The story of Bologna 1923

Front matter

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Preface

Papal town, for after the first centuries of her existence (when the Popes, her own magistrates and potentates, and the Duke of Milan alternately swayed her fortunes) she recognised the Papacy as her head, and remained under that form of government from 1506—when it was set up by Julius II.—till the time of the French invasion at the close of the eighteenth century.

Another factor that might have made for gravity and decorum in Bologna was the presence of the University in her midst, for such weighty matters as law and learning are usually associated—whether rightly or wrongly who shall say ?—with the soberer side of life, and with a demure and dignified bearing. But though Bologna can boast of much dignity, there is neither demureness nor melancholy in her nature; her inhabitants are a joyous and lighthearted people; they love gaiety and amusement; they welcome strangers with cordiality and courtesy, and one of the surnames of their town, that of “La Gentile,” 1s prized more highly by them than that of ‘La Dotta’’—kindliness and graciousness ranking in their eyes even before learning and erudition. The Bolognese love of music has ever been a noted feature in the history of their town, and though time and space forbid any enlarging on this subject the fact should not be forgotten that Bologna introduced Wagner to the Italian public, when Lohengrin was given for the first time in Italy early in the nineties. Here too Boito’s Mefistofele was heard for the first time. Again, in the eighteenth century, Burney, in his Musical Tour, tells how he came to Bologna in 1771 expressly to see Padre Martini and Farinelli, “‘the former being regarded by all Europe as the-deepest theorist, and the other as the greatest practical musician

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Preface of this or perhaps of any age or country.”+ Bologna must be seen and known to be appreciated at her true worth, and the traveller who will devote if but a few days to the study of this remarkable town will be richly repaid:, The memories of a great Past will meet him at every turn, and enable him to enter very fully into the activities and energies that form so characteristic a feature of the, Bologna of to-day.

The help and kindness that I received during my visits to Bologna can never be forgotten, or acknowledged with sufficient gratitude, while the fact that an English book was to make known abroad the story of their city evoked such lively satisfaction among my Bolognese friends as to prove one of the greatest incentives for the writing and finishing of such a book.

My chief thanks are due to Cavaliere Professore Lino Sighinolfi, of the Museo Civico and the Archiginnasio, who spared neither time nor trouble in making me acquainted with the town itself and with every work relating to it. I am also indebted to him for leave to reproduce the plan of the town at the end of the book from his excellent Guida dt Bologna. My thanks are also due to: Conte Fr. Valeri Malaguzzi, the learned and cultivated Director of the Pinacoteca, who revealed to me the wonders of the Bolognese School in the Gallery of Fine Arts and allowed me to reproduce several of the illustrations from his book on the Pinacoteca; to Monsignor D. Giulio Belvederi, who has made such important studies on the “mysterious’’ Church of Santo Stefano; to Conte Francesco

1Charles Burney, Mus.D., The Present State of Music in France and Italy, or the Journal of a Tour _ through those Countries, p. 198. London, 1773. . 1X

Preface

Cavazza, for his valuable work on “Lo Studio Bolognese’; to Cavaliere F. Cantoni, whose help and guidance were unfailing; to Contessa Gucci Boschi and her son; to Signora Lina Bernaroli and to Marchesa Maria Rocca Rusconi, for much help and kindness; and to Signorina Giovanna Bonino, who never wearied in her capacity of “cicerone,’ and in showing me every nook and cranny of a town she knows so well and loves so truly. My thanks are due to Mr. Lionel Cust for help in reading the proofs and many useful suggestions on the Picture Gallery and art of Bologna.

Contents

CHAPTER I PAGE Origin and Rise of the City—Bologna under the Etvuscans—Under the Romans—Papal Supremacy as preferred to Imperial Supremacy : : : : 5 if CHAPTER II Battle of Fossalta—King Enzo taken Prisoner —His captivity—Legends that have arisen around tt . : : : ; SURGR lo CHAPTER III Bologna in the Middle Ages—Rtse and Fall o the House of Benttvoglio 30 CHAPTER IV .

The University : : : : har CHAPIER V The Great Public ite if Cee and S. Petronio . sy OS

CHAPTER VI

Chapter I

Origin and Rise of the City—Bologna under the Etruscans—Under the Romans—Papal Supremacy as preferred to Imperial Supremacy.

‘THE early history of Bologna can have but a

relative interest for the traveller who intends spending only a few days within its walls, and to whom a Past—so remote as to savour almost of the fabulous—can only speak in very limited, sometimes even very dull tones. Some allusion to this past is necessary, together with some mention of how the town first arose, and who were its founders and earliest inhabitants. Ligurians, Umbrians, Etruscans were in turn its first inhabitants, and these last, whether they came from the north or from the south, have certainly left an impress on the town which exists to this day, and which proves an unending source of delight to historian and archeologist alike every time an excavation is made or a fresh sod of earth upturned. Situated at the foot of the northern spur of the Apennines, the position of Bologna in the very centre of Italy makes it of special and unique importance as the chief junction, as it were, of the Peninsula, and through which its commerce can command widespread circulation. It stands in a rich and fertile plain, with small and great rivers beside it (to the

I north is the Po, and nearer still the Savena and the Reno), with the Adriatic at no remote distance, so that it possesses the many advantages that such a convenience of waterways implies, while its land route communicates to the north with Lombardy and Venetia, and to the south with Tuscany, Emilia and the Marches. A system of canals supplements the river-power of Bologna; these canals, most of which are carried underground, being the Canale del Reno, del Naviglio or di Porta Nobile, delle Moline, di Savena, dell’ Aposa. This latter takes its name from the torrent Aposa which rises near Monte Padermo, winds round the hill of S. Michele in Bosco, enters its underground course through the city between the Porta d’Azeglio and Porta Castiglione, where it joins forces with the Canale di Savena (this rises near S. Ruffillo), both flowing eventually into the Reno. . These waters have borne and still bear their part in the city’s wellbeing and industries. They have served as carriers for its commerce, they have worked the mills for grinding corn, they were all-essential for the dyer’s art, for silk, wool, paper and pottery factories, while to-day their services are in daily request for electrical purposes.

Nature has lavished her gifts plentifully in this region of Italy: the soil is of surpassing richness and fertility; corn, wine, oil, hemp, and other fruits of the earth justify one of Bologna’s titles of ‘‘La Grassa,” and from an agricultural point of view she ranks high among Italian states. A more dignified surname, ‘“‘La Dotta’’ (learned), comes to her through the famous University; while another, that of “‘La Gentile,’ is due to the ready courtesy she extends to foreigners.

The first name borne by the city was that of

Origin and Rise of the City

“Felsina,” from Felsino, King of Tuscany, who, according to Ghirardacci,! reigned from 897 to 865 B.c. Another legend ascribes the name to Felsina, the daughter of one Fero, or Ferro, who with his daughter and his wife Aposa had come to this spot with the intent of building a house here. One day, overcome by toil and heat, he fainted away, but was revived by his daughter, who restored him with some water from a neighbouring stream, and prayed that as a reward for her labours the place might be called after her. The father consented, and he proceeded further to call the stream Aposa after his wife, who was drowned there one day while bathing.

King Felsino was followed by his son Bono, who loved the town so dearly that he altered its name to Bononia after himself, a name by which it was known for years, and from which with slight modifications it has become the Bologna of to-day.

Bologna was made the metropolis of twelve other cities, and remained under the rule of the Etruscans till the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, fifth King of Rome (580 B.c.), when the Celtic Gauls under Belloveso crossed the Alps, drove the Etruscans from before them, and spread victoriously over the rich lands lying between the Apennines and the Adriatic. They retained Bologna as their capital, and called the neighbouring river Reno, or Rhine, in remembrance of the river of that same name in the country they had so recently left.

Bologna, ‘“‘with the region of Felsina,’ was assigned to the Boil, a strong and numerous tribe of the Gauls who hailed from “Gallia Lugdunensis,”’

1 Ghirardacci, Della Historia di Bologna. In Bologna per Giovanni Rossi, 1596.

S 3 and confirmed the choice of Bologna as the capital. Their possession of this region was hotly contested by the Romans, and a series of fights ensued with alternating results, the Boi frequently remaining victors, only to be as often defeated by the Romans. These last, however, finally remained conquerors, and showed their satisfaction and appreciation by showering benefits and favours on Bologna. The town was raised to the rank of a Roman colony; it was granted laws and privileges; baths and an amphitheatre; its inhabitants donned the dress of Roman men and women of fashion, and adopted the Roman tongue in the place of the rude barbarian language that had been in vogue till then. It was the old story of Roman civilisation against northern barbarism, and the Roman triumphed. Their civilising arts were soon brought into play, for in 188 B.c. the Consul Caius Flaminius built a road from Bologna to Emilia and his colleague Marcus A‘milius Lepidus built another in the opposite direction from Bologna to Rimini, the one being known as the Flaminian, the other as the A‘milian Way, names which remain to this day. In the Via Mazzini and near the Torre degli Asinelli, traces of the A‘milian Way have been found which show how the road lay at a depth of two metres below the present surface, and traversed the very heart of the city from the Porta S. Felice to the Porta Mazzini. On the death of Julius Cesar, “ ides of March 44 years B.c.,” the second triumvirate was formed, consisting of Mark Antony, Octavius Cesar and Lepidus, who met on an island on the Reno, and there divided among themselves what Roman arms had conquered of the known world. This triumvirate was of short duration. Lepidus was put to 4

Under the Romans death; Octavius Cesar and Mark Antony quarrelled, Bologna espousing the cause of the latter and sending men and arms to his aid when he was kept prisoner at Modena. From thence he fled to Egypt and succumbed to the wiles and charms of Cleopatra. Bologna, which had suffered much in the strife, had no choice but to own the sway of Octavius, or as he now became known, Augustus Cesar, and the choice was.a wise one. Endless privileges were granted to the city; temples, baths, amphitheatres rose within the walls; an influx of rich nobles brought wealth and occupation in their train; and in the reign of Claudius Cesar Bologna ranked as one of the five richest towns of Italy.

The striking aspect of the town, with its streets of interminable colonnades —“ portici ’’ — existed from early days, for these “‘portici,’ like so much elsein Bologna, date from the time of the Etruscans. The extent of the city was at first small, being limited to the first circuit of walls, which was enclosed on the east side by that branch of the Aposa which flows by Porta Ravegnana; on the west by the original Zecca; on the south by the houses of Bevilacqua and Marsigli; on the north by the church of the Madonna di Galliera. This earliest circuit of the walls had but four gates (Porta Stiera, Porta Piera, Porta Procola and Porta Ravegnana); the town itself being split up into four quarters or districts which took their names from these respective gates. Second and third circles were added as the needs of a growing population required more space. The second circle dates from the year 1139, and the third from 1330, spreading this time in a south-east direction; but the work progressed slowly, and it was not till

1370 that it was decreed that the walls enclosing this third circle should be turreted for better defence in time of war. Fire was one of the hindrances that often held up building operations in Bologna, and when we consider how the houses at first were entirely of wood, with the roofs all of thatch, the only wonder is that the city exists to this day. The first fire recorded was in the reign of Claudius Cesar, A.D. 50, which Tacitus says was of so fierce a nature that the town was almost destroyed. Nero, then a youth and high in favour with the emperor, was moved at the sight of the ruin and distress which had come about, and pleaded that help should be sent from Rome. A sum of one hundred sesterces was granted by the Emperor, which did much to restore and rebuild the city, and eventually Nero himself did even more; he rebuilt the baths, and at his death bequeathed a sum of four hundred sesterces to endow them.

Little is known of the history of Bologna during the first ages of Christianity, beyond the fact that she was subject to the rule of the Exarch of Ravenna, and remained so till the time of the barbarian invasion. She did not, however, escape the fierce outburst of persecution that followed on her efforts to break away from Pagan worship, a worship that had been introduced by the Etruscans, and that from the number of temples built throughout the town to Etruscan deities serves to show how firm a hold Paganism had. on the inhabitants. There were temples to the much-loved and highly venerated [ris, to Tina or Tinia, to Thelma, to Meuvra and many others, including the “ Dii Consentes,’ or the Consenting Gods, the Shrouded

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Under the Romans

Miss Coulson James,! “‘to whom gods as well as men owed obedience.” In art we come across Sethlans, the Roman Vulcan, while Bacchus is met with under the full-sounding name of ‘“ Phuphlums.”’ The gods of the infernal regions were Mantus and Mantia, and on many of the carved stele we see their messenger, Charon, guiding souls to their resting-place in the other world.

Besides these Etruscan rites were the Gallic rites, which held the oak tree in special veneration, and under whose shadow sacrifices and oblations were freely offered. The wooded heights around Bologna lent themselves particularly to these ceremonials, and close to the Temple of Iris at S. Michele in Bosco there -were the “ sacred forests ’’ where the Druids lived and practised their special rites. These were followed in their turn by Roman gods and Roman practices, and altars and temples to Jove, Minerva, Apollo, Mars, Ceres, Pan, and Bacchus arose in and outside the town. The lighter side of life was also present in Bologna. Theatres, circuses, and other places of amusement and relaxation sprang up in many quarters of the town. There was the theatre of Marcellus, which originally stood between the Church of S. Stefano and the Porta Ravegnana (this gate was so called because by it, and passing through the Porta S. Vitale, the road led to Ravenna); the ‘“ Teatro Maggiore’’ of Marcus Aurelius, which stood in the Sduare iol 5, otefano;, the “Circo. Agonale,’’| a circus where public games were held, and which stood on the site afterwards occupied by the ex- Convent and Church of Sta. Maria della Carita;

1 Edith E. Coulson James, Bologna: Its History, Antiquities and Art, chap. ii. p. 17. London, 'H. F. Froude. Oxford University Press, 1909.

and the “Arena,” near the old tower of S. Felice, where it is said the first Christian martyrs were put to death.

Christianity was first introduced into Bologna by S. Apollinare, Bishop of Ravenna (A.D. 44), though evidently it was not till the year 265 that any bishop was appointed as head of the Church. S. Sama was then elected as Bologna’s first bishop, though it is unlikely that for two whole centuries (during which time many holy men both suffered for the faith and adorned it with their saintly lives) no head was set up over the nascent Church. It is probable that the names of the early pastors of the flock were either merged among those of their lesser brethren, or lost in the dust of ages. Among those names, however, which have come down to us as being the first martyrs in Bologna are those of Ermete, Cajo and Aggeo, all of them young men of rank and fashion in the town, and who perished in the persecutions that raged in the reigns of Diocletian and Maximian. The first to be canonised were S. Vitale and his servant S. Agricola (to whom the church bearing their joint names was afterwards dedicated), who underwent horrible tortures in the arena before they were finally crucified and their bodies flung into the burying-ground of the Jews.

Another saint often to be met with in Bolognese art and story is S. Procolo, who won martyrdom and renown in the following manner: A prefect of the name of Marino had been sent from Rome to Bologna who proved a bitter foe to the Christians, and persecuted them remorselessly. Procolo, ‘‘a polished and valiant knight,” determined to rid the town of its persecutor. -He repaired one night to the prefect’s house, concealing a hatchet

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Introduction of Christianity under his cloak, and being a person of consequence was readily admitted into the chamber where Marino was sitting alone. Procolo immediately dealt him a death blow on his head, though not before the dying man had uttered a loud and piercing cry which brought his servants running in. They seized on Procolo, who made no attempt to save or excuse himself, saying what he had done he had done to free his town from cruelty and persecution, and for the good of Christianity. He was dragged to the place of execution outside the gate of S. Mamolo, where he was promptly beheaded. His head had barely been cut off when his body arose, and, taking the head in its hands, carried it to the spot in the town where a prophetic instinct had told the saint that a church would one day be built in his honour.

Bologna, together with all the Romagna, rebelled early in the eighth century against the Greeks and the Lombards, who were constantly warring against one or other of their neighbours, and who deemed the moment an opportune one in which to press forward for conquest. In this they succeeded, and in 711 their rule was set up in Bologna under their King Luitprand, and continued under his son Aistolfo (749), who, having driven Eutychius out of Ravenna, established his seat of government there. He aimed, however, at the conquest of Rome, and the Pope, Stephen II., in his alarm invoked the aid of Pepin le Bref, King of France, who came to the rescue with a powerful army and defeated Aistolfo in 755. Peace was concluded on the Lombard monarch promising to refrain from further warfare, a condition which was not kept, and Pepin, who had gone back to France, came again into Italy with a fresh army and gained a

II fresh victory over Aistolfo. The latter had to surrender all his conquests in the Exarchate to the Pope (Bologna being probably included), and peace was again restored.

No stirring events stand out in Bolognese history in the years that followed the fall of Carlovingian rule in Italy. The Frankish power was transferred to Germany, and from the days of Frederick Barbarossa onwards German influences and interests played an important part in the affairs of the Peninsula.

As early as 1087 a “civic guard’’ was raised in Bologna, while measures for ensuring the safety of the citizens were taken by setting aside a church in each of the quarters of the town where in case of war or serious riots in the streets the people could take refuge. These churches were S. Isaia, S. Vitale, S. Procolo, and S. Pietro; and to each district was assigned its banner or gonfalon, ‘‘and those who carried it were called ‘gonfalonieri,’ an office that has always been observed in a Republic, and is even observed to this day.”

The city flag, bearing a red cross on a white field, dates from the time of the Crusades in 1094, when many nobles of Bologna became Crusaders, among them being members of the Garisenda family} the Ramponi, Lambertacci, Passipoveri, Bianchetti, Geremei, Caccianemici, Gozzadini, and other great patrician families.

‘‘Plague, pestilence and famine’’ followed in the

1The two Garisenda brothers, Filippo and Oddo, on their return from the Holy Land founded the tower which bears their name to this day, and is famous (and unsightly!) from the angle at which it leans and from its strange and uncouth proportions. Dante alludes to it under the name “ Carisenda”’ (Inferno, canto xxxi. ver. 136).

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Rise of the Commune wake of the Hungarian invasion in the tenth century, and Bologna suffered greatly from their barbarous inroad. Her energies were spent, and it was not till the twelfth century that she came to the fore in a marked way. She then, however, began to show signs of the great part she was to play in the education and civilisation of the world at large. It was the epoch when throughout Italy the Communes were beginning to take shape and to lay the foundation of their existence on those privileges which Otho the Great had granted to the different towns, when at the close of the tenth. century he had entered Italy to free the country from the tyranny and oppression of Berengario of Ivrea. From the very first Bologna rose to a post of pre-eminence among the Communes, and at the close of the twelfth century she had already begun to set in order her various institutions, and gather together laws, rights, and decrees in order to combat feudalism and to ensure liberty for all ranks alike. There were assemblies of the people, of Consuls, of Guilds and Councils, of the Company of ‘Arts and Arms’’ and other governing bodies, who assumed the guidance of the different districts into which for some time past the city had already been parcelled out. Though at first this was a citizen government, it was essentially aristocratic in character; none but nobles or military men of rank could hold office, the share taken by the people being infinitesimal. This was greatly modified after the Crusades, when the power and influence of the lower classes increased largely, and after hard and frequent riots and fightings the Commune, in the strict sense of the word, came into its own and remained in power.

Among other offices instituted was that of the ey

Podesta, which came into force in 1153, while before that were the three councils known as the “Consiglio Speciale,’ ‘‘Consiglio Generale’? and “Consiglio di Credenza,’ “‘so that all who read may know and understand that in those old and rough times the administration of the City was carried out with much good sense, nor were affairs of arms treated foolishly.’1 From the three Councils sprang eventually the Six Hundred, who formed a kind of Parliament with rules and restrictions of a most intricate and rigid order. A large number of notaries were appointed to the Councils, while lawyers, jurists and anyone of note in the University were freely admitted, the respect and honour paid to the legal standing from the very earliest times being a point that must never be lost sight of in the story of Bologna. There was also a perfect string of judges, of rectors, consuls, procurators, questors and other dignitaries to whom different offices were apportioned, not omitting legates, preetors, curators, and syndics. Another important office was that of the Anziani, though actually they were only instituted in 1228.

It was then that most of those wonderful and grand towers were built in such numbers throughout the town,? and which were erected by the

1 Ghirardacci, op. cit., lib. il. p. 63.

2 The first tower erected in the town was said to have been in g10 by the Rodaldi family, but this has not been proved, and it is pretty clear that it was not till the twelfth century that this craze for building towers began. In the year 1257 alone no less than thirty-six were set up, to be followed by so many more that Bologna was rightly called “ the Towered City.’’. The last one built from the very foundations was the one built by the Bentivogli in 1489. The principal ones, ‘‘]’Asinella,”’ ‘la Garisenda,” “la

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Changes of Government nobles and some of the Guilds in order to make head against the growing power of the people, while their owners applied in turn to the Popes and Emperors to unite with them at keeping under a class whom they all equally feared and whose increasing force was a menace to all alike.

In the midst of these bitter and internecine divisions arose the wider-spread factions of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, factions whose names, though of foreign origin, referred almost always to the supporters of the Pope and the Emperor. In Italy these names were perhaps as often connected with the struggles between the Commune and the feudal power as to things relating to the Papacy and the Empire, and Bologna frequently came under their opposing influences. She passed under the Papal dominion in 1231, having obtained honourable conditions, but shortly afterwards she was tossed backwards and forwards under so many different rulers, and that, too, for such brief periods, that once she passed in the course of a few hours under the rule of no less than three different heads.

To enumerate the many changes of government and overlords under whose rule Bologna passed in turn would be a long and wearisome business; and for the present purpose it may suffice to record the leading features in her political story and the most salient points in which her history touched that of the rest of Italy. She was one among the chief

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Coronata,”’ “‘]’Azzoguidi,”’ “ la Galluzzi,’’ and “‘ l’Occelletti,’’ are preserved for the most part intact to this day; others again have been truncated, or levelled to the roofs of the houses to which they belong. Bad building, earthquakes and other vicissitudes account for the disappearance of many, while others again were demolished by order of the magistrates.

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Italian towns to join the Lombard League, that League formed by the most influential part of Northern and Central Jtaly to make head against the Emperor of Germany. Early in 1100, at the Council of Guastalla, she was declared by the Pope, Pascal II., free from all subjection to Ravenna; while later in this century she was affected by the rivalries between Henry of Swabia and the Contessa Matilda, the great lady who through her strong support of the Papacy and her legacy to — Rome of the enormous wealth she had inherited from her father, Boniface, Count of Tuscany, figures so largely in the history of the Italian Middle Ages. Bologna joined the Contessa on the Papal side, and continued this support after Matilda’s death (1115) and again towards the end of the century when Frederick Barbarossa came into Italy (1158) to make good his rights and assert his claim to the patrimony that the great Contessa had left to Rome. He convened a Diet of nobles, lords spiritual and temporal, and consuls, lawyers and jurists from all parts of the country at Roncaglia, and the four great legal men of Bologna, Bulgaro,? Martino, Ugo and Jacopo, were called on to take a prominent part in discussing and sifting the many points of controversy. Peace and harmony were restored by concessions being made on both sides, and Frederick, with his mind at ease as far as Italy was concerned, set

1“ She passed,’’ says Ghirardacci, “to a more happy life in the seventy-sixth year of her age, leaving all Italy sore distrest and especially the Bolognese, to whom she bequeathed some lands and houses to serve for ecclesiastical purposes.’