Modena

“ MODENA (ancient Mutina) , one of the principal cities of Emilia, Italy, the chief town of the province of Modena and the seat of an archbishop, 31 m. E.S.E. of Parma by rail. Pop. (1906) , 26,847 (town) ; 66,762 (commune) . It is situated in a damp, low plain in the open country in the south side of the valley of the Po, between the Secchia to the west and the Panaro to the east. Some of its main streets (as their names indicate) follow the lines of canals, which still (though now covered) traverse the city in various directions. The observatory stands 135 ft. above the level of the sea. ”

“ If ever Ghosts act plays, they act them on this ghostly stage.
It was most delicious weather, when we came into Modena, where the darkness of the sombre colonnades over the footways skirting the main street on either side, was made refreshing and agreeable by the bright sky, so wonderfully blue. I passed, from all the glory of the day, into a dim cathedral, where high mass was performing, feeble tapers were burning, people were kneeling in all directions before all manner of shrines, and officiating priests were crooning the usual chaunt, in the usual low, dull, drawling, melancholy tone. ”

“ The signorial cities, Verona, Vicenza, Padua, and Treviso, are far more picturesque, and Parma excels only in the number and beauty of her fountains. It is a city of gloomy aspect, says Valery, who possibly entered it in a pensive frame of mind, for its sadness did not impress us. We had just come from Modena, where the badness of our hotel enveloped the city in an atmosphere of profound melancholy. In fact, it will not do to trust to travellers in any thing. ”

“ N.E. is Correggio, the birthplace of the great painter Antonio Allegri, called Correggio. To the Castle of Canossa and back, 14 frs.
Modena. Cathedral.
TURIN
FLORENCE 1851⁄4 1053⁄4 MODENA, pop. 31,000. Hotels: Reale; San Marco; Italia. Their omnibuses await the trains. Cabs—one horse, 80 c. the course, 1 fr. 50 c. the hour; 2 horses, 1 fr. the course, 1 fr. 70 c. the hour.
Modena (Mutina, Lat.) , the capital of the former duchy of Modena, 314 is a clean and well-built town surrounded by ramparts, some of which serve the inhabitants as promenades. The country around is flat and fertile. ”

“ For, to say nothing of II Modanino, of whom we have made mention in another place, [64] there was a master called Il Modana, [65] who has produced most admirable works in terra-cotta, some of the size of life and others still larger. Among these may be enumerated those executed for a chapel in the church of San Domenico, in Modena, with others for the Dormitory of San Piero, a monastery belonging to the Black Friars, and also situate in Modena. ”

“ Camillo Gavassetti, likewise of Modena, may boast also of a greater degree of merit than of fame; no less because he died young, than because of his attaching himself to works in [Pg 60] fresco, which, confined to the place in which they are produced, confine also the reputation of the artist. He is better known in Piacenza than in Modena, Parma, or, indeed, any other city. ”

“ After Modena came the deeper loveliness of the afternoon, and then Bologna, mellowed by the rosy tints of early evening. Then the sunset and then the tender moon.
By moonlight we crossed the Apennines, and to the sound of the droning summer beetle—an extraordinarily penetrating sound, which I declared makes itself heard above the railway noises, we descended into the Garden of Italy, slowly, under powerful brakes. At ten we reached Florence, and in the crowd on the platform a tall, distinguished-looking man bowed to me. “Miss Thompson?” “Yes.” It was the Marchese, and lo! ”

“ NOTES.—The above selection is part of the poem, "Italy." Of the story Rogers says, "This story is, I believe, founded on fact; though the time and place are uncertain. Many old houses in England lay claim to it."
Modena is the capital of a province of the same name in northern Italy.
Bologna's bucket. This is affirmed to be the very bucket which Tassoni, an Italian poet, has celebrated in his mock heroics as the cause of a war between Bologna and Modena. ”

“ But why should the high and mighty borgello send me away from Modena?"
"I don't know, but do you take my advice and go and speak to him; you will find him a fine fellow."
Instead of going to see this b. . . . I called on the Abbe Testa Grossa, whom I had known at Venice in 1753. Although he was a man of low extraction he had a keen wit. At this time he was old and resting on his laurels; he had fought his way into favour by the sheer force of merit, and his master, the Duke of Modena, had long chosen him as his representative with other powers. ”

“ The 4th century found Mutina in a state of decay; the ravages of Attila and the troubles of the Lombard period left it a ruined city in a wasted land. In the 7th century, perhaps owing to a terrible inundation [1] its exiles founded, at a distance of 4 m. to the north-west, a new city, Città Geminiana (still represented by the village of Cittanova) ; but about the close of the 9th century Modena was restored and refortified by its bishop, Ludovicus. When it began to build its cathedral (A.D. 1099) the city was part of the possessions of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany ”

“ The great doorways rest on lions; the west front has a noble wheel window; the greater part of the outside is lavishly arcaded, but the arcading is of a different type from the long rows of single arcades at Lucca and Pisa; the favourite form at Modena is that of several small arches grouped under a containing arch.
THE CATHEDRAL OE MODENA, ITALY.
With such an outside, we are not surprised to find, on entering the church, an elevation more nearly after the Northern type than anything which we have yet seen in Italy. ”

“ On the fall of Napoleon in 1814 Francis received the duchy of Modena, including Massa-Carrara and Lunigiana; his mother’s advice was “to be above the law ... never to forgive the Republicans of 1796, nor to listen to the complaints of his subjects, whom nothing satisfies; the poorer they are the quieter they are” (Silingardi, “Ciro Menotti,” in Rivista europea, Florence, 1880) .
The duke was well received at Modena; inordinately ambitious, strong-willed, immensely rich, avaricious but not unintelligent, he soon proved one of the most reactionary despots in Italy. ”

“ In industrial enterprise silk and linen goods and iron wares are almost the only products of any note. Commerce is chiefly agricultural and is stimulated by a good position in the railway system, and by a canal which opens a water-way by the Panaro and the Po to the Adriatic. Modena is the point at which the railway to Mantua and Verona diverges from that between Milan and Bologna, and has several steam tramways to neighbouring places. ”

“ A Congress was held at Modena on the 16th of October. The representatives of Modena, Reggio, Bologna, and Ferrara declared themselves united in a Republic under the protection of France. They abolished feudal nobility, decreed a national levy, and summoned a General Assembly to meet at Reggio two months later, in order to create the Constitution of the new Cispadane Republic. It was in the Congress of Modena, and in the subsequent Assembly of Reggio (Dec. 23) , that the idea of Italian unity and independence first awoke the enthusiasm of any considerable body of men. ”

“ The duchies of Modena, Parma, and Placentia, are exceedingly fertile. The soil is naturally rich, and the climate being moister here than in many other parts of Italy, produces more plentiful pasturage for cattle. The road runs over a continued plain, among meadows and corn fields, divided by rows of trees, from whose branches the vines hang in beautiful festoons. We had the pleasure of thinking, as we drove along, that the peasants are not deprived of the blessings of the smiling fertility among which they live. ”

“ I learned, too, that, on leaving that city, he intended to visit Modena, Parma and Piacenza.
Without loss of time I set out for Modena, in order to precede him there, and thus prevent him performing. Enormous bills announced the representations of “The Count de Grisy, the French Artist,” and my programme was most attractive, for it contained all Pinetti’s tricks. The papers had puffed the latter so extravagantly for some time past, that I felt sure my performance would be gladly witnessed. ”

“ See VERONA, THE CONGRESS OF. ITALY: A. D. 1830-1832. Revolt in Modena, Parma, and the Papal States, suppressed by Austrian troops. "The Revolution of 1830 [in France] made a natural impression in a country which had many evils to complain of and which had so lately been connected with France. The duke of Modena, Francis IV., sought to make use of the liberal movement to extend his rule over northern Italy. But at the last moment he was terrified by threats from Vienna, turned against his fellow-conspirators, and imprisoned them (February 3, 1831) . ”

“ But this cannot be said of the rivers flowing through the vast plains of Modena, Bologna, Ferrara, and Imola. They are constantly changing their beds, and the remains of embankments met with all over the country prove that all efforts to confine them permanently have proved abortive. Modena itself was once destroyed by the floods of the Secchia. The Tanaro, the Reno, and other rivers flowing towards the north-west, either into the canal encircling the lagoons of Comacchio or direct into the sea, all have a history attached to them ”

“ The palace is a union of splendor and meanness within. The endless succession of state apartments are gorgeously draped and ornamented, but the entrance halls and intermediate passages are furnished with an economy you would scarce find exceeded in the "worst inn's worst room." Modena is Corregio's birthplace, and it was from a Duke of Modena that he received the bag of copper coin which occasioned his death. ”

“ In Modena, the Bishop Morone, the intimate friend of Pole and Contarini, and his chaplain, Don Girolamo de Modena, supported and taught the same opinions.
In Venice, Gregorio Cortese, Abbot of San Giorgio Maggiore, Luigi Priuli, a patrician, and the Benedictine [Pg 358] Marco, of Padua, formed a society mainly occupied in discussing the subtle questions which formed the "symbolum" of the new party. ”

“ Modenese artists in terra-cotta worked at Ferrara, and Cristoforo da Modena was boccalaro to the duke of that territory in the{180} sixteenth century. Piccolpasso names Modena as a place where maiolica was produced, but whether of a superior or of a more ordinary kind we are not informed. In the last century Geminiano Cozzi, of that city, was the leading maker of porcelain at Venice about 1765, but the monopoly granted to the fabrique of Sassuolo impeded the manufacture of enamelled wares elsewhere in the duchy. ”

“ And when they came to Modena a gate was opened to them by the Guelfs, and they were admitted; and straightway when they were come upon the piazza of Modena, as brave men and used to arms and to war, they attacked the Ghibellines, which could not long endure, but were defeated and slain and driven out of-189- the city, and their houses and their goods spoiled; by reason of which booty the said Guelf refugees from Florence and from the rest of Tuscany were much enriched, and furnished themselves with horses and with arms, whereof they were in great need, and this was in the year of Christ 1263. ”

“ Nominated in 1770 librarian to Francis III., duke of Modena, he turned to account the copious materials there accumulated for the composition of his Storia della Letteratura Italiana. This vast work, in which the progress of Italian literature from the time of the Etruscans to the end of the 17th century is traced in detail, occupied eleven assiduous years, 177182, and the thirteen quarto volumes embodying it appeared successively at Modena during that period. ”

“ Two other artists of Modena, Francesco Vellani and Antonio Consetti, who died near the same time, not very long ago, were instructed in the art by Stringa and his school. Both are in a taste much resembling that of the Bolognese of their own age. The former however, is not so accurate in point of design as the latter, a strict and commendable master in that art. It is true, he has a crudeness of colours, not very pleasing to the eye; no new circumstance in an artist educated in the school of Creti. Both Modena and the state are in possession of many of their pieces. ”

“ While I stay’d at Venice, the Hereditary Prince of Modena came and spent a few Days there. The Venetians made several Entertainments for him, which gave me the Pleasure of seeing the Venetian Ladies in all their Dresses, or else I should have gone away without seeing one of them; for the Jealousy of their Husbands confines them almost always within Doors, so that ’tis impossible to see them, but in the Time of the Carnival, or on some Days of Festival. While the Prince of Modena stay’d at Venice, there was a sort of Carnival, which gave the Town an Air of Gaiety that is not common to it. ”

“ Panizzi, a native of Modena, who has now been for many years resident in England, who holds the appointment of Keeper of the Printed Books in the British Museum, wishes to go to Italy in the course of this autumn, and to visit Naples. Mr. Panizzi was, many years ago, connected with some persons who, on account of their political opinions, had incurred the displeasure of the late Duke of Modena ”

“ About three miles from Lerici, we crossed the Magra, which appeared as a rivulet almost dry, and in half a mile farther arrived at Sarzana, a small town at the extremity of the Genoese territories, where we changed horses. Then entering the principalities of Massa and Carrara, belonging to the duke of Modena, we passed Lavenza, which seems to be a decayed fort with a small garrison, and dined at Massa, which is an agreeable little town, where the old dutchess of Modena resides. ”