1 The cathedral. It stands on the summit of Monte Guasco above the harbour, and is supposed to occupy the site of a temple of Venus. Its present design is attributed, on doubtful authority, to Margaritone of Arezzo. Montaigne’s statement about the relics is hardly borne out by the existing collection, which is of the ordinary character: bits of the wood of the cross, nails, spear-heads, &c.

2 Ἀγκώυ, an elbow.

3 This inscription is no longer in existence. The church referred to is S. Maria di Porta Cipriana, in which the Greek rite was allowed by Clement VII. in 1524.

4 Francesco Maria II. (Della Rovere).

5 Secretary to Paul de Foix, the French ambassador at Rome.

6 These remarks apply exactly to Fano at the present day.

7 It was erected in honour of Augustus and enlarged by Constantine. It was dedicated to each of these Emperors. The attic portion, built by Constantine, was almost ruined during the assault of the city by Federigo da Montefeltro in 1463.

8 Probably the Villa Imperiale, built by Leonora Gonzaga, wife of Francesco Maria I. (della Rovere). It is now in ruins.

9 Livy, xxviii. 48. The battle was fought B.C. 207.

10 The ancient city, Forum Sempronii, is supposed to have stood about a mile farther towards Fano. It was ruined by the Goths and Lombards.

11 Caius Edius Verus. A statue in his honour was erected by the people of Forum Sempronii. The pedestal referred to by Montaigne is now in the Passionist Library. (A.)

12 Giulio, the son of Francesco Maria I. (della Rovere) and Eleanora Gonzaga. He was born in 1533, and made a cardinal by Paul III. when he was thirteen. He was at one time suspected of a leaning towards heretical opinions. He was a munificent benefactor to Loreto, and bequeathed to the shrine all his personal goods. He died at Fossombrone in 1578, and lies buried in S. Chiara at Urbino.

13 Sometimes written Gauno. Ariosto, c. xliii.:—

14 The pass of Furlo. An inscription at the north end records its construction by the order of Vespasian. There is no trace of the inscription in honour of Augustus which Montaigne mentions, but this emperor was interested in the maintenance of the Flaminian Way. “And that the Avenues on every side to the City might be more passable, he took in hand himselfe to repaire the high way or Cawsie Flaminia, so farre as to Ariminuum.” Suetonius, Oct. Cæsar Aug., c. 30 (Holland’s trans.).

15 The famous palace built for Duke Federigo di Montefeltro by Luciano di Laurana and Baccio Pontelli. Castiglione, in “The Courtyer,” agrees with Montaigne that the site of Urbino leaves something to be desired: “The which for all it is placed emong hylles, and those not so pleasaunt as perhappes some other that we behoulde in manye places” (Hoby’s trans.). But seeing how appreciative Montaigne shows himself of mountain scenery in other parts, it is strange that he should withhold praise from the distant prospects from Urbino, which are particularly grand and beautiful.

16 This is a mistake. No ruler of Urbino ever bore this name; and the palace was built by the great Federigo di Montefeltro, who became count in 1444 and duke in 1474.

17 Montaigne is again in error. The reigning duke was Francesco Maria II. He was the great-great-grandson of Federigo, the builder of the palace.

18 Federigo and his son Guidobaldo I. were both Knights of the Garter.

19 Oddantonio di Montefeltro. He was killed in a popular rising in 1444, which was probably instigated by certain emissaries of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta of Rimini. There is no extant portrait of him at Urbino. What Montaigne saw was probably the picture of the “Flagellation,” in the sacristy of the Duomo, by Piero della Francesca, on one side of which are three figures supposed to represent Oddantonio and the evil counsellors sent by Malatesta to lead him to ruin. This assumption is, however, entirely unfounded.

20 Lucrezia d’Este, born in 1535 and married to the duke in 1570. She spent almost all her time at the court of Ferrara. After her death her husband married Livia della Rovere and had one son, Federigo Ubaldo, but this youth died in his father’s lifetime in 1623, and the following year Francesco Maria surrendered the duchy to Urban VIII.

21 This portrait is almost certainly the one which is now in the Uffizi at Florence. On the death of Francesco Maria della Rovere in 1631, Claudia dei Medici, the widow of his son, returned to Florence, and took with her several of the pictures from the palace of Urbino—notably the portraits of Federigo di Montefeltro and the Duchess Battista, by Piero della Francesca—and transferred them to the Uffizi. The portrait of Pico probably went at the same time.

22 Monte d’Elce. The monument referred to still exists, though greatly defaced.

23 Isabella, daughter of Guidobaldo II., married Niccolo Sanseverino, Prince of Bisignano.

24 Petites reines du micarême.

25 Le More’s seems to have been a Parisian restaurant de luxe. “Chacun veut aujourd’hui aller diner chez Le More, chez Samson, chez Innocent, chez Havart, ministres de volupté et de profusion, et qui dans un royaume bien policé seroient bannis et chassés comme corrupteurs des mœurs” (Baudrillart, Hist. du Luxe, iii. 506).

26 Rabelais, i. 51, “un beau cabaret assez retirant a celluy de Guillot en Amiens.” Motteux evidently misread the name, as he renders it as “Will’s at Amiens.”

27 Incisa.

28 Petrarch was born at Arezzo, whither his family had fled during the Bianchi and Neri troubles. They dwelt, however, at Incisa, and the remains of the house are said still to exist. One of the walls bears a tablet with the following inscription:—

Perche
Della casa paterna
di
Francesco Petrarch
Colpa di secoli ingrati
Meglio che dalle cure degli uomini
Rispettata dal tempo
Una memoria restasse
Antonio Brucalassi incisano
Correndo il giorno sesto d’Aprile
MDCCCXXXXII
Fra le antiche ruine
Consacrò questo marmo.

29 Livy, xxii. 2-3.

30 See vol. ii., p. 54.

31 In Tuscany the art of straw-plaiting is a very old one, dating from the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. In the sixteenth it had attained great importance in Signa and the adjacent villages. Francesco Naldi and Domenico Michelacci, a Bolognese, were its chief promoters and the pioneers of foreign trade. It now exists chiefly in Fiesole, and though fallen off somewhat, is an important branch of industry.

32 Cardinal Niccolò.

33 Robert d’Anjou, Duke of Apulia. Prato came under his sway in 1313, and in 1326 passed to his son Charles of Calabria. In 1350 the city was sold to the Florentines for 17,500 gold florins. The statue no longer exists. Montaigne again mistakes the lilies of Florence for those of France.

34 Poggio a Cajano. This villa was originally in possession of the Cancellieri family of Pistoia, with whom originated the factions of the Neri and Bianchi. It was rebuilt for Lorenzo dei Medici by Giuliano di San Gallo, and decorated by Andrea del Sarto and Pontormo for Leo X. It was the scene of the mysterious tragedy of Bianca Capello in 1587.

35 Villani Chron., B. i. c. 5, 7, 30-38. According to Sallust, the battlefield lies some twelve miles from Pistoia, but a modern column with a commemorative inscription has been erected near the city.

36 Brunetto Latini says (Tesoro, l. 37) that the place takes its name from the pestilence which broke out after Catiline’s defeat.

37 Villani Chron., B. viii. 37.

38 In Tuscany the theory of the communal magistracy was, that it should hold itself constantly at the service of the public. The priors were not allowed to go to their own houses except in cases of sickness. After midnight they might go out attended by one or other of their servants. They might not follow any trade or calling, or attend weddings or funerals, or take their meals apart. Neither Gonfaloniere nor priors might leave the city; they must remain all day long in the palace, where all games, except chess, were forbidden.

39 Lucca was at this time in the Spanish interest. It remained an independent city until the French occupation in 1799. Fynes Moryson, writing about twelve years after Montaigne, says: “The citizens of Lucca are as afrayd of this great Duke ~of Florence$ as Partridges of a hawke, being compassed with his territories on all sydes.” Itinerary (Lond. 1903).

40 That is, soldiers from other parts of Italy.

41 The silk manufacture of Lucca goes back beyond all record. In the time of Castruccio Castracane a large number of citizens, offended at his usurpation, emigrated to other Italian cities and took their art with them. It was thus that the art of brocade-making was introduced into Florence.

42 Essais, ii. 37: “À cette cause j’ay choisi jusques à cette heure, à m’arrester et à me servir de celles où il y avoit plus d’amœnité de lieu, commodité de logis, de vivres et de compagnies, comme sont en France, les bains de Banieres: en la frontiere d’Allemaigne et de Loraine, ceux de Plombières: en Souysse, ceux de Bade: en la Toscane, ceux de Lucques: et specialement ceux Della Villa, desquels j’ay usé plus souvent, et à diverses saisons.”

43 A tributary of the Serchio, which rises near Pistoia.

44 In earlier times the season used to begin on the first Friday in March, when, according to tradition, an angel descended and blessed the springs.

45 Montaigne speaks of the douche as an Italian speciality. “Comme les Allemans ont de particulier, de se faire generalement tous corneter et vantouser, avec scarification dans le bain: ainsi ont les Italiens leur doccie, qui sont certaines gouttières de cette eau chaude, qu’ils conduisent par des cannes, et vont baignant une heur le matin, et autant l’après disnée, par l’espace d’un mois, ou la teste, ou l’estomach, ou autre partie du corps, à laquelle ils ont affaire” (Essais, ii. 37).

46 Montaigne held La Boetie in the highest esteem. “Et le plus grand que j’aye cogneu au vif, je dis des parties naturelles de l’ame, et le mieux né, c’estoit Estienne de la Boetie.”—Essais, ii. 17, and in ii. 27 he again writes at length in praise of his lost friend.

47 “De acquis lucensibus, quæ vulgo Villenses appellantur,” by G. B. Donati. The author was a physician of Lucca, who studied at Pisa and Padua. Franciotti, also a Lucchese doctor, wrote a treatise, “Tractatus de Balneo Villensi in Agro Lucensi posito.”

48 From this point the Journal is written in Italian.

49 This spring had only recently come into fashion. It had always been used by the country people for skin diseases, and about the middle of the sixteenth century it acquired great fame through the cure of a certain Pistoian of a loathsome skin disease which had been treated ineffectually at every other spring. There are many springs on this range of hills: Corsena, Bagno Rosso, Bagno di S. Giovanni, Bagno della Villa, Bagno di Bernabo, and Bagno Cardinali.

50 Ascension Day.

51 The inscription at the Bagno alla Villa runs as follows: “Sacri de villa balnei hec precipue sunt virtutes. Confert cunctis capitis membris. Curat omnes stomachi morbos. Appetitum excitat. Digestionem procurat. Vomitum restringit. Sanat cuncta epatis vitia. Epatis et venarum opilationem aperit. Colorem optimum facit. Confert passionibus splenis. Sanat ulcera pulmonis. Mundat renes. Lapidem minuit. Arenulas prohibit. Macros impinguat. Lepram curat non confirmatam. Bibita antiquas febres expellit. Et matricis etiam anterius cristerizata. Triginta balneantur diebus. Octo vel decern bibitur purgatione premissa. A contrariis caveatur. Toto corpore ulcera sanat.”

52 In 1160 Guelf VI. of Este, the uncle of Barbarossa, sold his rights over Lucca to the citizens, who agreed to pay by their consuls 1000 soldi yearly for ninety years, and this compact was confirmed by Barbarossa. In 1197 Lucca joined Florence against the Empire, and in the tumult which followed Lucca was subject to various tyrants, Castruccio Castracane, Visconti, and Spinola. Its liberties were restored by Charles IV. in 1369. In 1392 the Giunigi family, under the patronage of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, became despots, but after Gian Galeazzo’s death the republican form was restored, which lasted till 1795. The Council consisted of 120 councillors and 40 surrogates. The democracy seems always to have been a limited one, and the institution of a Golden Book gradually reduced the number of citizens eligible as councillors.

53 M. de Mattecoulon.

54 Montaigne had little belief in the medicine of his time. “De mesme, en la Medecine, j’honore bien ce glorieux nom, sa proposition, sa promesse, si utile au genre humain: mais ce qu’il designe entre nous, je ne l’honore, ny ne l’estime. En premier lieu l’experience me le fait craindre: car de ce que j’ay de cognoissance, je ne voy nulle race de gens si tost malade, et si tard guerie que celle qui est sous la jurisdiction de la Medecine. Leur santé mesme est alterée et corrompue, par la contrainte des régimes. Les Médecins ne se contentent point d’avoir la maladie en gouvernement, ils rendent la santé malade pour garder qu’on ne puisse en aucune saison eschaper leur authorité.”—Essais, ii. 37.

55 This is in direct contradiction to the statement on p. 61.

56 This cardinal had been sent into France during the religious wars. Pius V. made him a cardinal in 1570, and the reigning Pope had sent him as legate to Bologna, where he executed many public works. He died in 1586.

57 A few sentences further on Montaigne seems to imply that the title of minister was only given to the Provincials of the Franciscan order.

58 Menabbio.

59 Essais, iii. 5: “Si elles ne nous peuvent faire du bien que par pitié: j’ayme bien mieux ne vivre point, que de vivre d’aumosne. Je voudrois avoir droit de le leur demander, au stile auquel j’ay veu questu en Italie: Fate ben per voi.”

60 It is possible that Montaigne is here mistaken as to the significance of this heraldic device. The fish probably has reference to the name of the town. His frequent recognition of the lilies as the ensign of France instead of Florence has already been noticed.

61 This spring was celebrated as early as 1370, accommodation for bathers having been built by the Florentines in that year.

62 See vol. ii., p. 54.

63 The festival of S. John Baptist. Cambiagi in Memorie storiche, and Guasti in Le feste di S. Giovanni Battista, have written at length concerning this feast.

64 These races were instituted by Cosimo I. in 1563, and were held in the Piazza S. Maria Novella.

65 Ferdinand, who afterwards became Grand Duke in 1588.

66 The effigy of the mule still exists. The verses run:—

67 Montaigne describes this statue in vol. ii., p. 58.

68 Montaigne questioned this right on the occasion of his first visit (vol. ii., p. 54).

69 Probably the house which at one time stood in the Via Larga.

70 This was first published in Italian by the Giunti in 1573. Manni, in his “History of the Decameron” (1742), professed to give a version taken from the rough draft of another will which Boccaccio had made in 1365. In 1859 Milanesi published the original Latin version from the document itself, which is in the possession of the Bichi-Borghese family in Siena.

71 The name is certainly Greek. Empoli was the scene of the famous parliament of the Ghibellines in 1260, when, after the battle of the Arbia, the proposal to rase Florence to the ground was defeated by the opposition of Farinata degli Uberti.

Dante, Inferno, x.

72 Montaigne refers to this matter, Essais, iii. 13, where he lets fall a remark which throws some fresh light upon it. “Je disnerois sans nape, mais à l’Alemande, sans serviette blanche, très-incommodément; je les soüille plus qu’eulx et les Italiens ne font; et m’ayde peu de cullier et de fourchette. Je plains qu’on n’aye suivy un train, que j’ay veu commencer à l’exemple des Roys: Qu’on nous changeast de serviette, selon les services, comme d’assiette.” He seems to have favoured the saying, “Fingers were made before forks.”

73 Le antiche iscrizioni del Duomo di Pisa.—C. Lupi (Pisa, 1877).

74 These are still to be seen at the back of the apse.

75 The Baptistery.

76 It is probable that Montaigne had heard the story (told in Varchi’s Storia Fiorentina) how Lorenzino had broken off the heads of some of the statues on the Arch of Constantine at Rome, and had shifted the scene of the outrage to Pisa. For this offence Lorenzino was impeached by Molza before the Roman Academy. The Pisan version is alluded to by the local historians, Roncioni and Morrona; the last-named refuses to accept it.

77 The Pantheon.

78 Giulio, natural son of Alessandro. There was an attempt to put him in his father’s place, but by Guicciardini’s influence Cosimo became duke. Giulio enjoyed Cosimo’s favour, and died in 1600.

79 Smollett repeats the same story in almost the same words: “Travels,” Letter xxvii.

80 Montaigne often confuses the Florentine lilies with the arms of France, but in this case he seems to be right.

81 This palace is now the Opera del Duomo. The sculpture has disappeared and only the French device remains. The inscription referred to by Montaigne was renewed in 1695 by Giulio Gaetani:

82 These ruins are now called the Baths of Nero.

83 San Michele in Borgo. The church, which was built by Niccolo Pisano, shows no trace of Roman work.

84 San Pietro in Grado. It probably dates from the tenth century, and is built of ancient fragments. The tradition is that S. Peter landed here and built the church.

85 Third son of Cosimo I. He murdered his wife, Eleanora of Toledo, who was so frequently painted by Bronzino. He died in 1604.

86 Dante, Inferno, xxxiii., alludes to the position of these islands—

87 Leonardo da Vinci, in his “Treatise on Botany,” makes similar remarks as to the rings in timber and the effect of a north aspect on the character of the wood.

88 There is a reference to this visit, Essais, i. 25: “Je vis privément à Pise un honeste homme, mais si Aristotelicien, que le plus general de ses dogmes est: Que la touche et regle de toutes imaginations solides, et de toute verité, c’est la conformité à la doctrine d’Aristote: que hors de là, ce ne sont que chimeres et inanité: qu’il a tout veu et tout dit. Cette sienne proposition, pour avoir esté un peu trop largement et uniquement interpretée, le mit autrefois, et tint longtemps en grand accessoire à l’inquisition à Rome.” Borro was born at Arezzo, and appointed Professor of Philosophy at Pisa in 1553. After divers prosecutions by the Inquisition, he was finally dismissed in 1586, and died at Perugia in 1592.

89 Jacopo and not Pietro Paulo. He was Archbishop of Pisa from 1574 to 1575.

90 Tommaso Cornacchini, a famous Aretine physician. He was Professor of Medicine at Pisa, and died there in 1584. His works were published after his death by his sons Oragio and Marco (Padua 1605, Venice 1607). Marco was also a distinguished physician and the inventor of the Polvere cornacchina.

91 Now known as Casciana.

92 Some remains of a Roman bath still exist in Pisa itself close to the Porta a Lucca, and are called Bagno di Nerone. Montaigne probably confuses the two places. The baths which he here describes are still in use, and are the same as were known in ancient times as Aquæ Calidæ Pisanorum.

93 Old form of schifiltà—squeamishness.

94 Montaigne writes somewhat in the same strain in Essais, ii. 6, and gives an apology for suicide, ii. 3.

95 “Messieurs de Bordeaux m’esleurent Maire de leur ville, estant esloigné de France, et encore plus esloigné d’un tel pensement. Je m’en excusay. Mais on m’apprint que j’avois tort, le commandement du Roy s’y interposant aussi” (Essais, iii. 10). Sainte Beuve (Nouveaux Lundis, vol. vi.) has an article, Montaigne maire de Bordeaux.

96 This chapel, the masterpiece of Matteo Civitali, was erected in 1484. The Volto Santo di Lucca is an ancient carved crucifix of cedar which, according to legend, was brought to the city in 782.

97 S. Frediano.

98 A bath in Gascony. Montaigne alludes to it in vol. ii., p. 24.

99 Probably the fruit of the zizzolo (Ziziphus vulgaris).

100 The Bagni di S. Paolo.

101 A house built by Nicolas V. out of the ruins of an ancient bath, the Bagno della Crociata.

102 This is the spring of Bulicame to which Dante alludes, Inferno, xiv.:—

Pits for the steeping of hemp and flax still exist. A document has been found in the communal archives which shows that, as late as 1469, a portion of the spring went to the Bagni delle Meretrici.

103 Madonna della Quercia, between Orte and Viterbo. It is one of the finest Renaissance churches in Italy. It was built from Bramante’s design, and contains some beautiful Della Robbia work.

104 Paul III.

105 Now the Villa Lante.

106 The famous palace built by Vignola for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, which was begun in 1547 and finished in 1559.

107 There is a full description of Caprarola and all the works therein in Vasari, vol. vii. p. 107 (ed. 1881).

108 In the Essais, i. 48, he alludes to a similar performance: “J’ay veu un homme donner carrière à deux pieds sur sa selle, demonter sa selle, et au retour la relever, r’accommoder, et s’y r’asseoir, fuyant tousiours à bride avallée. Ayant passé par dessus un bonnet, y tirer par derrière de bons coups de son arc: Amasser ce qu’il vouloit, se jettant d’un pied à terre, tenant l’autre en l’estrier et autres pareilles singeries de quoi il vivoit.”

109 Fulvio Orsini, made a cardinal in 1565. He had been entrusted by Gregory XIII. with a special mission to France. He died at Naples aged fifty-one.

110 It appears that Montaigne only stayed a week in Rome this visit.

111 It was during this sojourn probably that Mattecoulon was engaged in the duel referred to in Essais, ii. 27.

112 Ponte a Elsa (?).

113 These works were begun in 1577 under the direction of a Fleming named Raet, but were subsequently abandoned.

114 Dante, Par., xvi., alludes to its overthrow.

115 Sarzana.

116 This would be the Empress Maria, widow of Maximilian II. and sister of Philip II., who was returning to Spain to enter a convent. Don Giovanni dei Medici was the son of Cosimo I. by Eleanora degli Albizzi.

117 Fynes Moryson, writing about ten years later, gives quite as bad a report of the inns in these parts. Itinerary, p. 164.

118 Montaigne’s omission of all notice of the French victory at Fornovo in 1495 is an instance of his freedom from swagger.

119 Borgo San Donino.

120 A sort of fruit salad.

121 “The name of a march or point of warre, sounded by trumpeters to their general or captain in a morning at their uprising” (Florio).

122 Ottavio Farnese.

123 Built from Vignola’s design.