Chapter I: Preface

IT is perhaps matter for just surprise that English literature has been so little enriched during the last quarter of a century by archivic researches in Italy. While these studies have greatly modified the views of Italian historians, it may be safely said that, with few exceptions, English history of Italy remains substantially as it was in 1840. The conspiracy of Gianluigi Fieschi, now presented to the English reading public, is one of those works which strongly mark the progress of historical research in the Italian Peninsula; and though it treats of an episode, that episode is so woven into the great events which surrounded it as to give a vivid picture of the condition of Italy in the sixteenth century. The work has therefore seemed to me to have sufficient historical value to merit translation into our language.

I have been more influenced, however, by a desire to make some of those who read only English acquainted with an Italian author who seems to me entitled to a larger public than his own people. There is no good reason why a greater number of Italian writers should not be favoured with an English dress; and it is probably more the effect of accident than want of merit in Italian writers that their works are much more rare in our tongue than those of French and German authors. The younger historical writers of the time, to which class M. Celesia belongs, have peculiar claims upon our attention, because they are the first truly independent writers of the Peninsula, and their works are the first fruits of liberal institutions and a Free Press. It would be only a first homage to their worth and sincere devotion to liberal principles to translate their best works into our language rather than absorb the substance of them into our own books. This reasoning has induced me to turn aside for a little while from the labour of preparing a history of Genoa to render M. Celesia’s beautiful Italian into an English, which I freely confess to be imperfect in comparison with the original.

The first impression of the general reader may be that this book treats of events so distant in time, and so different in moral scenery, from the political and social conditions in which we live as to afford little or no instruction to us. No history, except that of one’s own country, affords precise forms in which to mould the present; and what are called historical parallels do not really exist, since every series of political events has peculiar elements which make close analogies with any other series impossible. Those who quote events in the history of other times and peoples as containing precise instruction for present national action usually deceive their auditors all the more completely from being deceived themselves. It is only in the abundant matter of general principles that history contains lessons of political wisdom. In this sense the work before the reader is not without valuable instruction. M. Celesia has given us a view of the social and political condition of the masses who have too often been excluded from history because they had been excluded from power in the state.

We see, in fact, some painful scenes of that long tragedy which ended in the disfranchisement of the Italians, in the very period when most other European nations were making the bases of their institutions broader by enlarging the liberties of their peoples; and we see clearly that two vast despotisms--one reposing on a fiction of the continued life of the Roman Empire and the other on a perversion of the principle of Christian Authority--conspiring now together, now against each other, bewildered the intellect and destroyed the political vitality of Italy, gradually reducing her to a mere geographical expression. The people struggled in vain, partly because they struggled blindly, partly because a pernicious error placed them in exceptional conditions by stripping them of a part of their rights avowedly in the interest of humanity at large. So far this struggle was peculiar in form; but at bottom it was a struggle for popular rights, and its disastrous close is here shown to have been due to no fault of the people themselves. It is just here that less than justice has been done to the Italians, and this work well illustrates the stupendous falsehood which slew them.

Our interest in this error might be less if it were dead; but it lives and embarasses the Italians of our own day. We have just been gravely informed by a French statesmen[1] that Rome does not belong to Italy, but to the whole catholic world; and the statement is a key not only to current Italian difficulties but also to the failure of the nation to keep pace with the rest of Europe in the sixteenth century. Then, more than now, other nations conceived themselves to have a mission to preserve institutions which Italy was disposed to condemn and abolish. Then a larger number of Italians than now were bewildered by the legal or historical claim set up for a dead Empire and a Christian Church founded upon force, and in their bewilderment went over to their enemies. But below all this, a brave people struck manful blows for their salvation, and when they fell were suffocated with the terrible doctrine that Italy does not belong to herself. The statement of Count Persigny was and is, in its political significance, when applied to Italian politics, exactly like a declaration that London does not belong to England or Paris to France.

I do not forget that the falsehood has been acted upon as a truth in Italy for some centuries; but political piracy cannot win the moral approval of our times on the plea that it has been practised for a long period. The real effect of the doctrine, whatever be its force from a history made by applying it, is to condemn a whole people to a certain dependence on other nations, to give France, Austria and Spain--or to go back to the sixteenth century, France and the Empire--rights or duties in Italy which must impair the rights of the Italians. A creed which has this fatal element may be pushed to its logical consequence--the assassination of a nation. In the sixteenth century this was done. It was cruel--too cruel to be described--when history accused the fallen of cowardice, incapacity for liberty and superstitious devotion to Rome. From such atrocious slanders, the Italians of the sixteenth century deserve a vindication. M. Celesia has felt this part of his office so warmly that his word may seem those of an advocate rather than of an historian to those who forget the wrongs done to his people in the name of history. But he who fully weighs the injustice against which our author protests will rather wonder at the moderation and critical calmness of the greater part of the book than complain of the glow of honest indignation which lights up some of his periods.

The critical reader will regret that the work is not fortified by more copious references. The truth is that it is not the fashion in Italy to quote authorities, and the citations given were prepared by the author for this edition. I have added a few explanatory foot-notes; but the reader is referred for fuller information regarding events in earlier Genoese history to a forthcoming work on that subject.

D. H. WHEELER.

GENOA, _June, 1865_.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE COUNTS OF LAVAGNA.

The Valley of Entella and Lavagna--The Origin of the Counts of
Fieschi--Their Conflicts with the Commune of Genoa--The Treaty
of Peace between the Fieschi and Genoa--Civil Contentions--The
Riches and Power of the Counts Fieschi--Innocent IV. and Hadrian
V.--Cardinal Gianluigi Fieschi--The Fieschi Bishops and Lords of
Vercelli and Biella--Famous Fieschi Warriors--Isabella, wife of
Lucchino Visconti--St. Catherine--The Arms of the Family--Liberality
and munificence of the Fieschi--Gianluigi II.--Sinibaldo, lord of
thirty-three walled castles.

CHAPTER II.

THE ITALIAN STATES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

Leo X., and his false glories--Desperate condition of the Italian
states in the sixteenth century--Their aversion to the Austrian
power--The Sack of Rome--Wars and Plagues--Charles V. and Francis
I.--The Despotism of Christian powers causes Italian peoples to
desire the yoke of the Turks--The Papal theocracy renews with the
empire the compact of Charlemagne.

CHAPTER III.

ANDREA DORIA AND THE REPUBLIC OF GENOA.

The Nobles and the People--Andrea Doria and his first
enterprises--How he abandoned France, and went over to the
Emperor--Accusations and opinions with regard to his motives--The
laws of the _Union_ destroyed the popular, and created the
aristocratic Government--The objects of Doria in contrast with those
of the Genoese Government and the Italian Republics--The lieutenants
of Andrea and his naval forces--Popular movements arrested by bloody
vengeance.

CHAPTER IV.

GIANLUIGI FIESCHI.

Maria della Rovere and her children--The natural gifts of
Gianluigi--Andrea Doria prevents his marriage with the daughter
of Prince Centurione--Gianluigi’s first quarrels with Gianettino
Doria--Naval battle of Giralatte and capture of the corsair
Torghud Rais--Count Fieschi espouses Eleonora of the Princes of
Cybo--The hill of Carignano in the early part of the sixteenth
century--Sumptuousness of the Fieschi palace--Gianluigi, Pansa and
other distinguished men--Female writers--Eleonora Fieschi and her
rhymes.

CHAPTER V.

THE PLOTS OF FIESCHI.

The political ideas of the sixteenth century--The advice of Donato
Gianotto to the Italians--Generous aims of Gianluigi Fieschi--His
reported plots with Cesare Fregoso disproved--The conspiracy with
Pietro Strozzi a fable--Fieschi has secret conferences with Barnaba
Adorno, lord of Silvano--Pier Luca Fieschi and his part in the
conspiracy of Gianluigi--The Count sends Cagnino Gonzaga to treat
with France--The purchase of the Farnesian galleys--Francesco
Burlamacchi.

CHAPTER VI.

PAUL THIRD.

He aspires to grandeur for his family--His hostility to the emperor
and to Doria--He encourages Gianluigi in his designs against the
imperial rule in Genoa--Attempts of Cardinal Trivulzio to induce
Fieschi to give Genoa to France--France is induced by the count to
relinquish her hopes of obtaining Genoa--Verrina and his spirited
counsels--Vengeance of Gianluigi against Giovanni Battista della
Torre.

CHAPTER VII.

PREPARATIONS.

Character of the Fieschi family--Gianluigi acquires the friendship of
the silk operatives and other plebeians--The Duke of Piacenza selects
the count to arbitrate his differences with the Pallavicini--Secret
understandings between the count and the duke--Gianluigi puts
his castles in a condition for war--Gianettino Doria, to pave
the way to supreme power gives Captain Lercaro an order to kill
Fieschi--Industry of Verrina--The decisions of history on the merits
of Fieschi should be made in view of the political doctrines of the
sixteenth century.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SUPPER IN VIALATA.

Bloody propositions attributed to Verrina--The count repulses all
treacherous plans--New schemes--The conspirators introduced into the
city--Gianluigi pays his respects to Prince Doria--Gianettino removes
the suspicions of Giocante and Doria--The supper of Gianluigi--The
guests embrace the conspiracy--Eleonora Cybo and her presentiments.

CHAPTER IX.

THE NIGHT OF THE SECOND OF JANUARY.

Measures taken by the Count--Occupation of the gate of the Archi
and of San Tommaso--Death of Gianettino Doria--Fieschi did not seek
the death of prince Doria--Schemes of Paolo Lavagna--Taking of the
arsenal--Fall and death of Gianluigi--Flight of Andrea Doria to
Masone--The place where Gianluigi was drowned--The several arsenals
of Genoa--The death of Count Fieschi deemed a misfortune by the
Italians.

CHAPTER X.

COMPROMISES AND PUNISHMENTS.

Gerolamo Fieschi continues the insurrection in his own
name--Consultations at the Ducal palace and fighting at San Siro--The
news of the death of Gianluigi discourages the insurgents--Paolo
Panza carries to Gerolamo the decree of pardon--Verrina and others
set sail for France--The African slaves escape with Doria’s
galley--Sack of Doria’s galleys--Return of Andrea and his thirst for
vengeance--Decree of condemnation--Scipione Fieschi and his petitions
to the Senate--Schemes and intrigues of Doria to get possession of
the Fieschi estates--Destruction of the palace in Vialata--Traditions
and legends.

CHAPTER XI.

THE CASTLE OF MONTOBBIO.

Count Gerolamo declines propositions of the government--Intrigue of
the imperial party and revolutionary tendencies of the populace--The
Republic is induced by Andrea Doria to assault Montobbio--The
count’s preparations for defence--Verrina and Assereto assigned
to the command of the works--Andrea induces the government to
decline negotiations with Fieschi--Agostino Spinola closely
invests the castle--Mutiny of the mercenaries of the count--He
offers to surrender the castle on condition of security for the
lives and property of the beseiged--Opposition of Doria to this
stipulation--The treason of his mercenaries compels Fieschi to
surrender--Doria, notwithstanding the entreaties of the government,
treats the defeated Fieschi with great cruelty--Punishment of the
Count of Verrina and other accomplices--Raffaele Sacco and his
letters--The castle of Montobbio razed to the foundations.

CHAPTER XII.

PIER LUIGI FARNESE.

The ferocity and excesses of Andrea Doria--The benefits which he
derived from the fall of the Fieschi--The Farnesi participated in
Genoese conspiracies--Schemes of Andrea Doria against the duke
of Piacenza--Landi is instigated by Andrea to kill the duke--The
assassination of Pierluigi--The assassins and the brief of Paul III.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE NOBLES AND THE PLEBEIANS.

Intrigues of Figuerroa and the nobility--The law of Garibetto--New
efforts of Spain to give Genoa the character of a Duchy--The firmness
of the senate and Andrea foils the scheme of Don Filippo--The
reception of the Spaniards by Doria and by the people--Sad story of a
daughter of the Calvi--Don Bernardino Mendozza and his relations with
Prince Doria--Baneful influence of the Spanish occupation.

CHAPTER XIV.

PRINCE GIULIO CYBO.

The revolt of Naples--Andrea Doria subdues it--Plots of the
exiles against his life--Giulio Cybo seizes the feud of Massa and
Carrara--His schemes for revolutionizing the Republic--Conference
of the Genoese exiles in Venice--Capture of Cybo--Doria labours
to have the emperor condemn Giulio to death--Punishment of
Cybo and his accomplices--Letter of Paul Spinola to the
Genoese government--Scipione Fieschi and his disputes with the
Republic--Maria della Rovere--Eleonora Fieschi; her second marriage
and death.

CHAPTER XV.

SIENA, THE FIESCHI AND SAMPIERO.

Ravages of the Barbary Corsairs--Bartolomeo Magiocco and the Duke of
Savoy--The conference of Chioggia--Siege of Siena--Doria assassinates
Ottobuono Fieschi--Sampiero di Bastelica and his memorable fight with
Spanish knights--Revolts in Corsica--Vannina d’Ornano--The Fieschi
faction unites with Sampiero--Ferocity of Stefano Doria--Sampiero is
betrayed--Pier Luca Fieschi and his career.

CHAPTER XVI.

JACOPO BONFADIO.

Bonfadio executed in prison and his body burned--Errors in regard to
the year of his death--The causes of his arrest and punishment--He
was not guilty of the vices ascribed to him--The true cause of his
ruin was his Annals--The pretence for his condemnation was his
Protestant opinions.