Volume 6 Part 35 (2/2)

[Footnote 98: Pandulph. Pisan. in Vit. Paschal. II. in Muratori, Script.

Ital. tom. iii. P. i. p. 335. The family has still great possessions in the Campagna of Rome; but they have alienated to the Rospigliosi this original fief of _Colonna_, (Eschinard, p. 258, 259.)]

[Footnote 99: Te longinqua dedit tellus et pascua Rheni, says Petrarch; and, in 1417, a duke of Guelders and Juliers acknowledges (Lenfant, Hist. du Concile de Constance, tom. ii. p. 539) his descent from the ancestors of Martin V., (Otho Colonna:) but the royal author of the Memoirs of Brandenburg observes, that the sceptre in his arms has been confounded with the column. To maintain the Roman origin of the Colonna, it was ingeniously supposed (Diario di Monaldeschi, in the Script. Ital. tom. xii. p. 533) that a cousin of the emperor Nero escaped from the city, and founded Mentz in Germany.]

[Footnote 100: I cannot overlook the Roman triumph of ovation on Marce Antonio Colonna, who had commanded the pope's galleys at the naval victory of Lepanto, (Thuan. Hist. l. 7, tom. iii. p. 55, 56. Muret.

Oratio x. Opp. tom. i. p. 180--190.)]

[Footnote 101: Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. x. p. 216, 220.]

[Footnote 102: Petrarch's attachment to the Colonna has authorized the abbe de Sade to expatiate on the state of the family in the fourteenth century, the persecution of Boniface VIII., the character of Stephen and his sons, their quarrels with the Ursini, &c., (Memoires sur Petrarque, tom. i. p. 98--110, 146--148, 174--176, 222--230, 275--280.) His criticism often rectifies the hearsay stories of Villani, and the errors of the less diligent moderns. I understand the branch of Stephen to be now extinct.]

[Footnote 103: Alexander III. had declared the Colonna who adhered to the emperor Frederic I. incapable of holding any ecclesiastical benefice, (Villani, l. v. c. 1;) and the last stains of annual excommunication were purified by Sixtus V., (Vita di Sisto V. tom. iii.

p. 416.) Treason, sacrilege, and proscription are often the best t.i.tles of ancient n.o.bility.]

[Footnote 104: --------Vallis te proxima misit, Appenninigenae qua prata virentia sylvae Spoletana metunt armenta gregesque protervi.

Monaldeschi (tom. xii. Script. Ital. p. 533) gives the Ursini a French origin, which may be remotely true.]

[Footnote 105: In the metrical life of Celestine V. by the cardinal of St. George (Muratori, tom. iii. P. i. p. 613, &c.,) we find a luminous, and not inelegant, pa.s.sage, (l. i. c. 3, p. 203 &c.:)-- --------genuit quem n.o.bilis Ursae (_Ursi?_) Progenies, Romana domus, veterataque magnis Fascibus in clero, pompasque experta senatus, Bellorumque manu grandi stipata parentum Cardineos apices necnon fastigia dudum Papatus _iterata_ tenens.

Muratori (Dissert. xlii. tom. iii.) observes, that the first Ursini pontificate of Celestine III. was unknown: he is inclined to read _Ursi_ progenies.]

[Footnote 106: Filii Ursi, quondam Clestini papae nepotes, de bonis ecclesiae Romanae ditati, (Vit. Innocent. III. in Muratori, Script. tom.

iii. P. i.) The partial prodigality of Nicholas III. is more conspicuous in Villani and Muratori. Yet the Ursini would disdain the nephews of a _modern_ pope.]

[Footnote 107: In his fifty-first Dissertation on the Italian Antiquities, Muratori explains the factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelines.]

[Footnote 108: Petrarch (tom. i. p. 222--230) has celebrated this victory according to the Colonna; but two contemporaries, a Florentine (Giovanni Villani, l. x. c. 220) and a Roman, (Ludovico Monaldeschi, p.

532--534,) are less favorable to their arms.]

[Footnote 109: The abbe de Sade (tom. i. Notes, p. 61--66) has applied the vith Canzone of Petrarch, _Spirto Gentil_, &c., to Stephen Colonna the younger: Orsi, lupi, leoni, aquile e serpi Al una gran marmorea _colexna_ Fanno noja sovente e a se danno. 11]

Chapter LXX: Final Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.--Part I.

Character And Coronation Of Petrarch.--Restoration Of The Freedom And Government Of Rome By The Tribune Rienzi.--His Virtues And Vices, His Expulsion And Death.--Return Of The Popes From Avignon.--Great Schism Of The West.--Reunion Of The Latin Church.--Last Struggles Of Roman Liberty.-- Statutes Of Rome.--Final Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.

In the apprehension of modern times, Petrarch [1] is the Italian songster of Laura and love. In the harmony of his Tuscan rhymes, Italy applauds, or rather adores, the father of her lyric poetry; and his verse, or at least his name, is repeated by the enthusiasm, or affectation, of amorous sensibility. Whatever may be the private taste of a stranger, his slight and superficial knowledge should humbly acquiesce in the judgment of a learned nation; yet I may hope or presume, that the Italians do not compare the tedious uniformity of sonnets and elegies with the sublime compositions of their epic muse, the original wildness of Dante, the regular beauties of Ta.s.so, and the boundless variety of the incomparable Ariosto. The merits of the lover I am still less qualified to appreciate: nor am I deeply interested in a metaphysical pa.s.sion for a nymph so shadowy, that her existence has been questioned; [2] for a matron so prolific, [3] that she was delivered of eleven legitimate children, [4] while her amorous swain sighed and sung at the fountain of Vaucluse. [5] But in the eyes of Petrarch, and those of his graver contemporaries, his love was a sin, and Italian verse a frivolous amus.e.m.e.nt. His Latin works of philosophy, poetry, and eloquence, established his serious reputation, which was soon diffused from Avignon over France and Italy: his friends and disciples were multiplied in every city; and if the ponderous volume of his writings [6] be now abandoned to a long repose, our grat.i.tude must applaud the man, who by precept and example revived the spirit and study of the Augustan age.

From his earliest youth, Petrarch aspired to the poetic crown. The academical honors of the three faculties had introduced a royal degree of master or doctor in the art of poetry; [7] and the t.i.tle of poet-laureate, which custom, rather than vanity, perpetuates in the English court, [8] was first invented by the Caesars of Germany. In the musical games of antiquity, a prize was bestowed on the victor: [9] the belief that Virgil and Horace had been crowned in the Capitol inflamed the emulation of a Latin bard; [10] and the laurel [11] was endeared to the lover by a verbal resemblance with the name of his mistress. The value of either object was enhanced by the difficulties of the pursuit; and if the virtue or prudence of Laura was inexorable, [12] he enjoyed, and might boast of enjoying, the nymph of poetry. His vanity was not of the most delicate kind, since he applauds the success of his own _labors_; his name was popular; his friends were active; the open or secret opposition of envy and prejudice was surmounted by the dexterity of patient merit. In the thirty-sixth year of his age, he was solicited to accept the object of his wishes; and on the same day, in the solitude of Vaucluse, he received a similar and solemn invitation from the senate of Rome and the university of Paris. The learning of a theological school, and the ignorance of a lawless city, were alike unqualified to bestow the ideal though immortal wreath which genius may obtain from the free applause of the public and of posterity: but the candidate dismissed this troublesome reflection; and after some moments of complacency and suspense, preferred the summons of the metropolis of the world.

[Footnote 1: The Memoires sur la Vie de Francois Petrarque, (Amsterdam, 1764, 1767, 3 vols. in 4to.,) form a copious, original, and entertaining work, a labor of love, composed from the accurate study of Petrarch and his contemporaries; but the hero is too often lost in the general history of the age, and the author too often languishes in the affectation of politeness and gallantry. In the preface to his first volume, he enumerates and weighs twenty Italian biographers, who have professedly treated of the same subject.]

[Footnote 2: The allegorical interpretation prevailed in the xvth century; but the wise commentators were not agreed whether they should understand by Laura, religion, or virtue, or the blessed virgin, or--------. See the prefaces to the first and second volume.]

[Footnote 3: Laure de Noves, born about the year 1307, was married in January 1325, to Hugues de Sade, a n.o.ble citizen of Avignon, whose jealousy was not the effect of love, since he married a second wife within seven months of her death, which happened the 6th of April, 1348, precisely one-and-twenty years after Petrarch had seen and loved her.]

[Footnote 4: Corpus crebris partubus exhaustum: from one of these is issued, in the tenth degree, the abbe de Sade, the fond and grateful biographer of Petrarch; and this domestic motive most probably suggested the idea of his work, and urged him to inquire into every circ.u.mstance that could affect the history and character of his grandmother, (see particularly tom. i. p. 122--133, notes, p. 7--58, tom. ii. p. 455--495 not. p. 76--82.)]

[Footnote 5: Vaucluse, so familiar to our English travellers, is described from the writings of Petrarch, and the local knowledge of his biographer, (Memoires, tom. i. p. 340--359.) It was, in truth, the retreat of a hermit; and the moderns are much mistaken, if they place Laura and a happy lover in the grotto.]

[Footnote 6: Of 1250 pages, in a close print, at Basil in the xvith century, but without the date of the year. The abbe de Sade calls aloud for a new edition of Petrarch's Latin works; but I much doubt whether it would redound to the profit of the bookseller, or the amus.e.m.e.nt of the public.]

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