Genoese

“ If it's very well meanwhile to come to Turin first it's better still to go to Genoa afterwards. Genoa is the tightest topographic tangle in the world, which even a second visit helps you little to straighten out. In the wonderful crooked, twisting, climbing, soaring, burrowing Genoese alleys the traveller is really up to his neck in the old Italian sketchability. ”

“ We linger over all that leads up to the momentous start westwards: we recall his birth and early life at Genoa towards the middle of the fifteenth century, his apprenticeship to his father as a weaver of cloth, his devotion to the sea, his love of the little sailing ships that passed in and out of the busy Genoese harbour from all parts of the known world. ”

“ He himself as Lord of Genoa gave her back her liberties, set up the Senate again, opened the Golden Book, Il Libro d'Oro, and wrote in it the names of those who should rule; then he set up a parliament, the Grand Council of Four Hundred, and the old quarrels were forgotten, and there was peace.
But who could rule the Genoese, greedy as their sea, treacherous as their winds, proud as their sun, deep as their sky, cruel as their rocks! If the Admiral had brought the Adorni and the Fregosi low, there yet remained the Fieschi, old as the Doria, Guelph too, while they had been Ghibelline. ”

“ The mark of these Guelph institutions on the people of Genoa was deep and enduring. The Genoese of our day are living proof of their lasting influence. Labour and banking produced immense wealth. The Genoese became the bankers of Europe. ”

“ ZIBO. The people are enraged. What may we not expect from the fury of the wounded boar!
FIESCO (laughing) . The blind, unwieldy monster, which at first rattles its heavy bones, threatening, with gaping jaws, to devour the high and low, the near and distant, at last stumbles at a thread—Genoese, 'tis in vain! The epoch of the masters of the sea is past—Genoa is sunk beneath the splendor of its name. Its state is such as once was Rome's, when, like a tennis-ball, she leaped into the racket of young Octavius. Genoa can be free no longer; Genoa must be fostered by a monarch ”

“ Many old families here, are dissatisfied with the annexation of Genoa to Piedmont, and dream of yet making the city and its territory an independent republic; dream of the grandeur of ancient times, without comprehending that of the present age, and without comprehending—like the English aristocracy—how to become great by actively taking part in its development. The Genoese princes built up their palaces and marble villas, and look with displeased glance on the decreased obeisance of the working class and the peasants, to their excellencies. ”

“ There are, no doubt, some honest and dreamy minds that feel and imagine that Italy is still to groan under the yoke of the oppressor, but ere long that dream will dissipate when the true position of Genoese affairs is known, and that the city was on the point of being reduced to a heap of ruin because a few blackguards had deceived the Genoese that they might profit by the confusion and misery of its inhabitants. ”

“ Thus the Genoese, subtle as he was, was duped by Edmond, in whose favor his mild demeanor, his nautical skill, and his admirable dissimulation, pleaded. Moreover, it is possible that the Genoese was one of those shrewd persons who know nothing but what they should know, and believe nothing but what they should believe. ”

“ Calvi too, has, like Bonifazio, remained true to Genoa. Both towns have occupied on this account quite a peculiar historical position, and it is remarkable to find in this fearful sea of Corsican hate, two little islands, as it were, which loved the tyrannical Genoa. Let us not grudge this to the manly Genoese; their old sin-laden but always kingly and great Republic has long since paid its debt to humanity in history, and is no more. ”

“ LETTER XXVI NICE, January 15, 1765.
DEAR SIR,—It is not without reason that Genoa is called La superba. The city itself is very stately; and the nobles are very proud. Some few of them may be proud of their wealth: but, in general, their fortunes are very small. My friend Mr. R— assured me that many Genoese noblemen had fortunes of half a million of livres per annum: but the truth is, the whole revenue of the state does not exceed this sum; and the livre of Genoa is but about nine pence sterling. ”

“ Therefore open revolt! And that, Genoese, this very night—— (VERRINA
and BOURGOGNINO astonished—the others terrified.)
CALCAGNO. What! To-night! The tyrants are yet too powerful, our force too small.
SACCO. To-night! And naught prepared? The day is fast declining.
FIESCO. Your doubts are reasonable, but read these papers. (He gives them GIANETTINO'S papers, and walks up and down with a look of satisfaction, whilst they read them eagerly.) Now, farewell, thou proud and haughty star of Genoa, that didst seem to fill the whole horizon with thy brightness. ”

“ The usual course was taken by the royal galley. Genoa was the rendezvous, as of old. The Genoese gave their visitor a splendid reception. His romantic career had greatly affected them, and now that they beheld his gracious person their delight knew no bounds. Never had a royal visitor such an ovation in Liguria. ”

“ Genoa.—Genoa, on the western coast of Italy, was the most formidable commercial rival of Venice. The period of her greatest prosperity dates from the recapture of Constantinople from the Latins by the Greeks in 1261; for the Genoese had assisted the Greek princes in the recovery of their throne, and as a reward were shown commercial favors by the Greek emperors. ”

“ They are relics of the grandeur of Genoa’s palmy days—the days when she was a great commercial and maritime power several centuries ago. These houses, solid marble palaces though they be, are in many eases of a dull pinkish color, outside, and from pavement to caves are pictured with Genoese battle-scenes, with monstrous Jupiters and Cupids and with familiar illustrations from Grecian mythology. Where the paint has yielded to age and exposure and is peeling off in flakes and patches, the effect is not happy. ”

“ There are thirty Parish Churches, and at San Lorenzo they show a large Dish made out of One Emerald, which they say was given to King Solomon by the Queen of Sheba. The Genoese are a cunning and industrious People, with a great gusto for the Arts, but terrible Thieves. The Government a Republic, headed by a Doge, that is chosen every two years from among the Nobility, and must be a Genoese, at least Fifty years of age, and no Byblow. ”

“ During this long period of nearly three centuries, in which the most dramatic incident is the conspiracy of Fieschi, the Genoese found no small compensation for their lost traffic in the East in the vast profits which they made as the bankers of the Spanish crown and outfitters of the Spanish armies and fleets both in the old world and the new, and Genoa, more fortunate than many of the other cities of Italy, was comparatively immune from foreign domination. ”

“ As it was, we crept along the coast, and landed at Nice, Frejus, and Savona, [49] being greatly delayed by contrary winds. However, on the eighteenth day after our departure from Toulon, we reached Genoa in safety. Society was then on a very magnificent footing in that aristocratic republic. Both men and women of the higher classes were familiar with both French and Italian, though they generally used the Genoese dialect. Many of them were also well acquainted with English, and, as in other parts of Italy, most of the men were good classical scholars. ”

“ BOOK V. GENOESE SCHOOL. EPOCH I. The Ancients. Last among the ancient schools of Italy is to be enumerated the Genoese, in regard to the period in which it flourished, not to its merit, which I consider as being equal to that of many others. In Liguria the first revival of painting appeared tardy; not so its progress, which was rapid and distinguished. In Genoa and Savona, as well as in other cities situated on the sea-shore, there remain some ancient paintings by unknown hands, one of which, over the gate of Savona, is distinguished by the date of 1101. ”

“ The Genoese were the merchant princes whose wives and children, like our own, were much more occupied with the display of their wealth than in the development of a taste for art and letters and the cultivation of a true critical faculty. I have already mentioned some of the products of the Genoese intellectual life among women, however, and this will add to the impression that I think is so true that in proportion to the population there were just as many women interested in education and in {321} literature, women writers and poets in that time as there are in our own. ”

“ The People of Quality here dress very well, and the Genoese of both Sexes have a much better Air than those of Florence and Rome. The Princess of Modena’s Residence with them has not been to their Detriment; for they have contracted149 a courtly Behaviour, to which the Italians are pretty much Strangers. The Genoese in general understand good Living, and are never deficient in that respect, for want of knowing better. Tho’ they are said to be a sorry People, I could like to live here very well. ”

“ The Piedmontese called all the Genoese “Bacciacini,” that being a common name at Genoa. When they met any of the inhabitants of that city in the streets of Turin, they plagued them by calling out: “Bacciacini, dom, dom, dom”—imitating the sound of the great bell for assembling the Consiglietto.
An Italian at Vienna was telling a lady how long he had been travelling, and pronouncing French according to the manner of his nation, he said: “J’ai été un âne à Paris et un âne à Rome.” “Mon cher Abbé,” replied the lady, “il paraît que vous avez été un âne partout.” ”

“ The women of Piedmont are not in general well-favoured; they are undersized and angular in figure, with a weather-beaten complexion, and flat noses. This struck me doubly, coming from Genoa, where female grace and attractiveness are proverbial; the transparent white veil or pezzotto worn by the Genoese is here also poorly replaced by caps tawdrily trimmed with coloured ribbons or artificial flowers. ”

“ Venice, on the eastern side of Italy, and Genoa, on the western side, shared all the commerce of that country, but they were not on friendly terms; and for years and years the Genoese were trying to drive the Turks, Venetians, and Spaniards out of the Mediterranean Sea, that they might carry on their own commerce without being molested. ”

“ The English merchants (Henry says) valued their goods captured at 10,000l. the Genoese estimated them at 7,180l. and they are willing "for to stand in our good grace and benevolence, to pay without any exception 4,000l. at reasonable times; our subjects and our merchants of our land having hereafter free coming and going to Genoa, as they of Genoa desire to have into our realm of England." ”

“ That the Genoese had grudges against them was natural enough; but what ailed the others? Ready for the stoutest defence of their walled Mahdia, they were, however, curious to ascertain the reason, and they sent one of their number, who spoke Italian, to explain “howe we have in nothynge trespassed them; of a trouthe, afore this tyme, there hath been warre bytwene us and the Genovoys,” but that does not concern Christians from “farre countreys.” The Genoese “are our neighbours, they take of us and we of them; we have been auncyente enemyes and shall be, excepte whan treuce is betwene us.” ”

“ He raided the Genoese coast in such a fashion that his name was a terror to the city of Genoa for a hundred years afterwards, and, by closing the Mediterranean to his enemies, he struck a vital blow at their prosperity. By keeping continuously on the move and darting from point to point with his light ships, he contrived to keep a considerable part of the Genoese fleet constantly employed, and a good part of the Genoese troops on the coast ”

“ The death of Alphonso, and the subsequent division of his dominions, while they relieved the fears of the Genoese, gave rise to new hopes on the part of the house of Anjou; and the duke John, encouraged by emissaries from various powerful partisans among the Neapolitan nobility, determined to make a bold attempt upon Naples for the recovery of the crown. The Genoese entered into his cause with spirit, furnishing him with ships, galleys, and money. ”

“ The Corsicans having lately heard that they were to be restored to Genoa, represented to the Government that, rather than be given to their former masters, they begged that France would bestow them on the person to whom Louis XI. formerly gave the Genoese. During the reign of that monarch the Genoese sent Ambassadors to his Court, with instructions to place the republic under the protection of France. “Les Gênois,” said they, “se donnent à votre Majesté.” “Et moi,” answered the King, “je les donne au diable.” ”

“ The Genoese agreed to pay five per cent. on all the commerce, which they made. Soon, however, the Spaniards neglected to keep up the works or pay the garrison, and the flag of Genoa was substituted for [249] that of Spain, and though the governor was still named by the latter power, he was obliged to render his accounts to the Lomellini. ”

“ The powerful contingent of three thousand Italians is worthy of separate notice. Nearly all were of Venetian or Genoese origin. In them the city had the aid of men belonging to the most virile communities in the Mediterranean. The story of the trading establishments in the Levant, the Archipelago, and the Black Sea belonging to the citizens of Venice and Genoa is a brilliant record of daring, of adventure, and of energy. The expansion of the two states began about the time of the Latin conquest. ”