its being to the westward of their country. The Germans called it Waelshland, because the parts nearest to them were inhabited by the Galles or Walles; and in their present language the name of Waelshland is still retained by the common people.

The loftiest range of mountains in Europe on the N.E., N., and N.W., and the sea on every other side, form the natural boundaries of Italy. The alpine chain, extending in a semicircular form from the Julian Alps at the head of the Adriatic to the Maritime Alps on the Gulf of Genoa, divides it on the N.E. from Illyria and the Tyrol, on the N. and N.W. from Switzerland, and on the W. from France, where the River Var (Varus) forms its boundary. From this alpine range, which may be called its basis, Italy projects S.E. in a peninsular form, and nearly in the shape of a boot, far into the Mediterranean Sea, which takes the different names of—Adriatic, Mare Superum, on the E. coast—Ionian, Mare Ionium, on the S.E. coast, from the Cape of Sta. Maria di Leuca to the Straits of Messina—and of Tyrrhenian, Mare Infernum vel Tyrrhenum, on the W. coast. According to these physical barriers, Trieste and the province of Istria on the E., and Nice on the W., would be excluded from Italy; but ever since Augustus extended its limits to the Var on the W., and the Gulf of Quarnero (Sinus Flanaticus) on the E., they have been reckoned as part of Italy. In the present political division of the Austrian empire, however, neither Istria nor Trieste are included in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, the limits of which are at the Isonzo, N.E. of Aquileia. Along the N. and N.W. frontier the limits of Italy have at different times undergone various, though insignificant changes; for the Alps, though presenting an unbroken line on a distant view, are so deeply indented with valleys as to make a natural boundary possible only by following the watershed, a course never or seldom adopted in political arrangements. But even the watershed would not mark the limits of different nationalities, as valleys which, by this criterion, should not belong to Italy, are inhabited by an Italian race; and German or French is spoken in districts which should be included in Italy.

The Italian peninsula is situated between the parallels of N. Lat. 46° 30', and 37° 54', and E. Long. 6° 38' and 18° 32'; if the islands are included, the southernmost parallel of Lat. is 35° 40'. Its length in a direct line from the foot of the Alps near Aosta to the Capo di Sta. Maria di Leuca (Iappigium Promontorium) is about 600 miles, and to the Capo dell' Armi (Lecopetra) a little more than 660. Its breadth varies greatly. From the mouth of the Var to the head of the Adriatic, near the Isonzo, it is 300 miles; and if the line be carried to the head of the Gulf of Quarnero, near Fiume, it is more than 350. It narrows rapidly as it descends S.; and from Viareggio to Cervia is only 95 miles. Further S. it expands a little; and from Piombino to Ancona the breadth is 138 miles, and 150 from Capo di Licosa to Brindisi. From Diamante to the mouth of the Crati, in Calabria, it is 29 miles, and only 18 between the Gulfs of Sta. Eufemia and Squillace. It is surrounded by many islands, the principal of which are—on the E. coast the group of the Tremiti, N. of Monte Gargano, and S. Pietro and S. Paolo in the Gulf of Taranto; on the S., Sicily, the largest of all, the Lipari group, Pantelleria, Malta, and Gozo, 58 miles from Sicily; on the W., Capri, Procida, and Ischia, at the two extremities of the Gulf of Naples; the Ponza group opposite Gaeta, Giglio near Monte Argentario, the two large islands of Sardinia and Corsica; and between the latter one and the coast of Tuscany are Pianosa, Elba, and Capraria. The most important of these are noticed under their respective heads in this work.

The sea coasts of the peninsula, on the Tyrrhenian side, are, for the most part, protected by lofty acclivities, but on the Adriatic and the Ionian they are generally flat. The most remarkable capes or promontories of the peninsula are:—Delle Melic, Manara, Piombino, Argentaro, Circeo, Miseno, Campanella, Licosa, Vaticano, Delle Armi, on the W. shore; Spartivento, Rizzuto, Nau or Colonne, Alice, Leuca, Gargano, on the S.E. and E. shore.

The extent and population of Italy, including its islands, are shown by the following Table, which is to be considered as merely approximative. In some of the states, the returns of population are not much attended to; and, with regard to their area, there is great discrepancy between the various authorities:

| Name of the States | Episcopal seats | Extent in square miles | Jews | Population | Capital Cities | |--------------------|-----------------|------------------------|------|------------|---------------| | Kingdom of the Two Sicilies—Naples | 83 | 24,962 | 2,500 | 6,845,355 | Naples | | Sicily | 14 | 9,556 | ... | 2,225,580 | Palermo | | Kingdom of Sardinia—Piedmont and Riviera | 26 | 15,397 | 4,250 | 3,946,450 | Turin | | Island of Sardinia | 11 | 8,228 | ... | 552,665 | Cagliari | | Lombardo-Venetian kingdom | 20 | 13,208 | 7,000 | 5,503,473 | Milan | | Papal States | 68 | 12,120 | 12,800 | 3,065,000 | Rome | | Grand Duchy of Tuscany (including Lucca) | 21 | 6,784 | 7,180 | 1,817,500 | Florence | | Duchy of Modena | 4 | 1,629 | 2,690 | 606,300 | Modena | | Duchy of Parma | 4 | 1,712 | 630 | 508,800 | Parma | | Republic of S. Marino | ... | 18 | ... | 7,800 | S. Marino | | Corsica, belonging to France | 1 | 93,614 | 37,040 | 25,148,923 | Ajaccio | | Malta and Goro, belonging to England | 1 | 2,850 | ... | 226,231 | Valletta |

The most densely inhabited state is that of Lucca, which contains 525 individuals for every square mile; next to it come the Lombard provinces. The most thinly inhabited parts are the Campagna of Rome and the Island of Sardinia. Italy has more populous towns than any other state of Europe of the same extent. Naples has more than 400,000 inhabitants; Milan, Turin, Rome, and Palermo each more than 150,000; Florence, Venice, and Genoa more than 100,000; Leghorn, Messina, Verona, and Bologna more than 60,000; Parma, Padua, and Catania more than 40,000; Mantua, Bergamo, Brescia, Ferrara, Modena, Piacenza, Ancona, and Bari, more than 30,000, &c.

The division of Italy into Northern, Central, and Southern, is neither political nor strictly geographical, but is adopted sometimes as a convenient designation of some parts of the country. According to the general acceptation in the peninsula, Northern Italy is understood to include Piedmont and the Riviera, Lombardy, the Venetian, Parma, Modena, Italy, and the States of the Church, as far as an imaginary line from the Gulf of Spezia to Ravenna; Central Italy includes Tuscany and the rest of the States of the Church; and Southern Italy the kingdom of Naples. The division in more common use among natives is into Upper and Lower Italy, the former applying to the portion N. of the Apennines and to the Riviera, the latter to all the rest of the peninsula.

The face of the country is much diversified by mountains, of which those forming its N. and N.W. boundary have been described in this work under the article Alps. A second range of mountains, running through its whole length, determines its configuration and its physical character. From the earliest historical times they were called Apennines—a name supposed of Celtic origin, from containing the root Pen, which in Celtic dialects signifies height or head.

The Apennines may be regarded as a great offshoot of the Alps, from which they branch off near the Gulf of Genoa; but as there is no regular break in the chain, much difference of opinion has prevailed as to the point of their real commencement. Polybius extends the Apennines nearly as far as Marseilles; Strabo, on the contrary, extends the Maritime Alps to Vado, and states that the Apennines begin near Genoa. The latter opinion has been adopted by the best modern geographers, who fix the junction of the Maritime Alps and the Apennines in the valley of the Bormida, W. of Savona, where the range, which does not exceed the height of 1300 feet, presents the nearest approach to a break.

Their main range follows at first the sea-coast in a N.E. direction, till it forms the mass of Bocchetta, at the head of the Gulf of Genoa, where it makes a bend, and, increasing in breadth and height, proceeds eastward to Pontremoli; N. of the latter place the range makes another bend, and strides across the peninsula in a broad, unbroken mass E.S.E. till it approaches the Adriatic, so as to send down its lower slopes towards Rimini. In this part of their course, which forms the S. barrier of the great plain of Upper Italy, the highest peaks of the Apennines are Monte Cimone, to the N. of the Baths of Lucca, 6975 feet in height, and Monte Falterona. From Monte Nerone, 5011 feet, where the Metauro (Metanus) rises, and Monte Catria, 5586 feet, S. of Urbino, the range proceeds S.E., not far from, and almost parallel with, the coast of the Adriatic, to which its lower skirts descend. Increasing in bulk, it then swells into the masses of Monte Sibilla, N.E. of Norcia, 7200 feet, where are the sources of the Nera; and of Monte Terminillo or di Lionessa, 6998 feet. Here the Apennines diverge into two main ranges, of which the eastern one, the loftiest, keeps along the Adriatic, and forms Monte Corno, or the Gran Sasso d’Italia, their highest peak, 10,207 feet; Monte Morrono, 6862 feet, which rises abruptly behind Solmona (Salmo); and Monte Amaro, the highest summit of the Maiella, 8956 feet. This branch has been sometimes considered as an offshoot, for it is almost entirely drained by rivers falling into the Adriatic. But it is evident that it belongs to the principal chain, and that before the Aterno had opened its way through the narrow gorge of Intermonti, the Valley of Solmona must have formed an inland basin similar to, though lower in level than Lake Fucinus. The other range, sweeping round the head of the Aterno, and separating its valley from that of the Salto and Velino, swells into Monte Velino, 8180 feet, standing nearly in the centre of the peninsula; and then, after inclosing the basin of Lake Fucinus, forms the high summit of Monte Greco, 7875 feet. The two ranges reunite in the Piano di Cinquemiglia, the coldest and most wintry spot in Italy. It is a high table-land, 4298 feet, inclosed by much higher mountains, and divides the upper basin of the Sangro from the valley of Solmona. The chain proceeds from the group of Monte Greco, round the head of the Sangro, in a S.E. direction, and, keeping in the centre of the peninsula, attains, at La Meta, an elevation of 7480 feet. Proceeding southwards, it incloses the source of the Volturno, and forms the group of the Matese, 6745 feet, on the N.E. of the Campanian Plain. It is in their course from the group of Monte Sibilla that the Apennines, attaining their greatest elevation, exhibit the nearest approach to alpine scenery. As they descend further south, they gradually diminish in height, though still rising occasionally to great elevation.

From the Matese, the main range follows a S.E. direction in the centre of the peninsula, in an irregular and confused mass, to the group of mountains between Bisaccia and S. Angelo de Lombardi, in Lat. 41°. At this point it takes a sudden bend W. to Monte Terminio, 5680 feet, at the head of the Ofanto, and there, after dividing the valleys of the Sele, the Ofanto, the Calore and the Sabbato, turns E. and proceeds to form the group of mountains N. of Potenza, which divide the basin of the Ofanto from that of the Bradano, and with their branches spread over most of the surface of the province of Basilicata. From that group the main range takes a S. course, approaches the Tyrrhenian Sea near the shore of the Gulf of Policastro (Lanus Sinus), and in entering Calabria, forms the high table-land of Campotenese, on the E. of which, Monte Dolcedorme, the summit of the Pollino, rises to 6875 feet. The range afterwards keeps along the shore of the Tyrrhenian Sea to Monte Cocuzzo, 5620 feet, W. of Potenza, where it turns E., divides the basins of the Crati and the Savuto (Oenurus), and after spreading over a considerable surface of table-land, called Sita, sinks rapidly as it extends southwards, and offers almost a complete break between the two gulfs of Sta. Eufemia and Squillace. Here the neck of land, 18 miles broad, is so low as to have suggested, at two different periods, the idea of a canal across it; to Dionysius the elder, in the fifth century B.C., and in the last century to Charles III., king of Naples. South of the Rivers Lamento and Corace (Crotalus), (the former emptying itself into the Tyrrhenian, and the latter into the Ionian Sea), the range of the Apennines rises again, and extends along the end of the peninsula, the original Italia, nearer the E. coast, till it forms the mass of the Aspromonte, 4512 feet, the slopes of which are washed by the Ionian and Sicilian Seas. The Straits of Messina can scarcely be considered as the end of the chain. The narrowness, the indentations, and the geological formation of the two coasts are such as to favour the inference that before the sea found its way through the range, the Apennines followed their course through Sicily in a W. direction from Cape Peloro (Pelorum), to Cape Boeo (Lilybeum), the extreme W. point of the island.

Having so far traced the main range by the watershed of the Apennines, we shall proceed to notice the most important of the numerous offshoots. On the N.E. declivity of the range, from its commencement to the high table-land of the Piano di Cinquemiglia, there are numerous but low and short spurs. The ranges of hills, especially those that descend into the plain of Lombardy, branch off uniformly at right angles from the central chain, and differ but little in length from one another. South of the Piano di Cinquemiglia several lofty offshoots descend towards the Adriatic, dividing the basins of the Sangro, the Trigno, and the Biferno, and forming the N.W. boundary of the Apulian Plain, which, on the S.E., is inclosed by a low ridge of tertiary hills, known by the local name of Le Muraglie. The latter hills branch from the group of mountains near Lagopesole, S. of Monte Vulture, and after sending a small shoot towards Venosa (Venusia) and Minervino, proceed in an E. direction, and gradually diminish in height as they approach the head of the Gulf of Taranto; then cross the province of Otranto in its length (where they at- tain to but a very insignificant elevation), and end in the Capo di Sta. Maria di Leuca.

It is on the S. side of the Apennines that we have to look for their most remarkable offshoots. As soon as they begin to recede from the coast of Genoa, and take, beyond Pontremoli, an E.S.E. direction, they send down a rugged ridge, which separates the valleys of the Magra (Macra), and the Serchio (Auser), and forms the group near Massa and Carrara (known for their marble quarries), of which Pizzo d'Uccello is 5800 feet high.

The greater part of Tuscany consists of a series of valleys formed by minor offshoots of the Apennines descending towards the Tyrrhenian Sea. As soon as the main range has reached the frontier of the Abruzzi, it projects westward a lofty and important branch, which, under different names, forms, in part, the boundary between the Papal and the Neapolitan states, and separates the basin of the Garigliano from that of the Teverone, and from the Pontine Marshes. Spreading over the country of the ancient Sabines and Volscians, it sweeps round the volcanic group of the Alban Hills, forms the N.W. boundary of the Campanian Plain, overhangs Terracina, and ends in the Gulf of Gaeta, leaving between the two latter places a hollow in which lies the small lake of Fondi (Lacus Amyclaeus). From the group of the Matese another lofty offshoot, taking a S. direction, incloses on the E. the Campanian Plain, and forms the mountain group S. of Avellino, where it divides into two branches. One of these taking an E. course rejoins the main range towards Monte Terminio; the other bending S.S.W. forms the Montes Lactorii (the highest of which, Monte St. Angelo, overhanging Castellamare, is 4722 feet), and after dividing the Gulf of Naples from the Gulf of Salerno, ends in the Punta della Campanella (Prom. Minerve), opposite the island of Capri. Beyond Salerno another offshoot of the main range sweeps round the plain of Pastum, and after forming the hilly district of the Cilento, ends in the promontory of Liscos, on the Tyrrhenian Sea.

For the greater part of their course towards the N., the Apennines, like the Alps, exhibit rather a uniform ridge, of no great breadth, with transverse valleys descending on each side towards the sea; but in their S. course, from the N. frontier of the Abruzzi to Calabria, they display features peculiar to themselves. They spread to a considerable breadth, divide into numerous irregular groups and ranges, through which there are narrow passages, and which, by maintaining a general parallelism, inclose highly fertile though elevated valleys, and then reuniting, form the high table-lands of the Piano di Cinque Miglia, Campo Tenese, and Sila. The most remarkable passes and valleys of this kind are,—the high valley of Leonessa, shut in on every side by mountains; the valley of Rieti (rosa rura Velia), whence the defile of Antrodoco (Interocrea), through which the River Velino emerges, leads to the upper valley of the Aterno; the pass of Tagliacozzo, leading from the valley of the Teverone to the basin of Lake Fucinus, through which the ancient Via Valeria passed; the narrow gorge of Intermonti, cut by the Aterno through the lower shoots of Monte Corno and the Maiella; the valley of Boiano, the Boriana claustra of Silius Italicus, on the N.E. of the Matese; the pass of Arpasia, supposed to be the Candine Forks of the Romans, which opens a communication between the Campanian Plain and the valley of Benevento; the Val di Bovino, a long defile leading from the upper valleys of Principato Ultra to the Apulian Plain; and the valley of Diano, through which the high road to Calabria is carried.

None of the summits of the Apennines are covered with perpetual snow; which, however, remains all the year round in the chasms and hollows of Monte Corno, the Maiella, Monte Greco, and Monte Pollino. The lower slopes of the range are well wooded, but the lofty peaks or ridges are generally bare rocks. Their geology and mineralogy, with the exception of a few districts, have not been sufficiently explored. There is no doubt that the greatest bulk of the range is of limestone, but other rocks appear often and to a greater extent than is generally supposed. Monte Corno and other peaks in the Abruzzi are of compact quartz, which abounds also in Calabria. Serpentine crops out in large masses near Sestri on the Riviera, on the flanks of Monte Pollino, and of the Terminio, &c. Extensive beds of lignite, and it is supposed of coal, exist in the Abruzzi, near Lettonanopello; on the N.E. slopes of the Maiella; in the mountains of Giffuni and Monte Corvino, E. of Salerno; and on the S. slopes of the Sila in Calabria. Granite, porphyry, and gneiss, cover large tracts of the south portion of the range, and the great mass of the Aspromonte, at the toe of the boot, consists almost entirely of primitive rocks.

A few detached mountains are found in Italy, which, though geologically similar to, yet geographically do not belong to the chain of the Apennines, from which the largest of them is at a considerable distance. The most important of these, arranged according to their size, are—Monte Gargano (Garganus), an isolated mass, at the E. end of the Apulian Plain, projecting considerably into the Adriatic; Monte Argentario (Mons Argentariorum), a lofty promontory rising in the Tyrrhen Sea, opposite the small island of Giglio, from the lagoon of Orbitello, which separates it from the mainland; Monte Circeo (Mons Circei), which stands like a gigantic beacon at the S. extremity of the Pontine Marshes; last in size, but greatest in interest, Monte Sto. Oreste (Mons Soracte), a mass of secondary limestone, rising like an island 2000 feet from the midst of the volcanic tufa of the Campagna, about 25 miles, as the crow flies, from Rome.

The Italian peninsula presents four distinct volcanic districts. Three of the volcanoes are entirely extinct, while the fourth is still in great activity. These districts are—

1st, The Euganean Hills, a small group extending for about 10 miles from the neighbourhood of Padua to Este, and separated from the lower offshoots of the Alps by the wide plain of the Padovano. Monte Venda, their highest peak, is 1806 feet.

2d, The Roman district, the largest of the four, extending from the hills of Albano to the frontier of Tuscany, and from the lower slopes of the Apennines on the E. to the Tyrrhen Sea on the W. It may be divided into three groups,—the Monti Albani, the highest of which, Monte Cavi, 3160 feet, is the ancient Mons Albanus, on the summit of which stood the temple of Jupiter Latialis, where the assemblies of the cities forming the Latin confederation were held; the Monti Cimini, which extend from the valley of the Tiber to the neighbourhood of Civita Vecchia, and attain, at their culminating point, an elevation of more than 3000 feet; of Radicofani and Monte Amiata, the latter of which is 5794 feet high. The lakes of Bolsena (Vulinitensis), of Bracciano (Subutinus), of Vico (Ciminus), of Albano (Albanus), of Nemi (Nemorensis), and other smaller ones, belong to this district; and between its S.W. extremity and Monte Circeo are the Pontine Marshes (Palus Pontina), a broad strip of alluvial soil infested by malaria.

3d, The volcanic region of Terra di Lavoro (Campania Felix), which is separated by the Volscian Mountains from the Roman district. It may be also divided into three groups,—of Roccamonfina, at the N.N.W. end of the Campanian Plain, where the highest cone, called Montagna di Santa Croce, is 3200 feet,—of the Phlegrean Fields, embracing all the country round Baiae and Pozzuoli, and the adjoining islands. Monte Barbaro (Gaurus), N.E. of the site of Cumae; Monte S. Nicola (Epomeus), 2610 feet, in Italy: Ischia; and Camaldoli, 1488 feet, W. of Naples, are the highest cones. The lakes Averno (Avernus), Lucrino (Lucrinus), Fusaro (Palus Acherusia), and Agnano, are within this group, which has shown activity in historical times. A stream of lava issued in 1198 from the crater of the Solfatara, which still continues to exhale steam and noxious gases; the Lava dell' Arso came out of the N.E. flank of Monte Epomeo in 1302; and Monte Nuovo, N.W. of Pozzuoli, and 440 feet high, was thrown up in three days in September 1538. Since its first historical eruption in A.D. 79, Vesuvius or Somma, which forms the third group, has been in constant activity, its last eruption having taken place in May 1855. The Punta del Nasone, the highest point of Somma, is 3747 feet, and the Punta del Palo, the highest point of the brim of the crater of Vesuvius, was, in 1847, 3949 feet high.

4th, The Apulian volcanic formation consists of the great mass of Monte Vulture, which rises at the W. end of the plains of Apulia, on the frontier of Basilicata (Lucania), and is surrounded by the Apennines on its S.W. and N.W. sides. Its highest peak, the Pizzuto di Meli, attains an elevation of 4357 feet; within the widest crater there are the two small lakes of Monticchio and S. Michele.

In connection with the volcanic districts, we may mention Le Moyete, or Pools of Amsactus (Amsacti Valles), lying in a wooded valley S.E. of Frigento, in the centre of the Neapolitan province of Principato Ultra, and described by Virgil, Enied, vii. 563-71. The largest of the two is not more than 160 feet in circumference, and 7 feet deep. These pools emit noxious gases (carbonic acid and sulphuretted hydrogen), which, when wafted from the pools by the wind, endanger animal life in the open air. Birds are occasionally killed, whilst crossing the valley, by the mephitic vapours.

The volcanic districts of the Italian islands of Sicily, Sardinia, Lipari, Ponza, &c., will be found noticed under their respective articles. See also Etna, Vesuvius, Vulcana.

The range of the Apennines, by the shifting which we have noticed of their direction from sea to sea in their course through the peninsula, form six principal basins, besides several smaller ones, which we shall briefly notice.

1. The basin of the Po and the Adige, extending from the Alps to the Apennines, and comprising nearly the whole of Upper Italy, is the largest uninterrupted extent of highly fertile alluvial land in Europe. On its N. frontier, at the foot of the Alps, is a series of lakes, which, being never frozen in winter, feed numerous streams, and serve the purpose of internal navigation.

The Lago Maggiore or di Locarno (Verbano), the most westerly of these lakes, is nearly 50 miles long, and varies in breadth from 5 to 8 miles. Its greatest depth does not exceed 25 feet. It contains the Borromean Islands, already described in this work. The Lago di Lugano is about 24 miles in length, and from 2½ to 6 in breadth. It is of great depth, and its surface is 870 feet above the level of the sea. The Lago di Como (Larius) is of great depth, and surrounded by high abrupt mountains, which constitute the romantic beauty of its borders. It is 27 miles long, or 33, if the small Lago di Riva at its N. end be included, and in no part exceeds 3 miles in breadth. The Lago d'Iseo (Sebinae), 18 miles long and 5 broad, is 680 feet above the level of the sea, and in some parts has a depth of 700 feet. In its centre there is an island 1½ mile long. The Lago d'Idro is only 7 miles long. The Lago di Garda (Benacus), the largest of all the lakes of Italy, is nearly 40 miles in length and 10 miles in its greatest breadth. Its surface is 227 feet above the level of the sea, and its greatest ascertained depth is 1300 feet.

This part of Italy abounds in rivers. The principal of these is the Po (Padus), the largest river in Italy. It originates in the Monte Viso (Vesulus), one of the highest summits of the Western Alps, 12,000 feet high, S.W. of Turin, and after a course in an E. direction of more than 380 miles, including its windings, enters the Adriatic by many mouths, which form a kind of delta somewhat similar to that of the Nile. It receives numerous tributaries, the most important of which are,—on its northern side the Dora Baltea (Duria Major), the Ticino (Ticinus), the Adda (Addua), the Mincio (Mincius); all flowing from the S. slopes of the Alps; and, on its southern bank, the Tanaro (Tanarus), the Scrivin, the Trebia, the Panaro (Scultenna), the Reno (Rhenum), flowing from the N. slopes of the Apennines. A more detailed description of this important river, and of the dykes or embankments by which it is inclosed, will be found under the head Po in this work. The next considerable river of Upper Italy is the Adige (Athesis). It rises in the Rhaetian Alps, in the German Tyrol, where it is called Eisach, in a small lake near the modern village of Reschen, and after receiving the Eisach and other small tributaries, it flows past Trento, emerges into the plain of Italy at Verona, and after a course of 200 miles enters the Adriatic a few miles N. of the Po.

The lakes of Upper Italy are of unspeakable advantage both as regards the internal communications and the cultivation of the country. As the slope of the land from these lakes to the Po is regular and gentle, nature has thereby furnished the means of distributing the water over an extensive portion of the land, and in that due proportion which the nature of the soil, or the description of the crop, may require. By an ingenious system of canals, which dates at least from the twelfth century, streams of water are made to pass rapidly over the fields that require it, and what is not absorbed by the earth is received into canals, and at lower elevations again passed in a similar manner over other fields, till the surplus fluid at length reaches the Po. A full description of the origin and of the various modes of disposing water to the greatest advantage peculiar to this part of Italy, has been already given in this work in the articles IRRIGATION and HYDRODYNAMICS. A detailed notice of the basins of the Po and the Adige, of its lakes, its divisions, its agriculture, &c., will be found also in this work under the heads SARDINIA, LOMBARDY or LOMBARDO-VENETIAN KINGDOM, &c., &c.

2. The sweep of the Apennines between the parallels of N. Lat. 44. and 42. 30., leaves on their W. side an extensive tract of country, constituting the whole of Tuscany and considerable part of the Roman States, and forming the basins of the Arno (Arnus) and the Tiber. These two principal rivers of Central Italy rise at a short distance from each other; the Arno in Mount Falterona, and the Tiber in Mount Coronaro; and at first both take a S. course till the Arno approaches within a few miles of Arezzo, where the difference of level of the district intervening between the two basins is such, that, by an artificial canal through the Val di Chiana, the Arno might be brought to flow into the bed of the Chiana, and to join the Tiber below Orvieto. From near Arezzo the range of hills that extend towards Siena drive the Arno into a N.W. direction, till it is joined by the Sieve, when it makes a sudden turn W., flows through Florence, and, after a course of 140 miles, enters the sea by an artificial canal 6 miles below Pisa. The Tiber, on the contrary, continues its course due S. to the foot of the hill on which Todi stands, whence it follows a S.W. course till it is joined by the Chiana, when it flows S.E. till within about 20 miles from Rome. It takes then a S.W. direction, and, after a course of 198 miles, falls into the sea at Ostia. It receives many tributaries, of which the most important are the Chiana (Chianis), on the right side; and on the left the Nera (Nar), and the Teverone (Anio). The Tiber is turbid (flavus), rapid, and deep. The basins of the Arno and the Tiber are separated by the volcanic groups of the Monti Cimini and the Monti Amiata, and by the ridge of tertiary Italy.

hills near Siena, in which the Ombrone (Umbro) and other smaller streams have their source. The Lake of Perugia (Trasimeno) belongs to the basin of the Tiber. It is 26 miles in circumference, and has three small islands. Its bed has been gradually raised by vast quantities of alluvial deposit carried into it by the rain, and its greatest depth at present is only 21 feet.

3. The Campanian Plain, the most fertile district in Italy, inclosed on three sides by the Apennines, and on the fourth, the S.W., by the sea, forms the basin of the Garigliano (Liris) and the Volturno (Vulturum), the latter of which rises at the foot of the mountains of Rionero, near the village of Castellone, and after a tortuous course (from which it is supposed to have derived its name) flows round Capua, and enters the sea 15 miles W. of that city. Its principal tributary is the Calore (Calor), which has already been joined by the Sabato (Sabatia), below Benevento. These two rivers rise at no great distance from each other in the group of Monte Terminio, where also are the sources of the Ofanto and the Sele, and drain an extensive tract of country inclosed by the Apennines. The Garigliano, which, as far as Cepano, still retains its classic name of Liri, rises below the village of Cappadocia, 5 miles S. of Tagliacozzo, in the Abruzzi, runs S.E. through the valley of Roveto; on issuing from which, at Sora, it bends S. to Cepano, where it turns again S.E. towards Pignataro, and thence due S. to the sea only 12 miles N. of the mouth of the Volturno; the beds of the two rivers being separated by an offshoot of the Apennines, and by the volcanic group of Roccamonfina. Among the tributaries of the Liris is the small classic Fibreno (Fibrenus), which rises at once with a considerable volume of water near the village of Posta, at the foot of a group of mountains S. of Lake Fucinus, of which the Fibreno is supposed to be one of the subterranean channels. This lake, which we have already noticed as being inclosed in an upper valley of the Apennines, is the largest in S. Italy; it is 35 miles in circumference, and has an area of 36,315 acres, and, though fed by several streams, has no visible outlet. Its greatest depth is 52 feet, and its surface is 2176 feet above the level of the sea. It is known to have been entirely frozen over in 1167, 1229, 1395, 1683, and 1726. As its shores are subject to great inundations, the Emperor Claudius constructed a tunnel about three miles and a half long to convey its surplus waters into the Liris. This tunnel was allowed to fall into disrepair during the middle ages.

4. The plain which, sloping gently over a breadth of thirty miles from the E. side of the Apennines to the sea, extends more than eighty miles in length from the Biferno (Tifernus), to Barletta, a few miles S. of the mouth of the Ofanto, is known by the local name of Tavoliere di Puglia, or Puglia Piana, and is intersected by several streams, of which the Ofanto is the only important one. At the E. end of this plain, where it approaches the isolated group of Mount Gargano, are the small salt lakes of Lesina (Lacus Pantaneus), Varano, Salpi (Salapina Palus), and Pantano Salso, the latter of which receives the Cervaro (Cerbatus), and the Candelaro. The Ofanto (Aufidus), the principal river of S. Italy, rises from the group of the Terminio, about 25 miles from the Gulf of Salerno, flows E. through the rugged mountain country, which is the frontier of the provinces of Salerno, Avellino, and Basilicata, flows round the basis of Mount Vulture on the N. side, and crossing the Apulian Plain, enters the Adriatic midway between the Lago Salpi and the town of Barletta. It has much of the character of a mountain torrent, being swollen rapidly by heavy rains in winter, while in summer the volume of its water is very small. The soil of the Tavoliere is of a calcareous nature, and well adapted for the growth of wheat. In winter it forms the excellent pasturing ground on which graze the countless flocks that descend at that season from the high valleys of the Abruzzi.

5. The basin of the Sele (Silarus), includes the plain which extends about 28 miles in length from the neighbourhood of Salerno, to the S. of Paestum, and 12 miles in its broadest part. The Sele rises at once in a large volume at a place called Caposele, near the source of the Ofanto, and takes a S. direction till it receives the Negro (Tanagro), which drains the valley of Diana; it then turns S.W., and enters the Gulf of Salerno, 4 miles N. of the site of Paestum.

6. The Apennines, in their course S. through Basilicata, after sending E. the offshoot of Le Murgie, form a sloping plain, which, with scarcely any interruption, extends nearly 100 miles along the shore of the Ionian Sea from Tarentum to Capo del Triunto, and varies from 24 miles to only 2 miles in breadth. It is traversed by numerous streams of classical associations; the Bradano (Bradanus), the largest, which rises in the mountains near Rionero, S. of Venosa, and following a S.E. course, enters the sea N. of the site of ancient Metapontum; the Basento (Camusetus), the Salandrella, the Agri (Aciris), the Sinno (Siris), the Calandro (Acalandra), and the Crati (Crathis), next in size to the Bradano, which rises S. of Cosenza in the table-land of Sila, flows at first in a due N. direction, and afterwards turns abruptly E., and 5 miles before entering the sea, is joined by the Coscile (Sybaris). This district, which, from the frequency of floods, and the want of drainage, is now infested with malaria and very scantily inhabited, was in former times famous for its fertility, and was the seat of the large and opulent Grecian cities of Metapontum, Heraclea, Sybaris, and Thurii.

Between the plain of Lombardy and the Apulian Plain, there are a great many streams flowing almost due E. into the Adriatic. The largest of them are,—the Tronto (Truentus), the boundary between the Papal and the Neapolitan states; it rises in the mountain group of Amatrice; the Pescara, which, from its source W. of Monte Corno to Popoli, retains the ancient name of Aterno (Aternus). From the upper part of its course through a deep valley, where its bed has an elevation of 2000 feet, it descends through a narrow gorge into the valley of Solmona, whence it issues by the pass of Intermonti, and flowing through the plain below Chieti, enters the sea with a considerable volume of water at the fortress of Pescara. The Sangro (Sarus) rises near Gioia under the mountains S.E. of Lake Fucinus, runs in a very elevated upper valley, from which it escapes through a very deep and narrow gorge below Barrea, winds its course round the hill on which Castel di Sangro is built, runs through the valley that divides the south offshoots of the Maiella from the mountains of Agnone, and reaches the plain of Lanciano, where it enters the Adriatic.

All the rivers of Italy are subject to sudden and very heavy floods, and with the exception of the Po, the Adige, and the Tiber, have their volume of water greatly reduced in summer. The insignificant amount of tide in the Mediterranean renders most of them useless for navigation.

In a country extending through 10 degrees of latitude Climate, there must be great differences of climate, and consequently of vegetation and agriculture, from position alone. Besides that, however, the climate of Italy is modified to such a degree by the ranges of the Alps and Apennines, and by the air of the sea along its coasts, as to render useless any division into regions according to the classification of Saussure. In the plains of Lombardy and Piedmont, and the other territories to the N. of the Apennines, which are inclosed by mountains on every side but the E., Fahrenheit's thermometer in winter descends to 10 degrees; snow lies sometimes a fortnight on the ground, the lagoons at the mouths of the rivers are frozen, and slight night frosts appear early in November, and some years as late as April. Delicate plants do not thrive except in sheltered situations, but the mulberry trees flourish, rice is grown, and the pastures are rich. South of the Apennines, that part of Tuscany Italy, and the States of the Church which is near their main range is subject to great cold, but westwards, and along the Riviera, the temperature grows milder, snow seldom lies long on the fields, and the climate is suitable to the growth of the olive and the orange. But it is when we reach the central range of the Apennines that we find the coldest districts of Italy. In all the upland valleys of the Abruzzi and of Samnio, snow begins to fall early in November, and heavy storms occur often as late as May; whole communities are shut out for months from any intercourse with their neighbours, and some villages are so long buried in snow that regular passages are made between the different houses for the sake of communication among the inhabitants. The district extending from the S.E. of Lake Fucinus to the Piano di Cinquemiglia, and inclosing the upper basin of the Sangro and the small lake of Scanno, is the coldest and most bleak part of Italy south of the Alps. Heavy falls of snow in June are not uncommon, and it is only for a short time towards the end of July that the nights are totally exempt from light frosts. Yet, less than 40 miles E. of this district, and even more to the N., we find the olive, the fig-tree, and the orange, thriving luxuriously on the shores of the Adriatic from Ortona to Vasto. In the same way, whilst in the plains and hills round Naples snow is rarely seen, and never remains long, and the thermometer seldom descends to the freezing point, 20 miles E. from it in the fertile valley of Avellino, of no great elevation, but encircled by high mountains, light frosts are not uncommon as late as June; and 18 miles further E., in the elevated region of S. Angelo de' Lombardi and Bisaccia, the inhabitants are always warmly clad, and vines grow with difficulty and only in sheltered places. But nowhere are these contrasts so striking as in Calabria. The shores, especially on the Tyrrhenian Sea, present almost a continued grove of olive, orange, lemon, and citron trees, which attain a size unknown in the N. of Italy. The sugar-cane flourishes, the cotton-plant ripens to perfection, the date-trees are seen in the gardens, the rocks are clothed with the prickly-pear or Indian-fig, the inclosures of the fields are formed by aloes and sometimes pomegranates, the liquorice-root grows wild, and the mastich, the rosemary, the myrtle, and many varieties of oleander and cistus, form the underwood of the natural forests of arbustus and evergreen oak. If we turn inland but five or six miles from the shore, and often even less, the scene changes. High districts covered with oaks and chestnuts succeed to this almost tropical vegetation; a little higher up and we reach the elevated table-lands of the Pollino and the Sila, covered with firs and pines, and affording rich pastures even in the midst of summer, when heavy dews and light frosts succeed each other in July and August, and snow begins to appear at the end of September or early in October.

Along the shores of the Adriatic, which are exposed to the N.E. winds, blowing coldly from over the Albanian Mountains, delicate plants do not thrive so well in general as under the same latitude along the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

It may have been gathered from the preceding sketch of the physical conformation and the climate of Italy, that it becomes difficult to take a general view of the state of its agriculture.

The cultivation of Savoy or Lombardy differs from that of Calabria as much as that of Massachusetts does from that of Carolina. In this work, therefore, the details of rural economy will be found under the heads of the several dominions into which Italy is divided; and in this place will only be noticed those results of agriculture which yield food, drink, or clothing to its inhabitants, or which form the basis of manufacturing industry, or the rudiments of foreign commerce. The cerealia form, as elsewhere in Europe, the chief aliment of the inhabitants; in Italy, however, the lower classes, who are the most numerous, subsist much on maize and beans, which requires little preparation to render it fit for food. In some of the southern parts wheat is made use of by the same class, both in the form of bread and in that of macaroni, which is manipulated with great facility. Wheat and maize are, on the average of years, about equal to the consumption, but little can be spared for exportation; and in many of the ports are depots of foreign wheat kept to meet the variations of seasons, or to be used as articles of commerce with other countries.

As Italy produces abundance of wine, and consequently needs neither beer nor corn-spirits, no barley is needed for these drinks, and scarcely any is cultivated. Oats are but little grown, but abundance of beans of various kinds is produced. Rye, the common bread-corn of the far greater portion of Europe, is only raised in a few spots in the very northernmost parts of Italy, where it is made into bread for the poor; whilst those of the higher classes there, as well as throughout the whole peninsula in the cities, make use of wheaten bread. Rice grows in many parts, in fact wherever there is a sufficiency of water to insure a good produce, at such a distance from towns as not to be injurious to the health of the inhabitants. It is a part of almost every meal in families in easy circumstances, but is scarcely used by the families who are in circumstances that require the practice of great parsimony. A great variety of lupines are used as food, especially in the soups. In some parts of the mountainous regions, chestnuts are a substitute for corn as long as they last. Fruits are plentifully used, particularly figs, grapes, and melons, as food; whilst the cheapness of onions, garlic, tomatoes or love-apples, and capsicums, render them valuable as condiments. The potato, which in the other parts of Europe has been so much extended of late years, has been but partially introduced into Italy; and, where it is cultivated, it occupies a very small proportion of the soil. Lettuces, asparagus, endive, artichokes, and several kinds of turnips and of carrots, are everywhere grown.

Animal food is far from being extensively used. The oxen yield in some parts excellent, in other very indifferent meat. The mutton is neither good nor abundant, but has been much improved of late years. Swine furnish a plentiful supply during the winter months; they are also prepared as bacon or hams, and above all as sausages, the fame of which latter has reached unto England under the name of the city of Bologna, where they were early and extensively prepared. The large dairy farms in Lombardy, in which the cheese known by the name of Parmesan is made, and the oak and chestnut forests of Calabria furnish the most and best swine's flesh.

The fisheries contribute largely to the supply of food in Italy, though, from the number of fasts still countenanced by the Catholic Church, not sufficient for the consumption; and the deficiency is procured by commerce with the English, French, and Americans, who convey to the sea-ports the salted cod-fish from the banks of Newfoundland. Their own fisheries on the coast give much occupation; the most considerable are those for the tunny, a very large fish, and for the anchovy, a very small one. These are conducted upon a large scale by joint-stock companies. The lakes and the rivers also yield some, though not a great proportion, of that kind of food which ecclesiastical restrictions render indispensable.

The sugar-cane is not cultivated in the south of Italy, as it is found, that in point of strength, as well as of cost, the sugar made from it does not succeed in a competition with that substance when imported from the West Indies.

The products of agriculture are sufficient for the clothing of all its inhabitants; for though wool is neither good nor plentiful, yet hemp and flax are grown everywhere, are manufactured at home, and, from the nature of the climate, linen can be substituted for woollen dress during most of the months of the year. Some raw wool is, however, imported to supply the manufactures, and some cloths both from England and France, together with (in Lombardy) those from the other Austrian provinces, especially from Bohemia. Some cotton is grown on the southern divisions of Italy, but not sufficient to furnish materials for their very insignificant manufactures of that article.

The chief product of Italian agriculture is the silk. It is produced in every part, and much of it is converted into articles of dress or of furniture, where it is collected; but the chief production of it is in Sardinia, Naples, and Lombardy, whence the looms of England, Prussia, Austria, Russia, and Germany, are supplied. The value of this commodity exceeds that of all the other productions of Italy which are exported to foreign countries. The manufacture has of late years made great progress, which it is still steadily maintaining. The great increase which has taken place in the propagation of the mulberry tree has, within the last thirty years, increased the quantity of raw silk to an extent that had never before been dreamed of.

Another very important Italian product, which is used partly as food, partly employed in home manufactures, and extensively exported as an article of foreign commerce, is the oil of the olive tree. It is used as a substitute for butter in the S., is much appropriated to the manufacture of many kinds of soap, and is exported to England for the use of our various fabrics, chiefly those of wool, and as a luxury at our tables. The planting and watching costs but little labour or expense, and in a few years the income more than recompenses the labour. The best olive oil is produced near Genoa, in Lucca, in Tuscany, and in Calabria; but it is plentiful throughout the whole of Italy, except in Lombardy and in Piedmont.

The wines of Italy are not very highly valued in other countries, and almost the whole that is produced is consumed at home. Those of the N. are for the most part disagreeably acid, and scarcely any of them are or can be preserved beyond one year. The vines are not so much grown in vineyards, as in the hedge-rows; a system which doubtless injures the quality of the wine. In the southern parts, however, where the vines are grown in low vineyards as in France, the wines are of a more fiery quality, and though prepared with little care, they only require to be better known to be esteemed by foreigners.

The minerals of Italy are of small value; and though mines of gold, silver, and copper were once wrought, the veins have been long exhausted. Some alum is found in the Papal dominions and the Neapolitan territory, some vitriol and antimony in Parma, and sulphur in the island of Sicily. In many places there are excellent marble quarries, the best near Verona and Carrara. Alabaster is found in many of the mountains. The salt manufactured on the sea-shore, and from saline springs, is more than is required for the home consumption, and a large quantity might be exported.

The commerce, trade, and manufacturing industry of Italy, differ in the different states. The statistics of these will be found under the heads of the respective states.

The history of Italy before the rise of the Roman power is involved in obscurity, or clouded with indistinctness. Notwithstanding the learning and the ingenuity of modern antiquaries in collecting and reconciling the very scanty and often contradictory statements of ancient authors, very little deserving the name of history is known of the ethnography and the political divisions of the country at that early period. The names of the early inhabitants, however, as far as they can be ascertained, will be found in this work under the articles on the modern Italian states.

The horizon begins to clear as Rome extends her conquests. In the northern part the Gauls were rude and fierce, and they the longest resisted the encroaching power; whilst lower down, on the Arno and the Tiber, there was a number of tribes, such as the Etruscans, the Samnites, and the Latins, who, in a kind of confederacy, though sometimes at variance with one another, long sought, and ultimately in vain, to defend their freedom against the rising and aspiring city. In the southern parts were Grecian colonies, with but little union, and frequently engaged in hostilities amongst themselves. When and by what means all these tribes became finally subjected to Rome, belongs to the history of that empire. The history of the conquered is swallowed up in that of the conquerors.

The fate of Italy was that of Rome till the dissolution of A.D. 476 to that colossal power. When the seat of empire was removed to Constantinople, Italy, though accounted a portion of the Western Empire, was treated as a dependent province, and continued with only the semblance of power, till a soldier of fortune founded the kingdom of Italy.

Odoacer, who by his intrigues had raised himself to the command of the German mercenaries in the imperial service, gathered hordes of Heruli and other followers of Attila, besieged and captured Pavia, Ravenna, and Rome, and proclaiming himself King of Italy (Aug. 23, 476), put an end to the Western Empire. The conqueror consigned Romulus Augustulus, the last emperor of the West, to the Castrum Lucullanum, near Naples, where he was allowed to end his days in obscurity and confinement. Odoacer used as much prudence and humanity as could have been looked for in a rude conqueror; but his kingdom was of short duration. Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, at the instigation of the Emperor Zeno, who reigned in Byzantium, invaded Italy, and after defeating Odoacer at Aquileia (March 27, 489), and again near Verona, and on the Adda, besieged him in Ravenna. In 493 Ravenna surrendered, and Theodoric, who murdered Odoacer as they sat together at table, erected a sovereignty, which, besides the whole of Italy and Sicily, extended northwards to the Rhine and the Danube, and eastwards to the frontiers of Dacia and Macedonia. The only part not subjected was some islands in the lagoons of the Adriatic Sea, inhabited by those fugitives who had first found a refuge there from the ravages of Attila, after the fall of Aquileia (A.D. 452), and had there secured freedom, and, by the capability of defending themselves, laid the foundation of what subsequently became the republic of Venice. Under the government of Theodoric, the Goths multiplied rapidly; they were the masters of one-third of the soil wrested from the conquered race. By his external policy Theodoric had acquired the confidence of the other Gothic tribes, even in the remote regions that border on the Baltic Sea, and had introduced strong forms of government into Rhaetia, Noricum, Dalmatia, and Pannonia. Though the jealousy of the emperor at Byzantium induced him to invade the territory commanded by Theodoric, and to employ both a large fleet and a powerful army, his attempts were repelled, and he retired from the contest.

Theodoric was not less successful against King Clovis, the leader of the Franks, who were checked in the midst of a career of victories in Burgundy.

Ravenna was the seat of the government of this prince, though he occasionally resided at Verona. He once visited Rome, where he was received with rapture by the populace, and with the highest marks of respect by the senators. Cassiodorus and Boethius, the last writers who can pretend to a place in the Latin literature, were among the ministers of Theodoric. His endeavours to amalgamate his Italian and Gothic subjects were much obstructed by the religious controversy between the orthodox and the Arians. Whilst adhering to the latter sect, he tolerated at first, and even honoured, many of the other profession; but in the later years of his reign, when the Emperor Justin began to persecute the Arians, Theodoric retaliated upon the orthodox; and in the disorders that followed, Boethius ended his days in prison, and his father-in-law, Simmachus, was executed.

Theodoric died in the palace he had built at Ravenna in 526, after having by his will divided his dominions between two grandsons, bequeathing Italy to Athalaric, then a boy of twelve years of age. The youthful sovereign was left under the pupilage of his mother Amalasuntha, from which he was early withdrawn by the flatterers who surrounded him. His mother then entered into a negotiation with the Emperor Justinian, tending to secure a safe retreat to herself at Dyrrachium, in Epirus; but the death of Athalaric at the age of sixteen, from premature consumption, caused her to assume the power of the state. She was smothered in a bath on a small island in the lake of Bolsena by order of Theodatus, a husband she had chosen to be a sharer of the throne.

The imperial court was eager to take advantage of the unsettled state of Italy to reduce it again under subjection. Belisarius, the most renowned of the generals, was despatched, but with an inconsiderable force. He regained Southern Italy as far as Naples without any defensive steps being taken by Theodatus, who at last resigned his crown to Vitigis, who was elected by a solemn assembly of the Goths. The war began now to rage with great fury. Vitigis appeared before Rome, which had received Belisarius, and summoned it to surrender. After a siege of a year (March, 537-38), in which both besiegers and besieged fought with desperate fury, Vitigis, being threatened in the rear by the lieutenant of Belisarius, set fire to his camp, and proceeded by forced marches to invest Rimini. Belisarius would now have been able to subjugate the enemy but for the dissensions which broke out amongst the officers in command of the several divisions of the army of Justinian in 538. The chief command was then conferred on Narses, a eunuch, whose conduct at that period, whatever military merit he afterwards displayed, tended greatly to the injury of his sovereign's party. Vitigis recovered several strongholds, marched to Milan, and because it had admitted a Greek garrison, put to death all its inhabitants.

Narses was soon recalled, and Belisarius being reinstated in the supreme command, captured Ravenna, where Vitigis had in vain sought safety, and returned with numerous captives to Constantinople to receive the applause of the people and a splendid triumph. His departure revived the spirits of the remaining Goths, and the feeble efforts of the successive generals of Justinian were insufficient to crush the war. The handful of the barbarians chose Totila for their king, in the year 541; his progress was rapid, and almost without interruption. He captured Naples and besieged Rome, which, after an unsuccessful attempt to relieve it by Belisarius, who had been recalled from the wars of Persia, was compelled by famine to surrender in the year 546. After a useless occupation of Rome when it had been abandoned by Totila, Belisarius was recalled to Constantinople, and the command once more conferred upon Narses, who was furnished with troops, stores, and money, with a profusion widely different from the parsimony exercised towards his predecessor. He advanced with his forces by the head of the Adriatic Sea, and encountered and totally defeated the Goths under Totila, who himself was killed in the conflict. After his death, those who had escaped elected Tejas as their king; but he too was soon subdued by Narses, and with him terminated, in 553, the Gothic supremacy in Italy.

After these events, Italy became a province of the Eastern empire, of which Ravenna formed the capital, and in which the representatives of the emperor, the exarchs, fixed their residence. Narses, the first of them, was removed by Justin, the successor of Justinian, and in revenge for his dismissal and the insulting language of the Empress Sophia, he despatched a messenger to Alboin, king of the Longobards, inviting him into Italy. The Longobards are supposed to have been of Scandinavian origin, and to have gained a settlement between the Oder and the Elbe, in the reign of Augustus. They gradually descended towards the south and approached the Danube, which they passed to reduce, in pursuance of a treaty with Justinian, the cities of Noricum and the fortresses of Pannonia.

They were thus established on the frontiers of the Roman empire, and had for neighbours two other tribes, the Avars and the Gepide, who were sometimes hostile towards each other, though commonly at peace, demanding and receiving what they deemed tribute, but which the imperialists denominated presents. The Avars and the Longobards, at the instigation or with the connivance of the Emperor Justin, jointly attacked the Gepide. The bravest of them fell in battle; their king Cunimund was slain, and his daughter Rosamund became the captive of Alboin, the chief of the Lombards, and by marriage shared that throne which had before been occupied by the daughter of Clovis, the king of the Franks.

The ambition of Alboin was excited rather than satisfied by the conquest of the Gepide, and the submission of the Avars to his authority. Fifteen years before, his subjects, as the confederates of Narses, had visited Italy; the mountains, the rivers, and the highways, were familiar to their memory. The report of their success, and the sight of the spoil, kindled in the rising generation the flame of emulation and of enterprise. Their hopes were encouraged by the spirit and eloquence of their leader. No sooner had Alboin erected his standard, than the native strength of the Longobards was multiplied by the adventurous youth of Germany and Scythia, and by the peasantry of Noricum and Pannonia, who had resumed the manners of barbarians.

The whole nation of the Longobards, accompanied by their allies, and attended by their wives, their children, and their cattle, began their march through the Carnic Alps in April 568. Leaving a strong garrison to guard the passes of the mountains at Forum Julii, the modern Civitale, which was erected into a dukedom under his nephew Gisulphus, Alboin passed without encountering any opposition, through the Venetian country, and the city of Aquileia opened its gates, most of the inhabitants having abandoned their homes at the approach of the invaders. Padua and some other cities were passed by, either because they did not intercept his progress, or because they were too strongly garrisoned. Vicenza, Verona, Trent, Brescia, &c., were easily occupied, and each city was garrisoned and entrusted to one of his officers with the title of Duke; and five months after his departure from Pannonia, the conqueror invested Milan, then the capital of Liguria, which was captured after a short siege, the principal people, with their bishop, Honoratus, having fled to Genoa. In Milan the ceremony of the inauguration was solemnly performed. Alboin was lifted on a shield in the midst of his troops, received the emblems of royalty then in use, and was proclaimed king of Italy.

From Milan Alboin sent out expeditions, which reduced Piacenza, Parma, and Modena, and the other inland cities in Emilia and Tuscany. Pavia offered an obstinate resistance, but, after a siege of three years, it surrendered; and being strongly fortified, it was fixed as his place of residence, and long continued to be the capital of the Longobard kingdom. Whilst Alboin was taking the steps necessary to defend the dominions he had acquired, and to reconcile his new subjects to his rule, he was murdered in his palace at Verona, 28th June 573, at the instigation of his wife, who had been mortally insulted by the request of Alboin to drink out of the skull of her father, Cunimund, which he used as a goblet. The queen, with her paramour, Italy made an attempt to obtain the command of the Longobards; but not succeeding in their purpose, they fled to the Roman garrison at Ravenna, where both perished most miserably. Clephis, a relation of Alboin, having been raised to the throne, extended the Longobard power to the gates of Rome; but he conducted himself with such cruelty, that he was killed by his own people, after a reign of eighteen months. His actions produced a dislike to monarchical power, and for ten years no king was chosen. The dukes who had been created among the chiefs of the Longobards acted in their respective territories as independent but allied sovereigns. Under this kind of government their power continued to extend, and that of the emperor gradually retreated before it. The want of a central authority was, however, soon discovered; and in 584 Autharis, the son of Clephis, was chosen as king, and, by his valour and prudence, established the throne securely. It is not necessary to enter into a minute history of the several kings of the Longobards. A kind of aristocratic monarchy was created, composed of thirty principalities, the chiefs of which were distinguished by the titles of dukes, counts, or barons, which, with the revenues of the land, were held as fiefs under the king, and became gradually hereditary.

The islands of the Adriatic were formed into a republic, and the inhabitants, by electing, in 697, their first doge or duke, formed an independent and central government. The exarch appointed by the government at Constantinople held authority at the city of Ravenna, and had under his power Romagna, the Pentapolis, or five maritime cities of Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Senigallia, and Ancona, and almost the whole sea-shores of Lower Italy, where Amalfi, Naples, and Gaeta had their own dukes. The island of Sicily, and the capital, Rome, in which a patrician ruled in the name of the emperor, formed also parts of the imperial dominions.

Constantly pressed upon by the Longobards, the power and influence of Constantinople gradually declined; and its fall was hastened by the Emperor Leo, called the Isaurian, whose zeal in the destruction of images embittered the clergy of the orthodox church in Italy. The inhabitants of cities forcibly expelled the imperial authorities, and elected a senate, with consuls, as in the time of the Roman republic. In Rome itself a certain power was acknowledged in the bishop, which, on account of the sanctity of his character, was of a paternal nature; at first it was exercised in ecclesiastical affairs, but by degrees extended to civil matters, and in process of time arrived at temporal sovereignty. The popes, who were anxious to defend their territory against the Longobards, when the Byzantine court had neglected or abandoned them, applied for assistance to the Franks.

The original Longobard invaders, composed as they were of various tribes, comprised different religions, some of them still adhering to the ancient heathenism, whilst others had embraced the Christian religion, but with the heretical tenets of Arianism. These tribes had gradually been led to embrace the profession of the Roman Catholic Church. Luitprand, who ascended the throne in 712, was the last of that nation to abandon his heresies, which he did in the presence of Pope Gregory II., at Rome in 729; upon which the pontiff made a public renunciation of his allegiance to the imperial court, and withdrew all claim of obedience from it. The popes were, however, indisposed to form an alliance with Luitprand, whose vicinity to the capital of their diocese they viewed with suspicion. When the emperor was making preparations to invade Italy, in order to enforce his decrees for the destruction of images, Gregory III. addressed himself to Charles Martel, who then governed the Franks, and was the best commander, and the most powerful prince of Western Europe.

Gregory despatched an embassy to his residence, with numerous presents of holy relics. It was received with respectful distinction, and a treaty was speedily concluded, by which Charles engaged to march with an army into Italy in defence of Rome and of the church, in case any attack should be made by the emperor or the king of the Longobards. The Romans, on their part, were to acknowledge Charles as their protector, and to confer upon him the dignity of the consulship.

Leo the Isaurian was succeeded by his son Constantine, surnamed Copronymus, who carried his rage against images to a greater extent than his predecessor, and forbade the worship of the saints and of the Virgin Mary. This occasioned new disturbances in Italy, and made the Romans more zealous than before to separate themselves from their dependence on Constantinople. Zachary, who had succeeded to the chair of St Peter, urged on Luitprand the restoration of the four cities, and also the district of Sabina, which had been seized upon thirty years before; and, in compliance with the representation, they were thus added to the sacred patrimony. Luitprand died in 744, after a reign of thirty-two years. His son Rachis, who succeeded him, was anxious to extend his dominions, and invaded the territory ceded to the holy see by his father, when Pope Zachary visited him, and, by his representation of the punishment hereafter to be inflicted on those who violated the rights of the church, so operated upon his mind, that he not only restored the towns and territory he had seized, but took the habit of a monk, and entered into the monastery of Monte Cassino, where he passed the remainder of his days, honoured as a saint by the other monks of the fraternity.

Astolphus succeeded his brother on the Longobard throne in 751. The exarchate of Ravenna and the duchy of Rome excited his love for conquest. The city, the capital of the first, was surrendered with little difficulty. He advanced towards Rome, and, arriving at Narni, sent an embassy to the pope, announcing his determination to enter that city, to seize the wealth of the Romans, and to impose a tax of a golden solidus on every one who would not swear him allegiance. Stephen, who then filled the papal chair, attempted by negotiation to avert the threatened storm; but failing to appease Astolphus, in imitation of his predecessor, he had recourse to the assistance of France. Pepin, the son of Charles Martel, now filled the throne of that kingdom, and professed unlimited obedience to the holy see. Stephen, by the consent, or at least connivance, of Astolphus, whose forces were encamped round the city of Rome, made a journey to France; and Pepin immediately, accompanied by the pope, passed the Alps with a large army, and advanced into Italy. Astolphus could not raise a sufficient force to repulse his assailants, and, after some slight reverses, retired to Pavia. In that city he was besieged, and compelled to sue for peace. This was granted, upon the condition that he should give up, not to the emperor, but to the pope, the several cities he had captured in the exarchate and the dukedom, and deliver hostages for the performance of the conditions agreed on. Pepin with his forces returned to France; and the pope proceeded to the south, in the expectation of being placed in possession of the cities and territories which Astolphus had stipulated to deliver up to the holy see. The Longobard king, however, as soon as the storm had passed over, broke into the dukedom and besieged Rome. The pope again had recourse to Pepin, who readily advanced. Astolphus, after an unavailing siege of three months, abandoned Rome, and once more took refuge in the strong fortifications of Pavia. During this second siege, which Pepin speedily commenced, an embassy from the Emperor Constantine Copronymus arrived at his camp, to remonstrate against the donation of the exarchate to the pope; and offered to repay the expenses of the war to France, if the territories were delivered over to the power of the emperor. Pepin replied Italy. to the envoys, that "as he had a right to those territories by the sword, and had thought proper to bestow them on the pope, nothing should induce him to alter his resolution." By a vigorous prosecution of the war, Pepin obtained a peace; and for the pope the city of Comacchio, in addition to what had been before ceded to him. From this period, 756, the pontiffs assumed the language as well as the power of sovereigns, no longer using for the dates of their re- scripts the year of the reign of the emperor, but that of their own pontificates.

Astolpheus, soon after executing the treaty concluded at Pavia, met an untimely death, the manner of which, however, has been variously described. During the succeeding twenty years the Longobards languished in a state of weakness and decay, but interrupted by a disputed succession, which ended in the elevation of Desiderius to the vacant throne. A double marriage was arranged between two daughters of this Longobard king and Carloman and Charles (usually called Charlemagne), the sons of Pepin. Charles soon divorced his wife, under the pretence of barrenness; and Carloman died, leaving two sons, who with their mother fled for refuge to Desiderius, when Charlemagne took possession of their father's estates. Thus family jealousy was one amongst many grounds of quarrel. Desiderius was induced to attack the dominions granted to the pope; and, at the invitation of the pontiff, Charlemagne advanced with a large army. Desiderius took refuge in Pavia; and after the capture of Verona, and a visit to Rome, Charlemagne drew up his forces, a part of which had blockaded it, around that city. The defence was brave and protracted; but by famine, and by the plague, which raged within the walls, the city was at length compelled to surrender. Desiderius was made prisoner, and sent with his family to France. All the other cities submitted to Charlemagne in 774.

Thus ended the kingdom of the Longobards, after it had existed two hundred and six years. Though the kings were at first rude and barbarous, yet, when they had embraced the Christian religion, they ruled with equity and mildness.

The policy of Charlemagne to his newly-acquired kingdom appears to have been wise and liberal. He sanctioned the laws by which the districts had been governed, whether Roman or Longobard; but to the latter he made a few additions. The emperor was left in quiet possession of the whole of Apulia, and of the other places in Italy that he held. He allowed to the Dukes of Spoleto, Friuli, and Benevento, the same power and authority as they had exercised under the Longobard kings; and the smaller dukes were continued in their dignities, but were compelled to take annually the oaths of allegiance to him; and, unless they violated it, the dignity was made hereditary in their families. Having thus settled the affairs of Italy, he returned to France, having in 781 appointed his son Pepin his viceroy.

A sedulous controversy in Rome respecting the election of a pope, induced Leo III., who had been raised to that dignity, to pass the Alps and apply for protection to Charlemagne, against the Roman populace. The conqueror of Italy, in consequence of this, repaired to Rome, where, on Christmas day 800, during the celebration of divine rites, Leo placed a valuable crown on his head, and the church resounded with the acclamations of the people, "Long life and victory to Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned by God, the great and pacific emperor of the Romans." The title thus conferred by the pope on the conqueror has been retained by his German successors, till it was abandoned in the present century, out of compliment to revolutionary France.

During the life of Charlemagne, whilst his son Pepin was acting as viceroy, Venice, which had grown up to be a consolidated and warlike power, disavowed the title conferred by the pope, and commenced hostilities against his Italian dominions. The Saracens, a new power, availed themselves of the circumstances, and attacked the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, where they obtained much plunder, and made captive many of the inhabitants. Pepin equipped an army and a fleet to reduce Venice to submission; but having failed in the attempt, and lost most of his vessels among the shoals and rocks of the islands, he died shortly afterwards at Milan through sheer chagrin. A natural son of Pepin, named Bernard, was nominated by Charlemagne as his viceroy in Italy.

Charlemagne died the 28th January 814, and was succeeded by his son Louis. Louis and Bernard met at Aix-la-Chapelle, and arranged the mode of ruling the extensive dominions of their departed ancestor. The ambition of Bernard, however, led him to attack his uncle, and to dispute his succession; but he was defeated, captured, and condemned to the loss of sight, under which operation he expired, in the fifth year of his reign.

Italy remained as a portion of the Frankish monarchy till the treaty of Verdun in 843, when it was delivered over, with the imperial title, and with the addition of the country of Lorraine, to Lotharius I., the eldest son of Louis. He bequeathed his dominion to Louis II., in 850, who appears to have been one of the best of the princes of the Carlovingian race. The election of a pope, Benedict III., his rejection by Louis, and the ultimate submission of the monarch to its legality, were sources of vexation, though not of actual hostility. In the latter years of his reign, the Saracens, who had occupied Sicily since the year 828, invaded the south of Italy, ravaged Apulia and Calabria, and took possession of several strong places in which they established themselves. A defeat they sustained near Capua checked for a while their progress; but three years afterwards they resumed their attacks, and carried their depredations as far as Rome, which was saved by the courage and energy of Pope Leo IV., in 849. The death of Louis II., in 875 seemed the signal for discord, from the various claimants in the imperial family to the Italian dominions. Charles the Bald of France first took possession; but dying in 877, Carloman, king of Bavaria, seized the inheritance; and he was followed in 880 by his brother Charles the Fat, king of Swabia, who, for the last time, united under one sovereign the whole of the Frankish monarchy. During seven years Italy was the theatre of the lawless violence, in which the nobles required an Italian prince, and the pope was anxious to have a foreigner placed on the throne; whilst the Saracens, availing themselves of the disturbances, extorted money from the pope as the price of peace, and still continued their depredations. Berengar, duke of Friuli, and Guido, duke of Spoleto, with the Marquis of Ivrea, were rivals for the throne; but Guido was, in 894, crowned as emperor and king, and his son Lambert nominated as his successor in these dignities. Arnulf, the German king of the Carlovingian race, urged and succeeded in his pretensions, and was crowned in 896; but, like those who succeeded him, he was unable to exercise any considerable power except whilst he continued to reside among his subjects.

After the death of Lambert, in 898, and of Arnulf in 899, Louis, king of Lower Burgundy, appeared as the rival of Berengar I., but without effect; and the same fate befell another claimant, Rudolph of Upper Burgundy; in spite of the pretensions of both, the possession of the throne was at length, in 915, in the hands of Berengar, who was solemnly crowned. The power in the hands of the feudal vassals of the throne was so much weakened by the recent dissensions, that it became almost impossible to repress the plundering inroads which the Saracens were continually making on his dominions. This monarch was murdered in 924, when Rudolph of Upper Burgundy was induced to Italy.

transfer his pretensions to the throne to Hugo, count of Provence. Hugo endeavoured, by the exercise of the most bloody tyranny, to gain the unsteady dominion of Italy; but his nephew, Berengar, marquis of Ivrea, having escaped some snares that were laid for him, fled for refuge to Otho the Great in Germany, collected there a number of fugitives, turned towards Italy, and in 945 succeeded in compelling Hugo to abdicate the throne, and transfer it to his son, Lotharius, who was less the object of general aversion than himself, and who, upon his accession, appointed Berengar his first minister of state.

The death of Lotharius occurred in 950, and was supposed to have been the result of poison administered by Berengar, who was desirous to marry the beautiful wife of his royal master to his own son. To avoid this match, and to escape from the consequences of rejecting it, Adelheid fled for safety to the Castle of Canossa, against which her persecutor commenced a siege. She then applied for assistance to King Otho. He with great expedition passed the Alps, liberated the lady, defeated Berengar, captured Pavia, and having seated himself on the throne of Italy, espoused the fair Adelheid in 951. Berengar made himself useful to the new sovereign by his early submission, and by his delivering up the Friuli (the keys of Italy) to the brother of Otho; and thence his offers of service were accepted, and he was appointed to rule the country in the name of Otho. After ten years, complaints reached the throne from the great vassals in Italy, when Otho returned there, dismissed Berengar from his station, led him as a prisoner to Bamberg, in Germany, and having united Italy with his German dominions, was crowned with the iron crown at Milan in the year 961. Otho certainly granted the best lands as fiefs to his German nobles; but he conferred great privileges on the cities of Italy, and on these their free constitutions were grounded. During the tenth century, the liberality of the Frankish kings, who had served their purpose, so corrupted the church, and so weakened the royal authority, that it effectively undermined it; whilst the clergy and the people elected the popes according to the dictation of the consuls and of the inferior patricians. Thus it happened that, in the first half of the tenth century, two women of great beauty and skill in intrigue disposed of the holy see. Theodora, in 914, raised her son by her lover Pope John X. to the chair of St Peter, which he filled under the name of John XI. The brother of the last, Alberich of Camerino, and his son, Octavian, were absolute masters of Rome; and the latter was consecrated pope in 956, at the age of twenty years. Otho, when crowned at Rome in 962, annulled the election, and appointed Leo VIII. in his stead; but the people, jealous of this exercise of power, elected Benedict V. The popes, instead of governing Rome, were thus themselves dependent on the leaders of the populace, who were at this time the real dispensers of the patronage.

The republics of Gaeta and Amalfi, and the dukedom of Naples, still maintained their independence against the Longobard dukedom of Benevento. They had a common enemy to contend with in the Saracens, who had by each party been invited to afford them assistance in their quarrels, but who had fixed themselves in Apulia, and there constructed powerful fortifications. The Emperor Louis II., and King Macedo, by their united forces, had so broken the power of the Mussulmans in 866 that the latter could no longer maintain themselves in Lower Italy; and thus enabled the Greeks to form establishments on the territory previously occupied by the Saracens. They founded a province called the Thema of Lombardy, which was ruled by a chief residing in Bari, and which maintained its independence during more than a hundred years.

Otho the Great was succeeded in 973 by his son, Otho II. Under his reign, Crescentius, then consul in Rome, on the pretence of restoring the ancient constitution, attempted to secure to himself the sole power of that city; whilst Otho, engaged in warfare against the allied forces of the Greeks and Saracens in Lower Italy, suffered the vicous popes, Boniface VII. and John XV., to exercise supreme authority. Otho III., who, when only three years old, in 983 had succeeded his father, elevated his cousin, Gregory V., to the papal throne; but Crescentius, with the assistance of the populace, drove him from the city, and filled his station with a Greek pope, John XVI. Otho entered Rome a second time; deposed John, and elevated to the papal chair his late tutor, Gerbert (Silvester II.). Crescentius and twelve others of his associates, who had thrown themselves into the Castle of Angela, were besieged, taken prisoners, and beheaded in 997; and the city was compelled by force of arms to take the oaths of allegiance.

The death of Otho III., in 1002, was deemed by the Italians a dissolution of their connection with the German emperors, and Hardouin, marquis of Ivrea, was crowned king of Italy in Pavia; upon which the jealousy of the Milanese, the habitual rivals and enemies of Pavia, induced the citizens of that place to declare Henry II. of Germany as king also. The immediate consequence was a civil war, in which each city and district took a greater or a less part, and all suffered most severely. Henry was indeed, in 1004, acknowledged by the assembly of nobles collected in Pavia; but, in the tumult which arose on the occasion, a great part of the city was destroyed by fire. Hardouin died in 1015, and Henry remained without any competitor. He died, without leaving any children, in 1024, and with him ended the Saxon dynasty. Conrad II., of the house of Weiblin-gen, and surnamed the Salic, who had been recommended by Henry on his deathbed as most worthy to succeed him, was elected by the states of the empire in Germany, and having descended to Italy, was crowned at Rome in 1027. A general assembly was held near Piacenza, at which smaller fiefs were declared to be hereditary, and attempts were made to obtain peace and security to all the states. These efforts were ineffectual, from the rage between the growing cities and their bishops, as well as the hatred between the clergy and the inferior inhabitants and the nobles. In Rome, where the family of Crescentius still directed the voices of the public, neither Henry, nor Conrad, nor the pope, could enforce obedience. When Henry III., the son of Conrad, came to Italy in 1046, he found no less than three popes in Rome. These he displaced, and selected Clement II., who was placed in the chair of St Peter, and regularly afterwards raised to the spiritual dignities German ecclesiastics. This reform, although apparently wise at the time, as giving dignity to the pontiffs, was afterwards found in practice to have tended to corrupt them.

During the long minority of Henry IV., after the death of his father, Hildebrand, a monk, afterwards Pope Gregory VII., took the lead in opposition to the temporal power. The increase of clerical power was much promoted by the transactions of the Normans. As early as the year 1016, some warriors from Normandy settled in Apulia and Calabria, and having early formed alliances with the Longobards, the republics, or the Greeks, as best served their purpose, against the Saracens, they became, through their warlike habits, a very powerful party. Leo IX. made several attempts to draw them away; but these all failed, and ended in his own captivity and submission. Nicholas II., on the other hand, formed alliances with the Norman leaders, and in 1059 endowed Robert Guiscard with the feudal rights of all the lands he had conquered in Lower Italy. Afterwards, the popes, in the contentions with the imperial power, trusted chiefly to the aid they could draw from their faithful confederates, the newly-created Dukes of Apulia and Calabria, and the Great Counts of Sicily, Normans also. Whilst in the south of Italy the small states thus became larger, Italy, in the north the great states were broken up into several of small extent and power. The Longobard states founded their subsequent greatness, and Venice, Genoa, and Pisa had already become rich and powerful. The Pisans, who, in 980, were in alliance with Otho II., and performed great services against the Greeks, and against the Saracens in Lower Italy, united with the Genoese, now a seafaring and warlike people, to attack the unbelievers in Sardinia, and twice, in 1017 and 1050, conquered those intruders, and finally divided the lands, in large districts, amongst the most eminent of the native inhabitants.

Gregory VII., who was elected pope in the year 1073, used all the exertions and influence of his station to extend the power of the church. He laid claims to authority over Spain as a fief of the church, and required of that kingdom all the conquests which had been made from the Moors. Sardinia was demanded of the conquerors, and France was under his authority. He made attempts to exercise his power in Hungary, and even in Russia; and extorted from England the tax known by the name of Peter's pence, which long continued to be paid. In Italy, where knowledge had begun to dawn, there were many opposed to the vast extension of the papal power; but they were outnumbered by others, who feared more the government of a German prince. In most of the other parts of Europe the regular priests had so much influence, that the pretensions of the pontiff were submitted to with little or no reluctance. It was not so, however, in Germany. The policy of Gregory had enjoined on the priests the observance of celibacy, and the German clergy were reluctant to put away their wives. They opposed the pope's decrees, and joined with the emperor in resisting them. The German bishops in council pronounced the deposition of the pope; and the pontiff issued his excommunications against them and their emperor. A war thus broke out between Henry of Swabia and Pope Gregory, though Clement III. had been created pope by the Germans. Gregory with his army was defeated, and he retired to the Castle of St Angelo, where he was long besieged. On his release by Robert Guiscard he removed to Salerno, where he died in the year 1085. Two popes were chosen in succession by the cardinals, viz., Victor III. and Urban II.; whilst the antipope Clement, with his conclave, sometimes in Rome, at other times driven from it, never ceased to fulminate his excommunications. Urban maintained the contest with Clement, and in fact triumphed over him. His success was owing in a great measure to the part he took in favour of the Crusades, which about that period began to excite the attention and rouse the passions of all Europe to achieve the conquest of the Holy Land. The enthusiasm of the period enabled Urban to drive Clement from the city of Rome, and to take possession of the chair of St. Peter, in which dignity he terminated his life in the year 1099. Paschal II. was fixed by the cardinals at Rome in the papal chair; and though the party of Clement on his death elected another antipope, it did not weaken the secure hold on the dignity to which Paschal had been elevated. The son of Henry IV. was encouraged by the pope to rebel against him, as one who, being excommunicated, could not convey to his successor any right. The father was made prisoner by the son, and Henry V. was then crowned emperor and king.

Henry V., though, until he obtained the throne, the devoted defender of the papal claims, after his accession became their antagonist, and thus gained the support of his German nobles. After suppressing commotions in other parts of his dominions, he crossed the Alps with an army of eighty thousand men; passed through Italy to Rome without serious opposition; and there massacred many of the citizens, shut up the pope, the cardinals, and the nobility in prison, and held them confined till he had compelled Paschal II. to renounce the right of investiture in 1111, and to crown him as emperor. Henry had scarcely departed and reached his patrimonial dominions when he found a general flame kindled around him. The Lateran council disavowed all that the pope had done, upon the notorious ground that it had been extorted by force. The French clergy had acquiesced in the excommunication, and those of Germany rejected the bull of investiture; whilst a rebellion, excited by Duke Lothario, broke out in Saxony. By the aid of the Duke of Stauffen-Swabia, Henry was enabled to hush the domestic threatening storm, and again with an army marched to Italy, and seized upon Rome, whilst the pope fled to Apulia. At last, in the year 1122, by the Worms compact, the respective rights of the emperor and the pope were clearly defined, both with regard to the imperial investiture and to the selection of bishops and their oath of allegiance. Shortly afterwards Henry died at Utrecht in May 1125.

During the reigns of these German princes many of the cities of Italy had risen to considerable wealth, power, and splendour, and, from the emperors being often absent with their armies in the other parts of their dominions, had assumed to themselves almost all the rights of sovereignty. These cities forced the others of less extent near to them into an alliance, by which they obtained the aid of their population whenever they had occasion to have recourse to arms. The two cities of Milan and Pavia, in the north of Italy, were the chief of rival associations. Disputes between Milan and Cremona gave occasion to the first hostilities between the former of those cities and Pavia, in 1129, to which a contest between two rivals for the crown of Italy, Lothario II. and Conrad of Hohenstaufen, gave a different direction, and created two parties, the Guelphs, the adherents of the popes, and the Ghibelines, the supporters of the German emperors. These two parties, which long divided Italy, derive their origin from a family which in the eleventh century held extensive possessions in the north of Italy, amongst the mountains between St Gothard and the Brenner, and bore the name of Welf. They descended into the plains of Germany, and obtaining settlements in some of its finest provinces in the south of that country, were thus enabled in process of time to become the founders of both the royal and ducal houses of Guelph; the first seated on the throne of Great Britain, and the second enjoying the duchy of Brunswick.

This family quarrelled among themselves, one branch bearing the name of Welf, changed by the Italians into Guelph, and the other Weihlingen, changed into Ghibeline; and they had, before their intermeddling in the Italian wars, fought a bloody battle at Winsberg in 1140. The state of Italy favoured the creation of parties, to which the chiefs of the two branches of this German family attached themselves, and continued their animosity during more than one hundred years.

In Rome were violent schisms between the partisans of rival popes; and this again gave rise to that spirit of independence which that city had constantly nourished. It was especially excited by the preaching of Arnold of Brescia, an eloquent monk, the pupil of Abelard, who declaimed with great energy against the luxury of the clergy and the temporal power of the popes, and in favour of that liberty which Rome had in ancient times enjoyed. Though banished in the year 1146, he returned again from Zurich, where he had taken refuge, and, under the English Pope Adrian IV. was taken and burnt alive in 1155. In the meantime the two great cities had strengthened themselves. Milan had in her alliance the cities of Tortona, Crema, Bergamo, Brescia, Piacenza, and Parma. Pavia was at the head of Cremona and Novara. Verona, Padua, Vicenza, Treviso, and Mantua, who were nearly equal in power, maintained each its independence. Turin was at the head of the towns of Piedmont, and disputed the authority of the Counts of Savoy. The great feudatories were the Marquis of Montserrat and the Prince of Asti. To the south of the Po the city of Bologna had acquired great power, and exercised influence over Modena and Reggio on one side, and Ferrara, Ravenna, Faenza, Forli, and Rimini on the other. Florence had risen to superiority in Tuscany by the destruction of Fiesole, and had as allies the cities of Pistoia, Arezzo, San Miniato, Volterra, Lucca, Cortona, Perugia, and Siena.

Such was the state of affairs in Italy when the diet of the empire of Germany, assembled at Frankfort in the year 1152, bestowed the crown of that kingdom on Frederick duke of Bavaria, of the house of Hohenstaufen, better known by the name of Barbarossa, the nephew of Conrad, his predecessor in that dignity. The new emperor is recorded by the authorities of his time to have been brave, just, and not addicted to cruelty, yet his reign was a most disastrous one for Italy. The cities were zealous to defend the rights of self-government which they had obtained, and, though filled with factions, resolved to maintain them. They were surrounded with strong walls, impregnable against the arts of attack then practised; and they were well peopled with men, patient, brave, and abstemious. The open country and the smaller towns, from which the numerous fortified cities drew their sustenance, suffered severely whenever an army traversed that country; and, to produce a greater pressure on the cities, the rude soldiery of that time not only destroyed the provisions they could not consume, but cut down the growing crops before they were fit to be harvested, or set them on fire, with the houses and the barns of the cultivators. Barbarossa viewed the whole of Italy as his subjects, and treated those who opposed him as rebels and traitors; and as the Ghibellines, who were the weaker party, adhered to him, his chief operations were directed against the Guelphs, of whom Milan was the main support and centre of union.

Six times did the emperor cross the Alps with a numerous German army to reduce the country to obedience, and each time his attempts were frustrated. In 1154, in conjunction with the people of Pavia, he defeated the Milanese army, but could not take the city; yet he destroyed Tortona, and was then crowned in Pavia with the iron crown of Lombardy, and at Rome with the golden crown of the empire, though the ceremony was performed in the suburb, admission within the walls of the latter city being refused. After plundering Spoleto, sickness and desertion so thinned his ranks, that he led back the remnant of his troops, and repassed the Alps by way of Trent and the Tyrol. The most savage destruction was perpetrated in the retreat; but the cities were unassailed, and rejoiced in their freedom, though they did little injury to the retiring army. In the interval that followed, a civil war was carried on by the two parties, at the head of which were Milan and Pavia; but in this the latter, the weaker of the two confederates, suffered the most, whilst by the former the citizens of Tortona were received with sympathy, their houses rebuilt, and their fortifications restored.

Barbarossa entered Italy again in 1158, with the vassals who crowded to him from all parts of Germany. At Brescia the terror of his name induced that city to renounce the alliance with Milan, which refused to receive the emperor. By the aid of the militia of Cremona and Pavia he was enabled to besiege Milan; but his engines being insufficient to beat down the walls, he resolved to starve it into surrender, and intercepted all provisions and destroyed the growing crops. In this situation of distress Blandrate, an independent noble, known as a protector of Lombardy, with some others of the same rank, assumed the office of mediator, and obtained favourable terms. The city agreed to pay a tribute, and to restore the rights of the emperor, on condition that they should elect their consuls, and not be bound to open their gates to the emperor. Tortona and Crema were both included in this pacification, which was signed on the 7th of September 1158. A few weeks afterwards, a diet of the kingdom of Italy having been convoked at Roncaglia, fixed much wider bounds to the regal rights than the Milanese would admit, upon which they again took up arms and prepared to defend themselves. Another diet was called, which met at Bologna in the spring of 1159, and by whose decision Milan was declared to be under the ban of the empire. As that city was too strong to be captured, the first attempt of the emperor was directed against the allied city of Crema, which was compelled to surrender, after a siege of six months, in January 1160.

The German troops were exhausted by the severe duty of the siege, and their term of service having expired, many of them withdrew; but Frederick, with the Italian Ghibeline cities of Pavia, Cremona, and Novara, carried on the war by devastating the country of the Guelphs, and excluding all supplies from Milan. In June 1161, a new army reached the theatre of war in Italy, when the emperor resolved to reduce what he called his rebellious city. The defence of Milan was hopeless, but firmly maintained, when a fire, which destroyed the chief magazine of provisions, induced the inhabitants to surrender at discretion in March 1162. Frederick ordered the militia of the Ghibeline cities to raze the walls, and so to destroy the buildings, that not one stone should be left on another. The poorer inhabitants were placed in villages at some distance from the place; and many sought hospitality in other cities, where their perseverance was recorded with applause, and where they spread the love of freedom and hatred of tyranny. The spirit of independence so rapidly increased that it was soon communicated to the Ghibeline cities; and the effect of it was to produce a confederacy of a most extended nature. Frederick had entered Italy in 1163, attended only by his splendid train of nobles, but without an army, under the impression that he could at pleasure call out the militia of the Ghibeline cities. He directed his steps towards Rome, where, on account of a contest for the papal chair, occasioned by the death of Adrian IV., he thought his presence necessary. Whilst in the south, a union was formed in the Veronese, which he deemed injurious to his prerogatives; and he hastened to call out the militia of the Ghibeline cities of Pavia, Cremona, Lodi, and Como, to lead them against Verona; but they were indisposed to the service, upon which he returned to Germany to collect an army, on whose exertions he might depend.

In October 1166 Frederick descended from the Grisons with his newly collected army. His military operations were ineffectual; and whilst he advanced to Rome and to Ancona, the confederation of the cities of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, begun at Pontida in April 1167, was commenced on the 1st December of the same year, and assumed the name of the Lombard League. Frederick had been repulsed at Ancona, whilst he had been victorious at Rome; but his victory proved useless. His army was attacked by disease, which swept away great numbers; and with the remnant he could scarcely protect himself from the increasing influence of the League, whose authority had already restored Milan, and built the new city of Alessandria, at the confluence of the rivers Tanaro and Bormida. In March 1168, the emperor, with but a very few troops, was enabled to effect his retreat from his Italian subjects, by the road of Mount Cenis, and soon prepared a new German force, which was to be employed in coercing them.

In the efforts to lead the Germans again into Italy, he was baffled by their reluctance, and remained, as far as regarded Italy, in a state of repose during five years. He sent, indeed, his warlike chancellor, Christian, archbishop of Mentz, to raise his party in Tuscany, the only district Italy, in which there existed any portion of attachment to the Ghibelline cause.

In October 1174, Frederick again entered Italy at the head of a powerful army, but was detained four months by the siege of the newly-built town of Alessandria; and the sickness among his troops, occasioned by the severity of the winter, so weakened him, that having abandoned the siege in April 1175, he was too weak to attack the forces of the League, and thus induced to enter on a negotiation. Much time was spent, but no plan of conciliation was adopted; and Frederick again sent into Germany for an army, which arrived in the spring of 1176 at Como, whither he was enabled secretly to join them; but he could get very little aid from the few cities of the Ghibelline party. He advanced to the neighbourhood of Milan, and on the 29th May 1176 at Legnano, attacked the forces of the League. Though at first he met with success, yet the issue of the battle was so decisively against him, that his camp was pillaged, his army dispersed, and himself compelled to flee for his life. Finally he escaped to Pavia, to contradict the report of his death, which had prevailed during several days. Negotiations followed this defeat. The pope and the Venetians acted as mediators, and in 1177 a truce for six years was concluded.

During its continuance the political power of the League was strengthened and consolidated; whilst, on the other hand the emperor had learned the lesson, untaught to his predecessors, of submitting to restrictions imposed by subjects on their sovereign. The truce was followed by the treaty of Constance, 25th June 1183, which secured the privileges of the cities, and recognised the prerogatives of the monarch, with certain necessary restrictions.

Barbarossa partook of the religious enthusiasm which infected all Europe, and, after the peace of Constance, repaired to the Holy Land, where, in 1190, he was drowned in crossing the Calycadnus, an inconsiderable stream in Armenia.

Though the peace of 1183 gave political freedom to the cities, yet, as it was not followed by any confederation, each thought only of strengthening its own defences, and of intriguing for power and supremacy. A party spirit was thus kindled, which spread and continued during the whole period that the emperors of Germany of the house of Hohenstaufen continued to exercise the shadow of sovereignty. The cities were soon divided again into Guelphs and Ghibelines. Where the Guelphs had the government, a large minority constantly opposed them; and the same was the case where the opposite faction had the upper hand. Noble families were engaged in feuds with each other, which endured through generations, and were constantly occasioning open murders or private assassinations. An instance of the prevalent feudal proceedings may not be without its use in showing the effects of such a state of society. A noble Guelph, named Buondelmonte, of the upper vale of the Arno, had demanded the hand of a lady of the Ghibeline house of Amidei at Florence. His proposals were accepted, and preparations were made for the marriage. But a lady of another family, the Donati, stopped the lover as he passed her door; and bringing him into the apartment where her females were at work, raised the veil of her daughter, whose beauty was most captivating. "Here," said she, "is the wife I had reserved for thee. Like thee, she is a Guelph; whilst thou takest one from the enemies of thy church and race." Buondelmonte, dazzled and enamoured, instantly accepted the proffered hand. The Amidei considered this inconstancy as a deep affront; and all the noble families of Florence of the Ghibeline faction, about twenty-four in number, met, and agreed that he should stone with his life for this offence. Buondelmonte was attacked on the morning of Easter Sunday, as he passed the bridge on horseback, and was there killed. Forty-two families of the Guelphic faction then met, and swore to avenge the insult, and much bloodshed followed. Every day some new murder or some open battle alarmed the citizens of Florence, during the space of thirty-three years. These two parties stood opposed to each other within the walls of the same city; and although sometimes in appearance reconciled, yet every little accident renewed their animosity, and they again had recourse to deadly warfare.

The nobility of Italy, who possessed extensive feudal estates in the neighbourhood of the cities, were bound by their tenures to take part with the emperor in the hostilities he had carried on against them. They soon became deeply involved in debt; and their creditors were for the most part the inhabitants of the cities, to whom the estates were hypothecated. They were a high-spirited race, had by practice acquired great skill in arms, and were acuter and abler political intriguers than the magistrates of the cities. Some of the nobles who had castles sufficiently strong, lands sufficiently extensive, and vassals sufficiently numerous to defend themselves, became attached to the Ghibeline party. Those of them whose castles were weak from their situation, or near to cities too populous to be ruled by them, had been admitted to become citizens of such places, had assisted them in war, had obtained a considerable share in their government, and were for the most part compelled by their interest to become adherents of the Guelphic faction. The plains of Italy were thus deprived of all the independent nobility, who had become citizens of some of the free republics; but every chain of mountains was thickly set with castles, held by those who, whilst they maintained their own independence, professed to owe and to acknowledge allegiance to the emperors. As war was their sole occupation, they were often gladly received by the republics, which stood much in need of able captains. It seems that the independent nobles who became connected with the cities as commanders of the forces were not always, though most commonly, of the same faction; for the Ghibeline family of Visconti, which held most extensive fiefs, associated itself with the Guelphic republic of Milan. These nobles, however, when connected with the cities, soon acquired extensive influence, and became finally founders of families who obtained hereditary, and, some of them, sovereign power. Of these the house of Este, allied to the Guelphs of Saxony and of Bavaria, who had strong castles on the Euganean Hills, joined the republic of Ferrara. The family of Ezzel or Eccelino, whose fiefs and castles were at the foot of the Tyrolean range, and who were devoted to the Ghibeline party, formed connections with the republics of Verona and Vicenza. On the northern side of the Apennines, the fortresses of several Ghibeline nobles excited and maintained revolutions in Piacenza, Parma, Reggio, and Modena; whilst on the southern side of those hills were the castles of other Ghibeline nobles, in turns citizens or enemies of the republics of Arezzo, Florence, Pistoia, and Lucca.

The state of society here briefly sketched continued during the whole of the reign of the family of Hohenstaufen; yet in the latter years of that period the art of painting first made its appearance in Italy, and the first dawn of the revival of literature became visible in the horizon, by the improvement made in the language, by the discovery of magnifying glasses and of the magnet, by the establishment of the University of Bologna, and by the appearance of many writers of genius and learning, to whom the literature and civilization of all Europe became deeply indebted.

During the nominal reign of the German family, no one of the individuals who succeeded to the title after the death of Barbarossa is deserving of notice, excepting his grandson, Frederick II., who attained the dignity before he had arrived at the age of eighteen. During his reign, Innocent III. attained the pontifical chair; a man of vast talent, rare force of character, great learning, and an irreproach- able life. Though the instigator of the crusades against the Albigenses in France, his acts originated in the view he took of the moral effect of the increase of the ecclesiastical power, and of its concentration in the head of the church. He made efforts in Rome to establish civil liberty, by forming a representative senate, to whom all power but the judicial was intrusted; but he issued his commands to all the princes of Europe in stronger tones than those of Gregory VII., which, if obeyed, would have deprived them of all political liberty.

Frederick, who, at his coronation, had promised to undertake a crusade to the Holy Land, embarked for Palestine in 1228, and succeeded in making a treaty with the Sultan, in 1229, by which he obtained Jerusalem, and agreed that access to the Holy Sepulchre should be free both to Mohammedans and Christians. Gregory IX., who had succeeded Innocent, dissatisfied with the arrangements, excommunicated him. Having returned to Italy in 1237, he defeated at Cortenuovo his opponents, who lost 10,000 men; and his subsequent activity gained all Upper Italy to his party, except the four cities of Milan, Brescia, Piacenza, and Bologna. But Gregory IX. induced the maritime republics of Venice and Genoa to rescue the Guelphs from destruction. This gave a turn to affairs, though Pisa still held fast to the emperor and the Ghibellines. A general council, summoned by the pope, ratified his excommunication, and his party forsook him by degrees. The mendicant orders everywhere excited conspiracies against him; he became suspicious of every one around him, and was at length obliged to concede everything to the pope. Through the mediation of St Louis of France, he proposed, as the condition of his readmission to the church, that he should go to the Holy Land and join the crusaders. Whilst waiting the effect of his proposals he died from dysentery in the castle of Fiorentino in Apulia, the 13th December 1250.

After the death of Frederick, the new pope, Innocent IV., who had sought refuge at Lyons, returned to Italy, but he was deceived in the expectation of general submission which he had formed. During his progress through Genoa, Milan, Ferrara, Bologna, and Perugia, he was in some places received with coldness, and in others with disdain. Meanwhile, in the absence of the head of the empire, great confusion ensued, and freedom was extinguished. The Ecclesiastics became for a time absolute masters of the north of Italy. The cities of Mantua and Ferrara fell into the power of D'Este, and Verona into that of Mastino della Scala. Pallavicino became lord of Cremona, and the Torriani of Milan, Brescia, Alessandria, and Tortona. The whole of Italy, with the exception of Tuscany and the maritime cities, quietly submitted to a military commander.

During the period in which the emperors of Germany of the Swabian or Hohenstaufen race were the kings of Italy, the maritime cities of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa had grown up to be powerful republican states, and were only by slight ties bound to the common sovereigns of Italy. The nobility who had been admitted to the rights of citizenship were the senators; and some member of their families was commonly chosen as a ruler, with the title of doge or duke. They were strict aristocracies, preserved in that form by laws which, whilst they gave security to their privileges, secured in like manner the rights and possessions of each individual. Under this state of security they naturally became wealthy, and their progress was accelerated by favourable circumstances. The Crusades, which animated the whole west of Europe, created a demand for shipping to convey troops and stores to and from the Holy Land; and thus a mercantile navy was called into existence, which could at any time be easily converted into a military navy. It was in this way that Venice was enabled to take, and for a time to retain, the city of Constantinople itself.

The commerce of the East had also greatly contributed to increase the wealth, and consequently the power, of these free cities. The chiefs of the Crusades, who returned from these expeditions, brought with them from Asia a taste for its luxuries; and for these the maritime cities became the storehouses, supplying the countries in the western part of Europe.

After the death of Pope Alexander IV., in 1261, his successor, Urban IV., among several princes who sought the government of Italy, selected Charles of Anjou, brother of St Louis of France, appointed him king of Naples, a senator of Rome, papal vicar of Tuscany, and finally king of Italy. This gave a new direction to the two parties, the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, which still distracted the country. One of them was considered as the friend, and the other as the enemy, of the French aspirant. Besides these parties, there were also the republics; and besides them, contests between the nobles and the people, in most of which the latter were, in the beginning at least, the conquerors. Charles invaded Naples, and defeated Manfred, the king, who fell in battle at Benevento, February 26, 1266, and thus gave the superiority to the Guelphs, which he further increased by placing a garrison in Florence, and excluding from the councils the whole of the nobles, and all others of the Ghibelline party. He was for a short time alarmed by an invasion from Germany under Conradin, the grandson of Frederick II., and the last of the house of Hohenstaufen, who claimed the throne of Naples. Conradin was only sixteen years of age when he arrived at Verona at the head of 10,000 cavalry, where he was joined by all the Ghibelline commanders who had distinguished themselves under his ancestor, and aided by the efforts of the Ghibelline cities, Pisa and Siena. The citizens of Rome were so disposed to favour him, that on his advance they opened their gates and promised assistance. But all this zeal in his favour was of no avail. He entered the Abruzzi, and in the Campi Palentini, near Tagliacozzo, fought a desperate battle 26th August 1268. It terminated in the total defeat of the Germans. Conradin, with the chiefs, were made prisoners, and, after a mock trial, were condemned and beheaded at Naples on the 26th of October 1268. After these executions, an uninterrupted exhibition of similar spectacles filled the two Sicilies, and some other parts of Italy, with such horror and dismay, that Charles of Anjou reigned triumphantly, and soon acquired the mastery over the republican cities.

Gregory X., who ascended the papal throne in 1272, saw the impolicy of his predecessors, who had given themselves a French master. He endeavoured to raise the Ghibelline party so as to counterbalance the Guelphs; and engaged Pisa, Venice, and Genoa, to co-operate with him in choosing a chief. The election was made the following year, when Rudolph of Hapsburg, the founder of the house of Austria, was declared emperor. Martin IV., who was made pope in 1280, undid the work of his predecessor, and persecuted the Ghibellines with great fury; but in the mean time the popes had secured to the holy see the temporal power over the ecclesiastical territories. During this period hostilities took place between the maritime republics. The Genoese had assisted Michael Palaeologus in his successful efforts to retake Constantinople from the Venetians, and had received for their reward the island of Chios. In 1284, the Genoese had nearly annihilated the fleet of the Pisans in a sea fight near Meloria; and in another battle, near Curzola, they had gained the command of the sea by their defeat of the Venetians.

Charles was preparing an armament in all the ports of Naples and of Sicily, with the intention of contending in Greece for the Eastern Empire. This induced him to levy taxes of great amount with excessive rigour, and the judges endeavoured to prevent resistance by striking terror into Italy. all those who declined or even delayed the required payments. John of Procida, who had been the friend and confidant of Frederick and of Manfred, a native of Salerno, visited the cities of both Sicilies, to reanimate the zeal of the Ghibellines, and to rouse their hatred towards the French. He had also obtained promises from Greece and from Spain. It was not necessary, however, to have recourse to foreign aid, for a sudden and popular explosion took place in Palermo. It was excited by a French soldier, who behaved rudely to a betrothed lady, as she was on her way with her affianced husband to a church to receive the nuptial benediction. The indignation of her family was on the instant communicated to the populace. The bells of the churches were ringing for vespers; the people answered by the cry, "To arms! death to the French!" The French were furiously attacked in every quarter. Those who attempted to defend themselves were soon overpowered; others, who endeavoured to pass for Italians, were known by their pronunciation, and instantly put to death. In a few hours more than four thousand persons thus perished in Palermo, and every other town in Sicily followed the bloody example. Thus the Sicilian vespers overthrew the dominion of Charles and of the Guelphs, separated that island from the kingdom of Naples, and transferred the crown of the former to Peter of Aragon, the son-in-law of Manfred, who was considered as the heir of the house of Hohenstaufen. The massacre occurred on the 30th of March 1282.

In 1282 the democratic principle had been established in Florence by the attainder of the nobles as a body, and the Guelphic party had received great accessions of strength; but some disputes, which had originated in the neighbouring town of Pistoia, were extended to Florence, and in a short time divided the whole of Tuscany into two factions of Guelphs, called the Bianchi and the Neri, or the Whites and the Blacks. The mutual animosity and hostility of these factions lasted till 1302, when, by the intrigues of Boniface VIII., and the instrumentality of Charles de Valois, the Bianchi were plundered and expelled the country. Many of them thereupon joined the Ghibellines. In Lombardy the dying cause of freedom still continued to exist, and was at length rekindled; and the people, wearied out with the feuds of their nobles, between 1302 and 1306 drove them from the towns. At this period, by the management of Philip le Bel, a Frenchman, Clement V. was chosen pope, who removed the seat of the papal throne to Avignon, where it was maintained till 1377. This gave room for the display of the spirit of freedom in Rome, and in all the territory of the church. The authority, and almost the name of the emperor of Germany had been neglected in Italy during sixty years, whilst the minds of the people were wholly occupied with internal disputes. At length, in 1308, the diet of Germany advanced Henry of Luxembourg to the imperial dignity, after three other princes had enjoyed that honour. Henry VII. had little power to enforce obedience in Germany, and foresaw symptoms of opposition, which he wished to divert by flattering the vanity of conflicting parties, and uniting them in projects for extending his authority over the several parts of Italy. Henry crossed Mount Cenis, and appeared in Italy in 1310, accompanied by a few cavalry, not amounting to two thousand, composed chiefly of Belgians, Germans, and some Savoyards. At Turin he was received by many of the nobles of Lombardy and Piedmont, who at least professed obedience; and even the cities, in confusion and distress as they all were from their internal contentions, gave indications of a strong desire for tranquillity under their constitutional chiefs. Henry professed strict impartiality, and his conduct corresponded with his professions; but he was sadly in need of money. Supplies were furnished to him with great parsimony by all but the citizens of Pisa, who were extremely liberal, and increased his force with a guard of six hundred bowmen, who accompanied him to Rome, where he received the golden crown of the emperor from the pope's legate, without the walls, as the citizens refused admission to him and his troops, but had admitted a garrison of Neapolitans. The terms for which his foreign troops had enlisted had expired on his coronation, and they mostly left his service; but the Ghibellines of Central Italy gathered round him, and formed a respectable force. He made some ineffectual efforts to conquer the democracy of Florence, who had taken a garrison of mercenaries into their pay. Reinforced by the Pisans, he then marched towards Rome to contend with Robert, king of Sicily, who maintained an ill-disciplined force in that city, and expected reinforcements from the Guelphs of Tuscany. On the road, not far from Siena, on the 24th August 1313, he died from poison administered to him in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper by a Dominican monk.

On the death of Henry, disputes arose at the diet in Frankfort respecting the succession to the imperial crown, but they seemed to have had little effect on the condition of Italy. In a few years most of the republican cities in the middle of Italy had fallen under the government of some distinguished military family, whilst Tuscany alone maintained a share of liberty, by selecting Robert, king of Naples, as its protector. The Ghibelline city of Pisa found a master in Ugugccione della Faggiuola in 1314; and, after his expulsion in 1316, in Castruccio Castracani. Padua fell to the house of the Carraras. Alessandria, Tortona, and Cremona were reduced to submission by the Visconti of Milan. Mantua fell to the share of Gonzaga in 1328. In Ferrara the family of the Este established their hereditary power; and Ravenna became the patrimony of the Polentas. In the other cities the same tyranny was established, and in each succeeding age with ever increasing evils. The petty tyrants adhered to Robert of Naples, whose greedy lust of power obtained the means of indulgence, when Clement V., designing thereby to hold the balance of parties in his own hands, appointed him vicar-general of Italy. Louis of Bavaria made his appearance in Italy in 1327, in order to put down both Anjou and the Guelphs. He was at first supported by the Ghibellines; whom, however, he soon completely estranged by his weakness and treachery. Meanwhile, the wickedness of Pope John XXII., who supported the Guelphs, had so cooled their zeal in his favour, that the two parties who had so long opposed each other, in the cause of common freedom, were now reconciled.

At this period (1330) John, king of Bohemia, the son of the Emperor Henry VII., made his appearance in Italy; and having been invited by the citizens of Brescia, and favoured by the pope, he was announced as the mediator and pacificator of the kingdom. But his purposes were frustrated by the opposition of Tuscany, where a dread of the government of a single person was generally entertained. His fickle disposition made him soon abandon his objects, and he quitted Italy in 1333.

After his departure, Mastino della Scala, who had been one of his supporters, and who was lord of the half of Lombardy, and of the territory of Lucca, began to threaten the independence of Italy. He was opposed by a league, at the head of which was Florence. But hostilities had hardly begun when they were brought to a close, and the freedom of Florence was thereby secured. The necessities of Mastino induced him to sell his city of Lucca to the Florentines, upon which the Pisans rose and took that city for themselves. After this transaction, the Florentines, disgusted with those who had caused the loss of Lucca, selected as their chief a military adventurer, who, in the Crusades, had obtained the title of the Duke of Athens; but, owing to his severity, they soon dismissed him. In Rome, torn by aristocratic factions, Cola di Rienzo was chosen tribune of the people, in order to restore the laws and tranquillity; but after seven months he was obliged to give way before the power of the nobles, in 1347. After a banishment of seven years, in 1354 he returned with Cardinal Albornoz; but his rule was short, and he was killed in an insurrection instigated by the nobles. The Genoese, tired out with everlasting quarrels between the Guelphic families of Spinola and Doria, and the Ghibeline families of Grimaldi and Fieschi, drove them all out of their city, and elected their own first doge or duke. In Pisa the Ghibelines were divided into two violent parties, those of Bergolini and of Raspani, when, after much contention, the latter succeeded in expelling the former, in 1348. At this period Italy suffered from a dreadful famine, which, in 1347, swept away, by absolute starvation, vast numbers of the inhabitants; and in the following year a pestilence of a deadly nature swept the peninsula. Such was the suffering produced by these visitations, that it was calculated that two-thirds of the whole population were destroyed. Another tremendous scourge followed, and was longer endured. After each peace, troops of disbanded soldiers were formed under chiefs, called condottieri, who carried on war on their own account, burning some towns, ransoming others, and plundering everywhere. They were mostly Germans, who had been called in by the Visconti and della Scalas. A Duke Werner, a Count Lado, and a Friar Monreale, led bands of these robbers, who devastated Italy from Montserrat to the extremity of Naples, between 1348 and 1354. Meantime another war had broken out between the maritime republics of Genoa and Venice. The Venetians formed alliances with the Greek emperor and with Peter of Aragon. Formidable fleets were collected, one commanded by the Genoese admiral, Pagamino Doria, and the other by the Venetian, Nicolo Pisani. A battle was fought between them on the 13th of February 1352, which proved indecisive; but in a second, fought in the following August, the Genoese were defeated with great loss. In two years success changed sides; and after a defeat of the Venetians in November 1354, a truce was agreed to, which terminated in a peace in the month of May following.

The family of Visconti had risen to great power in the centre of Italy. John Visconti had influence in Genoa, intrigued in Venice, and threatened to destroy the independence of Tuscany. He died in 1354; and his power and pretensions, being divided between his three nephews, became weaker, and received a check when Charles IV. returned to Italy in 1355 to remodel the governments of Pisa and Siena, and so far overcame Tuscany, though only for a short period, as to compel even Florence to adopt the title of an imperial city. With but little real power he opposed the Visconti; but ended in obtaining money from them, as he did from most parts of Italy, in his progress through the country. In 1363, he liberated the city of Lucca from the dominion which the Pisans had obtained over it. Between the years 1365 and 1375, Pope Innocent VI. obtained absolute power over the cities of the papal dominions; but lost much of it again, from the discontent excited by the tyranny of the legate, and by the interference of Florence in favour of their freedom. Robert of Geneva, who was elected as pope, and took the name of Clement VII., established his court at Naples in 1378, under the protection of Queen Joanna. He was opposed by another pope, Urban VI. The church was thus divided between two popes and two colleges of cardinals, and the temporal power of the holy see was weakened. Several of the cities had been enfranchised by the Florentines; but those of Romagna, with some others, fell under the yoke of petty tyrants.

The continued thirst for dominion of the Visconti in the centre of Italy, where they had rendered themselves masters of Genoa and Bologna, excited a general combination against them, at the head of which was Florence; and the old parties of Guelphs and Ghibelines were forgotten in this new and threatening crisis. In Florence, the Guelphs were divided into two parties, the Ricci and the Albizzi. After much bloodshed, Michael de Lando, a man of humble origin, but brave and generous, restored tranquillity in 1378. The party of the Ricci, which had thus suffered a temporary check, was essentially aristocratic, and comprised among its members the family of Medici, whose names are then for the first time to be met with in Italian history. This party soon afterwards, in another tumult, banished Lando, and those who had supported his nomination, and then re-established the former aristocracy more firmly than before.

In the other republics the same progress was made. The leaders of the democracy, or their heirs, created themselves tribunes of the people, and became a fresh aristocracy, with the power of transmitting it to their families. At Genoa, a civil war was carried on for a long time between the two strongest parties. It ended in their conferring the sovereignty, in 1396, on Charles VI., king of France.

In Lombardy, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, who was on the throne of Milan, having rendered himself master of the smaller cities in that district, alarmed Siena, Pisa, Bologna, and other considerable places. Being restrained by the opposition of the Florentines from attacking them at that time, he carried out his design a few years later, and conquered most of them. Tuscany itself was endangered by his ambitious views, and was only saved by the appearance of the plague to which Gian Galeazzo with many thousand others fell a victim in 1402. This event gave a breathing time to that part of Italy; and, during the minority of the son of Gian, many of the places he had seized were retaken. Milan fell into a state of anarchy, and the Venetians availed themselves of it to conquer Padua and Verona, whilst, on the other side, the Florentines captured Pisa; and Gian Maria, a youth, was only supported on the tottering throne of Milan by the arms of his mercenaries. His tyranny and cruelty are painted in the blackest colours by all the writers of his age; and he at length fell a victim to the indignation of some of the nobles, by whom he was assassinated, in May 1412.

In 1409, a new but transitory danger threatened the republic of Florence, by the invasion of Ladislams, king of Naples, which was no sooner repressed than the power of the Visconti became predominant. The Duke Philip Maria of that family, with the assistance of his celebrated general, Carmagnola, between 1414 and 1420, conquered all the states which had belonged to the family in Lombardy; and Genoa submitted to him in 1421. Venice and Florence then made a league in 1425, and Carmagnola conquered the whole of the territories on the river Adda, and secured them by the peace of Ferrara in 1428. The condottiero Braccio Montone contrived to make himself master of the city of Perugia, and of the whole of Umbria, and extended his power to Rome itself; whilst the Petrucci, in 1430, firmly established their power in Siena.

After the weakening of Milan by the Florentines and Venetians, and owing to the constant disturbances raised in Naples by the party of Anjou against Alfonso of Aragon, there was no longer any dangerously preponderating power in Italy. There existed, however, constant hostility between the armed military bands, in two divisions, according to their usual practice. One of these was led by Braccio Montone, and the other by Sforza Attendolo. Francis Sforza was enabled to make himself, after the death of Visconti, master of the whole territory of Milan, in 1450. The Venetians, greedy of extended territory, made an alliance with some of the smaller states; Sforza made a counter treaty with Florence, which, under the change of circumstances, providently changed its policy. At this period the house of Medici, by its wealth and its prudence, began to attract notice and to gain importance in Florence. The power of Milan, where Sforza ruled; of Venice, which possessed the half of Lombardy; of Florence, which was wisely directed by Lorenzo de' Medici; and of Naples, which was not in a state to venture on offensive war; formed towards the end of the fifteenth century the political balance of Italy, and, in spite of manifold feuds, gave confidence to each state that its independence was secure.

In 1494, Charles VIII., king of France, advanced towards Italy, designing to conquer Naples; and Ludovico Sforza came forward, first to support, but afterwards to oppose him, whilst the pope, Alexander VI., in order to elevate his son Caesar Borgia, courted the French alliance. The opposition to Charles was feeble, but the cruelties and the rapine which he caused or permitted filled Italy with disgust. Ludovico Sforza collected an army in the north, which induced Charles to leave one-half of his forces to retain the possession of Naples, which he had gained. He was impeded in his retreat, and lost in it the greater part of his army before he could enter his own kingdom. That portion of his force which he had left in Naples was obliged to capitulate at Atella in July 1496; so that after two years of a devastating war, the French did not gain the least footing. Louis XII., who had succeeded to Charles VIII. in April 1498, made pretensions to the government of Milan. He was opposed only by Ludovico Sforza, because Venice, which would have joined Ludovico, was engaged in an alarming war with the Turks; and Florence, from which the Medici had been banished, was ruled by a party intent upon subjecting Pisa to their authority. Alexander VI., who had opposed Charles, formed an alliance with Louis, on condition that Caesar Borgia should be made Duke of Valentinois in France, and of Romagna in Italy. Frederick king of Naples, though aware that he must be ultimately the victim of France, was too much occupied in restoring tranquillity at home to take any active measures to protect Italy.

Louis, favoured by the position of affairs, passed the Alps with a powerful army in August 1499. He took some small towns by assault, and put the garrisons and most of the inhabitants to the sword; a ferocious proceeding, which produced universal terror, so that Sforza could make no opposition, but dispersed the army he had collected, and withdrew with his family and treasures into Germany. There he found protection with the Emperor Maximilian. The cities of the north of Italy opened with trembling anxiety their gates to the troops of the French king, and he was installed as Duke of Milan in that capital, whilst Genoa, which had been an ally of Sforza, made terms with France. After this hasty subjugation, Louis returned to Lyons. The insolence of the French, their violation of all national institutions, their contempt of Italian manners, the accumulation of taxes, and the irregularity of their administration, rendered the yoke insupportable. Ludovico soon became acquainted with the ferment which prevailed, and the eager wishes of his subjects to see him again at their head. Presenting himself on the Swiss frontier, he hastily collected a small force. With this he entered Lombardy in February 1500, having only five hundred horse and eight thousand infantry. Como, Milan, Parma, and Pavia, opened their gates to receive him; and after a short siege Novara capitulated. But Louis was active, and his general, Tremouille, advanced to suppress this rebellion with an army in which were ten thousand Swiss. Hired troops of the cantons were in both armies. When they met, these troops had parleys between themselves, and the part in Ludovico's army agreed with those in the army of Tremouille to murder their Italian fellow-soldiers, and to leave the service in which they had entered. This was executed. Ludovico Sforza was delivered up and sent to France, where he died after ten years' imprisonment; and the Swiss returned home with the wages of perfidy and the curses of Lombardy, whilst the French continued masters of the country till 1512.

The French then attempted to gain Naples, and a most infamous treaty was concluded with Ferdinand the Catholic of Spain, who had engaged to defend it, by which that unfortunate country was subdued; and in the division of it, quarrels broke out between the French and Spaniards, in consequence of which, after the battle of the Garigliano, gained the 27th December 1503, by Gonzalvo, the general of the latter, the French were completely driven out, and the kingdom of Naples became an appanage of the Spanish crown.

By the death of Pope Alexander VI., and the accession of Julius II., the pretensions of Caesar Borgia vanished, as the new pontiff was more zealous to strengthen the holy see than to advance the son of his predecessor. With this view he formed a treaty with the kings of France and Spain, called the League of Cambrai, in 1508, the object of which was to check the engrossing measures of the Venetian republic. Failing in this object, his holiness, in 1509, entered into a treaty with the Venetians themselves, in which the king of Spain and the Swiss cantons were comprehended. His aim was to drive the French out of Italy; but he finally abandoned this project, from a fear that the council of French and German prelates assembled at Pisa would be induced to declare his election to the popedom invalid, and dismiss him from the dignity. In the mean time Maximilian of Germany and the king of France had concocted an alliance at Blois, by which it was agreed to divide between them the whole of the dominions of Venice on the continent; and in consequence of it, hostilities commenced in 1509. The cities surrendered to the French, the Germans, or the Spaniards, all of whom exercised the most abominable cruelties. The pope, in the midst of the conquests of the great powers, became alarmed, and attempted to free Italy from their ravages, by inflaming the emperor against the French, by forming a league with Venice, and by calling in the aid of the mercenary Swiss. The pope raised an army, commanded by the Duke of Urbino; and though it was defeated in 1511, he succeeded in forming a league, to which the prefix of Holy was given, on account of his being at the head of it, with the kings of Spain and of England, and which also comprehended the Swiss and the Venetians.

A powerful Spanish army from Naples, in 1512, advanced to assist the pope, commanded by Raymond de Cordova, who was gladly received by the people. The French advanced under the command of Gaston de Foix, and a murderous battle was fought near Ravenna, on the 11th of April 1512. The French were victorious, but their victory was more than counterbalanced by the loss of their great general, who fell in the action. Maximilian suddenly betrayed his allies, recalled the German troops from the French service, and gave a passage through his territory to the Swiss to join the Venetian army. Ferdinand of Spain and Henry VIII. of England simultaneously attacked France, which was thus obliged to recall her troops from Italy, and abandon the country to the power of the Holy League. The liberties of Italy were then annihilated. Florence, with Tuscany, after being plundered by the Spaniards without pity or remorse, was delivered over to the banished but now restored Medicis. Giovanni de' Medici, afterwards Pope Leo X., with some other members of that family, reimbursed themselves for their long proscription, by the abundant wealth they employed their power to extort.

Charles V., already king of Spain, on the death of his grandfather Maximilian, was raised to the imperial throne in 1519. Charles, and Francis the king of France, had abundant subjects of contest; and Italy was doomed to be- come the theatre of their quarrels. Francis, in 1523, sent an army under Bonnivet to invade Lombardy and take possession of Milan. The city had time to collect stores and complete its defences, owing to the supineness of the French general, and thus was preserved from capture till the emperor raised an army of sufficient strength to meet Bonnivet in the field.

In the next year the imperial army received such reinforcements that Bonnivet thought himself unable to resist it, and resolved to withdraw his troops. On the retreat he was wounded, and the command devolved on the Chevalier Bayard, who was killed in the battle. The remnant of the French now only thought of escaping to their own country, leaving Lombardy in the power of the imperialists. Charles was so elated by the success of his arms in Italy, that he resolved on invading the patrimonial dominions of Francis, and accordingly Pescara led his army into Provence, and began the siege of Marseilles; but the attempt proved unsuccessful, and Francis once more mustered courage to make an attempt to retrieve the reverses he had suffered in Italy. The French passed the Alps by Mount Cenis, and the rapidity of their movements enabled them to enter Milan, which was unprepared for the attack; but the imperial general secured and garrisoned the citadel, which in some measure commanded it. Francis then laid siege to Pavia, which was strongly fortified, and garrisoned by six thousand veterans. The siege occupied several months, and thus gave time for Charles to collect his troops. Francis was resolved to fight, though urged by his generals to avoid a battle. On the 24th of February 1525, the two armies engaged; the contest was obstinate, and the issue long doubtful; but after dreadful carnage, the imperialists were victorious, Francis himself was taken prisoner, and with him Henry king of Navarre, and a few only of the body guard escaped. The French in Milan retired, and in fourteen days after the battle, not a soldier of that nation remained in Italy.

After this attempt of the French on Italy, which, like all that preceded, had only shown that a temporary ascendancy could be obtained by that nation, but could never be retained, the preponderating influence was securely held by the Emperor Charles V. Most of the reigning houses disappeared, and their successors were appointed either avowedly or secretly by him. When the male line of the Marquis of Montserrat became extinct, Charles, in 1536, gave his dominions to Gonzaga of Mantua; and Maximilian II., in 1573, created it a dukedom. The Florentines made an attempt, after murdering the Duke Alexander in 1537, to regain their independence; but their efforts were unavailing, and Cosmo de Medici was raised to supreme power by the influence of Charles. Parma and Piacenza had been seized upon by Pope Julius II. for the holy see; but Paul III., in 1545, erected those states into a dukedom for his natural son Peter Alexander Farnese, whose son Octavio, in 1556, was invested by the emperor. Genoa, which, since 1499, had submitted to France, found a deliverer from that power in the person of Andrea Doria, who established a firm aristocracy, which overcame the conspiracy planned by Fieschi for its overthrow. Charles in 1559 had conveyed Milan, and also the kingdom of Naples, to his son Charles. At the peace of Château-Cambresis in 1559, Philip II. and Henry II. of France renounced their pretensions to Piedmont, which was given to the legitimate heir, the brave Spanish general Emmanuel Philip, duke of Savoy. In 1597 the legitimate line of the house of Este became extinct, upon which Caesar d'Este, a natural son of the last prince, obtained Modena and Reggio by an encroachment on the empire; and Ferrara was conveyed to him as a feudatory of the papal throne.

The end of the sixteenth century was a period of peace in Italy, and of such prosperity as could be expected after the discovery of the way to India by the Cape of Good Hope had destroyed the eastern traffic it had so long monopolized and found so lucrative. In the next century only some insignificant changes of territory took place. By the treaty of Lyons, 12th January 1601, the house of Savoy gave up some possessions it had in France, and received in return the estate of Saluzzo. By the peace of Cherasco in 1631, the cunning of Richelieu obtained Pignerol and Casale, which commanded the passes into Italy; but in 1637 he was obliged to give up the latter fortress. The peace of Italy was not disturbed by any of the operations of Louis XIV. of France. Its neutrality had been made one of the terms of the treaty of Turin in 1696.

The war of succession in Spain, which broke out in 1700, produced considerable changes in Italy. The battle of Turin, won (September 7, 1706) by the Imperialists under the command of Prince Eugene of Savoy, caused the French to surrender to Austria (March 13, 1707) all the possessions and fortresses which they occupied in virtue of the Spanish rights in Lombardy; and thus Spain, after having held them for two centuries, lost them without even her consent having been asked. The duchy of Mantua shared the same fate. Ferdinand Gonzaga, the last duke, sunk in sensuality and sloth, and utterly indifferent to affairs of state, had allowed the French to occupy it during the war. It, too, was surrendered to the Imperialists, notwithstanding the protest of Ferdinand, who died of grief at Padua a few months after. By the treaty of Turin, October 7, 1703, Montserrat, which formed part of the duchy, was ceded by Austria to Savoy as the price of her co-operation. In 1707 the Imperialists took possession of Naples with scarcely any resistance from the Spanish viceroy. By the peace of Utrecht (April 1713) and the two treaties of Rastadt and Basle (March 6, September 7, 1714) the arrangements which had followed the battle of Turin were ratified, and the emperor was confirmed in his possession of Naples. The island of Sardinia, given up by Spain, was added to his conquests, and Sicily, chiefly through the agency of England, was also wrested from Spain, and given to the house of Savoy. After the death of Louis XIV., Spain, at that time governed by Cardinal Alberoni, endeavoured to retrieve her losses, and pounced upon Sardinia in 1717, and on Sicily in the following year. England, France, Holland, and Austria immediately formed themselves into a league against her, known as the Quadruple Alliance. The war that began was brought to a close by the peace of February 17, 1720. Naples was left in the possession of the house of Austria, which also received Sicily, exchanging it with the house of Savoy for the island of Sardinia. From this time the dukes of Savoy have taken the title of kings of Sardinia. The contingent succession to Tuscany, and to Parma and Piacenza, upon the extinction which was then anticipated of the Medici and Farnese families, was secured to Don Carlos, the younger son of Philip V. of Spain by Elisabetta Farnese, his second wife.

The war of the Polish succession, 1733–38, caused other important changes in the Italian peninsula. The Spanish Infant Don Carlos, to whom the duchies of Parma and Piacenza had already devolved (January 10, 1731), seized the kingdom of Naples, defeated the Austrians at Bitonto (May 25, 1734), and was crowned at Palermo (December 1734) as king of Naples and Sicily. Emmanuel of Savoy, now king of Sardinia, joined France and Spain, and with the aid of the former was enabled to take possession of the duchy of Milan. By the treaty of Vienna, of November 1735 (at first entered into only by Austria and France, but to which afterwards Spain and Sardinia found themselves obliged to give in their adhesion), it was stipulated that Don Carlos should deliver up Parma and Piacenza to the emperor, and in return be acknowledged king of Naples and Sicily; that the king of Sardinia should restore the duchy of Milan to Austria, retaining only Tortona and Novara; that Tuscany, at the death of the grand-duc Giangastone de Medici, who had no heir, should go to the house of Lorraine in compensation for their hereditary states, which, on their taking possession of Tuscany, were to go to Stanislaus, the father-in-law of Louis XV., in return for his renouncing the Polish crown, and after his death to France. Giangastone, in whom the line of the Medici became extinct, complained of these arrangements formed without his knowledge; but all he could obtain was an imperial diploma, issued with the consent of the Germanic diet on the 24th January 1737, which, to remove any chance of reversion to the empire, provided that at his death the sovereignty of Tuscany should be vested in Francis of Lorraine, and his male descendants in the order of primogeniture; in case of the extinction of that line, in Charles of Lorraine and his male descendants; and, failing the male branches altogether, it should be vested in their female descendants. Giangastone died the same year, and Francis of Lorraine, who had married Maria Theresa, eldest daughter of the Emperor Charles VI., afterwards empress of Austria, came to his newly acquired state in 1739. Massa and Carrara, in 1743, fell by hereditary succession to the duke of Modena.

The death of Charles VI. without male issue gave origin to the war of the Austrian succession. By a treaty agreed upon at Worms in 1743 by Austria, England, and Sardinia, the Finale was wrested from the republic of Genoa, a neutral power, which was thereupon driven, in self-defence, to join Spain and France. In the course of the war the Austrians were defeated at Velletri, near the Neapolitan frontier (10th August 1744), by Charles III., and were driven out of Milan by the Spaniards, who, in their turn, were expelled by Charles Emmanuel of Savoy. Genoa surrendered (7th September 1746) without opposition to the Austrians, who did such deeds of tyranny and extortion that the people rose en masse and drove them out of the town. The next year (1747) it withstood successfully a severe and protracted siege by Austrians and Piedmontese on land, and by an English squadron at sea. At length, by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (30th April—18th October 1748), Charles III. was maintained in the possession of Naples and Sicily; the duchies of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla, were settled on his brother Don Philip; Milan was restored to the house of Austria; the districts of Vigevanoasco and Bobbio, and some portions of Anghiera and Pavia, which Maria Theresa had ceded to the king of Sardinia for his services, were secured to him, and the Finale was restored to Genoa.

As soon as peace was definitely made, Genoa continued with greater energy the warfare which had been going on in the island of Corsica from 1736; but finding herself unable to cope alone with the islanders, especially through the genius and military skill of General Paoli, by a treaty concluded at Versailles (15th May 1768) she made over the island to Louis XV. A large French army, after a protracted and obstinate resistance, overcame the Corsicans, and Paoli, with more than 400 of the leading patriots, was compelled to make his escape from the persecution of the conqueror on the 13th June 1769.

From the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle to the attack of the French upon Piedmont in 1792, Italy enjoyed 44 years of peace, during which the country made steady progress in the improvement of its social and political institutions. The Emperor Joseph II. encouraged the University of Pavia, abolished in part the feudal institutions, and checked the privileges of the clergy in Lombardy, which, under the mild and wise administration of his minister, Count Firmian, increased greatly in wealth and population. His brother Leopold, grand-duc of Tuscany, gave a new code of laws, introduced numerous improvements into every branch of the administration, and supported the bishop of Pistoja, Scipione de' Ricci, in his attempts at ecclesiastical reform. In Naples, Charles III., and, after his accession to the throne of Spain, his son Ferdinand, under the ministry of the Marquis Tanucci, adopted the same course of reforms. Feudal rights and jurisdictions were nearly all abolished, attempts were made towards a methodical arrangement of the numberless existing statutes, pragmatics, edicts, &c.; and the mortmain laws were enacted to check the increase of the excessive landed property of religious corporations. Numerous improvements were also made in the duchies of Parma and Piacenza by Don Philip, under the direction of his minister Dutillet. Even the Roman States had not been stationary. The reform in the secondary branches of the administration begun by Benedict XIV. (Lambertini, 1744–1758); neglected by Clement XIII. (Rezzonico, 1758–1769); were continued by Clement XIV. (Ganganelli, 1769–1774), who, yielding to the demands of the courts of France, Spain, Portugal, Naples, and Parma, suppressed the order of the Jesuits (21st July 1773); and by Pius VI. (Braschi, 1774–1799), who drained the Pontifical Marshes.

Such was the state of Italy when the French attacked Sardinia in September 1792. As the narrative of the events by which Italy fell under the dominion of Bonaparte has been already given under the head FRANCE, it is only necessary to refer the reader to that article. When quiet possession of the peninsula had been gained in 1797, republicanism was in the ascendant at Paris, and the Cisalpine republic was formed. Lombardy was extended by adding to it a portion of the papal territory. Genoa formed another republic, called the Ligurian; and Venice, which had submitted without opposition, changed its own institutions on the model of the French republic, though it was soon afterwards transferred to Austria by the treaty of Campo-Formio. Naples also was, in 1799, formed into the Parthenopean republic, but after a few months Cardinal Ruffo re-established the government of Ferdinand IV., the leading patriots having surrendered the castle on condition that they should be allowed to go to France. The capitulation was broken by Lord Nelson; and the liberals who had already embarked on ship-board, and who numbered many of the best and most learned men in Naples, were all executed. When Bonaparte became first consul, the Cisalpine republic was new-modelled after the pattern of France, and converted into the Italian republic. In 1805, when the military regime was completed in France, and Bonaparte had become its emperor, the same kind of monarchy was forced upon Italy, and he was crowned at Milan on the 26th of May, with the iron crown of Lombardy. In January 1806, a French army entered Naples and proclaimed king his brother Joseph, who, however, in 1808, exchanged it for the throne of Spain, and was succeeded by General Murat. For one of his sisters, who had married Paschal Bacciochi, Parma and Piombino were formed into a kingdom, to be called that of Etruria; but it was soon destroyed, and converted into a province of France. Ferdinand of Naples, who in 1806 took refuge in Sicily, was enabled to maintain himself by the assistance of the English navy and army. Whilst Murat reigned as king in Naples, and Eugene Beauharnois as viceroy in Milan, they were both summoned, with all the forces they could collect, to join the grand army for the invasion of Russia. After the retreat from Moscow, both returned to their dominions with the remnant of their forces. Eugene maintained the fidelity for which he had engaged; but Murat, offended with Bonaparte, formed an alliance with the confederated monarchs of Europe. After the abdication of the imperial throne Eugene withdrew, and the states of Italy returned to the government of their former rulers, with the exception of Venice, which remained subject to Austria. On the return of Bonaparte from Elba in 1815, Murat took up arms, advanced northwards, and entered Bologna. Driven thence, he was soon afterwards defeated near Tolentino, and his power completely destroyed. The capital was entered by the Austrian general Nugent, and Murat fled to France, while his wife and family found refuge in Austria. Ferdinand returned from Sicily to Naples, and maintained, with few changes, the Code Napoléon and the other institutions introduced by the French. Murat made a feeble attempt to recover his kingdom; and having collected a small body of troops in Corsica, landed with them at Pizzo, in Calabria, where he was made prisoner, tried by a military tribunal, and shot. By the final treaty of Vienna, the following arrangements regarding Italy were agreed to, which, with few changes, still remain. The king of Sardinia received back all his dominions, according to the boundaries existing in 1792, with some few changes in the frontier on the side of Geneva. To these were added the city of Genoa, and the territory attached to it in former times when it was a republic. The emperor of Austria united with his hereditary monarchy the newly-erected kingdom of Venetian Lombardy, in which were included the districts of the Valteline, Bormio, and Chiavenna parts of the Swiss canton of Grisons. Istria was not included in the Austrian kingdom of Illyria. The valley of the Po was fixed upon as the boundary between the Popedom and Parma. The house of Este was again declared sovereign over Modena, Reggio, Mirandola, Massa, and Carrara. The Empress Maria Louisa received the state of Parma as a sovereignty for her life, after which it was to fall to the Duchess of Lucca and her heirs, who were to give up a territory in Bohemia to the Duke of Reichstadt, the son of Napoleon and Maria Louisa. Prince Ferdinand of Austria received Tuscany and the district of Piombino, with the title of Grand Duke. He also obtained the sovereignty of the isle of Elba, on condition of reserving in that island the rights of Prince Buoncompagni Ludovisi. The Infanta Maria Louisa received Lucca as a sovereign dukedom, and with it a yearly pension of 500,000 francs, till the decease of the Empress Maria Louisa. The pope was fully reinstated in all his dominions, with the exception of a few small portions on the left bank of the Po; but Austria reserved the right of recruiting in Ferrara and Comacchio. Ferdinand of Naples was again acknowledged as king of both Sicilies, and the republic of San Marino and the Prince of Monaco were guaranteed in the enjoyment of their ancient rights.

Thus, at the end of twenty years of war, Italy lost the ancient liberties of some of its provinces, and saw the Austrian sway more firmly established and extended in others. But this was not the worst. Her rulers, who, before the French Revolution, had commenced civil and political reforms, came back with an obstinate aversion to any change. All that the country had gained was the abolition of the remnants of feudal rights and privileges, the division of feudal domains, and of the extensive lands wrested from the suppressed monasteries, and the introduction of the Code Napoléon into most of its states.

The restoration of the old governments, however, was not followed by the return of tranquillity, still less of contentment among the Italians. A new spirit was astir among them which was not likely to be allayed by the arrangements of the Congress of Vienna—the spirit of national independence. Awakened first by a few poets of the last twenty years of the eighteenth century, it had been fostered by the allied powers themselves, who found it their own interest to oppose it to the French rule. The archduke John of Austria, in 1809, Lord William Bentinck, in 1814, at Genoa, and General Nugent, in 1815, had all promised independence to the Italians, and excited them to rise in the name of their country's freedom, and defend their own rights and their own liberties. Even Murat, in his march to Upper Italy, in 1815, had appealed to the spirit of national independence, and gave out the freedom of Italy as the object of his expedition. It became then the favourite theme of the national literature, and the measures adopted by the Congress of Vienna contributed to strengthen it. By the extension of the Austrian power in the peninsula, all the Italian sovereigns became virtually so many liege lords of the empire; their policy was dictated by the cabinet of Vienna, and not one of them dared to act or think for himself. Thus King Ferdinand, who, on leaving Sicily in May 1815, had addressed to the Neapolitans a proclamation, in which he promised to be the depository of such laws as should be decreed by a constitution, in June of the same year, by a secret treaty signed at Vienna, engaged himself not to introduce into his states any principles of government irreconcilable with those adopted by Austria in her Italian provinces; and accordingly, in 1816, he put, de facto, an end to the Sicilian constitution of 1812. The accumulated hatred of all the tyranny and petty persecutions that took place in any part of Italy after the restoration fell therefore upon Austria, which, right or wrong, was looked upon as their instigator and abettor. This feeling increased in proportion as at every effort made by the people to rid themselves of the tyranny under which they were groaning, the Austrians stepped in to support their sovereigns, and rivet their chains. A conviction then arose that there could scarcely be any real improvement in the state of the peninsula until national independence had been obtained. These observations will give a clue to the events that took place from 1815 to 1855. Their historical details, which varied in the different states, will be given under the head of each of those states; here we shall only sketch rapidly their course, in so far as they had a common object in view, and affected the interests of the whole peninsula.

The Italian sovereigns, on returning to their respective states, neither restored the ancient order of things, nor adapted their new policy to the fresh wants and altered conditions of society. In compliance with the dictations of the Holy Alliance, they undid not only what had been done under the French rule, but also their own previous reforms. By an agreement with the pope, the Jesuits were restored everywhere, many of the suppressed monasteries were re-established, and the mortmain laws of the eighteenth century were repealed. The taxes upon land were increased, and exports and imports checked by means of high duties. The system of passports was made much more stringent, and permission to leave one's native town, even for a few days, often denied. Elementary education was narrowed in its limits, and thrown entirely into the hands of the clergy; its highest branches were discountenanced and lowered by the expulsion from the universities of some of the ablest professors, supposed to entertain liberal views. Private lecturing or teaching was not allowed without a previous license from the ordinary and the police agent. The freedom of the press was fettered more than it had ever been before, and every work before being published was subjected to a rigorous scrutiny. Public functionaries were changed without any regard to justice, but merely because they had served under the former government. All who had distinguished themselves in the time of Napoleon, or who were of a liberal turn of mind, were openly persecuted, or held in disesteem, and their movements and words suspected, watched, and reported. In addition to all this, in the papal states ecclesiastics returned to fill all civil offices, and the Code Napoléon was withdrawn from those provinces which had formed part of the kingdom of Italy. Hence there arose general discontent among the people, and thousands of otherwise quiet persons, either in the hope of finding redress and protection, or only out of a feeling of revenge, joined the Carbonari. This was a secret political society which had been formed during the French rule for the purpose of emancipating the peninsula, and is supposed to have been at first encouraged by the Bourbons of Sicily against Murat. The Carbonari counted among their numbers many officers who, when the army at the restoration had suddenly changed its colours, were either expelled or not regularly promoted. This vast combination, supported by the general sympathies of the people, wanted but a small impulse to break out into open rebellion, and it was in vain that the government of Naples tried to oppose to the Carbonari another secret society, called the Calderari, who adhered to the royal party.

The Spanish military revolution of January 1, 1820, which proclaimed the constitution adopted by the Cortes in 1812, produced an excitement which spread rapidly throughout Italy. Its first effects were experienced at Naples. In July 1820, the army mutinied, and demanded the Spanish constitution. The king thereupon named as vicar-general his eldest son Francis, who assented to the demand in his father's name, and appointed a provisional junta. In presence of this body as well as of the chiefs of the army, both he and his father, on the 13th July, swore fidelity to the new order of things. An assembly was convened, which adopted the Spanish constitution, with some trifling modifications, decreed a large military force, and began reforms in several branches of the public administrations. General Florestano Pepe was sent with a body of troops to restore tranquillity in Palermo, where on the 15th July, at the news of the events of Naples, a popular outbreak had created great confusion. Pepe landed at Melazzo, marched towards Palermo, entered it by capitulation on the 6th October, and proclaimed the constitution.

Meanwhile the emperors of Austria and Russia and the Prince Royal of Prussia met in October at Troppau, where the ambassadors from France and England were also present, and decided on a military interference in the affairs of Naples. Austria at this time had marched an army of 80,000 men into her Italian provinces, and Great Britain and France had each stationed a naval squadron in the Bay of Naples, with instructions to watch over the safety of the king and the royal family.

The three sovereigns having invited Ferdinand to meet them at Laybach, the king announced his resolution of accepting the invitation, and received the assent of parliament, on his declaring that his going would have no other object than to avert a war and maintain the constitution in its integrity. The crown prince was appointed regent, and the king proceeded on the 13th December in an English ship of the line to Leghorn, and thence to Laybach. The congress decided not to allow the continuance of the new order of things at Naples, and entrusted the emperor of Austria with the power of suppressing what they called a revolt. This resolution was made known to the prince regent in Naples. He was also informed that an Austrian army was ready to enter the kingdom, and that if it was insufficient, a Russian army would follow. The regent and the parliament having determined to resist, and made preparations for defence, the representatives of the allied powers withdrew from Naples, a large Austrian army under General Frimont advanced, and after encountering and routing the Neapolitans on the frontier of the Abruzzi, entered Naples on the 23rd of March 1821, and restored the old regime. Ferdinand returned soon afterwards to his kingdom to direct the state prosecutions.

While these events were taking place in Naples, another military insurrection, originating in the same causes, but differently directed, broke out early in March in Piedmont, and proclaimed the Spanish constitution. The king, who had assented to the resolutions of the Congress of Laybach, refused to yield, on the 13th abdicated the throne, and in the absence of his brother and heir, Charles Felix, who had set out for Modena to meet the king of Naples on his return from Laybach, appointed Prince Charles Albert Carignani as regent. Charles Felix, by a proclamation of the 16th, declared that the abdication of his brother was forced and illegal, and disavowing the changes that had taken place in Turin, appointed General Latour to take the command of the loyal troops stationed at Novara, and to suppress the insurrection. The liberal party determined to resist; but as soon as this resolution was adopted, the prince-regent on the night of the 21st fled to Novara, and there declared his readiness to submit to the royal pleasure. An army, hastily collected, was despatched from Turin to attack Latour, and on the other hand Count Bubna, the Austrian commander-in-chief in Lombardy, to whom Charles Felix had applied, on the 8th April crossed the Ticino and marched to his assistance. After a short but brisk skirmish near Novara on that day, the liberal army was defeated, General Latour entered Turin on the 10th, and Count Bubna took possession of the fortress of Alessandria on the 11th of April. Victor Emmanuel confirmed solemnly on the 19th his act of abdication; Charles Felix assumed the title of king, with a power as unrestricted as that of his brother had been; Charles Albert, who was refused admittance by the new king, after a short residence in Florence, went to make amends for his liberal tendencies by serving in the French army which restored despotism in Spain in 1823.

These movements were followed by numerous state trials and executions in Naples and Piedmont, as well as in the rest of Italy. Among those arrested in Lombardy were Silvio Pellico, Count Gonfalonieri, Marroncelli, and other distinguished literary men, who, after being condemned to death, had their sentences commuted into imprisonment in the castle of Spielberg. In the kingdom of Naples, a call for a constitution by a few young men at Boscotrecase in 1827, was followed by a bloody retribution; many of the inhabitants were massacred; the rest were dispersed; the village itself was razed to the ground, and its site was effaced by the plough. In the Roman States, after the death of Pius VII. (August 1823), his successor Leo XII. (della Genga) adopted a coercive policy of still more grinding severity, while the strange excesses of Cardinal Pallotta, the espionage and bloodthirsty persecutions of Cardinal Rivarola, and the extraordinary commission of Monsignore Invernizzi spread dismay and affliction in every family.

After nine years of proscriptions and repression, the French revolution of July 1830 gave new hopes to the Italians, and was the proximate cause of fresh disturbances. The secret societies, which had never been entirely extirpated, increased in number and activity, and their leaders received and held out promises that if they came to an open rupture with their sovereigns, they might rely on effectual assistance from the newly established government in France.

No disturbances, however, took place in Lombardy and Piedmont, where the prosecutions had somewhat abated; nor in Tuscany, which was mildly governed; nor in the Two Sicilies, where the general amnesty by which Ferdinand II. initiated his kingdom in 1830 allayed discontent, and gave a hope of moderate reforms. In Modena the Duke Francis IV. had for some time promoted the conspiracy with arms and money, and was intimate with Ciro Menotti, a young man who led a first movement on the 3rd February 1830. The troops were called out, and, after some fighting in the streets and from Menotti's house, he and his party surrendered. Two days later, on the arrival of the news of the events at Bologna, a more formidable revolt broke out; in consequence of which the duke deemed it expedient to withdraw to Mantua, taking with him his prisoners—of whom Menotti was afterwards shot—and a provisional government was established. Parma soon followed the example, and the duchess withdrew to Piacenza. Italy. But the most important events happened in the Roman states, where the old and infirm Pius VIII. (elected 31st March 1823), being both unwilling and unfit to change the course followed by his predecessor, Leo XII., gave the people no hopes of better times, and drove them almost to madness. On the 4th of February an insurrection broke out at Bologna, which compelled the legate to resign his authority; and a provisional government abolished by a decree the temporal power of the pope. The insurrection spread out rapidly to Ancona, which capitulated to a handful of the insurgents. Meanwhile a division of a large Austrian army already collected in Lombardy advanced to Modena and Parma, and reinstated their respective rulers. The Italians, relying on the declaration made by France soon after the days of July, that she would not permit Austria to interfere in Italy, were buoyed up with the hope of French assistance; but when Louis Philippe had firmly established himself on the French throne, he explained away that declaration by stating that it did not bind him to take any steps to prevent such interference. A negotiation between Austria and France ended in an understanding that the former power might suppress the several Italian insurrections without permanently occupying the countries in which they prevailed. Accordingly, another division of the Austrian army advanced to Bologna, and having entered it without any resistance, marched towards Ancona, where the members of the provisional government (who belonged to some of the noblest and wealthiest families in the country) had taken refuge. Before the arrival of the Austrians, the insurgents, who in their flight had taken Cardinal Benvenuti and carried him with them as a hostage, surrendered to him the citadel on condition that indemnity should be given to all political offenders; but the pope refused to ratify the cardinal's stipulation. Pius died on November 30, 1830, and was succeeded by Gregory XVI. (Cappellari) 2d February 1831.

The events we have related caused Austria, Prussia, France, Russia, and England to present a joint memorandum (10th March) to the new pope, in which admission of the laity to administrative and judicial functions, and a general improvement in the laws and the administration, were strongly recommended. The only result, however, was a motu proprio (10th July 1831), by which the pope modified in part the municipal institutions. On the 15th July the Austrians withdrew, but no sooner had they crossed the frontiers than the liberal party took up arms again in the four legations. After a skirmish at Cesena, in which the insurgents were defeated, the papal troops entered Bologna, shot at random many people in the streets, and committed such horrors that when the Austrians arrived the inhabitants welcomed them with rejoicings. This fresh intervention of Austria having called the attention of the French government, a French fleet with an army on board appeared before Ancona in March 1832, seized the citadel, and drove away the papal troops. This led to some detailed negotiations which ended in a treaty of the 16th of April, by which it was settled that the French were to remain at Ancona at their own expense and without receiving any reinforcements, and were to depart as soon as the pope should have no longer occasion for the assistance of the Austrians.

From this period there was a lull of nearly 10 years in the Italian agitation, with the exception of the outbreaks, caused chiefly by the cholera, in 1837, at Syracuse and at Palermo, in Sicily. It was easily put down by the Neapolitan minister of police, Del Carretto, who shed blood unsparingly, and it gave an excuse to Ferdinand II. to put an end to the separate government that the island had enjoyed from the foundation of the monarchy in the 12th century. In 1838 the French withdrew from Ancona, and the Austrians from the Legations.

No attempt to reform having been made, and the police in the Roman States and the Two Sicilies especially, becoming more stringent and inquisitorial every day, the discontent and agitation reappeared stronger than ever in 1844, and were kept alive and spread by the scientific Congress which met every year in one of the Italian cities. An attempt at revolt at Cosenza in Calabria was easily repressed; the brothers Bandiera, with a few followers, were captured soon after landing on the Calabrian coast, and all executed by the Neapolitan government, which had been acquainted of their projects by the English ministry, and was accordingly prepared to meet them.

The death of Gregory XVI. (1st June 1846), and the election of his successor, Pius IX. (Mastai Ferretti, June 16), opened another period in the history of Italy. On the 16th July, a month after his election, the new pope granted a general amnesty to all political offenders. The hosannas were countless. Pius IX. was hailed as a deliverer in every part of Italy. The cry of Viva Pio Nono became the rallying word of the liberal party. Reforms followed reforms, and hopes grew stronger every day. Austria became alarmed and threatened to interfere. The Nuncio, Monsignor Viale (who, at a later period, was to take a prominent part in framing the Austrian concordat), acting in direct opposition to his instructions from Rome, discussed with Metternich the excesses of the liberals, the weakness of the government, and the probability of its requiring aid. On the 17th July 1847, the Austrians crossed the Po and occupied Ferrara, where several outrages were committed by the Croats. The governor of the Legation, Cardinal Ciacci, and the secretary of state, Cardinal Ferretti, protested strongly against the invasion of the papal territory; the Austrian cabinet replied; Ferretti protested again, and sent a remonstrance to the European powers; and the Austrians at last withdrew.

The agitation was everywhere on the increase. A handful of daring men proclaimed a constitution at Reggio, in Calabria, and attacked the troops at Messina, in September, but were easily beaten off. Then followed, as usual, arrests, a state of siege, councils of war, the brutal license of the army. In Lombardy, the commander-in-chief, Marshal Radetzky, imprisoned by hundreds, and brought the prisoners before councils of war. The affairs of the peninsula having called the attention of the European powers, the British government determined upon sending to Italy Lord Minto, who formed part of the cabinet of Lord John Russell. Lord Minto's instructions were to recommend to the Italian sovereigns those political changes and that good faith which would give security to their governments, and to their subjects that moderation which might lead to the establishment of liberty. He began by visiting Switzerland, whence he went to Italy, where he acted up to his instructions faithfully. He became the butt of numerous accusations and misrepresentations both abroad and at home; but he served his government with ability as well as with honour, and deserved well of Italy by his honest and faithful endeavours to inculcate good faith on her rulers.

The last months of 1847 saw the first important political change in the form of Italian governments. In Tuscany, a law of the grand duke (September 4th); in Rome, a motu proprio of the pope (25th October); and in Piedmont a notification of the king (29th October), established elective consultative bodies to act as councils of state. At Lucca, the same reforms having been called for, the duke withdrew, and the duchy was united to Tuscany, 11th October 1847.

Naples and Austria proclaimed that their states needed no reforms. On the 2d January 1848, a liberal demonstration at Milan caused the Austrian garrison to massacre many harmless old people and women in the streets. Funeral ceremonies for these victims were celebrated in Italy. Piedmont, Tuscany, and the Roman States. On the 4th, proclamations were seen posted in the streets of Palermo, declaring that a revolution would take place on the 12th January, if the king, before that day, did not grant some reforms. No reforms were granted, and on the appointed day the population of Palermo rose in arms against a garrison of 8000 men, who, after four days, were strengthened by reinforcements of 5000 men and eight war steamers. The insurgents formed a provisional government, presided over by old Admiral Ruggiero Settimo. In Naples, on the 27th January, a large number of people assembled before the palace and called for a constitution; the king changed his ministry, and on the 29th promised to give it. On the 1st February a general amnesty was granted to all political offenders; on the 10th the constitution was published, to which, on the 24th, the king and all the members of the royal family took their solemn oath.

The period of consultative councils was over; that of representative institutions had begun. Constitutional statutes were published on the 16th February in Tuscany, at Turin on the 4th, and in Rome on the 14th of March. But in Sicily fighting was still going on; and as the royal troops had the worst of it, the king entreated the British government to interpose its good offices, and despatched a messenger with an invitation to Lord Minto, then in Rome, who arrived on the 4th of February, and began to confer with the government as to the terms to be offered to Sicily. Meanwhile the citadel of Palermo surrendered to the insurgents; the royal forces were everywhere defeated; and on the 24th the provisional government summoned a parliament in order to adapt their constitution of 1812 to the present times.

The breaking out of the French revolution gave a new turn to Italian affairs. New passions were called into play, new conflicts arose. A small republican party, stirred up and abetted by French agents, got the upper hand in many places. The peninsula was covered with blood, and at last, with the exception of Sardinia, lost all it had gained in the first four months of the eventful year 1848.

On hearing the news from Paris, the king of Naples entrusted Lord Minto with the terms which he was requested to take to Sicily; but on arriving at Palermo (9th March) with the squadron of Sir William Parker, Lord Minto found that a Neapolitan war steamer had brought those terms and published them as an ultimatum of the king, and that public opinion, excited by the contemporary arrival of the French news, had already rejected them. With great difficulty Lord Minto succeeded in obtaining from the government of Palermo that the royal terms should be accepted, with some trifling modifications. These, on being transmitted to Naples, were refused by the king, who protested against any act which might take place from that time in Sicily (22nd March). The king, by this time, was possessed of no stronghold in the island except the citadel of Messina. Parliament having assembled at Palermo (24th March), decreed that the Bourbons had forfeited the throne of Sicily (13th April), and after accomplishing the reform of the constitution, called to the throne the duke of Genoa (11th July), the youngest son of the king of Sardinia. A messenger sent to announce the election was conveyed to Genoa by an English war steamer, speedily followed by a French one with a formal deputation on board. The duke neither accepted nor refused the crown.

In Naples the moderate constitutional ministry (of which Poerio was a member) was replaced, 3d April, in consequence of the events in France, by a more radical administration. The franchise was now extended by a new electoral law; a modification in the appointment of the upper house was announced; and an army was sent, under General William Pepe, to join in the war against the Austrians. On the 15th May, the day on which parliament was to meet, the republican party, encouraged by the presence of the French fleet, and prompted by the representative of the republic, raised barricades with the aid of many French officers and sailors, and called for a modification of the upper house. A collision ensued, which cost more than 1000 lives and great destruction of property. The fight lasted seven hours; and the royal troops, after carrying the barricades, were assisted by the lower classes in the pillage of the houses. The next day the king changed the ministry, dissolved the chambers that had never met, issued a proclamation stating "his most firm and immovable will to maintain the constitution," and recalled the army from Bologna, where it was on its way to the Po. A new electoral law was framed. The chambers met for the first time on July 1st, and supported the government in stifling the revolution originated in Calabria by the news of the 15th May.

The events of Piedmont and Southern Italy, and the news of the French republic, acted like an electric shock upon the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom; yet no important events took place until the rising of the people at Vienna, on the 13th March, had thrown the imperial government into confusion. Before proceeding to hostilities the Milanese demanded several concessions. Their refusal was followed by the insurrection of Milan (18th March 1848), and the expulsion of the Austrians (23rd March), by the capitulation of the commander of Venice (24th), and by the rising of the whole kingdom.

Provisional governments were established, under the presidency of Casati at Milan, and of Manin at Venice. On the 23rd King Charles Albert declared war against Austria. On the 28th April he forced the Austrian lines on the Mincio in three places, and, crossing the Adige, took up a position to the N. of Verona. On the 30th the Austrians were dislodged from Goito, and driven to the gates of Mantua. After these victories, Piacenza, Parma, Modena, Lombardy, and Venice, by universal suffrage, joined the Sardinian monarchy, on condition that the constitutional statute should be remodelled by a general constituency. Radetzky, who had received an accession of strength of 15,000 men brought by Nugent, on the 28th May with 40,000 men fell upon and defeated 5000 Tuscan and Neapolitans at Curtatone, and on the 30th attacked the right wing of the Sardinians at Goito. He was repulsed with great loss, and on the same day the fortress of Peschiera surrendered to Charles Albert. Radetzky recovered his loss by marching with 30,000 men upon Vicenza, where the papal army under General Durando were quartered, and having been joined by Welden with a reinforcement of 15,000 men, on the 10th June, after a bombardment of 48 hours, he compelled Durando to surrender on the terms that the Romans should recross the Po and not take up arms against Austria for the space of three months. The Sardinians, on the 13th July, invested Mantua; but in doing so they left their strong position, and lengthened their line too much. The watchful Radetzky at once saw their mistake, attacked them on all points, and gave them a severe defeat on the 25th at Custoza. The Sardinians withdrew to Milan, where, on the 4th August, they were again defeated. On the 6th they crossed the Ticino, and Radetzky entered Milan, where, on the 9th, he signed an armistice.

As soon as these events were known at Naples, the king hastened the preparations he had been making for attacking Sicily, and an expedition under General Filangieri finally left Naples for Messina on the 30th August 1848. The Neapolitan troops disembarked on the 3rd September, reinforced the garrison of the citadel, and invested the town. They then opened fire upon the place, which was defended by the inhabitants with the energy of despair. After a murderous bombardment of five days they got possession of it; and rushing in, perpetrated such atrocities, that the commanders of the French and English fleets then in the Bay of Naples interfered and extorted an armistice from the conquerors.

Important events were meanwhile taking place in Rome. Soon after the papal troops had marched to the frontiers, Austria, by threatening to dissolve the spiritual connection between Germany and Rome, so powerfully influenced the pope, that on the 29th April 1848, in a secret allocution in consistory, he disapproved of the war with Austria, and the project of an Italian alliance for its prosecution. As soon as this became known, great dissatisfaction was expressed, and the pope began to grow unpopular. On the 13th September a new ministry was formed under the presidency of Cardinal Soglia. One of the leading members of the cabinet was Count Rossi, who, seizing the helm with a strong and skilful hand, steered the ship of state in a constitutional course. Meanwhile, the republican party, driven from Naples and Lombardy, had concentrated its strength in Rome. Seeing in Rossi an obstacle to the execution of their wild schemes, they murdered him on the 15th November on his way to the chambers. Several acts of disorder followed the perpetration of this crime; the pope grew alarmed, and, encouraged by Martinez de la Rosa, Spaur, and D'Harcourt, the Spanish, Bavarian, and French ambassadors, left Rome in disguise on the night of the 26th November. Flying for refuge to Gaeta, he was there received by the king of Naples. On the following day a supreme junta was formed, which, after a useless attempt to induce the pope to return, presented and passed a bill through the chambers (26th December) summoning a constituent assembly to deliberate upon the form of government.

The pope opened the new year 1849 with a protest from Gaeta, 1st January, against these acts, and with a threat of excommunication, which exasperated the people. The moderate party were now left unsupported, and the republicans gave practical effect to their principles without check or opposition. The constituent assembly met on the 5th February; on the 8th passed a decree abolishing the temporal sovereignty of the pope, and establishing a republic. On the 9th the republican flag was hoisted on the tower of the capitol.

After the disasters of the Sardinian army, and the truce of Milan, France and England mooted a mediation for the affairs of Italy, to which Sardinia easily acceded. Austria, after some objections, consented to send Count Colloredo to Brussels, where the conferences were to be held; Tuscany also sent a representative. But the flight and protest of the pope, and his appeal to the arms of foreign powers, and the flight which followed of the grand duke of Tuscany marred the whole project, and put an end to the mediation.

The events at Rome so far emboldened the small ultra party in Piedmont, that the government were compelled to resume the war against Austria. Accordingly, on the 12th March 1849, a superior officer, expressly sent to Milan, announced the cessation of the armistice to Marshal Radetzky. General Chrzanowsky, a Polish officer, was appointed commander-in-chief of the Sardinian army, and the king accompanied it merely as a general officer at the head of the brigade of Savoy.

The hostile armies crossed the Ticino at the same time in order to invade the enemy's territory; the main body of the Sardinians at Buffaloro, and the Austrians 12 miles lower down the stream between Vigevano and Pavia. Chrzanowsky had placed General Ramorino with a division of the army in an angle formed by the Po and the Ticino opposite Pavia, with injunctions to prevent the Austrians from crossing. Ramorino not only did not oppose the passage, but disobeyed orders so completely, that he was deprived of his command, and at the end of the war, tried by a court-martial, found guilty, and shot. By this neglect of duty on the part of Ramorino, Radetzky was placed between the two divisions of the Sardinian army, and in a position to command the road to Turin. The Sardinian vanguard had already advanced to within five leagues of Milan, when a retrograde movement became absolutely necessary. On the 23rd March the duke of Savoy, who had remained behind with the reserve, attacked the Austrians at Mortara, but was driven back, and on the 24th Radetzky advanced and placed himself between Vercelli and Novara. It was here that the two armies met, and an engagement took place which put an end to the campaign. The Sardinians were defeated and driven back into divisions. At the end of the day, Charles Albert abdicated, and the duke of Savoy, now king Victor Emmanuel, concluded an armistice, which was afterwards changed into a final treaty. The terms were, that Sardinia should pay the expenses of the war, and suffer the fortress of Alessandria to be garrisoned by a joint Austrian and Piedmontese corps.

Intestine revolution was added to the evil of a foreign defeat. When the news of the disaster and the armistice of Novara reached Genoa, the people were thrown into a state of excitement, of which the republican party took advantage. General Avezzana, the commander of the National Guard, summoned the citizens to arms; barricades were erected, a severe conflict with the royal troops followed, and a Ligurian republic was proclaimed. The government immediately sent a large force under the command of General della Marmora, who, on the 5th April, invested the place with such energy, that the insurgents begged for a truce, which was granted, and on the 11th, the town was unconditionally surrendered. A general amnesty was granted, except to Avezzana and eleven other chiefs, who took refuge on board an American war steamer.

Naples felt the effect of what was passing in Upper Italy. At the first news of the cessation of the armistice of Milan, the king, on the 13th March, dissolved the chambers, which were then sitting, and which were destined never to meet again. Meanwhile the English and French governments had failed to arrange matters between Naples and Sicily, and their respective admirals now ceased to enforce the armistice. As soon as the intelligence of the defeat of Novara arrived at Naples, the king sent orders to General Filangieri to resume hostilities. Catania, after the most desperate resistance, was captured on the 6th April; Syracuse next surrendered, and Palermo sent in its submission to the commander-in-chief on the 25th. The royal troops entered it on the 16th May, and the whole island submitted to Ferdinand II.

The summoning of a constituent assembly in Rome caused a small faction to call also for a constituent in Tuscany. The grand duke on the 10th January 1849, opened the session of the legislative chambers with a speech, in which he stated that the reasons for prosecuting the war against Austria still existed, and that he concurred in the wishes of his people. In less than a month (7th February), he silently abandoned Siena, where he was staying, and betook himself to the fishing village of Santo Stefano, in the Maremma, whence, on the 21st, he sailed to Gaeta on board H. B. M.'s war steamer the Bulldog. In a letter which he left behind for the minister Montanelli, he announced, that the pope having threatened to excommunicate him if he adhered to the Italian constituent, he saw no other means of extricating himself from the embarrassing position in which he was placed than by quitting Tuscany. On the arrival of this news at Florence, a provisional government was formed, and Mazzini, one of its members, tried to make Tuscany a province of the Roman republic. But the country had little sympathy with her exterminated administration. The members met at first with sullen opposition, but on 12th April, the municipality of Florence, Italy. amidst the acclamations of the multitude, and the support of the peasantry, drove them away, restored the monarchy, formed a new ministry, and recalled the grand duke. Delegates were sent to Gaeta, to tender him the crown on the base of the constitution. Leopold issued a proclamation in which he formally promised to uphold the free institutions; yet, shortly afterwards, under the plea that Leghorn had not agreed to the restoration, he called in the Austrians, who, under the command of General D'Aspre, entered Tuscany on the 5th of May 1849. The grand duke, encouraged by their presence, returned to his dominions and suppressed the constitution.

The numerous diplomatic intrigues that had been going on at Gaeta for the restoration of the pope came at last to an issue, and the Roman Catholic powers undertook a crusade against republican and antipapal Rome. A French expedition, under General Oudinot, landed at Civita Vecchia on the 26th April, and on the 29th reached the walls of Rome. A corps of 16,000 Neapolitans crossed the frontier and took up a position between Albano and Frascati. A large Austrian army entered the Legations; and even Spain, stirred by the piety of her ambassador, Martínez de la Rosa, sent a division, which landed at Fiumicino, and proceeded to Terracina, committing all sorts of excesses on their way.

The French professed to come as friends, but their presence was neither solicited nor desired. In a first attempt to enter the city, their advanced corps was vigorously attacked by the Romans and compelled to fall back. After protracted and unsuccessful negotiations between the triumvirate and the French agent, Mr Lesseps, whose arrangements were disavowed by the French ministry, Oudinot made preparations for a vigorous prosecution of the siege. On the 2d and 3d of June some sharp fighting took place near the Villa Doria, which was taken and retaken several times. On the 13th the French opened a brisk fire against the walls; on the 1st July, after forty-eight hours of cannonade, the breach was declared practicable, and the columns rushed to the attack. Resistance was now useless, and the triumvirate resigned their power into the hands of the municipality. On the 3d July the French entered Rome. The pope sent three commissioners, Cardinals della Genga, Vannicelli, and Altieri, into whose hands Oudinot, on the 3d August, resigned the civil administration of affairs, reserving to himself the maintenance of public order. The commissioners began the usual work of imprisonment and persecution.

The pope did not as yet venture to meet his subjects, and on the 4th September 1849 moved from Gaeta to Portici. It was on the 4th April 1850, when tranquillity was deemed sufficiently re-established, that after blessing the king of Naples, who accompanied him to Terracina, he proceeded by Velletri to Rome, where he arrived on the 12th.

Venice alone, though blockaded by the Austrian fleet on the side of the sea, and vigorously bombarded since the month of June on the land side, continued to assert Italian independence. Famine, conflagration, the plague of cholera, and the usual horrors of a siege, failed to quell the unconquerable courage of the inhabitants. The war continued during July and August with unabated violence, maintained with skill and constancy by the Austrians, with desperate valour by the Italians. When the news arrived of the first Hungarian disasters, the assembly accredited Manin, the president, with full power to act to the best of his ability, for the safety and honour of the city. On the 23d August, having received certain intelligence that Hungary was entirely subdued, and seeing that it was hopeless single-handed to resist Austria and Russia, he gave up all authority into the hands of the municipality, and with the chief leaders escaped on board a French steamer. On the 29th the Austrians entered into silent Venice. There, and on that day, the war of Italian independence came to a close. There is no brighter fact in those two eventful years, than the orderly conduct, the calm endurance, and the noble defence of Venice, which cost the Austrians 20,000 men.

The inhabitants of Italy are a mixture of races, composed of Greeks, Gauls, Germans, and Saracens, who at various but distant periods have immigrated into the peninsula, and mingled with the aborigines.

During the many centuries that the peninsula and its islands have been divided into numerous and often hostile states, with different institutions and interests, the common bond of the Italian people, as formerly with the Hellenic race, has been a common language and a common literature. From the valleys of the Alps to the shores of Calabria, in Sicily as well as in the island of Sardinia, notwithstanding the variety of dialects, any one who has the faintest claim to education can comprehend and enjoy the works of her great writers. Yet the origin of this bond of nationality is wrapped up in darkness. This, however, is not the place to discuss the origin of the Italian tongue. The learned Muratori endeavours to trace it to the corruption of Latin by the admixture of the words and phrases of the nations that overran the country after the overthrow of the Roman Empire. Perticari finds its origin in the modification of the Provençal. Bembo and Gravina, on the other hand, uphold it as the vulgar language of the country even in the best days of Rome, and maintain that it acquired importance and superiority in proportion as Latin, the literary language of the polished classes, died away. We shall only offer a few remarks on the subject. None of the various nations that at different times invaded Italy from the fifth to the twelfth century was in such numbers as to sweep away the inhabitants of the country, and substitute its own language for that which previously existed. The invaders seem, on the contrary, to have received the language of the conquered country. Even the Longobards, who, no doubt, were more numerous than any of the invading races that preceded or followed them, were, comparatively, a small minority in the country in which they settled, and instead of giving their own language to the conquered, we find that a few years after their settlement, not only their laws were drawn up in Latin, but even their chronicles, their private contracts, and their correspondence were in Latin, though a Latin widely different from the Latin of Cicero.

The numerous dialects of Italy and its islands have not originated in the corruption of the Italian language. On the contrary, the Italian language seems to have been formed, as Dante tells us, by a selection of the best words and phrases of all the different dialects. All the dialects, except those of the Riviera, Piedmont, and Lombardy, end their words in vowels. The dialects of the Riviera, and more especially those of Piedmont, are more akin to the Provençal than any of the other dialects of the north of the peninsula. The Lombard dialects, the harshest in Italy, are distinguished by the sound of the French u, which is supposed to have been left behind by the ancient Gauls. It is certainly a remarkable fact that the French u not only is unpronounceable beyond the Apennines, but disappears altogether even in Upper Italy as soon as we cross the Adige, which formed the ancient boundary between Gallia Cisalpina and Venetia.

Two lines drawn across the peninsula, the northern one from the mouth of the Magra, near the Gulf of Spezia to Ravenna, and the southern line from Terracina to the mouth of the Tronto, would include the best Italian dialects, which improve as from each of those lines we proceed towards the centre, so that at Siena and its neighbourhood the dialect, both with regard to words and to pronunciation, is almost a perfect type of the best classic Italian. As we proceed S. of Terracina and the Tronto, the dialects deteriorate, and in the central mountain range of Basilicata... and Calabria, we find the worst of dialects ending with vowels, with some guttural sounds which had disappeared S. of Florence. At Gaeta, at Naples, on the shores of Calabria, and more especially on the shore of Apulia, the dialects contain a very large and decided Greek element; and at Bari and Tarentum the broad Doric element breaks out not only in the words, but also in such a prolonged stress on the accent in words, as to resemble singing more than speaking. The Sicilian dialects are more like those of the S.E. end of the province of Otranto than those of Calabria, and on the W. coast of the island differ little in the words from the Italian.

It is remarkable how little the Italian language has changed from the beginning of the 13th to the 19th century. It has been enlarged with new words, but has not altered in its grammatical forms, and very few words have become antiquated. The language in which king Manfred used to sing songs at night in the streets of Barletta, is still the language in which a prima donna sings in the Scala at Milan, or the S. Carlo at Naples. The Ode to Poverty by Guido Cavalcanti, a Florentine who died in 1301, so far as language is concerned, might have been written by Leopardi, who died in 1837.

The real time at which the Italian language had acquired its well defined and distinct existence, has been the subject of great controversy. Early in the 13th century, however, it was already formed, and we find it employed in different and distant parts of the country. Ciullo d'Alcamo, a Sicilian, wrote poetry towards the close of the 12th century; and there is extant a hymn by St Francis of Assisi, who died in 1226. Italian poetry was cultivated in Sicily at the court of Frederic II. of Hohenstaufen, by himself, as well as by his son king Enzo, and by his unfortunate secretary Pier delle Vigne. Some events of the life of the great emperor and his natural son Manfred were chronicled in Italian by Matteo Spinello of Giovinazzo, near Bari, who died about 1247. At the same time the Florentine Ricordano Malespini was writing in good Italian the history of his country, and Guidotto da Bologna was translating precepts from Cicero, and embodying them in a flower of rhetoric, which he dedicated to king Manfred.

In the 14th century, which the Italians, in speaking of their literature, designate as the Trecento, besides numerous productions, most of which are now lost or forgotten, three works appeared, which alone would be sufficient, should every other literary monument perish, to keep Italian alive to the most distant ages—the Divina Commedia of Dante Alighieri (born 1265, died 1321); the Rime, or poetry of Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374); the Decameron, or tales of Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1378),—all three Florentines. The Trecento was also the age of Giotto (1276–1337), of Giovanni da Pisa (1240–1320), and of Andrea Orcagna (1326–1389).

The impulse which Petrarch and Boccaccio had given to the study of the Latin and Greek languages, was maintained after their death, and caused Italian to be much neglected till towards the end of the 15th century; at that time its use, as a literary vehicle, was resumed, both by the encouragement and the example of Lorenzo de’ Medici. With Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494), Lorenzo’s protégé, who wrote some of the finest stanzas in the Italian language, a galaxy of poets, historians, and miscellaneous writers arose which shone with uninterrupted brilliancy to the end of the following century.

Of the numerous standard works that appeared during this period, which the Italians call the Cinquecento, it will be enough to record a few of the most remarkable. The historical and political writings of Machiavelli (1469–1527), the didactic poems of Giovanni Ruccellai (1475–1526), Luigi Alamanni (1495–1556), and Bernardino Baldi (1533–1617); the letters, dialogues, plays, etc., of Agnolo Firenze (1493–1548), Cardinal Bembo (1470–1547), Annibale Caro (1507–1566), Anton Francesco Grazzini (1503–1583); the histories of Francesco Guicciardini (1482–1540), Jacopo Nardi (1476–1556), Benedetto Varchi (1502–1655), and Camillo Porzio (1520–1580); the Life of Benvenuto Cellini, by himself (1500–1570); the Lives of Painters by Giorgio Vasari (1517–1574); and the well-known epic poems of the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto (1474–1533), and the Gerusalemme Liberata of Tasso (1544–1595).

The Cinquecento was also the golden age of Italian art—the age of Raphael (1483–1520), of Titian (1480–1576), of Michael Angelo (1474–1564), and of Palladio (1518–1580).

The decay of taste, which had begun towards the end of the sixteenth, prevailed generally in the seventeenth century, or the Seicento, to such a degree that the word scienzista has remained proverbial in Italy as descriptive of a writer whose style is turgid, strained, and bombastic, and whose thoughts are false, and replete with strange conceits. It is principally ascribed to the prevalence of the Spanish rule in most of the peninsula, though the falling of education into the hands of the newly established order of the Jesuits, and the introduction of the Inquisition by Pius V., had also their share of influence. Nowhere, certainly, did bad taste show so early and prevail so much as at Naples, which had become a Spanish province in 1504. Marini (1569–1623), a poet of great genius, but who did most to corrupt the Italian literature, was a Neapolitan. The arts had the same fate; and the age of Marini was also the age of the painter Michael Angelo da Caravaggio (1569–1609), the sculptor Bernini (1598–1680), a Neapolitan, and the architect Borromini (died 1667).

The causes of mental degradation and literary corruption, however, did not operate in an equal degree in those states of the peninsula which, with their independence, retained their national spirit. Accordingly, two remarkable authors escaped entirely, and a few more in part, the depraved taste of their age. Foremost stands Galileo Galilei (1564–1641), an acute observer, a profound philosopher, and an elegant and perspicuous writer, who, at the age of seventy, was imprisoned and tortured by the Inquisition for having adopted and expounded the Copernican system. Equal to him in elegance of diction, and not much inferior in the spirit of philosophical inquiry, was Francesco Redi (1626–1697), who wrote also the lively dithyramb of Bacchus in Tuscany. Gabriele Chiabrera (1532–1638), Fulvio Testi (1593–1646), Vincenzo Felicia (1642–1707), and Alessandro Guidi (1650–1717), in spite of their faults, are among the best lyric poets; Paolo Sarpi (1552–1622), and Cardinal Sforza Pallavicino (1607–1667), both wrote the well known histories of the Council of Trent—the former a powerful but not elegant denouncer, and the latter an elegant but not powerful defender of the Court of Rome.

The earlier half of the eighteenth century saw several learned historical works, such as the History of Naples, by Pietro Giannone (1676–1748); the Annals of Italy, by Muratori (1672–1750); and the Verona Illustrata, by Scipione Maffei (1675–1755)—none of them remarkable for elegance of style. Towards the middle of the century, French writers began to have an unfavourable influence upon the Italian language and literature long before the French invasion took place; but later the Dramati, or operas, of Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782); the works of Gasparo Gozzi (1713–1786) and Giuseppe Parini (1729–1799); and, above all, the tragedies of Vittorio Alfieri (1749–1803), and the poetry of Vincenzo Monti (1754–1828), stemmed the current of deterioration, and opened up another bright era in the history of the Italian mind. This era has been continued in the present century in the histories of Carlo Botta (1766–1837), and Pietro Colletta. Italy. (1775-1833); in the poetry of Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827), Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837), Giuseppe Giusti (1809-1850); in the novels and poetry of Tommaso Grossi, Alessandro Manzoni; in the philosophical and scientific works of Rosmini, Romagnosi, Gioberti, Delle Chiaie, Brocchi, and Volta; and in many other works which it would be tedious to enumerate.

Many of the dialects have also a literature of their own; the Venetian is, in this respect, the most important, and next to it the Sicilian, the Milanese, and the Neapolitan. The Anacreontics of Meli (1740-1815), who ranks among the first lyric poets, though in the Sicilian dialect, are generally read and highly admired in every part of Italy.

In Italy the inhabitants adhere almost universally to the Roman Catholic Church. The Jews in Venetian Lombardy, in Leghorn, in Rome, and in Ancona, have permission, but under some rigid restrictions, to establish synagogues. The foreign Protestants also may celebrate their rites in their own language, under the sanction of the ambassador or consul of their nation; but the number of persons not Roman Catholics is very small indeed. The established clergy are very numerous. The number of sees, which formerly exceeded that of the bishoprics in the rest of Christendom, though greatly reduced, amounts still, as we have seen, to 253, while in the rest of Roman Catholic Europe there are only 300. Many of the monasteries which once deluged the cities and large towns have been suppressed. The churches, however, still possess great riches, and are everywhere sumptuous in their decorations and ornaments, containing much of what is magnificent and glorious in art, and refined in taste and beauty. The exterior of the churches is very imposing, and the ceremonies are performed with vast pomp and solemnity.

The higher clergy possess great power, and enjoy some immunity for their persons and goods, and in many cases are freed from taxation. The secular priests are under the superintendence of the bishops, and the monasteries under the chiefs of their several orders. Though the extent of the influence and power of the church, and its universality, are the same as in Spain and in Portugal, its exciting cause and its associations are very different. In those countries the religion is a species of chivalry, originating in the idea of the conquests achieved over the Moorish Mohammedans, and combined with all the traditions on that subject. In Italy it is chiefly to be traced to the progress made in the fine arts. It is associated with painting and statuary, with music and with architecture, and, as in Spain, has no necessary influence on the moral sense of the individual.

In no part of Europe is the education of the humbler classes so neglected as in Italy, taken as a whole. Some progress has indeed been made in Lombardy, in Sardinia, and in Tuscany, yet nothing is thought of or projected in the other territories, on the subject. The instruction of the poor is wholly in the hands of the ecclesiastics, and nothing can be worse conducted. It is a wonder to find a rustic that can read, and a mechanic in the towns that can write his own name is equally rare. The institutions for the higher kinds of education are also far behind those in the other countries of Europe. Among these are the colleges and lyceums, where the instruction is partial, and not calculated to teach the manly virtues, or foster freedom of thought. The studies are directed to logic and the classics; but the sciences are neglected, as are the languages of other countries, their customs, their intelligence, and their modes of thinking and reasoning. Mathematics are not much known, but casuistry is sedulously inculcated. The Collegio Ambrosiano, and the Collegio Rivera in Milan form exceptions to the description here given, but in everything but classical literature they are far from being well conducted.

The universities where education is completed are sufficiently numerous, and mostly of ancient date in their foundation. They are—Bologna, founded in the year 1119; Naples, in 1224; Padua, in 1228; Rome, in 1244; Perugia, in 1320; Pisa, in 1329; Siena, in 1249; Pavia, said to have been founded by Charlemagne in 774, but, at all events, remodelled in 1390; Turin, in 1412; Parma, in 1432; Florence, in 1443; Catania, in 1445; Cagliari, in 1764; and Genoa, renewed and extended in 1783; to which may be added those of Palermo, Camerino, and Macerata, and that of Modena, which has been shut since 1849.

The dates of these institutions may serve to show the probable course of study originally introduced, when the works of the schoolmen and the casuists entirely engrossed the public mind. Several improvements have been ingrained on these foundations, but they have been of little efficacy in exciting to study, or in forming a considerable proportion of enlightened scholars.

In almost every one of the cities of Italy there have been long-established literary and scientific societies, which have cherished and encouraged learning among their respective members. These were instituted in the fifteenth century, and have multiplied and increased ever since. They have contributed, since the revival of learning, to its preservation, and have been in a great degree the means of bringing the talents and industry of the scholars into public notice. They are too numerous to be even named here. One of the earliest, as well as the most celebrated, is the Academia della Crusca of Florence, which still exists, and has for its object the perfecting of the language. The most flourishing of these societies in the present day are the Imperial Institution of Milan, the Academy of Sciences at Turin, and the Royal Society at Naples. The institutions for the promotion of the fine arts are numerous. They are connected with schools, in which painting, sculpture, and architecture, are taught by competent masters. The most useful of these are at Florence, Rome, and Bologna.

Italy abounds in collections of books, and especially of manuscripts of great antiquity, and of high value. The libraries in general are, however, deficient in modern foreign works of literature and of science. The most distinguished of the public libraries are—in Rome, the Vatican, which contains 23,500 MSS., the Minerva 120,000 printed volumes and 4900 MSS., and the Angelica 90,000 vols.; in Florence, the Laurentziana and the Magliabechiana; in Naples, the Borbonica, 200,000 vols. and 4000 MSS., and the Brancacciana, 70,000 vols., 7000 MSS.; in Bologna, the university, 140,000 vols., 9000 MSS., the Comunale, 100,000 vols., and the Martini, 17,000 vols. (all music); in Milan, the Ambrosiana, 120,000 vols., 5500 MSS., and the Breza; Venice, St Marks, 112,000 vols., and very rich in MSS.; Padua, university; Brescia, Quiriniana, 90,000 vols.; Ferrara, 90,000 vols.; Mantua, 80,000 vols.; Parma, 90,000 vols.; Genoa, university, 50,000 vols., and Comunale, 40,000 vols.; Turin, university, 112,000 vols., and rich in MSS., and many smaller ones. There are in every part of Italy museums of great value, and most of them are arranged in the most perfect manner. All of them are with the greatest liberality thrown open to the public, and are thereby made the common property of all nations. Each palace of the men of eminent rank, and each public building, is a cabinet of art; and each city boasts of its antiques or of its modern works of art. The most distinguished of the museums are the Vaticano and the Capitolino at Rome, the Borbonico at Naples, and the Galeria at Florence. Picture galleries are to be found everywhere, and contain many of the finest specimens of art. The churches, too, are most abundantly graced, as well by their architecture as by the exquisite pieces which exhibit the skill of the painters or the sculptors. Many of the best works of art were removed by the French invaders; but, in 1814 and 1815, most of these were restored to the states. from which they had been carried off. There are botanic gardens attached to most of the universities, and several in the vicinity of the larger cities; and there are astronomical observatories in Bologna, Padua, Milan, Florence, Naples, and Palermo.

The Italian nobility consists of a vast number of families, the eldest member of which continues to retain the family titles, though utterly destitute of corresponding means. In most of the states they have little or no influence as a body on the measures of the government. In the papal states some patrician power exists, and some feudal rights are exercised, and in Genoa some vestige of their ancient dignity is retained; but in the other parts not even a shadow of power is to be found amongst them. They have the barren titles of prince, duke, viscount, marquis, or count. Many of them in the Roman states and in Tuscany possess extensive landed estates, which are for the most part entailed on the eldest son, and many of these are deeply mortgaged. As no provision is made for the junior members of such families, they commonly enter the church or the army, and sometimes, though rarely, obtain offices in the civil service of the government. Of late some of the nobility have directed their attention to agriculture; but none of them, except in Venice and in Genoa, have applied themselves to commerce. From the condition of this class, it is usual to find the whole of the family residing in the palace of its chief, with their wives and children, if they have any. As money rent is not commonly paid for the estates, but the produce of these divided between the proprietors and their occupiers, the necessaries for the support of such families reach them directly; and, except for purposes of show or of luxury, very little money is necessary. Although some members of the noble families have devoted themselves to the promotion of literature, of science, or of the fine arts, yet the great body live in the silent enjoyment of their rank and property. The limited means of these families do not allow them to show any hospitality.

The morals of the nobility have greatly improved of late years, and the practice of each married lady having her favourite lover or cicisbeo, after the birth of her first child, has almost entirely disappeared. Gambling is also much less fashionable among them now than it used to be. One of their commonest indulgences is a box at the opera, where they attend in the evening, and receive the visits of their friends, without interrupting the pleasures they derive from the representation and the music.

The burghers in the cities have now none of the power which they enjoyed in the many cities which were once denominated free. The municipal power is concentrated in the hands of the several governments; and, where corporations do still exist, they have no other right than that of making humble representations or suggestions on inferior and local subjects. The more affluent inhabitants of the cities, comprehending those of the legal profession, the bankers, the merchants, and the superior artists, amongst whom may be included the possessors of the smallest landed estates, are not numerous; but they mix more with strangers than the nobles, and have fewer national prejudices. They appear to know that all born beyond the Alps are not necessarily barbarians or semi-barbarians, and amongst them foreigners may find the best associates.

The lower classes of the population in large towns are in bad repute, both as to morals and instruction, and are represented as more acute than honest.

Whatever may be the faults of the Italian nation, one good quality is obvious; their ready assistance to suffering humanity. All the cities are filled with charitable institutions, in which infants, the helpless aged, the diseased, and the destitute, find refuge and relief; but it must be acknowledged, that no country has more need of such institutions, for in none are there to be found so great a number of beggars, nor so numerous a body as, in all the cities, take little care for anything beyond the passing day or even hour.

The greater part of the population of Italy is, however, to be seen in the country, devoted to the pursuits of agriculture. A few, a very few of them, are in circumstances of moderate affluence; a few more may be represented as in a state of comparative ease; but the great body, to whom all others bear a slight proportion, are in a poor condition. They are the occupiers of small portions of land, some of them not exceeding four acres in extent, and most of them less than ten acres. Living in small cottages, they labour in the fields, and maintain themselves and their families on half the produce of the land, the other half being delivered to the proprietor at the time of harvest as his rent. Their food, simple as it is, is barely sufficient to keep them in a healthy state. In no part of Italy does animal food form the staple of their diet; in most districts, indeed, they seldom taste it. In the northern and central districts their common fare is a kind of meal called polenta, made of Indian corn, pounded and boiled to the consistence of hasty pudding. In the south they live chiefly on bread and a polenta made of beans.

The Italians as a nation are a fine race of men. The men are well formed, rather slim than stout, but strong and agile, with a complexion, either from nature or from exposure to the sun, of a dark hue, with expressive countenances and dark sparkling eyes, and for the most part with black hair. Their gait is grave but not solemn, and their whole appearance is expressive of self-respect. The women have mostly narrow foreheads, black or dark-brown hair, large, brilliant, and expressive eyes, a beautiful nose, which, with the forehead, forms the elegant Roman profile; a small mouth, with lips rather swelling; a clear, white complexion, with slight red tinges showing through it, and a delicate, but well-formed figure. The lower classes, owing to their early marriages, their subsisting wholly on vegetable food, and the hard labour they endure under a burning sun, have their beauty checked before it has attained maturity; yet even they often display great attractions.

A hasty or an unobservant traveller, in passing through Italy, may well be charmed with the scenery of the country, the magnificence of the cities, the clearness of the sky, and the mildness of the climate. He will see only what is admirable and exciting. The prospects on descending from the Alps, adorned as they are by lofty precipices, with their tops buried in snow, and their sides discovering waterfalls descending into the beautiful lakes below, are all of a kind to charm the eye and feed the fancy. Flowers of every tint exhale the most grateful odours; and the fruits of every clime grow in plentiful profusion. On the plains, too, the beauty of the fields, surrounded with mulberry trees, with vines in graceful festoons, with their pendant fruit, the centre of the inclosure exhibiting heavy crops of corn, pulse, or culinary vegetables, all conspire to increase the delight. The excellence of the roads, the post-horses, and the inns, contribute their share to heighten the enjoyment. The appearance, too, of the cities, with their magnificent public edifices and their spacious private dwellings, though the streets may be narrow and crooked, presents a picture eminently calculated to convey to the beholder that feeling of pleasure which novelty usually creates in the mind. We have enjoyed these gratifications to the fullest extent; but, in the description here given, we have felt it a duty to look beyond the delightful surface, to view the interior of the land, the state of the several classes of society that inhabit it, and to communicate to the reader the most accurate view that could be produced after much careful investigation.