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The Story of Perugia, by Margaret Symonds and Lina Duff
Gordon
PREFACE
When but a little while ago we undertook to
write a "guide book" to one
of the better known towns of Central Italy, we
realised perhaps
imperfectly how wide and full was the field of work which
lay before us.
The "story" of Perugia is, like the story of nearly all
Italian towns,
as full and varied as the story of a nation. Every side-light
of history
is cast upon it, and nearly every phase of man's policy and
art
reflected on its monuments. To do justice to so grand a pageant in
a
narrow space of time and binding was, we may fairly plead, no easy
task;
and now that the work is done, and the proofs returned to the
printer,
we are left with an inevitable regret; for it has been impossible
for us
to retain in shortened sentences and cramped description the charm
of
all the tales and chronicles which we ourselves found necessary
reading
for a full knowledge of so wide a subject.
If this small book
have any claim to merit it is greatly due to the
faithful and ungrudging help
rendered to its authors throughout their
study, by one true guide; by many
old friends; and by the inhabitants of
the town whose name it bears for
title. We can never adequately express
our sense of gratitude to the people
of Perugia, to whom we came as
utter strangers, but who received us with such
great courtesy and
kindness as to make our stay and study in their midst a
pleasure as well
as an education.
Our book is intended for the general
traveller rather than for the
student. We have offered no criticism, and have
quoted whenever we could
from the pages of contemporary chronicles. We have
dealt with Perugia as
with the heroine of a novel, describing her particular
progress, and not
confounding it with that of neighbour towns, equally
important in their
way, and each struggling, as perhaps only the cities of
Italy knew how
to struggle, towards an individual supremacy in a state
lacerated by
foreign wars and policies.
In dealing with one of the
most vivid points in the history of the
town--the Rule of the Nobles--we
have, with some diffidence,
incorporated into our narrative the words of one
who had already drawn
his description of the subject straight from the
original source,
treating it with such a powerful sympathy as it would have
been
impossible for us to rival. For further knowledge of this
terrible
period we can but refer the student to the chronicle of
Matarazzo.
(_Archivio Storico_, vol. xvi. part 2.)
With the art of
Umbria we have dealt only shortly, and from the point of
view of sentiment
rather than that of criticism. For a severe and
thorough knowledge of the
technique and use of colours employed by the
men who lived through such
scenes as we have described in chapters II.
and III. we must refer the reader
to the works of other authors. For our
dates, and facts in reference to art,
we have relied on Kugler, Crowe
and Cavalcaselle, Rio, Vasari and the local
writers, Mariotti,
Lupatelli, Mezzanotte, etc.
It remains to give a
list of the books which we have consulted for the
history. Amongst these are
the Perugian chronicles contained in the
_Archivio Storico d'Italia_;
Graziani, Matarazzo, Frolliere, and
Bontempi; Fabretti's chronicles of
Perugia, and his "_Vita dei
Condottieri, etc._"; and the local histories of
Ciatti, Pellini,
Bartoli, Mariotti, and Bonazzi. Villani and Sismondi have
been
consulted; Creighton's "_History of the Papacy during the
Reformation_,"
and von Ranke's "_History of the Popes_."
Of the purely
local histories mentioned above Bonazzi's is the most
important. His two
bulky volumes are excellent reading in spite of his
sarcastic and often
unjust bitterness against the clerical party. A
number of local pamphlets,
the names of whose authors we cannot here
enumerate, have been used for
various details, together with other books
on a variety of subjects, such as
Dennis' "_Etruria_," Broussole's
"_Pelerinages Ombriens_," Hodgkin's "_Italy
and her Invaders_," etc.,
etc.
When all is told, by far the most
valuable and trustworthy authority on
Perugian matters is Annibale Mariotti.
A local gossip who combines with
his gossiping qualities an exquisite sense
of humour, and a real genius
for investigation in matters relating to his
native town, is the person
of all others from whom to learn its actual life
and history. Mariotti
is an eminent specimen of this class of writers, and no
one who is
anxious to understand the spirit of Perugia should omit a careful
study
of his works on the _Popes_, the _People_, and the _Painters_
of
Perugia.
For personal help received we have the satisfaction of
offering in this
place our sincere thanks to Cav. Giuseppe Bellucci,
professor at the
University of Perugia, whose wise and kindly counsel has led
us
throughout to an understanding of countless points which must,
without
him, have remained unnoticed or obscure. Our notes on the museum
are
practically his own. We would mention also with grateful thanks
Dr
Marzio Romitelli, Arcidiacono of the cathedral of Perugia,
who
generously opened his library to us, and many of whose suggestions
have
been of service to us. To Count Vincenzo Ansidei, head of the
Perugian
library, our sincere thanks are offered here.
We must further
acknowledge the help of Signor Novelli of Perugia; of
Mrs Ross, Mr Hayllar,
and Cav. Bruschi, head of the Marucelliana Library
at Florence. Lastly, of Mr
Walter Leaf and Mr Sidney Colvin in the
revision of proofs.
The
comfort of our quarters in the Hotel Brufani needs no description to
most
Italian travellers, who are already familiar with that delightful
house; but
we are glad to mention here our appreciation of the care and
thoughtful
kindness shown to us by our English hostess in the Umbrian
town. The courtesy
received by us at headquarters from the Prefect of
Umbria and Baroness
Ferrari his wife, made our stay, from a purely
social point of view, both
easy and delightful.
To close these prefatory notes we can but say how
sincerely we trust
that the following pages may serve only as a preparation,
in more
capable hands, for further and far fuller records of a city
whose
history is as enthralling to the student of men as its pictures
and
position must ever be to the lover of what is beautiful in nature and
in
art.
_August 21st, 1897._
AM HOF.
DAVOS.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I
PAGE
_The
earliest Origins of Perugia and Growth of the City_
1
CHAPTER II
_The Condottieri and the Rise of the
Nobles_ 33
CHAPTER III
_The Baglioni.
Paul III. and last years of
the
City_
58
CHAPTER IV
_The City of
Perugia_ 82
CHAPTER
V
_Palazzo Pubblico, The Fountain and the Duomo_
109
CHAPTER VI
_Fortress of Paul III.--S.
Ercolano--S.
Domenico--S. Pietro--S.
Costanzo_ 151
CHAPTER
VII
_Piazza del Papa, S. Severo, Porta Sole, S.
Agostino and S.
Francesco al Monte_ 178
CHAPTER
VIII
_Via dei Priori--Perugino's House--Madonna
della Luce, S.
Bernardino and S. Francesco_ 201
CHAPTER
IX
_Pietro Perugino and the Cambio_
216
CHAPTER X
_The
Pinacoteca_
230
CHAPTER XI
_The Museum and Tomb of the
Volumnii_ 267
CHAPTER XII
_In
Umbria_ 290
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
_Via
del Aquedotto, showing Tower of the
Cathedral_ 5
_Lombard Arch on the Church of S.
Agata_ 14
_Palazzo
Baldeschi_ 23
_Arms of
Perugia_ 32
_Via
delle
Stalle_ 39
_Niccolo
Piccinino_ 53
_Palazzo
Pubblico_ 57
_Fortress
of Paul III., showing the Upper Part,
now occupied by the Prefettura, etc.,
and
the Lower Wing, which covered the site of
the present Piazza
D'Armi_ 77
_Perugia from the
Road to the Campo Santo_ 83
_Etruscan Arch,
Porta Eburnea_ 87
_Mediæval
Staircase in the Via Bartolo_ 89
_Piazza
Sopramuro, showing the Palace of the
Capitano del Popolo and the Buildings
of
the first University of Perugia_
101
_Convent of Monte
Luce_ 107
_Piazza di S.
Lorenzo, seen from under the
Arches of the Palazzo
Pubblico_ 111
_Remains of the First
Palazzo dei Priori in the
Via del
Verzaro_ 114
_Oldest
part of the Palazzo Pubblico_ 121
_The
Reaper. Detail in a panel on the
Fountain_ 127
_Geometry. Detail in a panel on the
Fountain_ 131
_On the Steps of the
Cathedral_ 134
_In the Cloisters of
the Canonica (or Seminary)_ 147
_S.
Francis_
150
_Porta Marzia_
155
_Church of S. Ercolano and Archway in the
Etruscan
Wall_ 157
_Detail
of the Tomb of Pope Benedict XI. in the
Church of S.
Domenico_ 166
_House in the
Via Pernice_ 179
_Arco
d'Augusto_ 189
_S.
Agostino and Porta Bulagajo_
191
_Church of S.
Angelo_ 195
_The Old
Collegio dei Notari, said to be the studio
of
Perugino_
202
_Torre degli Scirri_
203
_Etruscan Arch of S. Luca_
205
_Mercy. Detail on Facade of the Oratory of
S.
Bernardino_
209
_Perugino: Madonna and Patron Saints of Perugia,
painted for the
Magistrates' Chapel at
Perugia, now in the Vatican at
Rome_ 221
_First Translation of the Body
of S. Ercolano
(Fresco in the Pinacoteca of
Perugia)_ 243
_Gonfalone of the
Annunciation attributed to
Niccolo
Alunno_ 249
_Adoration
of the Shepherds. By Fiorenzo
di
Lorenzo_
253
_Via Della Pera under the Aqueduct on the way
to the
University_
269
_Etruscan Mirror in Guadabassi Collection_
280
_Tomb of Aruns
Volumnius_ 287
_The Temple of
Clitumnus_ 301
_Narni (with
Angelo Inn in
foreground)_ 307
The Story of
Perugia
CHAPTER I
_The earliest Origins of Perugia and
growth of the City_
Sometimes in a street or in a country road we
meet an unknown person who
seems to us wonderfully and inexplicably
attractive. Perhaps we only
catch a passing vision; the face, the figure
passes us, oftener than not
we never meet again, and even the memory of the
vision which seemed so
full of life, so strong, and so enduring, passes with
the years, and we
forget. But had we only tried a little, it would, in almost
every
instance, have been possible to follow the figure up, to learn what
we
wanted to know about it, to understand the reason why the face was
full
of meaning to us, and what it was which went before and gave the
mouth
its passion, the eyes their pain and sweetness. In nine cases out of
ten
we can, in this nineteenth century, discover the birth and
parentage,
the loves and hates, of any human being we may wish to know. But
this is
not the way with cities, and although they attract us in
almost
precisely the same fashion as people do, we cannot always trace
their
earliest origins. There are certain towns we come across in travel,
of
which we know very well that we want to know more. Perugia is one
of
these. It at once catches hold of one's imagination. No one can see
it
and forget it. A breath of the past is in it--of a past which we
dimly
feel to be prehistoric. Boldly we set to work to learn its history,
and
at first this seems an easy matter: the later centuries are a full
and
an enthralling study, for as long as men knew how to write they
were
certain to write about themselves, and the writers of Perugia had a
wide
dramatic field to work upon. But then come the records which are
not
written--which, in fact, are merely hearsay; and further even
than
hearsay is the period when we know that men existed, but which has
no
history at all beyond a few stone arrow heads, and bits of jade
and
flint. Yet, to be fair to a place of such extraordinary antiquity
as
this early city of the Etruscan league, one is unwilling to leave
a
single stone unturned, and in the following sketch we have
gathered
together, as closely as we could, the earliest facts about a city
which
attracts us, as those unknown people attract us whom we meet,
admire,
and lose again in the crowd.
"It seems," says Bonazzi, the
most modern historian of Perugia, "that in
the earlier periods of the world
all this land of ours (Umbria) was
covered by the sea, and that only the
highest tops of the Apennines rose
here and there, as islands might, above
the waves. Then other hills
arose, a new soil was disclosed, and great and
horrid animals, whose
teeth were sometimes metres long, came forth and trod
the terrible waste
places. In the silence of these squalid solitudes, no
voice of man had
yet been heard, and the stars went on their way unnoticed,
across the
firmament of heaven...."
But Bonazzi's science, though
highly picturesque, was not entirely
correct, and the following account,
written by an inhabitant of Perugia
who has studied the history of his town
and neighbourhood with faithful
precision and from the darkest periods of
their existence, may well be
inserted here.
"The city of
Perugia," Prof. Bellucci writes, "is built upon a
piece of land which
was formed by a large delta of the primeval
Tiber. In very early times
(during the period known as pliocene)
the Tiber, before running into the
sea, formed in the central basin
of Umbria an immense lake. The soil of
which the actual plain of
Umbria is now composed, and the numerous low
hills which surround
it, are made up either of river deposits such as
sand and rubble
left behind by the rush of waters, or else by clay
deposits which
slowly formed themselves in the quiet bosom of the lake.
The date
of these deposits is shown by the fossil remains which are
found in
them: elephants, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, stags,
antelopes,
hyenas, wild dogs, &c., all of which indicate a much
warmer climate
than that of the present day. In the period following on
this, the
great lake of Umbria began to empty itself; and as the soil
washed
gradually away, the waters forced a passage through the
mountains
below Todi, and from that time onward the Tiber gradually
assumed
its present course. The characteristic fauna of this second
period
distinguishes it from the first. Numerous remains found in
the
primitive gravel deposits of the Tiber prove the existence of
man
in our neighbourhood during both these periods (namely the
paleolithic and neolithic). But the final drying up of the great
lake
basin or valley of Umbria was a very slow process, and even in
Roman
times the extent of these stagnant waters was so wide that
the present
town of Bastia on the road to Assisi was surrounded by
them on every
side and went by the name of _Insula Romana_. The
final drainage of the
lake was not completed till some time in
1400, when the river Chiagio
burst through the rocky dykes under
Torgiano and lowered the level of
the water by four metres. Thus
central Umbria at last assumed its
present aspect. We stand upon
the hill-top at Perugia where once
thousands of years ago the
turbid waters of the Tiber rushed along, and
at our feet stretch
the green and fertile fields of Umbria, all the
fairer for the
fertilising waters of that mighty lake which, in the dim
and
distant past, had covered them completely."
We have no
definite date or name for those first men who came to live
in this strange
marshy wilderness. We have only the relics of their
patient industry. An
inexhaustible store of arrow-heads and other
barbarous stone implements is
found in all the hills around Perugia, and
splendid hatchet heads of jade
upon the shores of Trasimene. No doubt
these men lived in holes and caves,
perhaps at the foot of this hill
where the present city of Perugia stands, or
a little to the west of it,
but their history is dark and very far away. Dark
too and far away, as
far as written facts remain, is the history of that
almost more
mysterious race of men which followed on the prehistoric one,
namely,
the Etruscans.
This is no place in which to discuss the origin
of that extraordinary
people whose language and parentage, though they lived
and laboured side
by side with the most cultivated and inquisitive of
European nations, is
practically dead to us. It is enough at this point of
our history to
note that the Etruscans were the first to seal their
personality, with
the seal of a visible and tangible intelligence, upon this
corner of the
world, and it is quite probable that they made one of their
earliest
colonies upon the jutting spur of a line of hills which would
have
attracted them upon arrival. It is certain that in course of
time
Perugia became one of the most powerful cities of the Etruscan
league.
Her museums are full of the pottery, tombs, inscriptions, toys,
and
coins of the mysterious nation (see Museum, chapter
XI.).
Innumerable myths grew up around the foreign people, and
individual
historians described their advent in individual places and pretty
much
at random. The earliest chroniclers of Perugia, ignoring the men who
had
perhaps existed for centuries before this unknown
nation
landed,--ignoring too, the other settlers,--pounced upon a plum
so
precious and romantic to stick into the pie of legends that they
were
concocting; they
[Illustration: VIA DEL AQUEDOTTO, SHOWING TOWER
OF THE CATHEDRAL]
peeled and stoned the plum to suit their fancy, and
having done so,
stuck it in with many others to swell the list of dubious
tales in their
long-winded manuscripts. As these chroniclers were nearly
always monks,
it was natural enough that they should form their shambling
history on
the one great history that they possessed, _i.e._, the Bible. To
them
the Etruscans were easily and most satisfactorily explained:
they
descended from the first man, Adam, and they were the sons of Noah.
Nay,
the monks made an even happier hit, for they declared that Noah
in
person climbed the Apennines and pitched his tent upon the spur of
hill
where the present city stands! We can well imagine the old monk
Ciatti,
one of the earliest historians of Perugia, sitting before his
wooden
desk upon some dreamy night in May, his Bible propped before him,
all
Umbria asleep beneath the stars outside his window, and compiling
the
following entrancing legends concerning the Etruscans and their
leader:
"Serious writers hold _Janus_ to be the same as _Noah_, who alone
among
men saw and knew all things during the space of six hundred years
before
the Deluge and three hundred years after the Deluge. The ancient
medals
which show the two faces of Janus are engraved with a ship, to
denote
that he was Noah, who, entering an ark in the form of a ship, was
saved
by divine decree from the universal Deluge."[1] Ciatti next goes on
to
give a delightful description of the arrival of Noah and his sons;
"they
penetrated," he says, "into Tuscany,[2] where, fascinated by
the
loveliness of the country, the agreeable qualities of the soil,
the
gentle air and the abundance of the earth, they determined to
remain;
but feeling uncertain where they should fix their dwelling, they
were
advised by certain augurs to build Perugia on the spot where it
now
stands." Some say that the name Perugia comes from the Greek word
for
"abundance." Certainly Ciatti was able to weave this fact into
his
legendary web: "Whilst, waiting for the Augurs," he writes, "two
doves
passed by them, flying to their nest, one carrying a branch loaded
with
olives and the other an ear of corn. Soon after there came a big
wild
boar carrying on his tusks a bunch of grapes. They took these signs
to
mean good omens, and they decided to build Perugia on the
spot."
Ciatti must have been an honest chronicler. Had we been given his
early
possibilities of making history in our own fashion, we must
inevitably
have told a credulous public that the ark itself rested upon the
spurs
of the Apennines and disgorged its contents on the hill where stands
the
present city of Perugia. But Ciatti withheld his hand from this, and
we
too must bare our heads before the fact of Ararat, and only hold to
that
of Noah, in his five-hundredth year or so, wandering unwearied forth
to
form a mighty nation on the coasts of Italy!
But before leaving
Ciatti and his early myths, we must do him the
justice to say that he was not
utterly ignorant of a dim nation and of
dimmer monsters living perhaps before
the days of the Deluge. The old
monk, like other wise historians, sets to
work to hunt up the heraldry
of his native city, and thus he explains the
origin of the griffin on
the city arms. The enthralling hunt described
savours surely of
something in an even earlier age?
"Now it so
happened that, when the people of Perugia and of Narni
were at the
height of their prosperity, they became consumed by a
very warlike
spirit, and cultivated freely all military exercises,
and on one
occasion they challenged each other to a trial of
prowess in a
celebrated hunt. They agreed to meet in the mountains
round about
Perugia, which were then the haunt of fierce and
terrifying wild beasts,
and having come to that mountain which now
takes its name from the event
(Monte Griffone) they found there a
griffin, which the Perugians
captured and killed. After some
dispute the monster was divided, the
skin and claws being best
worthy of preservation were taken by the
Perugians, whilst the
body fell to the people of Narni. In memory of
this occurrence the
Perugians took for their arms a white griffin--white
being the
natural colour of that animal--while the people of Narni took
a red
griffin, corresponding to the part which had fallen to their
share,
on a white field."[3]
But, to pass from the realms of myth
to those of reality, it seems quite
certain that the Etruscans--or Rasenae as
they are sometimes
called--spread themselves over a large part of Italy,
building and
fortifying their cities, making roads and laws and temples, and
casting
the light of an older art and civilisation upon the land to which
they
came as colonists. One of the chief of their cities was
Perugia.
Fragments of the old walls, built perhaps three thousand years
ago,
still stand in places, clean-cut, erect, and menacing, around
the
Umbrian city.
The lives of the Etruscans can only be studied
through their art, and
Perugia holds an ample store of this in her museums.
There, in those
rather dreary modern rooms, stone men and women smile upon
their tombs,
and the sides of these tombs bristle with long inscriptions
written in
an alphabet that we can partly read, but in a language that we
cannot
understand. Mirrors, and beautifully painted pots, children's toys
and
ladies' curling-tongs--the Etruscan dead have left no lack of records
of
their ways of living. But, strong as was their personality, another
and
a stronger force had struggled through the soil of Italy. Rome
had
arisen to shine upon the growing world. It remained for Rome to
leave
the stamp of veritable history upon the city of
Perugia.
Throughout the early history of Rome, we catch dim rumours of
an
occasional connection or warfare with this corner of Etruria. It is
not
till 309 B.C. that we have any distinct mention of Perugia in
connection
with Rome. In that year the Roman Consul, Fabius, fought a battle
with
the Etruscans under the walls of the town. The Etruscans lost the
day,
Perugia and other cities of the League sued for a truce with Rome
which
was granted to them. Fabius entered Perugia "and this was the
first
time," says Bartoli, "that the banner of foreigners had waved across
our
city." Perugia bitterly resented the rule of the foreign power,
and,
breaking her truce, she made several passionate efforts to regain
her
freedom. But in vain. Her blood, perhaps, was old, and grown
corrupt,
the blood of Rome was new and palpitating. She was again and
again
overcome by Fabius. In 206 B.C. we find her, not exactly submitting
to
Rome, but playing the part of a strong ally, and cutting down her
woods
to help in the building of a fleet for Scipio. Her history
continues
dark--overshadowed by that of Rome. We hear a faint rumble of the
Roman
battles. We catch dull echoes of Hannibal and Trasimene, for
Trasimene
is very near Perugia. Did some of her citizens creep down perhaps,
and
get a vision of the fight? Did any of those much-bewigged
Etruscan
ladies, who we know were very independent in their ways, tuck up
their
skirts and follow through the woods to have a look at the elephants
and
shudder at the swarthy African?
We cannot tell. The next clear
point in her history is a terrible one
for Perugia. She fell, but she fell by
a mighty hand, by that of the
emperor Augustus. In the year 40 B.C. the Roman
Consul, Lucius
Antoninus, who, it may be said, was defending the liberty of
Rome whilst
Mark Antony lay lost in a love-dream upon the banks of Nile,
took
refuge within the walls of Perugia from the pursuit of
Octavius
(Augustus) who then laid siege to the town. For seven months the
brave
little city held out, but she was reduced to such a terrible distress
of
famine that Lucius at last gave way, and opened her gates to
the
conqueror. Octavius entered Perugia covered with laurels. The
citizens
prayed for mercy. He spared most of the men and women, but he
excepted
three hundred of the elders and saw them singly killed before his
eyes.
When they prayed for grace he merely tossed his head back and
repeated:
"They must die." This ordeal over, Octavius decided to postpone the
sack
of the city until the following day. But one of its citizens,
Caius
Cestius Macedonicus, hot with all the shame of the thing, got up
at
night and made a funeral pyre of his house. He set fire to its
walls,
and as it burned he stabbed himself and died there. The flames
spread
through the city, and before the morning Perugia was burned to
the
ground. Nothing remained of all its buildings except the temple
of
Vulcan, and in memory of this fire the town was afterwards dedicated
to
Vulcan instead of to Juno to whom it had formerly belonged.
Octavius
returned to Rome bearing before him the image of Juno, which alone
had
been saved from the flames. Some years later he agreed to rebuild
the
city, and hence the letters _Augusta Perusia_ over her
gates.
* * * * *
So laying aside
for ever _Perusia Etrusca_, that city of strange beasts,
strange people, and
strange myths, we face _Perusia Augusta_, or the
Perugia of Rome.
For
some centuries, strange as it may appear, the powerful old Umbrian
hill-town
seems to have fallen contentedly asleep under the rule of her
great
protector. It was, as we know, the policy of Rome to adopt the
laws and
customs of the people whom she conquered rather than to change
them, and
indeed the alteration seldom went further than in name. The
Etruscan rulers
therefore took the titles of Roman governors, they did
not really alter, and
it is probable that the laws of the very earliest
settlement have never
really become extinct. The _Lucumo_ of the
Etruscans was in all probability
the descendant of the earliest
prehistoric village chief, who developed into
the _Diumvir_ or
representative of the Roman Consul pretty much as the
present _Sindaco_
succeeded to the position of the _Podesta_ of the middle
ages.
Rome had always loved and studied the religions of the older
people, and
Bonazzi infers that Rome "delighted in nursing on the breast of
her
republic those great masters of Divinity who could be made such
powerful
political instruments for her service." The Romans must
have
intermarried freely with the Etruscans; the mixture of names
and
lettering upon their tombs points to this fact. But the strong
fresh
blood of the younger race seems to have overcome that of the
more
corrupt one. Other tribes and other tongues pressed in upon the
first
inhabitants and gradually the language, yes, and the memory of
the
strange and fascinating people, died.
Of the Roman occupation
little trace can be found in the architecture of
the city, beyond the walls
and gates and the inscriptions over some of
these, together with a sorry
fragment of a Roman bath. It must be
remembered that the entire city was
burned to the ground after the
siege--burned with all her wealth of monuments
and temples--and it does
not seem as though the Romans did much to beautify
her with grand
buildings. Having no old buildings to use as raw material,
they were
probably content at this period to build strong walls and
houses
suitable for a fortified town, thus fostering the warlike character
of
her inhabitants which was to prove so great a point in
following
centuries.[4]
Roman rule was a very real piece of history,
but it is not possible to
say that the period of myth and darkness had wholly
passed away. We
possess a certain knowledge of the Roman government, but the
shadow of
the Gothic and Barbarian night closes in upon it like a heavy pall;
and
the next clear and startling point about Perugia is her recapture
by
Belisarius followed by the siege of Totila (or Baduila).
During
those terrible centuries when Italy was being ravaged by
perpetual invasions,
her lands devastated by war and plagues and famine,
and her cities, as one
historian says, "no longer cities, but rather the
corpses of cities," we find
scant mention of actual harm done to
Perugia, for it was the north which
suffered first. However, as the
Goths pressed southward upon Rome, as Rome
herself wavered and sank
beneath the weight of the northern hordes, and of
her own corruption, we
gather that the Umbrian cities too became a prey to
the barbarians, and
that Perugia suffered the fate of all her neighbours. Her
historians
seek in vain for stated records of this time where all is
darkness, but
some dim facts shine out, among them the steady growth of
Christianity
within the city.
The first important date we find follows
nearly six hundred years after
her capture by Augustus. It was in 536 A.D.,
that Justinian, who had
conceived the mighty plan of recovering Africa from
the Vandals and
Italy from the Goths, sent one of his best generals,
Constantine (under
Belisarius), into Umbria to occupy the cities there.
Constantine made
Perugia his headquarters and for a while his possession of
the town
seems not to have been disputed by the Goths. Witigis left her on
one
side as he passed with his armies down to Rome, and it remained for
the
indomitable Totila to wrest her (in 545) from the power of the
Byzantine
Empire. Totila is a most prominent figure in the history of the
city,
and many are the myths which centre round him. He first attacked
Assisi,
and having conquered her, he turned his greedy gaze upon the fair
hill
city opposite and instantly desired to possess her also. But
realising
the strength of her position, which was largely increased by
the
occupation of a Byzantine general, he determined to get her by
foul
means rather than fair, and so he bribed one of her citizens to
murder
Cyprian, who was then the general in command. The citizens rose in
eager
revolt against this treachery, and Totila soon found that he
had
undertaken no light thing when he came to besiege the town.
Indeed
tradition says that the said siege lasted seven years, and however
much
this may have been exaggerated, it is certain that it was made a
hard
one for the Goth. Perugia was taken by storm, but after
fearful
fighting; she fell, but she was upheld to the last by a new
power,
namely that of her faith. The story of S. Ercolano, the faithful
Bishop
of the Perugians, is told in another place (see pp. 245-246). It
has
been admirably illustrated by Bonfigli, it has been described
and
hallowed in a hundred ways throughout the city's chronicles, and it
is
vain for modern historians to tell us, as they are inclined to do,
that
Totila never set foot in Perugia. Bonfigli's fresco is
terribly
convincing in itself, as are also the naive and delightful records
of
Ciatti and Pellini. Among the people of the town Totila has become
one
of its most important facts, and they declare that his wife lies
buried
close to the Ponte Felcino together with her husband's hidden
treasure.
[Illustration: LOMBARD ARCH ON THE CHURCH OF S.
AGATA]
Gothic rule was short. Infinite and hurried changes follow on
this
period. We next hear of the city in the hands of the Lombards.
The
Lombard occupation is almost as dark as the Gothic.[5] In 592,
Perugia
became a Lombard Duchy ruled by the Duke Mauritius, who turned
traitor
to his trust and delivered the city to the Exarch of Ravenna. The
news
of the Duke's treachery spread northward. Agilulf, King of the
Lombards,
came hastening down to recapture the city with a mighty army, and
he
made Mauritius pay for his treachery with his head. This was in 593.
A
few years later Perugia was restored to the Empire, but at the
beginning
of 700, she, like many other cities of Italy, attempted to shake
herself
free from Byzantine rule. It is probable that she did not really
succeed
in doing so, but this point is at any rate a great crisis in
her
history, for it is the first time that we find her at all
tangibly
connected with the Head of the Christian world--with that power of
the
Church which was to prove, throughout her future, alternately
her
safeguard and her scourge.
It was about 727 that Leo the Isaurian,
Emperor of the East, terrified
by certain evils in his kingdom which he took
to be signs of Divine
anger, made his famous decree against the worship of
images. This proved
of course a most unpopular edict in Italy, and the
reigning Pope opposed
it by every means in his power. Many of the most
powerful cities joined
him, amongst them Perugia, and Greek rule in Italy,
already on the wane,
was greatly weakened, but we do not hear of any settled
breach with the
Empire for many years to come. Perugia was, as we shall see,
merely
advancing towards her own liberation, but the acquired protection of
the
Popes proved useful to her in her next great crisis.
In 749
Ratchis, King of the Lombards, laid siege to the city, and her
fall seemed
inevitable. Then, in the moment of her great need, with the
Lombard army
beating in her very doors, the reigning Pope, S. Zacharias
the Greek,
accompanied by all his clergy, and by many of the Roman
nobles, arrived at
her gates, and in words of extraordinary sweetness
pleaded her cause with
Ratchis. We do not hear what phrases the old man
may have used to check a man
on the verge of a great victory. We only
hear that the Lombard king knelt
down and kissed the feet of the Pope.
"Thou hast conquered me," he said, very
simply, and then he withdrew
from the battle, and S. Zacharias passed into
the city, and was received
with universal joy by her citizens. And not only
did Ratchis abandon the
siege of a town which he so greatly coveted, but, his
whole soul being
moved by this new power, he renounced his kingdom and his
crown and
retired to the monastery Monte Cassino, where he became a monk,
living
there until he died.
Thus closes another chapter of Perugian
history. Within a space of three
hundred years, roughly speaking, she had
changed the nationality of her
rulers four successive times, whilst she
herself may be said never to
have changed. Her internal history, her internal
government, had all
along continued pretty much on the first lines. Her
entire future policy
proves this. In all the small wars which follow, and
which lead to her
final supremacy over every other city in Umbria--cities
which at the
outset had been as strong as herself, and even stronger, we
trace this
masterful and incontestable personality--the personality of the
griffin
which the old Etruscan settlers captured thousands of years before
upon
the hill-tops and chose for their city arms.
*
* * * *
In all the intense complication of the times
which follow it is almost
impossible to unravel the exact position of
individual towns. At one
moment we find Perugia belonging apparently to the
Duchy of Spoleto, at
another joined to the Tuscan League, at another putting
herself under
the protection of the Pope, whilst all the time nominally
belonging to
the Empire. Bonazzi remarks that one result of the perpetual
conflict
between Emperor and Pope was the liberty left to the citizens;
in
another place he says that in the scant documents which contain
her
early history, "Perugia is always mentioned alone, always managing
her
own affairs." The said management dated back in all probability to
that
of the very earliest settlement, which was mainly agricultural,
and
managed by chiefs or a Village Council. As the town grew, so
likewise
did the numbers of its rulers. In Perugia, as in other places,
the
original Village Council, which was first held in the public square,
was
abandoned as politics grew complicated. The Consuls, ten in number,
two
to each Porta or gate, met in council on the steps of the
first
Cathedral. The finest architectural building in Perugia is notably
the
Palazzo Pubblico, but long before the construction of this palace
there
was another building which served the same purpose close to the Duomo
in
which the different protectors of the city met. We do not propose
to
trace the form of government here. Suffice it to say that, in Perugia
as
elsewhere, we find the usual titles of _Consuli_ and _Podesta_, then
of
the Heads of City Guilds, the _Priori_ (a very strong power in
Perugia),
_Capitano del Popolo_ and _Capitano della Parte Guelfa_; all of
whom
recur again and again in her chronicles, playing important parts
as
peace-makers or as arbitrators in her turmoils and dissensions.
The
historians of Perugia, naturally enough perhaps, tend to speak of
her as of
an independent Republic, but this she never was. She had her
own rulers, she
grew powerful and individual, she finally became a great
capital, but she was
never a free state like Florence or Rome. Something
in her extraordinary
position, something in the character of her people,
warlike and tenacious
from the first, proved her final force. Great
wandering hordes and armies
thought twice before they attacked her
walls. Thus she enjoyed long periods
of ease, and in her stormy breast
she nurtured the ferocious families which
were to prove her strength,
but equally her bane in later years.
Being
utterly cut off from mercantile expansion or commerce of an
ordinary sort,
she used her concentrated force in subduing neighbouring
towns, and thus
extending her dominion over Umbria. Her power soon
became recognised, and
many little towns and hamlets sent envoys to
present acts of submission to
the growing power. When these were given
freely she received them graciously,
and when withheld she sometimes
showed a power of rapacity and cruelty which
is well nigh inconceivable.
Her history is full of wars against Siena,
Gubbio, Arezzo, Citta di
Castello, Todi, Foligno, Spoleto and Assisi, all
chronicled at great
length by her proud historians. We have collected a few
scattered facts
relating to these, which cast some light upon the character
of the
Perugians, who, as their power strengthened, began to show, not only
a
tyrannous disposition, but an occasional spark of the grimmest
humour.
Leaving aside other events, such as the encroaching power of the
Pope,
we may now glance at some of these.
The first act of voluntary
submission came from the island of Polvese in
1130, and was received with
great solemnity in the Piazza di San Lorenzo
and in the presence of all the
inhabitants of the city. A little later
more than nine hundred of the people
of Castiglione del Lago came to
place their land on the shores of Trasimene
under the protection of
Perugia. Citta di Castello and Gubbio followed suit,
and many of the
smaller towns and hamlets. But, if submission was sweet,
blows, one
surmises, were well nigh sweeter to the fierce and savage owners
of
Perugia, and horrid were the skirmishes--one can scarcely call
them
battles--which ensued from time to time when towns resisted or
rebelled
against them.
Assisi and Perugia were ever an eyesore to one
another, and their
inhabitants scoured the plain between them like packs of
wolves. In one
of these savage little contests tradition tells us that a
certain
Giovanni di Bernadone, a youth of only twenty summers, was
taken
prisoner by the Perugians and kept a year in the Campo di Battaglia.
The
Palace of the Capitano del Popolo in the Piazza Sopramuro now covers
the
place where the youth was chained, and we may look on it
with
veneration, for he was no other than that sweetest soul of
mediæval
history, St Francis of Assisi.
When Citta della Pieve dared
to rebel, the action of Perugia was prompt
and effective. "Most gladly did
the youth of Perugia--hot with the
dignity of their city, and by no means
disposed to forgive those who
despised or disobeyed her--assemble in arms,"
says Bartoli. The army
thus assembled was instantly sent to the recalcitrant
city, but the
Pievese had scarcely caught sight of it hurrying towards their
gates,
than they sent their _Procuratore_, Peppone d'Alvato, to sue for
peace
and beg forgiveness for their misdeeds. This was kindly granted,
but
Peppone, accompanied by some hundred and thirty Pievese, was forced
to
come to Ripa di Grotto and there listen to the reproaches of
the
_Podesta_ of Perugia, whilst the Bishops of Perugia and of Chiusi,
the
Provost of S. Mustiola, and the _Arciprete_ of Perugia, sitting on
high
chairs, surrounded by various grandees, were in readiness to enjoy
the
spectacle. All were dressed in their finest, but we are told that
the
_Arciprete_ of Corciano threw all his neighbours entirely into the
shade
by the splendour and the brilliancy of his many-coloured
garments.[6]
Peppone kneeling at the Bishop's feet with his hand on the
gospels,
swore faith and loyalty to the Perugians, and we hear that the
Pievese
returned home "rejoicing" at the pardon obtained in this
most
humiliating fashion. This last fact we may take the liberty to
doubt,
but it is certain that the Perugians enjoyed the whole
episode
immensely, neither did they consider the humiliation of their
enemies
complete. A further punishment had yet to be thought of, and at last
a
brilliant plan was resolved on. The Piazza of San Lorenzo needed
paving,
and the Pievese were told that they must provide all the
necessary
bricks for this purpose, and this "puerile waspishness," as
Bonazzi
describes it, so delighted the hearts of the Perugians that, as
we
learn, not even the death of the great foe of the Guelph
cause,
Frederick II., "was able to give them a keener sense of
joy." |
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