Volume 6 Part 42 (1/2)
[Footnote 59: Muratori has given a separate dissertation (the xxixth) to the games of the Italians in the Middle Ages.]
This use of the amphitheatre was a rare, perhaps a singular, festival: the demand for the materials was a daily and continual want which the citizens could gratify without restraint or remorse. In the fourteenth century, a scandalous act of concord secured to both factions the privilege of extracting stones from the free and common quarry of the Coliseum; [60] and Poggius laments, that the greater part of these stones had been burnt to lime by the folly of the Romans. [61] To check this abuse, and to prevent the nocturnal crimes that might be perpetrated in the vast and gloomy recess, Eugenius the Fourth surrounded it with a wall; and, by a charter long extant, granted both the ground and edifice to the monks of an adjacent convent. [62] After his death, the wall was overthrown in a tumult of the people; and had they themselves respected the n.o.blest monument of their fathers, they might have justified the resolve that it should never be degraded to private property. The inside was damaged: but in the middle of the sixteenth century, an aera of taste and learning, the exterior circ.u.mference of one thousand six hundred and twelve feet was still entire and inviolate; a triple elevation of fourscore arches, which rose to the height of one hundred and eight feet. Of the present ruin, the nephews of Paul the Third are the guilty agents; and every traveller who views the Farnese palace may curse the sacrilege and luxury of these upstart princes. [63] A similar reproach is applied to the Barberini; and the repet.i.tion of injury might be dreaded from every reign, till the Coliseum was placed under the safeguard of religion by the most liberal of the pontiffs, Benedict the Fourteenth, who consecrated a spot which persecution and fable had stained with the blood of so many Christian martyrs. [64]
[Footnote 60: In a concise but instructive memoir, the abbe Barthelemy (Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 585) has mentioned this agreement of the factions of the xivth century de Tiburtino faciendo in the Coliseum, from an original act in the archives of Rome.]
[Footnote 61: Coliseum.... ob stult.i.tiam Romanorum _majori ex parte_ ad calcem deletum, says the indignant Poggius, (p. 17:) but his expression too strong for the present age, must be very tenderly applied to the xvth century.]
[Footnote 62: Of the Olivetan monks. Montfaucon (p. 142) affirms this fact from the memorials of Flaminius Vacca, (No. 72.) They still hoped on some future occasion, to revive and vindicate their grant.]
[Footnote 63: After measuring the priscus amphitheatri gyrus, Montfaucon (p. 142) only adds that it was entire under Paul III.; tacendo clamat.
Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. xiv. p. 371) more freely reports the guilt of the Farnese pope, and the indignation of the Roman people.
Against the nephews of Urban VIII. I have no other evidence than the vulgar saying, ”Quod non fecerunt Barbari, fecere Barberini,” which was perhaps suggested by the resemblance of the words.]
[Footnote 64: As an antiquarian and a priest, Montfaucon thus deprecates the ruin of the Coliseum: Qud si non suopte merito atque pulchritudine dignum fuisset quod improbas arceret ma.n.u.s, indigna res utique in loc.u.m tot martyrum cruore sacrum tantopere saevitum esse.]
When Petrarch first gratified his eyes with a view of those monuments, whose scattered fragments so far surpa.s.s the most eloquent descriptions, he was astonished at the supine indifference [65] of the Romans themselves; [66] he was humbled rather than elated by the discovery, that, except his friend Rienzi, and one of the Colonna, a stranger of the Rhone was more conversant with these antiquities than the n.o.bles and natives of the metropolis. [67] The ignorance and credulity of the Romans are elaborately displayed in the old survey of the city which was composed about the beginning of the thirteenth century; and, without dwelling on the manifold errors of name and place, the legend of the Capitol [68] may provoke a smile of contempt and indignation. ”The Capitol,” says the anonymous writer, ”is so named as being the head of the world; where the consuls and senators formerly resided for the government of the city and the globe. The strong and lofty walls were covered with gla.s.s and gold, and crowned with a roof of the richest and most curious carving. Below the citadel stood a palace, of gold for the greatest part, decorated with precious stones, and whose value might be esteemed at one third of the world itself. The statues of all the provinces were arranged in order, each with a small bell suspended from its neck; and such was the contrivance of art magic, [69] that if the province rebelled against Rome, the statue turned round to that quarter of the heavens, the bell rang, the prophet of the Capitol repeated the prodigy, and the senate was admonished of the impending danger.” A second example, of less importance, though of equal absurdity, may be drawn from the two marble horses, led by two naked youths, who have since been transported from the baths of Constantine to the Quirinal hill. The groundless application of the names of Phidias and Praxiteles may perhaps be excused; but these Grecian sculptors should not have been removed above four hundred years from the age of Pericles to that of Tiberius; they should not have been transferred into two philosophers or magicians, whose nakedness was the symbol of truth or knowledge, who revealed to the emperor his most secret actions; and, after refusing all pecuniary recompense, solicited the honor of leaving this eternal monument of themselves. [70] Thus awake to the power of magic, the Romans were insensible to the beauties of art: no more than five statues were visible to the eyes of Poggius; and of the mult.i.tudes which chance or design had buried under the ruins, the resurrection was fortunately delayed till a safer and more enlightened age. [71] The Nile which now adorns the Vatican, had been explored by some laborers in digging a vineyard near the temple, or convent, of the Minerva; but the impatient proprietor, who was tormented by some visits of curiosity, restored the unprofitable marble to its former grave. [72] The discovery of a statue of Pompey, ten feet in length, was the occasion of a lawsuit. It had been found under a part.i.tion wall: the equitable judge had p.r.o.nounced, that the head should be separated from the body to satisfy the claims of the contiguous owners; and the sentence would have been executed, if the intercession of a cardinal, and the liberality of a pope, had not rescued the Roman hero from the hands of his barbarous countrymen. [73]
[Footnote 65: Yet the statutes of Rome (l. iii. c. 81, p. 182) impose a fine of 500 _aurei_ on whosoever shall demolish any ancient edifice, ne ruinis civitas deformetur, et ut antiqua aedificia decorem urbis perpetuo representent.]
[Footnote 66: In his first visit to Rome (A.D. 1337. See Memoires sur Petrarque, tom. i. p. 322, &c.) Petrarch is struck mute miraculo rerum tantarum, et stuporis mole obrutus.... Praesentia vero, mirum dictu nihil imminuit: vere major fuit Roma majoresque sunt reliquiae quam rebar. Jam non orbem ab hac urbe domitum, sed tam sero domitum, miror, (Opp. p.
605, Familiares, ii. 14, Joanni Columnae.)]
[Footnote 67: He excepts and praises the _rare_ knowledge of John Colonna. Qui enim hodie magis ignari rerum Romanarum, quam Romani cives!
Invitus dico, nusquam minus Roma cognoscitur quam Romae.]