Lecture III: From the first doge in 1339 to Andrea Doria in 1528

Luigi Speranza

With the election of the first Doge of Genoa we are brought into contact with a most striking phase of reaction of the will of the people against the tyranny of the nobles, and it is interesting to note that the popular rising in Rome under Rienzi occurred at nearly the same period, as also in Venice a few years later there took place that attempt to curb the power of the oligarchy which cost the Doge, the unfortunate Marino Faliero, his head. There seems indeed in the middle of the fourteenth century to have been a wave of aspiration for self-government spreading over the Peninsula, but it was only in Genoa that the movement led to any substantial result. Here the government had been for some time completely in the hands of the four great families, Doria, Spinola, Fieschi and Grimaldi, who reserved exclusively to themselves the office of chief magistrates, or as they were called captains of the people, and who with their thousands of armed followers ruled the town with an iron hand. In the year 1339 however, Raffaele Doria and Galeotto Spinola being captains, the murmurs of the citizens became so loud that the captains deemed it prudent to concede some kind of limitation of their absolute power by allowing the people to name their own « abbate », an officer of the nature of a tribune who was supposed to exercise a certain check on the captains. So, on the appointed day, the people assembled before the palace of the captains - the building which now forms an annexe of the ducal palace on the side next the cathedral - and a committee of twenty was formed to decide on the choice of an abbate. But . the twenty, remained deliberating so long, that the crowd grew impatient and at last a voice called out « let us choose for ourselves, let us have Simone Boccanegra ». The name was enthusiastically received, Simone Boccanegra, although of very retiring habits, being a general favourite both on account of his personal qualities and the fact of his being the grandson of the Guglielmo Boccanegra who eighty years before as captain of the people had proved a most popular ruler, and there was an universal shout for Simone to come forward and accept the office. Boccanegra, however, was far too wise to let himself be trapped into accepting what he knew would only be an empty honour, and he told the people that there had never been Abbati in his family and he could not become one now. Thereupon again a voice called out « If he won't be Abbate, let him be Doge » and the same enthusiasm broke out as before, the multitude pressing round Boccanegra with entreaties to accept this supreme honour, and it ended by his being carried off to the church of San Siro where he was at once crowned Doge of Genoa for life. So unanimous was the feeling in his favour that the ruling nobles did not dare

to offer resistance but beat a hasty retreat with. all their followers, so that in one day, after an entirely bloodless revolution, Boccanegra found himself absolute master of the town.

He was fully worthy of the greatness that had been so unexpectedly thrust upon him, and for five years Genoa, under the mild but steady rule of her first Doge, enjoyed a degree of quiet that had been entirely unknown since the beginning of the century. The malcontent nobles, however, were too bitterly opposed to the new order of things to allow Boccanegra any peace. When driven out of town at his election, they had taken refuge in the fortresses of Ventimiglia and Monaco from which the Doge had not been strong enough to dislodge them and where they could plot at their leisure. Dorias, Grimaldis, Spinolas and Fieschis laid aside all mutual rancour in order to combine against their common foe, and in 1344 they were able to muster a large force with which they advanced against the walls of Genoa, anticipating no doubt a formidable resistance. But Boccanegra with true nobleness of character at once decided upon sacrificing himself rather than his countrymen, and having called the people together and announced to them his intention of resigning he quietly left the town and retired into voluntary exile at Pisa.

We shall have occasion to return to this remarkable man when he was reinstated in office twelve years later, meantime I will call your attention to some of the principal events that happened in the interval. First in order of date comes the well-known massacre of Genoese archers at Crecy and it needs a few words of explanation to show how it was that this apparent calamity was, on the contrary, hailed in Genoa as a real piece of good fortune. When, on the fall of Boccanegra, the leading nobles re-entered the town with their followers, the latter made themselves so objectionable that the newly appointed Doge, Giovanni da Morta, had to stipulate for their dismissal, and this retinue amounting to several thousand men went to settle in Monaco. There they gave themselves up to piracy and robbery till the place became a byword in the Mediterranean, indeed Monaco five and a half centuries ago, with its bad reputation and bad company, appears to have been a most worthy prototype of the Monaco, or Monte Carlo, of today. These turbulent spirits after a time annoyed Genoa so seriously that Da Morta determined to make an end of them, and in 1346 he equipped such a formidable fleet against Monaco that the outcasts were afraid to make a stand and sailed away en masse for Marseilles where they enrolled themselves in the service of Philip VI, King of France. They were at once marched up to Crecy and found themselves placed on the field of battle, with the sun in their eyes, as a very convenient buffer between the contending armies, so that, what with being shot down in front by the English in the ordinary course of hostilities while they were slashed from behind by the French for not advancing fast enough, very few escaped. They were about twelve thousand in number, and, as I said before, there was great rejoicing in Genoa at so many bad subjects having been got rid of at once.

Four years after Crecy, Giovanni da Morta, who had shown himself to be a most competent ruler, was carried off by the plague together with some forty thousand inhabitants — it was the same pestilence as ravaged Florence and is connected with Boccaccio's Decameron — and at his death the dogeship fell into weak hands. At the same time the war between Genoa and Venice broke out afresh, and after much undecisive loss of life and property the Genoese sustained a severe defeat off the Island of Sardinia at Alghero. This disaster, combined with the want of a firm hand at the head of affairs, so demoralized the citizens that they actually decided to give up their separate political existence and place themselves in the hands of Giovanni Visconti, one of that great family that for two hundred years — 1250 to 1450 — not only ruled Milan but made their power felt all over Italy, and who had constantly had the conquest of Genoa, as their natural sea-port, in their thoughts.

The cession to Milan took place in 1353, and the fortunes of the Republic were then to all appearance very low, but in the following year the brilliant success of Pagano Doria over the Venetians at the Island of Sapienza off the coast of Greece changed matters. This battle of Sapienza is one of the five great Doria victories chronicled on the facade of San Matteo church. It is the second inscription from the top and runs as follows: « In honour of God and the « blessed Mary. In the fourth day of November « 1354 the noble Lord Pagano Doria with 31 « Genoese galleys at the Island of Sapienza fought «and took thirty six Venetian galleys and four « ships and led to Genoa 1400 live men as cap«tives along with their Captain. » Although this victory as a matter of fact had been won under the flag of the Visconti and not that of S. George it had fully the effect of reviving the lost sense of patriotism, and as the Visconti rule became much more oppressive after the death of Giovanni the Genoese were soon ripe for rebellion. Simone Boccanegra, who as before mentioned had retired to Pisa when he resigned the dogeship, felt that the moment had come for him to regain power, and on returning to Genoa in 1356 he found very little difficulty in collecting a sufficient number of adherents to drive the Milanese garrison out of the town and get himself proclaimed Doge.

This second Dogeship of Boccanegra lasted seven years and was quite as successful as the first, Genoa enjoying an exceptional degree of tranquility under his rule. But the hatred of the nobles against the man who had overthrown their power was not to be quenched, and there were carried on a constant series of attempts against his life which at last proved fatal in 1363, when Boccanegra was poisoned at a banquet given by Pietro Marocello in honour of Peter Lusignan, King of Cyprus, who had come to the continent to try and induce the sovereigns of Europe to undertake another Crusade. The ruins of the Villa Marocello are still to be seen in the grounds of the villa Donghi at Sturla, and are well worth a visit. Independently of history they are a beautiful remnant of early Lombard-Gothic architecture. Up till lately a most interesting record of Boccanegra could also be seen at the University, in the shape of a recumbent statue forming part of a tomb placed in his honour in the church of San Francesco near Castelletto which has been long demolished. The face is distorted, and this gives probability to the report that it is a reproduction of the actual cast of the features taken after death. I am sorry to say that in order to protect the effigy from injury on the part of the students, who for some inexplicable reason were always throwing something at it, the monument has now been hidden away in the cellars ot the University and there is no means of obtaining access to it. A little below Via Nuova or Garibaldi, in the Via Maddalena, you will find a mural tablet recording the spot where Boccanegra's house stood.

I will now call your attention to a most remarkable work of sacred art which was brought to Genoa at this period. I refer to the likeness of our Lord, known as the Santo Sudario, which Leonardo Montaldo carried back with him from Constantinople in 1362, and which he kept for twenty years in his house — the house situated above the Piazza Manin close to the walls — as you may see recorded on a tablet at the foot of the staircase, before bequeathing it at his death to the church of San Bartolomeo degli Armeni where it still remains. Montaldo was sent by Boccanegra in command of a fleet to the Black

Sea to protect the Genoese settlements on the coast of Roumania, and- in the course of the campaign he had occasion to render important service to the Emperor of Constantinople, John Paleologus, a descendant of the Michael Paleologus whom the Genoese had helped to put on the throne a century before. As a reward the Emperor presented Montaldo with the picture, which had the reputation of being the actual impress of the features of our Lord and which had been preserved for centuries in the Greek churches. The legend runs that Agbarus, king of Edessa in Mesopotamia, being grievously ill and hearing of the miracles wrought by the presence of Christ, sent to our Lord an artist of the name of Ananias to take a portrait on which the king might look and be healed. But Ananias utterly failed in securing any likeness, whereupon our Lord took a cloth, pressed it to his face and sent the impress back to Agbarus who was restored forthwith to health and became a convert with all his household. Even putting the legend entirely aside, it may safely be asserted that the Genoa picture shares with the Veronica preserved in St. Peter's at Rome, another reputed impress of our Lord's features, the distinction of being one of the very earliest representations of the Sacred Head and one very probably based upon oral authority, that is upon testimony handed down unbroken from father to son as to the Saviour's actual appearance. The portrait has a rich and highly curious frame of very early Byzantine workmanship, probably some hundred years before Paleologus, containing medallions which represent the various incidents of the legend. The last medallion shows a man possessed of an evil spirit being cured by the sight of the Holy Cloth , and it is probably in consequence of the tradition attached to this special miracle that, up to the beginning of the present century, on the occasion of the annual exhibition of the picture, sufferers from epilepsy and such maniacs as were not in confinement used to be collected in San Bartolomeo Church. An eye witness has described the scene to me, and it must have been appalling, the air being filled with the shrieks and the floor strown with the writhing bodies of the poor wretches whose condition was naturally aggravated instead of alleviated by the excitement of the moment.

This precious possession was very nearly lost to Genoa in 1507, during the French occupation under Louis XII. A French captain who was in command of the Fort of Castelletto and whose cupidity had been excited at the sight of the picture, probably more on account of the richness of the frame than from its sanctity, determined to steal the relic and succeeded in doing so through the connivance of the sacristan in charge. The pair of thieves got off to France, but, as the robbery was at once discovered and made a profound sensation, they were followed by a deputation of influential citizens who repaired to Paris with all possible haste and implored the king for help. Fortunately, Louis XII had not such elastic ideas on the subject of property as Napoleon Buonaparte, and he took such efficient measures for the recovery of the picture that in a very short time it was safely restored. There were great rejoicings in the town when the deputation returned , and crowds flocked to gaze on the recovered treasure at the cathedral where it was temporarily placed on view. The picture continues to be shown every year at Whitsuntide, and by getting admission into the vestry and paying a small fee to the sacristan you will in all probability have the opportunity

'of examining both picture and frame for yourselves.

After the death of Boccanegra and up to the end of the fourteenth century the government of Genoa was in the hands of a new quartett of powerful families, the Adornos, Fregosos, Guarchis and Montaldos, who fought among themselves with varying success for the dogeship until in 1396 Antoniotto Adorno, finding that his rivals were getting too strong for him , made over the State to Charles VI King of France, so that, as Lieutenant of the king, he should retain some kind of power rather than lose it altogether. These new families, although lacking the blue blood and the lofty record of the Dorias, Spinolas, Fieschis and Grimaldis, proved themselves fully equal to their great predecessors in the intensity of their hatred and their capacity for tyranny. At this period of the affairs of Genoa one cannot help being reminded of the story of the poor Egyptian who lay sick and helpless in the desert with his face covered with flies, and who was approached by a benevolent wayfarer with the intention of brushing the insects off. cr Please leave them alone » said the sufferer « these flies are almost sated, and if you drive them away you will only make room for a fresh and hungry swarm ». If the Republic could have foreseen the future she also would probably have petitioned that her old tormentors should be let alone sooner than make way for the new dynasty. Of these four later families two, the Guarchis and Montaldos, soon disappear from history, while the Adornos and Fregosos continue in only too great prominence until the time of Andrea Doria.

In spite of these internecine feuds the State of Genoa still retained a remarkable amount of vigour, and it is refreshing to pass from all the street fights and intrigues at home to some of the main episodes abroad. We have first, in 1373, the expedition to Cyprus which resulted in the conquest by the Genoese of the principal port of the island, Famagosta, where they maintained a footing until the island was given over to Venice in 1489 by Catherine Cornaro, the widow of the last king of the Lusignan line. This expedition of 1373 took its origin in a quarrel on a question of precedence between Genoese and Venetian merchants, and as the king, Peter Lusignan, took the part of the Venetians the affair ended in a massacre of their rivals. Pietro Fregoso, brother of Domenico Fregoso who was Doge at the time, at once set sail for Cyprus with a fleet of 36 galleys carrying 14,000 men, reduced the island to submission and brought back to Genoa as hostages Jacob Lusignan, uncle to the King and next heir to the throne, and his wife. The royal pair were lodged in the old lighthouse, which was far less roomy than the present building, and were kept there ten years till the death in 1383 of King Peter of Cyprus, when Doge Montaldo, the same who gave the picture, set the new King at liberty along with his Queen and a little son born in captivity, whom the parents in honour of Genoa had called Janus. It is a pity that there is no monument now existing in the town to record the Genoese dominion in Cyprus. The bare name of Famagosta is preserved in the Via Famagosta, near the Principe Railway Station, but it is a street so little known that probably the great majority of residents in Genoa are not even aware of its existence.

Closely following the expedition against Cyprus we have that against Venice, which was much more important but which unfortunately ended in complete disaster instead of a triumph. In undertaking in 1377 the war which is known in history as the war of Chioggia the Genoese evidently had the intention of doing for Venice what they had done for Pisa a century before, namely crushing their rival by one concentrated effort, but,, whereas the victory of Meloria over Pisa had indeed effected their object, the disaster of Chioggia on the contrary permanently weakened Genoa and left Venice undisturbed mistress of the Mediterranean. The first years of the campaign were, however, favourable to the Genoese who in 1379, under Luciano Doria, won such a signal victory over the Venetians at Pola that the Venetian senate sent their Admiral Vettor Pisani to prison in disgrace. You will find a record of the battle on the facade of San Matteo Church, in the third inscription from the top, worded as follows: - « To the glory of God and the blessed Mary. «In the year 1379 on the fifth day of May in the « Gulf of the Venetians near Pola there was a « battle of 22 Genoese galleys with 22 galleys of «theVenetians in which were 4075 men at arms « and many other men from Pola, of which galleys « 16 were taken with all that was in them by the « noble Lord Luciano Doria, Captain General of «the Commune of Genoa, who in the said battle « while valiantly fighting met his death; which 16 « galleys of the Venetians were conducted into Ge« noa with 2407 captive men. » Pietro Doria, who succeeded Luciano in command, followed up the victory of Pola by the capture of Chioggia, and at one moment he appeared to hold Venice itself at his mercy, so that the Senate sent to him to sue in the most abject terms for peace. But Doria with mistaken arrogance refused to treat, telling the messenger that he would come and bridle the horses of S. Mark before he spoke of peace, aud this answer, by stinging the Venetians to the quick and goading them on to further resistance, turned the fortunes of the war. Vettor Pisani was at once taken out of prison and reinstated in command with such effect that the Genoese force was blockaded in Chioggia and ultimately compelled to surrender at discretion. As already mentioned this disaster of Chioggia decided the supremacy of Venice over Genoa and practically terminated the war, but some small amount

of desultory fighting against Venetian possessions outside the Lagunes was carried on for some time by a fleet which had been despatched from Genoa, under the command of Gaspare Spinola, in the hopes of saving the force at Chioggia. You will see in the town two memorials of Spinola's expedition in the shape of reliefs representing the Lion of S. Mark, one of which is in the Piazza Giustiniani, placed at the height of the second story on the wall of one of the houses in the square, while the other is let into the facade of the Church of San Marco near the old mole and is much better situated for observation. The Giustiniani Lion was taken at Trieste and the S. Marco Lion at Pola. Hostilities between the rival Republics at last definitely ceased through the combined good offices of Pope Urban VI and Count Amedeus VI of Savoy, better known as the green Count from the colour of the armour worn by him on making his first appearance in the lists at Chambery, and peace was signed in 1381 at Turin. You will remember that in the Carnival of 1887 the peace of Turin was made the subject of a very effective historical display.

A few years before Chioggia, in 1376, Genoa had a most interesting visitor in the person of that most accomplished of holy women, Catherine of Siena, who was as clever as she was good, and who rendered the most important service to Italy of inducing Pope Gregory XI to terminate the so-called captivity of the Church by bringing back the seat of the Papacy to Rome from Avignon, where the Popes had lived for seventy years. Catherine came to Genoa on her way back from Avignon and remained here some little time, probably that she might see the Pope actually started. An inscription lately put up over the door of a house between the Via Carlo Alberto and the Piazza San Giorgio records the spot where the Saint took up her residence. It makes us realise what the difficulty of communication was in those days when we read that Pope Gregory XI was four whole months getting from Avignon to Rome. The journey was necessarily made by sea owing to the want of roads along the coast, and all the winds of heaven seem to have combined to keep the Pontiff back from his destination, to say nothing of the frequent halts which exhaustion from sea sickness made necessary.

Gregory XI died early in 1378, and shortly after the nomination of his successor, Urban VI, there broke out the great schism of the West, the struggle between Pope and Antipope which lasted until the Council of Constance in 1415. This schism was caused partly by the overbearing and cruel disposition of Urban VI who represented exclusively the Italian element in the Church, partly by the intense longing of the French Cardinals to get back to Avignon through the election of a Pope who would again leave Rome, and they chose with this object Cardinal Robert of Geneva who took the name of Clement VI. Genoa remained faithful to Urban, and in 1385, when the Italian Pope found himself hard pressed at Nocera by Charles Durazzo, King of Naples, Antoniotto Adorno, who had become Doge at the death of Montaldo, determined to take an active part in the contest. Adorno was clever and ambitious, and he felt that if he could get Urban to Genoa and take up the position of chief champion of the national Church it would greatly add to the lustre of his rule. So a fleet of ten galleys was sent to Nocera and succeeded in bringing back to Genoa Urban VI who was received with the utmost cordiality and respect by Adorno, but the good feeling between the two lasted but a very short time, and indeed the Pope appears to have been quite impossible to deal with. The immediate cause of quarrel was his refusal to release six Cardinals whom he suspected of intriguing with the Antipope, and whom he had brought with him as prisoners in such a wretched state of neglect and ill-treatment that Adorno, although as we can well believe not over tender, was moved to compassion. One of the Cardinals happened to be a Genoese by birth, which was an additional reason for intercession, but Urban was obdurate, and after undergoing horrible tortures the unfortunate captives were sewn up in sacks and drowned in the port. One, however, an Englishman, Adam Hertford, Bishop of London, was saved, our King Richard having interfered on his behalf, and he was allowed to return to Rome where you can see his tomb at this day in the Church of Santa Cecilia. As a practical form of showing their disgust for the Pope's brutality the Genoese sent him in their bill, amounting to 60,000 florins, for the expedition that had freed him from Nocera, and this the Pope at first indignantly refused to pay, alleging, not without reason, that they had sent their ships as defenders of the Head of the Church and not as mercenaries. The Genoese, however, more than hinted that if the debt was not settled Urban would be detained in the town even longer than Lusignan of Cyprus, and so it ended, as the Pope had no ready money, by his compounding for payment through the assignment of the revenues of certain Church lands along the Riviera, an arrangement which, owing to the well-known skill of the Genoese in accounts, resulted in their ultimately obtaining even a larger sum than they had at first demanded.

Urban during his stay in Genoa was lodged in the Commandery adjoining the Church of San Giovanni di Pre, below the Principe Railway Station, and although both buildings are sadly changed for the worse through neglect and modernization they are still very interesting. The Church was originally that of the Holy Sepulchre, and it was there that nearly eight centuries ago the ashes of S. John the Baptist were brought from Syria and kept until the Cathedral of San Lorenzo was ready for their reception. The present name was given to the Church in 1187, when the capture

of Jerusalem by Saladin dispersed the Knights Hospitallers and caused some of them to come over from the Holy Land in Genoese galleys and take up their abode in this town. The work of the knights in tending the sick appears to have been fully appreciated here, as we read of numerous bequests to the Order, and the style in which they exercised hospitality shows that they must have had ample means. One of their earliest and most distinguished guests was our Richard Coeur de Lion who in 1190, on his way to the third Crusade, spent a day or two in Genoa. In the middle of the fifteenth century one of the Knights Commanders, Hugo, obtained such a reputation for devotion to the sick that he was canonized, and his name is preserved in the valley and street of Sant Ugo, both well known localities in the neighbourhood. The Knights Hospitallers, as Knights of Malta, continued to own the Church and Commandery until the end of last century when Napoleon took the island and put an end to the political existence of the Order. If you visit the Commandery you will see a door to your right at the foot of the staircase which is said to open into the vaults where the five Cardinals of Pope Urban were tortured, previous to being drowned in the Port.

In 1396, ten years after the visit of Urban to Genoa, Antoniotto Adorno, finding that the combined opposition of the rival families of Fregoso, Montaldo and Guarchi was getting too strong for him, made over the State, as already mentioned, to Charles VI of France. The first few years of French dominion were not particularly burdensome, but wThen in 1401 the people gave some signs of wishing to throw off the yoke a new Viceroy, Marshal Boucicault, was sent, and he ruled the town with a rod of iron, effectually stamping out by death and torture any further attempt at disturbance. Boucicault left a visible sign of his manner of governing in the famous Castelletto Fort which he constructed for the express purpose of overawing the town. Some of us here may still remember this Fort as it looked before it was finally demolished forty years ago, and any one who thinks of its former self as compared with the hideous modern houses that now occupy its site will hardly be able to restrain the wish that Genoa still lay under the stern but grand shadow of the Fortress, rather than under the nightmare of domestic nineteenth century architecture. In the course of the fifteenth century the Castelletto was several times dismantled and as often rebuilt, each successive King of France or Duke of Milan who ruled over Genoa following the example set by Boucicault of making the place their stronghold , while the townspeople used to hasten to pull down the hated walls each time they regained their liberty. In 1528, when Andrea Doria went over to the Emperor of Germany and thereby secured his country from further invasions on the part of France - much the same line of policy, by the way, as is adopted now-a-days he razed the Fort to the ground, and it remained for a considerable time untouched. In the later days of the Doges, when the power had again fallen exclusively into the hands of the nobles, the Fort was rebuilt to protect them from the people, and after the the cession of Genoa to Sardinia by the Treaty of Vienna in 1815 the new government found it advisable to make the Castelletto quite as strong'as in Boucicault's time, so that, up to within our own days, the Fort and the Piedmontese were equally an object of dislike.

To return to Boucicault, the Genoese had the good fortune to get rid of him in 1409, when personal ambition induced him to collect a force and march against Milan, where the death of Gian Galeazzo Visconti had placed the government in weak hands and where Boucicault hoped to establish himself as Duke. But the expedition proved a failure, and meantime the Genoese, encouraged both by the absence of their tyrant and his reverses , succeeded in driving out the French garrison and proclaiming their liberty. With the exception of a brief interval of vassalage to the Marquis of Monferrato the town now remained free for twelve years, or rather the Adorni, Fregosi and Montaldi fought among themselves for the Dogeship until, in 1421, Tommaso Fregoso gave over the Republic to Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan for much the same reason as Antoniotto Adorno had given it to Charles twenty five years before, namely that he found his rivals were too strong for him.

The rule ot Visconti lasted from 1421 to 1436, and the end of this period is made noteworthy by the success of the Genoese arms over Alfonso, King of Aragon, who was contending for the throne of Naples with Rene of Anjou, the adopted heir of the late Queen Joan. Visconti having taken the side of the Duke of Anjou the Genoese forces were sent against King Alfonso, and two Genoese leaders made themselves celebrated in the campaign, one, Francesco Spinola, by his most courageous defence in 1435 of Gaeta, and the other, Biagio Assereto, by his still more brilliant feat of arms in the same year at the Island of Ponza, where the Genoese fleet completely routed the Spanish and where two Kings, Alfonso himself and John, King of Navarre, were taken prisoners. Assereto met on his return with a most enthusiastic reception from his countrymen to whom the victory of Ponza brought back the glorious days of Meloria and Curzola a century and a half before, but they were soon reminded of their altered position by a peremptory message from Visconti ordering the royal captives to be. sent at once to Milan. The command had of course to be obeyed, but the irritation caused by the slighting way in which the Duke treated their services was so profound that it made the

Genoese kick, and in the following year 1436 they rose at the call of Francesco Spinola, massacred the Milanese Governor, Opizino D' Alzate, and declared the Visconti rule to be at an end. You will see opposite the Church of San Siro, at the corner of the lane leading down to Fossatello, a memorial tablet commemorating the spot where Opizino was killed and liberty declared. There are also to be seen in the town the remains of an interesting monument raised to Francesco Spinola in honour of the services rendered by him, both as defender of Gaeta and liberator of Genoa. The monument was originally placed in the now demolished church of San Domenico, and either from neglect or from the contending claims of the different branches of the family its component parts got scattered, so that the upper half which was executed in Genoa is now in the court of the Spinola Palace in Piazza Pellicceria, while the lower slab which w7as contributed by the inhabitants of Gaeta is preserved at the Municipio, in the main corridor on the first floor. The Genoese half, which is by some contemporary sculptor and very poor, represents the hero on horseback, while the Gaetan portion is an ancient bas relief with the Triumph of Bacchus and is much better art, but has necessarily no connection with the subject, so that altogether, in spite of the double source of gratitude that produced the monument, it can hardly be said to be an adequate commemoration of Spinola's work. He was more fortunate at any rate than Assereto, the victor of Ponza, of whom the sole existing record is a mere frescoed effigy, in company with other Genoese celebrities, on the walls of the portico of the Durazzo Palace at the Quattro Canti di San Francesco.

After the termination of the Visconti rule in 1436 came another period of intestine feuds between Fregosi and Adorni which resulted as on former occasions in the cession of the State to a foreigner, Pietro Fregoso in 1458 making over Genoa to Charles VII of France. There was perhaps on this occasion some justification of Fregoso's action in the circumstance that the Republic was at that time very hard pressed by King Alfonso of Aragon who could not forgive the sting of his capture at Ponza, so it was merely a choice of masters between France and Spain. This twenty two years' period of nominal independence stands out in specially black colours in the history of Genoa from the loss that was incurred of the famous colony of Galata, owing to the taking of Constantinople in 1453 by Mahomet II from the Emperor Constantine Paleologus. In spite of the power of Mahomet and the large forces which he was able to collect for the expedition he would no doubt have been driven back, if the Greeks, with the exception of the small assistance that Genoa in her exhausted condition was able to afford, had not been left entirely to themselves. Most of the European powers took up an attitude of short-sighted indifference as' to the fate of the Greek Capital, the Pope, Nicholas V, was so irritated with the Church of the East for its heterodoxy that his appeal to Christendom to save the Greeks from the Turks was most lukewarm, while the two states, Venice and Aragon, that could have rendered the promptest and most efficient help were positively glad to stand by and see the Genoese get a vital blow in the loss of Galata and the monopoly of the Black Sea. We may easily believe that adequate assistance from even a few of the Christian powers would have changed the course of history, when we read of the splendid success obtained by a small squadron of four Genoese and one Greek galley over the whole Turkish fleet, consisting of two hundred vessels, drawn up at the entrance of the Bosphorus. The Genoese, who had been accustomed for centuries to see the Turks fly before them, took no account of the disparity of numbers and actually cut their way through the enemies' lines with such destruction of men and ships that Mahomet was for the moment daunted, but help came to him from a most unexpected quarter. Incredible as it may seem, the direct cause of the fall of Constantinople was the action of the Genoese themselves. The merchants of Galata, seeing that the Greek cause was hopeless supplied Mahomet with the means of capturing the neighbouring city on condition of their own being respected. The plan was that Mahomet should land a certain number of his lighter galleys, drag them on wheels round the walls of Galata, and replace them in the water in the inner harbour of Constantinople where the draught was insufficient for the larger Greek ships. This manoeuvre was carried out most successfully and put Mahomet in possession of Constantinople, but one learns with a certain amount of satisfaction that he by no means kept faith with the inhabitants of Galata, as he almost immediately turned them out of their city. The loss of Galata, by closing the Black Sea to the Genoese, necessarily implied the ruin of Caffa, and thus Genoa, by the victory of the Turks, lost in commercial and colonial importance as heavily as she had suffered politically by the victory of the Venetians seventy years before.

The rule of Charles VII over Genoa only lasted three years, as the French were driven out of the town in 1461 with the help of Francesco Sforza, who had succeeded to the throne of Milan on the death, without male heirs, of Filippo Maria Visconti in 1450. In return for the service rendered to Genoa Sforza took the town for himself a short time afterwards, but not only was foreign rule an almost welcome change from the fighting between Adorni and Fregosi which had broken out as usual as soon as the French were gone, but also Sforza proved in himself such a wise as well as strong governor that hearty regret was

felt when his dominion ceased at his death in 1466. Galeazzo Sforza succeeded to his father and held Genoa for ten years, until his assassination at Milan in 1476, but his yoke was far heavier than that of Francesco, and the Genoese had almost as bad a time of it under him as when left to themselves. A curious example of the value placed upon the Castelletto as a bridle on the town occurred under Galeazzo in 1475, when he set to work to connect the fort with the sea by a strong covered way which would also serve the purpose of completely separating one half of the town from the other, just like a watertight compartment divides the hold of a ship. This rampart was begun in what is now the Salita San Francesco at the end of the Via Garibaldi, but the sight of the indignity that was being prepared for them proved too much for the people, and one of the spectators, Lazzaro Doria, showed the spirit of his ancestors by cutting with his sword the rope that had been stretched to mark the line, and this commenced a revolt sufficiently formidable to induce Galeazzo to give up the work. After the death of Galeazzo Sforza Genoa had a ten or twelve years' interval of liberty, or rather of civil war, between the Fregosi, backed by the Fieschi, and the Adorni. It will give an idea of the position of home affairs at this period to say that in 1488, by way of a solution of the perpetual question of factions, it was actually suggested that the Fregosi and the Adorni should divide the state between them, one family taking Savona and the Riviera di Ponente, the other Genoa and the Riviera di Levant e, with the Duke of Milan as arbiter and supreme ruler of the whole. The Genoese however preferred the rule of Milan without the partition, and Ludovico Sforza, called II Moro on account of his dark complexion, held dominion over them until 1498, when he was defeated by Louis XII of France to whom Genoa was then made over, and thus ended this miserable fifteenth century.

It was certainly most unfortunate for the Genoese, but at the same time scarcely to be wondered at, that they should at this period of their history refuse the proposals of Columbus for an expedition in search of a new world. It is true that two hundred years before - when ships were less well built, when Flavio Gioja had not yet improved the compass, and when money was more scarce - their ancestors had made a gallant attempt, as mentioned in my last lecture, at discovery in the Far West: but that was the age of Meloria and Curzola, before foreign dominion had deadened the energies and spoilt the character of the people. Now, on the contrary, the Genoese spirit had so deteriorated through centuries ot French and Milanese rule that, although navigation had made great strides and private fortunes in spite of all political troubles had largely increased, not the slightest readiness was shown to repeat the Vivaldi expedition of 1291 . Indeed Guarchi and Adorni, Fregosi and Fieschi, and the Duke of Milan himself on this one occasion acted in concert and unanimously agreed to howl down the overtures made by the grand Ligurian in 1485 , thus showing that, even more than indifference or incredulity, the main motive for opposition was envy, sheer dislike of the possibility of this discovery making Columbus a greater man than any of them. He had also to contend against the short-sighted jealousy felt by the trading classes of any attempt to further Atlantic exploration, as they were sore at the Portuguese who, although it was before the time of Diaz and Vasco di Gama, were already bringing African produce direct by sea from the West Coast in competition with the Genoese commerce on the Mediterranean shore, and thus did the Genoese, as if blinded by fate, deliberately drive away the good fortune at their door and prevent their country from winning a colonial position which would have made up many times over for the loss of Galata and Caffa.

The conduct of Columbus himself towards his unappreciative and prejudiced countrymen stands out in the most marked and refreshing contrast. « Better is he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city » has said the wise King of old, and one scarcely knows whether to admire Columbus more for the discovery of America or for his love of ungrateful Genoa. I commend to your notice the beautiful letter written by him to the Bank of St. George in 1489 from Seville when setting sail on his last voyage. It is to be seen at the Municipio. Here is a translation « Although my « body is here my heart is always with you. God « has been more bountiful to me than to any one « since David's time. The success of my enterprise «is already clear and would be still more clear if «the Government did not cover it with a veil. I « sail again for the Indies in the name of the most « Holy Trinity, and I return at once, but as I know « I am but mortal I charge my son Don Diego to « pay you yearly and for ever the tenth part of all « my revenue in order to lighten the toll on wine « and com. If this tenth part is large you are wel« come to it, if small believe in my good will. May «the most Holy Trinity guard your noble persons « and increase the lustre of your distinguished office ». Now indeed Columbus is no longer forgotten or despised here, and most of us have probably heard even too much of the vexed question as to which particular locality had the honour of giving him birth. It seems clear that the out-of-the-way village of Cogoleto, to which so many enthusiastic visitors have put themselves to the trouble of repairing, is Not the place. Cogoleto was only heard of late in the sixteenth century, when the direct male issue of the great navigator became extinct and the Cogoleto branch put forward false claims both as to descent and habitation. In all probability Columbus was born in a much more convenient

place for inspection, namely the house to your left as you go down the Borgo Lanajoli from the Porta S. Andrea which you will recognise by the mural tablet lately affixed, bearing the following inscription:

« Nulla domus titulo dignior ».

No house more worthy of a record, a Heic paternis in cedibus ». In these paternal walls. « Cristoforus Columbus pueritiam primamque juventutem transegit ».

Did C. C. pass his boyhood and early youth.

If not actually born in that house Columbus was born in the neighbourhood of Genoa at Quinto, where his father lived until he took up his residence in town.

To complete this lecture I will sum up very rapidly the principal incidents of the quarter of a century of foreign rule and bloodshed which the Genoese had still to endure, before the intervention of Andrea Doria secured to them peace and comparative prosperity. As I mentioned just now Louis XII of France got possession of the State in 1498 and held it quietly enough- until 1507, when the insolence of the nobles became altogether unbearable, and the people rose up and in the first moment of success drove both nobles and the French garrison out of the town. The people chose as their leader Paolo da Novi, a silk dyer who appears to have possessed in a high degree the combined qualities of firmness, moderation and skill which were so conspicuous in the first popular Doge, Simone Boccanegra. But French and nobles together were far too powerful to be resisted, and after a very few months of power the popular party were entirely broken up and Louis retook Genoa. Paolo da Novi escaped to Pisa and had arranged to set sail from thence for Rome in a galley commanded by a seeming friend, but the nobles bribed the captain who was a Corsican (the Genoese have always been unlucky with that island and its inhabitants) to give his passenger up, and the unfortunate Doge was taken back to Genoa and at once executed. The name of Paolo da Novi is preserved in the large but untidy Piazza at the side of Via Minerva, half way between Porta Pila and Piazza Tommaseo.

In order to punish the Genoese for their revolt and at the same time to tighten his hold on the town, Louis decided to build a second fort of the nature of the Castelletto, and he accordingly raised on the rock where the lighthouse now stands a most formidable bulwark, to which the appropriate name of Briglia, the Bridle of the Town, was given. This fort was even more hateful to the Genoese than Castelletto, and when, a few years later, they again succeeded — this time by the help of the warlike Pope Julius II — in driving out the French, their first act was to raze the Briglia to the ground, and, unlike Castelletto, it was never rebuilt. The place was so strong that the garrison held out in it for more than a year, and it was ultimately famine and not actual capture that made the Genoese masters of the fort. In the course of the long siege of the Briglia a young Genoese sailor, Emanuel Cavallo, won great honour by attacking and capturing a large French ship that had been sent to revictual the garrison, and you will find his name preserved in the long and steep hill leading from the Piazza del Castelletto to the walls. This hill used to bear the ominous title of Ascent of Agony from the fact of condemned prisoners being led up to it to be hanged on the Castellaccio, that low round massive tower from which they now fire the midday gun. The gallows formerly stood on the lighthouse rock, but Louis XII moved them up to the Castellaccio when he constructed the Briglia Fort. The honour of destroying it belongs to Ottaviano Fregoso, and you can see in the Palazzo Durazzo at the Quattro Canti di S. Francesco — the place I have already mentioned in connection with Biagio Assereto — a well executed modern fresco representing Fregoso standing on the ruins of the fort and trampling the French fleurs de lis under foot. It unfortunately rather mars the patriotic effect of the painting to know that, only a year after this bold blow struck for the liberties of his country, in 1515, when Louis died and Francis succeeded him, Fregoso came to terms with the new King and handed Genoa back to the French, the reason of course being that the Adorni were too much for him. One really gets quite confused, in this century and a half of struggle between Fregosi and Adorni, as to which of the two families oftenest in their own interest sold Genoa to foreigners, but the palm in the way of mischief is certainly borne away by the Adorni in the memorable sack of Genoa in 1521 when, as a piece of pure spite against Ottaviano Fregoso who since the accession of Francis I to the throne had held an honourable and lucrative post as his governor in Genoa, the Adorni made overtures to the Emperor Charles V to send his General Pescara to take the city from the French. Charles accepted readily the proposed plan for injuring his rival, and Pescara marched on the town with twenty thousand men. The Genoese at once saw that resistance was hopeless and had actually come to terms with Colonna, who shared the command with Pescara, but the brutal Spaniard, who had the rich booty of the town uppermost in his thoughts, refused to hear of peaceful submission and ordered his troops on to the assault. The consequence was a sack of the town infinitely more bloody and destructive than had been inflicted in the early days of the Republic either by Saracens, Goths or Carthagenians. Pescara's soldiers robbed and murdered for two whole days to the cry of « Spain and Adorni », and the rivals of the Fregosi, like the Barberini of Rome, fully earned for themselves the reputation of having done worse for their country than the Barbarians ever did. As a reward of their treachery, one of the Adorni, Antoniotto, was made Doge under the control of

the Spaniards, and he held office for five years, although constantly exposed to . attacks from the French. One of the most dreaded assailants was Andrea Doria himself, who had taken service under the French King and who — however fully he may have merited in later life the title of Saviour of his Country — was undoubtedly at this period just as ready as any other Genoese to sell himself to the oppressors of the State and fire on his own countrymen when there was anything to be made by it. Francis regained possession of Genoa in 1527 and it really seemed as if there would be no end to this dreary succession of foreign occupations, when a fortunate quarrel between the King and Andrea Doria turned the course of events. The cause of the rupture was the behaviour of Francis on the occasion of a brilliant victory won by Doria's nephew, Filippino, in the Gulf of Salerno over the Spanish fleet, and which forms the subject of the latest of the inscriptions recording Doria feats of arms on the facade of San Matteo Church. You will easily pick out the inscription from its being written in Latin and not in Gothic characters. The King not only wounded Andrea Doria's pride by ignoring the service rendered but he caused still greater irritation by attacking his pocket, that is by ordering him to hand over the prisoners and thus lose the ransom. Under the circumstances Doria decided to have nothing to do with the French and to put himself definitely on the side of the Emperor Charles, the result of this change of policy being a speedy expulsion from the walls of the town of the French garrison, and this time for ever.