch of level country. All about the corn-fields are rows of
trees, each tree being attached to its neighbour by vines, wherefore
these fields have all the appearance of gardens. The mountains on each
side of this road are thickly wooded, chiefly with olives, chestnuts,
and mulberries for silkworms. At the end of twenty miles we came upon
Lucca, situated in the plain aforesaid, a town about one-third smaller
than Bordeaux, and free, except that by reason of its weakness it
has put itself under the protection of the Emperor and the house of
Austria.[39] It is well walled and strengthened with bastions, but the
ditches are shallow, and only a scant stream of water flows through
the same. Moreover, at the bottom they are full of green plants with
wide flat leaves. All round the walls, on the level ground within, are
planted two or three rows of trees which afford shade, and would serve,
according to what I heard, for fascines in case of need. Viewed from
without the place looks like a wood, for the houses are concealed by
the trees aforesaid. A guard of three hundred foreign[40] soldiers is
always kept.
The town is well peopled, principally by silk workers;[41] the streets
are narrow but handsome, with fine lofty mansions on all sides. They
were then constructing a small canal whereby to bring into the city
the water of the Serchio, and building a public palace, at a cost of a
hundred and thirty thousand crowns, which is almost completed. Besides
the townsfolk they claim a population of a hundred and twenty thousand
subjects, several small villages, but no other town lying within their
jurisdiction. The gentle-folk and warriors of the place are all of the
merchant class, the Buonvisi being the most wealthy, and strangers
are allowed to enter only by one gate, where there is always a strong
guard. I never saw a town in a more pleasant site, surrounded as it is
by a most beautiful plain two leagues in extent, and beyond this the
lovely mountains and hills, which for the most part are cultivated to
the tops. The wines are only passable, and living costs about twenty
soldi per diem, the inns being, after the manner of the country,
indifferent. Many gentlemen of the city paid me courteous attentions,
sending me wine and fruit, and even offering to accommodate me with
money.
I tarried in Lucca the Friday and Saturday and left it on Sunday after
dinner, of which I did not partake, as I was fasting. The hills nearest
to the town are thickly set with pleasant houses. Our way for the most
part lay along a low-lying road, fairly level, and running between the
mountains, which are well wooded and peopled throughout, the river
Serchio flowing beside us. We passed several villages and two strong
towns, Reci and Borgo, and we crossed likewise the river aforesaid,
which was on our right hand, by a bridge of unwonted height, which
spans almost the entire width of the stream with a single arch. We saw
several other bridges of this kind on our way, and arrived at Bagni
della Villa,[42] sixteen miles distant, two hours after noon.
X
THE BATHS OF LUCCA
All the country round this place is hilly. In front of the bath and
along the river the ground is level for some three or four hundred
feet, and above this the bath-house is built upon the side of a hill
of moderate height, at somewhat the same elevation as the spring at
Banieres, where the patients drink the water close to the town. The
bath itself stands on a level site and includes thirty or forty houses,
excellently appointed for the purpose, with beautiful rooms, which are
all private and entirely at the disposition of the hirer, and with an
inner cabinet. Each apartment has two doors, one for communication with
other chambers, and the other for separate use. I inspected almost
every house before I made my bargain, and fixed ultimately on the one
which commanded the fairest view, that is, with regard to the chamber I
selected. From this I could look over the whole of the little valley,
the course of the Lima,[43] and the mountains, which enclose the valley
aforesaid, all beautifully cultivated and green to the summit, thick
set with chestnuts and olives, and in some places with vines, which
they plant all round the mountains, letting the circles rise one above
the other in terraces. The outside edge of each terrace is varied
somewhat and is planted with vines, while the lower portion of the
same is under corn. In my chamber I could hear all night long the soft
ripple of the river below.
Near to the houses a space is set apart for promenade, open on one
side, and built terrace fashion, with a trellis constructed at the
public cost. From here may be discerned, lying two hundred feet below
on the bank of the stream, a pretty little village, where also
baths may be had when the crowd of visitors is great. Most of the
houses therein are new, a fine road leads to it, and it possesses
a handsome public place. Nearly all the inhabitants congregate in
this village during the winter, and keep shop there, notably the
apothecaries, to which calling they almost all belong. My host was a
Captain Paulini, who was also an apothecary, and he agreed to let me
have a sitting-room, three bed-chambers, a kitchen, and a penthouse
for the servants; and in addition to provide eight beds, two of them
with hangings, salt, clean napkins every day, and a clean tablecloth
every third day, all cooking utensils and candlesticks, for eleven
crowns--which sum is a few soldi more than ten demipistoles--for
fifteen days. All earthen pots, dishes, and plates, as well as glasses
and knives, we had to buy. We were able to get as much meat as we
wanted, but were usually obliged to content ourselves with veal or
goats flesh. At all the lodging-houses they offer to provide you with
what you may require; and I imagine that by this method it would cost
about twenty soldi a head per diem. Any one wishing to adopt this
system would find in every house some man or woman capable of acting as
cook. The wine is mostly bad, but visitors who may be so minded may get
other wine brought from Pescia or Lucca.
I was the first to arrive at the baths except two gentlemen of Bologna,
who came with no large following; so I had free choice of quarters;
and, from what these gentlemen said, I judged I made a much better
bargain than would have been possible in the full season when the crowd
was wont to be great. Here the season does not begin till June and
ends in September.[44] In October every one goes away. People often
meet for conversation as the sole amusement. This indeed was the case
in the early part of the season, according to our experience. It is a
most unusual thing for visitors who have already passed a month at the
baths to return thereto, or to visit them at all in October. One of the
lodging-houses, called the “Palace,” is vastly more luxurious than the
others; it is certainly very fine, and belongs to the Signori Buonvisi.
There is a beautiful fountain playing in the hall and divers other
conveniences. They offered to give me in it an apartment of four rooms
or the whole house if I wanted it. The price for the four furnished
rooms for fifteen days was twenty crowns of the country, but I was not
inclined to give more than a crown per diem considering the season of
the year. My landlord is not bound by his bargain beyond the month of
May, and if I stay longer I must make a fresh one.
The water here is used for drinking and for bathing also. There is a
covered bath, which is vaulted, somewhat dark, and half the width of my
hall at Montaigne. They use a certain appliance called a _Doccia_,[45]
which is composed of a number of tubes, through which hot water is
turned on to various parts of the body and notably the head. These
streams, by striking continually on one particular part, stimulate
warmth in it, and then the water runs away by a wooden trough like that
used by washerwomen. There is another bath, vaulted and just as dark,
used by women, all the water being brought from the fountain where the
patients drink, which is somewhat awkwardly situated in a corner, as to
reach it, it is necessary to descend several steps.
On Monday, May the 8th, in the morning, I took with great reluctance
some cassia which my host gave me. He was assuredly lacking in
intelligence, compared with my apothecary at Rome, for I could not
finish my dinner three hours later, and the drug brought on a fit of
vomiting. I suffered also from great pain in the stomach and from
flatulence for well-nigh four-and-twenty hours, and made a vow to take
no more of this stuff. I would rather suffer from colic than have my
stomach thus upset, my taste ruined, and my general health deranged by
cassia. When I arrived here I was in excellent condition; so much so
that on the Sunday after supper (the only meal I took) I set out with
light heart to visit the bath of Corsena, a good half mile distant,
and situated on the other side of this same mountain, wherefore I was
forced first to go uphill and then to descend to the level of these
baths, or thereabout. This place is famed for the use of the bath
and of the _doccia_. At our bath the only course of treatment which
has received the approbation of the faculty or of custom is that of
drinking the water; they say, moreover, that the fame of Corsena goes
back to a much earlier date. However, no trace of this antiquity,
which we may suppose goes back to the times of the Romans, is visible
at either bath. At Corsena there are three or four large baths, with
arched roofs, unseemly and dark, save for one aperture in the middle of
the vaulting, which serves as a ventilator. Two or three hundred paces
away, and on somewhat higher ground, is another hot spring called after
Saint John, where they have built a house with three covered baths.
There is no lodging to be had near, but you may contrive to spread a
mattress whereon to rest awhile. At Corsena the waters are not drunk
at all, but in other respects there is considerable variety in the
treatment. Some take the cold baths, others the hot; some undergo the
cure for this malady, others for that; and a thousand wonderful stories
are told; in short, the legend is that at Corsena relief may be found
for every illness under the sun. There is one fine establishment with
many chambers, and a score of others with little to recommend them.
The advantages of this bath cannot be compared with those of the other,
nor is the prospect so fine though the same river flows close by, and
the view down the valley is more extensive. The charges are vastly
higher, and many of the patients who drink at Bagno della Villa go
there for the bathing. For the moment Corsena is all the fashion.
On Tuesday, May 9, 1581, I went early in the morning before sunrise to
drink at the hot spring itself, and took seven glasses one after the
other, the water weighing about three pounds and a half, as they reckon
it here. The water is lukewarm, like that at Aigues Caudes or Barbotan,
with less taste than any water I have ever drunk. All I could remark
was its warmth and a slight sweetness, and I found it very tardy in
taking effect; but some of the visitors told me I had taken too little,
seeing that the physicians often prescribe a whole _fiasco_, sixteen or
seventeen of our glasses or eight pounds’ weight. My opinion is that
the water, finding my stomach empty on account of my recent purge,
assimilated itself to nutriment. The same day I received a visit from
a Bolognese gentleman, a colonel commanding two hundred foot in the
pay of the State, stationed four miles distant. He made divers offers
to serve me, and stayed with me about two hours, having directed my
landlord and all others in the place to use all their efforts to make
me comfortable. This government makes a practice of employing strangers
as officers, and puts a colonel in command. One will have a larger,
another a smaller troop under his charge. The colonels are paid, but
the captains, who are people of the country, only get pay during war,
when they take command of their own companies as occasion may demand.
This colonel had for pay sixteen crowns a month, and had no other duty
than to be always in readiness.
People live more by rule at these baths than at our own, and abstain
rigorously, especially from drinks. At no other bath, except at
Banieres, have I ever been so well lodged, and Banieres equals it in
beauty of situation, but is the only bathing-place that does.
I am of opinion that this water is very mild and has little strength,
wherefore it is safe and free from danger for those unaccustomed to
such treatment, or for the delicate. It is taken for the strengthening
of the liver and for the removal of eruptions on the face; a fact of
which I made careful note as a service I would fain render to a most
estimable French lady. The water of Saint John’s spring is largely used
in making cosmetics, as it is impregnated with oil. I remarked that
much of it was sent away in casks, and still more of the water which
I was drinking. It is carried on mules’ and asses’ backs to be drunk
in Reggio, Modena, and Lombardy. Some take it in bed, the physicians
giving special directions to keep the stomach and the feet warm, and
to avoid all fatigue. People of the neighbourhood have it conveyed to
their houses three or four miles distant. As a proof that this water
is not strongly aperient it may be noted that the apothecaries here
keep a certain water brought from a spring near Pistoia, sharp on
the palate and very hot when drawn from the well, which they give to
patients before taking the native water, alleging that quicker and more
efficient result is thereby induced.
I heard the following remarkable story when I was at these baths. A
man of the place, a soldier named Giuseppe, who is still alive and
engaged on one of the penal galleys of Genoa, was captured by the Turks
in a sea-fight. To gain his liberty he became a Turk himself, a step
which has been taken by divers of the people of these mountains who
are still living, was circumcised, and married a wife. Being engaged
in a predatory raid on this coast he advanced so far one day that
his retreat was cut off, and, together with several other Turks, was
captured by the people, who had risen in defence. He at once determined
to declare that he had come there in good faith, and that he was a
Christian, wherefore a few days later he was set at liberty, and he
came to this place to the house in front of my lodgings, where he met
his mother. She asked him roughly who he was, and what he wanted, for
he was still wearing his sailor’s garb and was a strange object in such
a place. Then he made himself known to her, and, after having been as
it were lost ten or twelve years, kissed his mother, who shrieked aloud
and fell senseless and showed no sign of life until the next day, the
physicians being in despair of her. She came round at last, but she
died soon afterwards, every one being of the opinion that this shock
shortened her life. Giuseppe was made much of by the neighbours, went
to church to abjure his errors, received the sacrament from the bishop
of Lucca, and took part in divers other ceremonies, but all this was
hypocrisy. His heart was still with the Turks, and, in order to rejoin
them, he left this place for Venice, whence he gained some Turkish
port and once more took to the seas. He was again captured by the
Genoese, and, because he was a man of unusual strength and well versed
in seafaring, they have kept him ever since in their service, securely
fettered on one of their galleys.
In this country they keep registered a large number of soldiers taken
from the inhabitants for the service of the State. The colonels of
this force have no other duties than to drill the men under them
frequently, to teach them the use of firearms, and how to skirmish,
and other similar exercises. The rank and file are all of this country
and receive no pay, but they are allowed to wear armour and to carry
arquebuses and whatsoever arms they like: moreover, they are exempt
from arrest for debt, and in the time of war are paid. For other duties
there are captains, ensigns, and sergeants: only the colonels are paid
permanently, and these must needs be men of some other State. Colonel
del Borgo, who had visited me the day before, sent to me from his
station some four miles distant sixteen lemons and sixteen artichokes.
Again I will remark that I found here very pleasant and convenient
lodging, and was fully as comfortable as in Rome, what though my
chamber had neither chimney nor glass windows nor even linen shutters,
a fact which shows how much less stormy this climate must be than our
own. In France, indeed, it would be deemed an intolerable nuisance
to find nothing wherewith to close the window openings but wooden
shutters. With this one exception my bed-chamber was well found, though
their beds are wretched little trestles, upon which they place pieces
of wood, fashioned according to the length and breadth of the bed, a
palliasse being laid on these, and a mattress over all. Then you may
sleep well enough if only you have hangings. To keep the trestles and
woodwork out of sight you may adopt three courses: you may use narrow
pieces of stuff, the same fabric as the hangings--this I did in Rome;
you may have your hangings made long enough to cover the whole, and
this is the best plan; or you may have a coverlet of light stuff,
such as white fustian, fastened at the corners with buttons, and made
long enough to reach the floor, the bed being furnished with another
coverlet underneath for warmth. At least I learnt to adopt this fashion
in a general way for the people in my service, having nought to provide
but the truckle-beds. They are comfortable to lie in, and you are safe
from bugs.
On this same day I dined and then took a bath, thus running contrary
to all the rules of the place, which maintain that the one function
stands in the way of the other, and that they should never happen close
together, a course of drinking and a course of bathing being the usual
practice. For eight days patients drink the water, then take thirty
baths, drinking at one bath and bathing in the other. To-day I found
the bath very soothing and pleasant. I remained in it half-an-hour,
and felt no effect save a slight perspiration about supper-time. I
went to bed after my bath, and afterwards supped off a sweetened lemon
salad without drink of any kind. If I may give an opinion concerning
these waters I would say they can do little harm or good; that they
are ineffectual and feeble, and the fear is that they may inflame the
kidneys rather than purge them. On the Thursday morning I took five
pounds’ weight, being somewhat apprehensive that the effect might not
be favourable, and indeed so it turned out. While I was writing that
same morning to M. Ossat, I fell thinking of M. de la Boetie,[46] and
I remained in this mood so long that I sank into the saddest humour.
The bed of the stream from which the drinking water comes is red and
coated with rust, wherefore, seeing that it was likewise very insipid,
I concluded that it contained much iron and would be binding in its
effect; indeed little came of what I took on this Thursday. Medicine,
after all, is a poor affair. I said casually a little time ago that I
repented having taken so strong a purge inasmuch as this water, finding
vacancy within, acted as nutriment.
I have just read concerning these waters, in a book written by one
Donati,[47] a physician, his advice being to take a light dinner
and a good supper; and, from my experience after drinking the water
for another day, I decided that his view was the correct one.
Franciotti, another doctor, controverts him in this and in divers other
particulars. That same day I had a feeling of heaviness about the
back, which I feared might be caused by the stagnation in that region
of the water I had drunk, but the outcome of the day’s treatment did
not justify this suspicion. On the Friday I took no water at all,
but bathed in the morning and washed my head, acting thus counter
to the approved usage of the place. Another local custom is to aid
the action of the water by mixing therewith some such drug as sugar
candy or manna, or some medicine still stronger; others mix with the
first glass they drink a certain quantity of the water of Tettucio,
which I tasted and found it salt. I suspect that the apothecaries
here, instead of fetching this water from Pistoia, where it is said
to rise, make an imitation thereof out of ordinary water, for I found
it had, in addition to its saltness, a very strange flavour. It is
warmed and one, two, or three glasses of it taken to begin with, but
I never knew that it had any effect. There are those who put salt in
the first, or the second, or even the third glass of water they take;
moreover, they hold that to sweat or to go to sleep after drinking,
points almost surely to a fatal crisis. In my case I found the water
strongly sudorific. [48] Let me now try to discourse a little in
another language, especially as I am now in that district where meseems
I may listen to the most refined Tuscan accent, particularly amongst
the country-folk, who have not corrupted or changed their idiom through
intercourse with neighbouring peoples. Early on Saturday morning I
went to take some of the spring of Bernabo[49] which lies on the other
side of these mountains and gives a marvellous abundance of water,
both hot and cold. The hill is of no great height, and may be about
three miles in circumference. The only water that is drunk is that of
the principal spring and of this one, which came into use a few years
ago. A certain leper named Bernabo, after having drunk and bathed at
all the other springs, betook himself to this abandoned bath and was
straightway cured, whereupon it came into vogue. There are no houses,
only one little shed and stone benches around the spout of the spring,
which is made of iron. This spout, though it was fixed not long ago, is
almost entirely eaten away from below, its destruction being caused, as
the people there declare, by the action of some property of the water,
which I can easily believe. These springs are somewhat hotter than the
others and are commonly supposed to be at the same time less digestible
and more violent in action, the water being slightly more sulphurous;
where it drips, the ground is whitened as if ashes had been strewn
there. The water of our own springs has this same property, but only
slightly. This spring is a little less than a mile from my lodgings by
going round the foot of the hill, its site being much lower than that
of any other hot spring, and distant one or two pikes’ length from the
river.
The day previous I had taken a long walk of three miles or so after
dinner in the hot sun, and again after supper. The effect of this
water upon me was an increase of strength, and I began to digest it
half-an-hour after taking it; moreover, I made a good round of two
miles on the way back to my lodgings. Perhaps this abnormal exercise
may have made me feel young again. Every other morning I had gone
straight back to my room to avoid the chill of the morning air, my
house not being more than thirty paces from the spring. In my walks
over the slopes of these hills, I came upon many sources of hot water,
and the country-folk declare furthermore that in the winter certain
places give out steam, a proof of the existence of still more hot
springs. The samples of these which I tasted seemed, in comparison
with my particular spring, about equally hot and without either smell
or taste or vapour. I observed at another place in Corsena, some way
below the baths, a great number of douches much better arranged than
the others I have named, the pipes thereof being supplied by a number
of springs, eight or ten, so the people say. Over each pipe is written
the name of its peculiar spring: La Saporita, La Dolce, La Innamorata,
La Coronale, La Disperata, &c., and a description of the effects
thereof. I can say for certain that some pipes give out hotter water
than others.
The surrounding hills are almost all productive of corn and grapes,
whereas fifty years ago they were covered with thicket and chestnut
woods. A few bare mountains with snow on the summits may be seen, but
they are a long way off. The common people eat what they call _pane di
legna_, which is the expression they use in speaking of chestnut-bread,
this fruit being the great crop of the country, and the cake they make
therewith is something like French gingerbread. I never saw elsewhere
so many snakes and toads; indeed, through fear of the snakes, the
children do not dare to gather the strawberries, which grow most
abundantly on the hills and amongst the hedges.
Some of the people here take three or four grains of coriander in every
glass of water they drink, as a remedy for wind. On the Easter[50] of
May 14th I took more than five pounds’ weight of the water of Bernabo,
my glass holding somewhat more than a pound. Here the four chief feasts
of the year are all called Easter. The Italian pound contains only
twelve ounces. Living is very cheap in this place. The best and most
delicate veal can be bought for three French sous a pound, and the
trout are abundant, though small. Here are made excellent sunshades,
which everybody uses. The country round is hilly, and level roads are
scarce; nevertheless, many of them are very pleasant, and they are for
the most part paved until they become mountain paths. After dinner the
country people danced together, and I joined in the sport so as not
to seem over ceremonious. In certain parts of Italy, and everywhere
in Tuscany and Urbino, the women make salutation in French fashion by
bending the knees.
Close to the outflow of the Della Villa spring is a marble tablet,
which was put up a hundred and ten years ago, dating from the first day
of May last, inscribed with an account of the healing powers of the
water. I omit this, as it may be found in divers printed books dealing
with the baths of Lucca[51]. At all the baths they provide plenty of
hour-glasses for public use. I had always on my table two, which were
lent to me. This evening I ate nothing but three slices of toasted
bread with a little butter and sugar, and did not drink at all.
On the Monday, deeming that I had been enough purged by the water
from the Bernabo spring, I returned to the Della Villa and took five
pounds thereof. This spring seemed to me cold in comparison with that
of Bernabo, which indeed is only moderately hot, and much cooler than
the water at Plombieres or the average of the springs at the Bagneres
de Bigorre. Both of the springs did me much good, wherefore I feel
that I have been a gainer in refusing credence to those physicians who
recommend their patients to give up drinking at once, supposing that
a cure be not effected the first day. On Tuesday, May 16th, according
to the local custom, which seems to me an excellent one, I gave over
drinking the water and remained in the bath an hour or more, having
settled myself right under the conduit-pipe, because in the other
parts of the bath the water seemed somewhat chilly. Being troubled
continually with wind in the _epigastrium_ and the intestines, and in
less degree in the stomach--albeit without pain--I suspected that this
discomfort was caused by the water, wherefore I gave up drinking it.
This morning I found the bath particularly agreeable, and could easily
have taken a nap there. It did not produce perspiration, but I had
myself well rubbed, and then went to bed for a while.
In each district it is the custom to hold a military assembly every
month. The colonel commanding this district, from whom I have received
a world of courtesy, held his assembly here, having a gathering of
some two hundred pikemen and arquebusiers. He let them engage in a
sham fight, and it seemed to me they were, for peasants, very expert;
but his principal duty is to instruct them in military formation and
discipline. The people here are divided into the French and Spanish
factions, and weighty questions with regard to this matter were
constantly arising; moreover they make public profession of their
party. In these parts the men and women of our party wear bunches of
flowers, and their caps and their locks of hair down over the right
ear, while those who favour the Spaniards wear them on the left. The
peasants and their wives all go clad like gentle-folk. You never see
a woman who does not wear white shoes, fine-thread stockings, and a
coloured sarcenet apron. They dance and cut capers and twirl about
marvellously well.
In this country when they talk of the prince they mean the Council
of one hundred and twenty[52]. The colonel aforesaid could not get
married without leave of this “prince,” and he only gained permission
with great difficulty, because the authorities were loth that he should
make friends or connections in the country; moreover, he cannot buy
any property. No soldier can leave the country without leave. In the
mountainous parts are many people who beg for money, and out of what
they gather thus they buy their arms.
On the Wednesday I went to the bath and remained there more than an
hour. I sweated a little, bathing my head at the same time, and I saw
how handy the German fashion was in winter time for warming clothes and
other things at the stoves they use, for there the bathman, having put
a little coal into a chafing dish, the lid of which was raised by a
brick inserted so as to admit air to ventilate the fire, managed to dry
the bath clothes expeditiously and well, much more conveniently than at
a fire like ours here, which is made in one of our basins. Here they
call the girls and boys children till they are ripe for marriage. The
boys are always lads till their beards are grown.
On Thursday I was a little more on the alert and bathed somewhat
earlier. In the bath I sweated fairly well and gave my head a douche
under the spout. The bath left me rather weak, with a feeling of
heaviness about the reins, and I voided gravel continually and some
phlegm likewise as if I had drunk of the spring, indeed it struck me
that this water used in the bath produced the same effect as when
drunk. I bathed again on the Friday. Vast quantities of the water of
this spring and of the other one, the Corsena, are despatched every day
for sale in various regions of Italy. These people are not the great
meat-eaters that we are, and they use nothing but the common sorts of
flesh, upon which they set but little store, that is to say, while I
was there I bought a choice leveret for six of our sous without any
bargaining. They do not hunt or bring game hither, because no one
would buy it. On the Saturday, because the weather was bad, and the
wind so high that I felt the want of casements, either of linen or
glass, I neither bathed nor took the waters. Here I observed a marked
result of the use of this bath, forasmuch as my brother,[53] who had
never passed any gravel either in common way or while drinking the
water at any other bath in my company, now passed a large quantity.
On the Sunday morning I took another bath, without bathing my head, and
after dinner I gave a ball, with presents for the guests, according
to the custom of these baths. I was anxious to give the first ball of
the season. Five or six days before this date I had caused notice of
my entertainment to be given in all the neighbouring villages, and on
the day previous I sent special invitations to all the gentle-folk then
sojourning at either of the baths. I bade them come to the ball, and to
the supper afterwards, and sent to Lucca for the presents, which are
usually pretty numerous, so as to avoid the appearance of favouring one
lady above all the rest, and to steer clear of jealousy and suspicion.
They always give eight or ten to the ladies, and two or three to the
gentlemen. Many ventured to jog my memory, one begging me not to forget
herself, another her niece, another her daughter.
On the day previous Messer Giovanni da Vincenzo Saminiati, a good
friend of mine, brought me from Lucca, according to my written
instructions, a leathern belt and a black cloth cap as presents for the
men. For the ladies I provided two aprons of taffetas, one green and
the other purple (for it must be known that it is always meet to have
certain presents better than the bulk, so as to show special favour
where favour seems to be due), two aprons of bombazine, four papers of
pins, four pairs of shoes--one pair of which I gave to a pretty girl
who did not come to the ball, a pair of slippers, which I put with one
of the pairs of shoes to form one prize, three head-dresses clear
woven, and three netted, which together stood for three prizes, and
four small pearl necklaces. Thus I had altogether nineteen gifts for
the ladies, the cost of which was six crowns; little enough. I engaged
five pipers, giving them their food for the day, and a crown amongst
the lot, a good bargain for me, seeing that they will rarely play here
at such a rate. The prizes aforesaid were hung up on a hoop, richly
ornamented, and visible to all the company.
We began the dance on the piazza with the people of the place, and
at first feared we should lack company, but after a little we were
joined by a great number of people of all parties, and notably of the
gentle-folk of the land, whom I received and entertained to the best of
my powers; and I succeeded so far that they all seemed well content.
As the day waxed somewhat warm we withdrew to the hall of the Palazzo
Buonvisi, which was excellently suited for the purpose. At the decline
of day, about the twenty-second hour, I addressed the ladies of the
greatest consequence who were present, and said that I had neither
wit nor confidence enough to give judgment between these young ladies
so richly endowed with beauty and grace and politeness, wherefore I
begged them to undertake the duty of deciding, and to award the prizes
according to the deserts of the company. We had long discussion over
this formal matter, as at first the ladies refused to accept this
office, deeming that I had offered it to them merely out of courtesy.
At last we agreed to add this proviso, to wit, that they might, if they
were so minded, call me into their council to give my opinion. The end
was that I went about, glancing now at this damsel and now at that,
never failing to allow due credit for beauty and charm, but at the
same time determining that graceful dancing meant something else than
the mere movement of the feet; that it necessitated also appropriate
gestures, a fine carriage of the whole body, a pleasant expression, and
a comely charm. The presents, great and small, were distributed on
this principle according to desert, one of the ladies aforementioned
presenting them to the dancers on my behalf, while I disclaimed all
merit thereanent, and referred them to her as the Lady Bountiful. My
entertainment passed off in the usual fashion, except that one of the
girls would not take her present, but sent to beg me that I would give
it with her love to another girl; but this I would not permit to be
done, as the damsel in question was not over well favoured. The girls
were called one by one from their places to come before the lady and
myself, sitting side by side, whereupon I gave to the signora the
gift which seemed appropriate, having first kissed the same. Then the
signora, taking it in her hand, gave it to the young girl, and said
in friendly fashion, “This is the gentleman who is giving you this
charming present, thank him for it.” I added, “Nay, rather your thanks
are due to the gracious signora who has designated you out of so many
others as worthy of reward. I much regret that the offering made to
you is not more worthy of such merit as yours.” I spoke somewhat in
these terms to each according to her qualifications. The same order was
followed in the case of the men.
The ladies and gentlemen had no part in this distribution though they
all joined in the dance. In sooth it was a rare and charming sight to
us Frenchmen to look upon these comely peasants dancing so well in the
garb of gentle-folk. They did their best to rival the finest of our
lady dancers, albeit in a different style. I invited all to supper,
as the meals in Italy are like the lightest of our repasts in France,
and on this occasion I only provided a few joints of veal and a pair
or two of fowls. I had as guests also the colonel of the Lieutenancy,
Signor Francesco Gambarini, a gentleman of Bologna, who had become to
me as a brother. I also found a place at table for Divizia, a poor
peasant woman who lives about two miles from the baths, unmarried,
and with no other support than her handiwork. She is ugly, about
thirty-seven years of age, with a swollen throat, and unable either
to read or write; but it chanced that in her childhood there came to
live in her father’s house an uncle who was ever reading aloud in her
hearing Ariosto and others of the poets, wherefore she seemed to find a
natural delight in poetry, and was soon able, not only to make verses
with marvellous readiness, but likewise to weave thereinto the ancient
stories, the names of the gods of various countries, of sciences and
of illustrious men, as if she had received a liberal education. She
recited divers lines in my honour, which, to speak the truth, were
little else than verses and rhymes, but the diction was elegant and
spontaneous.
I entertained at my ball more than a hundred strangers, albeit the time
was inconvenient for them, seeing that they were then in the midst of
the silk harvest, their principal crop of the year. At this season they
labour, heedless of all feast days, at plucking, morning and evening,
the leaves of the mulberry for their silkworms, and all my peasant
guests were engaged in this work.
On Monday morning I went somewhat late to my bath, as I was shaved and
had my hair cut, and I bathed my head for more than a quarter of an
hour by holding it under the principal spout.
Amongst others at my ball was the deputy-judge, who holds legal office
here. The work of the district is done by a judge appointed for six
months--such as the government appoints in all other places--who
adjudicates in the first instance in civil cases which involve small
amounts only. Another official attends to criminal business. I made
to the deputy-judge a suggestion, which I deemed only reasonable,
that the government should make certain regulations--of which I gave
him an example, easy to carry out, and admirably fitted for the end
in view--to be enforced with regard to the vast crowd of traders who
resort hither to carry away the water of these springs into all parts
of Italy. These regulations would oblige them to show a voucher for
the genuine character of the water they retail, and thus put an end to
knavery, an instance of which I gave him from my own experience. One of
these hawkers came to my landlord, a private citizen, and begged him
to write a certificate to the effect that he (the hawker) was taking
away twenty-four mule loads of this water, the fact being that he had
only four. At first my landlord refused to do anything of the kind, on
account of this discrepancy, but the fellow went on to declare that in
four or six days’ time he would return to fetch the other twenty loads.
I informed the judge that this muleteer had never come back. He took my
suggestion, and he tried his best to learn from me what my authority
was, who was the muleteer, and what he and his beasts were like, but I
told him nothing. I also informed him that I was minded to begin here
a custom prevalent in all the famous baths of Europe, to wit, that
all persons of a certain position should leave behind a copy of their
coat-of-arms as a testimony of the efficacy of the waters. In the name
of the government he thanked me for this suggestion.
In certain places they now began to cut the hay. On the Tuesday I
remained two hours in the bath, and held my head under the douche for a
good quarter of an hour.
At this time a Cremonese merchant living at Rome came to the bath. He
was afflicted with divers strange infirmities, nevertheless he could
talk and walk about and seemingly enjoyed his life. His chief infirmity
lay in the head, his memory having perished, so he said, through some
weakness thereof; for instance, after a meal he would not be able to
say what dishes had been put before him. If he happened to leave the
house on any business he must needs always come back ten times to
inquire where was the place to which he was bound. He could hardly ever
get through the paternoster. When he did get to the end of it he would
begin it again a hundred times, never perceiving at the end thereof
that he had begun, or at the beginning that he had finished. He had
suffered from blindness, deafness, and toothache, and had, moreover,
such an access of heat in the reins that he always wore a piece of lead
over that region. For many years he had observed most strictly the
rules laid down by his physicians in his case.
It diverted me to consider the various prescriptions given by
physicians in different parts of Italy, so great was their antagonism,
and this was especially marked in the matter of these baths and
douches; indeed, out of twenty opinions no two were found to agree,[54]
but, on the other hand, the authors accused each other of murders of
all sorts. The aforesaid patient suffered great trouble through the
strange action of wind, which was wont to issue from his ears with such
force that he could not sleep, and when he yawned great volumes of wind
would burst out from the same place. He declared that he could best
ease his stomach by using as a clyster four large coriander comfits
after moistening and softening them in his mouth, the relief being sure
and speedy. He was the first person I ever saw wearing one of those big
hats of peacock’s feathers and covered with light taffetas; the crown,
a good palm’s height, was thick, and had within-side a coif of sarcenet
made to fit the head so that the sun might not strike upon it. It was
surrounded by a curtain a foot and a half wide, to serve the purpose of
our parasols, which indeed are very inconvenient to use on horseback.
Seeing that I have often repented that I did not more particularly note
down details of other baths I have used, I am now minded to enlarge
somewhat on this subject and to gather together certain rules for the
benefit of my successors. On Wednesday, when I finished bathing, I
was hot and sweated more than usual. I felt weak, with a dry, harsh
sensation in my mouth and a certain giddiness akin to what befell me
through the heat of the water at Plomieres, Banieres, and Preissac.
I never felt it at Barbotan nor at these baths until this occasion,
and it might have arisen because I went earlier than was my wont, or
because the water was hotter than usual. I remained in the bath an
hour and a half, and used the douche to my head for a quarter of an
hour. I broke the rules by thus using the douche in the bath, for the
prescription particularly declares that first one and then the other
is to be used; and again by having a douche of this water at all, for
almost all take the douche at the other bath. There they have it from
this or that spout, some from the first, others from the second, and
others from the third, according to the physician’s order. I used to
drink and bathe on alternate days, while others would drink several
days together and then take a spell of the bath. I paid no heed to
periods of time, while others would drink for ten days at the most, and
bathe twenty-five, though not perhaps in succession. I bathed but once
a day, while all the rest bathed twice. I used the douche a very short
time, while the others used it an hour at least in the morning and the
same in the evening. And as to shaving the head, the custom here with
all was to be shaven, and then put a piece of satin on the head, held
only by a sort of net, but my smooth pate had no need of this.
This same morning I received a visit from the deputy-judge and the
other chief personages of the State, an attention equivalent to that
which had been paid to me in other baths where I had sojourned. Amongst
other matters he told me a singular story about himself, how, through
pricking the ball of the thumb with an artichoke some years ago, he
had like to have died from inanition, how on this account he fell into
such a wretched state that he lay in bed five months without moving. As
he lay all this time on the reins, they became so inordinately heated
that a discharge of gravel was produced from which he had suffered
for more than a year and from colic as well. At last his father, the
governor of Velitri, sent him a certain green stone, which he had got
from a friar who had been in India, and while he had this stone about
him he suffered neither from gravel nor pain. He had been in this state
for two years. As to the prick aforementioned the thumb and the greater
part of the hand were useless, and besides this the arm was so much
weakened that he came every year to the baths of Corsena to treat the
arm and thumb with the douche, as he was now doing.
The common people here are very poor. At this season they eat green
mulberries, which they collect while gathering the leaves for the
silkworms. I had left in doubt the hire of my lodging for the month
of June, wherefore I now deemed it meet to come to an agreement with
my landlord, who, when he perceived that I was sought after by all the
neighbours and especially by the owner of the Palazzo Bonvisi, who had
offered me lodging for a gold crown a day, decided to let me have my
rooms as long as I liked for twenty-five gold crowns a month, the term
to begin on the first of June, up to which day the old agreement was to
be in force.
The people here are consumed with envy and secret deadly spite one
against the other, though they are all akin. A lady repeated to me the
following proverb:--
“Chi vuol, che la sua donna impregni
Mandila al bagno, e non ci regni.”
One convenience of my lodging pleased me greatly, to wit, that I could
pass from my bed to the bath by a short and level path of thirty paces.
I resented the stripping of the leaves from the mulberry trees, which
looked as other trees look in winter.
Every day people from all parts may be seen bringing hither samples of
wine in small bottles, so that any of the strangers here may send, if
they will, for some in bulk, but of good wine there is very little. The
white wines are thin, sour, and crude, or very heavy, harsh, and rough.
By sending to Lucca or Pescia the white Trevisano may be procured,
which is strong and well-matured, but none too delicate on the palate.
On Thursday--Corpus Domini--I remained an hour and a half in a lukewarm
bath, sweating very little and not conscious of any effect therefrom. I
held my head under the douche, for twelve minutes or so, and on going
back to bed got a short sleep. I found this use of bath and douche more
pleasant than anything else. I felt a certain itching in my hands and
elsewhere, and I learned moreover that many of the peasants are given
to the itch and the children to scabby ailments. It is the case here
as elsewhere that the peasants make light of that which we come to seek
with such great trouble. I saw many who had never tasted these waters,
of which indeed they had a very poor opinion. With this disposition
they are short-lived.
On Saturday I remained two hours in the bath and took the douche for
a good quarter. On Sunday I took a rest, and on this day a Bolognese
gentleman gave another ball. The scarcity of clocks here[55] and in
most places in Italy is most inconvenient. At the bath-house there is a
statue of the Madonna with the following verses:--
“Auspicio fac, Diva tuo, quicumque lavacrum
Ingreditur, sospes ac bonus hinc abeat.”
Both on the score of beauty and usefulness it is impossible to
overpraise the practice here used of cultivating the mountains from
base to summit, fashioning them into stairs of one level circle above
the other, and strengthening the top of each platform with stone or
some other material if it be not solid enough in itself. They sow corn
on the level portion of each degree, be it wide or narrow, and on the
edges of each, nearest the low ground, they train vines. Towards the
summit, where there is no level space, they plant it all with vines.
At the ball lately referred to a lady danced with a vessel of water
on her head. She kept it steady all through her dancing, though she
skipped about in lively fashion. The physicians are wonderstruck to see
how the majority of French guests here take the waters in the morning
and bathe the same day.
I may say with confidence that up to this time, in the scanty
intercourse I have had with the people of this place, I have failed
to notice any of those wonders of talent and eloquence which report
ascribes to them. I see no evidences of uncommon capacity in them;
on the other hand, they are too prone to overrate my own slender
faculties. Thus to-day it chanced that certain physicians had to hold
an important consultation in the case of Signor Paulo de Cesis (nephew
of Cardinal de Cesis[56]), who was visiting these baths. They waited on
me on his behalf to beg me to listen to their opinions and arguments,
adding that he had determined to be guided entirely by my decision,
whereupon I could not help laughing in my sleeve. The same request was
made to me with regard to other matters both here and at Rome.
At times I felt my eyes dazzled when I exerted them in reading or in
gazing on any glittering object. I was greatly troubled thereanent,
remembering that I had suffered from this weakness ever since I was
seized with headache at Florence, that is to say, heaviness about the
forehead without any pain; a haziness before the eyes which, though it
did not limit my vision, disturbed it in a way I cannot describe. Since
this time this headache had recurred twice or thrice, and now became
more persistent, but left me free otherwise. But after I used the
douche to my head it came back every day, and my eyes watered freely,
but without pain or inflammation. Moreover, until I had this attack I
had not suffered from headache for more than ten years; and, fearing
lest the douche may have induced this weakness of the head, I did not
use it to-day--Thursday--and remained only an hour in the bath.
The cost of living here in a private room comes to a little more than
seventy-two gold crowns a month, to call for what you will; and as much
again for a servant. Any one without a servant will find ready and
convenient service done by the landlord in the way of catering.
If Calvin had known that the preaching friars in these parts call
themselves “ministers” he would doubtless have found some other style
for those of his own sect.[57]
At this season many people come to the bath and from the cases I have
seen, and from the opinions of the physicians--especially of Donato,
who has written concerning these waters--I am sure I have not made any
great mistake in using the douche for my head, seeing that patients
still use it when in the bath for soothing the stomach. This Donato
permitted bathing and drinking at the same time, wherefore I regret I
did, not venture always to take a draught during my morning bath as I
wished to do. He was loud in praise of the water of Bernabo; but, for
all this professional argument, this water seemed to have no effect
upon certain others untroubled with gravel, which infirmity never left
me. I cannot persuade myself that the water produced the gravel in my
case.
On Friday I took a rest. The Minister Franciscan brother (for so
they call the Provincials here), a worthy man of great learning and
courtesy, who chanced to be at the baths with divers other friars, sent
me a fine present of excellent wine and marchpanes and other eatables.
On Saturday also I did no cure, but went to dine at Menalsio,[58] a
fine large village on the top of one of these mountains. I took some
fish with me, and found accommodation at the house of a well-to-do
soldier, who had travelled much in France and in other countries and
had made money and married a wife in Flanders. His name was Santo.
In these parts are fine churches, and great numbers of the peasants
have been soldiers and have travelled abroad, the division between
the partisans of France and Spain being very sharply marked. Without
thinking what I did, I set a flower over my left ear, and thereby
offended greatly the French faction. After dinner I went up to the
fort, which is built with high walls right up to the top of the hill.
The place is very steep, but highly cultivated throughout. Indeed, all
through this region, amongst yawning chasms and precipitous ridges and
cliffs and splintered crags, there are vines and grain planted, and
even patches of pasture, which is not to be seen on the level plain
below. I descended by a direct path on the other side of the mountain.
On the Sunday I bathed in company with certain other gentlemen, and
remained in the bath half-an-hour. I received from Signor Ludovico
Pinitesi a fine present of a horse laden with the finest fruit, amongst
which were some early figs, the first which had been seen this season
at the bath, and twelve flasks of the most mellow wine. Just at the
same time the friar aforenamed sent me a great quantity of other sorts
of fruit, wherefore I was able to make presents of the same to the
villagers. After dinner there was a ball where I saw several ladies
finely dressed, but not over comely, though they were some of the
handsomest Lucca could show.
In the evening Signor Ludovico di Ferrari of Cremona, a gentleman
well known to me, sent me a box of quince marmalade, musk flavoured,
and some lemons, besides some oranges of extraordinary size. A little
before daybreak I was seized with cramp in the calf of the right leg.
The pain was sharp, intermittent and not continuous, and lasted about
half-an-hour. I had a similar attack not long ago, but then it passed
in a twinkling. Just at this season we began to be conscious of the
heat and of the noise of the grasshoppers, but neither trouble was
worse than in France. The air up to the present has seemed fresher than
in Gascony.
In free nations you do not find, as otherwhere, the sharp division
of classes, and here even the lowest bear themselves with a certain
dignity. Even in asking alms they will always ask as if they had a
right. “Give me something, will you?” “Give me something, do you
understand?” Whereas in Rome they cry, “Do me a kindness for your own
sake.”[59]
On Wednesday, June 21, I left Della Villa early in the morning, having
received from the ladies and gentlemen there sojourning every mark of
friendship that I could desire as I said good-bye. I travelled through
a hilly country, fair and well wooded, for twelve miles as far as
Pescia, a small town under Florence on the river Pescia, with fine
houses and wide streets. Here the famous wine of Trebbiano is grown
in a vineyard surrounded by thick olive woods. The people show great
friendship to France, which accounts for their adoption of a dolphin as
a crest.[60] After dinner we traversed a fair plain, thickly set with
villages and houses. I had resolved to visit Monte Catino, where is the
hot salt spring of Tettuccio,[61] a place a mile to the right of the
direct road, about seven miles from Pescia, but through my heedlessness
I forgot all about it till I got to Pistoia, a distance of eleven miles.
I found lodging outside the town, where I was visited by a son of M.
de Ruspigliosi. Any one who travels in Italy otherwise than by hiring
horses is a bad manager, for to me it seems far less irksome to change
horses here and there, than to be in the hands of a single _vetturino_
for a long journey. The twenty miles between Pistoia and Florence cost
for horse hire only four julli. From Pistoia we passed Prato and came
to Castello in time for dinner. We alighted at an inn opposite to the
Grand Duke’s palace, and after dinner we went to view more particularly
the garden belonging thereto, which I found to be less fair in reality
than I had figured it, an experience I had often met before. The last
time I saw it was in winter,[62] when it was bare and desolate, and
then I imaged its loveliness in the sweet of the year, but my fancy ran
away with me. We had come seventeen miles to Castello, and after dinner
we rode the remaining three and arrived at Florence.
[Illustration: FLORENCE
_Reproduced from Civitates Orbis Terrarum_
_To face p. 94_, vol. iii.
]
XI
FLORENCE
On the Friday, I saw the public procession when the Grand Duke rode in
his coach.[63] Amongst the other sights was a gilded car made in form
of a theatre, in which were four little children, and one in the garb
of a friar, who represented Saint Francis, holding his hands as the
Saint is depicted, and bearing a crown over his cowl. This last was
either a friar or some one in friar’s dress with a false beard. Some
children were dressed as warriors, amongst whom was Saint George, and
when they entered the piazza they came upon a huge dragon which was
clumsily borne along by some men concealed. The dragon rushed forward,
belching fire from his mouth and roaring, whereupon the young Saint
George made at him with sword and lance and cut his throat.
I was most kindly received by one of the Gondi, a family living at
Lyons: this gentleman sent me some of the Trebisiano, the finest wine
of the country. Meantime it was so hot that even the people of the
country marvelled at the heat, and this morning at dawn I had an attack
of colic on the right side which lasted some three hours. I now tasted
the first musk melon of the season: in Florence they have plenty of
cucumbers and almonds from the beginning of June.
On the 23rd, the chariot races took place in a fine large piazza,
surrounded on all sides by fair houses, the length thereof being
greater than the width.[64] At either end was erected a squared obelisk
of wood, and between these was stretched a long rope to prevent any
one from crossing the square. In addition, several men were stationed
all along the piazza to keep the people off the rope aforesaid. All the
balconies were filled with ladies, and the Grand Duke, with the duchess
and the court, occupied one of the palaces. The people stood all along
the piazza and upon some platforms which had been put up, where also I
found a place. Five chariots, empty, entered for the race, the station
by the side of one of the obelisks being assigned by lot, some people
affirming that the coach on the outside had the best place from being
able to make the round more easily. A trumpet gave the signal to start,
and the coach which reached the starting-point beside the pyramid, at
the end of the third round, was to be declared the winner. The Grand
Duke’s coach held the lead up to the last round, but then the driver of
the Strozzi coach, who had always hung close on the leader, urged his
horses to make extraordinary efforts with loosened reins; and, having
collected all his forces, brought his coach in line with the Duke’s at
the end. I marked how the people began to clamour, as soon as they saw
Strozzi gaining on the leader, and how they applauded him to the utmost
though their ruler was there present. And afterwards, when the dispute
was referred to the arbitration of certain gentlemen, the Strozzi
partisans appealed to the verdict of the people assembled, who shouted
with one voice in favour of Strozzi. The prize was finally awarded to
him, unjustly as I thought, its value being a hundred crowns. No sight
I had seen in Italy pleased me so much as this, on account of its
resemblance to the ancient races.
This day being the vigil of Saint John the Baptist, they set certain
small lamps on the top of the Duomo, making three rows thereof in
circles, which gave light all round. They told me it was not the custom
in Italy, as it is in France, to make bonfires on Saint John the
Baptist’s Day.
Saturday was Saint John’s Day, the chief festival in Florence, and the
one of the greatest fame, seeing that all, even the young maidens, take
public part therein. I did not mark much beauty abroad. In the morning
the Grand Duke appeared on a platform, raised against the wall of the
Palazzo and overlooking the piazza. He was shaded by an awning adorned
with the richest needlework, and on his left hand stood the nuncio of
the Pope, and at some little distance apart, the Ferrarese ambassador.
Then representatives of all his territories and cities passed before
him, being summoned by a herald. Thus, Siena was represented by a
youth, clad in black and white velvet, and bearing in his hand a large
silver vase and an effigy of the Sienese wolf. This representative pays
tribute to the Grand Duke every year, and makes a short speech. After
he had passed, a succession of young men, shabbily dressed and riding
wretched mules or horses, came by as they were called, this carrying a
silver cup and that a tattered flag. A great number of these went by
without speech, or obeisance, or the least order, and seeming to treat
the whole affair as a jest. They were supposed to represent the various
villages and places dependent on Siena, and they go through this form
every year.
Next came by a car carrying a square pyramid of wood, fashioned in
steps, upon which sat a group of children clad in various fashions, and
angels and saints. On the apex, which was as high as the highest of the
houses, stood a man dressed to imitate Saint John, and tied on to an
iron bar. Following this car came a number of officials, those of the
Mint being most prominent. At the end of the show came another car, on
which were youths who carried three prizes for the various races, and
alongside went the Barbary horses which were going to compete; also the
riders thereof with the devices of their masters, who were some of the
highest of the nobility. The horses, though small, were very shapely.
I did not feel the heat more severe than in France, nevertheless, to
moderate it as much as possible in the inn bed-chamber, I had my bed
made up every night on the table in the large room. I could not find
here a single lodging which suited me, for this city is not a good
one for strangers to inhabit, and the vermin with which the beds are
infested must always be reckoned with. There is a scarcity of fish, and
trout and the like are never eaten except when salted and brought from
a distance. I remarked that the Grand Duke sent to a certain Milanese,
Giovanni Mariano, who was lodging in my inn, a present of wine, fruit,
bread, and fish, the last-named being small and kept alive in cool
earthen jars.
All day long my mouth was parched and dry, with a feeling not of
thirst but of internal heat, such as I have felt before during our
hot seasons. I ate nothing but fruit, and some salad and sugar. I was
indeed far from well.
The outdoor diversions, which we in France take after supper, these
people take before that meal, which in the longest days is not eaten
till night, and in the morning they begin the day between seven and
eight o’clock.
After dinner the race of the Barbary horses took place, the prize being
carried off by the horse belonging to the Cardinal de’ Medicis.[65]
Its value was two hundred crowns. The spectacle is not one to give
pleasure, as those on the road could see nothing but the rush of the
horses.
On Sunday I saw the Pitti Palace, where, amongst other things, I
remarked the marble statue of a mule, modelled from one still alive,
which was executed on account of the long service done by this beast
in carrying material for the building of this palace. At least that is
what the Latin verses say.[66] In the palace I saw the image of the
Chimera, the head of which, with horns and ears; springs from between
the shoulders, while the body is like that of a small lion.[67] On
the Saturday the Grand Duke’s palace was open in every part to the
country-folk, the great hall being filled with parties of dancers, some
here and some there. I have a notion that this licence, which they
enjoyed on the great feast day of the city, seemed to them a sort of
shadow of their lost liberty.
On Monday I dined with Signor Silvio Piccolomini, a man of well-known
worth and especially skilled in the art of fence. Many subjects came up
for discussion, as there was a large gathering of other gentlemen. He
has a poor opinion of the art of fencing as practised by the Italian
masters, such as Veniziana di Bologna, Patinostraro, and others.
Indeed, the only one he favoured was a certain pupil of his own, who
now lives at Brescia, where he teaches the art to the gentle-folk of
the city. He declared that the ordinary teachers of fencing follow
neither art nor rule, and he condemned especially the far-reaching
lunge which leaves your sword at the mercy of your adversary, and
the practice of making one assault after another and then coming to
a pause. This, he declared, was entirely against all experience of
sword-play. He was on the eve of printing a treatise on this subject.
In speaking of warfare he made light of artillery, greatly to my
satisfaction, and he praised Machiavelli’s work, _Della Guerra_, and
was quite in agreement with the writer’s opinions. He declared that the
most skilful military engineer living was one in the service of the
Grand Duke in Florence.
They have a fashion here of putting ice in the wine-cups, but of this I
took very little, being uneasy in my body and troubled with pain in the
side, besides passing an incredible quantity of gravel. My head still
troubled me, and I could not get rid of the sensation of dulness and a
certain indefinable heaviness over the brow, the cheeks, the teeth, the
nose, and all parts. I imagined this discomfort arose from drinking
the sweet, heady wines of the country, because my headache returned
after I had drunk heartily of the Trebisiano. I must have been inflamed
through travelling in the summer heat, and it needed a great quantity
of the wine to quench my thirst on account of its sweetness.
I have come to the conclusion that Florence has a good right to the
title “La bella.”[68] I went out to-day alone to amuse myself by
inspecting those ladies who may be seen by any one who may be so
inclined. I saw those of the greatest note, but they were not of much
account. Their lodgings are all in one part of the city, and are
wretched even for what they are, being in no way equal to those of
the Roman or Venetian courtesans, any more than their occupants can
compare with the aforesaid ladies in beauty, or grace, or carriage. If
any one of them is minded to dwell outside these bounds she must not
make herself conspicuous, and must hide her real calling under some
fictitious one.
I went to see the workshops of the silk-spinners, where a woman by one
turn of a wheel can set to work five hundred threads. On the Tuesday
morning I passed a small red stone.
On Thursday I went to visit the Casino[69] of the Grand Duke. What
struck me most there was a rock of pyramidal shape made of all sorts
of mineral stones, the mass being composed of one fragment of each.
From this rock a spring of water gushed forth and set in motion a
great number of devices, water-mills, windmills, bells, soldiers,
animals, hunting scenes, and many others of the same sort, all placed
in a chamber inside. On Thursday I did not care to stay in the city to
witness another horse race, so I went after dinner to Pratolino, which
I inspected minutely for the second time, and, being requested by the
steward of the palace to give my opinion as to the relative beauties
of this place and of Tivoli, I said what I had to say without making
any general comparison, but setting detail against detail, with the
different things to be considered in each case, and letting now this
place and now Tivoli have the advantage.
On Friday to the shop of the Giunti, where I bought a collection of
Comedies, eleven in number, and certain other books. I saw there
Boccaccio’s will,[70] printed together with some lectures on the
_Decameron_, which displays the amazing poverty into which this
illustrious man must have fallen. He left some of his linen and bedding
to his sisters and his other relatives, his books to a certain friar
with the instructions that the legatee is to allow the use of them to
any one who may demand the same. He made mention of everything down to
earthenware and the meanest utensils, and arranged for his burial and
masses. This is printed exactly from the original, which was written on
parchment greatly injured and decayed.
The courtesans here stand at the doors of the houses to attract lovers,
just as those of Rome and Venice sit by the windows. They take their
station at suitable hours, and may be always seen, some with large and
some with small company, talking and singing in the streets.
On Sunday the 2nd of July I quitted Florence after dinner, and, having
crossed the Arno by the bridge, we left the river to the right hand,
following its course nevertheless. We traversed a fine fertile plain,
which produces the finest musk melons in Tuscany, but the best of these
are not ripe before the 15th of July. Those grown at Legnara, three
miles from Florence, are the best. Our road lay through a country
for the most part level and fertile, everywhere studded with houses
large and small, which made it seem one continuous string of villages.
Amongst others we passed a charming place called Empoli,[71] the name
of which seemed to me to smack of antiquity. Its site is most lovely,
but I saw no sign of old times save a ruined bridge near the road which
had an indescribable look of age.
Here I made special note of three things. First, to see the people of
these parts harvesting grain, or threshing, or sewing, or spinning on
a Sunday. Second, to see the peasants with lutes in their hands, and
even the pastoral songs of Ariosto on their lips--which thing indeed
may be observed all through Italy. Third, to see how these people will
leave the grain lying in the fields for ten or fifteen days after it is
cut--or even longer--without fear of being robbed by the neighbours. We
travelled in the evening dusk for twenty miles as far as Scala.
Here we could only get lodging, which was very good. I took no supper,
as I was troubled with toothache on the right side, an ailment which
often comes with my headaches. I felt it especially when I was eating,
as every bite caused me the sharpest pain. On the morning of Monday,
July 3, we followed the level road beside the Arno, which led us to a
fertile plain, covered with corn, and at midday, after riding twenty
miles, came to Pisa.
XII
PISA
This city is under the Grand Duke of Florence, and stands on the plain
of the Arno, which runs through the middle of it and enters the sea
six miles farther on. By it ships of divers sorts can reach Pisa. The
University was now closed, as it always is during the three hot months,
but we found there a company of very good players, the Disiosi. The
hotel was not to my liking, wherefore I hired a house with four rooms
and one _salle_. The landlord did the cooking and provided furniture;
an excellent house and all for eight crowns a month. But because the
provision of table linen which he promised to make was very scanty (and
in Italy they hardly ever change the napkins save when they change the
tablecloth, which is done twice a week), we let our servants buy some
more. At the inn we had paid four julli a day.[72]
This house was in a most pleasant situation, commanding a delightful
prospect right over the channel through which the Arno flows. This
channel is very wide and more than five hundred paces in length,
slightly curved, and offering a charming object to the view, the
bend aforesaid allowing the spectator to see easily both ends of the
channel, full of merchant shipping and crossed by three bridges. The
quays on either side are of fine masonry, with supports to the very
top, like those on the Quai des Augustines at Paris, with wide streets,
at the side of which are rows of houses, one of which is the one I
hired.
On Wednesday, July 5th, I visited the cathedral, built on the site of
the palace of the Emperor Hadrian. Here are columns of various marbles,
infinite in number and differing in form and workmanship, and most
beautiful doors of metal. It is enriched by various trophies brought
from Greece and Egypt, and itself is constructed out of ancient ruins,
so that here may be seen inscriptions upside down, and there divided in
the middle.[73] In some places are to be seen indecipherable characters
said to be written by the Etruscans.[74] I saw the Campanile, which
is marvellous in appearance, being inclined seven cubits out of the
perpendicular. At Bologna and other places there are leaning towers.
Pillars and open colonnades are set round it from top to bottom. Also
the church of Saint John near thereto, which is very richly adorned
with painting and sculpture.[75] Amongst other rarities is a marble
pulpit set very thickly with statues, which are so beautiful that
Lorenzo, the same who slew Duke Alexander dei Medici, is said to have
carried off the heads of certain of them,[76] and presented them to the
queen. In shape this church resembles the Rotonda at Rome.[77]
The natural son of the duke aforesaid lives at Pisa.[78] He is an old
man, and I chanced to see him. He lives at his ease on the bounty of
the present duke, and takes no part in public affairs, being content
to amuse himself with the excellent hunting and fishing to be enjoyed
in the neighbourhood. In no other city of Italy is to be found such
vast store of holy relics and exquisite works, and stone and marble
work of such rarity, grandeur, and marvellous workmanship. I was
immensely pleased with the cemetery, which they call the Campo Santo.
It is of extraordinary size, and rectangular, three hundred paces long
and one hundred wide, and surrounded by a corridor forty paces wide,
covered with lead and paved with marble. The walls are covered with old
paintings, and amongst them is a portrait of the Florentine Gondi, by
whom the family of that name was founded.
The nobles of the city have their burial-places under this covered
corridor. Here are to be seen the names and armorial devices of some
four hundred families, of whom not more than four now dwell in Pisa,
the survivors of the wars and destruction which have fallen upon this
ancient city. The population is now very scanty, the place being
chiefly taken up by strangers. Many persons of rank belonging to
the noble families referred to are still living in other parts of
Christendom whither they have betaken themselves. In the midst of this
enclosure is an open space where the dead are still buried. I was
told positively by every one that any corpse interred there swells
so greatly some eight hours afterwards that the ground may be seen
to rise; in the next eight it subsides, and in eight hours more the
flesh is entirely consumed, so that four-and-twenty hours after burial
nothing is left but bare bones.[79] This strange fact resembles another
told of that cemetery at Rome which rejects immediately the body of
any Roman buried therein. This enclosure is paved, like the corridor,
with marble, upon which is laid earth one or two cubits deep, which
earth, they declare, was brought from Jerusalem, the Pisans having
sent a great expedition for the carrying out of this purpose. With
the bishop’s consent a little of this earth may be taken and mixed
with that of other graves, the belief being that the corpses within
will thereby consume away rapidly; and this belief is a plausible
one, because in this particular cemetery bones are very rarely seen,
scarcely any indeed, neither is there any place where they are
collected and reinterred, as in other cities.
From the neighbouring mountains they quarry the finest marble, which
is here worked by divers distinguished craftsmen. At this time they
were preparing for the King of Fez, in Barbary, materials for a
theatre of the richest design, the plan being drawn to include fifty
most sumptuous marble columns. The arms of France are to be seen in
countless places all about this city,[80] besides a column which King
Charles VIII. gave to the Duomo. On the wall of a certain house looking
upon the street the king aforesaid is represented, life-size, kneeling
before the Virgin, who seems to be giving him counsel. An inscription
set thereupon declares that the king, after supping in this house, was
seized with the determination to give the Pisans their ancient freedom,
and that by this act he surpassed the greatness of Alexander. He is
there described as King of Jerusalem, Sicily, &c.[81] The words which
refer to the grant of liberty have been designedly defaced and are
half-erased. Many private houses still exhibit these arms as badges of
honour, the king having granted the same to the owners.
Here are a few remains of ancient buildings. One is the fine brick
ruin, which stands near the site of Nero’s palace, the name of which
it still retains,[82] and another the church of Saint Michael, formerly
a temple of Mars.[83] Thursday was the Feast of Saint Peter, and report
says it was formerly the custom for the bishop to go in procession on
this day to the church of Saint Peter,[84] which stands four miles
outside the city, and thence on to the sea, into which he would cast a
ring as a token of espousal, this city being a great maritime power.
Now they simply send one of the University teachers to perform this
ceremony. The priests go in procession only as far as the church, where
they hold a great sale of pardons. A papal bull, dating back some four
hundred years (taking as its authority a book more than twelve hundred
years old), declares that this church was built by Saint Peter himself,
and that one day when Saint Clement was performing the office on a
marble altar, three drops of blood from the Saint’s nose fell down
upon this altar, where the stain made by them still remains as plain as
if they had fallen three days ago. The Genoese mutilated this table and
carried away one of the drops aforesaid, wherefore the Pisans removed
what remained from the church into the city. But every year, on Saint
Peter’s Day, it is carried back in procession to its original place,
and all night long people are passing hither and thither in boats.
On Friday, June 7th, I went early to see the dairy farm of Don Piero
de’ Medici,[85] about two miles distant. This prince has vast estates,
which he cultivates on his own account, engaging every five years a
fresh set of labourers, who receive as wages half the produce of the
soil, which is here very fertile in grain. In the pastures animals of
all sorts are kept. I dismounted in order to inspect more minutely the
farmstead, where a vast number of people were at work making curd and
butter and cheese, and using divers implements made for the purpose.
Onward from thence over the plain I went as far as the beach of the
Tyrrhenian Sea, getting a sight of Lerici on the right, and on the
left of Leghorn, a town with a castle close to the sea and nearer than
Lerici. From here I could also see the island of Gorgona, beyond this
Capraia,[86] and Corsica beyond all. I turned to the left and followed
the shore as far as the mouth of the Arno, which is of ill-fame amongst
sailors because the many small streams which fall into it bring down
great quantities of earth and mud and form a bar at the mouth. Here I
bought some fish, which I despatched as a present to the ladies of the
theatre. Along the river are many thickets of tamarisk. On Saturday
I bought, for six giulios, a small barrel made of this wood, which I
caused to be hooped with silver, paying the silversmith three crowns
for the work. Besides this, I spent six giulios on a walking-stick of
Indian cane, and eight more on a small vessel and a cup made of Indian
nut, which is quite as efficacious against spleen and the gravel as
tamarisk.
The man who made these wares, an artist of great talent and famous as
a maker of fine mathematical instruments, informed me, that all trees,
when cut through, show as many rings as they have years, and he gave me
demonstration of this from all the different sorts of wood he had in
his shop, he being a carpenter. The part of the tree which faces the
north is always of closer grain and with circles nearer together than
the other parts. Wherefore, he boasts that, whatever specimen of wood
may be brought to him, he can always determine how old was the tree
from which it was cut, and the aspect towards which it faced.[87]
Only a short time ago this city bore an evil name for its unhealthy
air, but this is vastly improved since Duke Cosimo has drained the
marshes by which it is surrounded. Formerly the place was so unhealthy
that when the government wanted to banish any one, and at the same time
get rid of him, they always banished him to Pisa, where in a few months
the job was done. There are no partridges here, though the Duke has
taken great pains to foster them.
I received several visits at my lodging from Girolamo Borro,[88] a
physician and doctor of philosophy, and when I went to see him on July
14, he made me a present of his book on the flux and reflux of the sea,
written in Italian. At the same time he showed me another book he had
written in Latin on the diseases of the body.
On this same day, twenty-one Turkish slaves escaped from the arsenal
near my house and fled the place, having taken possession of a bark,
with full equipment, which the Signor Alessandro di Piombini had left
there while he went fishing. Except the Arno itself, and the navigable
channel so admirably contrived, and the churches and ancient buildings
and others of particular merit, there is little in Pisa that is
distinguished or worth seeing. The place is like a desert, and in this
respect, and in the fashion of the buildings, and in its size, and in
the wideness of the streets, it strongly resembles Pistoia. Its chief
disadvantage is its bad water, which has everywhere a marshy smell.
These people are very poor, but at the same time very arrogant and
unfriendly, and discourteous towards strangers, and towards the French
especially since the death of their late bishop, Pietro Paulo Borbonio,
who claimed kinship with our royal house.[89] Certain of his relations
still reside here. This prelate was so liberal and so well disposed to
our nation that he made it a rule to entertain in his palace at once
any Frenchman who might arrive in Pisa. To the Pisans he has left an
honoured memory of his righteous life and bounty. He died only five or
six years ago.
On July 17th, I joined with twenty-five others, at a crown each, in a
raffle for some things belonging to Fargnocola, one of the aforenamed
players. We began by drawing lots as to who should play first, second,
and so on; and then made the rule that, as there were several lots of
things to play for, they should be divided into two equal parts. One of
these was to fall to the player who threw highest, the other to the
lowest throw. It chanced that I threw second highest.
On the 18th, at the church of S. Francesco, a grave tumult arose
between the priests of the cathedral and the friars. On the previous
day a Pisan gentleman was brought to be buried in the cathedral,
whereupon the priests got ready all their paraphernalia for the funeral
office, asserting their ancient right and privilege. But the friars on
their part declared that they and no others had the right to say mass
in their church. One of the priests attempted to get possession of the
table, having gone up to the high altar, but a friar forced him away,
whereupon the vicar, the head of the priests of this church, gave the
friar a buffet. Then arose a hand-to-hand fight, fists, bludgeons,
candlesticks, and tapers being used freely, and the upshot was that no
mass was said by either party. This outbreak of rage and riot caused a
great scandal. As soon as I heard the report thereof, I went to the
cathedral, where I received true report of what had happened.
At daybreak on the 22nd three Turkish pirate ships made a raid on
the adjoining sea coast and carried off fifteen or twenty poor
fishermen and shepherds as captives. On the 25th I paid a visit to
Cornacchino,[90] a famous Pisan physician and teacher. He lived
according to a rule of his own, which differed vastly from the rules of
his art. Immediately after dinner he would go to sleep and would drink
a hundred times a day. He read to me some rhymes of his own written
in the Pisan dialect which were not unpleasing. According to him the
baths near the city are of no great account, but he had a high opinion
of those of _Bagno Acqua_,[91] about sixteen miles distant, which he
declared to be marvellously good for liver complaints, detailing
to me some wonderful cures, and for the stone and colic as well. He
recommended me, however, before taking these waters, to drink some of
the Della Villa spring. He is of opinion that, after blood-letting,
medicine has no curative agent to compare with baths, if only they
be used with understanding. He also told me that at Bagno Acqua the
lodgings are good, and that I might make myself very comfortable there.
On Thursday, July 27th, I left Pisa early in the morning, being highly
gratified by the courteous and friendly treatment I had received from
Signor Vintavinti, Signor Lorenzo Conti, Signor Miniato in whose house
lived the Cavaliere Camillo Gatani--who offered to let his brother
return with me to France--Signor del Borro, and divers other craftsmen
and merchants with whom I had dealings. I am certain that I could have
raised money from them, had I needed it, albeit the Pisans have the
name for churlishness and arrogance. But in every case a courteous man
wins a return for his courtesy.
This country abounds in pigeons, nuts, and mushrooms. We went for a
certain distance over the plain and arrived at the baths of Pisa, of
which there are several. One of these bears an inscription cut in
marble which I could not rightly decipher. It is in rhymed Latin verses
and seems to celebrate the virtues of these springs. As far as I could
gather it was written in 1300.
The largest and the most seemly of these baths is square-built with one
side open, very well fitted, and having marble staircases. It measures
thirty paces square, and in one corner the spring flows in through a
spout. I took a draught of it to test it, and found it lacking in taste
and in smell also. I only detected a slight roughness on the tongue.
It is scarcely warm at all and very pleasant to drink. I looked at
the water as it flowed from the spout, and perceived therein the same
minute particles, white atoms, which had offended me at Baden, and
which I judged to be some dirt come in from without. Now, I believe
these atoms to be connected with the mineral properties of the water.
Round about the outflow these atoms are thicker, where forsooth the
waters ought to be the clearest, as I found them to be at Baden. This
place is a desert and the lodging very bad; indeed these baths are
almost forsaken, the few people who use them preferring to come out in
the morning from Pisa, which is only four miles distant, and return in
the evening. The chief bath is uncovered, and is the only one which
shows any trace of antiquity. It is called the bath of Nero, and the
story goes that this Emperor caused water therefrom to be led by an
aqueduct to his palace at Pisa.[92]
There is another covered bath, filled with the purest water, which
is used by the people of the district. It is said to be good for the
liver and for the eruptions caused by liver disorders. The same draught
is prescribed here as at other baths, and exercise after drinking is
commonly taken: or you may take a sweating bath, or use it in other
forms. By ascending this hill I got a very fine view, looking over the
great plain, the sea, the islands, Leghorn, and Pisa. After coming down
we again traversed the plain in which Lucca is situated, and arrived
there after a journey of ten miles.
XIII
RETURN TO LUCCA
This morning I passed another stone somewhat larger and looking as if
it must have been detached from one much larger. God knows whether it
is so. Let it be as He wills. We made the same terms at the inn as at
Pisa, four giuli a day for ourselves and three for the servants. But
on the 28th, being in a way compelled by the most courteous proposals
of Signor Ludovico Pinitesi, I went to occupy a ground-floor apartment
in his house. It was very cool, excellently arranged, and contained
five chambers, a dining-room and a kitchen, the furniture of all sorts,
of the finest and handsomest style, being supplied to me according to
Italian custom, which in many ways equals our own and in some surpasses
it. These fine large lofty arched ceilings are in truth great
ornaments in Italian houses. They give a pleasant and dignified aspect
to the entrances, because all the lower storeys are built in this
fashion with wide and lofty doorways. In the summer all the gentle-folk
of Lucca take their meals in public in these entries in full sight of
the passers-by.
I may declare with truth that wherever I have stopped in Italy I have
been lodged, not to say well, but excellently, except in Florence--and
there I did not leave the inn in spite of the discomforts I had to
endure, especially in the summer heat--and in Venice, where we lodged
in a noisy ill-kept house, as our sojourn was to be a very brief one.
My chamber here was apart, supplied with everything I could need,
convenient and perfectly quiet. I rejoiced that the people of the place
did not call upon me--or only one or two--for even civility sometimes
becomes irksome. I slept and read as I was inclined, and when I went
abroad I always found conversation in plenty with the people in the
streets, who would be ready for a chat at any hour of the day; and
then there were the shops, and the churches, and the market-place.
Going about like this, from one country to another, I was never at a
loss for material for the satisfying of my curiosity. And all this
time I felt my mind at ease, as much as ill-health and old age would
allow, and little prone to seize opportunities for disturbing itself
from the outside world. The only loss I felt was that of a sympathetic
companion, for, being alone, I had to enjoy all these pleasures by
myself, and could not share them with another.
The people of Lucca are greatly given to, a game called _Pallone_, and
they often meet for matches. Men seldom ride on horseback through the
streets, and it is the rarest sight to see one in a coach, but ladies
go on mule-back with a foot-servant. Strangers coming here have great
difficulty in finding houses to let, the city itself being very thickly
populated and the travellers visiting it very few. For an ordinary
house with four furnished chambers, a dining-room, and a kitchen I was
asked a rent of seventy crowns a month. It is hard to find any society
in Lucca, for the reason that all the people, even the very children,
are taken up with business incessantly, and with winning riches by
means of traffic. On this account Lucca is somewhat unpleasant as a
residence for foreigners.
On August the 10th we rode out into the country with certain gentlemen
of the city who had lent us horses. All round about I saw a vast number
of delightful villas for the distance of three or four miles, built
with porticoes and loggias, which add greatly to their beauty. One
had a very large loggia, arched all along inside, and clad without
by the branches and tendrils of vines which were planted and trained
over certain supports, the effect being one of coolness, verdure, and
natural beauty.
The pain in the head would sometimes leave me for five or six days or
even longer, but I could never feel myself safe from it. I was taken
with a fancy to study the Florentine tongue, and I gave much time and
trouble thereto, in return for which I reaped very little profit.
The heat this summer was much greater than usual. On the 12th I went
outside the city to visit the villa of Signor Benedetto Buonvisi, a
fairly pleasant house. Amongst other things there I marked certain
fair little thickets planted in sloping ground. They plant some fifty
paces apart clumps of trees of that sort which holds green all the year
round, and they surround these with shallow ditches, and construct
certain covered ways within, and in the middle of each is a station
for the fowler who, by means of a silver whistle and a quantity of
captive thrushes trained for the purpose, and by setting limed twigs at
every corner, will catch in a single morning two hundred thrushes at
a certain season of the year, to wit, in the month of November. Such
sport is only to be found in one district near a certain quarter of the
city.
On Sunday the 13th I left Lucca, having settled to hand over to Signor
Ludovico Pinitesi fifteen crowns for the hire of his house, making one
crown per diem, a sum with which he was fully satisfied. We saw on our
way a vast number of villas belonging to the gentle-folk of Lucca,
handsome, neat, and graceful houses with abundance of water, but the
supply is intermittent and does not come from natural springs. It is
indeed wonderful to see so little running water in a land mountainous
as this. Their habit is to tap the rivulets by small channels, and lead
the water through fountains, vases, and grottoes and other devices
of the sort for the ornamentation of the gardens. That same evening
we arrived in time for supper at the villa of the Signor Ludovico
aforesaid, his son Signor Oragio having been of our party on the
journey. He gave us excellent entertainment, regaling us with a most
sumptuous supper at night, set out under a wide portico exquisitely
cool and open on every side, and giving us fine bed-chambers with
clean delicate linen like that we had rejoiced over in his father’s
house at Lucca.
We left early on Monday morning and rode without dismounting for
fifteen miles to Bagni della Villa, where we arrived at dinner-time.
On our way we halted a short time to see the villa of the bishop who
was there in residence. We met with the kindest reception from the
whole household, and were pressed to take our dinner with them. On
our arrival we were heartily welcomed by all the residents; indeed,
it seemed as if I had returned to my own home. I had lodging in the
same apartment as before, at twenty crowns a month and the same other
conditions.
On Tuesday, August 15, I spent a short hour in the bath. I seemed to
get chilled sooner than before, and I did not perspire at all. On
returning to these baths I felt myself not merely well, but full of
health and spirits, and on the 16th I went to the ladies’ bath, which
I had never before used, in order to be by myself. It was too hot
for my taste, and, whether from the actual heat thereof, or from the
relaxing of the pores in yesterday’s bath, I soon became very warm. I
used the same bath on the two following days, and on the 19th I went
again and remained there two hours, rather later in the day in order to
allow a lady of Lucca the first turn, a just and proper rule being here
observed to give the ladies the use of their bath at their convenience.
The people here do not keep the feasts of religion so closely as we do,
especially the Sunday; but the women get through the greater part of
their work before dinner.
In the morning I wrote out my journal, and immediately after dinner
I was seized with colic, and in order to keep me still more on the
alert, a violent toothache began in my left jaw, a pain I had never
felt before. Finding the discomfort intolerable I went to bed after
three or four hours’ agony, and in a short time the pain left me. The
next morning I felt myself much better, the flatulence and colic being
abated; but I was very weak though free from pain. I took some food
without any relish, and I drank without tasting what I swallowed,
though I was very thirsty; and almost immediately the toothache
returned and troubled me greatly up to supper-time. I had a good
night’s rest, but I awoke in the morning somewhat indisposed, weary,
the mouth parched with roughness and bad taste, and breath like one in
a state of fever.
It would be too great cowardice and _ischifiltà_[93] on my part if,
knowing that I am every day in danger of death from these ailments, and
drawing nearer thereto every hour in the course of nature, I did not
do my best to bring myself into a fitting mood to meet my end whenever
it may come. And in this respect it is wise to take joyfully all the
good fortune God may send. Moreover there is no remedy, nor rule, nor
knowledge whereby to keep clear of these evils which from every side
and at every minute gather round mans footsteps, save in the resolve
to endure them with dignity, or boldly and promptly make an end of
them.[94]
On August the 25th my kidney troubles abated, and I found myself about
as well as before, save that I had frequent pain both by day and night
in my left cheek, but it did not last long. I remember to have been
troubled with the same pain when at home.
On the 27th I was so sharply troubled with toothache after dinner
that I sent for the doctor, who, when he had taken account of all the
symptoms, and had marked especially that the pain subsided while he was
there, decided that this was no material fluxion, but one extremely
subtle, and little else than wind which ascended from the stomach to
the head, and, having mixed itself with the humours there, caused this
disorder. This opinion seemed to me reasonable, seeing that I had often
suffered from similar seizures in other regions of my body.
On Monday the 28th of August I went at dawn to the Bernabo spring and
drank over seven pounds thereof. I am sure this draught gave me the
vapours and made my head ache, and on Tuesday I drank nine pounds from
the common spring and felt my head affected immediately after. In sooth
my head was in very bad case, having never recovered from the effects
of the first bath I took. It has pained me less often of late, and in a
different way, as it has not weakened me or dazzled my eyes as it did
a month ago. I suffered chiefly in the back, and pain never attacked
my head, but it flew to my left cheek, affecting all parts thereof,
the teeth down to the very roots, the ear, and a portion of the nose.
The pang would be brief, but as a rule sharp and burning, and wont to
attack me frequently both night and day. This is how my head fared at
this juncture.
I am firmly convinced that the fumes of this water both in drinking
and in bathing--though I hold drinking to be the worse--are very bad
for the head, and even worse for the stomach. And on this account the
patients here are forced to take medicines to correct the action of the
water. On the Thursday I gave up drinking and rode in the morning to
see Costrone, a large village in the mountains. I found many fine and
fertile level spaces and pasturage to the very tops of the mountains.
To this village are attached several hamlets with comfortable houses
roofed with stone. On my way back I made a long circuit through the
hills.
My head meantime continued in its usual condition--to wit, a bad one;
I began to get weary of these baths, and if I had received from France
news for which I had been waiting--indeed for four months I had heard
nothing at all--I should have set forth at once and finished my autumn
cure in some other bath. In travelling towards Rome the baths of Bagno
Acqua, Siena, and Viterbo would lie but little off the main road; and
towards Venice I should pass near those of Bologna and Padua.
In Pisa I had had my arms drawn in fine colours and gilded for the
cost of a French crown and a half, and I now pasted the drawing on
wood--it was done on canvas--and this wooden tablet I caused to be
carefully nailed to the wall of the chamber I had occupied, with the
understanding that the device should be held to be given to the room
itself, and not to Captain Paulino the proprietor, and that it should
not be taken down whatever might befall the house in the future. This
the captain promised, and confirmed his promise with an oath.
On Sunday, September the 3rd, I spent more than an hour in the bath,
and was much troubled by wind, but without pain. In the night and on
Monday morning I had toothache so badly that I feared it must arise
from a decayed tooth. I chewed mastic all the morning without relief.
During the night I sent for an apothecary, who gave me some _aqua
vitæ_, and bade me hold it to the spot where the pain was sharpest.
The relief I got was marvellous; for, as soon as I took it into my
mouth, the pain ceased; but as soon as I spat out the spirit the pain
returned, wherefore I was forced to keep the glass always at my lips. I
could not keep the spirit in my mouth continually, for, as soon as the
pain was reduced, I would through weariness fall into a heavy sleep,
and then some drops of the spirit would run down my throat and choke me
so that I was forced to get rid of it. Just at daybreak the pain seemed
to leave me.
On the Tuesday morning all the gentlemen staying at the bath came to
see me as I lay in bed. I afterwards caused a plaster of mastic to be
put on my left temple, where the throbbing pain had been worst, and had
less pain during the day. At night they applied lint to the cheek and
the left side of the head, and my sleep was painless though disturbed.
On the Wednesday I had constant toothache and pain in the left eye, and
on Thursday I spent an hour in the large bath. This same morning there
came to hand, by way of Rome, a letter from M. de Tausin, written from
Bordeaux on August 2nd, in which he informed me that, on the preceding
day, I had been chosen to be Mayor of that city by public choice, and
begged me that, out of my goodwill for the city, I would take up this
burden.[95]
On Sunday, September 10th, I spent an hour in the ladies’ bath, which,
being rather hot, caused me to perspire, and after dinner I went on
horseback to visit some places in the neighbourhood, and a little town
called Gragnaiola, situated on the top of one of the highest mountains
of this group. As I rode along these heights the slopes around
appeared to me the fairest and most fertile that the world could show.
In course of conversation with some of the peasantry I inquired of
a very old man whether the baths were much used by the inhabitants;
whereupon he answered that the people about Lucca were like those
living near the Madonna of Loreto, who very rarely go on pilgrimages
to the shrine there; in like fashion the baths of Lucca enjoyed little
favour, except from foreigners and people coming from afar. Moreover,
there was one matter which gave him disquiet, to wit, that for some
years past there had appeared manifest signs that the baths had done
more harm than good to those who used them. He declared the cause of
this to be that, whereas in former days there was no apothecary in
the whole district and physicians were rarely seen, these gentry,
now swarmed; and, having an eye to their own gain, established the
doctrine that the baths would prove of no service unless the patient
take medicine, not only before and after but at divers times during
the operation of the waters, which would not easily assimilate if taken
by themselves. He declared that the clearest proof of this appeared in
the fact that, of the people who used these baths, more died than were
cured; and that in a short time the place would fall into disrepute and
neglect.
On September 12th, 1581, we set forth early from Bagni della Villa and
arrived at Lucca in time for dinner, after riding fourteen miles. They
were just beginning to gather the grapes. The feast of Santa Croce
is the great one of this city, and during eight days all who may be
proscribed on account of debt are suffered to return without hurt to
their homes, so as to attend to their devotions. In all Italy I have
never found a barber who could shave me or cut my hair properly.
On Wednesday evening we went to hear vespers and see the processions in
the cathedral, where a vast multitude of the citizens were assembled.
There was an exhibition of the Volto Santo, which is here held in the
highest reverence because of the antiquity of the _cultus_, and of the
many miracles due thereto; indeed the cathedral was built especially
for the sake of this relic, and the little chapel where it is preserved
still stands in the centre of the great church in an incongruous
position, and in violation of all the canons of architecture.[96] As
soon as the vespers were ended the whole of the congregation went to
another church, which was formerly the cathedral.[97]
On Thursday I heard mass in the choir of the cathedral, when all the
government officials were present. The people of Lucca take great
pleasure in music and sing in unison, but it is rare to hear a fine
voice. There was a full choir for this mass, but it was not a great
performance; a high altar, very lofty in construction, had been
specially built of wood and cardboard, and covered with images, and
large silver candlesticks and vessels, the last being arranged with a
basin in the centre and four plates around it. The altar was decorated
in this fashion from top to bottom, and made a fine and imposing
spectacle.
Whenever the bishop says mass (as he did on this occasion), at the
_Gloria in excelsis_ he sets light to a bunch of tow suspended in a
grating in the middle of the church, especially contrived for this
purpose.
In this district the weather was already very wet and cold. On Sunday
the 18th of September took place the ceremony of the change of the
gonfaloniers of the city, and I was a spectator of the same at the
palace. Here they work on Sundays as much as on week days, and many
shops are open.
XIV
SECOND VISIT TO ROME
On Wednesday the 20th of September I left Lucca after dinner, having
first packed two boxes of things for despatch to France. We traversed
a level convenient highway, the country round being barren as the
Landes of Gascony. We crossed a wide river by a bridge built by Duke
Cosimo at a place where there are iron mills belonging to the Grand
Duke, and good lodging, also three fish ponds, places divided off like
enclosed pools and paved with bricks. In these they keep a vast number
of eels, which we could easily discern, as there was very little water.
We crossed the Arno at Fucecchio, and after a journey of twenty miles
arrived at dusk at Scala.
We left Scala at sunrise and travelled over a good level road through
a country of low fertile hills, not unlike France, taking our way
through Castel Fiorentino, a small walled town, and then passed by
the foot of the hill on which is situated Certaldo, the birthplace of
Boccaccio, and a handsome little town. After going eighteen miles we
halted for dinner at Poggibousi, a small town, and arrived in time for
supper at Siena, twelve miles farther on. I remarked that the cold at
this season was sharper in Italy than in France. The piazza of Siena is
the finest of any city in the world. Mass is said therein at an altar
in the open space, over which look all the houses and shops, wherefore
the craftsmen and all the people can participate without quitting their
work. At the elevation a trumpet is sounded to let every one know.
On Sunday the 23rd of September we left Siena after dinner, and
travelled over a convenient road, which was a little unlevel in
places, as the country is broken up in low fertile hills. At the end
of twenty miles we came to S. Chirico, a pretty little town, where
we found lodging outside the walls. Our baggage-horse fell down as he
was crossing a brook we had to ford, and thus damaged greatly all my
things, my books especially, and we were forced to stop and dry them.
Montepulciano, Montecello, and Castiglioncello, were towns standing on
neighbouring hills to the left hand.
Early on Monday I went to see a bath about two miles distant, called
Vignone, after a little town near thereto. The bath is situated in
a somewhat elevated position, beneath which runs the river Urcia,
and round about it are grouped about a dozen cottages, ill-found and
distasteful, a lousy-looking den. There is a large pool, surrounded
with a wall and steps, in the midst of which may be seen boiling up
several springs of the hot water which, as it has no smell of sulphur,
little exhalation, and a red sediment, seemed to me more ferruginous
than anything else. It is never drunk. The size of this pool is sixty
paces by thirty-five, and near it are four or five covered enclosures
for the use of bathers. The bath has considerable reputation, and for
drinking the patients here give the preference to the water of S.
Carriano near S. Chirico, and eighteen miles towards Rome, to the left
of the main road.
In looking at the earthenware of these parts, which resembles
porcelain, and is white, and clean, and very cheap, I thought it would
be far more appetising for table use than the pewter used in France,
which in the inns is especially disagreeable. About this time I felt in
my head a slight return of the pain from which I deemed I was now fully
delivered. It troubled me as before, round the eyes and brow, and the
forepart of the head generally, in the form of heaviness and a weary,
disquiet feeling, causing, me much anxiety. On Tuesday we dined at La
Paglia, after a ride of thirteen miles, and slept at a bad inn at S.
Lorenzo, sixteen miles farther on.
On Wednesday morning a dispute arose between our people, and the
_vetturini_ of Siena, who, thinking that we were over-long in the road,
made a demur about paying the outlay for the horses for this evening.
The matter became so serious that I brought it before the governor,
who, having heard it, decided in my favour, and sent one of the
_vetturini_ to prison. I argued that the accident to the baggage-horse
in the river, by which the greater part of my goods were spoilt, was
the real cause of any delay.
About six miles from Montefiascone, a few paces to the right of the
main road, is a bath called Naviso, in the middle of a wide plain. It
is three or four miles distant from the nearest hill, and the outflow
has formed a little lake, at one end of which is to be seen a strong
spring of hot water boiling up briskly. It smells of sulphur, having a
scum on the surface and a white sediment. On one side of this spring is
a pipe which conveys the water to two baths in a house near by. This,
the only bath-house in the place, has numerous chambers, but they are
very bad. I fancy, however, that few people come here. The water may be
drunk for seven days, ten pounds per diem, but before it is taken it
must be left some time to get cool, as at the baths of Preissac.[98]
The patients bathe in addition.
This house and the bath belong to a church, and is let for fifty crowns
per annum. The bath is likewise of great use to the sick people who
come here in the spring of the year, and the man who hires it sells a
quantity of the mud taken from the bath, which mud, when dissolved in
hot oil, is good for the itch in human beings, and for scabby dogs and
cattle, when diluted with water. The price of this mud when sold on the
spot is two giulios a load, but they sell it also in dried balls for
seven quattrini apiece. We saw here a lot of dogs belonging to Cardinal
Farnese, which had been sent here for the bath.
Three miles farther on we came to Viterbo, and our arrival here was so
ill-timed that we were forced to take dinner and supper together. I
was hoarse and had a bad cold through having slept in my clothes last
night on a table at S. Lorenzo, by reason of the vermin, a misadventure
which only befell me at Florence and this place. At Viterbo the people
eat a sort of acorn which they call _gensole_;[99] it is found in
various other parts of Italy and is pleasant to taste. Starlings are so
plentiful that they are to be had for one baiocco each.
On Thursday, September 28th, I went in the morning to see some
other baths near this place, situated in a plain in a remote spot
some distance from the hills.[100] Formerly there were two separate
buildings used as baths, not very long ago, but these have perished
through neglect. There is a rank smell throughout the place. All that
now remains is a cabin containing a small spring of hot water which
forms a pool for bathers. This water is odourless, with an insipid
taste, and not over-warm. It seemed to me to contain iron, and it
is occasionally drunk. Farther on is what they call the Palace of
the Pope, the story being that Pope Nicolas either built or restored
it.[101] Below this palace, in a deep hollow, three separate springs
of hot water rise from the earth, one of which serves for drinking,
having a moderate warmth, no smell, but somewhat sharp on the palate.
I believe it contains much nitre. I came here with the view of taking
the waters for three days, the quantity taken being just the same as in
other places. Exercise is used after drinking, and they set great store
on sweating.
This water is held in high esteem, and quantities of it are carried
all over Italy; and the physician, who has written a treatise on
the potable water of the baths of Italy, gives it the first place,
commending it especially for diseases of the kidneys. It is usually
drunk in May. I gathered faint hope of making a cure when I read an
inscription on the wall, written by a certain man who cursed his
physician for having sent him to such a place, and affirmed that he had
suffered much ill from his stay there. Moreover, the proprietor hinted
to me that I had come too late in the season, and certainly did not
urge me to take the waters.
There is only one lodging-house, but it is large and well arranged, and
situated only about a mile and a half from Viterbo, so I went thither
on foot. There are three or four baths of various properties, and in
addition provision for the douche. This water throws up a white scum,
which hardens readily and becomes solid like ice, making a crust on
the surface of the water. If a linen cloth be dipped therein, it will
quickly become loaded with this scum and quite stiff. This substance
is sold into other parts for use in cleansing the teeth, and when
chewed it has no more taste than earth or sand; indeed, the composition
thereof is reputed to be the same as that of marble, in which case it
might well harden in the kidneys. It is said, however, that the water
which is exported in bottles has no sediment and remains quite clear.
I imagine it may be drunk in any quantity, and that the sharpness
before-named may give it a certain savour and make it easier to swallow.
On my way back, I went over the same plain, which stretches out to
great length and is eight miles wide, to see the place where the
people of Viterbo (who are all either workers or traffickers with no
gentlemen amongst them) collect the flax and hemp, the working of which
is their chief industry, and found none but men employed, the women
taking no part in the work. There was a vast quantity of material, and
many craftsmen busy around a lake of water, which is boiling hot all
the year round, and is said to be fathomless. From this lake they have
formed other pools of warm water in which they put their hemp and flax
to steep.[102]
On Saturday, Saint Michael’s Day, I went after dinner to visit the
Madonna del Cerquio,[103] a church about a mile outside the city. The
road thither is a very fine one, level and straight and planted with
trees from one end to the other, the work of the Farnese Pope.[104]
The church itself is very fine, full of evidences of devotion and
innumerable _ex votos_. On the wall is the Latin inscription, some
hundred years old, telling how a certain man, having been attacked
by robbers and half-killed, sought refuge in an oak tree, upon which
was set the image of the Madonna now preserved here, and offered his
prayers thereto. By a miracle the Madonna made him invisible, and thus
he escaped a most pressing danger; and from this miracle arose this
particular worship of the Madonna. The present magnificent church was
built near where the oak stood, and the trunk of the oak tree, cut off
low down, may yet be seen; and the part to which the image was fixed,
together with the branches, is hung up on the wall.
On Saturday the last day of September I left Viterbo in the morning and
took the road to Bagnaia, a place belonging to Cardinal Gambaro, richly
embellished, especially with fountains, in respect of which it not only
equals but outdoes places like Pratolino and Tivoli.[105] In the first
place the fountains here all run with fresh spring water, which is not
the case at Tivoli, and the supply is so abundant--at Pratolino it
is very scanty--that they have been able to make all sorts of devices
therewith. Messer Tomaso da Siena, who designed the fountains at
Tivoli, or at any rate the principal ones, is still engaged on these,
which are unfinished, and in this, his latest work, he has touched the
highest point of art and beauty and grace, by adding continually some
fresh design to the original. There is a lofty pyramid, from which
three thousand jets of this matchless water gush forth in all kinds
of different ways, some ascending, others descending, and round the
pyramid are four beautiful basins full of clear fresh water. In the
middle of each is a little boat fashioned in stone, each one manned
with two arquebusiers and a trumpeter, who shoot water through their
instruments on to the pyramid. Round about are most lovely walks
furnished with seats made of fine stone and carved with most exquisite
art. Other portions of the place may seem more delightful to other
people; for instance, the palace itself, small, but well kept and
pleasant. For myself, however, I maintain that this place far outshines
any other in turning water to use and beauty. The cardinal was not
there, but being _francesco_ at heart as he was Francesco by name, his
people in charge of the palace showed me the greatest courtesy and
friendship.
From this place we followed the direct road and came to Caprarola, the
palace of Cardinal Farnese, and the most famous in all Italy.[106] I
have seen nothing in this country to be compared with it. The upper
part of the structure is in the form of a terrace built so that the
tiled roof is invisible. It is pentagonal in shape, but has all the
look of being a square. The interior is a perfect circle with wide
corridors running round, arched and painted all over. The mass of
building is immense, all the chambers being square and the large rooms
very beautiful. Amongst these is one, a marvel, which has in its
vaulted roof the celestial world with all its constellations, and on
its walls the terrestrial with all the regions accurately displayed,
every detail being richly painted on the wall aforesaid. In other
places are pictorial representations of the most heroic deeds of Pope
Paul III., and of the house of Farnese. The personages represented
are so life-like that the portraits of our Constable, of the Queen
Mother, or of her children, Charles, Henry, the Duke of Alençon, and
the Queen of Navarre, will be recognised at once by any who may see
them; and the same may be said with regard to King Francis, Henry II.,
Pietro Strozzi, and others. At the opposite ends of one of the saloons
are portraits of King Henry II. and King Philip. Under King Henry’s
portrait--which occupies the place of honour--is written, _Conservatore
di Casa Farnese_, and under King Philip, _Per li molti beni da lui
ricevuti_: in addition to these, there are many beautiful objects worth
seeing, amongst others, a grotto in which an artificial spray of
water falling into a basin conveys, both to ear and eye, the notion of
natural rain. The villa is situated in a barren mountainous country,
and the water for the fountains must needs be brought from Viterbo,
eight miles distant.[107]
We pursued our way over a level road running through a vast plain of
wide pastures, in the midst of which we came upon certain spots where
there was no grass, and where springs of clear cold water gushed forth,
but this water reeked so strongly of sulphur that it might be smelt a
long way off. After riding twenty-three miles we slept that night at
Monterossi, and on the morrow, Sunday, twenty-three more brought us to
Rome.
[Illustration: THE AQUEDUCT OF NERO
_From Piranesi’s Views of Rome_
_To face p. 166_, vol. iii.
]
The weather at this season was very cold, with an icy north wind. On
the Monday and several days following I suffered from indigestion, and
for this reason I took my meals apart, so I might eat less. From the
effects of a purge I felt an improvement in my general health, but my
head still gave me the same discomfort. On the very day of my arrival
at Rome I received a letter from the Jurats of Bordeaux, who wrote to
me most courteously concerning my election as the Mayor of their city,
and begged me to repair thither to take up the office.
On Sunday, October the 8th, I went to the baths of Diocletian on
Monte Cavallo to see the performances of an Italian who, during a
long captivity amongst the Turks, had learnt some wonderful feats of
horsemanship: for instance, while the horse was going at full speed, he
would stand upright on the saddle and hurl a dart with all his force,
and at the same moment drop down into his seat. Again, in full course
he would get off the horse, grasping the saddle-bow with one hand,
touching the ground with his right foot and keeping the left in the
stirrup. He mounted and dismounted several times in this fashion, and
turned somersaults on the saddle while the horse was going full speed,
and shot arrows from a Turkish bow in front and in the rear with the
utmost rapidity. He next rode the horse standing upright on his feet,
and bending his body downwards so that his head and shoulders rested on
the horse’s neck, and then he took a club in hand and, having thrown it
off into the air, caught it again during his course. Standing on the
saddle he took a lance, with which he struck a glove and transfixed it
as if he were running at the ring. On foot he caused a staff to revolve
in a circle round his neck, having first set the same going with his
hand.[108]
[Illustration: THE BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN
_From Piranesi’s Views of Rome_
_To face p. 168_, vol. iii.
]
On the 10th of October the French ambassador sent a messenger to me
after dinner to inform me that he would call in his coach to take
me, if I might be willing, to see the goods of Cardinal Ursino[109]
which were to be sold, the cardinal having died in Naples last summer
and left all his vast wealth to an infant niece. Amongst other rare
things was a counterpane of taffetas lined with swansdown. In Siena it
is common to see the skins of swans entire, covered with feathers, and
ready for use, at the price of a crown and a half, and as they are of
the bigness of a sheepskin, it takes but few of them to make a coverlet
of this sort. Then there was an ostrich’s egg carved and beautifully
painted, a square jewel casket with certain gems therein, and fitted
inside with mirrors in such fashion that the casket, when opened,
seemed in every way much larger than it really was, while the gems
were multiplied tenfold, each stone being exhibited many times by the
reflection in the mirrors. Meantime it is hard to perceive that these
are really mirrors.
On Thursday, October the 12th, the Cardinal of Sens fetched me in
his coach to visit the church of St. Giovanni e Paolo, from which he
takes his title: he is, moreover, Superior of those friars who make
distilled waters and perfumes at their house on Monte Celio, of whom
I have already spoken. It would seem that the loftiness of this site
is artificial, the whole of the space beneath being vaulted with vast
corridors and apartments underground. Legend says it was formerly the
Forum of Hostilius. From the garden and vineyards of the friars the
prospect is very beautiful, for both old and new Rome lie open to the
view. The whole place, from its precipitous height and the deep ravine
at its foot, is cut off and inaccessible from almost every point.
[Illustration: ROME
_From Civitates Orbis Terrarum_
_To face p. 170_, vol. iii.
]
This same day I handed over to a carrier a well-packed box for transit
to Milan, a journey which the muleteers generally make in twenty days.
The box weighed one hundred and fifty pounds, and I had to pay four
baiocchi or two French sous per pound. Inside it were many things of
value, notably a very fine neck-chain of the _Agnus Dei_, the finest to
be had in Rome. This ornament had been made specially at the order of
the ambassador of the empress, and a gentleman had taken it to the Pope
so that he might bless it.
XV
JOURNEY HOME
On the morning of Sunday, October the 15th, I departed from Rome,[110]
where I left my brother with forty-three golden crowns, which money he
decided to spend by remaining in Rome for five months and learning the
art of fencing. Before I set forth he hired an elegant little apartment
for twenty giulios a month.[111] I was accompanied in the first stage
by the Signors d’Estissac, di Montu, the Barone di Chase, Morens, and
certain others. And if I had not started before the appointed time,
so as to save them the trouble which this courtesy of theirs would
have entailed, many more--to wit, the Signors di Bellai, d’Ambres,
d’Alegra, and several others, would have also gone with me, having got
their horses all in readiness. We went thirty miles and slept that
night at Ronciglione, having engaged horses as far as Lucca at twenty
giulios a horse, the _vetturino_ paying all charges on the road.
[Illustration: PONTE MOLLE
_From Piranesi’s Views of Rome_
_To face p. 172_, vol. iii.
]
On the Monday morning I was astonished at the intense cold, cold such
as I had never before felt at this season, and to mark that the vintage
was still unfinished in these parts. We dined at Viterbo, where I put
on my furs and got ready for winter, and went on twenty-nine miles
farther to S. Lorenzo for supper, and slept at S. Chirio, after riding
another thirty-two miles. All these roads have recently been levelled
by the order of the Duke of Tuscany, a work of the greatest service to
the public. May God reward him, seeing that he has made what were the
hardest roads to traverse to be as easy as the city streets. The influx
of travellers Rome-wards is a marvel; for this reason the charge for
horses going thither is exorbitant, while coming away they may be had
for nothing. Near Siena, as in many other places, we came upon a double
bridge--that is, one with a structure on a higher level by which a
stream of water is carried over the chasm. We reached Siena in the
evening, after travelling twenty miles.
This night I suffered for two hours from colic, and I fancied I felt
the movement of a stone. Early on Thursday morning I went to see one
Guglielmo Felix, a Jewish doctor, who talked to me some time as to
my general rule of living with regard to my kidneys and the gravel.
I then left Siena, and was again troubled with colic for three or
four hours. Then the pain came to a crisis, and I was assured that a
stone must have passed. We travelled twenty-eight miles and supped at
Ponteaelce,[112] where I passed a stone bigger than a grain of millet,
with a quantity of red gravel, but I suffered no pain. We left on the
Friday morning, and halted sixteen miles along the road at Altopascio,
where we stopped an hour to feed our cattle. On the road we saw divers
peasants gathering up the vine leaves, which they keep to use as fodder
during the winter; others were collecting ferns wherewith to feed their
cows. We slept at Lucca, eight miles farther on, and there divers
gentle-folk and craftsmen came to visit me.
On Saturday, October 21st, after having eaten a bunch of grapes (in
these travels of mine I have eaten fruit sparingly or not at all in
the morning), I set forth without waiting for certain gentlemen who
had made plans to accompany me. We travelled over a good road, for the
most part level; on the right hand the mountains, thick set with olive
trees, and on the left the marshes, with the sea beyond.
At a certain spot in the dominion of Lucca I came upon an engineering
work which has partially fallen into ruin through the neglect of the
government, a neglect which has been the cause of great loss to the
country round. This was a construction devised to drain and render
fertile the marshes aforesaid. In the first place, a deep ditch was dug
through the marshes, at the end of which were fixed three wheels, kept
in motion by a stream of running water brought down from the mountains
so as to fall upon them. To these wheels were attached a number of
buckets in such fashion that they took up water from the ditch on one
side and threw it over on the other side of the bank into another
channel on a higher level. This last-named channel, cut for the purpose
and lined with bricks throughout, conveyed the water to the sea, and
thus drained all the country round.[113]
We passed through Pietra Santa, a fortified town in the territory of
the Duke of Florence, with houses in plenty but great lack of people,
the report being that most of them either die or fall into ill-health
on account of the badness of the air. After riding twenty-two miles, we
reached Massa di Carrara, a place belonging to the Prince of Massa, of
the family of Cibo, in time for supper. Here is a fine castle on the
top of a little mountain, and half-way up the ascent, around the castle
and below it, are the streets and the houses of the town, surrounded by
fine walls. On still lower ground, outside the walls aforesaid, a large
town is built on a level site and protected by walls recently erected.
The situation, the streets, and the houses are all very seemly, the
walls being adorned with paintings. I was forced here to drink new
wine, as no other is to be had in these parts. By storing it in casks
made of a certain wood, and by treating it with the white of eggs, they
clarify it so that it looks like old wine, but it has a taste which is
not natural.
On Sunday, October 22nd, we set out over a very level road, with the
Tyrrhenian Sea about a crossbow-shot distant on the left hand. Along
this road, between us and the sea, we saw a few scattered ruins, which,
according to the report of the country-folk, marked the spot where once
stood the great city of Luna.[114]
We came next to Sarrezana,[115] a town under the sway of Genoa, where
we marked the Genoese device, Saint George on horseback, and the
garrison of Swiss soldiers. The place formerly belonged to the Duke of
Florence, and if the principality of Massa did not intervene between
the two States it is well-nigh certain that the frontier towns, Pietra
Santa--Florentine--and Sarrezana--Genoese--would constantly be at blows.
We left Sarrezana, where we were forced to pay four giuli for each
horse for a single post, and where there was a great firing of cannon
by reason of the arrival of Don Giovanni dei Medici, the natural
brother of the Duke of Florence, who was returning from Genoa,
whither he had gone, on behalf of his brother, to pay a visit to
the Empress.[116] Many of the other Italian princes had gone there
also, and every one was talking of the pomp displayed by the Duke
of Ferrara on this occasion. He came to meet the Empress with four
hundred carriages. He had asked leave of the Venetian Signory to pass
through their territory with six hundred horses, and their answer was
that he might cross their boundaries, but with fewer horses; whereupon
he bestowed his followers in coaches, and was thus able to take all
he desired with a smaller number of horses. I met Prince Giovanni on
the road, a handsome young man, with a train of twenty well-equipped
followers riding on hired horses, a practice which is no derogation
from dignity in Italy, even for princes themselves.
After quitting Sarrezana we left the road to Genoa on the left hand,
but for those going to Milan it matters little whether they go by
Genoa or not. I had a strong desire to visit Genoa and see the Empress,
but I was troubled over the journey I should have to undertake. Two
roads lead thither, one of forty miles direct from Sarrezana, which
takes three days, and runs through the roughest and most mountainous
country. The way itself is stony and precipitous, the inns bad, and
the road little used. The other goes to Lerici, three miles from
Sarrezana, and there travellers embark and reach Genoa in twelve hours.
I could not face the sea voyage on account of my weak stomach, and I
shrank from the trouble of finding lodging in Genoa in its present
crowded state, even more than from the discomforts of the journey by
land. Moreover, I heard that the road from Genoa to Milan was haunted
by thieves, and as I was exceedingly anxious to get home, I resolved
to leave Genoa aside, and follow the right-hand road through the
mountains, keeping always to the valley of the Magra, with the stream
to our left. We passed through the lands of Genoa, of Florence, and of
the Malespini severally. The road was good except in one or two rocky
broken places; and, after riding thirty miles, we arrived at Pontremoli
in time for bed.
This is a straggling town, full of old buildings, which are in no wise
beautiful. There are also some ruins, and a legend goes that the town
was known to the ancients as Appua. It is now under Milan, its last
rulers having been the Fieschi. The first thing served to us at table
was cheese, such as is made round Milan and Piacenza, and they offered
likewise the most excellent olives, stoned and served with oil and
vinegar as a salad in Genoese fashion. A basin full of water placed on
a stool was handed round for the washing of hands, and each person had
to use the same water. The town stands at the base of the mountains,
which rise on all sides.
I left this place on the morning of Monday, the 23rd, and began the
ascent of the Apennines from the moment I left the inn. Though the
mountains are high, the road is safe and easy. We were going up and
down hill all day, the country being alpine in character and barren,
and, after riding thirty miles, we slept that evening at Fornovo, in
the dominions of the Conte di S. Secondo. I was glad, indeed, to get
out of the hands of the thieves who dwell in the mountains, who use the
most barbarous extortion imaginable towards travellers in the charges
they make for food and stabling.[117] At table here they put before us
various kinds of excellent mustard sauces, one of them being made of
quince apples. In this region the price of horse hire is exorbitant,
the business being in the hands of men who have no fixed charge and
cheat all strangers who may fall into their hands. Travellers, as a
rule, pay two giuli a horse for each post, but here they asked me to
pay three or four or five, wherefore every horse I hired cost me
more than a crown per diem; and again, they would often reckon one
post as two. This place, Fornovo, was two posts distant from Parma;
and, in going from Parma to Piacenza, I had to traverse the same road
as if I went from Fornovo to Piacenza, save that by going to Parma I
should lengthen my journey by two posts. I determined not to go to
Parma, being anxious not to interrupt my plans.[118] Fornovo is a
small village of six or seven cottages, situated on a plain and near a
river called the Taro, along which we went a short distance on Tuesday
morning on our way to Borgo San Doni,[119] twelve miles distant.
This is a small town which the Duke of Parma is now enclosing with
a fine wall well set with bastions. Here at table they gave us
_mostarda_[120] made with honey, and in it oranges cut in strips like
quince marmalade, and half-cooked. Cremona is about as far as Piacenza
from this place; and, leaving it on our right, we travelled over a fine
level road running through a very fertile country, in which there was
not a hillock to be seen as far as the eye can reach. We changed horses
at every post, and for two posts I made them go at full gallop, so as
to test the strength of my loins. I felt no ill effects or weariness
therefrom.
Close to Piacenza are two large columns, one on each side of the road
at a distance of about forty paces apart. On the bases is written
in Latin a prohibition to plant trees or vines, or to raise any
building between them. I know not whether this notice aims merely
at the preservation of the width of the road or to keep the view
uninterrupted, as it is now, from the site of those columns to the
town, a distance of about half a mile. At the end of twenty miles we
reached Piacenza, where we purposed to sleep.
This is a large city. As we arrived in good time I spent three hours
in visiting every part of it, and found the streets muddy and unpaved,
and the houses mean. The piazza contains the chief buildings of the
place, the palace of justice, and the prison; it is, moreover, the
meeting-place of the citizens. It has a few poor shops. I saw the
castle, which is now in the hands of King Philip, who keeps there a
guard of three hundred Spanish soldiers, and these, according to their
own account, are very ill paid. Morning and evening they play the
_diana_[121] for an hour on instruments called hautbois in France,
and here _fiffari_. The castle has a large establishment, and in it I
saw some fine pieces of artillery. The Duke of Parma[122] never comes
near it now, but has lodging, whenever he happens to be in the city,
in the Cittadella, a castle in another quarter, thus avoiding the
castle, which is in King Philip’s keeping. In short, I saw nothing
noteworthy except the new church of S. Augustino, which King Philip
was building in place of another which he had pulled down and used in
the construction of the castle. Moreover, he still kept possession of
part of the income of the same. The new church is not yet finished, but
the beginning is very handsome.[123] The friars’ lodgings, seventy in
number, and the double cloisters, are finished; indeed with regard to
corridors, dormitories, cellars, and other conveniences, this edifice
seemed to be the most sumptuous and magnificent I had ever seen, if my
memory does not deceive me, dedicated to the service of the Church. At
table here they serve the salt in lumps, and the cheese in large pieces
without a dish.
The Duke of Parma was awaiting in Piacenza the visit of the Archduke
of Austria’s eldest son, whom I saw at Insprug; and the rumour was
that this prince was on his way to Rome to be crowned king of the
Romans.[124] Here they bring you water for hand-washing at table, and
also for mixing with your wine, using a large brazen spoon therefor.
The cheese they eat is the same Piacenzan cheese which is sold all
through the district. Piacenza is exactly half-way from Rome to Lyons;
but I was obliged, in order to take the direct road to Milan, to go on
and sleep at Marignano, thirty miles distant, from which place it is
ten miles farther to Milan.
I prolonged my journey by ten miles in order to see Pavia. On
Wednesday, October 25th, I started early over a very good road, and
during the way I voided a small soft stone and a good deal of gravel.
We went through a small town belonging to the Conte Santafiore, and
our road at last brought us to the Po, which we crossed on a sort of
platform arranged on a double boat with a cabin for shelter, this
ferry being dragged across the river by means of a long rope which
was supported by a row of small boats arranged in the stream for this
purpose. Close to this place the Po and the Ticino unite their waters;
and hence we reached Pavia in good time after a journey of thirty short
miles.
I quickly set to work to visit the principal sights of the city: the
bridge over the Ticino; the cathedral; the churches of the Carmini,
S. Tomaso, and S. Agostino,[125] which contains the shrine of S.
Augustino, a splendid tomb of white marble with many statues. In one
of the piazzas of the city is a brick pedestal surmounted by a statue
which appears to be a copy of that of Antoninus Pius on horseback
before the Capitol at Rome.[126] This one is smaller and not to be
compared in beauty. What puzzled me was the fact that this statue
has stirrups and saddle-bows before and behind, whereas the Roman
statue has neither, which makes all the more cogent the opinion of the
learned, which maintains that the stirrups and saddle-bows were later
additions, some ignorant sculptor having fancied that they had been
forgotten. I saw also the building which by the bounty of Cardinal
Borromeo has been begun for the accommodation of the students.[127]
The town is large and certainly handsome, and full of hand workers
of all sorts, but few of the houses are really fine, even the one in
which the Empress lodged recently being of little account. I noticed
the escutcheon of France, but the lilies had been erased therefrom,
indeed there was nowhere anything remarkable to be seen. Hereabout
they charged two giuli a post for horses, and the best inn I have
entered between Rome and this place is the _Posta_ at Piacenza; indeed,
I believe it to be the best inn in all Italy, after the one at Verona.
The worst I have seen is the “Falcone” at Pavia. Here and in Milan
they charge separately for firewood, and the beds are unprovided with
mattresses.
I left Pavia on Thursday, October the 26th. I diverged from the road
about a mile to the right in order to visit the field where King
Francis fought his battle, and found it a level plain. I went also
to see the Certosa, which is justly celebrated as a very beautiful
church, the façade of the entrance wall being built of marble, and
astonishingly rich in ornamentation. On one of the altars is a
decoration of carved ivory which represents divers subjects of the
Old and New Testaments; and besides this the marble sepulchre of Gian
Galeazzo Visconti, the founder of the church, the choir, the ornaments
of the high altar, and the large and beautiful cloisters are the
finest things to be seen here. The buildings around are on a vast
scale, and have all the appearance of the palace of a great prince from
their grandeur, and still more from the number of servants, horses,
carriages, artisans, and labourers everywhere apparent. Incredible sums
are still being spent upon it, the money being supplied from the income
of the brethren. The Certosa stands in a beautiful green plain.
From here to Milan is twenty miles. This city is the most populous
in Italy, its granaries and workshops being full of merchandise and
craftsmen. It has a great resemblance to Paris, and in general has the
look of a French town. It lacks the palaces of Rome, Naples, Genoa, and
Florence, but it surpasses them all in size, and is as busy and crowded
as Venice. On Friday, October the 27th, I went to view the outside of
the castle and walked all round it, and found it of great size and
marvellous strength. It is occupied by seven hundred Spanish soldiers
and admirably furnished with artillery; moreover, the works are still
being strengthened on all sides. I stopped at Milan over this day
because of the heavy rain which came on; up to this time indeed I have
been very lucky in meeting with fine weather and good roads, and now on
Saturday, October the 28th, I left Milan in the morning.
The road was good and level, and though it was flooded by the
continuous downpour, it was not muddy, the soil being sandy. At the
end of eighteen miles we dined at Buffalora, and then crossed the
river Naviglio, a narrow stream, but deep enough to allow the passage
of large barges to Milan. Shortly afterwards we crossed the Ticino
by boat, and twelve miles farther on reached Novara in time for bed.
This is a small town standing on a level plain in the midst of woods
and vineyards and fertile fields. We left it next morning, and after
going ten miles we halted a little to feed our cattle at Vercelli,
a town under the Duke of Savoy, situated on level ground beside
the Zeza,[128] which we crossed in a boat. The aforesaid duke, by
employing a vast number of men, has built a fort in a very short space
of time--a fine strong place, as far as I could judge from seeing
only the outside--and has thereby raised the suspicion of his Spanish
neighbours. From this place we went through S. German and S. Giaco,
small villages, and, travelling all the way over a lovely plain, which
is especially fertile in walnuts--for here they have no olives but use
only walnut oil--we came, after a journey of twenty miles, to Livorno,
a small town with a good many houses, and there stayed the night.
We started early on Monday morning, and travelling over a level road
reached Chivas, ten miles distant, in time for dinner, and then onward
for ten miles more, crossing on the journey a great number of streams
by boat or by a ford, to Turin, whither we might easily have come in
time for dinner. This is a small city with much water round about it.
It is not very well built or agreeable, though, to be sure, rills of
water run through all the streets to keep them free from dirt. I here
hired horses at five crowns and a half each to take me as far as Lyons
in six days, the cost of the horses on the road to be included in this
charge. They speak French here usually, and were very friendly towards
us. The common language here has little else of Italian about it except
the pronunciation, most of the words used being French. We left Turin
on Tuesday, the last day of October, and dined at S. Ambrogio, two
posts farther on; and, after going the same distance over a narrow
level space between the mountains, we reached Susa, where we slept.
Susa is a large, populous town. I was here taken with a violent pain
in the right knee, a pain which I had felt for several days, and which
went on from bad to worse. The inns are better than in other parts of
Italy; good wine, bad bread, plenty to eat, such is the rule everywhere
in Savoy. After hearing mass on All Saints’ Day, I travelled one post,
as far as Novalese, where I hired eight _marroni_[129] to carry me in a
litter up to the top of Mont Senis and down on the other side.
* * * * *
Here French is spoken, wherefore I quit the use of the foreign
language, which I can employ easily enough, albeit somewhat
incorrectly, not having had the opportunity of giving due diligence
thereto through being always in the company of Frenchmen. I crossed
Mont Senis partly on horseback and partly in a litter borne by four
men, having others ready to relieve them. They carry the litters on
their shoulders. The ascent takes two hours, and is stony and difficult
for horses which are not accustomed to it, but otherwise without
difficulty or danger, for as the road is constructed on the mass of the
mountain, there are no precipices and no danger except of stumbling.
Below may be seen a plain two leagues long, and on it divers cottages,
lakes, and springs, and the post-house. There are no trees, but plenty
of grass and meadows to give pasturage in mild weather. At this season
snow lay over all. The descent is about a league, cut out of the rock
in a direct line, and I had myself carried down it by the _marrons_,
to whom I gave two crowns amongst the eight of them. The charge for
the descent is only one _teston_. It was a pleasant bit of sport, but
not one needing great courage. We dined at Lanebourg,[130] two posts
onward, a Savoyard village at the foot of the mountains, and slept in
a small place two leagues farther on. Everywhere we found abundance of
trout and excellent wine, both new and old. We started and travelled
five leagues over a rough, mountainous road, and dined at S. Michel,
where there is a post-house. Five leagues more brought us, late in the
day and wet through, to La Chambre, a little town which gives the title
of Marquis to a certain family, and there we slept.
On Friday, November the 3rd, we dined at Aiguebelle, a well-built town,
four leagues, and slept at Montmelian, another four leagues farther
on. This is a town and fortress which stands on the top of a little
ridge rising out of a level plain between two lofty mountains. The
town stands at the base of the fort on the river Isère, which passes
by Grenoble, seven leagues distant. Here I began to appreciate the
excellence of the Italian oil, of which I was never conscious after
eating, but I found that the oil of these parts upset my stomach. Two
leagues on our road we halted to dine at Chamberi, the chief town of
Savoy, a fair busy little place situated at the foot of the mountains
at a spot where they recede and leave a fine level stretch of country.
Passing on we crossed the Mont du Chat, which is high, steep, and
rocky, but in no way dangerous or difficult, and in descending came
upon a large lake on which stands a castle called Bordeau, where they
make swords which enjoy a great reputation. After a journey of four
leagues we rested for the night at a little town called Hyene.
On Sunday morning we crossed the Rosne, which ran on our right-hand
side, after we passed the spot where the Duke of Savoy has built a
small fort in a narrow gorge of the rocks. Along one of these is a
narrow path at the end of which stands the fort aforesaid, not unlike
the one which the Venetians have built at Chiusa in a pass of the
Tirolese mountains. We rode seven leagues along the mountain valley,
and without halting came to S. Rambert, a small town in the valley
aforesaid.
In most of the Savoyard towns a brook runs through the centre, and in
the streets, facing either bank of the same, wide penthouses are set
in front of the houses, so that passengers are always protected from
the rain, albeit the shops are darkened by this usage. On Monday,
November the 6th, we left S. Rambert early in the morning. During my
stay there M. Francesco Cenami, a banker of Lyons, who had come there
on account of the plague, sent his nephew to convey to me his polite
greetings, and a present of some of his own wine. We were soon quite
clear of the mountains and began to enter the level French country. I
crossed the river Ain in a boat near the bridge of Chesai and rode six
leagues in one stretch to Monloel, a little town where there is much
going and coming. It is the last of the Duke of Savoy’s dominions. On
Tuesday, after dinner, I took horses and went on in two posts to Lyons,
where I slept. I was greatly pleased with the town, and on Friday I
bought of Joseph de la Sone three strong service horses, with fresh cut
tails, for two hundred crowns, having purchased on the previous day of
Malesieu a pacing horse for fifty crowns and another curtal nag for
thirty-three. On Saturday, Saint Martin’s Day, I had a sharp pain in
the stomach and kept my bed till midday. I felt disordered all day and
took no dinner and a very light supper. On Sunday, November the 10th,
Signor Alberto Giachinotti, a Florentine gentleman, who had already
shown divers courtesies to me, entertained me at dinner in his house,
and offered to lend me any money I might want, though he had never seen
me till now.
On Wednesday, November the 15th, I left Lyons after dinner, and, after
a journey of five leagues over a hilly road, arrived in time for
bed at Bordeliere, a village of one or two houses. Quitting this on
Thursday morning we traversed a fine level road, and, close to Fur, a
little town; we crossed the Loire in a boat, and passed the night at
L’Hôpital, a small walled town, after riding eight leagues. We left
this place on Friday morning, and went over a hilly road to Tiers,
six leagues distant, the day being rough and snowy, with a cruel
wind full in our faces. Tiers is a small town on the Allier, busy,
well-built, and populous, the chief industry being in paper-knives and
playing-cards. It stands equidistant from Lyons, St. Flour, Moulins,
and Puy. The nearer I got to my home the more tedious the journey
seemed; indeed, as far as concerned the reckoning of the days, the
distance from Chamberi to my home seemed a good half of the whole
journey from Rome. Tiers is a possession of the Bourbon family and is
now held by M. de Montpensier.[131] While I was there I went to see
cards made at the factory of one Palmier, a process which seems to
require as many workmen as any other fine handicraft. The common cards
cost only one sou, but the fine ones are sold for two caroli.[132] On
Saturday we crossed the rich plain of the Limaigne, and after passing
in a boat the Douze and the Allier, we arrived at Pont du Château,
having ridden four leagues.
The plague has been very bad in these parts, and I heard some
remarkable accounts thereof. The dwelling of the Seigneur of the town,
the manor-house of the Canillacs, was burnt so as to destroy the
pestilence with fire. The Seigneur aforesaid sent one of his men to
me with divers offers of service, and begged me to write to M. de Foix
on behalf of his son, who is going to Rome. On Sunday, November the
19th, I reached Clermont, two leagues distant, in time for dinner, and
I tarried there for the sake of my young horses. On Monday the 20th I
started in the morning, and on the heights of Pui de Dôme I passed a
stone, somewhat broad and flat. I had felt it all the morning and even
the day before with a slight pain in the kidneys. It was neither very
hard nor very soft.
As I passed by Pongibaut I went to pay my respects to Madame La
Fayette, and remained with her half-an-hour. This house has not the
beauty its reputation warrants, the site being ugly, the garden small
and angular, with paths raised some four or five feet, and beds sunk
and filled for the most part with fruit trees, the herbs being very
scanty. The sides of the sunk beds aforesaid are set with cut stone. It
snowed so fast, and the weather was so rough and cold, that nothing
was to be seen of the country. I reached Pont-a-Mar, seven leagues off,
and slept there. This is a small village, and while there I heard that
Monsieur and Madame du Lude were sojourning at a place two leagues
away. I slept that night at Pont Sarrant after riding six leagues.
As far as Limoges this road is badly furnished with inns, which,
however, give you tolerably good wine, but they are used only by
muleteers and couriers going to Lyons. My head was uneasy, the storms
and cold winds and rain were very bad for it; and in sooth it got its
fill of discomfort in this journey over a region where the winter is
sharper than anywhere else in France. On Wednesday, November 22, I
left Pont Sarrant in very bad weather, and, after passing by Feletin,
a well-built little town placed in a hollow surrounded by high hills
and now almost deserted on account of the recent pestilence, I stopped
the night at Chastein, a miserable little village, five leagues on the
road. Here I was forced to drink new unclarified wine, as no other was
to be had, and the next day went on five leagues farther to Saubiac,
which belongs to Monsieur de Lausun, thence to Limoges, where I stayed
all the Saturday, I bought a mule for ninety crowns of the sun,[133]
and paid in addition five crowns for maintenance of this mule from
Lyons to this place, having been hereby cheated out of four crowns, for
the cost of all the other horses for the same distance only amounted to
three crowns and two-thirds.
On Sunday, November the 26th, I left Limoges after dinner, and, after
riding five leagues, slept at Cars, where I found no one but Madame
de Cars at home. I slept on Monday night at Tivie--six leagues--on
Tuesday at Perigus--five leagues--on Wednesday at Mauriac--five
leagues--and on Thursday, St. Andrew’s, the last day of November, at
Montaigne[134]--seven leagues--having quitted this same spot on June
22, 1580, to go to La Fère, my journey having lasted seventeen months
and eight days.
INDEX
Abano, ii. 21, 23
Agriculture, ii. 186, 187, 191, 192; iii. 33, 84, 85
Aigues Caudes (Eaux Chaudes), i. 78; ii. 181; iii. 45
Ammianus Marcellinus, i. 64_n_
Amyot, J., ii. 126_n_
Ancona, iii. 1-4
Andelot, Sieur, i. 47, 48
Angelo, Mich., i. 11; ii. 49
Antiquities, classic, i. 91, 115; ii. 71, 98, 100, 128-131, 166,
185; iii. 7, 84, 118, 119
Appenino (statue), ii. 44, 47
Arabian physician, ii. 122
Arezzo, iii. 22, 123_n_
Ariosto, ii. 34; iii. 110
Artillery, ii. 164
Augsburg, i. 9, 129-150;
religious factions, i. 149
Austria, i. 74, 97, 123;
Don John of, ii. 127;
relations with Lucca, iii. 33
Baden, baths of, i. 77-91;
cost of living at, 89
Bagnaja, iii. 162, 165
Banieres (Bagnères de Bigorre), i. 55; ii. 39; iii. 33, 47, 79
Baptism, Lutheran, i. 132, 133
Barbotan, i. 78; ii. 28; iii. 45, 79
Bartholomew, S., i. 11; ii. 127_n_
Basle, i. 62-67;
religious discords, 65;
dissoluteness of women, 66
Baths at Rome, ii. 133, 134
Beaumont-sur-Oise, i. 25, 26
Beds, i. 103, 107, 130, 168, 188; ii. 31, 32; iii. 51
Bembo, P., ii. 10
Bernabo, spring of, iii. 56, 62, 88, 102
Bird-catching, iii. 136
Boccaccio, iii. 152;
his will, 107
Boetie, E. de la, iii. 53
Bologna, ii. 37-39;
factions at, 39; iii. 113
Bolsena, ii. 68
Books, confiscated, ii. 77;
restored, ii. 139;
censured, ii. 175, 176
Borro, Giov., iii. 123, 124, 128
Botzen, i. 177-179
Bracciolini, Poggio, i. 81
Brenner, pass of, i. 166-172
Brigandage, ii. 40, 187, 188; iii. 180
Brixen, i. 172
Bulicame, iii. 161
Bulletin of health, ii. 1, 33, 36, 73
Buoncompagno, Giac., ii. 84, 165;
Filippo, ii. 141_n_
Calvin, Calvinism, i. 65, 88, 106; iii. 87
Canals, ii. 28, 29
Capello, Bianca, ii. 52, 53_n_; iii. 28_n_
Capperonier, M., i. 22
Caprarola, i. 10; iii. 164
Caselis, M. de, i. 20, 41, 191; ii. 20
Casimir, Duke, i. 61
Catena, i. 21; ii. 89-91
Catholicism, latent, amongst the reformed, i. 85
Catiline, iii. 30
Cenis, Mont, iii. 195
Certaldo, iii. 152
Certosa, i. 11; iii. 190
Chaffousine (Fusina), ii. 13, 14, 18, 35
Chalons, i. 34
Charles V., i. 48, 97, 143, 167, 185
Chaumont-en-Bassigni, i. 36
Chimera, figure of, ii. 58; iii. 102
Circumcision, rite of, ii. 102-105
Clement VII. (Pope), i. 185
Clesio, Card., i. 182-186
Coaches of Roman nobility, ii. 146
Colleges in Rome, ii. 83
Colombin, S., ii. 8
Confraternities, ii. 151, 156
Cornacchini, T., iii. 127
Corsena, spring of, iii. 43-45
Coryat, T., i. 8, 18; ii. 10_n_
Courtenay, Earl of Devon, ii. 11_n_
Courtesans, i. 18; ii. 17, 18, 115, 146, 148, 160; iii. 105, 108
Crayfish, i. 71, 131, 187
D’Abein, M., ii. 79, 120, 123; iii. 168
Dancing, i. 139, 140;
school of, at Padua, ii. 10;
permitted by Lutherans, i. 121
Dante, iii. 109_n_, 161_n_
D’Arc, Jeanne, i. 41
D’Este, Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara, ii. 33, 34; iii. 15
D’Este, Card., ii. 25, 167_n_, 194
D’Estissac, M., i. 20, 25, 30, 58, 62, 75, 94, 191; ii. 33, 65, 80;
iii. 172
Divizia, Lucchese poet, iii. 72, 73
Donato, iii. 54, 88
Dowries to girls at Rome, ii. 161-162
Draining marshes, ii. 30, 31; iii. 123, 176
Duel, M. Mattecoulon’s, i. 20; iii. 172_n_
Elena, S., baths of, ii. 26-28
Empire, politics of, i. 85, 97;
unpopularity of the Emperor, i. 85
Empoli, iii. 109
Estienne, H., ii. 125
Etruscan writing, iii. 113
Excommunication, sentence of, ii. 148-150
Exorcism, ii. 111-113
Factions, French and Spanish, at Bologna, ii. 39;
at Lucca, iii. 163
Fano, iii. 6, 8
Farnese, Alessandro (Cardinal), ii. 178_n_; iii. 164
Faron, S., i. 28
Fencing, i. 134; ii. 10; iii. 103
Ferdinand of Tirol, i. 155, 159, 161, 162;
his sons, i. 163, 166; iii. 186, 187
Ferdinand I. (Emperor), i. 164, 167
Ferier, A. de, ii. 14
Ferrara, ii. 33-36
Ferries, i. 76; ii. 31, 32
Flaminian Way, ii. 181; iii. 10, 12
Flax, iii. 160
Fleur-de-lys, ii. 52; iii. 28, 117, 189
Florence, ii. 47-59; iii. 93-108;
want of culture in, ii. 59
Foix, M. de, ii. 141
Foligno, ii. 189
Fornovo, i. 8; iii. 183
Forum Romanum, ii. 98
Fossombrone, iii. 9
French popular in Tuscany, ii. 66
Fuggers, the, i. 23, 143, 186
Furlo, pass of, iii. 11, 12
Garda, lake of, i. 190-193
Gardens, at Augsburg, i. 140-143;
at Rome, ii. 159-160;
Petraja, ii. 54-55;
_see_ also “Tivoli” and “Pratolino” Gate, mechanical, at Augsburg,
i. 164-166
Germain, Mary, i. 21, 37-39
Germany, Montaigne’s liking of, i. 6, 7, 179, 188; ii. 9; iii. 65
Grammont, M. de, i. 26_n_
Greece, Montaigne’s project to visit, i. 188
Gregory XIII. (Pope), i. 10; ii. 67, 80-85, 88, 114, 138, 161, 162, 185
Grynæus, i. 64
Guillot’s at Amiens, iii. 23
Hadrian’s villa, ii. 171_n_, 173;
his palace at Pisa, iii. 113
Hala, i. 160, 165;
salt works, 161
Hannibal, iii. 25
Hasdrubal, iii. 9, 17
Hautoy, M. de, i. 191; ii. 65, 80
Helfenstein, Count of, i. 128
Henry II. of France, i. 10; iii. 165
Henry III. of France, ii. 13, 17_n_, 79_n_
Henry VIII. of England, ii. 119, 120
Heresy suspected in Montaigne’s writings, ii. 139, 140, 175, 176
Hildegarde, S., i. 119
Hosius, Card., ii. 177
Hottoman, F., i. 7, 64, 179
Huguenots, i. 119; ii. 97, 126, 149
Inns, charges at, i. 111;
deficiencies in, ii. 9, 49, 50; iii. 101, 111, 131, 190, 194
Innkeepers, knavery of, ii. 40, 41; iii. 182
Innsbruck, i. 158-166
Italian ladies wanting in beauty, ii. 49, 107; iii. 8
Janiculum, ii. 94
Janus, temple of, ii. 99_n_
Jesuates, ii. 3, 7, 35
Jesuits, i. 12, 127, 134, 149, 153, 165; ii. 196
Jews, ii. 5;
races in the Corso, ii. 106;
doctor consulted by Montaigne, iii. 174
Journal, Montaigne’s, discovery of, i. 2;
written in Italian, iii. 56;
again in French, iii. 195
Kempten, i. 115-123
Kitchens, i. 72, 73
Königsfelden, abbey of, i. 75, 76
La Fère, i. 25, 26_n_, 61; iii. 205
Le More’s, at Paris, iii. 23
Leonore, daughter of Montaigne, i. 173; iii. 198
Leopold of Austria, i. 76_n_
Lepers in Germany, i. 102
Lindau, i. 103-112
Livy, ii. 11, 21_n_; iii. 25
Lodgings, i. 89; iii. 39, 51, 101, 111;
badness of, at Florence, ii. 49, 50
Loreto, i. 10, 12, 13; ii. 196-209; iii. 147
Lovanella, its famous inn, iii. 23
Lucca, iii. 33-35, 132-138, 148-150;
military service in, iii. 46, 50, 63;
judicial system, iii. 74, 147
Lucca, baths of, iii. 37-92, 138-148;
peasants sceptical of the virtue of the waters, iii. 147;
plethora of apothecaries, iii. 39, 147
Lutherans, i. 97, 105, 113, 119, 131, 132
Lyons, iii. 200
Macerata, ii. 194
Magnus, S., i. 125
Maldonat, M., i. 32-34, 81; ii. 158
Mangot, M., ii. 124
Marriages, mixed, i. 136;
ceremony at the house of the Fuggers, i. 139
Marteau, M., i. 13; ii. 205
Massa, iii. 177
Mattecoulon, M., i. 20, 25, 191; ii. 65, 80; iii. 172
Maximilian I. (Emperor), i. 158;
his tomb, i. 163; ii. 213
Mayoralty of Bordeaux, i. 19; iii. 146, 167
Meaux, i. 25-31
Medici, Cath. dei, i. 10, 32, 64; ii. 141_n_; iii. 165
Medici, Cosimo I. (Grand
Duke), i. 48, 51; iii. 96, 114, 123, 179_n_
Medici, Ferd. dei (Card.), ii. 53, 78, 88, 149; iii. 102, 178_n_
Medici, Francesco dei (Grand Duke), ii. 48, 52, 63; iii. 21, 30,
95, 99, 101, 110, 173
Medici, Lorenzino dei, iii. 114
Medici, Piero dei, iii. 120
Milan, iii. 191, 192
Miracles, i. 147, 156;
Montaigne’s acceptance of, i. 13; ii. 205
Mirandola, Pico della, iii. 16
Montaigne, begins his journal, i. 25;
his liking for Germany, i. 7, 179, 188; ii. 9, 49; iii. 65;
his praise of stoves, i. 86, 94, 187;
honour done to him in Augsburg, i. 9, 136, 137;
his courage, i. 19; iii. 140;
conformity to local custom, i. 84, 138; ii. 70;
appreciation of good citizens, i. 183;
his habit of diet, i. 103;
partiality for Jesuits, i. 12; ii. 145, 146;
illnesses, i. 16, 54, 170; ii. 38, 100, 105, 134; iii. 25, 43,
131, 139, 141, 144;
incongruities of style, i. 23;
censure of irreligion, ii. 2;
recognition of the power of the Church, i. 15, 16;
acceptance of miracles, i. 13; ii. 205;
mayoralty of Bordeaux, i. 19; iii. 146, 167;
travel requisites forgotten, i. 109;
offended by the Archduke of Tirol, i. 162;
his philosophy of travel, i. 189, 190; iii. 134;
remarks on the site of Rome, i. 15; ii. 75, 95-100; iii. 170;
on its civil liberty, ii. 76;
on scenery, i. 14, 157, 158; ii. 191, 192; iii. 38;
fear of sea-sickness, ii. 19_n_;
pleasure of travel, i. 172-175;
patience under pain, i. 17; ii. 186;
fear of dew, i. 187; ii. 71;
wariness in choosing an inn, ii. 42;
resolves to revisit Venice, ii. 23;
leaves books at Padua, ii. 23;
dines with the Grand Duke of Florence, ii. 53;
with the Cardinal de Sens, ii. 85-88;
with the French Ambassador, ii. 123-126;
adverse criticism of Florence, ii. 54, 59;
does justice to it, iii. 105;
indifference to art, i. 10, 11;
excess of Frenchmen in Padua, ii. 10;
in Rome, ii. 74;
his books seized, ii. 77;
restored, ii. 139;
censured, ii. 175, 176;
his audience with the Pope, ii. 80-82;
discontent with guides, i. 90, 101; ii. 95;
attends a Jewish service, ii. 100, 101;
ceremony of circumcision, ii. 102-105;
public executions, ii. 111-113;
his remarks on Roman ladies, ii. 107, 108;
begins to write the journal himself, ii. 110;
comparison of Rome and Paris, ii. 133;
on Roman preaching, ii. 143-145;
on the salubrity of the climate, ii. 159;
on his superficial knowledge of the place, ii. 161;
grant to him of Roman citizenship, ii. 164-166;
visits the Vatican library, ii. 117, 122;
fixes an _ex voto_ at Loreto, ii. 198;
his remarks on the baths of Lucca, iii. 47, 54, 55, 78, 81, 147;
on the judicial system of the state, iii. 74;
on military service, iii. 50, 63, 132-138;
on medicine, iii. 77, 78, 147;
on democratic bearing, iii. 91;
gives a ball, iii. 67-74;
adopts party emblems, iii. 89;
sees an operation at Basle, i. 66, 67;
sees Boccaccio’s will, iii. 107;
a display of equitation, iii. 167;
a card factory, iii. 201;
returns to Rome, iii. 166;
leaves it finally, iii. 172;
impressions of Milan, iii. 191;
leaves his arms at Plombières, i. 55;
at Augsburg, i. 150;
in Lucca, iii. 144;
musical taste of the peasantry, iii. 110;
is begged to reside in Rome, ii. 176;
his purchases in Pisa, iii. 122;
leaves Milan, iii. 192;
crosses Mont Cenis, iii. 195;
leaves Lyons, iii. 200;
returns to Montaigne, iii. 205
Montefeltro, Federigo di, iii. 14, 15_n_, 16_n_;
Guidobaldo di, iii. 15_n_
Montirandet, i. 36;
strange case of a woman there, i. 36, 37
Moryson, Fynes, i. 8; ii. 15_n_, 17_n_; iii. 182_n_, 189_n_
Moscovite Ambassador at Rome, ii. 115, 117, 137
Mulhouse, i. 60;
the host at the “Grapes,” 61
Munich, i. 151, 153
Munster, Seb., i. 64, 110, 135_n_
Muret, Marc. Ant., ii. 123
Narni, ii. 183
Necessaries of travel, i. 109
Neufchasteau, i. 42, 43, 45
Ogier the Dane, i. 28, 29
Operation at Basle, i. 66, 67
Ostia, ii. 127, 130;
saltworks, 131
Padua, i. 11;
Frenchmen at, 5; ii. 9-13;
cost of living at, ii. 20
Palladio, ii. 7_n_
Paré, A., i. 21, 37_n_, 38, 39
Parma, iii. 183;
Duke of, iii. 185, 186
Paul III. (Pope), i. 11, 116; iii. 10_n_, 161, 165, 171
Pavia, iii. 187-190;
battle of, iii. 190
Peter’s, S., i. 11; ii. 78, 135, 149, 152, 155
Peter and Paul, SS., ii. 156, 157
Petraja (Castello), ii. 54-58; iii. 26
Petrarch, iii. 24
Petrino, ii. 188
Philosophy of Travel, i. 189-191
Piacenza, iii. 184-187
Piccolomini, S., iii. 103
Pietramala, ii. 43
Pilgrimage churches at Rome, ii. 138, 141
Pinitesi, L., iii. 90, 133, 137
Pisa, iii. 110-128;
baths of, 129, 131;
earth in Campo Santo, i. 14; iii. 116;
insalubrity of, iii. 123
Pistoia, iii. 29-31
Plater, F., i. 62, 64
Plommieres (Plombières), i. 45-55, 170, 187; iii. 79
Plutarch, ii. 118, 123-126
Poggio a Cajano, iii. 28, 29
Portuguese homage at Rome, ii. 135;
strange sect of fanatics, ii. 136
Posting, ii. 69, 70; iii. 2, 93
Poussay, i. 43, 56
Praie (Praglia), ii. 22
Prato, iii. 27, 28
Pratolino, i. 9; ii. 43, 45, 64, 170, 172; iii. 106
Provisions, table, i. 73, 74, 107, 109;
in Rome, ii. 134, 135;
Lucca, iii. 39-41
Prunis, M., i. 2
Quails, iii. 3
Quarrel with guide, i. 100, 101;
with vetturino, ii. 193; iii. 155;
of priests and friars at Pisa, iii. 126
Querlon, M., i. 22, 42_n_, 76_n_, 80_n_, 164_n_; ii. 205_n_
Races, ii. 106; iii. 96-98, 102
Rats, i. 138
Religious toleration, i. 16
Remiremont, i. 57;
strange tenure of land, _ib._;
nuns of, i. 58
Renegade, story of, iii. 48-50
Ricchieri, L., ii. 32
Riva, i. 191, 192
Roads, safety of, in Tirol, i. 169;
state of, in Lombardy, ii. 37;
in the mountains, ii. 41, 42, 68;
improved by Gregory XIII., ii. 183
Rohan, Duke of, i. 179_n_
Roland, i. 29_n_
Rome, Montaigne’s impressions of, i. 15;
his stay there, ii. 72-180; iii. 166, 172;
remarks on site of, ii. 75;
on public security, ii. 76;
want of clocks, ii. 91;
cold of winter, ii. 93;
buildings, ii. 97;
comparison with Paris, ii. 133;
street life, ii. 146;
pleasures of sojourn, ii. 161, 164
Ronciglione, ii. 69
Rovere, i. 187-193
Rovigo, ii. 31-33
Running at the ring, ii. 110
Rynach, Claude de, i. 50
Sainte Beuve, i. 2
Santa Rotonda (Pantheon), ii. 156; iii. 114
Sarrezana (Sarzana), iii. 178, 179
Savoy, Duke of, i. 82, 94; iii. 192
Scenery, Montaigne’s delight in, i. 14, 157, 158; ii. 191-193
Schaffhausen, i. 91-96
Sculpture, i. 11;
at Florence, ii. 48;
at Tivoli, ii. 170-171
Sea sickness, ii. 19_n_
Secretary, Montaigne’s, i. 7, 22;
takes on luggage by water to Augsburg, i. 125;
is left at Rovere, i. 192;
takes on luggage to Verona, i. 193;
goes on in advance from Battaglia, ii. 26;
makes a bargain for rooms at Florence, ii. 50;
finishes his work as amanuensis, ii. 110
Sens, Cardinal of, ii. 85-88; iii. 170
Shooting grounds, i. 92, 134
Sibyl, temple of, ii. 174
Siena, ii. 60-65; iii. 99, 152, 174
Silvester II. (Pope), ii. 142-144
Sinigaglia, iii. 5-7
Sirleto, Card., ii. 121
Sistine Chapel, ii. 113
Snakes, iii. 59, 60
Spanish homage for Portugal, ii. 137
Spoleto, ii. 184, 185
Standards, captured French, at Florence, i. 8; ii. 48
Straw plaiting, iii. 26, 30
Strozzi, P., i. 31; ii. 48; iii. 165;
family, i. 51; iii. 97, 98
Switzerland, i. 60-96;
politics of, i. 82;
customs, i. 83-85
Table fare, i. 107, 109, 148; ii. 49, 110, 134, 135;
service, i. 70-73, 84, 85, 102, 126, 131, 148; ii. 49; iii. 31
Tacitus, i. 80
Tasso, i. 21; ii. 36, 37_n_
Terelle, J., i. 30
Terni, ii. 184
Theatre, ii. 38
Theology, i. 65, 88, 106, 113, 114
Tillianus, T., i. 121
Tirol, i. 155-192;
riches of, i. 177
Tivoli, i. 9; ii. 166-174; iii. 106, 163
Travel, cost of, i. 110-112, 152; ii. 208; iii. 2, 93;
pleasure of, i. 17, 172-175, 188-190
Tree cultivation, i. 93
Trent, i. 113, 180, 186
Treves, Gilles de, i. 40
Trevi, ii. 189
Turin, iii. 193, 194
Urbino, iii. 12-17;
Duke of, iii. 5, 8, 9, 19, 21
Vasari, i. 10; ii. 52_n_
Vatican, ii. 94;
library, ii. 117-122
Vaucouleur, i. 41
Velabrum, ii. 99
Venice, ii. 14-18;
suspicious policy of, ii. 15;
revenues, _ib._;
cost of living, ii. 18;
explanation of his short stay there, ii. 23;
comparison with Rome, ii. 164
Verona, i. 193-195; ii. 1-6;
arena, ii. 4
Veronica Franca, ii. 16-17
Veronica, S., ii. 150, 151
Vicenza, ii. 7-9
Virgil, ii. 121, 189
Viterbo, ii. 68; iii. 157-162, 173
Vitri le François, i. 35-39
Volto Santo, iii. 149
Water, fraudulent sale of at Lucca, iii. 74, 75;
music, ii. 168, 169;
works, i. 9, 98, 127, 135, 141, 168-170; ii. 56, 57, 167-173;
iii. 106
Well, curious, i. 148
Welser, Philippina, i. 163_n_; iii. 187_n_
Whooping cough, i. 26_n_
Wine, i. 149, 178; ii. 8, 9; iii. 83, 105, 107;
gifts of, i. 57, 62, 94; iii. 90
Wood work, iii. 121, 122
Zwingli, i. 88, 106, 113, 122
THE END
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO
Edinburgh & London
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The cathedral. It stands on the summit of Monte Guasco above the
harbour, and is supposed to occupy the site of a temple of Venus. Its
present design is attributed, on doubtful authority, to Margaritone of
Arezzo. Montaigne’s statement about the relics is hardly borne out by
the existing collection, which is of the ordinary character: bits of
the wood of the cross, nails, spear-heads, &c.
[2] Ἀγκώυ, an elbow.
[3] This inscription is no longer in existence. The church referred to
is S. Maria di Porta Cipriana, in which the Greek rite was allowed by
Clement VII. in 1524.
[4] Francesco Maria II. (Della Rovere).
[5] Secretary to Paul de Foix, the French ambassador at Rome.
[6] These remarks apply exactly to Fano at the present day.
[7] It was erected in honour of Augustus and enlarged by Constantine.
It was dedicated to each of these Emperors. The attic portion, built
by Constantine, was almost ruined during the assault of the city by
Federigo da Montefeltro in 1463.
[8] Probably the Villa Imperiale, built by Leonora Gonzaga, wife of
Francesco Maria I. (della Rovere). It is now in ruins.
[9] Livy, xxviii. 48. The battle was fought B.C. 207.
[10] The ancient city, Forum Sempronii, is supposed to have stood about
a mile farther towards Fano. It was ruined by the Goths and Lombards.
[11] Caius Edius Verus. A statue in his honour was erected by the
people of Forum Sempronii. The pedestal referred to by Montaigne is now
in the Passionist Library. (A.)
[12] Giulio, the son of Francesco Maria I. (della Rovere) and Eleanora
Gonzaga. He was born in 1533, and made a cardinal by Paul III. when
he was thirteen. He was at one time suspected of a leaning towards
heretical opinions. He was a munificent benefactor to Loreto, and
bequeathed to the shrine all his personal goods. He died at Fossombrone
in 1578, and lies buried in S. Chiara at Urbino.
[13] Sometimes written Gauno. Ariosto, c. xliii.:--
“Pel monte che il Metauro e il Gauno pende
Passa Apennino e più non eta a man dritto.”
[14] The pass of Furlo. An inscription at the north end records its
construction by the order of Vespasian. There is no trace of the
inscription in honour of Augustus which Montaigne mentions, but this
emperor was interested in the maintenance of the Flaminian Way. “And
that the Avenues on every side to the City might be more passable, he
took in hand himselfe to repaire the high way or Cawsie Flaminia, so
farre as to Ariminuum.” Suetonius, _Oct. Cæsar Aug._, c. 30 (Holland’s
trans.).
[15] The famous palace built for Duke Federigo di Montefeltro by
Luciano di Laurana and Baccio Pontelli. Castiglione, in “The Courtyer,”
agrees with Montaigne that the site of Urbino leaves something to be
desired: “The which for all it is placed emong hylles, and those not
so pleasaunt as perhappes some other that we behoulde in manye places”
(Hoby’s trans.). But seeing how appreciative Montaigne shows himself of
mountain scenery in other parts, it is strange that he should withhold
praise from the distant prospects from Urbino, which are particularly
grand and beautiful.
[16] This is a mistake. No ruler of Urbino ever bore this name; and the
palace was built by the great Federigo di Montefeltro, who became count
in 1444 and duke in 1474.
[17] Montaigne is again in error. The reigning duke was Francesco Maria
II. He was the great-great-grandson of Federigo, the builder of the
palace.
[18] Federigo and his son Guidobaldo I. were both Knights of the Garter.
[19] Oddantonio di Montefeltro. He was killed in a popular rising
in 1444, which was probably instigated by certain emissaries of
Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta of Rimini. There is no extant portrait
of him at Urbino. What Montaigne saw was probably the picture of the
“Flagellation,” in the sacristy of the Duomo, by Piero della Francesca,
on one side of which are three figures supposed to represent Oddantonio
and the evil counsellors sent by Malatesta to lead him to ruin. This
assumption is, however, entirely unfounded.
[20] Lucrezia d’Este, born in 1535 and married to the duke in 1570. She
spent almost all her time at the court of Ferrara. After her death her
husband married Livia della Rovere and had one son, Federigo Ubaldo,
but this youth died in his father’s lifetime in 1623, and the following
year Francesco Maria surrendered the duchy to Urban VIII.
[21] This portrait is almost certainly the one which is now in the
Uffizi at Florence. On the death of Francesco Maria della Rovere
in 1631, Claudia dei Medici, the widow of his son, returned to
Florence, and took with her several of the pictures from the palace
of Urbino--notably the portraits of Federigo di Montefeltro and the
Duchess Battista, by Piero della Francesca--and transferred them to the
Uffizi. The portrait of Pico probably went at the same time.
[22] Monte d’Elce. The monument referred to still exists, though
greatly defaced.
[23] Isabella, daughter of Guidobaldo II., married Niccolo Sanseverino,
Prince of Bisignano.
[24] _Petites reines du micarême._
[25] Le More’s seems to have been a Parisian _restaurant de luxe_.
“Chacun veut aujourd’hui aller diner chez Le More, chez Samson,
chez Innocent, chez Havart, ministres de volupté et de profusion,
et qui dans un royaume bien policé seroient bannis et chassés comme
corrupteurs des mœurs” (Baudrillart, _Hist. du Luxe_, iii. 506).
[26] Rabelais, i. 51, “un beau cabaret assez retirant a celluy de
Guillot en Amiens.” Motteux evidently misread the name, as he renders
it as “Will’s at Amiens.”
[27] Incisa.
[28] Petrarch was born at Arezzo, whither his family had fled during
the Bianchi and Neri troubles. They dwelt, however, at Incisa, and the
remains of the house are said still to exist. One of the walls bears a
tablet with the following inscription:--
Perche
Della casa paterna
di
FRANCESCO PETRARCH
Colpa di secoli ingrati
Meglio che dalle cure degli uomini
Rispettata dal tempo
Una memoria restasse
Antonio Brucalassi incisano
Correndo il giorno sesto d’Aprile
MDCCCXXXXII
Fra le antiche ruine
Consacrò questo marmo.
[29] Livy, xxii. 2-3.
[30] See vol. ii., p. 54.
[31] In Tuscany the art of straw-plaiting is a very old one, dating
from the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. In the sixteenth it had
attained great importance in Signa and the adjacent villages. Francesco
Naldi and Domenico Michelacci, a Bolognese, were its chief promoters
and the pioneers of foreign trade. It now exists chiefly in Fiesole,
and though fallen off somewhat, is an important branch of industry.
[32] Cardinal Niccolò.
[33] Robert d’Anjou, Duke of Apulia. Prato came under his sway in 1313,
and in 1326 passed to his son Charles of Calabria. In 1350 the city was
sold to the Florentines for 17,500 gold florins. The statue no longer
exists. Montaigne again mistakes the lilies of Florence for those of
France.
[34] Poggio a Cajano. This villa was originally in possession of the
Cancellieri family of Pistoia, with whom originated the factions of the
Neri and Bianchi. It was rebuilt for Lorenzo dei Medici by Giuliano di
San Gallo, and decorated by Andrea del Sarto and Pontormo for Leo X. It
was the scene of the mysterious tragedy of Bianca Capello in 1587.
[35] _Villani Chron._, B. i. c. 5, 7, 30-38. According to Sallust, the
battlefield lies some twelve miles from Pistoia, but a modern column
with a commemorative inscription has been erected near the city.
[36] Brunetto Latini says (_Tesoro_, l. 37) that the place takes its
name from the pestilence which broke out after Catiline’s defeat.
[37] _Villani Chron._, B. viii. 37.
[38] In Tuscany the theory of the communal magistracy was, that it
should hold itself constantly at the service of the public. The
priors were not allowed to go to their own houses except in cases of
sickness. After midnight they might go out attended by one or other of
their servants. They might not follow any trade or calling, or attend
weddings or funerals, or take their meals apart. Neither Gonfaloniere
nor priors might leave the city; they must remain all day long in the
palace, where all games, except chess, were forbidden.
[39] Lucca was at this time in the Spanish interest. It remained an
independent city until the French occupation in 1799. Fynes Moryson,
writing about twelve years after Montaigne, says: “The citizens of
Lucca are as afrayd of this great Duke [of Florence] as Partridges of a
hawke, being compassed with his territories on all sydes.” _Itinerary_
(Lond. 1903).
[40] That is, soldiers from other parts of Italy.
[41] The silk manufacture of Lucca goes back beyond all record. In the
time of Castruccio Castracane a large number of citizens, offended at
his usurpation, emigrated to other Italian cities and took their art
with them. It was thus that the art of brocade-making was introduced
into Florence.
[42] _Essais_, ii. 37: “À cette cause j’ay choisi jusques à cette
heure, à m’arrester et à me servir de celles où il y avoit plus
d’amœnité de lieu, commodité de logis, de vivres et de compagnies,
comme sont en France, les bains de Banieres: en la frontiere
d’Allemaigne et de Loraine, ceux de Plombières: en Souysse, ceux de
Bade: en la Toscane, ceux de Lucques: et specialement ceux _Della
Villa_, desquels j’ay usé plus souvent, et à diverses saisons.”
[43] A tributary of the Serchio, which rises near Pistoia.
[44] In earlier times the season used to begin on the first Friday in
March, when, according to tradition, an angel descended and blessed the
springs.
[45] Montaigne speaks of the douche as an Italian speciality. “Comme
les Allemans ont de particulier, de se faire generalement tous corneter
et vantouser, avec scarification dans le bain: ainsi ont les Italiens
leur _doccie_, qui sont certaines gouttières de cette eau chaude,
qu’ils conduisent par des cannes, et vont baignant une heur le matin,
et autant l’après disnée, par l’espace d’un mois, ou la teste, ou
l’estomach, ou autre partie du corps, à laquelle ils ont affaire”
(_Essais_, ii. 37).
[46] Montaigne held La Boetie in the highest esteem. “Et le plus grand
que j’aye cogneu au vif, je dis des parties naturelles de l’ame, et le
mieux né, c’estoit Estienne de la Boetie.”--_Essais_, ii. 17, and in
ii. 27 he again writes at length in praise of his lost friend.
[47] “De acquis lucensibus, quæ vulgo Villenses appellantur,” by G. B.
Donati. The author was a physician of Lucca, who studied at Pisa and
Padua. Franciotti, also a Lucchese doctor, wrote a treatise, “Tractatus
de Balneo Villensi in Agro Lucensi posito.”
[48] From this point the Journal is written in Italian.
[49] This spring had only recently come into fashion. It had always
been used by the country people for skin diseases, and about the middle
of the sixteenth century it acquired great fame through the cure of a
certain Pistoian of a loathsome skin disease which had been treated
ineffectually at every other spring. There are many springs on this
range of hills: Corsena, Bagno Rosso, Bagno di S. Giovanni, Bagno della
Villa, Bagno di Bernabo, and Bagno Cardinali.
[50] Ascension Day.
[51] The inscription at the Bagno alla Villa runs as follows: “Sacri
de villa balnei hec precipue sunt virtutes. Confert cunctis capitis
membris. Curat omnes stomachi morbos. Appetitum excitat. Digestionem
procurat. Vomitum restringit. Sanat cuncta epatis vitia. Epatis et
venarum opilationem aperit. Colorem optimum facit. Confert passionibus
splenis. Sanat ulcera pulmonis. Mundat renes. Lapidem minuit. Arenulas
prohibit. Macros impinguat. Lepram curat non confirmatam. Bibita
antiquas febres expellit. Et matricis etiam anterius cristerizata.
Triginta balneantur diebus. Octo vel decern bibitur purgatione
premissa. A contrariis caveatur. Toto corpore ulcera sanat.”
[52] In 1160 Guelf VI. of Este, the uncle of Barbarossa, sold his
rights over Lucca to the citizens, who agreed to pay by their consuls
1000 soldi yearly for ninety years, and this compact was confirmed
by Barbarossa. In 1197 Lucca joined Florence against the Empire, and
in the tumult which followed Lucca was subject to various tyrants,
Castruccio Castracane, Visconti, and Spinola. Its liberties were
restored by Charles IV. in 1369. In 1392 the Giunigi family, under the
patronage of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, became despots, but after Gian
Galeazzo’s death the republican form was restored, which lasted till
1795. The Council consisted of 120 councillors and 40 surrogates. The
democracy seems always to have been a limited one, and the institution
of a Golden Book gradually reduced the number of citizens eligible as
councillors.
[53] M. de Mattecoulon.
[54] Montaigne had little belief in the medicine of his time. “De
mesme, en la Medecine, j’honore bien ce glorieux nom, sa proposition,
sa promesse, si utile au genre humain: mais ce qu’il designe entre
nous, je ne l’honore, ny ne l’estime. En premier lieu l’experience
me le fait craindre: car de ce que j’ay de cognoissance, je ne voy
nulle race de gens si tost malade, et si tard guerie que celle qui
est sous la jurisdiction de la Medecine. Leur santé mesme est alterée
et corrompue, par la contrainte des régimes. Les Médecins ne se
contentent point d’avoir la maladie en gouvernement, ils rendent la
santé malade pour garder qu’on ne puisse en aucune saison eschaper leur
authorité.”--_Essais_, ii. 37.
[55] This is in direct contradiction to the statement on p. 61.
[56] This cardinal had been sent into France during the religious wars.
Pius V. made him a cardinal in 1570, and the reigning Pope had sent him
as legate to Bologna, where he executed many public works. He died in
1586.
[57] A few sentences further on Montaigne seems to imply that the title
of minister was only given to the Provincials of the Franciscan order.
[58] Menabbio.
[59] _Essais_, iii. 5: “Si elles ne nous peuvent faire du bien que
par pitié: j’ayme bien mieux ne vivre point, que de vivre d’aumosne.
Je voudrois avoir droit de le leur demander, au stile auquel j’ay veu
questu en Italie: _Fate ben per voi._”
[60] It is possible that Montaigne is here mistaken as to the
significance of this heraldic device. The fish probably has reference
to the name of the town. His frequent recognition of the lilies as the
ensign of France instead of Florence has already been noticed.
[61] This spring was celebrated as early as 1370, accommodation for
bathers having been built by the Florentines in that year.
[62] See vol. ii., p. 54.
[63] The festival of S. John Baptist. Cambiagi in _Memorie storiche_,
and Guasti in _Le feste di S. Giovanni Battista_, have written at
length concerning this feast.
[64] These races were instituted by Cosimo I. in 1563, and were held in
the Piazza S. Maria Novella.
[65] Ferdinand, who afterwards became Grand Duke in 1588.
[66] The effigy of the mule still exists. The verses run:--
“Lecticam, lapides et marmora, ligna, columnas
Vexit, conduxit, traxit, et ista tulit.”
[67] Montaigne describes this statue in vol. ii., p. 58.
[68] Montaigne questioned this right on the occasion of his first visit
(vol. ii., p. 54).
[69] Probably the house which at one time stood in the Via Larga.
[70] This was first published in Italian by the Giunti in 1573. Manni,
in his “History of the Decameron” (1742), professed to give a version
taken from the rough draft of another will which Boccaccio had made
in 1365. In 1859 Milanesi published the original Latin version from
the document itself, which is in the possession of the Bichi-Borghese
family in Siena.
[71] The name is certainly Greek. Empoli was the scene of the famous
parliament of the Ghibellines in 1260, when, after the battle of the
Arbia, the proposal to rase Florence to the ground was defeated by the
opposition of Farinata degli Uberti.
“Poi ch’ebbe sospirando il capo scosso,
A ciò non fu’io sol (disse) nè certo
Senza cagion sarei con gli altri mosso;
Ma fu’ io sol colà, dove sofferto
Fu per ciascuno di tôr via Fiorenza,
Colui, che la difese a viso aperto.”
DANTE, _Inferno_, x.
[72] Montaigne refers to this matter, _Essais_, iii. 13, where he lets
fall a remark which throws some fresh light upon it. “Je disnerois sans
nape, mais à l’Alemande, sans serviette blanche, très-incommodément;
je les soüille plus qu’eulx et les Italiens ne font; et m’ayde peu
de cullier et de fourchette. Je plains qu’on n’aye suivy un train,
que j’ay veu commencer à l’exemple des Roys: Qu’on nous changeast de
serviette, selon les services, comme d’assiette.” He seems to have
favoured the saying, “Fingers were made before forks.”
[73] Le antiche iscrizioni del Duomo di Pisa.--C. Lupi (Pisa, 1877).
[74] These are still to be seen at the back of the apse.
[75] The Baptistery.
[76] It is probable that Montaigne had heard the story (told in
Varchi’s _Storia Fiorentina_) how Lorenzino had broken off the heads
of some of the statues on the Arch of Constantine at Rome, and had
shifted the scene of the outrage to Pisa. For this offence Lorenzino
was impeached by Molza before the Roman Academy. The Pisan version
is alluded to by the local historians, Roncioni and Morrona; the
last-named refuses to accept it.
[77] The Pantheon.
[78] Giulio, natural son of Alessandro. There was an attempt to put him
in his father’s place, but by Guicciardini’s influence Cosimo became
duke. Giulio enjoyed Cosimo’s favour, and died in 1600.
[79] Smollett repeats the same story in almost the same words:
“Travels,” Letter xxvii.
[80] Montaigne often confuses the Florentine lilies with the arms of
France, but in this case he seems to be right.
[81] This palace is now the Opera del Duomo. The sculpture has
disappeared and only the French device remains. The inscription
referred to by Montaigne was renewed in 1695 by Giulio Gaetani:
“Ædile Joanne Mariani Christianiss. Gallorum Hierusalem
et Siciliæ--Citra forum Rex Carolus VIII. in his--Divæ
Matris Ædibus idus Novemb.:--1485 ex insperato
comedit--Pisanæ libertatis argumentum nunquam--Tantam
Magnus Alexander liberalitatem--Ostendit.”
[82] These ruins are now called the Baths of Nero.
[83] San Michele in Borgo. The church, which was built by Niccolo
Pisano, shows no trace of Roman work.
[84] San Pietro in Grado. It probably dates from the tenth century, and
is built of ancient fragments. The tradition is that S. Peter landed
here and built the church.
[85] Third son of Cosimo I. He murdered his wife, Eleanora of Toledo,
who was so frequently painted by Bronzino. He died in 1604.
[86] Dante, _Inferno_, xxxiii., alludes to the position of these
islands--
“Muovansi la Capraia e la Gorgona,
E faccian siepe ad Arno in su la foce
Si ch’ egli annieghi in te ogni persona.”
[87] Leonardo da Vinci, in his “Treatise on Botany,” makes similar
remarks as to the rings in timber and the effect of a north aspect on
the character of the wood.
[88] There is a reference to this visit, _Essais_, i. 25: “Je vis
privément à Pise un honeste homme, mais si Aristotelicien, que le
plus general de ses dogmes est: Que la touche et regle de toutes
imaginations solides, et de toute verité, c’est la conformité à la
doctrine d’Aristote: que hors de là, ce ne sont que chimeres et
inanité: qu’il a tout veu et tout dit. Cette sienne proposition, pour
avoir esté un peu trop largement et uniquement interpretée, le mit
autrefois, et tint longtemps en grand accessoire à l’inquisition à
Rome.” Borro was born at Arezzo, and appointed Professor of Philosophy
at Pisa in 1553. After divers prosecutions by the Inquisition, he was
finally dismissed in 1586, and died at Perugia in 1592.
[89] Jacopo and not Pietro Paulo. He was Archbishop of Pisa from 1574
to 1575.
[90] Tommaso Cornacchini, a famous Aretine physician. He was Professor
of Medicine at Pisa, and died there in 1584. His works were published
after his death by his sons Oragio and Marco (Padua 1605, Venice 1607).
Marco was also a distinguished physician and the inventor of the
_Polvere cornacchina_.
[91] Now known as Casciana.
[92] Some remains of a Roman bath still exist in Pisa itself close to
the Porta a Lucca, and are called Bagno di Nerone. Montaigne probably
confuses the two places. The baths which he here describes are still
in use, and are the same as were known in ancient times as Aquæ Calidæ
Pisanorum.
[93] Old form of _schifiltà_--squeamishness.
[94] Montaigne writes somewhat in the same strain in _Essais_, ii. 6,
and gives an apology for suicide, ii. 3.
[95] “Messieurs de Bordeaux m’esleurent Maire de leur ville, estant
esloigné de France, et encore plus esloigné d’un tel pensement. Je m’en
excusay. Mais on m’apprint que j’avois tort, le commandement du Roy
s’y interposant aussi” (_Essais_, iii. 10). Sainte Beuve (_Nouveaux
Lundis_, vol. vi.) has an article, _Montaigne maire de Bordeaux_.
[96] This chapel, the masterpiece of Matteo Civitali, was erected in
1484. The Volto Santo di Lucca is an ancient carved crucifix of cedar
which, according to legend, was brought to the city in 782.
[97] S. Frediano.
[98] A bath in Gascony. Montaigne alludes to it in vol. ii., p. 24.
[99] Probably the fruit of the zizzolo (_Ziziphus vulgaris_).
[100] The Bagni di S. Paolo.
[101] A house built by Nicolas V. out of the ruins of an ancient bath,
the Bagno della Crociata.
[102] This is the spring of Bulicame to which Dante alludes, _Inferno_,
xiv.:--
“Quale del Bulicame esce il ruscello,
Che parton poi tra lor le peccatrici,
Tal per l’arena giù sen giva quello.”
Pits for the steeping of hemp and flax still exist. A document has been
found in the communal archives which shows that, as late as 1469, a
portion of the spring went to the Bagni delle Meretrici.
[103] Madonna della Quercia, between Orte and Viterbo. It is one of
the finest Renaissance churches in Italy. It was built from Bramante’s
design, and contains some beautiful Della Robbia work.
[104] Paul III.
[105] Now the Villa Lante.
[106] The famous palace built by Vignola for Cardinal Alessandro
Farnese, which was begun in 1547 and finished in 1559.
[107] There is a full description of Caprarola and all the works
therein in Vasari, vol. vii. p. 107 (ed. 1881).
[108] In the _Essais_, i. 48, he alludes to a similar performance:
“J’ay veu un homme donner carrière à deux pieds sur sa selle, demonter
sa selle, et au retour la relever, r’accommoder, et s’y r’asseoir,
fuyant tousiours à bride avallée. Ayant passé par dessus un bonnet, y
tirer par derrière de bons coups de son arc: Amasser ce qu’il vouloit,
se jettant d’un pied à terre, tenant l’autre en l’estrier et autres
pareilles singeries de quoi il vivoit.”
[109] Fulvio Orsini, made a cardinal in 1565. He had been entrusted by
Gregory XIII. with a special mission to France. He died at Naples aged
fifty-one.
[110] It appears that Montaigne only stayed a week in Rome this visit.
[111] It was during this sojourn probably that Mattecoulon was engaged
in the duel referred to in _Essais_, ii. 27.
[112] Ponte a Elsa (?).
[113] These works were begun in 1577 under the direction of a Fleming
named Raet, but were subsequently abandoned.
[114] Dante, _Par._, xvi., alludes to its overthrow.
[115] Sarzana.
[116] This would be the Empress Maria, widow of Maximilian II. and
sister of Philip II., who was returning to Spain to enter a convent.
Don Giovanni dei Medici was the son of Cosimo I. by Eleanora degli
Albizzi.
[117] Fynes Moryson, writing about ten years later, gives quite as bad
a report of the inns in these parts. _Itinerary_, p. 164.
[118] Montaigne’s omission of all notice of the French victory at
Fornovo in 1495 is an instance of his freedom from swagger.
[119] Borgo San Donino.
[120] A sort of fruit salad.
[121] “The name of a march or point of warre, sounded by trumpeters to
their general or captain in a morning at their uprising” (Florio).
[122] Ottavio Farnese.
[123] Built from Vignola’s design.
[124] It is difficult to gather the meaning of this sentence. At
Innsbruck Montaigne had seen Andreas and Charles, the sons of the
Archduke and Philipina Welser, but there was never any question that
either of these would attain such a dignity as is here alluded to.
[125] Montaigne is here speaking of the Church of S. Pietro in Cielo
d’Oro, which at the time of his visit was called S. Agostino. The tomb
was subsequently moved into the cathedral, where it remained till 1900,
when it was restored to its old site.
[126] A slip for Marcus Aurelius. This statue was known as the
Regisole. There is a legend that it was brought from Ravenna by
Charlemagne. It was destroyed at the end of the eighteenth century in a
popular tumult. Fynes Moryson gives a further legend that it was made
by magic arts by the Emperor Anastatius for his own image.
[127] This building was begun in 1564.
[128] Sesia.
[129] “Such men as upon the Alps convey over passengers in sledges or
hurdles” (Florio).
[130] Lans le Bourg.
[131] Louis de Bourbon, who died in 1582.
[132] A coin struck in the reign of Charles VIII., and called after him.
[133] Escus-sol. “The best kind of crown that is now made hath a little
star on one side” (Cotgrave).
[134] Montaigne is in the arrondissement of Bergerac in Périgord. In
1860 the castle was bought by M. Magne, a minister of Napoleon III.,
and rebuilt. In 1885 it was destroyed by fire.
Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other
spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.
Italics are represented by _italic_.
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