VICENZA. 427 ingenious interpreters, and which a presenting her son to Simeon, by Bar great contemporary Italian poet has tolommeo Montagna; a St. Catherine; 榈ng: Queste stagile incorrotte, e queste forme Ignote al nuovo mar manda dal Bolca L'alma del tuo Pompel patria Verona, CHAPTER XXIV. Montebello-Tienza.- Basilic.- Library. Read the Virgin weeping over the dead Christ, of the sixteenth century. - Palladio's house. above, and an apostle and St. Jerome below, by Giovanni Speranza, of. Vi- I stopped one night at Montebello and longing to France. birth and palaces of Palladio, whose taste, and Horatius Coccles fighting on the Viena derives its glory from the hand; Curtius riding into the gulf; at the very period of the decline, has bridge of Sublicius. namely: Mutius Scævola burning his been constantly transmitted and main The library of Vicenza, called the tained. But the filthiness of the town, Bertoliana, from the name of its founder, Ants, and the ugly shops of the place de- risconsult and councillor of the Venetian which contains thirty thousand inhabi- Count Giovanni Bertolo, a celebrated juTract from the beauty of its monuments. republic, contains thirty-six thousand An ordonnance de police would be volumes and about two hundred manu here singularly useful to art. scripts. The public palace called the Basilica is One the of five vellum copies of Orlando tion, the eleventh, was the last published Lecuracy, and purity. In this pa- proofs of it, and it is pretended that it Lists of the Venetian school. The half- with the printer, and he wrote to his caused his death, so dissatisfied was he the town at the Virgin's feet, under a rich pavilion with Saint Mark, a ma- in questa ultima stampa e assassi- A reading society has just been founded rith Peace, the town of Vicenza, an Vices, a painting of the same size, by for its love of pleasure and fêtes, knows dman, and Fame dispersing the proves that the Vicentian youth, noted abo Carpioni, is ideal and true; the how to combine therewith a taste for Martyrdom of St. Vincent, by night, reading and solid converse. more than a hundred and twenty; it Yrks of Alessandro Maganza of Vicenza; the tyrant's presence, one of the good The Olympic theatre of Vicenza, built Virgin, Sts. Monica and Mary a noble, elegant, and curious monufrom Palladio's designs after his death, is Madalen adoring the Infant Jesus, ment. It has the form of an ancient Ya beautiful landscape; the Virgin theatre; the stage even is like those of See the last edition of Cuvier's Recherches sur meals fossiles, t. IV. p. 248 et seq., and the on géologique des environs de Paris, by the same and M. A. Brongniart, inserted in this • Mascheronl. Invito a Lesbia. | dal Vello d'oro which he did at twenty years of age. The Trissino palace, one of the finest in Vicenza and Scamozzi's masterpiece, built from his designs while he was at Rome, appeared even then the work of an artist who had nothing to learn. The Cordellina palace is by Calderari, a good architect of Vicenza at the end of last century, a restorer of the art and one of those noble amateurs of whom I have spoken already. Only a third of the palace is finished, but if completed, its magnificence would not be unworthy of the neighbourhood of Palladio's pa two theatres discovered at Pompeii two The little house, said to have been Palladio's, is a chef-d'œuvre, but it was not his property as is commonly believed; he built it at the order of the Cogolo family of Vicenza, and perhaps he afterwards occupied it as tenant; it was only surnamed little as compared with the other larger palaces that he had built there. The palaces erected from Palladio's designs are, the Chiericato palace; the celebrated Tiene palace, some parts of which only have been executed; the Porto-Barbaran palace, to which some embellishments in bad taste have been added that do not belong to the illustrious architect; the Folco palace, called Franceschini, of such majestic simplicity; the Valmarano palace, one of his best chefs-d'œuvre; the Trissino palace Notwithstanding the disputes of the learned, it appears the Rosmunda of Giovanni Bernardo Ruc The churches of Vicenza are rich in paintings; and most of the masterpieces of painting and architecture which adorn this town are due to its native artists. The cathedral possesses, by Bartolommeo Montagna, the Virgin, the Infant Jesus, and some saints; å fresco of St. Joseph and other saints adoring the Infant Jesus; by his brother Benedetto, the Eternal Father, the Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Virgin and St. John Baptist; by Alessandro Maganza, the Virgin with the Infant Jesus, Sts. John, Paul, and Gregory, one of his best works. The Miraculous Draught of Fishes; the Conversion of St. Þaul, by Zelotti, one of the first painters of the sixteenth century, whose reputation is inferior to his merit, have been deemed worthy of Paolo Veronese, his companion, countryman, and friend. In the choir is Noah's Sacrifice, one of the most distinguished works of Liberi. The oratory of the Duomo, has some good paintings by Maganza. The Virgin embracing the Saviour in the temple, by Andrea Vicentino, is remarkable; the statues are of the Vittoria school, and the best are at the altar. The outside of the church SantaCorona promises little; but there is much within. The Saint, Sts. Mary Magdalen, Jerome, Monica, and Martin, in pontifical robes, is a noble composition by Bartolommeo Montagna. There are two other masterpieces, the Baptism of Christ, by Giovanni Bellini; the Adoration of the Magi, by Paolo Veronese. The same subject at the little church cellat, played at Florence before Leo X., was only in the year 1515. 1 of Saint Dominick is a clever imitation | of Paolo Veronese, and the good works of Maganza. The Poor Hospital, adjoining the church of Saint Peter, presents an elegant funereal cippus by Canova, who has embellished so many rich and splendid abodes. It is sacred to the memory of the Cav. Trento; the female figure engraving the name of this beneficent man on the column bearing his bust, represents Felicity, an odd subject and too cheerful for an hospital. The church has some fine paintings by Maganza, among which may be distinguished the St. Benedict, with St. Placid and St. | Maur, and a king in the act of presenting his son to them: the Christ giving the keys to St. Peter, by Zelotti, is excel lent. The church of Saint Stephen ought to be visited for its Virgin on a throne, with Sts. Vincent and Lucy beside her, and, below, an angel playing on a harp, a work incomparably graceful and sweet, and one of the elder Palma's best. Santa Croce has an admirable Deposition from the cross, by Bassano. At Saint Rock there is an admirable Raphaelesque Madonna between two saints, by Marescalco, one of the best paintings in Vicenza; its St. Sebastian is of truly ideal beauty. CHAPTER XXV. Capra casino. - Cricoll.-Trissino.-Nostra Signora del Monte. plans by their multiplied imitations. The views from the four fronts of the casino, are admirable for their variety, a variety which exhibits the character of Italian nature. Cricoli, one mile from Vicenza, is a villa built from the plan of Trissino, the author of Sophonisba, a rural abode, still belonging to his descendants, in which he drew together the literary men of his time. It has a tower at each of its four corners, and there is something noble in the style of the architecture. Like Pompeii, Vicenza contains the house of a tragic poet; but that of the ancient city, carefully preserved by the ashes of Vesuvius, is less damaged, after the lapse of seventeen centuries, than the house of the modern tragedian, which now appertains to a large farm and is degraded into a barn. Trissino, however, rendered architecture a more meritorious service by being the friend and Mæcenas of Palladio, whom he conducted to Rome, than by his villa of Cricoli. Though he may have left no performance of supereminent worth, it is evident that Trissino, an orator and poet both epic and tragic, was one of the most ardent champions of letters and arts in an age when they were so very numerous. Near Vicenza is the church Nostra Signora del Monte, whose statue, of Greek workmanship, is overloaded with drapery. Some paintings are excellent : the Virgin holding the body of Christ in her arms, and with Saints Peter, John, and Mary Magdalen, by Bartolommeo Montagna; the Virgin and Infant Without the walls of Vicenza is the Jesus in the sky with angels; the porcelebrated Capra casino, a masterpiece trait of the rector Francesco Grimani of Palladio, which a peer of Great Bri- struck with the rainbow, and below JusLain, Lord Burlington, an admirer of his tice, Charity, Peace, Plenty, Prudence, genius, and himself an architect, has and Hope, who is introducing some merimitated in his park at Chiswick. Per- chants and many poor, with women and haps that delicate rotunda, which har- children, a vast and beautiful composimonises so well with the bright sky and tion by Giulio Carpioni. The Virgin living light of Italy, may not match so setting the Infant Jesus on a pedestal well with the misty atmosphere of Eng-off which an idol has been thrown, land. The skilful architecture of Palladio is attended with so much convenience when applied to modern wants and usages, that he has found a second bome in the country proverbial for its love of comfort, and the first English arthitects seem to have naturalised his The chief of these architects are Inigo Jones, the English Palladio, Christopher Wren, James sation, and Chambers, cited by M. Quatremère de with Saint Joseph and three angels, is by Ménageot, a French painter, who contributed towards the end of last century to the restoration of our school; an affecting present made by the artist to the town of Vicenza, in remembrance of the asylum he found there during the trou Quincy, Histoire de la vie et des ouvrages des plus célebres architectes, t. 11. p. 5. bles in France. In the refectory of the convent are the Adoration of the Magi, a chef-d'œuvre of Benedetto Montagna, and the wonderful painting by Paolo Veronese, representing Christ in a traveller's dress seated at St. Gregory's table. Mount Berico, on which the church of Nostra Signora stands, has almost grown into a monument, and the path to its summit is all under stone arcades. In this long structure, which is not the only one of the kind in Italy, there is a perseverance of art perhaps unique, and which belongs to this country alone. CHAPTER XXVI. Sette Comuni.-Of their Cimbrian origin.-Aelago. mixture of different German hordes wi at various epochs fled to these rocks f refuge. From Vicenza to Marostica, the ro is a continual ascent through fiel of flints. Marostica has produced so learned men, and of them, the celebrat Prospero Alpino, a physician, travell and great botanist, was the person w introduced coffee into Europe, which, spite of Madame de Sévigné, was no m destined to be forgotten than Racine. From Marostica to Asiago, the ch place of the Sette Comuni, the jour is a true mountain excursion and no of the smoothest, which can only be complished afoot or on mules. But views in these mountains are beautif the Brenta becomes visible there, and the traveller climbs the steep, his commands a greater portion of its cour Below the Sette Comuni are the B gonze hills, very interesting in a geo attentively by a learned Vicentian of first rank, Count Marzani, who died 1836, aged fifty-six; he ascertain that the strata of tertiary calx, grav stone, and basalt alternated as many twenty-two and even twenty-five tim Before reaching Asiago the road pas through a forest of pines intersected w rocks, and the savage aspect of the to gives it a pomp well suited to such capital. On the road, and not far tant, are the ruins of the old governm house of the Sette Comuni, which overthrown by an avalanche, the sole c spirator against this state, the only e my, the only barbarian which ever tured to assault and destroy suc palace. I spent four days in going over the ce-gical point of view, which were stud lebrated Sette Comuni, tribes of real mountaineers but little known, species of Alpine Batuecas, that some learned men and travellers have been inclined to imagine of Cimbrian and Teutonic descent. This genealogy seems to have somewhat annoyed the inhabitants of the Sette Comuni, for about the middle of last century they charged one of their compatriots to procure them information respecting it, and his work was executed at their expense. The historiographer of these villages has written an excellent book, but unfortunately the first volume only has appeared; he neither admits the fabulous antiquity, nor the etymological romance on which it is founded, and he regards the whole population as a 2 'Marzagaglia, a learned Veronese of the fifteenth century, and master of Antonio Scaliger, was the first partisan of the Cimbrian origin, so perseveringly defended by Maffei and supported by Marco Pezzo of Verona, author of the book de' Cimbri Veronesie Vicentini. In 1708 Frederick IV., king of Denmark, pretended to recognise some words of their language. Betlinelli consented to the belief that these villagers were only the remains of a German colony brought thither by the Othos, In our days M. Bonstetten alone has readopted the Cimbrian origin. Malte-Brun, in an article on the Tyrol and Voralberg (Annales des Voyages, t. viii), pretends, following the opinion of Baron Hormayr, the latest historian of the Tyrol, that these mountaineers were probably only carpenters and others artificers in wood proceeding from the Tyrol, and that the word zemberleut, which in Tyrolian signifies workmen in wood, may have given birth to the tradition re ceived among these supposed Cimbrians. A lea philologer whom I consulted at Milan, Count tiglioni, a great authority in the northern tong who has conversed with several of these m taineers, thinks that their dialect is only the rupted German of Suabia. I regret not baving! able to procure Count Giovaunelli's work on Suabian origin of the Veronese and Vicentian lages, which was printed at Trent in 1826, and been vehemently combatted by Professor Stoff of Roveredo, although, in these questions, it is ways requisite to keep on one's guard against national prepossessions and patriotic feelings of writer. Memorie istoriche de' Sette Comune Vicenti opera postuma dell' ab. Agostino dal Pozzo, Vicen 1820, in-8vu, published by the representatives Rotzo, one of the seven Vicentian villages, the bir place of dal Pozzo, who died at Padua in 1798. Asiago is not without a sort of rustic dignity; its streets are well laid out, and Is has several fountains with wooden taps. The church is solidly built; it contains the tombs of some old families of the country, covered with large slabs of marble, and the steeple, with its clock by the great Ferracino, rises proudly on the flattened top of the mountain, which is clothed with no vegetation but grass. It seems that strangers rarely frequent the Sette Comuni, for my arrival in their capital was quite an event: my chamber at the inn was filled with a curious crowd in the evening, and in accordance with the Italian fashion, they first honoured me with a visit, as at Rome and Florence. The gendarme, whose zeal was less flattering, also came to ask for the everlasting passaporto; this military personage had not yet either arms or uniform, simply carrying the police staff. | ners have imperceptibly passed away. How singular that the only work printed in this savage tongue is the Doctrine of the Jesuit Bellarmin which was attacked by Bossuet and suppressed by MariaTheresa as contrary to the temporal power! It will perhaps appear strange to engage in bibliographic researches in the bosom of these mountains where stones and grass are far more abundant than books; but it is an old habit not easily laid aside, and I must, therefore, crave the reader's indulgence. On the second day that I passed at Asiago one of the four great annual fairs was held; the merchandise consisted of coarse haberdashery and vast quantities of those frightful round hats common to both sexes; the cattle fair, outside the town, on a grassy eminence surrounded by huge fragments of rock, was more picturesque. Under the Venetian government the inhabitants of the Sette Comuni did not pay tribute; they had the right of electing their magistrates, were governed by their own laws, and enjoyed other privileges besides, of which smuggling was not the least; report says that they can scarcely resign themselves to the loss of the latter, which they exercise to the extent of their power. The society of Asiago is composed of seven or eight officials living at the inn or cossee house: these are the judge, the olice magistrate, their two deputies, and hree lawyers. These last have plenty af occupation, for the natives of the Sette Comuni are very litigious. The cleterest of these lawyers, but recently esable-bed at Asiago, bad found on his Arrival sixty causes on questions of pro- Notwithstanding the universal decline erty, rent-claims for money, wheat, of the picturesque in manners, some Turkey corn, etc., and the population is old usages still subsist in this country; under four thousand. When I visited if, like certain mountaineers of Auvergne, bam I could not suppress my astonish- these people no longer marry exclusively ment at the quantity of papers piled up among themselves; if they no longer main his office. Shepherds and manufac-nufacture their cloth; if the merry musturers, the Sette Comuni are famous for ketry of their wedding-feasts is no more their straw hats, which are even carried heard; in a word, if their joyous cereto Paris; their tobacco is good and their monies are nearly lost, like the ancient umber excellent for building, these men Germans, they still assemble to weep bave neither the innocence of the former, over the tomb of their dead, for whom nor the good faith and integrity that they wear mourning a whole year, conought to characterise the latter. sisting of a heavy frock of black cloth, which they never relinquish however hot the weather may be. At the procession of Rogation week, which they rather pompously call giro del mondo (going round the world), they make a half-way repast; for there is something bacchic and German in the otherwise very fervent devotion of these mountaineers; and on the last day, the young maidens present to their lovers one, two, or three eggs, according to the degree of their attachment. Although the day of my arrival at Asiago was a Sunday, the costume of the female peasants struck me as by no means pleasing; they wear large round hats, fike the men's, and their dark-coloured habits are ugly, differing but little from those worn on the plain. Instead of mountain airs and songs, I was unable, sat Chamouny, to procure any thing at some dull German canticles. The alect of the Sette Comuni is daily growing obsolete, as their primitive man * See post, and in the next chapter. * See Book 1, ch. xii. |