Orsini, Giovanni Gaetano, portrait of,185; tomb of,189.—— Napoleone,185.—— The family of,note2208.Ortolana, Madonna,259;264.Otto IV., Emperor, at Rivo-Torto,96.Oxford,110.
P
Pacifico, Brother, vision of,239.Palazzo Pubblico,32;305; frescoes in,306.——Sbaraglini,308.——Scifi,258;260;262;281.Parenti, Giovanni,132;133;139;140.PaulIII, Pope,36;331;332.Perugia,4;9; wars with Assisi,5,19,20,21,43; governs Assisi,22,23;29;36; tries to steal body of St. Francis,21;note196; St. Francis mocked in,57;221;342.Perugino, Pietro, fresco by,337.Piazza, di Sta. Maria Maggiore, encounter of St. Francis with his father in,235,309;310.—— di San Francesco,220.—— della Minerva,13;31;302;330;348.—— Nuova,300;349.—— di San Rufino,289.Pica, Madonna,41;102;119;307.Piccinino, Niccolò, besieges Assisi,25,26;27;30;126.—— Jacopo,329.PietroCataneo, Brother,48;138;342.Pintelli, Baccio,220.Pinturicchio,337.Pius II, Pope,329.—— V, Pope,335.Portiuncula, The, early connection with St. Francis,47,102; repaired by St. Benedict,99; given to St. Francis,103; cradle of franciscan order,104; St. Clare comes to,104,273; St. Francis dies at,114,115,337;338; indulgence of,344; chapter of the lattices at,345;353;355;359.Puzzarelli, Simone,123.Pontano, Teobaldo,191.Propertius, born at Assisi,6; describes Assisi,7,8.
R
Renan, E., quoted,149.Reni, Guido,339.Rivo-Torto,93; leper hospitals at,95; description of,96vision of friars at,238,299.Robbia, Andrea della, his work in the Angeli,336-338.Roccad'Assisi,seeCastle.Rufino d'Arce, San,94; St. Francis ministers to lepers at,95.Rufino, Brother,68;note260.—— St., legend of,291,292,293,297;299.Rumohr, von, B.,251.Ruskin, John, quoted,155,170,232;236.
S
Sabatier, Paul, quoted,note44,63,238,258,266,271,274;note138.Sansone, Francesco,219;256.Scifi, Chiara,seeSt. Clare.—— Count Favorino,258;259;261;263;264.Scott, Leader,note125.Severino,seeDomenico.Sforza, Alessandro,27;28.—— Francesco, Duke of Milan,25;26;328.Sixtus IV, Pope,219; statue of,221;257.Spagna, Lo,207;338;341.Spoleto,44;45.Stanislaus, St.,207.Subasio, Mount,84;258; ways to,363.Sylvester, Brother,239.
T
Taine, H., quoted,1,198.TescioRiver,85; note86;124;214.Thode, Henry, note125;158;164;165;note171;206.Three Companions, legend of,96;229;242.Tiberiod'Assisi, frescoes at Assisi,279,306,341.Totila,9;325.Trevelyan, R. C.,7;8.
U
Ugolino, Bishop of Ostia,seeGregory IX.
V
Vasari, Giorgio, quoted,124,153,164,170,195,244;155,156,306.Vernia,La,71;note75; St. Francis receives the Stigmata at,72;210;211;243;250.Vespignano, Giotto, born at,168;169.Vitry, Jacques de,15; quoted,17,240.
TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS. EDINBURGH
MapPLAN OF ASSISIView larger image
PLAN OF ASSISI
FOOTNOTES:[1]The legend may have arisen from the fact that Minerva had a temple near Miletos under the title of Assesia and the legend-weavers have caught at the similarity of sound to that of their own Umbrian town.[2]Carmina, i. 22, translated by R. C. Trevelyan.[3]Carmina, IV. i. 121; translated by R. C. Trevelyan. In another place Propertius gives bolder utterance to his pride: "Whosoever beholds the town climbing the valley side, let him measure the fame of their walls by my genius" (Carmina, iv. 5).[4]See Cristofani,Storia d'Assisi, p. 42 for text of the MS.[5]Dante,Inferno, xix. p. 115. Translated by John Milton.[6]SeeLes Nouveaux Mémoires de l'Academie de Bruxelles(t. xxiii. pp. 29, 33); alsoUn nouveau Chapitre de la Vie de S. François d'Assise, par Paul Sabatier.[7]Perugia was, on the whole, faithful to the Guelph cause. She was patronised by the Popes on account of her strong position overlooking the Tiber, and when inclined she freely acknowledged them as her masters but at the same time she was careful to guard her independence.[8]Cronaca Graziani, p. 522.[9]Cronaca Graziani, pp. 512 and 513.[10]Cronaca Graziani, p. 513.[11]Cronaca Graziani, p. 514, note 1.[12]For a full account of the Baglioni see the sixteenth-century chronicle of Matarazzo (Archivio Storico Italiano, vol. xvi. part ii.), who has immortalised their crimes in classic language; and alsoThe Story of Perugia(Mediæval Towns Series, J. M. Dent & Co.).[13]Cronaca Matarazzo, p. 75.[14]Cronaca Matarazzo, p. 75.[15]Ibid.[16]Fratini,Storia della Basilica di San Francesco, p. 287.[17]Cronaca di Matarazzo, p. 75.[18]For a true picture of the condition of Italian towns, torn by strife, decimated by famine, and suffering from leprosy brought by the crusaders, see Brewer's admirable preface in vol. iv. of theMonumenta Franciscana.[19]The first tournament took place at Bologna in 1147.[20]Folgore di San Gimignano, translated by D. G. Rossetti.[21]These were the first troubadours to visit the Italian courts, driven from Provence by the crusades against the Albigenses.[22]A certain Bernardo Moriconi, leaving his brother to carry on the business at Lucca, then famous for its manufacture of silk stuffs, came and settled at Assisi where he got the nickname Bernardone—the big Bernard. Whether in allusion to his person or to his prosperity, we cannot say, but the family name was lost sight of and his son was known as Pietro Bernardone.[23]Celano.VitaI. cap. 1.[24]Ruskin.The two paths: Lecture III.[25]Celano.VitaI. cap. 2.[26]"Le vide lamentable de sa vie lui était tout à coup apparu; il était effrayé de cette solitude d'une grande âme, dans laquelle il n'y a point d'autel." Paul Sabatier.Vie de S. François d'Assise, p. 17.[27]From a 15th century translation of the will of St. Francis. SeeMonumenta Franciscana. Chronicles edited by J. S. Brewer vol. iv. p. 562.[28]Life of Beato Egidio in theLittle Flowers of St. Francis.[29]Life of Beato Egidio in theLittle Flowers of St. Francis.[30]One of the most beautiful stories in theFioretti(chapter xxxiv.) recounts how St. Louis, King of France, visited Beato Egidio at Perugia. The king and the poor friar kneeling together in the courtyard of the convent, embracing each other like familiar friends, is a picture such as only Umbrian literature could have left us. There was absolute silence between the two, yet we are told St. Louis returned to his kingdom and Egidio to his cell with "marvellous content and consolation" in their souls.[31]SeeSuprà, p. 47.[32]Quoted by Sigonius in his work on the Bishops of Bologna.Opera omnia, v. iii., translated by Canon Knox Little.Life of St. Francis of Assisi, p. 179.[33]Speculum Perfectionis, cap. cv., edited by Paul Sabatier.[34]Fioretti, cap. xiii.[35]To franciscan influence must surely be traced the rise of the Flagellants at Perugia in 1265.[36]SeeHistoire de Sainte Elizabeth, Comte de Montalembert, pp. 71, 72.[37]It is related that when in 1216 some Franciscans went on a mission to Germany the only word they knew was "Ja," which they used upon every occasion. In one town they were asked if they were heretics preaching a rival faith to catholicism, and as they continued to say "Ja, Ja," the citizens threw them into prison, and after beating them cruelly drove them ignominiously from the country. The account they gave of their experience to the other friars at Assisi created such a panic that they were often heard in their prayers to implore God to deliver them from the barbarity of the Teutons.[38]Celano.VitaI. cap. xxi.[39]Paul Sabatier.Vie de S. Francis d'Assise, p. 205.[40]Vita di S. Francesco, p. 76. Edizione Amoni (1888. Roma).[41]Celano, a learned nobleman from Celano in the Abruzzi, joined the Order in 1215, and gives by far the most charming and vivid account of St Francis, for besides knowing him well he had the gift of writing in no ordinary degree.[42]VitaI. cap. xxvii.[43]Vita di S. Francesco, da S. Bonaventura, p. 148, Edizione Amoni.[44]This was a small chapel built for St. Francis by Count Orlando, and must not be confounded with the church of the same name near Assisi.[45]The earnest wishes of the saint are to this day carried out by faithful friars who, even through the terrible winter months, live at La Vernia, suffering privation and cold with cheerfulness. At midnight a bell calls them to sing matins in the chapel of the Stigmata connected with the convent by an open colonnade, down which the procession files, following a crucifix and lanterns. When the service has ceased, the monks flit like ghosts behind the altar while the lights are extinguished and in the gloom comes the sound of clashing chains. For an hour they chastise themselves: then the torches are relit, the chanting is resumed, and calmly they pass down the corridor towards their cells. Moonlight may stream into the colonnade across the dark forms, or gusts of wind drive the snow in heaps before them, but the chanting is to be heard, and the monotonous cries ofora pro nobisbreak the awful solitude of night throughout the year upon the mountain of La Vernia.[46]Here reference is made to the Portiuncula, near Assisi.[47]The Sasso Spicco, which still can be seen at La Vernia, is a block of rock rising high above the mountain ridge, and seems to hang suspended in the air. It forms a roof over dark and cavernous places where St. Francis loved to pray, often spending his nights there with stones for his bed.[48]TheFiorettirelates that once while St. Francis was praying on the edge of a precipice, not far from the spot where he had received the Stigmata, suddenly the devil appeared in terrible form amidst the loud roar of a furious tempest. St. Francis, unable to flee or to endure the ferocious aspect of the devil, turned his face and whole body to the rock to which he clung; and the rock, as though it had been soft wax, received the impress of the saint and sheltered him. Thus by the aid of God he escaped.[49]Speculum Perfectionis, cap. c., edited by Paul Sabatier.[50]St. Francis composed this verse later on the occasion of a quarrel which arose between the Bishop of Assisi and the Podestà. The last couplet was added at the Portiuncula while he was on his death-bed.[51]It has sometimes happened that visitors, who have not read their Murray with sufficient care, thinking "Le Carceri" are prisons where convicts are kept, leave Assisi without visiting this charming spot. "Carceri" certainly now means "prisons," but the original meaning of the word in old Italian is a place surrounded by a fence and often remote from human habitation.[52]It is perhaps an insult to the Tescio to leave the traveller in Umbria under the impression that this mountain torrent is always dry. Certainly that is its usual condition, but we have seen it during the storms that break upon the land in August and September overflow its banks and inundate the country on either side; but with this wealth of water its beauty goes.[53]The large modern church of Rivo-Torto, on the road from Sta. Maria degli Angeli to Spello, built to enclose the huts that St. Francis and his companions are supposed to have lived in while tending the lepers, has been proved without doubt by M. Paul Sabatier to have no connection whatever with the Saint. In these few pages we have followed the information given in a pamphlet which is to be found in the Italian translation of hisVie de S. François d'Assise. It is impossible here to enter into all the arguments relating to this disputed point, but I think the authority of the best, and by far the most vivid of the biographers of St. Francis can be trusted without further comment, and that we may safely believe the hut of St. Francis, known as Rivo-Torto, lay close to the present chapels of San Rufino d'Arce and Sta. Maria Maddalena. SeeAppendixfor information as to their exact position in the plain and the nearest road to them.Disertazione sul primo luogo abitato dai Frati Minori su Rivo-Torto e nell'Ospedale dei Lebbrosi di Assisi.di Paul Sabatier (Roma, Ermanno Loescher and Co., 1896).[54]SeeThe Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxvii. Nov. 1882.[55]Speculum Perfectionis, cap. lv., edited by Paul Sabatier.[56]This custom ceased in the fifteenth century; but in the year 1899, through the piety of the Rev. Father Bernardine Ibald, it was revived. Once again the franciscans take a small basket of fish to the abbot and his monks who now live at S. Pietro in Assisi, where the benedictines went when their mountain retreat was destroyed by order of the Assisan despot, Broglia di Trino.[57]This illustration is from a print to be seen in the somewhat rare edition of theCollis Paradisi Amœnitas, seu Sacri Conventus Assisiensis Historiæ, published in 1704 at Montefalco by Padre Angeli, and it may even have been taken from an earlier drawing. In it there is the true feeling of a franciscan convent, such as the saint hoped would continue for all time, and though there are some points which are incorrect (the Church of Sta. Chiara, though curiously enough not the convent, is represented, which was built several years later than San Francesco), we get a clear idea of both Assisi and its immediate neighbourhood. All the ancient gates of the town can be made out, the Roman road from Porta Mojano to San Rufino d'Arce, a faint indication of the path to the Carceri, and also the old road from Assisi to the plain out of the gate of S. Giacomo, passing not very far from the Ponte S. Vittorino. The wall round the Portiuncula and the huts did not exist in the time of St. Francis, which, together with the wooden gate, may have been added by Brother Elias. The largest hut a little to the right of the chapel was the infirmary where St. Francis died (now called the Chapel of St. Francis), and the one behind it was his cell (now known as the Chapel of the Roses, seechapter xi.for its story), whence he could easily pass out through the woods to San Rufino d'Arce hard by.[58]For fuller account seeThe Mirror of Perfection, translated by Sebastian Evans, caps. 107, 108, 112, andThe Little Flowers of St. Francis, translated by J. W. Arnold (Temple Classics), chap. vi.[59]In the same way when Beato Egidio, ill and nigh his end, wished to return to the Portiuncula to die in the place he loved so well, the Perugians refused their consent and even placed soldiers round the monastery of Monte Ripido to prevent his escape.[60]In the illustrations on p.38and p.107is shown the gallows erected where now stands the franciscan basilica, but it is unlikely that the property of a private individual should have been used for such a purpose, and Collis Inferni may simply have meant the spur of hill beneath the upper portion of Assisi upon which the castle stood.[61]See Vasari,Life of Arnolfo di Lapo.[62]It would be a thankless task to follow the bewildering maze of contradictory evidence which has enveloped the question as to who built San Francesco. Those who are eager to do so, however, can consult Henry Thode's exhaustive work,Franz von Assisi(beginning p. 187), which deals most thoroughly with the subject. Leader Scott also, in her learned book uponThe Cathedral Builders, gives some ingenious theories with regard to "Jacopo" and his supposed relationship with Arnolfo, p. 315-316.Another book isI Maestri Comacini, by Professore Marzario, whose statements about "Jacopo's" nationality are interesting and probable. But, following Vasari a little too blindly, he gives us the startling fact that "Jacopo" died in 1310, this, even supposing him to have been only twenty-five when he was at Assisi as chief architect, would make him one hundred and fifteen years of age at the time of his death.[63]L'Architecture Gothiquepar M. Edouard Corroyer. See pp. 96 and 105.[64]Speculum Perfectionis.Edited by Paul Sabatier, cap. x.[65]For the Latin text see p. c. of M. Paul Sabatier's introduction to his edition of theSpeculum Perfectionis.[66]Giovanni Parenti, who does not stand out very clearly in the history of the Order, was a Florentine magistrate of Città di Castello, one of the first towns to feel the influence of St. Francis. There he heard of the new movement which so rapidly was spreading throughout Western Europe, and, together with many of the citizens, became converted through the teaching of the Umbrian saint.[67]It is impossible in this small book to give any idea of the various influences at work upon the young franciscan order during the life of the saint. I can only refer my readers to the charming pages of M. Paul Sabatier, who gives us a vivid picture of these early days inLa Vie de Saint François, and in his introduction to theSpeculum Perfectionis.[68]It is difficult to say how free a hand the artists were allowed when called in to execute work for any church, but probably, in the case of San Francesco, they were obliged to illustrate precisely the scenes and events chosen by the friars, who in the case of the saint's legend would be very severe judges, requiring quite the best that the artist could produce.[69]Later documents of the convent speak of a crucifix painted in 1236 by Giunta Pisano with a portrait of Brother Elias "taken from life" and the following inscription:Frater Elias fieri fecitJesu Christe pieMisere pecantis HelieGiuntaPisanus me pinxit.a.d.m. mccxxxvi.It hung from a beam in the Upper Church until 1624 when it suddenly disappeared, and it seems to have inspired Padre Angeli (author of the "Collis Paradisi") with the theory that Giunta Pisano was the first to paint in San Francesco, ascribing to him, as some have continued to do, the frescoes in the choir and transept of the Upper Church. Messrs Crowe and Cavacaselle say, on what authority it is impossible to discover, that the middle aisle of the Lower Church "seems to have been painted between 1225 and 1250," ignoring the fact that Pope Gregory only laid the foundation stone of the Basilica in 1228. Without trying to find such early dates for the history of art at Assisi, it appears to us quite wonderful enough that some fifty or sixty years after the ceremony of the consecration in 1253, Cimabue and his contemporaries—Giotto and his Tuscan followers—had completed their work in both churches.[70]Righttransept is always synonymous withSouthtransept, but in this case, as San Francesco is built with the altar facing to the west because it was necessary to have the entrance away from the precipitous side of the hill, theRighttransept looks to theNorth, theLeftto theSouth, and we have thought it easier to keep to the actual position of the church in describing the different frescoes. Herr Thode in his book has done this, but it may be well to observe that Messrs Crowe and Cavacaselle refer to the transepts and chapels as if they faced the parts of the compass in the usual way.[71]To facilitate seeing the paintings of the ceiling, both here and in the Lower Church, it would be well to use a hand-glass, a simple and most effectual addition to the comfort of the traveller.[72]Mr Ruskin says that the gable of the bishop's throne is "of the exact period when the mosaic workers of the thirteenth century at Rome adopted rudely the masonry of the north. Briefly this is a Greek temple pediment, in which, doubtful of their power to carve figures beautiful enough, they cut a trefoiled hold for ornament, and bordered the edge with a harlequinade of mosaic. They then call to their aid the Greek sea waves, and let the surf of the Ægean climb along the slopes, and toss itself at the top into a fleur-de-lys."[73]There are only the most meagre scraps of information to rely upon as to the dates of Giotto's works at San Francesco, and it is needless here to enter into the endless discussion. One thing is obvious; the Assisan frescoes must have been executed before those at Padua which have always been assigned to 1306. In these pages we have sometimes followed the view held by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, sometimes that of Herr Thode, who appears to have studied the question with open eyes, but our final authority is M. Bernhard Berenson, who in a visit paid lately to Assisi was kind enough to point out many things which we should otherwise have passed by, and in the sequence of the frescoes by Giotto at San Francesco we have entirely followed his opinion.[74]For Simone Martini's Madonna and Saints between the two chapels of this transept, see p.212. The portraits (?) of some of the first companions of St. Francis, painted beneath Cimabue's fresco, belong to the Florentine school. It would be vain to try and name them.[75]See Vasari, ed. Milanesi, vol. i. p. 426. (Sansoni Firenze.)[76]It is often supposed that Giotto took the theme of this fresco from the well-known lines of Dante referring to the mystical marriage of St. Francis to Poverty. But Dante wrote the xi. canto of theParadisolong after Giotto had left Assisi; both painter and poet really only followed the legend recounted by St. Bonaventure of how St. Francis met three women who saluted him on the plain of S. Quirico near Siena. These were Poverty, Charity and Obedience.[77]Paradiso, xi., Cary's translation.[78]This fact alone would disprove the idea that Giottino, who was born in 1324, could have been the author of these frescoes. Everything that cannot be attributed to other painters is put down as his work, so that we have many pictures and frescoes of totally different styles assigned to Giottino.[79]Some say this fresco represents the three youths begging St. Nicholas to pardon the consul who had condemned them to death, in which case it would come after the scene of the execution on the opposite wall.[80]The tabernacle on the altar is the work of Giulio Danti, after a design by Galeazzo Alessi, both Perugians, in 1570.[81]How right Elias was to hide the body of St. Francis in so secure a place is shown by the various endeavours made by the Perugians to secure the holy relics for their town. In the fifteenth century they attempted, while at war with Assisi, to carry off the body by force, and failing, had recourse to diplomacy. They represented to Eugenius IV, that it would be far safer at Perugia, and begged him to entrust them with it. He denied his "dear sons'" request on the plea that the Assisans would be brought to the verge of despair and their city to ruin.[82]The donor of this chapel was Gentile de Monteflori, a franciscan, created cardinal in 1298 by Boniface VIII.[83]Simone was born at Siena in 1283, and died at Avignon in 1344. He belonged to the school of Duccio, though influenced to some degree by his contemporary Giotto, whose work at Assisi he had full opportunity to study.[84]Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance, B. Berenson, p. 47.[85]Sketches of the History of Christian Art, by Lord Lindsay, p. 134, vol. i.[86]The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance.Bernhard Berenson, p. 48.[87]Built by the Orsini brothers, the founders of the Chapel del Sacramento, in the beginning of the fourteenth century.[88]It is curious that the early Umbrian painters had so little share in the decoration of the franciscan Basilica, the only other picture of the school is the one in the Chapel of St. Anthony the Abbot, and a fresco by some scholar of Ottaviano Nelli on the wall near the entrance of the Lower Church.[89]Not only had the friars to guard their own things, but also the vast treasures of the Popes who, especially during their sojourn at Avignon, found San Francesco a convenient store-house. See on p.20for the story of how these goods were stolen by the citizens and the penalty this brought upon the town.[90]La Benedizione di San Francesco, Livorno, 1900.[91]See chapter vi. p.171for description of the frescoes here, and of those above the altar. For Cimabue's Madonna on the right wall of the Transept see chapter v. p.155.[92]In 1529 the campanile, which rather gives the impression of a watch-tower, was used by Captain Bernardino da Sassoferrato, as a sure place of refuge when the Prince of Orange entered Assisi with his victorious army. From its heights he kept his enemy at bay for three days, and finally escaped to Spello leaving the city a prey to another despot.[93]Open to visitors at two o'clock.[94]Cary's translation. Dante,Inferno, canto xxvii.[95]St. Bonaventure was born in 1221 at Bagnora in Umbria, and became General of the franciscan order. Dante, in canto xii. of theParadiso, leaves him to sing the praises of St. Dominic, just as the dominican divine St. Thomas Aquinas had related the story of St. Francis in the preceding canto.[96]We have used Miss Lockhart's translation of St. Bonaventure'sLegenda Santa Francisci.[97]J. Ruskin,Mornings in Florence, iii. Before the Soldan.[98]xi.Paradiso, Cary's translation.[99]Dante,Paradiso, xi., Cary's translation.[100]A comparison may be made between the long and slender body of the saint here with that in the death of St. Francis in Sta. Croce, where the body is firmly drawn and of more massive proportions.[101]As the hated enemies of the Baglioni the Fiumi are often mentioned in the chronicles of Matarazzo, and they played an important part in the history of their native city. They were Counts of Sterpeto, and the village of that name on the hill to the west of Assisi above the banks of the Chiaggio still belongs to the family.[102]One of the first of the franciscans was Rufino, a nephew of Count Favorino's, whose holiness was such that in speaking of him to the other brethren St. Francis would call him St. Rufino.[103]Bernhard Berenson, "Central Italian painters of the Renaissance," p. 86.[104]Goethe's Werke,Italiänische Reise, I., vol. 27, pp. 184,et seq., J. G. Cotta, 1829.[105]The key is obtained from the Canonico Modestini's house, No. 27a Via S. Paolo.[106]The legend that St. Francis was born in a stable only dates from the fifteenth century and arose out of the desire of the franciscans to make his life resemble that of Christ. The site of this stable, which is now a chapel, is of no interest whatever.[107]SeeStory of Perugia(mediæval series), p. 211, for the legend of their origin in that town.[108]The chapel is also called theChiesa di S. Caterinabecause the members of that confraternity have charge of it. It is often open, but should it be closed, there is always some one about ready to obtain the key from the house in the same street Via Superba, now Via Principe di Napoli, No. 12, opposite Palazzo Bernabei.[109]See Signor Alfonso Brizi'sLoggia dei Maestri Comacini in Assisi, No. 1, April 185, of theAtti dell' Accademia Properziana del Subasio in Assisi.[110]Both the key ofSan RufinuccioandSan Lorenzocan be obtained through the sacristan of the Cathedral.[111]This work has been admirably done by Signor Alfonso Brizi. In hisRocca d'Assisi, published in 1898, he has given a very interesting account of its many rulers and vicissitudes, and a full description of the building, together with all the documents relating to it.[112]St. Francis called the Portiuncula Santa Maria degli Angeli, but now the name is more connected with the large church. See p.97.[113]St. Dominic was present at this famous gathering, and theFiorettigives a curious account of the way in which he watched the doings of a brother saint, at first a little inclined to criticise his methods, so different to his own, but finally being won over by the franciscan doctrine of absolute poverty.[114]Those who know the teaching of St. Francis (seeFioretti, chap. xiii.) will feel how the saint would have fought against this device for the expiation of sins, invented by the priests of Southern Italy. No Umbrian has ever sunk to such depths of self-abasement, and during all the first days of the "Perdono" festival they keep aloof, waiting till the pilgrims' departure before obtaining their indulgences.
[1]The legend may have arisen from the fact that Minerva had a temple near Miletos under the title of Assesia and the legend-weavers have caught at the similarity of sound to that of their own Umbrian town.
[2]Carmina, i. 22, translated by R. C. Trevelyan.
[3]Carmina, IV. i. 121; translated by R. C. Trevelyan. In another place Propertius gives bolder utterance to his pride: "Whosoever beholds the town climbing the valley side, let him measure the fame of their walls by my genius" (Carmina, iv. 5).
[4]See Cristofani,Storia d'Assisi, p. 42 for text of the MS.
[5]Dante,Inferno, xix. p. 115. Translated by John Milton.
[6]SeeLes Nouveaux Mémoires de l'Academie de Bruxelles(t. xxiii. pp. 29, 33); alsoUn nouveau Chapitre de la Vie de S. François d'Assise, par Paul Sabatier.
[7]Perugia was, on the whole, faithful to the Guelph cause. She was patronised by the Popes on account of her strong position overlooking the Tiber, and when inclined she freely acknowledged them as her masters but at the same time she was careful to guard her independence.
[8]Cronaca Graziani, p. 522.
[9]Cronaca Graziani, pp. 512 and 513.
[10]Cronaca Graziani, p. 513.
[11]Cronaca Graziani, p. 514, note 1.
[12]For a full account of the Baglioni see the sixteenth-century chronicle of Matarazzo (Archivio Storico Italiano, vol. xvi. part ii.), who has immortalised their crimes in classic language; and alsoThe Story of Perugia(Mediæval Towns Series, J. M. Dent & Co.).
[13]Cronaca Matarazzo, p. 75.
[14]Cronaca Matarazzo, p. 75.
[15]Ibid.
[16]Fratini,Storia della Basilica di San Francesco, p. 287.
[17]Cronaca di Matarazzo, p. 75.
[18]For a true picture of the condition of Italian towns, torn by strife, decimated by famine, and suffering from leprosy brought by the crusaders, see Brewer's admirable preface in vol. iv. of theMonumenta Franciscana.
[19]The first tournament took place at Bologna in 1147.
[20]Folgore di San Gimignano, translated by D. G. Rossetti.
[21]These were the first troubadours to visit the Italian courts, driven from Provence by the crusades against the Albigenses.
[22]A certain Bernardo Moriconi, leaving his brother to carry on the business at Lucca, then famous for its manufacture of silk stuffs, came and settled at Assisi where he got the nickname Bernardone—the big Bernard. Whether in allusion to his person or to his prosperity, we cannot say, but the family name was lost sight of and his son was known as Pietro Bernardone.
[23]Celano.VitaI. cap. 1.
[24]Ruskin.The two paths: Lecture III.
[25]Celano.VitaI. cap. 2.
[26]"Le vide lamentable de sa vie lui était tout à coup apparu; il était effrayé de cette solitude d'une grande âme, dans laquelle il n'y a point d'autel." Paul Sabatier.Vie de S. François d'Assise, p. 17.
[27]From a 15th century translation of the will of St. Francis. SeeMonumenta Franciscana. Chronicles edited by J. S. Brewer vol. iv. p. 562.
[28]Life of Beato Egidio in theLittle Flowers of St. Francis.
[29]Life of Beato Egidio in theLittle Flowers of St. Francis.
[30]One of the most beautiful stories in theFioretti(chapter xxxiv.) recounts how St. Louis, King of France, visited Beato Egidio at Perugia. The king and the poor friar kneeling together in the courtyard of the convent, embracing each other like familiar friends, is a picture such as only Umbrian literature could have left us. There was absolute silence between the two, yet we are told St. Louis returned to his kingdom and Egidio to his cell with "marvellous content and consolation" in their souls.
[31]SeeSuprà, p. 47.
[32]Quoted by Sigonius in his work on the Bishops of Bologna.Opera omnia, v. iii., translated by Canon Knox Little.Life of St. Francis of Assisi, p. 179.
[33]Speculum Perfectionis, cap. cv., edited by Paul Sabatier.
[34]Fioretti, cap. xiii.
[35]To franciscan influence must surely be traced the rise of the Flagellants at Perugia in 1265.
[36]SeeHistoire de Sainte Elizabeth, Comte de Montalembert, pp. 71, 72.
[37]It is related that when in 1216 some Franciscans went on a mission to Germany the only word they knew was "Ja," which they used upon every occasion. In one town they were asked if they were heretics preaching a rival faith to catholicism, and as they continued to say "Ja, Ja," the citizens threw them into prison, and after beating them cruelly drove them ignominiously from the country. The account they gave of their experience to the other friars at Assisi created such a panic that they were often heard in their prayers to implore God to deliver them from the barbarity of the Teutons.
[38]Celano.VitaI. cap. xxi.
[39]Paul Sabatier.Vie de S. Francis d'Assise, p. 205.
[40]Vita di S. Francesco, p. 76. Edizione Amoni (1888. Roma).
[41]Celano, a learned nobleman from Celano in the Abruzzi, joined the Order in 1215, and gives by far the most charming and vivid account of St Francis, for besides knowing him well he had the gift of writing in no ordinary degree.
[42]VitaI. cap. xxvii.
[43]Vita di S. Francesco, da S. Bonaventura, p. 148, Edizione Amoni.
[44]This was a small chapel built for St. Francis by Count Orlando, and must not be confounded with the church of the same name near Assisi.
[45]The earnest wishes of the saint are to this day carried out by faithful friars who, even through the terrible winter months, live at La Vernia, suffering privation and cold with cheerfulness. At midnight a bell calls them to sing matins in the chapel of the Stigmata connected with the convent by an open colonnade, down which the procession files, following a crucifix and lanterns. When the service has ceased, the monks flit like ghosts behind the altar while the lights are extinguished and in the gloom comes the sound of clashing chains. For an hour they chastise themselves: then the torches are relit, the chanting is resumed, and calmly they pass down the corridor towards their cells. Moonlight may stream into the colonnade across the dark forms, or gusts of wind drive the snow in heaps before them, but the chanting is to be heard, and the monotonous cries ofora pro nobisbreak the awful solitude of night throughout the year upon the mountain of La Vernia.
[46]Here reference is made to the Portiuncula, near Assisi.
[47]The Sasso Spicco, which still can be seen at La Vernia, is a block of rock rising high above the mountain ridge, and seems to hang suspended in the air. It forms a roof over dark and cavernous places where St. Francis loved to pray, often spending his nights there with stones for his bed.
[48]TheFiorettirelates that once while St. Francis was praying on the edge of a precipice, not far from the spot where he had received the Stigmata, suddenly the devil appeared in terrible form amidst the loud roar of a furious tempest. St. Francis, unable to flee or to endure the ferocious aspect of the devil, turned his face and whole body to the rock to which he clung; and the rock, as though it had been soft wax, received the impress of the saint and sheltered him. Thus by the aid of God he escaped.
[49]Speculum Perfectionis, cap. c., edited by Paul Sabatier.
[50]St. Francis composed this verse later on the occasion of a quarrel which arose between the Bishop of Assisi and the Podestà. The last couplet was added at the Portiuncula while he was on his death-bed.
[51]It has sometimes happened that visitors, who have not read their Murray with sufficient care, thinking "Le Carceri" are prisons where convicts are kept, leave Assisi without visiting this charming spot. "Carceri" certainly now means "prisons," but the original meaning of the word in old Italian is a place surrounded by a fence and often remote from human habitation.
[52]It is perhaps an insult to the Tescio to leave the traveller in Umbria under the impression that this mountain torrent is always dry. Certainly that is its usual condition, but we have seen it during the storms that break upon the land in August and September overflow its banks and inundate the country on either side; but with this wealth of water its beauty goes.
[53]The large modern church of Rivo-Torto, on the road from Sta. Maria degli Angeli to Spello, built to enclose the huts that St. Francis and his companions are supposed to have lived in while tending the lepers, has been proved without doubt by M. Paul Sabatier to have no connection whatever with the Saint. In these few pages we have followed the information given in a pamphlet which is to be found in the Italian translation of hisVie de S. François d'Assise. It is impossible here to enter into all the arguments relating to this disputed point, but I think the authority of the best, and by far the most vivid of the biographers of St. Francis can be trusted without further comment, and that we may safely believe the hut of St. Francis, known as Rivo-Torto, lay close to the present chapels of San Rufino d'Arce and Sta. Maria Maddalena. SeeAppendixfor information as to their exact position in the plain and the nearest road to them.Disertazione sul primo luogo abitato dai Frati Minori su Rivo-Torto e nell'Ospedale dei Lebbrosi di Assisi.di Paul Sabatier (Roma, Ermanno Loescher and Co., 1896).
[54]SeeThe Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxvii. Nov. 1882.
[55]Speculum Perfectionis, cap. lv., edited by Paul Sabatier.
[56]This custom ceased in the fifteenth century; but in the year 1899, through the piety of the Rev. Father Bernardine Ibald, it was revived. Once again the franciscans take a small basket of fish to the abbot and his monks who now live at S. Pietro in Assisi, where the benedictines went when their mountain retreat was destroyed by order of the Assisan despot, Broglia di Trino.
[57]This illustration is from a print to be seen in the somewhat rare edition of theCollis Paradisi Amœnitas, seu Sacri Conventus Assisiensis Historiæ, published in 1704 at Montefalco by Padre Angeli, and it may even have been taken from an earlier drawing. In it there is the true feeling of a franciscan convent, such as the saint hoped would continue for all time, and though there are some points which are incorrect (the Church of Sta. Chiara, though curiously enough not the convent, is represented, which was built several years later than San Francesco), we get a clear idea of both Assisi and its immediate neighbourhood. All the ancient gates of the town can be made out, the Roman road from Porta Mojano to San Rufino d'Arce, a faint indication of the path to the Carceri, and also the old road from Assisi to the plain out of the gate of S. Giacomo, passing not very far from the Ponte S. Vittorino. The wall round the Portiuncula and the huts did not exist in the time of St. Francis, which, together with the wooden gate, may have been added by Brother Elias. The largest hut a little to the right of the chapel was the infirmary where St. Francis died (now called the Chapel of St. Francis), and the one behind it was his cell (now known as the Chapel of the Roses, seechapter xi.for its story), whence he could easily pass out through the woods to San Rufino d'Arce hard by.
[58]For fuller account seeThe Mirror of Perfection, translated by Sebastian Evans, caps. 107, 108, 112, andThe Little Flowers of St. Francis, translated by J. W. Arnold (Temple Classics), chap. vi.
[59]In the same way when Beato Egidio, ill and nigh his end, wished to return to the Portiuncula to die in the place he loved so well, the Perugians refused their consent and even placed soldiers round the monastery of Monte Ripido to prevent his escape.
[60]In the illustrations on p.38and p.107is shown the gallows erected where now stands the franciscan basilica, but it is unlikely that the property of a private individual should have been used for such a purpose, and Collis Inferni may simply have meant the spur of hill beneath the upper portion of Assisi upon which the castle stood.
[61]See Vasari,Life of Arnolfo di Lapo.
[62]It would be a thankless task to follow the bewildering maze of contradictory evidence which has enveloped the question as to who built San Francesco. Those who are eager to do so, however, can consult Henry Thode's exhaustive work,Franz von Assisi(beginning p. 187), which deals most thoroughly with the subject. Leader Scott also, in her learned book uponThe Cathedral Builders, gives some ingenious theories with regard to "Jacopo" and his supposed relationship with Arnolfo, p. 315-316.
Another book isI Maestri Comacini, by Professore Marzario, whose statements about "Jacopo's" nationality are interesting and probable. But, following Vasari a little too blindly, he gives us the startling fact that "Jacopo" died in 1310, this, even supposing him to have been only twenty-five when he was at Assisi as chief architect, would make him one hundred and fifteen years of age at the time of his death.
[63]L'Architecture Gothiquepar M. Edouard Corroyer. See pp. 96 and 105.
[64]Speculum Perfectionis.Edited by Paul Sabatier, cap. x.
[65]For the Latin text see p. c. of M. Paul Sabatier's introduction to his edition of theSpeculum Perfectionis.
[66]Giovanni Parenti, who does not stand out very clearly in the history of the Order, was a Florentine magistrate of Città di Castello, one of the first towns to feel the influence of St. Francis. There he heard of the new movement which so rapidly was spreading throughout Western Europe, and, together with many of the citizens, became converted through the teaching of the Umbrian saint.
[67]It is impossible in this small book to give any idea of the various influences at work upon the young franciscan order during the life of the saint. I can only refer my readers to the charming pages of M. Paul Sabatier, who gives us a vivid picture of these early days inLa Vie de Saint François, and in his introduction to theSpeculum Perfectionis.
[68]It is difficult to say how free a hand the artists were allowed when called in to execute work for any church, but probably, in the case of San Francesco, they were obliged to illustrate precisely the scenes and events chosen by the friars, who in the case of the saint's legend would be very severe judges, requiring quite the best that the artist could produce.
[69]Later documents of the convent speak of a crucifix painted in 1236 by Giunta Pisano with a portrait of Brother Elias "taken from life" and the following inscription:
Frater Elias fieri fecitJesu Christe pieMisere pecantis HelieGiuntaPisanus me pinxit.a.d.m. mccxxxvi.
It hung from a beam in the Upper Church until 1624 when it suddenly disappeared, and it seems to have inspired Padre Angeli (author of the "Collis Paradisi") with the theory that Giunta Pisano was the first to paint in San Francesco, ascribing to him, as some have continued to do, the frescoes in the choir and transept of the Upper Church. Messrs Crowe and Cavacaselle say, on what authority it is impossible to discover, that the middle aisle of the Lower Church "seems to have been painted between 1225 and 1250," ignoring the fact that Pope Gregory only laid the foundation stone of the Basilica in 1228. Without trying to find such early dates for the history of art at Assisi, it appears to us quite wonderful enough that some fifty or sixty years after the ceremony of the consecration in 1253, Cimabue and his contemporaries—Giotto and his Tuscan followers—had completed their work in both churches.
[70]Righttransept is always synonymous withSouthtransept, but in this case, as San Francesco is built with the altar facing to the west because it was necessary to have the entrance away from the precipitous side of the hill, theRighttransept looks to theNorth, theLeftto theSouth, and we have thought it easier to keep to the actual position of the church in describing the different frescoes. Herr Thode in his book has done this, but it may be well to observe that Messrs Crowe and Cavacaselle refer to the transepts and chapels as if they faced the parts of the compass in the usual way.
[71]To facilitate seeing the paintings of the ceiling, both here and in the Lower Church, it would be well to use a hand-glass, a simple and most effectual addition to the comfort of the traveller.
[72]Mr Ruskin says that the gable of the bishop's throne is "of the exact period when the mosaic workers of the thirteenth century at Rome adopted rudely the masonry of the north. Briefly this is a Greek temple pediment, in which, doubtful of their power to carve figures beautiful enough, they cut a trefoiled hold for ornament, and bordered the edge with a harlequinade of mosaic. They then call to their aid the Greek sea waves, and let the surf of the Ægean climb along the slopes, and toss itself at the top into a fleur-de-lys."
[73]There are only the most meagre scraps of information to rely upon as to the dates of Giotto's works at San Francesco, and it is needless here to enter into the endless discussion. One thing is obvious; the Assisan frescoes must have been executed before those at Padua which have always been assigned to 1306. In these pages we have sometimes followed the view held by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, sometimes that of Herr Thode, who appears to have studied the question with open eyes, but our final authority is M. Bernhard Berenson, who in a visit paid lately to Assisi was kind enough to point out many things which we should otherwise have passed by, and in the sequence of the frescoes by Giotto at San Francesco we have entirely followed his opinion.
[74]For Simone Martini's Madonna and Saints between the two chapels of this transept, see p.212. The portraits (?) of some of the first companions of St. Francis, painted beneath Cimabue's fresco, belong to the Florentine school. It would be vain to try and name them.
[75]See Vasari, ed. Milanesi, vol. i. p. 426. (Sansoni Firenze.)
[76]It is often supposed that Giotto took the theme of this fresco from the well-known lines of Dante referring to the mystical marriage of St. Francis to Poverty. But Dante wrote the xi. canto of theParadisolong after Giotto had left Assisi; both painter and poet really only followed the legend recounted by St. Bonaventure of how St. Francis met three women who saluted him on the plain of S. Quirico near Siena. These were Poverty, Charity and Obedience.
[77]Paradiso, xi., Cary's translation.
[78]This fact alone would disprove the idea that Giottino, who was born in 1324, could have been the author of these frescoes. Everything that cannot be attributed to other painters is put down as his work, so that we have many pictures and frescoes of totally different styles assigned to Giottino.
[79]Some say this fresco represents the three youths begging St. Nicholas to pardon the consul who had condemned them to death, in which case it would come after the scene of the execution on the opposite wall.
[80]The tabernacle on the altar is the work of Giulio Danti, after a design by Galeazzo Alessi, both Perugians, in 1570.
[81]How right Elias was to hide the body of St. Francis in so secure a place is shown by the various endeavours made by the Perugians to secure the holy relics for their town. In the fifteenth century they attempted, while at war with Assisi, to carry off the body by force, and failing, had recourse to diplomacy. They represented to Eugenius IV, that it would be far safer at Perugia, and begged him to entrust them with it. He denied his "dear sons'" request on the plea that the Assisans would be brought to the verge of despair and their city to ruin.
[82]The donor of this chapel was Gentile de Monteflori, a franciscan, created cardinal in 1298 by Boniface VIII.
[83]Simone was born at Siena in 1283, and died at Avignon in 1344. He belonged to the school of Duccio, though influenced to some degree by his contemporary Giotto, whose work at Assisi he had full opportunity to study.
[84]Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance, B. Berenson, p. 47.
[85]Sketches of the History of Christian Art, by Lord Lindsay, p. 134, vol. i.
[86]The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance.Bernhard Berenson, p. 48.
[87]Built by the Orsini brothers, the founders of the Chapel del Sacramento, in the beginning of the fourteenth century.
[88]It is curious that the early Umbrian painters had so little share in the decoration of the franciscan Basilica, the only other picture of the school is the one in the Chapel of St. Anthony the Abbot, and a fresco by some scholar of Ottaviano Nelli on the wall near the entrance of the Lower Church.
[89]Not only had the friars to guard their own things, but also the vast treasures of the Popes who, especially during their sojourn at Avignon, found San Francesco a convenient store-house. See on p.20for the story of how these goods were stolen by the citizens and the penalty this brought upon the town.
[90]La Benedizione di San Francesco, Livorno, 1900.
[91]See chapter vi. p.171for description of the frescoes here, and of those above the altar. For Cimabue's Madonna on the right wall of the Transept see chapter v. p.155.
[92]In 1529 the campanile, which rather gives the impression of a watch-tower, was used by Captain Bernardino da Sassoferrato, as a sure place of refuge when the Prince of Orange entered Assisi with his victorious army. From its heights he kept his enemy at bay for three days, and finally escaped to Spello leaving the city a prey to another despot.
[93]Open to visitors at two o'clock.
[94]Cary's translation. Dante,Inferno, canto xxvii.
[95]St. Bonaventure was born in 1221 at Bagnora in Umbria, and became General of the franciscan order. Dante, in canto xii. of theParadiso, leaves him to sing the praises of St. Dominic, just as the dominican divine St. Thomas Aquinas had related the story of St. Francis in the preceding canto.
[96]We have used Miss Lockhart's translation of St. Bonaventure'sLegenda Santa Francisci.
[97]J. Ruskin,Mornings in Florence, iii. Before the Soldan.
[98]xi.Paradiso, Cary's translation.
[99]Dante,Paradiso, xi., Cary's translation.
[100]A comparison may be made between the long and slender body of the saint here with that in the death of St. Francis in Sta. Croce, where the body is firmly drawn and of more massive proportions.
[101]As the hated enemies of the Baglioni the Fiumi are often mentioned in the chronicles of Matarazzo, and they played an important part in the history of their native city. They were Counts of Sterpeto, and the village of that name on the hill to the west of Assisi above the banks of the Chiaggio still belongs to the family.
[102]One of the first of the franciscans was Rufino, a nephew of Count Favorino's, whose holiness was such that in speaking of him to the other brethren St. Francis would call him St. Rufino.
[103]Bernhard Berenson, "Central Italian painters of the Renaissance," p. 86.
[104]Goethe's Werke,Italiänische Reise, I., vol. 27, pp. 184,et seq., J. G. Cotta, 1829.
[105]The key is obtained from the Canonico Modestini's house, No. 27a Via S. Paolo.
[106]The legend that St. Francis was born in a stable only dates from the fifteenth century and arose out of the desire of the franciscans to make his life resemble that of Christ. The site of this stable, which is now a chapel, is of no interest whatever.
[107]SeeStory of Perugia(mediæval series), p. 211, for the legend of their origin in that town.
[108]The chapel is also called theChiesa di S. Caterinabecause the members of that confraternity have charge of it. It is often open, but should it be closed, there is always some one about ready to obtain the key from the house in the same street Via Superba, now Via Principe di Napoli, No. 12, opposite Palazzo Bernabei.
[109]See Signor Alfonso Brizi'sLoggia dei Maestri Comacini in Assisi, No. 1, April 185, of theAtti dell' Accademia Properziana del Subasio in Assisi.
[110]Both the key ofSan RufinuccioandSan Lorenzocan be obtained through the sacristan of the Cathedral.
[111]This work has been admirably done by Signor Alfonso Brizi. In hisRocca d'Assisi, published in 1898, he has given a very interesting account of its many rulers and vicissitudes, and a full description of the building, together with all the documents relating to it.
[112]St. Francis called the Portiuncula Santa Maria degli Angeli, but now the name is more connected with the large church. See p.97.
[113]St. Dominic was present at this famous gathering, and theFiorettigives a curious account of the way in which he watched the doings of a brother saint, at first a little inclined to criticise his methods, so different to his own, but finally being won over by the franciscan doctrine of absolute poverty.
[114]Those who know the teaching of St. Francis (seeFioretti, chap. xiii.) will feel how the saint would have fought against this device for the expiation of sins, invented by the priests of Southern Italy. No Umbrian has ever sunk to such depths of self-abasement, and during all the first days of the "Perdono" festival they keep aloof, waiting till the pilgrims' departure before obtaining their indulgences.