IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY

MONT' AMIATA

IN UNKNOWN
TUSCANY

BY

EDWARD HUTTON
HI
AUTHOR OF "THE CITIES OF UMBRIA"

WITH NOTES BY
WILLIAM HEYWOOD

WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
By O. F. M. WARD
AND TWENTY OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY
31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET
1909

PREFACE
/] FE W words on the genesis of this book
might seem to be called for. In the
summer of 1907 / went up into Mont' Amiata,
and moved by the extraordinary beauty and
virility of that part of Central Italy as seen
from the Mountain, I began to write down my
impressions of it. Repetti s " Dizionario," that
best of all books on Tuscany, written some
eighty years ago, the " Commentaries" of Pio 11.
helped me with such historical facts as I
needed, and in Barsellotti's "David Laz-
zaretti" I found the thoughts of a native of
Mont' Amiata on all that had happened in the
Mountain that was his home.
Just then — it was in August — my friend Mr.
William Heywood came up into the Mountain
from Perugia, and to my great advantage, as it

vi IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
proved, decided to stay in AbbadiaSan Salvatore,
where I was then living. Together we explored
the Mountain and talked of its history. Know
ing far more than I could hope to do of the
sources of its history, he made me, so far as
he was able in our walks and rides, a partaker
of his knowledge, and at last, hearing what I
was at, he placed at my disposal all his notes on
the Mountain, and agreed to write for me
an Appendix to the book.
So under his influence the book became a
very different thing from what I had planned.
It gained incalculably. A certain difference
between us both in temperament and in intention
— -for while for him the fact was everything,
for me it was little compared with the right
expression of what I myself felt and saw — has
helped, as I think, to give the book a strength it
might otherwise have lacked, to set it square on
the earth, so that the reader who comes to it first
for historical facts will not be disappointed, for
he cannot, indeed, find this information in any

PREFACE

vn

other book in any language. This side of the
book, then, its appeal to the student of Italian
History, would have been infinitely less valuable
— or even non-existent — if Mr. Heywood
had not appeared at the opportune moment he
did, or if appearing, he had not given up a
great part of his life to the study of Sienese
History. And so while I am responsible for
the text of the book, and he for the notes,
without the assistance of which I have spoken
the text would have been much less precise and
much less valuable than I hope it is.
E. H.
Casa di Boccaccio
corbignano

CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
Preface ...... v
I. The Vision ... . . i
II. Of the Way and of the Mountain . . 8
III. The History of Abbadia San Salvatore 21
IV. The Badia . .... 41
V. The Castello . . . . 51
VI. In the Forest and on the Mountain . 61
VII. To Radicofani . . . 92
VIII. Bagni di S. Filippo, Campiglia d'Orcia, and
Vivo . . . -113
IX. Pian Castagnajo . . . .127
X. The Aldobrandeschi . . 139
XI. Santa Fiora . . . . 165
XII. Arcidosso . . . . .178
XIII. The New Messiah 182
Conclusion . . . . .215
Notes ...... 219
Useful Information .... 239
Index . . 241

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

IN COLOUR

Mont" Amiata ....
On the Way to the Mountain

. Frontispiece FACING PAGE 4

Mont" Oliveto ....

14

Homewards, Abbadia S. Salvatore .

. 60

In S. Fiora of the Aldobrandeschi .

. iS6

David Lazzaretti, the Messiah of Mont'

Amiata 182

On Montelabbro . .

. 192

On the Way to the Valleys : Noon on the Road 216

IN MONOTONE
St. Francis's Vision near Rocca di Campiglia
d'Orcia. Mont' Amiata in background .
From the picture by Sassetta at Chantilly
Plan of the present and subterranean Churches
of the Abbey of S. Salvatore .
The Castello, Abbadia S. Salvatore
Castellazzara ....
Altar Piece, Pieve, S. Fiora .
By the Della Robbia School
Radicofani .....
Pian Castagnajo ....

40 50
68 84 92
128

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi
FACING PAGE
Pian Castagnajo . . . . . .136
Comunicatorio, Pieve, S. Fiora . . .140
By Giovanni della Robbia
La Madonna della Cintola, Pieve, S. Fiora . 146
By the Della Robbia School
Santa Fiora . . . . . .152
The Peschiera, S. Fiora . . . .160
Rocca di S. Fiora, from within . . .166
Font, Pieve, S. Fiora . . . . .168
By Giovanni della Robbia
The Last Supper, Detail of Pulpit, Pieve,
S. Fiora . . . . . .170
By the Della Robbia School
The Resurrection, Detail of Pulpit, Pieve, S.
Fiora . . . . . . .172
By the Della Robbia School
The Ascension, Detail of Pulpit, Pieve, S. Fiora 174
By the Della Robbia School
The Holy Trinity, in the Convent in the Wood,
S. Trinita near S. Fiora . . . .176
By the Della Robbia School
La Madonna, Arcidosso . . . .178
The Falls of Arcidosso . . . .180

IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY

THE VISION
/^~\NE evening in Siena, because ofthe noise
^-^ and heat of the city, I had wandered up
to the great half-forsaken church of the Servi
di Maria for the sake of the silence and the
wind. It was the hour before sunset. Behind
me, on her hills, the beautiful pale city of the
Virgin rose, as ever, with a certain strangeness
in her beauty, a little hysterical maybe, as in
that vast swooning Tower, that curiously over-
expressive Palazzo Pubblico, that visionary
Cathedral — a cathedral that had Jacopone da
Todi been an architect instead of a poet he
would perhaps have built. Here and there
about the city among the olives, still full of the
song of the cicale, the valleys broke in sudden
bursts of green, where the gardens were lost in

2 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
the vineyards, the vineyards in the corn.
Before me stretched the contado, a restless
country of up-tossed, tawny hills, as in a picture
by Piero della Francesca. And over that
strange, arid world, where the little cities
burned like precious stones, hovered Mont'
Amiata, that beautiful, mysterious mountain,
not too near, not too far away, very faint in
the heat, the last outpost of Siena, looking
towards Rome and the sea.
. All day long that world of barren hills so
strange, so fantastic, and so beautiful, had been
like a hard, glowing jewel, in which everything
less pure or less mysterious than the sun had
been consumed in an astonishment of light.
But presently, as I knew, the earth would be
filled with a marvellous shadow ; a mysterious
and solemn loveliness, almost poignant in the
strange brevity of its passing, would fall upon
the hills ; like some known and ancient sweet
ness the wind would come from the mountains,
the wind that had passed over the sea. It was
for that I was waiting after the heat of the day.
The whole world was longing for rain.
Sometimes out of the silence a boy's voice rose
shrilly below me among the drooping vines,
singing stornelli ; from the little courtyard of a

THE VISION 3
podere, where the corn was strewn like a yellow
carpet, came the rhythmic throb of the flails,
like the murmur of summer itself, faint and far-
off, as they beat out the grain ; now and then,
from the shadow hard by, came the subtle, deli
cious laughter of a little child playing alone :
there was no other sound. Thus I waited in
the shadow of the church for the wind from the
sea. Suddenly, just within the city gate, I heard
the rough voice of a barrocciaio cheering his
asses on the way to the mountains. Was it in
that moment I knew for the first time how
weary I was of the ways of a city ? I leaned
eagerly over the wall to watch him who, sing
ing now, was, as it seemed to me, making his
escape. Yes, he would go by the long roads,
through the cool night, perhaps by Arbia, whose
waters still at dawn maybe ran red with blood.
In those secret Jiours, unconscious of the
splendour of the way, he would follow Via
Francigena in the wake of many armies, till, in
the nativity of the sun, Buonconvento would
rise before him, within whose marvellous walls
Dante's emperor, on his way southward to meet
King Robert of Naples and Pope Clement v.,
his enemies, lingered and found his death in
1 31 3, as it is said in the morning Mass of S.

4 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
Bartholomew. So he would go in the dawn,
halting, perhaps, at the inn of the Cavallo
Inglese for a cup of the wine they grow there,
golden and cold, and a mouthful of bread ; but
the heat would find him, at last, maybe under
Radicofani, maybe on the barren flank of
Montalcino, so that he would sleep through the
terrible hours of midday, when with Sol' in
Leone none may walk or work, perhaps in the
shadow of the Osservanza, where you turn to
the left on the steep way under the city of
Montalcino. Then in the afternoon, not with
out a momentary prayer to Madonna Assunta
of that place, whom Benedetto Bonfigli of
Perugia has painted there very sweetly, he
would follow the road into Vai d'Orcia, past S.
Antimo and its forgotten Abbey, and, crossing
the river and the railway, by evening win to the
lower slopes of that far-away fair mountain
Mont' Amiata, where, as I seemed to remember,
long and long ago a king saw Christ in the
forest and was glad therefore, and for that cause
built the first great Abbey of Tuscany, — ah !
long and long ago ; where, not far away even
while I was a child in England, David
Lazzaretti heard a voice or saw a vision, and
went no more with his baroccio from village to

on the way to the mountain

THE VISION 5
village, but wandered alone on Mont' Labbro
till, pursued by dreams that he sought in vain
to prove realities, the carabinieri shot him one
day of August — it was just after the Festa of
S. Maria Assunta, 1878. And to-day, too, in
those immense forests what might not await
one at evening, even now in the silence and the
wind ?
The sun had set, all that tawny barren world
seemed burning in the conflagration of the
ruined sun. The city flamed like some beauti
ful beacon. Then suddenly, out of the fire, the
bells of the Duomo rang the message of the
Angel. Swiftly, hysterically almost, with the
eagerness of a woman, the convent of S.
Girolamo answered. From Santo Spirito, from
San Domenico, from San Martino, from Sant'
Agostino, Santa Mustiola, from San Francesco,
over the city of the Virgin the bronze voices
mixed in a marvellous chorus singing Magnificat.
The canticle seemed to rise towering into the
sky, like the bell-shaped, pure Lily of Annuncia
tion. From the vineyards, from the gardens,
from the cornfields, from the valleys and the
hills came the soft country voices, bell answer
ing bell, throbbing and beating, wave after

6 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
wave, in an ever-widening circle of sound that
broke at the feet of Siena, till at last their
voices were lost in the silence that brooded
over the valleys and the hills.
Again I looked out across that world, silent
so suddenly, to Mont' Amiata, that in the failing
light seemed infinitely far away, like a moun
tain in a dream. Ah, if I could reach her!
There, why, there, if anywhere in the world,
was all that I could desire, coolness and silence,
the wind among the trees, and laughing streams
bordered with forget-me-nots, and the little
songs of the country, if I might trust Pio u.
Why should I not set out ?
One by one the cities faded in the twilight,
little by little that barren world of hills was
lost in an immense and beautiful shadow ; out
of Maremma night was coming, only Mont'
Amiata, like a dim, vast precious stone, shone
far away between earth and sky.
Why should I not set out ?
Suddenly beneath me the olives stirred in
the twilight, the corn whispered together and
was silent, the dead grass on the wall, between
the bricks, shivered and was still. There was
a moment of profound stillness. Again the
olives trembled, a swallow dipped past me cry-

THE VISION 7
ing plaintively ; beside the church the dust
curled up in little tongues like flames. It was
the wind at last. At first it came in little gasps,
like the cries of children ; then with a flutter as
of wings, like the flight of doves or the hurry
of a girl's bare feet in the vineyard. Over the
eastern hills the moon hung like the Host in a
monstrance of jasper, the olives tossed their
silver leaves as though in adoration, the corn
was a sea of purple and gold, — it was the wind
at last. And I heard a voice walking in the
garden of the world like the voice of God.
When I looked again Mont' Amiata was lost
in the night.

II

OF THE WAY AND OF THE
MOUNTAIN
AS you come to Mont' Amiata from Siena,
perhaps by railway through Asciano
and Torrenieri to Mont' Amiata station in
Vai d'Orcia, perhaps by road through Buon-
convento and S. Quirico, turning at last almost
under the famous eyrie of Radicofani, past
Bagni di S. Filippo, where Grand Duke
Ferdinando ii. cured his headache, up to
Abbadia di San Salvatore on the verge of the
woods, you will find yourself crossing the
desolate and barren country of the Sienese
contado, a tawny land of volcanic hills lined
and scored by the heat of the sun, without
trees or vineyards or olives, ascetic and almost
naked, but that a yellow hillside here and there
is sparely covered with broom, or topped by a
few stone pines, hovering there like the dread
ful spirits of this country, that must always have

Sassetta Chantilly
S. FRANCIS'S VISION NEAR ROCCA 1)1 CAMPICLIA D'OREIA / Cclano ii, gj),
MONT AMIALA IN THE BACKGROUND
( Krai,, i. Clement lb- Cie.)

OF THE WAY AND OF THE MOUNTAIN g
been lonely and silent, where in some sort
feudalism has lingered almost till our own
time. Very silent and strange it seems on a
summer day when the impartial sun pitilessly
involves this naked land in its own ecstasy of
fire, and as you wind among those tortured
hills you might think, indeed, that no sound
could ever penetrate so great a silence, till at
a turning of the way suddenly a breath of air
stirs on the hillside, and you catch a sibilant
murmur as of still restless but forgotten ashes,
the whisper of the wind among the dry, rustling
pods of the broom. It is, as it were, the voice
of this desert, where at dawn, at midday, at
sunset man is dwarfed by the largeness, the
immensity of elemental things.
But this desolate land possesses, too, a
marvellous and virile beauty beyond almost
any other part of Italy. How well we have
loved and understood the almost feminine
loveliness of Umbria, for instance, or the
laughing country about Florence, the lines of
the hills there as expressive as in a picture
by Sandro Botticelli. Only this we have not
understood. Yet here alone we may find,
if we will, something of the profound and

io IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
passionate beauty of Castile, the virility of
the desert, the mystery and tyranny of the sun.
Well, it is across this country, so little
appreciated or understood, so sensitive to
every aspect of the sky, that every one must
pass on the way from Siena to the Mountain.
If you come by railway, starting early and
without lingering at Asciano, where indeed
there is but little to see, — an altar piece by
one of the Robbia, blue and white like a
spring sky, a few second-rate Sienese pictures, —
midday will find you free of the train at last,
at the station of Mont' Amiata, and all the
afternoon in the murmuring heat you will
climb the slopes of the Mountain, winning to
the woods at evening, those vast delicious
forests where above you all day long the
leaves are spread like a veil of green spangled
with gold ; and there spring might seem to be
eternal. But to travel anywhere in Italy by
railway is, as it were, to make compromise
with beauty and with wisdom. The wise
traveller will, as of old, follow the road, and
since the road is Via Francigena, who would
not be willing to linger by the way ?
The Via Francigena, or Francesca, for it
was called by either name, is, as its name

OF THE WAY AND OF THE MOUNTAIN 1 1
implies, the way of the Franks into Italy.
Leaving Via Emilia, the ancient ^Emilian
Way, straight almost as a ruled line from
Milan to Rimini, at Parma it crossed the
Appenines by the Cisa Pass, as indeed it does
to-day, descending into the western valleys
at Pontremoli in Lunigiana, and entering
Tuscany at Sarzana and forgotten Luni.
Then by the Salto della Cervia it entered the
Lucchese, passed through Lucca, and, by
Altopascio and Galleno, found Vai d'Arno
at Fucecchio. Crossing the Arno there
under S. Miniato al Tedesco, it entered the
Vai d'Elsa, passing Castel Fiorentino, Certaldo,
and Poggibonsi. Climbing thence into the
Sanese, it passed Staggia and Siena, Buon-
convento, S. Quirico, Callimala, Acqua-
pendente, Bolsena, Montefiascone, Viterbo and
Sutri, entering Rome at last by Porta di
Castello. By that road in iiqi came Philip
Augustus; and indeed it was the shortest
road from Lombardy to Rome. It was not
till, in 1352, the Sienese held Radicofani
that that ancient mediaeval way was changed.
Then the Borgo of Callimala was destroyed,
and the Via Francigena, instead of holding to
the valley of Paglia, was led over the height

12 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
of Radicofani, to take again the ancient way
it had left for Viterbo and Rome.
It is this road you follow, starting at dawn
out of Porta Romana of Siena, passing Mala-
merenda, where the Salimbeni slew the Tolomei
in 1 33 1, and reaching by nine in the morning
Buonconvento, still with its old walls unspoiled,
where — is it not so ? — it is convenient to
hear Mass. You may think there is but
little to see in Buonconvento ; a church here
and there perhaps, but only one of them seems
to hold any precious thing, SS. Pietro e
Paolo, where, over the high altar, Matteo di
Giovanni has painted Madonna, not without a
certain sweetness and grace ; where in the
sacristy hangs a triptych by Sano di Pietro,
in which he has painted Madonna in the midst
with S. Catherine and S. Bernardino beside
her, while not far away is a picture by Pac-
chiarotto : unimportant things maybe, not too
worthy of remembrance, but these are the
flowers of country places that you miss if you
come by the iron road. And then very easily
from Buonconvento you may see the convent of
Monte Oliveto Maggiore, that surprising place
where blind Bernardo Tolomei of Siena, re
covering his sight by a miracle, in thank-

OF THE WAY AND OF THE MOUNTAIN 13
fulness forsook the world and retired to that
barren hill called Accona, now so green with
trees, founding there the Olivetan Congrega
tion under the Rule of S. Benedict; and
Madonna dressed his monks in white. There,
where now no more you may hear the cheerful
voices of those who count the world well lost,
you come, not without surprise, upon the
virile work of Luca Signorelli, and, beside it,
really the best work of that trifler Sodoma,
the integrity and energy of the dead Umbrian
seeming, as by a miracle, to have saved the
Sienese for once, really from himself, his self-
indulgence, his facile, vulgar gorgeousness.
Or maybe the summer day will seem too
fierce for you to trifle with the valleys, so that
at evening, leaving Monte Oliveto unseen, and
following still Via Francigena, you will leave
Buonconvento for S. Quirico d'Orcia, where
in the Piazza is the good Inn of Costantini
Casini, where one may sleep.
As you climb into that little hill city at
sunset, maybe the priests are blessing the way
against to-morrow's Festa, and you are in
volved in the mystery in which the whole
city takes part ; the people, some in procession,
with candles shining in the glow of earth and

14 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
sky, some with banners fantastically sewn
with the initials of their Companies, the girls
in white, the women and men in black, kneeling
in the dust of the way, awaiting in the stillness
the benediction of the evening. I n that moment
a certain weariness, born of the long way and the
dust, seems to pass from you suddenly, so that
you fall, on that night at least, into one of those
dreamless sleeps that are so rare as we grow
older, but that in childhood seemed to fold one
every night swiftly, lovingly, into the invisible.
And then the morrow ! S. Quirico d'Orcia
will not hold you long; only in the dawn,
maybe, you will care to see the great palace of
the Chigi and the CoUegiata, with its columned
west doorway, its south doorway too, half
Lombard, half Renaissance they tell you, its
columns resting upon lions. Perhaps in that
hour you will steal into the south transept
before the first Mass, to see the picture of
Madonna there. But the horses are waiting,
and Nenno, your man, warns you of the heat
and the length of the way ; it is necessary to
be off, where the road leads, leaving the dim
Sodoma in the Misericordia unseen ; no such
mighty deprivation after all, perhaps, in sight
of the woods and the hills.

OF THE WAY AND OF THE MOUNTAIN 15
At first on that wonderful road you descend
into Vai d'Orcia, then in the sunrise climb
ing slowly again, under Vignone, the cities
begin to glitter about you — Castiglione d'Orcia,
like a ruined fortress, on your right ; Pienza,
that lovely vanity ; Montepulciano, like a rose
on its hill, to your left : and before you, between
the mountains, the scarped ruin of Radicofani
soars like an eagle over the valley on the road
to Rome. Midday will find you there at the
Albergo under the Rocca, and evening will come
again as, returning a little on your way, you
climb at last, past the horrid whiteness of Bagni
di S. Filippo, far beneath you, to Podere Zaccaria
on the hillside of Mont' Amiata itself, to Abbadia
di S. Salvatore on the verge of the woods.
Such is the way from the City to the
Mountain. But in the joy and surprise of the
road, one has had but little opportunity, after
all, to ask oneself what Mont' Amiata really is,
how it came into the power of Siena, by what
means she held it, under what law. What was
the contado of Siena, in which Mont' Amiata
was the southern outpost ?
It is the mistake, it might seem, of much
popular criticism of our time, and of almost all

1 6 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
descriptive writings about Italy, to speak of
the Communes as making an end of Feudalism
there, to picture them not only as the fountain
of a new and popular Liberty, but as continu
ally striving to free themselves from the ghost
of the Empire. However anxious we may be
to thrust our own thoughts, our own manner of
thinking, upon an outmoded and an alien world,
no enthusiasm can excuse a mistake so pro
found as this ; for dream though we may admit
the Holy Roman Empire to have been, it was
one which in the Middle Age haunted men's
minds persistently, so prone are we at all times
to mistake the Past for the Future. It is for
this reason that no account of Mont' Amiata
can be complete without some notice of its
peculiarly feudal character, feudal, that is, not
merely under the Abbots of S. Salvatore, the
Aldobrandeschi of Santa Fiora, the Visconti
of Campiglia d'Orcia, but also in its relation to
the Commune of Siena ; for Siena, herself a
corporate feudatory of the Empire, was the
suzerain of her contado, that region of Tuscany
where possibly feudalism lingered longest, in
which Mont' Amiata was undoubtedly the most
feudal part.
Professor Rondoni has well said that the

OF THE WAY AND OF THE MOUNTAIN 17
Feuds and the Communes of Italy were the
result, the manifestation as it were, of the same
social conditions ; their fundamental principles
were identical, their differences merely differ
ences of detail. The Communes were indeed
neither more nor less than the great Feuda
tories of the Italian kingdom, and " in the eye
of the law " their relation to the Emperor was
the same as that of the Dukes and Margraves
of Germany. He, as Lord Paramount of the
World, the Keystone of the Feudal Arch, held
as it were from God Himself; they were his
tenants in capite, while the nobles of their
contadi who submitted to their suzerainty
became thereby arrere vassals.
It is true that within the walls of the cities
Feudalism soon languished, so that as time
went on the relation of the citizens with one
another was often regulated by laws which
were rather Latin than Teutonic ; indeed, it is
possible that these laws were Latin from the
first. But nevertheless the relations of the
cities with their dependencies remained feudal
to the last.
Cut off from the open and laughing valley
of the Arno, Siena reigned in the heart of
Tuscany, sending her name through all the

1 8 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
wide region of the Maremma and of Amiata,
from the mountains to the sea. In those long
and deep valleys, on those barren hills, on
that solitary seashore with its vast swamps
breathing miasma and death, there were no
great cities; the glory of Pupolonia was
departed ; Roselle, once so mighty, was a
vision ; in that , mysterious land, without in
dustry, without commerce, only small and
stunted Communes could exist. But as though
in a congenial soil, Feudalism took root there
and flourished greatly, so that Tommasi,
writing in the seventeenth century, could
declare that almost to his day the Maremma
of Siena was full of petty feudal chieftains,
Signorotti he calls them, who lorded it as they
would. And truly this is no strange thing. In the
open plains among great and eager cities, as in
Lombardy and Vai d'Arno, though Feudalism
as a system of government doubtless remained,
the feudal Baronage soon passed away ; but it is
not surprising that here in the Sanese, in the
narrow valleys of Ombrone and Merse, on the
mountains of Cetona and Radicofani, in the
broken hills of Chianti and among the squalid
villages and desolate, ruined cities of the coast,

OF THE WAY AND OF THE MOUNTAIN 19
feudal lords were able to maintain themselves
for centuries. Indeed, such places might seem
to have been contrived by Nature herself for
those lawless chieftains, their appalling customs,
their private warfare, for offence or defence ;
and there, too, were deer and wild boar in
abundance, and poor terrazzani and contadini
— how little better in their eyes — to plunder
and to oppress.
Such was this country, long and long ago,
which Siena was destined to covet and to
conquer. And nowhere did she encounter
more prolonged resistance than in Mont' Amiata,
the most obstinately feudal stronghold of a
pre-eminently feudal state. There, why, there
was the eyrie of the Visconti of Campiglia, the
great ecclesiastical feud of the Abbots of
S. Salvatore, the well-nigh impregnable fortress
of Santa Fiora, the capital of the Contea
Aldobrandesca. How quiet those old fierce lordships are
to-day ! Over the ruined fortress of the
Visconti a wooden cross, crowned with an old
garland, counts the innumerable hours. In the
village beneath men loiter and laugh together,
a mother in her doorway feeds her little son ;

20 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
in the fields the maidens sing as the goats
follow them home. Why, the flowers, those
fragile things, have outlived the Visconti ! The
hope there is in that !
And the Conti Aldobrandeschi of Santa
Fiora, Aldobrandino, Guglielmo, Bonifazio,
and that Umberto, whom Dante met in
Purgatory, what has befallen them ? Whither
are they gone ? Can it be that a name so very
glorious, so great a lordship, so potent a
tyranny is forgotten out of mind ? Can their
earth bear grapes and not tremble lest they
come ? Ah, it minds them not. . . .
Last night, as I drove home to Abbadia
S. Salvatore from Arcidosso, I passed, as all
who go in or out must still do, under their
great fortress palace, and, lo ! where of old
their guards sat, that devil Giovagnolo, it may
be, among them, now the children were playing
in the shadow, the children of those who
perhaps were once their serfs. And once more
I seemed to understand that hard saying :
Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the
earth.

Ill
THE HISTORY OF ABBADIA
S. SALVATORE
A BBADIA S. SALVATORE is the most
•* *- ancient and the most populous of all the
villages of Mont' Amiata. To-day, in any
superficial view of it, a mere picturesque
huddle of houses, nearly three thousand feet
above the sea on the eastern flank of the
highest mountain in Tuscany, its secret lies in
the fact that it is an almost perfectly preserved
mediaeval Castello, a walled village, built
beside an abbey of Benedictines. Standing
as it does on the verge of those immense
woods of beech and chestnut that cover the
enormous cone of Mont' Amiata, from any
distant view, from Radicofani for instance, it is
difficult to distinguish it from the shadow of
the trees, the stones and boulders that hem
it in, the immense sweep of the forest that, in
autumn, like a sea of fire streaming down from

22 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
the ancient crater of the mountain, breaks
everywhere about it over the silent valley of
the Paglia.
And its prospect is of a thousand hills and
valleys. Before it, across the dumb gorge ofthe
Paglia, Radicofani rises like a haggard boast
between the valleys, bearing on its back the
road to Rome ; beyond, over the invisible
broad valley of the upper Orcia, rises the Cetona
range, with S. Casciano and Celle very visible
to the right of Monte Cetona herself; and
behind her, on a clear day islanded in the blue
air, one may see the round tops of the Umbrian
hills to far-away Subasio above Assisi and
Spello, the heights over Spoleto, the mountains
of Norcia ; while to the left of Monte Cetona
one may descry the beautiful mountains above
Gubbio in the range of the central Appenines.
To the north the world is bounded by the
mountains of the Casentino, La Verna and the
rest, but in spite of their beauty it is southward
one looks oftenest, across the vast restless plain
of the Patrimony, where, like a vision, like I
know not what passionate and lovely thing,
Monte Cimino and Monte Venere, joined
indissolubly by the marvellous blue line of
hills, like a bow, which marries them, rise on

HISTORY OF ABBADIA S. SALVATORE 23
the farthest horizon in a gesture of profound
and exquisite beauty over the lake of Bolsena
— twin pyramids of a visionary gateway of the
Eternal City, for beyond lie the Campagna
and Rome. And hitherward, between them,
Montefiascone rises on her hills, Viterbo shines
at evening like a white rose fallen on the skirts
of Monte Venere.
Such is the world which all day long, visible
or invisible as the heat waxes or wanes in the
valleys, is spread out before that little unknown
village in the mountains. And, indeed, who
should seek her out in her poverty, her loneli
ness, and her beauty ? Long and long before
the summer grew so fierce the English, those
wanderers, are fled away to England ; while
the Italians, those, at least, who seek for any
respite from the accustomed heat, are not con
tent with so lonely a place as this mountain,
so humble a hostelry as Abbadia can afford
them. They are for the gayer places, following
the world ; and what is Abbadia S. Salvatore
to Vallombrosa above Vai d'Arno, with its
huge hotels, almost on the main line too ; or
Pracchia in the Appenines, where you may find
all the trifling, irrepressible gaiety of a city, a
little wistful, certainly, amid those towering

24 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
peaks, but comforting nevertheless to those
who, having spoiled everything they could,
have at last succeeded with a sort of noisy joy
in smearing the mountains with their own
vulgarity. But for those few among us who
have loved silence and old unspoiled things,
Abbadia remains almost as she used to be in
the blessed, far-off days before the Italians were
created by the Switzers of Piedmont, before
Rome began to ape both New York and
Berlin, before Florence died, before Siena had
a motor omnibus, or Venice a steamboat, or
Perugia an electric tram, before the whole
valley of Spoleto, where Christ talked with
Beata Angela of Foligno, was noisome with
chemical works. So in Italy passes the glory
of the world, and because of this beastliness
for very shame men there cannot any longer
believe in God ; they are so eager to spoil His
work for gold. Ah! what will they buy, I
wonder, half so lovely, half so precious as that
which they had for love — as that which they
have ruthlessly, wantonly, stupidly destroyed ?
Abbadia S. Salvatore, I said, remains almost
as in the old days — almost, but not quite. It
was not to be thought of. A new invasion of
the Barbarians in the shape of a hard-headed

HISTORY OF ABBADIA S. SALVATORE 25
German Company has now for some years
been mining in the mountains, and its head
quarters are at Abbadia. The marvel is truly
that so little damage has been done. The
place is still a village, beautiful too, on the
verge of the woods ; the people, of whom the
great part among the men work in the mines,
live still in the old Castello ; the new houses are
few, and after a few days, if you would, you might
forget that such things as mines exist, if it were
not for the pitiful story of an old woman or the
bitter, fierce words of some mother who fears
for her only son.
Abbadia San Salvatore, as its name tells us,
owes its origin to its monastery, the greater
part of which still remains, though no longer
in possession of the monks. Set on a rock,
divided by a deep gorge from the Castello, the
monastery looks down across the valley and
plain of the Paglia to Radicofani and the far
hills. Of old its abbots ruled many a town and
hamlet in that restless plain or on the moun
tains, governing their lordship not by the might
of the crozier alone, but as powerful feudal
Signori, at whose call many a knight and
vassal stood ready to take the field. " Their
feudal jurisdiction," Repetti tells us in his

26 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
Dizionario, that best of all books about
Tuscany, "their feudal jurisdiction stretched
over many villages, hamlets and Castelli in
the contadi of Chiusi, Sovana, Toscanella,
Castro, Orvieto, Siena, Grosseto, Pupolonia
and so forth." While so great was their
wealth that, as Rondoni tells us, from the
middle of the twelfth century they were able to
pay to the Holy See (which declared them
immediately subject to itself, without the juris
diction of any bishop) two hundred and twenty
denari of gold.
And then the Abbey of S. Salvatore in
Mont' Amiata is perhaps the most ancient
monastery of Regulars in all Tuscany. Lost
though its origin is in the mists of the
Longobard period, it is said to have owed its
foundation to Rachis, Duke of Friuli, and king
of that terrible people whom Charlemagne
tamed. According to the legend current,
certainly as early as the eleventh century,
Rachis had vowed to build a convent in
Tuscany, and while seeking a spot suitable for
his purpose, heard rumours of a miracle which
had befallen in Mont' Amiata. Certain
shepherds (so it was said) had seen in the
night, high among the branches of a great pine,

HISTORY OF ABBADIA S. SALVATORE 27
a strange light which now burned in one sole
flame, and again broke starwise into three
rays — obvious Symbol of the Unity in Trinity
and the Trinity in Unity. At this time it
seems Rachis had already assumed the cowl,
and, coming in person to behold the wonder,
founded there a cloister and a church, building
the altar upon the spot where the mysterious
tree had stood, as indeed one may see to this
day. This happened (for the legend is very
definite) in May 742.
Others tell a different story, and you may
hear both from the peasants any July night as
they gather in the corn, to wit, that Rachis
beheld the divine manifestation while he was
besieging Perugia ; the Saviour appearing to
him between two burning torches. It is
perhaps worthy of note that Francesco di San
Casino, the seventeenth-century painter of the
fresco in the eastern chapel of the south transept
in the Abbey church, appears to have known
and to have remembered both versions of the
legend, since he has painted the king and the
queen, with their courtiers, gazing upward at a
clump of seven trees — or is it one tree with
seven trunks ? — in the midst of which Christ
appears surrounded by a pale starlike radiance.

28 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
Nor does the legend end here, : for it tells
further how that Erminia, Rachis' queen, later
took the veil in Mont' Amiata, together with
her daughter, and thereafter founded a new
convent at a place called Ermeta. There
Erminia died, and there she was buried ; and
the good Gigli does not forget to tell us that
in his day certain hermits still dwelt there. The
place is now marked by an old church and a
cross, and thither the people of Abbadia make
pilgrimage barefoot.
Whatever may be the true origin of S.
Salvatore, it is certain that from the days
of the Carlovingians, Popes and Emperors
vied with one another in conferring privileges
upon the monks. The earliest among the
Imperial grants is one of Lewis the Pious in
8 1 6, and it is followed by those of Lothair i.,
of Otho i., of Otho in., of Henry the Saint,
and of Conrad the Salic. From these we may
gather certain facts about the Abbey. Otho
in., for instance, in 996 granted the monks
numerous villages, oratories, churches, and
monasteries, to the end, as he said, that they
might live and pray God night and day for the
stability of the empire. And from the same
diploma we learn that the territories of the

HISTORY OF ABBADIA S. SALVATORE 29
Abbey were conterminous with, and surrounded
by, the feuds of the Aldobrandeschi, and by
those of the Visconti of Campiglia d'Orcia ;
a neighbourhood which laid them open to
perpetual spoliation and invasion. Indeed, to
such a pass did these lawless barons carry their
aggressions, that in 1037 the monks protested,
with tears, that by reason of hunger and
nakedness they were unable to serve God.
The Emperor Henry 11. thereupon took the
monastery under his special protection, con
ferred upon it new territories in addition to the
old ones, and decreed that henceforward no
duke, marquis, count or viscount should dare
to do it wrong, or beat or oppress its
dependants. Henry vi. confirmed this priv
ilege, reserving to himself the right of fodrum,
but he again increased their possessions, and
recognised the jurisdiction of the Abbot of S.
Salvatore over Pian Castagnajo, Radicofani,
and Montelaterone. In the thirteenth century
Otho in. and Frederick 11. showed themselves
equally anxious to afford the Abbey favour and
protection. Under such powerful patronage and pro
tection the monastery increased, as one might
suppose, in wealth and prosperity; but with

30 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
riches and security, as it might seem, came
idleness and worse, till the monks not only
grew careless of their religious duties but even
neglected their temporal affairs. At last, Pope
and Emperor alike despairing of their amend
ment, the Benedictines were expelled from S.
Salvatore in February 1228, and their place
filled by the Cistercians, in whose hands the
Abbey remained until its suppression by the
Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo in 1782.
Meanwhile, on the hill over the narrow but
steep gorge which to-day on one side divides
the Abbey from the village of Abbadia S.
Salvatore, the Castello, literally a walled
village, had risen. And this was its origin.
From the sixth to the eleventh century the
need of protection for life and limb was, with
the mass of the people, far more urgent than
the desire for liberty. The expedients they
adopted to win this safety were various and
numerous. All of them, however, agreed in a
voluntary submission, more or less complete,
to some powerful protector. In those days,
and perhaps now too, the Church offered the
only asylum to the destitute and oppressed, and
many preferred to seek the protection of a
monastery rather than to serve a feudal lord.

HISTORY OF ABBADIA S. SALVATORE 31
Indeed, the classes known as Oblati and Donati
existed principally, if not entirely, among the
dependants of the Church. Some of them
gave themselves and all their goods to a
convent, promising obedience to the abbot,
and asking in return nothing but food and
clothing ; thus constituting a new Order
distinguished by its duties and dress. Others
entirely renounced their freedom, and gave
themselves and their descendants into per
petual servitude; while others, again, retained
their personal liberty, and merely undertook to
pay an annual tribute. The rites and cere
monies which went with these transactions
were as singular as the principles from which
they sprang. Sometimes the Oblati prostrated
themselves upon the ground, offering the sum
of four denari in token of the servitude which
they then assumed. Sometimes they bound
themselves with the rope of the church bell.
Ducange and Mabillon describe these rites and
many more. And, indeed, the annals of the
Benedictines contain vast numbers of such
contracts, together with the formalities observed
by the parties to them. Among them are to
be found many instances of free men assuming
the quality of Glebes adscripti, and submitting

32 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
to conditions more or less oppressive according
to their necessity. It is often difficult to dis
tinguish between the Oblati, the Servi, and the
Rustici. But this much seems certain, that the
dependants of the monasteries, by whatever
name they were called, formed one of the
principal sources of the wealth of the monks.
The inhabitants of the Castello of Abbadia S.
Salvatore were thus originally the dependants
and serfs of the monks ; they performed all the
labours of the monastery in the kitchen and on
the land. They owed to the abbot feudal
duty, feudal labour, feudal payment. The
Missi, those sent officially by the monastery,
might gather what grapes they chose for the
monks when they went through the vineyards —
and there were grapes, though poor ones, in the
valley of the Paglia and toward Acquapendente
— and from the hunter they exacted the head
and feet of the wild boar, the shoulder of the
deer. Those who were rich enough to provide
six horses for the service of the monastery
were exempt from the tithe of bread and wine
{decime panis et vini), but all were in a state of
greater or less dependence, and all, or nearly all,
paid rent.
Their lot, however, was gradually amelior-

HISTORY OF ABBADIA S. SALVATORE 33
ated, as we may see from a document published
by Professor Zdekauer. For in 1212, during
the rule of Abbot Rolland, Rollandus, Abbas
Sancti Salvatoris, on the petition of Petacio
and Merisio, consuls of the Castello (Castri
Abbatie Consules), they were finally granted
certain rights : as, the right to elect consuls,
a practice which had grown up surreptitiously ;
the right of the son, the grandson and the
nephew to inherit all the wealth of the father,
grandfather, and uncle, and vice versa, not
merely by the goodwill of the Abbot, but of
right ; the right to make a money payment
in place of feudal labour. Thus, as Rondoni
reminds us, three years before the English
Barons won their rights at Runnymede these
mountain serfs had also demanded and obtained
their Magna Charta. The triumph was all
the greater because both Pope and Emperor
had always favoured the Abbots, and pro
tested against the pretences of the subject
villages to elect officers, to obtain Statutes,
and to deny the Abbots their tithes. But
the population of the Castello had increased,
and from the end of the twelfth century many
of the Communes of Mont' Amiata had con
tinued the struggle for liberty in spite of
3

34 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
Imperial diplomas and Papal excommunica
tions. In January 1236 we find the men of
the Castel della Badia S. Salvatore electing
for Podesta Raineri di Stefano of Orvieto
without consulting the Abbot, so that on
February 16 Pope Gregory ix. issued a
Bull against the two Communes of Castel
della Badia and Montelaterone, because they
refused the accustomed services to the Abbey.
On February 29 the Abbadinghi were ex
communicated ; and so the struggle went on
until, some half a century later, in 1288, we
find the people of Abbadia S. Salvatore affirming
the independence of the Castello and making
their Statute without the leave of the Abbot.
Dry and arid as the details must appear to
any one not already interested in such things,
it is not without a certain emotion one reads
them in Abbadia itself. For the Castello is
— as it has always been — a walled village,
filled to overflowing with a delightful but
somewhat fierce mountain-folk ; possessed of
all the kindness of such people, and independ
ent, too, beyond any other Italians I ever met.
In thinking of their struggle for independence
it is not unworthy of notice that they began
to be successful when the Benedictines were

HISTORY OF ABBADIA S. SALVATORE 35
expelled and the Cistercians entered into that
inheritance. Was it, after all, because the
Benedictines were too lenient that they were
expelled, or that, with the advent of new
masters, the Abbadinghi, ever suspicious of
strangers, began to assert themselves? The
cause of the sudden decay of energy among
the Benedictines is hidden from us ; but it is
interesting, and perhaps instructive, to note that
it was in the middle of the twelfth century,
some two generations before that expulsion, that
Siena and Orvieto began to covet the Mountain,
and not least the great ecclesiastical feud
of Abbadia S. Salvatore. The Communes
were born ; a new link was about to be forged
into the feudal chain, displacing the Abbots
and Barons, who henceforth would claim no
longer directly, but through the Communes, from
the Emperor or the Church.
Siena, by that time the strongest and most
beautiful city in Southern Tuscany, lay some
forty miles to the north, Orvieto lay nearly
twenty-five miles to the south-west, and like
a stronghold between them rose the Mountain,
divided into feuds of Church and Empire.
Among the ancient fiefs of the Abbots, as I
have said, was the fortress of Radicofani, the

36 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
most striking feature in any view from Abbadia
itself, standing on a hill 3000 feet above the
sea over the road to Rome, whether that road,
Via Francigena, ran through the Castello of
Radicofani as it does to-day, or, as in very
ancient times, through the valley of the Paglia
and the Borgo of Callimala. The monks,
however, did not exclusively possess this strong
place, but it was the taking of it which brought
the Sienese into the domain of the monastery.
For in 1138, in the parliament of the Sienese
people assembled before the Church of S.
Cristoforo, the Count Manente granted to
Rainerio, Bishop of Siena, a sixth part of
Radicofani and its mountain. Under cover of
this transaction the Sienese made more than
one attempt to possess themselves of the
place, and in 1145, the army of the Commune
being in Mont' Amiata, in sui piano delf
Abbadia, compelled the Abbot to swear
neither to avenge himself for the injuries which
he had suffered at their hands, nor to seek
compensation for them. Further, he under
took to save and defend the inhabitants of
Siena, together with their possessions, to hold
in Radicofani, in the name of the Commune,
that part thereof which belonged to the Sienese,

HISTORY OF ABBADIA S. SALVATORE 37
and to give them free access thereto, so that
in case of war they might be able to use the
place against any one save the Abbot and his
monks. Thus the Communes dealt with
the nobles, and it is interesting to see that
they had as little respect for an ecclesiastical
as for a lay feud.
In 1 153, however, one half of the Castello
of Radicofani was ceded to Pope Eugenius
in. for an annual census of six silver marks,
as Repetti tells us. In 1198 the Commune
of Orvieto comes on the scene, assuming
the defence and protection of the monastery,
the monks undertaking to pay them twenty
soldi yearly ; while five years later, Abbot
Roland promised de consilio totius nostri
Collegii to pay a further sum of thirty soldi of
Sienese money by way of rent for all the
possessions of the Church of S. Salvatore, and
to make peace and war at the command of the
Commune with all save the Pope and Emperor
and their successors. In return the Consuls
of Orvieto bound themselves to aid and defend
the Abbot and his successors, their towers and
possessions, as citizens and subjects of the
Commune. Thenceforward, .for nearly a
century and a half, Orvieto succeeded in

38 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
maintaining her hold upon Abbadia S. Salva
tore ; and the removal of the Benedictines, in
1229, to make way for the Cistercians in no
way affected her position. Indeed, at that
time we find the Pope recommending the
monastery and its wealth to their protection ;
while in 1232 the Commune condemned the
Abbot in forty lire of Sienese money because
he refused to make war against Siena at their
command. Siena, however, even at the lowest
ebb of her fortunes refused to abandon her
claims in Mont' Amiata. Indeed, in 1264,
during the Ghibelline ascendency, which
followed the battle of Monteaperto, she com
pelled the monks to acknowledge her suzer
ainty ; but the Orvietans soon re-established
their authority, and it was not until 1347 that
Abbadia S. Salvatore finally became part of
the Sienese dominion.
The political vicissitudes of the Abbey may
seem, indeed, of but little importance, since
the main interest of the history of Mont' Amiata
lies in the long struggle of the rural Communes
for liberty and rights. Isolated as they were,
and practically without other assistance from
the fourth century onwards, they fought their
way to freedom. Here in Abbadia the

HISTORY OF ABBADIA S. SALVATORE 39
authority of the Abbots was consistently up
held by Popes and Emperors ; yet in spite of
Imperial privileges and Papal excommunica
tions the rebellion against feudal tyranny
continued from generation to generation, until,
as we have seen, the right to frame Statutes
and to elect officials was reluctantly conceded.
Such is the story of this Abbey, half
fortress, half monastery, on the verge of the
chestnut woods, 3000 feet above the sea,
on the eastern flank of Mont' Amiata. And
if after many weeks in such a place one dares
to ask oneself, Are the people happier, stronger,
better, to-day now that there are no more any
monks in the Mountain, and the Abbey is
falling into ruin, and a German Company,
mining for quicksilver, works almost the whole
male population in gangs of two hundred and
fifty at a time, eight hours each day, by day
and night, Sundays and weekdays alike, under
the earth in the dark ? one is compelled to
answer, No ; or at least, if you have the mis
fortune to be anti-clerical, to shake the head in
doubt. It is most strange at night to see the
procession of miners, in any real way (though
there be nothing good or bad but thinking
makes it so) not less serfs than their ancestors,

40 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
flocking back from the mines to their Castello,
that walled village of the eleventh century,
where the Oblates of the Benedictine Order
lived and worked, well, at least, in the good
sun. And I who have seen here so many
strong men fed like little children by their
mothers, their wives, their daughters, because
of the terrible trembling that mercury poison
ing brings to us, can find in my heart only
hatred of those alien barbarian money-makers,
who, unlike the monks, have no care at all
either for the bodies or for the souls of those
who serve them.1
1 As this book is passing through the press, I learn that my
friend, Dr. Giglioli of Florence, has been up to the Abbadia S.
Salvatore, to try to set this matter right by establishing baths
for the miners and explaining to them the necessity in their
employment of daily bathing. It is to be hoped this will have
some effect on the health of the people.

PLAN OF THE PRESENT ANII SUBTERRANEAN CHURCHES OF THE ABBEY OF
S. SALVATORE

IV
THE BADIA
T)IO II. in that rare book of Commentarii,
-*¦ one of the most living and delightful
books of the early Renaissance, describes
Abbadia S. Salvatore, very happily and, as
it might seem, not without enthusiasm. Flee
ing from the heat of Rome, his eyes ever
turned towards his beloved Siena, he came to
the Mountain in the summer of 1462, living
in the monastery, and passing the days for the
most part under the chestnut trees, where he
received ambassadors and composed his Bulls.
To-day a stone monument marks the place where
the great tree stood in whose shadow he held
his court ; it bears the following inscription : —
PIVS II.
PONT. MAX.
AESTIVOS VRBIS
FVGIENS ARDORES
CASTANEARVM
VMBRA ALLECTVS
HIC CONSTITVTIO
NES FACIEBAT ET
LEGATOS AVDIEBAT
AD 1463
41

42 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
That he loved the place who can doubt?
" This place," he writes, speaking of Abbadia,
" is in Mont' Amiata, and to none of the Castelli
of this most pleasant Mountain does it yield
in amenity. Looking eastward, and, as one
might say, equally distant from the summit of
Mont' Amiata and from the river of the Paglia,
it is set on a little plain almost a mile round
about, filled with great chestnut trees and
closed by bitter rocks and the great precipices
over the valley. There even of old was set
the Castello, defended on the one side by the
cliffs and rocks, and on the other by great
walls and a ditch through which run the living
waters of the Mountain plentiful and copious.
The plain before the Castello is brought into
culture, the greater part of it being garden,
the rest fields. And here, too, is that Abbey,
built of old, provided with proper dwellings.
There live the Bishop and six Cardinals. ..."
To-day the Abbey which Pio n. in the
fifteenth century found so fair is almost a ruin ;
the monks are gone, the treasury has been
rifled, the library carried to Florence ; and this
is the work not of the universal robber and
vandal United Italy, but of Pietro Leopoldo,
who, coming to the place in 1782, was

THE BADIA 43
welcomed eagerly by the monks and the
people. And when he came into the monas
tery he found there set out for his delight, to
do him honour, all the ancient plate and wealth
of the Abbey. Whether it was then the
thought came to him, or whether it had already
been born in his heart, I know not ; but, when
he went away, the monks, thinking they still
had his favour, asked to be allowed to quarter
the Grand Ducal arms with theirs. His
answer was, he would send them word from
Florence. Then from Florence he sent a
representative bidding the people ask of him
what they would, for he intended to suppress
the monastery ; but they were only afraid and
bewildered, and instead of asking a great thing,
besought of him three priests to say Mass for
them ; nor would they be persuaded to accept
any other gift, though it was explained to them
that they might have their priests for nothing.
Such is the simplicity of folk who, having been
robbed, think only ever after of their most
priceless possession. Nor are they much
changed in spite of United Italy, and the long
haired Socialists who win both the laughter
and applause of these children in the little
Piazza in the Castello. Not so long ago, one

44 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
early spring, many of them were starving, or
almost starving, for the snow fades but slowly
in that endless forest, and food is at best hard
to come by. So the Syndic, good man, pre
pared to devote the money usually paid for
a lenten preacher to the relief of the poor.
But it was not to be. The very poor who
were to be relieved, starving as they were,
raised an insurrection, and insisted on having
their usual Predicatore.
The days when, as Pio n. tells us, the Abbey
welcomed a Pope, a Bishop, and six Cardinals
were over. Gherardini, however, in the Visita
dello Stato, asserts that in 1676 there lived in
the Abbey nine Sacerdoti, three Professi, two
Laid, and that it possessed an income of three
hundred scudi a year. To-day everything but
the church is a ruin. The monastery, pictur
esque enough still, is divided among the school
children, certain contadini, and pigs, asses,
goats, and dirt.
As you come from Mont' Amiata station, or
from Radicofani, almost the first house you
must pass on coming in to Abbadia is the Abbey
itself, its great gateway, fifty yards from the
church, opening on the road itself which passes
outside the village, and on and on round the

THE BADIA 45
whole Mountain at an average height of more
than 2000 feet. Entering that gateway,
and following the stony road towards the
church, you come upon a kind of lodge,
a great archway, the second gate of the
monastery, where to right and left is a door,
and over them the old inscriptions. On the
one side was the office for the affairs of second
instance, and on the other for the affairs of widows
and infants. Tommasi tells us, under the year
1462, that in criminal affairs Abbadia was in
the jurisdiction of the capitano di giustizia of
Radicofani, and for civile e misto there resided
in Abbadia a Podesta nobile Sanese, who began
his office in the kalends of July for a year,
receiving 10 16 lire in pay, but he was obliged
to pay per le spedizioni 272 lire, and to main
tain a notaio that the auditor generale di Piano
assigned to him. The jurisdiction of the
Podesta extended alia Paglia e Legna ; but
it was only one of first instance, because the
court of second instance remained to the Abbot,
as did the causes of widows and infants, and
these he judged privately.
The church itself, which stands to the east
of the second gate, is even to-day, full as it is
of all the tawdriness of the seventeenth and

46 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
eighteenth centuries, a very beautiful building.
In plan cruciform with a shallow apse, the
nave is spanned by three great round arches,
each smaller than the one westward of it. The
transepts form chapels, and now along the
nave tawdry altars are placed, over which are
frescoes of the seventeenth century, only one
of which can have any interest for us. It is
that over the first altar to the left. There
some seventeenth-century painter, probably
Casinus, though Tommasi calls him Cav.
Guiseppi Nasini, has repainted a fresco of
the presentation to the monks of models of
the Abbey by Rachis. Certain of these models
are said to be still in Abbadia, while one, I was
told, was in Florence, but I have not been able
to find them.
The transept and the chancel of the church
are guarded by a beautiful iron railing, and it
is in the chapels of the transepts, and more
especially in the south chapel, that any interest
we may still find in the church lies. There
over the altar is the Crucifix, carved out of
the great chestnut or pine in which Rachis or
another saw the vision of our Lord. Carved
by some local artist in the thirteenth century,
when the tree which grew on this very spot,

THE BADIA 47
and whose roots still moulder in the earth,
under the lower church, was cut down, it is not
without a certain homely beauty ; and still, as
they say, works miracles, for in their troubles,
in drought or great snow, for instance, they
uncover it, and, as I know, not without hope
of comfort. Under the altar is a fresco older
than the rest, of Christ in the tomb of Joseph,
surrounded by angiolini. On the right wall
Casino has painted Rachis hunting about
Chiusi, where he hears the rumour of the
vision ; on the left, he, with his queen and
courtiers, sees the very Christ Himself in the
early morning light, like a wonderful star
shining in a group of seven pines, on the little
hill on which the Abbey now stands ; and this
fresco Casino has signed Franciscus S. Casinus.
These frescoes, like those in the chapel of
the north transept, doubtless replaced older
ones, faded perhaps, or spoiled with candle
smoke, when in the seventeenth century the
church was restored. To-day in that north
chapel there remains nothing, or almost nothing,
of interest, a Madonna and Child, a miracle
picture over the altar, by some late painter
of the seicento, a fresco of the Presentation
of the Virgin, and another of the Visitation.

48 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
In his Italia Sacra, Ughelli gives a long
list of the relics which in his day were treasured
in the Abbey church. Among the rest were —
a piece of the True Cross, part of the Sudario
which covered the face of our Lord, part of
the sheet in which His Body was wrapped,
part of the stone which stood before His
Sepulchre, part of the sponge which the
soldiers offered Him filled with vinegar when
He said " I thirst," part of His Presepio,
part of the rock on which He stood at the
time of His Transfiguration, part of the rock
whereon He sat when He fed the five thousand
in the wilderness, part of the stone on which
He stood when He preached the Sermon on
the Mount ; the marvellous Bible which S.
Gregory wished to see, and which is said to
have contained a plan of the Temple of
Solomon. Thus the treasures of the monas
tery were in keeping with its name, St. Saviour ;
but of these I think not one remains. Among
countless Relics given to the Abbey in 1036,
on the occasion of its consecration, the most
venerated, and perhaps the most curious, seems
to be the head of Pope Marcus. This strange
possession is enclosed in a bronze reliquary, cast
in the likeness of the Pope ; it seems to be a work

THE BADIA 49
of the fourteenth century, is certainly Tuscan,
and may be from the hand of some local founder.
All the interest that a place so spoiled by
restoration still possesses is not, however, con
fined to the church we know as S. Salvatore.
For the good priest, if you are friends with
him, and he is a black Catholic, not partial
to heretics, will lead you out again into the
courtyard, and, descending a long flight of
steps, open a door under the southern transept
of the present church, when suddenly you will
find yourself on the threshold of a lower church,
subterranean now, and perhaps always, which
lies under the transept and choir of the upper
church, which faces really north and south. No
light penetrates into this immense dark and
damp vault, but with the light of tapers it is
possible to examine it without too much dis
comfort. It seems to have been used as a
burial place for all the people of the Castello.
In this corner and in that, vast heaps of bones
still remain, while here a skull horribly grins
at you, there amid a heap of dust great thigh
bones lie, disorderly, heaped there by the
government. This lower church is much
older than the upper sanctuary. It is upheld
by nearly thirty pillars, many of them exqui-
4

So IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
sitely beautiful, of the best Lombard work;
and the capitals are carved variously, here
you may see the heads of bulls, there men
and horses. Sometimes the shafts, too, are
carved with a waving pattern ; and close to
the door is one on which a great bishop's
cross seems to lie as though embedded in the
stone. Immediately under the chapel of the
Crucifix, in the upper church, is the root of the
old tree, they tell you, in which Christ appeared
in a vision to Rachis.
No one visits this forgotten sanctuary now,
yet it is far better worth seeing than most
subterranean churches, nor can I find any
account of it in any book. The people of
Abbadia know nothing of it, and the parish
priest, with the best will in the world, knows
nothing either. Whether this was the first
church built by the monks, perhaps for security
in that lonely place, almost under the ground,
and abandoned later for a more splendid build
ing above it on the hillside, or whether it is all
that remains of a once splendid building con
sisting of an upper and a lower sanctuary, I
know not. It might seem that here is a subject
worthy of the zeal of some archaeologist who will
search the archives of Florence and Siena.

V
THE CASTELLO
A S you pass the Castello, the walled village
-^ *¦ of Abbadia S. Salvatore to-day, on your
way to Pian Castagnajo for instance, by the
new road that, as I have said, girdles the
whole Mountain, you might think it a mere
disordered huddle of houses, a sort of encamp
ment partly left from the Middle Age, partly
the hurried, scamped work of our own time,
just a warren in which such poor people as
miners must expect to live almost everywhere,
and certainly in so poor a land as Italy. But
on closer acquaintance you find that the Castello
remains almost exactly as it has been for cen
turies — since the sixteenth century certainly —
with many a quarter dating really from the
Middle Age, practically the same walled village
as that in which of old the Donati and Oblati
of the monastery used to live, in which their
Si

52 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
children so quickly won their freedom, " three
years before the English Barons obtained their
rights at Runnymede," as Rondoni is so eager
to remind us. And, indeed, save perhaps
Castello di S. E radio on the Via Flaminia, not
far from Foligno, it would be hard to find a
more perfect example of the mediaeval Cas
tello ; and then Abbadia S. Salvatore, unlike
Castello di S. E radio, is the Castello of a
monastery. In those far-off days, when the
monastery stood alone, the monks no doubt
invited the people to come and live near them,
to place themselves under their protection,
really for the safety of the monastery ; and
indeed the place is still very solitary and
remote. The best idea of this walled village
and of its relation to the Abbey may be had
from the Madonna delle Grazie, a little dese
crated church used now as a granary, to the
eastward of Abbadia. One reaches it by a
somewhat steep and winding road, that leaves
the highway on the left just after the Abbey
gate is passed, before coming to the Castello.
Following this path, and passing under the
walls of the village, you see about a quarter of
a mile away on the hillside Madonna delle
Grazie, and looking back thence the monastery

THE CASTELLO S3
and the Abbey stand before you on their two
hills, separated by the gorge you have skirted
on your way ; the Abbey ringed about with
woods, the Castello a picturesque hummock of
houses climbing up to the Castellina, strongly
walled, crouching over the valley.
This village, so out of the world, as we might
say, for indeed the whole world seems to lie at
its feet, so pathetic in its isolated littleness, yet
modelled itself on the great cities of Italy.
Like them, Castello dell' Abbadia di S. Salva
tore was divided into two parts, the original
Castello and the Borgo, and these, later, were
separated into three regions, terzieri; the first
called Borgo Maggiore, the second Corso dei
Fabbi, the third S. Angelo, because of a
church that once stood in that part. Then the
Castello proper had four gates : to wit, Porta
dell' Abbadia, with its beautiful loggia, which
looks towards the Abbey ; Porta del Cassaro,
which looks westward, and opens on the Corso
Vittorio Emanuele, the road to Pian Castagnajo ;
Porta Nuova, which looks eastward towards
Radicofani ; and Porta della Porticciola, which
leads down a long flight of steps into the
Borgo. The Borgo itself has two gates : Porta
del Borgo, which opens on Corso Vittorio

54 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
Emanuele, and Porta Mulina, from which the
old mediaeval road to Radicofani begins.
Entering the Porta dell' Abbadia, from
which the two chief ways of the Castello Via
di Mezzo and the Corso begin, following the
latter, narrow and dark enough, and lined with
mediaeval houses, you soon come into Piazza
di S. Croce, the chief Piazza of the place,
closed on one side by the old Palazzo del
Podesta and on the other by the parish church
of S. Croce. S. Croce is a large building of
the Middle Age, restored almost out of all
recognition. And though it be the parish
church, and for all it is so large, "one was
buried," Tommasi tells us, " in* the Badia : for
that is the principal." There is another church
in the Borgo, an Oratory dedicated to S. Leon
ardo. That, too, was under the patronage of
and served by the Cistercians. These were
the only churches in the Castello and Borgo,
but within the walls were established of old
the Laic Companies of the SS. Sacramento,
S. Sebastiano, S. Michele Arcangiolo, S. Maria
con Cappa, and the Congregation of the
Rosary. Every trace of these seems to have
vanished, save that over the door of a great
house in Via S. Maria, a street that turns out

THE CASTELLO 55
of the Corso to climb up to the Castellina, just
within Porta dell' Abbadia, you may still find
the name of the Company in great Roman
letters — Santa Maria ; and there, as I suppose,
was the Hospice of the Congregation. There
are still Laic Companies among the people, how
ever, but not the old ones. The Company of
S. Marco Papa, protector of the Castello,
founded in the end of the eighteenth century,
apparently after the suppression of the monas
tery, numbers more than four hundred members ;
and the Company of the Sacre Cuore, that
strange modern extravagance, full of the usual
bad taste which the Jesuits inherited from their
Spanish founders, and which has not grown less
in the centuries, enrols all the children.
In the maze of narrow, airless streets, so
filthy that some twenty-five out of every
hundred children born die in their first years, it
is easy to lose one's way altogether, and, indeed,
it is only perhaps the seeing eye that will find
anything of interest in a place so poor that has
been left so much to itself. And yet just there,
it might seem, lies its value for us who pass by.
Why, if you will but see it, there is not a vista
that is not beautiful, not a single dilapidated,
outside stairway that does not " make a picture."

56 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
You wander down to Porta Nuova, and suddenly,
as you go, the old gate under its tower frames
the bizarre rock and broken fort of Radicofani
for you, a marvellously strange, fantastic thing,
full of pride, fierceness, and scorn. And then,
great people have lived here : Visconti of
Campiglia in Via S. Angelo, the Conti Cervini
of Vivo, too, in the same street, — their stag,
pierced with nine arrows, is still set over the
door ; but almost every other house bears a
coat, and the houses of the old families of the
Sanese, Carli, Fracasini, Cervini, remain filled
now with the poor and their cattle, the pigs
inhabiting the ground floor — where also the grain
may be stored, or the wine of the valley of
Paglia — the people themselves the first, and the
goats the second — you may hear them patter
up the stairway at nightfall any evening in
Abbadia, led by a little maid singing.
Not far from the Malatesta houses is Via
Malatesta, a turning to the right out of Via
Vicenzo Pinelli, which itself, in this maze of
byways, leads from Piazza S. Croce to Porta
Porticciola. Passing along Via Malatesta, you
come at last into Piazza del Mercato, the second
Piazza of the Castello, with its dilapidated,
picturesque porticoes and strange old houses,

THE CASTELLO 57
and coming out of it, in a moment you find
yourself at Porta Cassaro, where, to the left, is
an old stairway, and, over a house close by, the
stemma of the Malatesta.
It is not, however, in the Castello or the
Borgo alone that the interest, such as it is, of
Abbadia S. Salvatore lies. Within the walls,
as I have said, there were but two churches, or
three at most ; for of old, doubtless, S. Angelo
stood there where Via Filippo Neri turns out of
Via di S. Angelo, where a great building, possibly
in part the old church, stands to this day.
Tommasi tells us in his fifth book that in the
Corte, that is to say the territory of Abbadia,
there were many oratories and chapels. The
Oratory of Madonna del Castagno, for instance,
"very ornate and spacious," on the verge of
the woods, on the road to the Ermeta ; the
Romitorio, called the Ermeta, itself dedicated
to S. Cecilia, hidden in the woods, built, as the
people say, by Queen Erminia, and maintained
by the monks, of which Pio 11., following
popular tradition, speaks in his Commentaries.
And then there still stand, too, the Oratory of
Madonna delle Remedie on the road to Pian
Castagnajo, just beyond the Torrent ; the
Oratory of St. Roch, spoiled now and turned

58 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
into a Casa Colonica, just opposite the Porta
Cassaro in the country; the Oratory della
Madonna delle Grazie nel Poggio del Colle,
which we have seen ; the Pieve de' SS. Jacomo
and Cristofano, called intrafossata, spoiled and
desecrated, in the fields towards Podere Zaccaria,
and the forbidden Oratories of Madonna a
Capo at Ponte di S. Andrea, a mere heap of
ruins now, and S. Maria Maddalena, which is
perhaps the best of all. For the Oratory of
S. Maria Maddalena, set as it is just within the
woods, on a little hill on the right, above the
road to Pian Castagnajo, where it first turns
westward, less than a quarter of a mile from
the village, is just a natural grotto, formed by
the volcano when spuing out the enormous
rocks, many tons in weight, that everywhere lie
scattered among the trees on the Mountain.
Just these stones fell in the form of a house,
one upon another, and a greater fell before
them, leaving a little space as though for a door.
In the thirteenth century, if not before, the
people, as it might seem, finding this sanctuary,
covered it within, and without too, with frescoes,
and it is the remains of these, altogether spoiled
though they are to-day, that lends the place its
interest.

THE CASTELLO 59
How little, after all, these facts, acquired
with so much labour, for love too, avail. They
are just dead things, and are as useless to us,
yes, and almost as pathetically futile, as the
ashes of a friend — a friend who has fled away
for ever. As I sit writing down all these little
fragments of a broken truth and reality that
has faded away, I begin to realise, perhaps for
the first time, how useless and how absurd such
work must ever be. Then I look out of my
window over the endless chestnut woods,
flaming gold now, like a huge burning plain,
rising here and there in great golden stairs to
the summit, bare, and almost blue or silver, and,
as often at sunset, capped with a rosy cloud. The
whole world from here is fantastic, and very
silent and beautiful. Suddenly up the road
a little girl comes singing, still a long way off,
leading a great white ox home to the stable
after the labour of the day. She is knitting
too, and her eyes are bent on her work ; slowly
she comes, singing to herself, the cord, caught
over the great horns, looped on her arm.
The song falls silent, a difficult stitch
interrupts the melody, then she pulls sweetly
at the great patient bullock and speaks to him
softly. As she goes on her way past the house,

VI

IN THE FOREST AND ON THE
MOUNTAIN
' I ""HE heat is wonderful. It is not heavy, as
-*- any great heat in England always is, but
vehement and marvellous, with all the fierceness
and vitality of fire, the pride and beauty of the
sun. Slowly, slowly, the delicate shadows
creep through the vineyards the wind has died
in the woods ; in the hushed fields the corn
seems about to burst into flame.
For three days now the Crucifix in the Abbey
has been uncovered, and the whole village
seems to be there all day praying for rain ; a
strange, a marvellous sight. And the days are
not more wonderful than the nights. Each
day is like a hard, bright, precious stone, more
dazzling and more heartless than a diamond.
Everything is still. And the nights are like
sapphires. The sun delights and frightens me ;
it is wonderful, and a little mysterious. Now
61

62 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
that they have uncovered the Crucifix it is as
though some strange Presence had suddenly
come into our midst.
One evening, not long before sunset, as I lay
after the heat of the day just within the forest,
not far from a little stream that, in spite of the
drought, still ran secretly under the trees among
the stones out into the parched valley, suddenly
a cicala began to sing its endless song, that
song which in the olive gardens of Vai d'Arno,
or among the cypresses of Mugello, so soon
grows to be a burden, which only a few weeks
before had driven me up into the mountains in
search of quietness and silence. And now I
found myself listening intently to its dry com
plaint ; it was so rare a thing in this high place.
Just then a figure, not old, but already a little
worn by the wind of the Mountain, came
towards me along the path beside the stream ;
and as he was about to pass by he stopped and
listened too, giving me greeting —
" Buona sera, Signoria."
He was a man of some fifty years, something
a little better than a peasant, dressed in the
worn, mean clothes of the countrymen all over
Central Italy, and in his hand he carried a long,

IN THE FOREST AND ON THE MOUNTAIN 63
untrimmed staff lately cut from the brushwood
of the chestnuts. But it was his eyes which
first caught me, surprising me by their swiftness
and their laughter. Every now and then, as he
listened, he shook back from his forehead the
great untidy locks of hair, already a little grey,
that tumbled about his head under his great
soft hat. Presently he spoke to me again —
" Senta, Signoria," he said, waving his hand
towards the trees where the cicala was singing,
" Senta, Signoria, even the Saints cannot escape
the importunity of the barren woman."
"What is your name?" I said, smiling at
him. " And what have the gods to do with
the cicale, they always seemed to me to belong
to quite Other People."
"And the Signore is right. Ah, be sure."
He stood still, listening again. Then, as I
made room in the shadow beside me, he came
towards me.
" I am the President of the Mountain," he
said, "and my name is Ser Giovanni. I know
the Mountain as no one has ever known it. . . .
If the Signore should wish to go to the Cima,
now that the nights are warm and the sunrise
like the eyes of a little child . . . ? Ah, how
often have I seen the Signore in the high

64 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
places, once in the Plain of the Lilies and once
under the Cross of Baldassare . . . reading
reading, always reading. Sometimes I followed
him a long way off, lest harm should come.
Am I not President of the Mountain ? "
" So you know all the paths on the
Mountain ? " I asked.
"Who knows them if not I? Even the
monks, whom the Duke sent away to please the
Austrians, did not know the Mountain as I do."
He laughed softly to himself.
"Well," I said, laughing too, " we will see."
There was silence. The little stream ran
sweetly on its way, the wind stirred softly
among the parched leaves. Suddenly, close at
hand, the cicala began again its endless song.
" The Signore hears ? It is the song of the
cicala." "Tell me now," said I, "why the Saints
cannot escape the complaint of the barren
woman ? "
" Signoria, who may escape it ? Ah, certainly
not the Saints. Will the Signore hear a tale,
a little tale, an old little tale of a grand
mother?" "Tell me."
" There was a barren woman who said

IN THE FOREST AND ON THE MOUNTAIN 65
always, kneeling to Maria Santissima : ' Is it
truly then my destiny that I should not have
children ? But make me then the Grace,
Madonna mia . . . make me then to become
a mother.' Signore, her prayer was heard, so
that a little later she brought forth — a cicala.
. . . After a time she picked it up from the
earth, and holding it between the palms of her
hands, and looking at it half-crazy, half-stupefied,
she exclaimed at last : ' What should I do with
this ? ' and she flung it under the bed.
"One day she had to carry the food to her
husband on the Mountain, for he was a
charcoal burner ; but she did not wish to go.
It was not that her burden was heavy, for she
took an ass to carry the knapsack. No, she
had only to guide the ass. Nevertheless con
tinually she told herself, 'Ah, if only I had a
son he would spare me this fatigue.' Suddenly
she heard a subtle, low voice from under the
bed : ' Mother, it is I who will go with the
ass.' And out came the little cicala jumping
like a grasshopper. ' We shall see what you
can do,' his mother replied. Then she placed
the knapsack on the crupper, the cicala gave a
jump and entered into the ass's ear, and off they
went. 5

66 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
" The Signore may believe me that whoever
met the ass that day, seeing him alone without
a rider, beat him, as people will, not knowing
what to think. And always the cicala cried —
" ' Tocca, tocca 1'asino
Sta qua l'accetterella.'
And hearing that voice and seeing no one,
all left the ass in peace. At last, and finally,
they found the padrone in the woods ; and the
cicala came out of his nest in the ear of the ass
and said, as loud as he might, ' Mother could
not come, so I am come, I ! ' And the charcoal
burner heard that voice and saw no one. Then
said he in his heart, ' Yes, yes, I understand,
they have made me horns.' And so, Signoria,
to this day, when one hears that dry evil voice
in the woods ..."
It was sunset. After a time I said to
Giovanni : " Let us go through the woods for
a little and find the wind." And he led me by
the paths he knew. Beneath us, but not far
away, Abbadia S. Salvatore stood up sharp
and marvellously clear against the fantastic
rock of Radicofani. From the Badia and from
S. Croce came the sound of the Angelus across
the golden fields. Then there was silence.

IN THE FOREST AND ON THE MOUNTAIN 67
In the woods it was already twilight, only
sometimes from far away came the call of some
night owl, the whistle of the night cecca through
the still leaves. Presently we came to a little
clearing to the south of the village, and crossing
it, passing through a belt of trees, after a
moment came out on the bare hillside under
the stars.
The whole world seen from thence seemed
to be lost in a soft veil of blue spangled with gold.
Far and far away across the Umbrian hills, like
a horn of pallid gold, like a silver sickle for
some precious harvest, the moon hung over
the world, that in her light gradually became
visible ever so faintly, as though seen through
some impalpable but lovely veil. Before us
lay the whole breadth of the Patrimony. To
the right on the hills, like the nest of an eagle,
Castellazzara hung above the precipices of
Monte Civitella. Dimly in the lonely obscurity
of evening S. Casciano rose behind Celle on
the sides of Monte Cetona. Somewhere lost
in the valleys Proceno hid herself among the
vines, Acquapendente behind her fantastic
rocks. They were rather felt than seen, only
far away Lago di Bolsena shone like a jewel,
Monte Cimino rose like a ghost beside Monte

68 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
Venere, eternally separated by the faint line of
hills like a bow, against which Montefiascone
rose like a lovely thought in the unbreakable
silence. And beyond lay the desert of the
Campagna and that immortal thing which it
has brought forth.
Suddenly in heaven a star burst like a
blossom, and fell across the universe in a noose
of light. Giovanni's hand trembled on my
shoulder. But the silence could not be
broken. And still the heat lay on the world like a
woman thirsty for kisses. One night, because
sleep would not come to me, I left my bed and
went out into the woods. It was but a little
way. From my window I could see down the
aisles of the forest. I could hear the whisper of
a million leaves as the wind passed slowly,
softly by; I could hear the flight of a wood-
pigeon and the chattering of the squirrels.
But that night there was only silence.
It was some two hours before dawn. A
profound change seemed to have come upon
the Mountain since sunset. Everything was
hushed. It was not the usual propitious silence
of night that surrounded me, full of innumer-

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IN THE FOREST AND ON THE MOUNTAIN 69
able, unheeded voices, but an absolute stillness
as though the whole world were holding its
breath. I stooped to the flowers, and found
their heads were laid to the earth as though
listening in fear, in expectation, of some ap
proaching danger, 'and though the silence was
so absolute nothing was asleep. The corn was
all fallen one way, a sea of purple and gold ; in
the woods the chestnut trees seemed waiting
as though for some word of revelation ; now
and then they lifted their leaves stealthily,
without a sound, over the little streams which
slunk swiftly, noiselessly on their way. What
was it they awaited with the flowers and the
corn, as though in fear and certainly without
joy ? Was it the dawn ?
It broke over Cetona, at first like the smile
of a ghost, mirthless and without gladness — a
long, pallid line of golden foam upon a sultry
cloud. Then it quickened into a burning pain ;
a languid and unutterable agony, unable to ex
press itself, seemed to possess the helpless day.
Faintly, faintly the light struggled into the world,
which lay hidden under immense shadows.
The whole east gaped wider and wider, as
though in an agony of articulation. Across the
sky started great lines of burning red, as though

70 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
in some intolerable pain. Then, like some new,
marvellous, and splendid beauty, profoundly
tragic and without joy, the sun rose over the
mountains and saw the beauty and weariness
of the world.
It was in that hour, perhaps, that I understood
for the first time that the dawn is sadder far
than the sunset, even as birth is more tragic
than death.
At last the rain, the rain ! It began at
evening. Till noon the world was still lost in
that strange silence. In the Badia the people
knelt in languid groups before the Crucifix.
Some had deserted even that, and were prostrate
before the Relic of S. Marco ; others bore
lighted tapers, like tiny stars, to Madonna, who
smiled and smiled, holding out her hands.
And suddenly, without a warning of any sort, an
immense boom of thunder broke the silence,
and they forgot their prayers. Presently on
the Cima the clouds gathered, the wind drove
over the woods, the fields were a tossing sea of
gold, the very dust rose up, and in a hideous
dance, as ofthe thirsty dead, swirled and swayed
and drove away the living. And out of the
wind, as it were, came the bells, clanging,

IN THE FOREST AND ON THE MOUNTAIN 71
clashing, hurtling all together, wild with joy,
supplication, importunate noise, and thanks
giving. For at the first sign of a cloud the
people ran to the belfries and cheered on the
ringers, till the thunder itself was but a tempor
ary accompaniment to the brazen tongues that
seemed to demand of Heaven what it had been
so reluctant to grant, the sweetness, the refresh
ment, the coolness, the mercy of the rain which
would redeem the world from the terror ofthe sun.
On the next morning the Mountain seemed
to have awakened to a new life. The very
world, that immense and beautiful world which
it broods over, appeared to have run to it, as it
were, with gifts — the gift of its own beauty.
Hills and valleys, little cities too, that had till
then, almost all the summer long, hidden
themselves in the heat, suddenly were found
round about her : Trasimeno seemed but a
mile or two under the woods ; Bolsena just a
beautiful thing to be won to between morning
and midday ; and beyond and beyond . . . ?
Who could tell what might not be seen high
up on the hillside ; Arezzo perhaps, certainly
Cortona. And southward might one hope —
ah ! — for Rome ?

72 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
It was already afternoon when Giovanni
came for me, and when we set out it was not
alone, for Suor Angelina — and she was in some
sort my landlady — came with us. A strange
and beautiful nature, for Sister Angelina, as it
is the custom in the Mountain to call one's
friends if they be women, simple of heart as
she was, was in some sort an heiress, having
inherited a vast number of chestnuts and the
ground they grew on from her cousin, who,
pious man that he was, dying about the time of
the foundation of United Italy, and seeing the
robbery that led to, left all he had, and that
was no little thing, to her, and after her if she
died childless to the Monks of Settignano, those
Olivetani there whom the people call Frati.
The poor woman, keen as all Italians are at a
bargain, saw her goods daily slipping from her,
for she had never married. Not without tears,
though indeed she was one of the most joyous
of good women, she thought upon this thing ;
and for this, if for no other cause, her great
friend had come to be Ser Giovanni, President
of the Mountain, the head, as I found, of the
league which the people round about had
formed when, seeing the German Mining Com
pany — worse than any Signorotti — buying up

IN THE FOREST AND ON THE MOUNTAIN 73
all their property " for nothing," they had sworn
to sell no more. Suor Angelina was a woman
of some three and sixty years, and of these
she boasted as though she had used them well.
"Thursday next," she told me as we went
on our way, — "Thursday next, as the Signoria
knows, is the Festa of the Assumption of Maria
Santissima. . There will be a procession — yes,
in spite of the strike ; the priest told me so this
morning in the Piazza. Sixty-three years old
I am, and sixty-four times have I followed in
these processions ; for the first time I went
my mother bore me yet in her body, and that
day was I born. And Ser Giovanni knows
well I speak truth. Is it not so, Vanni ? Now,
whether it was the excitement of that blessed
Festa, or whether the heat of the sun, for it
was very hot, I cannot say, but when she
returned home in that hour I was born,
and therefore I am named Maria Assunta
Angelina." " But where are we going ? " I asked.
We had left the highway to Podere Zaccaria,
and taking to the woods on our left had
followed a path past the outskirts of the mines,
climbing ever round the Mountain towards
Siena.

74 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
"Where are we going, Vanni? Has the
Signore seen Baldassare's Cross ? No ? Then
assuredly that is our way." And we followed
as she said, in the wake of her talk.
" Listen, Signore, there was a man — do I not
speak truth, Ser Giovanni ? — Dio Mio, we shall
never see his like. Whether it were sickness
or grief, devil or such, Baldassare was better than
any priest in Tuscany. Signore, he was a saint,
and to think he died before I could walk."
" And who was he, then ? " I ventured.
" Signore, he was a saint. Do not ask me
where he was born : who knows where he was
born ? Do you know, Ser Giovanni, you who
think you know everything ? Ah, Signore, he
does not know. Perhaps he was born in the
Island — perhaps in the Mountain. Chi lo sa t
But if you were sick he had but to touch your
forehead with his lips and you were whole ;
if you were in grief he but looked upon you
and you were happy ; if some devil lurked in
your house, he but marked the threshold with
a cross of his spittle and it was gone. Thus
he went through Tuscany. Signore, you know
the cross above Vincigliata, you know the cross
above Settignano, you know the cross on the
way to Compiobbi, where the river winds so

IN THE FOREST AND ON THE MOUNTAIN 75
suddenly in Vai d'Arno ? Well, it was he who
set them there. He bore them on his back,
these and a hundred more that neither you nor
I will ever see, and he set them up for the
love of Gesu Cristo, and in the sand beneath
them he wrote with his finger the name of
Maria Santissima. Such was Baldassare, that
holy one. And to think he died when I was
a little maid ! Nevertheless, I too saw him —
I. I lay in his arms, on his breast, next his
heart, and he gave me water from some secret
spring and healed me."
She was silent a moment, thinking. In the
woods far away, in the silent afternoon, the
strokes of an axe came to us rhythmically,
musically, through the trees.
" Signore, it was my mother who took me
to him ; neither could my cousin, that Abbate
of whom we have spoken, dissuade her. And
we met him one day in the woods — I was not
three years old then — and seeing me ailing he
took me in his arms and kissed me, and gave
me to drink of the water he carried in the
bottle covered with wicker which he ever took
along with him ; and in a moment I was quite
well. And if the Signore will believe, never
have I known illness since then."

76 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
After a moment I said to her: "Baldassare
of whom you speak I know not, but Lazzaretti,
Lazzaretti of Arcidosso, was it not so he too
healed the folk of the Mountain ? "
" Lazzaretti ! " A loud laugh from Giovanni,
stalking along before us, reached me — " Laz
zaretti ! "
"The Signore is indeed deceived, Ser
Giovanni, if he thinks that pig of Arcidosso
may be named beside Baldassare."
Ser Giovanni turned and confronted us, for,
like all Italians he too would not walk and talk.
" Signoria, I knew him, that little poor one
of Arcidosso. Signoria, the air of the Maremma
was in his brain. When the cholera came to
the Mountain, they of Arcidosso died as the
beasts die, because they look all day on
Maremma ; but we, we were well. And that
David whom the carabinieri shot, he too had
looked too long on Maremma."
" I also knew him — I," said Suor Angelina.
" Only a month ago I spoke with his old
mother. Who knows what has become of
his children ? They are fled away for shame.
No, no, Signore, he was not like Baldassare.
Miracles ! Dio Mio, he contrived more miracles
than San Francesco. He lived by miracles."

IN THE FOREST AND ON THE MOUNTAIN 77
" Such as that famous one of the barroccaio, of
which the Signore has heard doubtless," said
Ser Giovanni.
The Signore had not heard.
"Tell the Signore then, Ser Giovanni,"
said Suor Angelina, and suddenly became
silent. " It befell in spring, Signoria, as many
wonderful things contrive to do, and it
happened that about that time David, called
the Saint — ha ! ha ! — had begun to preach in
the villages and to prophesy — not happily, the
Signore may believe me. When he spoke of
rain the clouds flew away, the tramontana
blew terribly ; when he spoke of frost, the sun
broke the earth into dust ; when he spoke of
heat, men died in a single night on the Cima
from cold. From the first the Saints dis
approved of him. But he was of Arcidosso ;
who may abide the men of that village ! "
" Or who shall keep them honest ? " asked
Suor Angelina, softly.
"Well, well, as the Signore may imagine,
David called the Saint was most unhappy at
his misfortune : say what he would God made
it otherwise. So he took thought with himself ;
and knowing that alone in all the Mountain —

78 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
I speak not of women, Signoria — his brother
believed in him, and that is a most strange
thing, he took him aside one day and said to
him : ' To-morrow as thou goest with the
barroccio to Santa Fiora and Pian Castagnajo,
on this side of Seragiolo, where the road
turns, overturn the barroccio, break everything
in pieces, think not of anything at all, nor
bewail what is done, I, David, will make all
good ; but see thou fail me not.' And his
brother, who loved him, answered, ' Even so,
David.' "Now David was preaching the day following
at Castel del Piano yonder, and, as it is said,
that day he spoke better than he was used,
when suddenly, in the heat of the sermon, he
stopped dead, struck his forehead with his
hands, and piped out ! ' Ohime ! Ohime ! — what
is this that is come to pass ? Alas ! alas ! the
misfortune, the misfortune ! ' And later, when
the women had calmed him, he explained very
sorrowfully that a terrible thing had befallen,
that evil had come to his brother, there on
the Mountain, and that he had lost all that
was his. And it proved to be even as he said.
Thus and thus David, called the Saint, began
to serve God."

IN THE FOREST AND ON THE MOUNTAIN 79
"Was he not of Arcidosso?" asked Suor
Angelina sweetly.
"So David was a fraud after all," I said to
Giovanni. "Well, I am sorry."
"Who knows, Signore? He began badly,
that is true, but later, ah ! maybe God spoke to
him. He said things so wonderful that the
carabinieri shot him, and they were not evil
things." We had come out of the woods on to the
hillside. Behind us, in a wilderness of enor
mous stones, grew the greatest chestnuts of
the forest, while under the cliffs that from
this shoulder of the Mountain towered some
hundreds of feet sheer into the air, a little
spring, Fonte del Papa, reminding me by its
name, perhaps, of the advent of Pio n., bubbled
miraculously from a fissure in the stone. As
we continued on our way, ever mounting,
we came at last on to the bare upland, that
like a great buttress of the Mountain seemed
to support the Cima itself on its enormous
shoulder ; and there on the summit, thrust into
a heap of stones, stood an old cross of chestnut
wood, broken now and disfigured by many
winters, looking over Italy. And indeed in
that clear air after the rain it was no small part

80 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
of Italy that lay before our eyes. On the left,
to the north, Pienza rose on her hill, and close
beside her Montepulciano. Almost at their
feet lay Trasimeno, and beyond, Castiglione
Fiorentino, and Cortona; while on the hither
side of the lake stood Castiglione del Lago, on
the farther side Passignano and Magione. Like
a pale rose in a cup Perugia lay among the
mountains, behind her rose the great peaks of
the central Appenines beyond Gubbio. To
the south-west rose the mountains of Norcia,
and before them the beautiful valley of Spoleto.
Farther south the Monti Sibillini shone
against the sky, and farther still the Gran Sasso
d' Italia white with eternal snows. Then to
the extreme south I looked for Rome, but
instead found only the outposts of the
Campagna, Monte Soracte like a carved
casket, and ever the most beautiful of all the
mountains of Italy, Monte Cimino, and Monte
Venere the gateway to Rome. After a long
time Suor Angelina said softly, "It is good to
be here, let us await the sunset."
So we waited there in silence for the end of
another day.
One day about a week later I had walked

IN THE FOREST AND ON THE MOUNTAIN 81
over to Santa Fiora in the early morning, and
returning at evening by the great road which
girdles the^ whole Mountain I was surprised
by sunset before I was half-way to Pian
Castagnajo. Presently, as I reached the top
of the pass by la Pianaccia, the whole world
was lost in the glory of the hour after the
setting of the sun, the hour that, here in the
South, is the most beautiful moment of the day.
The whole country in that soft, clear, golden
light seemed blessed ; the world glowed, and
seemed almost to give light to the sky rather
than to receive light from it. Something
fortunate in the hour, some gladness in
heaven, I thought, must have lent to the world
for a moment a reflection of its beauty and its
joy, so marvellously clear and translucent was
the air, so quiet and holy lay the earth in an
ecstasy of adoration. Was it in worship of the
moon — the new moon, which lay like a new
beautiful sign in heaven over the Mountain —
that the whole world had gathered to itself this
clarity and sweetness, and composed itself as
though it were still indeed that Garden in
which the Voice of God walked of old ?
Presently, as I went on my way, I came upon
an old man building a great fire of furze and
6

82 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
brushwood, and, a little lonely in the silence, I
stayed to speak with him.
" And what are you going to do with the
fire ? " I said after the greeting.
" I am going to light it, Signore," he
answered, laughing slyly. And he took some
sulphur matches from his pocket, and choosing
a faggot of broom, in a moment he set it
ablaze and thrust it into the great heap
of brushwood. A huge column of smoke
rose in the air, and presently I heard the
numberless voices of the fire talking together ;
then here and there little flames darted out,
yellow and flickering, eagerly licking the air
around the brushwood. Then a beautiful
golden flame like a banner streamed from the
summit of the pile, beating on the wind,
vanishing and reappearing ; a dangerous,
lovely, and terrible thing, the sword of an
angel. " And why are you making a bonfire then ? "
I asked. " When I saw the sunset it seemed
to me it must be a Festa in heaven. What
Festa is it that you keep ? "
"Not in heaven alone do they keep this
vigil, but through the earth and through the
sea also. Has the Signore forgotten, then, that

IN THE FOREST AND ON THE MOUNTAIN 83
it is the Vigil of S. Maria Assunta ? Does not
the whole universe rejoice when God meets His
Mother in the midst of the heavens, and leads
Her to His jasper throne, and places on Her
holy head the Crown of seven stars ? " And he
pointed to where Corona hung in heaven over
the crescent moon.
So it was the Eve of the Assumption, and I
had forgotten ! He went on stirring the fire,
the flames roaring above him, thrusting towards
him their marvellous arms. Presently, as I
watched him, he pointed far away southward
across the world.
" Look ! they have not forgotten."
Far and far away in the plain a fire shone
like a star fallen on the earth ; then another
and another and another. Castellazzara flamed
on the mountains, Proceno, Acquapendente,
Sforzesca, Elciola, Lugherelle, Paladino in the
plain. Then Radicofani shone forth, S.
Casciano, and Celle ; Torre Alfina in the
mountains lighted her beacon, S. Lorenzo in
the valley answered it ; every village sang
" Magnificat," and the hills answered, " Salve
Regina." Then, as I went on my way, I began to count
the fires. Fifty-and-four shone in the Patri-

IN THE FOREST AND ON THE MOUNTAIN 85
honour of Madonna too, as we shall do well
to remember — Madonna, the feudal suzerain
of Siena, of whose rights the City has ever
been so jealous, — the Palio of August is
run amid the frantic applause of the whole
people. Moreover, the Feast of the Assunta has
a special significance in Mont' Amiata. David
Lazzaretti speaks of L Assunta delle forti
Alpi, Madonna, P Imperatrice delf Amiata mia,
and it is as herself, the centre of a contado not
material certainly, but religious, stretching from
far Arezzo to Viterbo, from the mountains of
Norcia to the sea, that Mont' Amiata, the throne
ofthe Empire of Madonna, has as it were imposed
her own custom upon that vast country over
which she broods. The cult of the Assumption
is most ancient and widespread in all Italy,
the cathedrals of Pisa, Siena, Prato, Spoleto,
and half a hundred cities own Maria Assunta
as their Titola. And in the Mountain her
name — La Madonna dell' Abbadia S. Salvatore,
La Madonna di Pian Castagnajo, La Madonna
di Santa Fiora, La Madonna di Arcidosso
known through all the Sanese — is as much
more ancient than the dominion of Siena
as the Mountain is more ancient than the

86 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
city, the work of God than the work of
man. Very humble and sweet was the procession
of the Festa on the next day. Headed by the
Company of the Sacre Cuore, the children,
some two hundred of them, bearing lighted
tapers, following the Crucifix of the Society,
the Company of S. Marco, the men and women
following the officers, among them Giovanni
bearing aloft Madonna Herself, smiling and
opening her arms, and at last the Priests in
their copes, chanting in chorus, wound in the
sunlight down the dusty road from the Abbey,
through the narrow streets of the Castello to
S. Croce. There followed a country Bene
diction ; where, amid the many tapers, once
more God was lifted up before our eyes that
we might worship Him, and He give us, as of
old, His Benediction.
In the evening, after sunset, they dance
under the chestnuts in the moonlight to the
sound of the mandolines. Sometimes a girl
will dance with a girl, a man with a man ; but
that is only a beginning ; presently each claims
a partner, but without ceremony, and leading
her apart, begins that strange, delightful
country dance which is so graceful, so languid,

IN THE FOREST AND ON THE MOUNTAIN 87
and yet so full of life. And amid the more
learned movements intrude even yet many a
rustic figure that some do not know, but, with
the good Latin patience and courtesy, are well
content to watch, sitting on the ground under
the trees, in little groups, while here and there
a lantern shines, and the whole piana is
flooded by the moonlight streaming through
the trees.
Long after I was gone to bed, half asleep,
half awake, I heard the strange, far-off sweetness
of the mandolines, and through my dreams, in
an endless vista of trees, I saw them pass and
repass in that strange rhythmic dance, laughing
together in praise of Madonna.
It was about two o'clock on a hot afternoon
some days later that, amid a joyous company
mounted on asses, men and women alike riding
astride in the fashion of the Mountain, I set
out for the summit of Mont' Amiata to see the
sunset. For myself, though all were mounted
I went afoot, always a little way before them,
while as we climbed through the heat by the
winding path in the shadow of the woods their
voices continually came to me, up many a forest
glade, their laughter, the gay shouting of the

88 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
muleteers, their strange, long-drawn-out cries
to their beasts, as in some story by a four
teenth-century novelist of an adventure on
the Mountain.
The way to the Cima, which stands some
5700 feet above the level of the sea, passes
first the Church of the Madonna, and then, turn
ing suddenly to the left, across the entrance to
the mines, climbs at once into the chestnut
woods, and, always ascending on its way, soon
comes out into beech woods, into a forest of
oak, and at last into mere oak scrub, with here
and there a gigantic tree casting its shadow
over the way, till after some three hours of
climbing it crosses a beautiful piana under
the cone of the Mountain, and mounting by a
sort of staircase leads you at last to the bare
summit, a huge pile of enormous stones, from
which, as from the eyrie of an eagle, the whole
world seems to lie at your feet, standing as
you are on the highest ground in Tuscany.
The view, which is both wide and beautiful,
embraces the whole Mountain. To the west
lies the sea, with the islands of Corsica, Elba,
and Monte Cristo ; while between it and the
Mountain lies the purple and blue Maremma.
To the north Siena stands on her hill, and all

IN THE FOREST AND ON THE MOUNTAIN 89
between lies the tawny, burnt plain ; and beyond,
the mountains open suddenly, giving you a
glimpse, but only a glimpse, of Vai d'Arno.
To the east lie the mountains of the Casentino,
and the valleys of Umbria, and the hills over
the valleys ; and there Lago Trasimeno shines,
and the lake of Montepulciano, and half a
hundred cities, from Cortona and Perugia to
Assisi and Orvieto ; while behind, rise the
mountains above Gubbio, the great snowy
peaks above Norcia, the heights of the Gran
Sasso d' Italia. And yet in spite of the splen
dour and breadth of the world to the north, to
the east, to the west, it was southward I looked
longest and most often, for there beyond
the desert, over the farthest beautiful hills,
stood ^Soracte like a carved pyramid, and
behind her the Campagna as I knew, and in
the Campagna Rome. Should I not see her,
after all, in the clearness of evening, when
the dazzling sun had been drowned in the
sea? Later, when supper had been spread at the
mouth of a great cave carved with the initials,
as it is said, of Carlo Magno, who stood here
to see his kingdom, that gay company, return
ing at random from their explorations, the

90 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
bonfire was lighted as on the Vigil of the
Assumption, and, the meal ended, we wandered
away as we would to watch the sunset. Pre
sently I found myself alone on the great stones
of the Cima. An immense silence full of
sadness had fallen on the world, the Mountain
was lost in a dome of rosy fire which reached
almost to the horizon, where, all round, ran a
line of pallid gold : only in the west, like the
very Host, the Sun, shrouded in a golden mist,
hung in heaven over the mystery of the sea.
It was as though the earth itself were about to
be confounded with its God. Slowly the light
changed. It was the moment of benediction.
Great tongues of flame stole into the firmament,
the hills took fire from the splendour of the sky,
across the world lay the shadow of the Moun
tain, the east was like a smoking censer.
Again the light changed, above the globe of
the Sun rose a cross of pure gold that stood
over the world out of the heaving waters, and
above the cross great bands of purple bound
the sky, passing into gold again, and then
into green and then into silver, but at last
into the pure, unsullied blue of the domed
heaven. In the swift flying moments, as of the pro-

IN THE FOREST AND ON THE MOUNTAIN 91
found silence, in my heart I seemed to hear the
ancient words —
"Tantum ergo Sacramentum
Veneremur cernui
Et antiquum documentum
Novo cedat ritui."
It was already twilight when, all on foot, we
turned again on our way — ah ! for the last
time — to Abbadia San Salvatore.

VII
TO RADICOFANI
T T was one of the last mornings of August
-*- when I set out for Radicofani. I went
by the old mediaeval road, the way of the
mules, not out of Porta Mulina as it happened,
but following the great road past the Castello.
I took the first byway on the left after crossing
the torrent by the Church of Madonna delle
Rimedie. By this rough and stony way one
may reach Radicofani in some two hours and
more of hard walking. The road leads, at
first steeply, down the bare shoulders of the
Mountain, after a time winding among the
poor vines of the upper Paglia valley, and at
last to the dry river-bed itself. And it is just
there, at a ruinous place without habitation
called Pietre-Grosse, that, as I think, the lost
and almost forgotten town of Callimala once
stood on the old Via Francigena that now
passes — as it has done, indeed, for many
92

TO RADICOFANI 93
centuries — high up under Radicofani on the
way to Rome. For originally, as I have said
already, that way to Rome did not pass
through Radicofani, but through the Borgo of
Callemala or Callimala, which Repetti tells us
was on the slope of the mountain of Radicofani
on the banks of the Paglia. Pietre-Grosse
might seem to be the very place. The old
road was destroyed by order of the Commune
of Siena in 1442, and the new road then built
ran through Radicofani in order to prevent
more easily the entrance of condottieri from the
Papal States. For, as Ghino di Tacco had found
in his day, so they found in theirs, the gorge
of the Paglia was a fine secret place in which to
assemble and to hold the road into Tuscany.
Little is known of Callimala, though we
have a record of its Church of S. Cristina as
early as the tenth century. And in 1300, on
April 21, we hear of it again in the Carte
Diplomatiche della Badia di S. Salvatore, where
Professor Zdekauer tells us, " Divers persons
of Radicofani and of Castello della Badia
promised Fra Giovanni of the Monastery of
S. Salvatore di stare lunga la strada pubblica
a vendere il vino . . . that is to say, to erect
booths along the highway in the neighbour-

94 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
hood of Callimala to sell wine and other
victuals to the passers-by," perhaps, as we
may think, on the occasion of the Easter
Festa or the Pilgrimages of Holy Week.
Almost nothing more seems to be known
of this lost city, which has now utterly dis
appeared, and indeed, unless, as I think, the
stones of Pietre-Grosse may be taken for its
ruins, no vestige of it remains at all.
Leaving this lonely and desolate place, I
climbed again into the wind — for the tramon-
tana was blowing lustily — by the paved, steep
way to Radicofani between the spoiled fields
on the mountain-side, where a few sheep, poor
and needy, watched by a little maid in tatters,
were feeding. And because the way was
steep, and because the wind was so splendid,
it was already eleven o'clock when I came to
the inn of Radicofani, under the fortress of
Ghino di Tacco.
Originally belonging to the monks of S.
Salvatore, in 1153 Radicofani was divided,
and half the Castello given by the Abbot to
Pope Eugenius in. and his successors, to
gether with half the Corte and Borgo of Calli
mala. Later the place formed the last fortress
of the Patrimony of St. Peter, or the last

TO RADICOFANI 95
fortress of the Sanese, as it happened, for both
possessed it, the one after the other, during
many years. Finally it camei to Siena, and
later formed part of the Granducato of
Tuscany. To-day it is a little walled village,
straggling round the jagged hill under the
fortress of Ghino, with three churches, a fine
clock-tower, and many old houses; a beautiful
palace, evidently the Palazzo del Governo, now
a prison, covered with coats of arms ; while
without the gates are a Capuchin convent, a
pretty place enough, among trees too, now
secularised ; and the old Posta, the Great
Duke's Inn, where Richard Lassels on his
way to Rome in the seventeenth century tells
us' he dined. " From Siena," he says, " we
went to Bon Convento, Tornieri, San Quirico,
inconsiderable places vpon the rode, and so to
Radicofino, a strong Castle vpon a high hill,
built by Desiderius, King of the Longobards.
This is the last place of the Florentin State,
but not the least in strength. Dineing here,
at the Great Dukes Inn at the bottom of the
hill, we went to lodge at Acquapendente, which
is some twelve miles off, and the first towne
of the Popes state."
Of the three churches within the walls, S.

98 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
S. Pietro too, the parish church, has a treasure
less tangible, certainly, but perhaps to some of
us, at any rate, not less precious than its della
Robbia ware, in a legend "of the judgment
which befel a very great and cruel usurer of
Radicofani." Fra Filippo tells the tale in his
Ensamples. " There was," says he, " in the town of Radico
fani a wretched man ; and albeit he became
very old it might be said of him as saith the
proverb : ' Accursed is the child of a hundred
years old.' All the days of his life this
wretched man lent money upon usury, and
never had he any sickness. And although he
had many vices, especially was he covetous
and avaricious and cruel and an enemy of the
poor, in far greater measure than the devil had
known how to make him ; and rather would he
that the victuals and other things, which at any
time remained over in his house, should be
flung away than that they should be given to
the poor ; and never was he seen to give alms';
nor was he willing that any should be given in
his house. Now when his accursed days were
ended, he was smitten suddenly with an
apoplexy ; wherefore they laid him upon his
bed. Afterward two young men were sent for

TO RADICOFANI 99
a venerable physician of very holy life, who
was a native of the town and dwelt therein.
And this befell between two and three hours
after nightfall. And when the physician had
departed from his house toward the house of
the sick man, and had gone half-way thither,
albeit the weather was clear and calm, and the
heaven was full of stars, and no cloud was to
be seen in the sky, yet there came a passing
great thundering and lightening so that all men
were astonied ; and, when he had reached the
door of the house, there followed another
thunder clap with lightening twice as great
as at the first, and, in like manner, all men
were stunned thereby. And afterward, when
he had entered the courtyard and would have
gone into the chamber of the wretched sick
man, there came a third flash of lightening,
with a thundering so horrible that it stunned
whomsoever was in the chamber ; and the
physician and those who were with him in
the house fell to the ground, and all the
windows of the chamber where the sick man
lay were broken and burst open, and all the
lights which were in the house were put out ;
and they remained prostrate upon the ground
for the space of a quarter of an hour or more ;

ioo IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
and so terrified were they that none of them
dared to raise himself up. Afterward, at the
last, they lighted a lamp and went to the sick
man and found him dead. And thus the devil
carried away his soul.
" Now, when I had already written the afore
said ensample divers times, according as it had
been told me by the son of the said physician,
I afterward heard it from the lips of the
physician himself, the which was a man of
credit, at least ninety years old, of holy life,
and a passing venerable person. He told me
that there came on a sudden so great rain and
hail and tempest that it seemed that all the
town must be swallowed up ; and all the house
trembled and all the tiles of the roof thereof
were beaten together ; and whoever was in the
chamber swooned away ; and, in the morning,
all along the road which led from the house of
the dead usurer out of Radicofani, for seven
miles, the ground was covered with toads.
And on one side of the road and on the other,
the trees and vines and thickets were all
broken and splintered. And neither before
nor after in that mountain of Radicofani was
there ever seen a single toad. Moreover, the
physician told me that the priest of the town

TO RADICOFANI 101
buried that usurer in the church for money ;
wherefore afterward, in the night time, there
were heard such knockings and such tempest
and clamour in the church that no man in all
the town might sleep therefor. Wherefore, in
the morning, the people of the town hastened
to the church and dug up that wretched body
and buried it without the town in the most
base and shameful place that they could find."
It is, however, to a more admirable villain
that our thoughts continually turn, as we look
up to the Rocca, that strange, fierce, almost
grotesque fortress, ruined now, which under
rain or sun dominates the whole village, and
hangs there in the sky like some threatening
stemma, some fantastic coat of arms. The
country-folk tell you that Ghino di Tacco still
haunts the valley of the Paglia, and here in his
own mountain, certainly, the remembrance of
the man whose victim Dante' met in Purgatory
is never very far away —
"Quivi era l'Aretin, che dalle braccia
Fiere di Ghin di Tacco ebbe la morte."
(Canto vi. 13-14.)
But little doubtless remains of the fortress
Ghino built on that mountain - top, whose
scarped height overlooks not only the valley

102 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
ofthe Paglia and the road to Rome, but the valley
of the Orcia and the way to Siena, the pass
over Cetona too, and the roads to Chiusi and
Umbria. As you climb to-day up that rough,
steep way, among the stones, to where, sailing
high in air, the ruined castle still leers across
the world, it is the remnants of the Sienese and
Papal stronghold you pass, and yet it is
certainly not of them you are thinking, but of
the cruel exploits of that ruined gentleman,
turned highwayman, who slew Benincasa to
avenge his father, and captured the Abbot of
Cligni, and won thereby peace for a little, but
fell at last under the daggers perhaps of the
Counts of Santa Fiora, who hated him and
whom he hated.
Ghino di Tacco is a characteristic figure of
his time. There must have been many such
in Italy when the Signorotti, having acquired
their lordships rather than conquered them,
as Aquarone insists, and the opportunity for
any personal enterprise of the sort had passed
away, many a patrician found himself almost
starving, and at the mercy of the crowd in the
city where he lived or had taken refuge. This
seems to have been Ghino's case. There are
many theories of his birth, but Aquarone,

TO RADICOFANI 103
following Tommasi in this, comes to the con
clusion that he was the son of Tacco
Monaceschi de' Pecorai da Torrita. However
this may be, Ghino was brought up as a boy to
a wild and violent life, till his family, his father,
his brother Turino and himself, " disgusted
with the Republic," as Gigli says, were cacciati
di Siena, expelled from Siena, as Boccaccio
tells us, one day in 1279. They became
robbers, haunting the way between Siena and
Asinalunga, till one day Siena thought fit to
attend to them with a force some six hundred
strong. Then Siena occupied Torrita.
One day when Ghino was away on the road,
Tacco, his father, and Turino, his brother, were
taken by the Sienese and imprisoned in Siena.and
later tried before Messer Benincasa di Laterina
in the Aretino, Vicar of the Podesta. They
were hanged ; but Ghino was free, and, as
Aquarone puts it, while he was at large " the air
of Siena no longer suited Messer Benincasa."
So he sought some other business elsewhere, and
having no little reputation in jurisprudence he
became Auditor Papce and went to Rome.
Even there, as it proved, he was not safe.
Ghino was not to be denied. He had often
looked up to the height of Radicofani as he

104 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
lurked in the valley, perhaps often hidden
there to spy out his prey, on a summer evening
when the stars shine like jewels in a mons
trance round that spotless Host the moon. So,
tired of robbing on the road as a common
highwayman, and hoping to make himself still
a lord, he determined to secure himself in that
place. Nor was it long before it happened so,
for with him to think was to act. And once
established there, like a bird of prey he sat all
day looking towards Rome. It was perhaps
dawn when he set out with "some four
hundred of his brigands," as Gigli says, all
on swift horses, heartily ready. Through that
dawn, and the day and the night, they rode to
Rome. They surprised a gate and held it.
Then Ghino, with a few followers, rode through
the city on to the Capitol, where he knew he
would find Benincasa about his business.
There, indeed, "in an upper room at audience"
he found him, killed him on the very judgment-
seat, and, taking his head, came away without
hindrance. And remounting his horse he
rode in the midst of his few followers through
the City, leaving it by the same gate through
which he had come in, and so back to Radi
cofani, that he was then able to call his own.

TO RADICOFANI 105
Now it was with something of the same
persistent violence, less sinister, but not less
fearless, that the enemy of God, the Pope, and
the Counts of Santa Fiora, made his peace with
Boniface vni., as Boccaccio tells us, yet he
came to die at last like a gentleman truly, and
a lord, but at bay, fighting, slain by an
hundred wounds.
" Ghino di Tacco, " Boccaccio tells us in
Elisa's story from the second novel on the last
day of the Decameron, — " Ghino di Tacco, a
man both for his boldness and for his robberies
sufficiently famous, being banished from Siena,
and at enmity with the Counts of Santa Fiora,
caused Radicofani to revolt from the rule of
the Church of Rome, and establishing himself
there, he and his band robbed throughout the
neighbourhood. Now Boniface vm. being
Pope in Rome, the Abbot of Cligni came to
Court, and he was believed to be one of the
richest Prelates in the world. His stay at
Court having somewhat injured his digestion,
he was advised by the doctors to go to the
Baths of Siena where he would be cured with
out a doubt. Obtaining leave from the Pope,
without caring for the fame of Ghino, he set
out on his road with much pomp of harness

106 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
and baggage, with many horses and a whole
retinue of servants. Ghino di Tacco, hearing
of his coming, set his snares, and, without losing
the meanest stable-boy, in a narrow place
captured the Abbot with all his household and
his possessions. This done, he sent, well
accompanied, to the Abbot one of the wiliest
of his men, who on his behalf told him very
politely that he must be pleased to dismount
and to visit Ghino in the Castello. When the
Abbot heard this he was furious, and replied
that he wanted for nothing, that one like him
self had nothing to do with Ghino ; but that
he would continue on his way, and he would
like to see who would stop him. To whom
the Ambassador, speaking humbly, said :
' Messere, you are come to a place where, save
for the power of God, nothing makes us afraid,
and where excommunications and interdicts
are themselves excommunicated ; and there
fore it would be better to satisfy Ghino in this.'
During this conversation, the place had already
been surrounded by brigands, so that the
Abbot, seeing himself and those with him
prisoners, very scornfully followed the Ambas
sador towards the Castello ; and there went
along with him all his people, and all his

TO RADICOFANI 107
harness. Dismounting there, as Ghino wished,
he was placed all alone in a small room of a
palace rather dark and inconvenient, and all his
household, each according to his quality, was
well lodged, and for the horses and the baggage,
they were taken good care of, no one touching
anything. Later Ghino himself went to the
Abbot and said to him : ' Messere, Ghino,
whose guest you are, sends praying you to be
pleased to tell him where you were going and
on what occasion.' The Abbot, who like a
wise man, had already abated some of his
haughtiness, told him where he was going, and
why. When Ghino heard this, he went off
determined to cure him without any baths.
Having ordered a great fire to be kept con
stantly burning in the Abbot's room which was
small, he did not revisit him till the next
morning, and then in the whitest napkin he
brought him two slices of bread, toasted, and a
great cup of vernaccia da Corniglia, the Abbot's
own, and said to him : ' Messere, when Ghino
was very young he studied in medicine and he
says that there will never be a better medicine
for your complaint than that he will give you,
of which these things which I bring are the
beginning, and therefore partake of them and

108 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
be comforted.' The Abbot, who would rather
eat than be witty, though still with a certain
disdain, ate the bread, and drank the vernaccia :
then he began to say many things, a little
haughtily, asking many things and advising
many things, and especially he demanded that
he might see Ghino himself. Hearing this,
Ghino took no notice of much that he said,
answered courteously the rest, and declaring
that Ghino would visit him, very soon departed,
only returning on the following day again with
toasted bread and vernaccia : and so he did
many days till he found the Abbot had eaten
some dried beans which he had purposely
carried and left thefe : then on behalf of Ghino
he asked the Abbot how he was. The Abbot
replied : 'It appears to me that I should be
well enough if I were out of his hands, after
that I should have no greater desire than to
eat, so thoroughly have his remedies cured me.'
" Ghino then had a beautiful room prepared
with the Abbot's own belongings, and caused
a fine banquet to be set out, to which, with
many men of the Castello, were invited all
the household of the Abbot. The following
morning he went to him and said, ' Messere,
since you feel well, it is time you should quit

TO RADICOFANI 109
this infirmary.' Then taking him by the hand
he led him into the room he had prepared ;
and leaving him there with his own people he
went off to make sure the banquet should be
magnificent. The Abbot amused himself a
little with his people, and gave them an account
of his life, while they, on the other hand, told
him how surpassing well they had been enter
tained by Ghino. But the hour for dining was
come ; the Abbot and the others were nobly
entertained with excellent food and wines,
though Ghino did not even then declare
himself. When the Abbot had been treated in
this fashion for some days, Ghino, having made
them put all his goods into a great room and
all his horses, even to the last pony, into a
court under it, went to the Abbot and asked
him how he felt and whether he thought him
self well enough to go on horseback. And the
Abbot replied that he felt well enough, and
was indeed thoroughly cured, and that he
would be perfectly well if he could only get
out of Ghino 's hands. Then Ghino brought
him into the room where were all his goods
and all his whole household, and causing him
to look from a window at all his horses, he
said : ' Messere Abate, you ought to know

no IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
that it is not wickedness of heart which has
caused Ghino di Tacco — for I am he — to
become a highway robber and an enemy of
the Court of Rome, but rather his position as
a gentleman, driven from his own house, and
the necessity to defend his life and nobility
against many powerful enemies ; but you
appear to be an honourable lord, and, as I have
cured you of your illness, I do not intend to
treat you as I should another who should fall
into my hands, taking from him what might
please me. On the contrary, I intend that,
having considered my necessities, you should
give me what you think is owing. Here is all
that is yours : from that window you see your
horses in the courtyard ; take, therefore, either
a part or the whole as it shall please you ; from
this hour you may go or stay, as you will.'
"The Abbot, astonished to hear such gener
ous words from a highwayman, being much
delighted, felt his anger and disdain suddenly
dissolve into kindness, and in his heart grew a
wish to become Ghino's friend. Running to
him to embrace him, he said : ' I swear to
God that to gain the friendship of such an one
as I take you to be, I might well suffer a
deeper injury than you have inflicted on me

TO RADICOFANI in
here. Cursed be the evil fortune which has
led you to such a damnable life as this ! '
Then taking only a few necessities and some
of his horses, he left the rest to Ghino, and
returned to Rome.
" Now the Pope had heard of the Abbot's
capture, and had been much distressed by it.
When he saw him he asked him if the baths
had benefited him ; to which the Abbot smil
ingly answered : ' Holy Father, I found, before
arriving at the baths, a physician who has
thoroughly cured me.' Then he told him the
story, and, urged thereto by his generosity,
asked a favour. The Pope, imagining that he
would ask some other thing, freely granted him
what he should ask. ' Holy Father,' said the
Abbot, ' what I wish to ask of you is, that you
give a free pardon to Ghino di Tacco, my
doctor, because, among all estimable people I
have met, he is the most worthy, and the harm
he does is to be imputed rather to bad fortune
than to an evil heart ; change, then, this bad
fortune by giving him something from which he
can live according to his position, and I do not
doubt but that in a little time he will pay you
as he has paid me.' Hearing this the Pope,
who had a great soul and loved valiant men,

112 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
said he would do it willingly if, indeed, it was
as he said. With this promise, Ghino came
to Court, where the Pope, soon convinced of
his worth and reconciled to him, gave him a
great Priory with a hospital, and made a
Knight of him. There he remained the friend
and servant of Holy Church, and of the Abbot
of Cligni as long as he lived."
Thus far Boccaccio, but Da I mola tells us that
the Pope created him Cavaliere di S. Giovanni,
and that in his benefice he maintained splendida
vita. As Knight of S. John, and the Pope's
very good friend, he doubtless found it easier
to deal with the Sienese Republic. Later,
Da I mola says he retired to Fratta, perhaps his
native village, a Castello between Torrita and
Sinalunga in Vai di Chiana. However that
may be, not long after his son Dino became
Archbishop of Pisa. The Counts of Santa
Fiora, however, would not pardon him nor
give him peace. As great robbers as himself,
it may be they resented his success, and
especially his peace with the Church. One
day as he went about in Sinalunga he was set
upon by a number of armed men, Da Imola
tells us, and bravely defending himself, but
in vain, he fell pierced by an hundred wounds.

VIII
BAGNI DI S. FILIPPO, CAMPIGLIA
D'ORCIA, AND VIVO
T T was again very early in the morning
-*- when I set out along Via Francigena
northwards for the Bagni di S. Filippo, and
lingering by the way came to that white, burn
ing place towards midday. Hidden away as
it were, in the cup of a geyser in Vai d'Orcia,
beside the torrent of Rondinaja, the little
place is like a white, glistening scar in the
tawny valley, covered with the stalactite
deposit of the waters that cure the ills they
say of all Sardinia and Maremma. The village
of S. Filippo was originally the property of
the monks of Abbadia S. Salvatore, till it
passed from them to the Commune of Orvieto,
and then to the Visconti of Campiglia d'Orcia,
towering above on the bleak hillside like some
fantastic pinnacle of the Mountain. The
Visconti did not hold it long, however, and

114 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
at last, like every other village in this country, it
came into the power of the Republic of Siena.
The modern buildings in their heroic attempts
at comfort seem to shame the remains of older
baths, of which, however, the earliest notice
belongs to the fourteenth century. It was
at the Baths of Petriuolo, of Macereto, Vignone,
Rapolano, and S. Casciano that in the Middle
Age the best society of Siena met together
during the hot months, and as Signor Falletti-
Fossati in his Costumi Sanese, and Mr. William
Heywood in his admirable and too little known
Ensamples of Fra Filippo, tell us, — nor are
the novelists, as we have seen, wanting in
evidence, — thither came ecclesiastics and nobles
from all Tuscany, and even from Rome.
" From all directions, on horseback, on foot,
in litters, in carriages, or in carts drawn by
buffaloes, with children, in salmis sive cistis,"
says Mr. Heywood, quoting Signor Falletti-
Fossati, "they thronged to the various baths
of the contado, where they enjoyed the freedom
of country life and the benefit of the waters."
And though, as I have said, it is true we know
nothing of Bagni di S. Filippo before the
beginning of the fourteenth century, we may
be sure that it too was one of those places of

BAGNI DI S. FILIPPO 115
villegiatura, only smaller and less known than
Vignone, where S. Catherine of Siena, then
but fourteen years old, was taken by her
parents in the hope that the gay society she
would meet there might turn her thoughts
from the conventual life which she had already
chosen as her own. " Each bather," Mr.
Heywood tells us, "paid a tax or toll to the
purchaser delle gabelle dei bagni, which varied
from six denari to two soldi, according as the
individual who paid it was a noble, a doctor,
or a burgess, and whether he arrived on horse
back or on foot. The payment of this tax
entitled him who paid it to use the bath for
the whole season, or if he preferred it to
change from one establishment to another. . . .
In the fourteenth century the arrangements
at the Bagni were sufficiently primitive. The
Statuto del Comune di Siena . . . explains
that it had been provided that a house should
be built on the plain of the Bath of Macereto,
with a wall at least six braccia high and
distant four braccia from the women's bath.
On this was to be painted in good colours
an affresco of the Virgin, Christ, and the
Apostles James and Philip. In the open
space in front of the house there was a foun-

116 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
tain, in the centre of which stood a hollow
marble column. The water 'pro meliora-
mento dicte acque ' descended like rain into
the basin below, and was then carried by
channels, constructed for the purpose, into
two vasche, one of which was used by the
men and the other by the women. . . .
" A little before the bathing season com
menced, namely in May and June, the Signori
selected certain bonos legates et fidedignos
homines who repaired to the various baths,
examined the houses, the chambers and the
stationes existing there ; inspected the furniture
and the beds, ascertained how many there
were of them, and how equipped, and in what
manner they were adorned ; fixed the prices
of lodgings, and compelled the proprietors to
place a notice de licteris crossis supra hostium
et in pariete cuiusque camere et stationis,
stating the number of beds available, and
the price asked for them. It is, however,
clear that the stationarii could only hope to
accommodate a very small proportion of the
bathers, and that the majority of them were
compelled to seek shelter in tents and
pavilions, pitched in the open country in the
neighbourhood of the stabilimenti."

BAGNI DI S. FILIPPO 117
The Bagni di S. Filippo were supposed to
be good for rheumatism and cutaneous diseases.
Certainly from the year 1400 the place has
been a populous Castello. The baths, if they
then existed, seem to have been but little
known, and it was one of the good deeds of
Cosimo 1. to establish or revive them. In 15 1 2,
certainly, the magnificent Pandolfo Petrucci
came here to cure his asthma, but got no
better, and setting out hence on the 20th May
for Siena, died at S. Quirico on the following
day. More than a hundred years later, in
1635, Ferdinando n., Grand Duke of Tuscany,
cured himself here of a headache, as we may
read in the inscription taken from the old
baths — "Ferdinandus n Magnus Hetrurias Dux V
Dum Adversa Valetudine Laboraret
Thermis Hisce
Capitis Languore Depulso
Bene Convaluit
Laslius Guglielmus
Ob Restitituti principis Gloriam
Hoc egregiae Medelas Monumentus
Posteris excitavit a.d. MDCXXXV."
Very early on the following morning, in
fear of the heat in that low place, I climbed out
of the white chasm of S. Filippo on to the
bare, burnt hillside, on my way to Campiglia

118 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
d'Orcia. On that lonely, rude and beautiful
way, I met no one save a little girl spinning
thread from the distaff, as she minded a few
poor sheep anxiously nibbling among the
spare, dried grass, over which the wind passed
and repassed with a sibilant sound from the
valley to the hills. It was not much past
eight o'clock when I came to Campiglia.
Set high on a sudden torn pinnacle of rock,
that rises almost like a tower from the great
northern bastion of Mont' Amiata, the Rocca
of Campiglia, all that is left of it, towers over
the squalid village crouched beneath, like an
arrogant lord over a poor and beaten man.
The place itself, the lordship, consists of this
village and two ancient and ruined fortresses.
The larger of these, as Repetti tells us, was
the Cassero or Palazzo of the despots of Cam
piglia, which rises behind the Borgo ; the other,
1500 braccia above the sea, stands on the
summit of a higher mass of rocks called
Campigliaccia, a quarter of a mile or more
away to the east.
Passing through the village to the higher
ground behind it, not without difficulty, I
scrambled half-way up to the first of these
fortresses. There I met the wind. It caught

CAMPIGLIA D'ORCIA 119
me round about, and flung me against the
brutal rocks of that devil's eyrie, seeming
to laugh at my efforts to win to the summit.
But I had set my heart on standing on the
pinnacle, whence of old the good men of
Siena flung down Visconti's men. At last,
not without fear and labour, I succeeded. I
found myself on a platform of rock covered
with tufa, at the top of a tower of rock,
precipitous on all sides, save that by which
I had climbed, and even there very steep.
The whole space of the platform was not
more than twenty square feet. Yet it was here,
on this inaccessible tower, that the Visconti
built their nest, that " larger cassero or palace "
of which Repetti speaks. It seems impossible ;
there is scarcely room for a tower, and none
at all for a palace, and one might more easily
hurl stones down thence than bring them up.
And, indeed, that is what they did. In the
village street, beside the post office, stand the
great granite stones, in shape like cheeses,
they once rolled down on their assailants.
Two of these only, dropped into the village
from that lofty fortress, might seem able to
destroy it. Judge, then, how the people loved
their lords, and how these in their turn com-

120 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
pelled obedience. And truly the sight of
these ponderous missiles, and of the jagged
height, fills one with admiration for the per
sistence, force, and courage of the good citizens
of Siena, who in 1234 succeeded in storming
both this fortress and the Campigliaccia.
These despots, who for so long held their
folk here in such perilous safety, were the
Visconti, not the Milanese Visconti, but
apparently a local stock of nobles bearing that
name. They were, it seems, simply the viscounts
(vice-comites) of Campiglia ; at first, as their
name implies, they were perhaps merely the
agents or delegates of those ancient Counts
who, long after their authority in Siena itself
had passed to the Bishops, and from the
Bishops to the Commune, still represented
the Emperor more or less effectually in the
towns of the contado. The first notice we
have of them seems to be in an instrument of
1 07 1, which was executed in the presence of a
certain Count Raineri, son of Guido, Visconte
of Campiglia. Later, in 1163, Viscount
Sinibaldo of Campiglia was in Montepulciano at
the time of the publication of a placitum by
the Imperial Legate in favour of the Abbey of
S. Antimo ; while in 1197 we find Napoleone,

CAMPIGLIA D'ORCIA 121
son of Sinibaldo, promising to pay three silver
marks yearly by way of tribute to the Republic
of Siena. It was, however, Pepo, the son of
Tancredi, who held the place in 1234, when,
having sworn allegiance and friendship to the
Sienese, he went over to the Orvietani and
the Florentines in the affair of Montalcino.
For his perjury, as we have seen, Campiglia
was stormed and taken from him. For a time
an agent of the Commune seems to have
resided in Campiglia, but in 1254 the Floren
tines insisted that it should be restored to the
Visconti ; and six years later we find Pepo
Visconti fighting against Siena at the battle
of Montaperti. In 1264 Campiglia was again
besieged by the Sienese, and though Pepo
and Napoleone made good their escape to
Orvieto, their citadel was once more taken
and destroyed. Henceforward the Visconti
gave comparatively little trouble ; Orvieto was
exhausted by internal quarrels, and growing
weaker year by year, and when Siena became
Guelf no assistance could be looked for from
Florence. Thus they who had once held
sway not only over Campiglia, but over
S. Casciano and Figline, whose influence
extended not only into the valleys of Orcia

122 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
and Paglia, but as far as the Chiana, were
compelled to bend their necks to the difficult
yoke of the Communes, and in the year 1374
we find that they alone of all the nobles of the
contado remained faithful to Siena in the war
against the Salimbeni. The family continued
to rule in Campiglia till its extinction in the
fifteenth century.
I had not much time to linger in Campiglia,
and indeed there is but little to see save the
Rocca, for I wished to reach Vivo by midday,
and Abbadia S. Salvatore by evening. So
after half an hour on that windy platform,
whence you may see Radicofani splendid
against the sky, and Castiglione d'Orcia, the
stronghold of the Salimbeni, and Montepulciano
and Pienza, and the little cities of the Sanese
dim in heat, I scrambled down and took to
the road which leads at last to the railway.
Following this winding way for some two
chilometri, I came at last to the little chapel
called Madonnina, and turning there to the left
followed the mule path up into the woods, past
Podere Casella, through Podere Belvedere to
Vivo, among the waters in the shadow of green
trees. It is a little village full of the sound of
running water, set on a hillside in the woods.

CAMPIGLIA D'ORCIA 123
Across the stream, full and clear and sweet,
from which Siena now gets all her water,
rises the great villa-palace of the lords of this
place, the Conti Cervini, who had it from a
Pope long and long ago. For it seems that
Vivo owes her origin to a Hermitage of
Camaldolese monks, who named the place
after these living waters that still gush forth
clear and full even in the summer heat. The
Hermitage was dedicated to S. Benedict, and,
as it is said, was founded first in the eleventh
century, when the Emperors, Henry 1., in
1003, and Frederick 1. later, in 1166, conceded
to it many privileges.
About 1337, however, "on account of some
pastures," the Salimbeni, lords of Castiglione
d'Orcia, caused " their vassals " to attack the
Hermitage of Vivo, and devastated and robbed
it, so that the monks were compelled to seek
refuge in the monastery of the Rose, belonging
to their Congregation in Siena : and to that
house, later, was given the patrimony of
Vivo, with that of Badia di Campo, in Vai
d'Orcia, until it was alienated to the Farnese
Princes, and sold by Pope Paul in. of that
House to Cardinal Cervini, later Pope
Marcello 11., who left it to his nephews and

124 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
descendants, who have always held it, since
1 701, with the title of Count granted them by
Grand- Duke Cosimo in.
It is not, however, for the memory of a
spoiled hermitage that one comes to-day to
Vivo, but for the joy and sweetness on a
summer's day in Tuscany of those living
waters which run so swiftly through the place
under the trees, sometimes in great water
falls and cascades that make a thunder in
the woods, sometimes almost silently over the
stones, but always with a song. Lying there
in the long afternoon, that is so loath
to go, the history of the place comes back
to one, and means how much less than the
trembling gold of the sun that stains those
living waters and will fade at evening,
the murmur of the wind among the trees
saying who knows what, passing who knows
whither. . . .
You may go all the way by the woods, if you
will, from Vivo to Abbadia S. Salvatore, and
in many a solitary place spy suddenly the whole
Sienese contado, with Siena herself, white
against the mountains, spread out before you.
Perhaps as you pass by they will be cutting
the corn on the verge of the woods, or on a

VIVO 125
beaten platform of the earth be wielding the
flail, singing in chorus. And you will stop,
maybe, to talk with them, supping their wine
— the yellow wine of the lower slopes of the
Mountain — talking of harvest. The grain is
good, you will hear, very like ; and the straw,
you learn, the yellow straw, more golden than
wine, more beautiful than fine gold, is for Vai
d'Arno, for Livorno, for Lastra and Signa,
where they make hats for such a lordship as
yourself. And the grain, too, is it not sent
to the valley there, the broad valley of
Arno, to be sown again, and yield fruit and
stalk ; and of that the finest hats are made —
yes, such as your lordship's self might in Italy,
at least, not disdain to wear. And thinking of
their hard, simple, and yet so serene lives,
spent 'twixt the woods and the fields, you
watch them load the ass with his golden
burden, a sheaf on this side, a sheaf on that,
and another and another and another, till all
that appears under the golden burden is a tired,
placid head, a drooping tail, and four honest
sure feet for the steep, rough road home. And
singing as they go, the youngest leading the
ass — half in pride, half for support — they leave
you on the Mountain, alone and not alone, for

126 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
there, though the ways are solitary, there is
no loneliness, and though the paths be rough
you cannot be weary in the hearing of many
voices, while the flowere make sweet the
road.

IX
PIAN CASTAGNAJO
r I AHE way, the old way, from Abbadia to Pian
-*¦ Castagnajo, whose towers one sees from
the hillside above S. Salvatore over the trees, lies
all the way through the woods, in the silence,
out of the sun. You may go, if you will, by
the new road, with its views over the valley
of the Paglia, southward to Viterbo, almost
to Rome, so tragic and lonely in the light
of early morning ; but if you are content to go
afoot, and indeed it is but a short four miles,
you will prefer, as I did, to follow that old
paved, mediaeval road through the forest, for
saken now, about to be lost in the woods, to
be overwhelmed by the flowers, and finding
your way, sometimes not without hesitation,
scrambling down the steep banks of those dry
torrents which its broken bridges no longer
span, come out at last to the little chapel in
the wood, La Madonna di S. Pietro, where, if

PIAN CASTAGNAJO 129
revealed by a letter of the Emperor Frederic 11.,
under date of 27th August 1244, to his Captain
General in Tuscany, Pandolfo da Fasianella, in
which he cites the Visconti of Campiglia and the
Aldobrandeschi Counts of Sovana as usurpers
in Monte Nero, and in Pian Castagnajo, of
the rights of the Abbey and monks of Mont'
Amiata. Repetti cites the letter, which goes
on to say that these nobles must appear before
the end of sixty days in the Court Imperial,
to produce legal evidence of their rights, and
to explain their actions against the monks.
In 1247, the Visconti, who seem to have been
the worse aggressors, were condemned to
restore the Castello of Pian Castagnajo and its
district to the Abbey under a penalty of 140
Pisan lire. The Visconti appealed to the
court of second instance, and again were beaten ;
the decision being given against them at
S. Quirico in the following year, when they
were declared to be feudatories of the Abbey
of S. Salvatore. After further trouble, on the
9th May 1249, Abbot Manfred promised, in the
name of the Badia and of its Chapter, to invest
the brothers Federigo and Pepone, sons of
Jacopo Visconti, citizens of Siena, with the
feud of Pian Castagnajo, with its curia, juris-
9

130 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
diction and district. In the July following the
Visconti acknowledged the Abbot as their
feudal Signor, and swore fealty to him.
Politically the inhabitants of. Pian Castagnajo
were at this time under the government of the
Republic of Orvieto, while civilly the village
had been now under the Aldobrandeschi, now
under the monks, or the monks' feudatories
the Visconti. But towards the end of the
thirteenth century the Aldobrandeschi of
Sovana seized the place. This branch of the
Aldobrandeschi came to an end in 1284, and
their universal heir was Countess Margherita,
the only daughter of Ildebrandino. She had
married in her father's lifetime Conte Guido
di Monteforte. We have seen the struggle
the monks had with the Visconti for
possession of Pian Castagnajo ; the same fight
occurs again with di Monteforte. In 1286,
Pope Honorius iv. gave commission to Simone
da Castel-Gandolfo, his chaplain, to examine
the quarrel between the monks and Conte
Guido and Contessa Margherita for possession
of the Castello. The result of the lawsuit, if it
is not clearly on the side of the monks in
temporal affairs, confirms their spiritual jurisdic
tion. Beaten perhaps in the struggle for

PIAN CASTAGNAJO 131
temporal power, the monks, Regulars as they
were, were now attacked in their spiritual
rule by the secular Bishop of Sovana. On
the ist December 1349 a compromise was
arrived at, the Bishop and the monks agree
ing to accept as arbitrator Pietro, pievano of
Proceno. In the division of the Contea Aldobrand-
esca, between Aldobrandino di Bonifazio of
Santa Fiora and Aldobrandino di Guglielmo of
Sovana, which happened in December 1274,
Pian Castagnajo fell to the share of the latter.
Later it passed as a marriage portion into the
family Gaetani, who in 13 14 granted it as a
feud to the Monaldeschi of Orvieto, from
whom it passed, we know not how or why, into
the possession of the Piccolomini, and so into
the power of the Sienese Republic.
In 1352 Pian Castagnajo rebelled, but the
Republic sent a body of troops thither under
the command of Francesco Accarigi, who
speedily recovered it. Another rebellion
followed in 1355 on the fall of the Nove;
Pian Castagnajo being among the towns of the
contado which refused to obey the Dodici.
It continued in revolt till 1360, when it was
reduced by the Dodici and given by them to

132 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
the Salimbeni — that was in October 1368. The
rule of the Salimbeni was, however, of the
shortest ; for the Sienese being fully occupied
in suppressing civic sedition, in the following
year Niccolo Orsini, Count of Nola and
Captain of the Papal troops, occupied it by force
of arms. The Orsini held it till 1378, in which
year they recognised the suzerainty of Siena.
During the war with Ladislaus of Naples,
Sforza da Cotignola made himself master of
Pian Castagnajo. The Sienese sent Frances-
chino della Mirandola, their general, against him,
but in vain ; because when he saw that Sforza
intended to defend the place, Franceschino
turned back without attempting anything. As
they had done with the Orsini in 1378, so now
they did with Franceschino Sforza in 14 14,
granting him all the castelli and the towns and
villages which he had occupied in Vai d'Orcia
on condition that he held them as fiefs granted
him by the Republic and paid the usual censi.
When his prestige was diminished by the arrest
of his uncle Sforza da Cotignola, the Sienese lost
no time in sending Goro Catosti and Andreoccio
Mercolindi with an army to reconquer the
places which Sforza had occupied. The city
of Chiusi, the castelli of Monte Nero, Rocca

PIAN CASTAGNAJO 133
d'Orcia, and Monte Giovi submitted, and when
the army drew near to Pian Castagnajo the
lieutenant of Sforza at once capitulated on
receiving the sum of 2000 florins.
A little later, in 1416, Sforza also consented
to accept 1 8,000 florins for the abandonment of
his claims to the territories thus taken from
him. So the inhabitants of Pian Castagnajo
returned to the allegiance of the Republic, and
remained under her protection as accomandati
till 1440. In that year they decided to submit
themselves more completely, that they might
live with a securer freedom.
In 1 60 1, however, Grand Duke Ferdinando 1.
gave the place in feud to General Giovan
Battista Bourbon, of the Marchesi del Monte,
to pass to his descendants in the male line, and
in some sort this family held the place almost
to our day.
If you come to Pian Castagnajo by the old
road through the woods, you cross the Indo-
vina, a dry torrent-bed in summer, but in
spring generally raging with the waters of the
snows, so that by this, if there be much water
or little, the contadini divine the richness or
poverty of the harvest. The first sign that

134 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
you are approaching the Castello is the chapel
of Madonna in the Wood, Madonna di S.
Pietro, one of the most ancient churches of the
Mountain ; while if you come by the new road,
you pass on the left, half a mile almost before
you come to the gate, the church and convent
of S. Bartolommeo, founded originally in 1227
by the Friars Minor, though not in this same
spot; set here, however, in 1278, nearer, as
Wadding tells us, than the old convent was to
the Castello and under the patronage of the
Counts of Pitigliano. A mere ruin now, the
convent of S. Bartolommeo contains nothing
of interest save a beautiful, spoiled cloister,
while the church, like that of Madonna in the
Wood, is full of the improbable, incredible
fustian of to-day. From these churches it is
but a short quarter of a mile to the gate at the
foot of the old fortress of the place, which bears
still many a broken coat of arms, among them
the Balzana of Siena. Before this ruined
fortezza on either side is a plain, a piano of
chestnuts, like the groves of rival deities, very
still and solemn, and always full of silence.
From the fortress east and south the old walls
of the Castello still totter round the shrunken,
precipitous village, in many a ruined, battle-

PIAN CASTAGNAJO 135
mented tower, and there, looking southward
down Vai di Paglia, is the Porta del Borgo.
It is not, however, anything within the
Castello that will really interest us, though the
place is full of picturesque corners and steep,
precipitous streets, and the parish church of
S. Maria Assunta is among the oldest on the
Mountain, but the palace which General Giovan
Battista Borbone del Monte built two years
after Grand Duke Ferdinand gave him the
place. It is a building like a Roman palace, a
Roman palace in a country place, without the
exaggeration and grandiosity of some of those
great seventeenth - century houses in Rome.
And then it has a garden too, ruined now,
and a little bare and forlorn in its rugged wild
ness, among the enormous stones that once
were carved into a fantastic beauty, hewn into
strange shapes which the wind and the rain are
slowly obliterating, turning what was once just
rock back into rock again. // Mugnello, they
call the place, laughing still a little uncannily,
with so many waters, waters that have broken
their banks and found new ways for themselves,
running hither and thither out of the sun.
And long and long ago gay with the del
Monte ladies, in the beautiful dresses of the

136 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
time, it must have been a pleasant place enough,
rivalling certainly the garden of the Sforza-
Cesarini of Santa Fiora. There were arbours
and grottos, little stairways hewn out of the
rock, winding about a waterfall, and in the
midst a great rough-hewn fountain, like a huge
shell, big enough for all those ladies to bathe in
together, as in the pleasant pages of Boccaccio,
and the water there is fresh and pure and colder
than chastity herself.
Lying there in the shadow all through a
drowsy summer afternoon, one seems to see
those dear dead ladies —
" Girls of mild silver and of furious gold " —
sauntering by, reading, what but Tasso's
Aminta perhaps, or the immortal Gerusahmme
in the Aldine Edition of 1582, for in this
country-place we are still a little behind the
times. Messer Lorenzo Bartoli from Rome,
in villegiatura here, seems to have much to say
to the divine Madonna Laura on that interest
ing subject of Tasso's immortality ; while not
far away Madonna Rosa trembles a little,
laughing the while at the eager, hot words of
young Sforza- Cesarini, the scapegrace; and
Madonna Beatrice gazes a little pensively from
the arbour, ever towards Rome. This very

PIAN CASTAGNAJO

PIAN CASTAGNAJO 137
morning, it seems, a wild boar caught near the
Ermetta has been taken alive and brought
into Pian Castagnajo, and this evening the
gentlemen are to bait it in the courtyard, in
honour of the guest, no less than the Grand
Duke's Grace herself. And after there will be
a concert, concerto campestre, under the chest
nuts. Hark ! I can hear the low fingering of the
guitar strings, the golden Beatrice is about to
sing — ah ! that sad song of hers —
" Fiorin di grano
Lasciatemi contar3 chi allegro, sono
Ho rifatto la pace col mio damo."
But what is this I hear? It is a stornello of
the Mountain, — ah! that has outlived Tasso's
Sonnets. I must have been really asleep. It
is a contadina of the village who sings, as she
carries her snowy linen from the fountains of
the del Monte gardens, where all the afternoon
she has been at the lavatoio. It is already
evening, and time to return. As I follow her
through the narrow, steep, winding ways, I turn
at last at Porta del Borgo and wait in the last
light of the sunset. Standing there at evening,
gazing over the near vineyards and the woods
to Proceno, to Bolsena, to Monte Cimino, and
Monte Venere, I cannot remember that 1 am

138 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
still in Tuscany. There is a light on the hills
that one may never see in any Tuscan land,
a largeness in the evening earth, something
passionate, solemn, and splendid in the gesture
and form of every valley and mountain. Do I
dream still, I ask myself, or is there in that
tawny and lonely country some buried greatness,
some unforgettable renown that has now uttered
in my heart the immortal word — Rome ?

X
THE ALDOBRANDESCHI
"PEARLY on the next morning I set out
-*— ' from Pian Castagnajo for Santa Fiora.
And at first the way led through the forest :
then when it had left the Madonna of the
Wood behind, it came out suddenly on to the
hillside towards Castellazzara caught in the
mist, towards Bolsena hidden under the
morning sun, and Monte Cimino and Rome.
But it was not any ancient splendour that
came to me, scarcely awake as yet, weary of
the waning pride of the long summer, but a
dim, fantastic, intricate memory out of the
Middle Age, full of cruelty, oppression, and
wrong ; the clash of iron on iron, the voices
of barbarian princes. And yet, who may
deny the force and splendour of the House
of Aldobrandesca ?
Where they came from, how and when they
entered Italy, no man knows. Perhaps they

140 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
were Longobard princes, perhaps they came
with Charlemagne ; but being come somehow,
somewhen, overwhelmed perhaps, as all the
barbarians have been, by the mystery and
beauty of this land, they stayed and worked
their will.
In the latter half of the twelfth century,
when the Communes, free at last from the
dominion of the Bishops, began to threaten
the feudal barons round about, the Aldo
brandeschi were probably the most powerful
lords in Tuscany. Their dominion included
almost all Mont' Amiata and its villages, with
the Maremma to the south of Ombrone.
Grosseto, too, was theirs, and Campagnatico,
and many another town and village to Radi-
condoli, Belforte, and Monteguidi. Their boast
was that they possessed more fortified places
than there are days in the year, and there
can be but little doubt that that part of the
modern Province of Siena and Grosseto which
went to make up the Contea Aldobrandesca
was far more populous then than it is now.
Even the Maremma was not in those days
the desolate region which it afterwards became ;
the wild vines and olive trees upon its hills
mark the spots which once were glad with

Giovanni della Robbia

J'itT't; S. Fior.

COMMUNICATORIO (Alinari)

THE ALDOBRANDESCHI 141
vineyards and olive gardens, while the desolate
ruins scattered over that country, the names
lingering still of vanished towns and castles,
the all too ample space enclosed within the
walls of shrunken villages, speak to us of the
prosperity that was of old, the poverty of
to-day. And truly once upon a time Grosseto
could put into the field three thousand fighting
men, more than the total number of her citizens
of both sexes and all ages in the middle of
the nineteenth century. And in like manner
Saturnia, Sovana, Telamone, Ansidonia and
the rest, which to-day are scarcely more than
names, were then little cities or villages of
some importance.
The last of the Aldobrandeschi to rule over
an undiminished and unbroken state was Ilde-
prando, or Aldobrandino, Count Palatine of
Tuscany, who died in 1 208. He left four sons,
to wit, Aldobrandino the elder, sometimes
called Aldobrandino Novello, Guglielmo, the
"gran Tosco" ofthe Divine Comedy, Bonifazio,
and Aldobrandino the younger. The first
blow to their power had come from the east
ward. The Orvietani, like the Sienese, were
no longer satisfied with the destruction or
subjection of the feudal fortresses in the

142 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
immediate neighbourhood of their walls, and
both Communes realised the necessity of
humbling the robber barons who dominated
the vast tract of country which extended from
the lower reaches of Paglia to the flanks of
Mont' Amiata, from Argentario to Piombino,
and along the crest of the hills between
Montalcino and Montepulciano, embracing the
lovely and secluded valleys of Merse and
Ombrone. For either single-handed the task
might have been impossible, but their common
desire to avail themselves of the resources of
the Maremma, and the necessity they were
in of protecting and fostering the commerce
already growing up between Rome and them
selves and Northern Italy along Via Francigena,
induced them, though Orvieto was Guelf and
Siena Ghibelline, to unite together at least
for this end. Accordingly, in 1202, they
entered into an alliance, which they called
fraternitatem et unitatem, and which was sworn
to by the Podesta and a thousand of the citizens
of Orvieto in that city in August, and by the
Consuls and a thousand of the citizens of Siena
in the Church of S. Cristofano in Siena in
October. This alliance was to continue in
force for twenty years, and by its terms the

THE ALDOBRANDESCHI 143
Commune of Siena agreed to extend to the
Orvietani all the privileges of citizenship, to
exonerate them from all customs, and, in the
event of war, to place at their disposal the
hostis of Siena for fifteen days once a year,
and 200 milites and 500 pedites twice a year.
These obligations were of course reciprocal,
the Orvietani promising to render the same
services to the Sienese. In the following
year, however, it was agreed in the Church
of S. Andrea in Orvieto, and in the Palace
of the Sons of Pietro di Cittadino Monaldeschi,
that the Sienese might make peace with Count
Aldobrandino at their good pleasure, but that
if the Commune of Orvieto should make war
on him for certain specified reasons, Siena
should do the like. The Orvietani, too, about
that time entered into an agreement with the
Aldobrandeschi which was confirmed by an
oath before the assembled people. The Counts
undertook not to exact pedagium from the
citizens within their Contea, and to redress
such injuries as they might suffer therein ;
they agreed to make war or peace at the will
of the Magistrates of the Commune, and to
pay every Easter a tribute of 130 libbre in
the money of Siena. Moreover, they paid a

144 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
sum of 600 libbre on the day of the agreement,
in addition to 500 libbre for property which
they had acquired in the city of Orvieto so
that they might be citizens. And in return
they were accorded full citizenship. Thus fell
the barbarian lords before the Communes ; but
their end was not yet.
In 1 2 12 the tribute was augmented, and in
October 12 13 the men of Sovana, who had
already obtained a statutum from the Counts,
requested and received permission to treat
freely with Orvieto. Then in June 12 16 they
put themselves under the protection of Orvieto,
and agreed that if the Signori should fail to
observe the agreements sworn to they would
take up arms against them at the command
of the Commune.
In that same month Aldobrandino Novello,
now head of the family, " desiring to obey
all the orders of the Commune of Orvieto,"
gave and granted to that city ad faciendam
pacem et guerram et hostem et parlamentum,
all the territory which he possessed from Mont'
Amiata to the Albenga, with the district of
Corneto. Thus and thus the Aldobrandeschi
were compelled to understand, not only that
their days as absolute lords were over, but

THE ALDOBRANDESCHI 145
that in less than fifteen years they had fallen
from being allies of the Communes to a state
of vassalage. Indeed, every town and village
paid a tax or tribute of two soldi to the
Commune for each family, and the Count
himself was obliged to swear before the Magi
strates of the City that the Commune should
be his heir if he died without legitimate issue.
Strange indeed must have been the scene
when on the 24th June 12 16, in the arid
plain of Saturnia, in the presence of the people
of Orvieto, the haughty Count Palatine was
compelled to appear humbly before Monaldo
di Pietro Cittadini, the representative of a new
commercial aristocracy. "There met," as
Rondoni says, "two generations, two races,
two histories."
The so swift ruin of the Aldobrandeschi
seems to have been largely due to dissensions
between the brothers, for in the same year
Orvieto, now mistress of the situation, under
took to adjust their differences. She com
pelled Aldobrandino, Bonifazio, Guglielmo, and
Aldobrandino the younger to exchange the kiss
of peace, and divided their entire Contea into
four parts. This seems to have made them
realise their position, for in addition to the
IO

146 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
indignities they had suffered they were nearly
ruined by the usurious demands of the rich
Commune. At last, when payment was
required, they retaliated by driving off cattle
and committing other thefts. But they could
not loosen the grasp which held them. In
April and July 12 19, and June 1222, they
were compelled to enter into new conventions
with new guarantees, while finally, in 1223
Aldobrandino the elder, Bonifazio, and Gug
lielmo became parties to a formal agreement
whereby they undertook to satisfy all their
obligations, only preserving to themselves the
right of trial by battle "per pugnam et
camphyones," in the case of such evidence
and documents as they should aver to be
false. They seem indeed to have had no
alternative, since at the time of this convention .
Bonifazio and Guglielmo were held captive.
Their only chance of regaining their liberty
lay in the acceptance of any terms which
might be offered them. In November 1223
the Procurator and Syndic of the Commune
took formal possession of all the towns and
villages . which had been granted by Aldo
brandino in 1 2 16.
Throughout all these difficult transactions

Delia Robbia

P/'ez'e, S. Flora.

LA MADONNA DELLA CINTOLA
(Alinari)

THE ALDOBRANDESCHI 147
Orvieto seems to have been loyal to her treaty
obligations with Siena, and indeed as long as
friendship lasted between the two Communes
the Aldobrandeschi were between the upper
and nether millstones. Such a state of things,
however, was not to continue. From 1228 to
1335 all Tuscany was in arms; the alliance
between Guelf Orvieto and Ghibelline Siena
was exchanged for enmity, and the Aldobran
deschi were able to recover a little of their
former power.
On the 22nd November 1 220 Frederick 11. had
been solemnly crowned by Pope Honorius in.
in the Basilica of S. Peter, and in 1221 he had
confirmed Aldobrandino Novello in his here
ditary dignity of Count Palatine of Tuscany.
In the same year, through the influence of the
Imperial Vicar, Conrad, Bishop of Spires, the
Aldobrandeschi entered into an alliance with
the Sienese, the terms of which were equal
and reciprocal, for each undertook to come
to the assistance of other in case of war,
with iooo foot and 1 50 knights ; but it was
unequal in this, to wit, that the Counts agreed
to pay to the Commune an annual tribute of
twenty-five silver marks and promised that one
of them, chosen by the Podesta or Consuls of

148 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
Siena, would reside in that city for one month
in each year in time of peace and two in time
of war.
In their dealings with Orvieto the Aldo
brandeschi had been taught a severe lesson ;
they were most anxious to remove all cause
of friction with the Sienese ; possibly for this
reason they gave Grosseto her liberty. For
the inhabitants of that town adopted a sys
tematic course of provocation towards Siena,
heaping insults and injuries upon her and,
against their promise {contra promissam fidem)
exacting passagium vel maltollectum from her
citizens who traded with them. Protest was
useless ; the Grossetani, declaring that the
Sienese seemed to be ready rather to fly than
to fight, treated all their complaints and
menaces with indifference.
Now Siena had long coveted Grosseto, and
the fact that it had received its independence
removed it from among those places which by
treaty she was bound not to annex. On the
24th August 1224, Count Guglielmo undertook
to assist the Commune in reducing his former
subjects to submission, promising to take up
his residence in his palace in Grosseto. A
few days later war was declared however.

THE ALDOBRANDESCHI 149
" None ever saw fairer army," we read.
"The shields, the cuirasses, and the tents
made bright the whole region round about,
so that it seemed another Paradise." Grosseto
was taken by assault on the 8th September,
the Birthday of the Blessed Virgin, "and
those who went out against it were thirty-one
hundred men, horse and foot : and when they
had returned, for joy of the victory, they held
high festival and lighted bonfires and closed the
shops about the Campo."
Notwithstanding the intercession of Count
Guglielmo, the victors imposed hard conditions
of peace. The Grossetani were compelled to
swear, among other things, that they would
never restore the walls of their city without
the leave of Siena.
Although outwardly the Aldobrandeschi
acquiesced in the action of the Sienese, they
were secretly far from content, and continued
to cherish a grievance which they were only
too ready to take vengeance for whenever the
Commune was in difficulties. Thus in 1236
Count Guglielmo, who perhaps had other
more personal reasons for hating the Sienese,
not only appealed to the Pope to force them
to rebuild the walls of Grosseto, but seems even

150 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
to have succeeded in procuring their excom
munication. Two years later he openly sided
with their greatest enemies, and became a
citizen of Florence. Thereupon the Sienese
invaded the Contea Aldobrandesca, and took
Montiano, Collecchio, and Magliano, between
Ombrone and Albenza ; while, later on, the
brief period of Ghibelline domination in
Florence, which followed the rising of the
Uberti (20th January 1249), gave them an
opportunity to deal a fatal blow to the power
of the Aldobrandeschi.
Already in 1234 Siena had taken Campiglia
d'Orcia by storm, leading the inhabitants
prisoners to Siena, and now in January 1251
she sent her army down into Maremma, com
pelling the Signori of Torniella, Montorgiale,
and Cinigliano to renounce their allegiance to
the Counts and to accept the suzerainty of the
Commune. With Montiano, Magliano, and
Collecchio in her hands she thus possessed a
line of fortresses from Siena to Telamone, which,
beside securing to her the sea-coast from
Castiglione to Monte Argentario, cut off the
Aldobrandeschi from their lands and vassals
beyond the Ombrone. She next ascended Vai
d'Orcia and seized Castiglione d'Orcia and

THE ALDOBRANDESCHI 151
Selvena, thereby placing herself in a position
to overrun at any moment the whole Contea
Aldobrandesca. To escape worse evils Aldo
brandino of Santa Fiora, the son of Count
Bonifazio, hastened to Siena and sued for
peace, obtaining conditions which were not
too grievous.
Meantime, however, while the Sienese
troops were yet in the Maremma, the Guelf
exiles returned to Florence, and in March
Count Guglielmo and his sons Aldobrandino
" the Red," and Omberto of Campagnatico
renewed upon oath the convention of 1203
with the Commune of Orvieto, promising to
observe all the promises he had there made,
save, of course, "to reverence and honour the
Commune of Siena." In April they entered
into a fresh convention with Florence, whereby
they granted her the use of their ports and
especially Telamone and Port' Ercole.
This treaty was a great source of danger to
Siena. Already by the submission of 12 16
Orvieto had acquired suzerainty over the
valley of Albenga ; and now,- if Florence were
permitted to obtain free access to Telamone or
Port' Ercole a few years would probably see
her mistress of the Maremma ; Grosseto would

THE ALDOBRANDESCHI 153
for revenge, and in the Consiglio della Campana
of the 30th August 1255 demanded that the
hands and feet of the rebels should be cut off
and their eyes torn out. The aristocrats of the
Assembly resisted, but the people were un
willing to yield, and the discussion turned upon
the question whether the Torniellesi should lose
one eye or both, one hand or both, or whether
it would not be better to hang them all out
of hand and so finish the business. Finally,
milder counsels prevailed, but not from any
lack of savagery on the part of the Popolani,
for whom the mangling of those luckless
gentlemen would have been a pleasant holiday
diversion. The Aldobrandeschi were naturally not
unmoved spectators of these proceedings.
The increasing power of the Commune in the
Maremma was a distinct menace to their
power, and in spite of the stipulations of the
Peace they believed that they had good cause
for apprehension. Therefore they applied to
the Florentines, and through them demanded
of the Sienese whether they entertained any
hostile intentions against the sons of Count
Guglielmo or against their dominion. On the
4th September 1255 the Sienese replied in the

154 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
negative, and then on the 5th of February
following, Graziano, judex and ambassador for
the Commune of Siena, demanded of the noble
Counts Omberto and Aldobrandino, sons of
the late Count Guglielmo, whether they were
willing to abide by and observe the terms of
the Peace made with the Sienese by the
Commune of Florence, for herself and for
them ; and they answered, Yes, they were.
But mutual suspicions did not cease for all that.
In the following year Aldobrandino of Santa
Fiora thought it safer to disassociate himself
from his kinsmen and to enter into negotiations
for a separate peace, renewing the submission
of 1 25 1. To him on the 25th of December
1256 the Commune sent ambassadors, to
confer and to negotiate with him. The
ambassadors, however, were unable to perform
their errand, for Omberto, who was bitterly
opposed to his cousin's action, and regarded
any conventions and agreements to the
advantage of the Commune as a means of
despoiling him and his family of their here
ditary dominions, laid an ambush for the envoys
and cast them into prison, absolutely refusing
to give them up unless, and until, the Commune
should set the sons of Ranieri da Torniella at

THE ALDOBRANDESCHI 155
liberty. Before openly treating with him the
Sienese, mindful of the peace sworn, sent
ambassadors to Florence, Perugia, Orvieto,
and Viterbo, to make formal complaint touching
the injuries done them, and especially to lay
stress upon the very grievous wrong involved
in laying hands upon the sacred persons of
ambassadors. Moreover, they pointed out that,
by reason of the robberies of the Count, the
road to Maremma was so dangerous as to be
indeed useless. Their representations, how
ever, produced no effect, and Omberto con
tinued in his lawless ways contra Deum et
institiam, until at last their patience was
altogether exhausted and they resolved to
abate him as a common nuisance. His end
is recorded by Dante in the eleventh canto of
the Purgatorio —
" Io fui latino, e nato d'un gran Tosco !
Guglielmo Aldobrandesco fu mio padre :
Non so se il nome suo giammai fu vosco.
L'antico sangue e l'opere leggiadre
De' miei maggior' mi fer si arrogante
Che, non pensando alia commune madre
Ogni uomo ebbi in dispetto tanto avante
Ch'io ne mori', come i Sanesi sanno
E sallo in Campagnatico ogni fanti
Io sono Omberto . . ."
As to the precise manner of his death there
are many different legends, for the facts (once

THE ALDOBRANDESCHI 157
" Then came the gallant Count Aldobran
dino," says one of them, "with the standard
bearers and all the people of Siena, shouting
with one voice : Alia morte ! Alia morte !
The first to meet Count Aldobrandino was the
Captain of the Orvietani, whose name was
Messer Sinibaldo Rubbini, a man of great
puissance, but it availed him nothing that day
against the Captain of the Sienese, for the
Count Aldobrandino thrust him through with
his lance through all his armour so that it
passed out behind between his shoulders : and
hurled him to the earth from off his horse, dead.
Then he took his sword in his two hands, and
a sad man was he who waited his coming for
his days on earth were ended. And so great
was the fury of his onset that he who stayed for
one of his blows had no need of another, nor
did he seek a leech to heal him, for from one
he lopped off an arm and from another his head,
and so it befel all who came within his reach."
Yet notwithstanding his splendid services on
the most glorious day in Sienese history, the
Commune had no mind to loose the bands
with which they had bound him. For them
the feudal nobles were fierce hounds to be held
in leash, falcons only to be unhooded when the

158 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
quarry was in sight. So on the 28th October
1 26 1, at the Bagni di Vignone, they compelled
the Count to renew his submission of 125 1, and
to promise to pay all arrears of tribute and all
the debts which he had incurred in Siena. He
further promised to finish the palace he had
begun to build on Poggio de' Malavolti, and to
reside there for the period agreed upon in each
year. In 1274 the Contea Aldobrandesca was
divided between the cousins, and henceforward
Aldobrandino, the son of Bonifazio, ruled in
Mont' Amiata with Santa Fiora as his capital,
and Aldobrandino, " the Red," in Maremma.
The latter House soon became extinct ; as I have
said, he left one daughter, whom he gave in
marriage to that Guy de Montfort who in 1271
"fesse in grembo a Dio
Lo cor che in sui Tamigi ancor si cola."
(Inferno, xii. 1 19-120.)
After the death of her father and husband
Margherita ruled alone, with the title of
Countess Palatine. Although her capital was
Sovana she seems generally to have resided
at Saturnia. Her daughter Anastasia married
Guido degli Orsini.

THE ALDOBRANDESCHI 159
The Aldobrandeschi of Santa Fiora, however,
flourished for more than a hundred and fifty
years, and continued to be a thorn in the side
of the Sienese for the greater part of the
fourteenth century. Their loyalty to the
Commune, never very enthusiastic we may
think, ceased altogether with its abandonment
ofthe Ghibelline cause, and Santa Fiora became
a typical home of feudal lawlessness. From
1280 to 1300, and again in 1331, the Counts
were at war with Siena ; and with Ghinozzo
da Sassoforte from 1328 to 1330.
Count Jacomo when he died at Santa
Fiora in 1346 bequeathed, Andrea Dei tells us,
all his goods to the Commune of Siena ; "and
this he did because he said that all which he
possessed, or the greater part thereof, he had
taken and robbed in the contado of Siena, and
he had given asylum in his dominions to those
who had robbed the contado of Siena and the
citizens of Siena." Such facts enable us to
understand the meaning of Dante's despairing
appeal to " German Albert " —
"Vien' crudel vieni, e vedi la pressura
De' tuoi gentili, e cura lor magagne
E vedrai Santafior com' e sicura."
(Purgatorio, vi. 109-111).
Indeed the strong fortress of Santa Fiora was

160 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
filled with outlaws, bloody and violent men
who acknowledged no law whether human or
divine save only the commandment of their
lord. Who can forget the terrible legend of
Giovagnolo, that brutal retainer of the Aldo
brandeschi, who caused an hundred prisoners
at one time to be slain by a weak old man,
leading them to their death one after another
with their hands tied behind their backs so
that he might better feast his eyes upon their
agony and fear. Was it not this cruelty which,
as the pious old Sienese monk says, was the
cause of the downfall of that proud House ?
The end of Giovagnolo was worthy of his
life, for even on his deathbed he steadfastly
refused to bow his brute neck to God Himself,
declaring with his latest breath that he was
minded if he recovered to be revenged upon
such of his enemies as were yet alive. Mr.
Heywood translates the sorry tale with a true
feeling for the indomitable pluck and persist
ence of this devil in his Ensamples of Fra
Filippo. For "when the Prior of the Place
came to him to confess him he said that he
desired not to confess because he had com
mitted so many sins that God would never
pardon him, and also because he had committed

THE PESCHIERA, S. FIORA

THE ALDOBRANDESCHI 161
many sins of which he could never repent. . . .
' Also (said he) I have so many enemies in the
other life who will rise up against me that, if
God desired to pardon me, it would be almost
beyond His power to do so. For of a truth
three mules would not suffice to carry the
hoods alone of the men whom I have slain.
Think you then how could I make my peace
with Him ? I know that He would never
receive me into His mercy, nor am I willing so
to abase myself as to show myself fearful of
Him. Well I wot that He would never trust
Himself in my hands ; much less would I trust
myself in His.' And after this manner, with
these and other like desperate words, he
declared that he would in no wise confess.
Very much did the Confessor speak to him
of the immeasurable mercy of God, of the glory
of the blessed and of the tortures of the
damned ; and his wife likewise and other
friends of his that were there besought him to
confess and to prepare his soul ; but they could
not change his accursed determination. And
even as the heart of Pharaoh was hardened,
so did his heart grow harder. And ever he
spoke desperate words whereby he deemed
that he convinced every man that in reason he

1 62 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
ought neither to confess nor to make his peace
with God and with the saints. . . . And so
that wretched soul passed from this life.
" Now when he was dead, the Counts desired
that he should be buried in the Church of the
Friars of S. Agostino, hard by their own
sepulchre, for they had loved him well. There
upon the Friars offered many excuses to the
end that they might not be compelled to bury
him either in their church or in any part of the
place ; saying that he had been a devil in
human form, and that his body ought to be
buried in a ditch with dogs and not with men.
But the Counts, who had built that church from
its foundations, were determined that in spite
of everything the corpse should be buried in
the church. Wherefore the Friars, fearing the
Counts more than God, consented to that
which the Counts willed. And, that accursed
body having been buried in the church, for
three nights thereafter there was in the church
such tumult and tempest that not only among
the Friars but also among those who dwelt round
about no man might close his eyes to sleep,
because it seemed that the church was full of
devils, as in good sooth it was. And anon
they seemed knights who jousted ; anon men

THE ALDOBRANDESCHI 163
who fought sword in hand ; and anon very
fierce beasts madly hurtling together with
dolorous bellowings. And so for three whole
nights that tempest ceased not in the church ;
and at noontide also these sounds were heard,
but not so loudly. And not only did no man
dare to enter the church during those three
nights, but also, for divers months thereafter
no man dared to enter therein unless he had
been assoiled and was in good company. On
the third day the Friars, with certain laymen,
confessed and prepared in their souls, went to
the church and dug up that accursed body and
buried it in the garden beside the river ; where
upon that tumult ceased and was no more
heard." Such were the men who harried Mont'
Amiata from end to end, and it was not the
highways only that were insecure because of
them, but the less strongly fortified villages too
— these were sacked and held to ransom, crops
were cut down and cattle driven off. Even
the monks of Abbadia did not escape their
violence. And for this cause in October 1346
the Abbot " in the Consiglio della Campana of
the Commune consigned and gave the Castello
dell' Abbadia," as Andrea Dei reminds us, "to

1 64 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
the Commune of Siena because he was expelled
from his Monastery by the sons of Count Arrigo
of Santa Fiora who held the said Castello."
But desperate as was the condition of Mont'
Amiata during the latter part of the thirteenth
century and the beginning of the fourteenth,
matters gradually improved ; and it might seem
just possible that the subjects of the Counts had
no great reason to envy their neighbours, for it
may well be doubted if the rural population was
in fact any better off under the Communes than
under the feudal lords. Indeed the whole
policy of the Communes towards the country
districts was one of ruthless exploitation for the
benefit of the cities, and inevitably resulted, as
the same policy has done in our own country,
in the depopulation of the former.
The Aldobrandeschi House came to an end
with Count Guido, who died early in the
fifteenth century without male issue. He left
three daughters ; the eldest of these, Donna
Cecilia, married Bosio, son of Muzio Sforza
Attendola da Cotignola, of whom more pres
ently.

XI
SANTA FIORA
A S you come to Santa Fiora to-day from
-**¦ Pian Castagnajo or Arcidosso by the
great winding road which girdles the whole
Mountain, you see it, impregnable as it might
seem, still towering over the valley of the Fiora.
And, indeed, to reach it you must leave the
highway and scramble down a steep, rough
road that enters the Castello at last only
through the courtyard of its Signori, passing, as
you must, under the palace of the Cesarini, the
successors of the Sforza, who in the fifteenth
century entered into the Aldobrandeschi lord
ship. Gazing on the place, on the Rocca itself,
thus, from the head of this violent approach,
little or nothing might seem to be left of the
Aldobrandeschi Rocca save an old tower rising
high above the modern palace — a building of
the Cesarini in the seventeenth century —
dominating everything even yet in a fierce and
165

1 66 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
ruthless gesture of cruelty and scorn. It is
under the turret of this tower, through the iron
gateway of the fortress of its lords, that you
enter or leave Santa Fiora even to-day, so
impregnable is it, and Dante's words are then
never far from your mind —
" Vedrai Santa Fior com' e sicura.''
Once within the walls, having passed under
the gateway where the old guard used to sit,
that devil Giovagnolo among them, you come
into the great Piazza spread out before the
palace, overlooked and dominated by it, its
ironed windows gazing a little cynically, perhaps,
all day long upon that emptiness where all men
passed shyly and with a certain quickening of
the heart. From there the village of Santa
Fiora drops away suddenly down the hillside,
as though in hiding, every byway and street
thence leading downward over the abrupt brow
of the hill. And, indeed, all these downward-
sloping streets, broken continually by flights of
steps, turning suddenly on themselves, afford
many a view of the little place, its ancient
houses and churches, SS. Fiora and Lucilla, S.
Chiara, the suppressed convent of S. Agostino,
where Giovagnolo was buried and so soon dug
up and buried again " in the garden by the river."

ROCCA OF S. FIORA, FROM WITHIN

SANTA FIORA 167
And truly it is to that garden by the river
you find yourself turning at every hour of the
day in Santa Fiora.
Just without the Castello, towards Arcidosso,
but in the valley far under the road, this garden
lies full of shadows and a strange deep silence
only broken by the bubbling of the waters that
flow through the little gates of the fishpond to
the river Fiora herself, "brawling her violent
way to the sea," through a narrow, burnt,
deserted valley that opens before the town.
There, under the trees, are the beautiful fish
ponds, full of trout too, of the Cesarini, the
overgrown byways of what was once a garden,
but is now almost a wood, thick with creepers
and wild-flowers, and pleasant, even on the
hottest day, with the remembrance of rain.
Lying there in the endless summer afternoon,
your thoughts turn again to the story of the
lords of this place, those Aldobrandeschi who
left their honour and fortune at last, perforce, in
the hands of a woman. Her name was Cecilia,
heiress of Santa Fiora, and she married Bosio,
brother of the great Francesco Sforza, and
their son was that Francesco who, at the Court
of Pope Alexander vi., was Orator of Milan.
Thus the Sforza came to Santa Fiora.

1 68 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
Wandering in the late afternoon about the
Castello, I came, in the Church of S. Fiora
herself, upon their Blazon, the Lion rampant,
with the Holy Flower of the Quince for Santa
Fiora, but that shield was quartered with the
arms of the Cesarini, their successors, that
chequered Eagle which hovers there still, even
to this day.
The Cesarini, who succeeded to the Sforza
in this feud in the seventeenth century, were a
Roman House of great wealth and distinction,
claiming Caesarian origin. They were allied
with Pope Alexander vi. by the marriage in
1482 of the Pope's bastard Madonna Giroloma
Borgia with Don Giovandrea Cesarini. The
head of the family at that time was Don
Gabriele Cesarini, GonfalonUre of Rome ; his
heir, Don Giangiorgio Cesarini, was already
allied with the Sforza by marriage with Donna
Maria Sforza di Guido di Santa Fiora.
The Cesarini, however, seem to have left but
little mark upon the place. It is true that the
present Palace is of their time, but the churches
of the place, filled though they be with beauti
ful things, owe them not to the House of
Cesarini, but to Bosio, the first pi the Sforza
counts.

Giovanni della Robbia

Pieve. S. Fiora

FONT
(Alinari)

SANTA FIORA 169
S. Fiora e S. Lucilla, the parish church,
closes a little Piazza on one of the rare spaces
of level ground in the Castello. Here, in this
humble village church, under the shadow of the
Aldobrandeschi tower, Andrea and Giovanni
della Robbia and their pupils have left some
of the delightful work which is the sunshine of
the churches of Italy. And, indeed, what other
village in all Italy is so rich in those beautiful
blue and white terra-cottas ? Under a round
arch, set all with cool leaves and fruit, just
within the door, is the Renaissance font ; and
over, set there by Giovanni, and indeed it is
one of his finest works, the Baptism of Christ
Himself, two Angels waiting eagerly beside
Him, as with folded, delicate hands He stands
in the waters of Jordan, while John Baptist,
clothed in camel's hair, pours the water from a
shell on to his forehead, and, above, the Dove
hovers between the outstretched hands of God
over the Beloved Son.
Half-way down the nave is the pulpit,
covered on three sides with the work of the
della Robbia School : in the midst is the Last
Supper, where Our Lord communicates him
who will betray Him, while S. John sleeps
on His bosom, His arm about him, S. Peter

170 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
looks on, a little puzzled, and S. James,
perhaps, hides his face. Then on the one side
we see the Resurrection, where, between four
watching, adoring Angels, Christ rises from the
tomb, beside which the Roman soldiers (and
these perhaps were portraits) lie sleeping in
the dawn ; and on the other side, Christ ascends
into heaven, while Madonna and the Apostles
look sorrowfully into the sky, whence He
blesses them.
Nor are these beautiful things the only work
of that famous school in the church. Not far
away is the Comunicatorio which Giovanni
made, where God the Father, crowned among
the Cherubim, blesses the consecrated Host,
worshipped by two Angels leaning over the
door of the Tabernacle. Two other altar-
pieces, mere copies — spoiled copies too — of
Andrea's most famous works, stand over two
altars in the aisles. The one, in which we see the
Assumption of Our Lady, while under, in three
little panels, we find Christ among the Doctors,
His Baptism and Deposition from the Cross is,
a replica of Andrea's work at La Verna. Is it
a replica of Andrea's work we see, or only of
the Foiano copy of the La Verna altar-piece
made by his pupils? At least there might

ll ;i

r i

I imAA ^^sASs^^a, *r~K /\/??

f i'l .1 *

SANTA FIORA 171
seem to be but little of Andrea's own design
left in this adaptation, and though the principal
figures certainly seem to be the work of
Giovanni della Robbia, and, as has been pointed
out, his influence is felt at least in the innova
tion of statuettes in the pilasters and crowded
predella scenes, most of the execution is not
exquisite enough to be from his hand, and
must be called school work.
It is again a copy of Andrea's work we see
in the altar-piece in three parts of the Corona
tion of Our Lady, with S. Francis receiving
the Stigmata on one side, and S. Jerome in
the wilderness on the other ; while under are
the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Shep
herds, and the Adoration of the Magi. The
entire work is indeed a copy of Andrea's
beautiful work at S. Maria degli Angeli at
Assisi, but the altar here was broader, and
each scene was therefore made larger to fit it ;
the result is rather a failure, for the focus has
been lost, and the whole composition suffers
from a certain flatness and want of proportion,
especially in the predella scenes.
One wanders from the convent of S. Chiara,
founded in 1600 by the Countess Eleanora,
daughter of Giovanni Orsini and wife of Count

172 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
Alessandro Sforza, Duke of Segni, where the
Counts Sforza-Cesarini lie buried, to S.
Agostino where Giovagnolo was buried, and
where that tumult of devils caused his dis
interment ; and then, if one has time, it is
delightful to pass by that stony way beside the
Fiora in the valley to the Convent of S. Trinita
on Monte Calvo, the convent in the wood — la
Selva as they call the place — some three miles
from Santa Fiora.
Indeed, you may drive perhaps half the way,
but not many pass by, and the torrents of
winter and spring, brawling down the northern
slope of Monte Calvo into the Fiora, have made
the road, strewn with their stones and refuse,
impassable by any wheeled traffic, and it is
only after a somewhat rough but very beautiful
walk, passing at first through the rocky valley,
and then climbing slowly the steep way to the
wood on the hillside to the convent in the
wood, that you may reach that lovely hidden
place, so quiet and cool under the trees.
It was evening as I returned on my mule from
a long day in the mountains, that passing in
the twilight along that stony road, a little fear
ful in my heart, perhaps, of " what men might
do to me," that in a moment, between two

I'ier-e, S. Fiora

THE RESURRECTION. DETAIL OF PULPIT
(Jlinari)

SANTA FIORA 173
heart beats, I heard those soft bells suddenly
ringing the Angelus. For many days I could
not forget the sound, till one hot afternoon it
seemed to me that I must seek out that place,
hidden among trees on the hillside, and yet so
full of reassurance to those who pass by.
The sun lay on the world like a precious
burden, the way was difficult, without the
shade of trees or any respite from the heat.
And, indeed, as I entered the woods at last
and flung myself on the ground under the
chestnuts, even I, who have loved the sun
above all other things which God has made,
was beaten at last, and in my head there shone
a blood-red vision as of the Host in a mon
strance of gold, before which I reeled in a kind
of exhausted ecstasy. When at last I came to
myself I found, not far away, a little fountain
of water. And when I had bathed my head,
I took heart, and in a little came suddenly
upon the convent, in a glade of the forest, still
and silent in the long afternoon. Entering
into the church, whose door, shrouded by a
heavy curtain, stood open to the traveller, in the
coolness and the silence I refreshed myself, and
presently, stealing alone about the place, I
came upon the portrait in relief on the northern

174 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
pillar of the chancel arch of Don Bosio Sforza,
founder of this place, as it seemed, carved there
perhaps by one of the della Robbia. Under
the portrait I read as follows : —
Guido Sfortia Bossii F.
Sfortiadum dynastia
Comes II. S. Florae
A Nobilissima Matre
Cascilia Aldobrandesca
Regionis Dominationem Acceptam
Sapienta Rexit
Bellica virtute Defendit
Monumentum pietatis Reliquit
Templum Hoc
Coenobumq. instituendo
Ditando quo condi
Jussit A. MDVIII.
Yes, I knew, the line of the great Francesco
Sforza, Duke of Milan, was extinct. The
present House of Sforza-Cesarini descended
from Don Bosio Sforza, Count of Santa Fiora
from 1 44 1 to 1476, brother of the great
Francesco, and second son of Don Giovanni
Muzio Attendolo detto Sforza. This was the
man. Just then a footstep, so soft one might
only just hear it, even in the silence, whispered
on the threshold, and a little Friar came smiling
toward me, and seeing me engaged in looking
on the presentment of the Founder, stood
silent a moment. Then he said, " Will the

Delia Robbia Pirn; s- F'"'a
THE ASCENSION. DETAIL OF PULPIT
(Alinari)

SANTA FIORA 175
Signore, hear other things concerning that great
Well, the Signore was willing.
Then he led me to an altar in the south aisle,
and not without a genuflection drew aside the
curtain, and there I saw, in a mandorla of
Cherubim, Our Lord hanging on the Cross
between the sorrowful arms of God the Father,
who, crowned with a triple crown, the Dove
trembling in His bosom, held up tenderly the
Sign of our Salvation, the Light of those who
sit in darkness, the splendour of kings, the
buckler impregnable, the safeguard of child
hood, the strength of manhood, the last hope of
the aged. And suddenly I felt on my shoulder
the gentle hand of the Frate, and looking in
his face I too knelt in silence there before
the Salvation of the World. And later, a little
shyly I thought, Fra Giovanni, for that was his
name, led me into the sacristy, " A little poor
place," he said, "such as we love." And by
and by from a cupboard he drew forth the
great relic of the convent, of which indeed I
had heard, so famous is it, the skull of a Dragon
slain in Maremma by Count Guido in 1499.
Holding it delicately in his fingers, and turning
it about and about as though a little embar-

176 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
rassed by a thing at once so precious and so
hideous, he bade me read the inscription —
Guido dei Duchi Sforza Conte di S. Fiora
Nell' anno 1499 andando a caccia pre il bosco
Di questo Convento da lui fondato otto anni innanzi
I conontrossi con un orrendo mostro che uccise
Dopo preghiere innalzute alia SS. Trinita
In memoria del fatto lascio qui questa mezza testa
Mandando 1' altra meta alia SS. Trinita de' Monte in Roma.
When I had finished I looked up; and
Frate Giovanni smiled at me like a child, his
eyes dancing, and turning the skull about again
at arm's length, he said, " Truly, Signore, and
I confess it at once, it seems to be the skull of
an ass, but Chi lo sa ! There were dragons
perhaps, in those days, and it is so long ago,
e tanti anni fa."
"Certainly," said I, "there were Dragons,
and men have killed them ; and because they
have killed them all, we go so proud and say
they never were. This is a veritable thing,
and will explain much."
"Signore," he said, "you believe it! But
you cannot be of the English nation to believe
such a thing ! Signore, you are a Christian ! ! "
" In England," said I, "it is as certain there
were once Dragons as that there were once
Saints. But now neither Saints nor Dragons

Delia Robbia S. Trinita, near S. Fior.-,
THE HOLY TRINITY, IN THE CONVENT IN THE WOOD
(Alinari)

SANTA FIORA 177
bother us any more, we have equally killed
them both ; believe me in this, I was there no
longer ago than last year."
"And I was here on the mountains. . . ."
It was already evening when I left him at
the gate on the verge of the woods, looking
towards Santa Fiora. He gave me wine and
food in the garden, he told me wonderful
things of the Mountain, he gave me a relic,
too, to go with me always, infallible and holy,
and I loved him. All the way home, under
the stars on that dark and dangerous way, I
asked myself why I loved him, but it was
hidden from me. Even now I cannot tell.
Was it because he believed in impossible
things, even as I do ? — only for him the
tyranny we call reality had never existed, his
home, as he had told me, was in the silence
" on the mountains," and mine — ah ! why ? — in
the mean noise of London.
When I came to the gate it was fast shut,
and I had to knock for admittance.

12

ARCIDOSSO 179
some passer-by seeing you gazing at that
strange outline will tell you softly, looking
round lest he should be overheard : " Signore,
it is the Nova Sion of il Santo, whom the
carabinieri shot." And if you explain you are
a stranger, and demand of him what Saint
this may be, he will answer you again, even a
little suspiciously, "II Santo, Signore, il Santo
David of Arcidosso," and pass on, leaving you
puzzled. It was a little child who explained to me the
mystery, as I stood weary at midday on the
verge of the woods, half-way on my road from
Santa Fiora to Arcidosso. Half shyly she
came towards me, and then as I offered her
some of my lunch she ran up and took my
hand confidently, and later, looking towards
the Mountain, she said suddenly, "It is the
new-broken tomb of our Gesu Cristo whom
they killed again." And speaking of this, hand
in hand, we came into Arcidosso.
Yes, for this cause the history of the place
wearied me, I was thinking of David Lazzaretti,
called II Santo, whom some indeed believed
to be "our Gesu Cristo." Repetti spoke of
Arcidosso as a feud of the Aldobrandeschi,
traced its story till it fell, in 1331, under the

180 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
dominion of Siena, declared that the monks of
Abbadia S. Salvatore had the spiritual direction
of the place, and cited an instance in 1249
when the Chancellor of the Comunith appeared
before the Imperial Vicar to answer a suit of
the Monastery of S. Salvatore for that
Arcidosso had established a market to the
prejudice of the Abbey. What was all that to
me! Here in Arcidosso was a child who
had seen the "new-broken tomb of our Gesu
Cristo " ; what was all the history in the world
beside that ?
Not without impatience I visited the
churches of the place, S. Niccolo, S. Leonardo,
S. Andrea. I traced the terzieri of the village ;
I found out the Castello, the Borgo Talassese,
the Codaccio or Borgo Pianese ; I climbed up
to the ruined Rocca, now a prison ; I wandered
out to the shrine of Madonna delle Grazie, with
its miracle pictures and banners, where the two
confraternities of S. Rocco and SS. Rosario
meet, and where the great fountain, known of
old, sings all through the summer days. The
church, they told me, was built after the great
pestilence of 1 348, when suddenly a little child
led the people to the place, then in the midst
of a wood, and there they built a temple to the

THE FALLS, ARCIDOSSO

ARCIDOSSO 1 8 1
Beata Vergine, — but indeed I scarcely heeded
what they said, for my heart was set on the
strange mountain.
It was dawn when I set out, quite alone,
even asking my way to leave the village.
Down these winding, narrow, dirty streets I
went into the grand and solemn country, till
where the road ceased I found myself on the
tawny, arid flank of Monte Labbro, alone with
the sun.

XIII
THE NEW MESSIAH
HTO regard men, their dreams and actions
-*- also, as formed and created by the great
impersonal life and beauty which surround
them, helps us after all but little to explain
the force, evil or lovely, to which it is said
they (were thus subject, and which in them
seems to find its most precise expression. If
indeed we are but the voices of the hills, the
plains, the streams, the forests, and the sea,
we remain for ever as great a mystery as
they. We cannot understand their language,
nor in any way speak with them ; only in us
sometimes they seem to be articulate, or on
some fortunate day as we look on them,
always in an unexpected hour, there will rise
in our hearts a peculiar joy, and for a moment
every gesture of the hills seems to communicate
to us some passionate and moving impulse,
gone while we try to apprehend it, whose

DAVID LAZZARETTI
THE MESSIAH OF MONT* AMIATA

THE NEW MESSIAH 183
ghost, as it were, lingers in our hearts for
days, whispering to us ever more faintly
something we shall never overhear, that we
shall never remember or understand.
It was the sun that began S. Francis's
song, that dazzles us with light ; it is of the
valleys and the mountains that Jacopone sings ;
while, looking on the autumn fields, Alberti
says he wept, he knew not why. In England
perhaps it is the grave, persistent voice of the
sea that speaks in our hearts most often ; but
in Italy it is eternally the dim, sweet valleys,
the passionate hills that seem to speak to us
continually of eager and simple things, those
things which have created Europe, and forged
out of the dream of a poet the religion of the
modern world. And if Italy could of old
cast her spell upon barbarian emperors, and
with her mystery and beauty draw all men
to her, here in Mont' Amiata, looking across
the Patrimony and over Maremma to the
sea, men have never been altogether deaf to the
voices of a country which, beyond any other part
of Tuscany, is full of strangeness, beauty, and
silence, the gesture of the mountains so passion
ate and full of meaning, the plain so infinite and
solitary. And then, not far away, is Latium.

1 84 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
It was here in this grave and solemn country,
where the purple shadow of Maremma lies
between the mountains and the sea, where the
hills themselves are broken into fantastic
shapes by the primeval forces of the earth,
where forever the woods whisper enigmatic
ally and sob and cry out, or are strangely
silent all the winter long, that David Lazzaretti
was born, in Arcidosso ; curiously enough — we
may be sure it was not without its significance
for him — on All Saints Day 1834. He came
of very humble folk, people * who were
among that basso popolo which is nearest to
the earth ; and his father, like his grandfather
before him, followed the trade of a butcher.
There in his father's house in the village of
Arcidosso he learned to read and write, and
while he was still very young he began to
compose poetry, and in that simple place early
became the admiration of his friends, who saw
still in just that something wonderful and
miraculous, and told him so. Is it just there
his later dreams of apostleship, his claim to
prophecy, at last his usurpation of the name
of Jesus, lie hid ? Ah, who can tell ? He was
the New Messiah ! But yesterday on the lips
of a little child I heard his name : she called

THE NEW MESSIAH 185
him Nostro Gesu. Who may divide the
false from the true? David Lazzaretti came
among the peasants and did them good. He
came to his own and they received him. He
laid down his life for something. Was it
only for David Lazzaretti? I'll not believe
it. I have read his life as written by a hostile
and scornful priest ; I have read the scientific
and obscure explanation of Signor Barzellotti,
a native of Pian Castagnajo ; and full of
information as both these little books are, they
seem to me to lack humanity : for the one
is content to know that he was excommunicated
as was Galileo, while the other finds a mere
egoist ready not only to labour for the poor,
but to die willingly at the hands of ignorant
men and of fools. No ; as it seems to me,
whether David seems to us inspired or no,
absurd or no, this at least we have no right to
take from him, the honour of his sincerity. He
died for the abused poor, those contadini who
even to-day are too often the mere slaves of
the Padrone, and who in Tuscany, at any rate,
are the salt of the earth, in whom one day we
shall find the salvation of Italy.
David has had many predecessors. Without
returning so far through the centuries as to

1 86 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
come upon the Saint of Assisi and his followers,
or even to Bartolommeo Carosi, called Brandano
the inspired Sienese, who is now but a name
in the language, as is said to-day in Tuscany
of those who prophesy evils sono le profizie di
Brandano, there was in our own days, too,
Simplicio of Sulmona, there was Oreste di
Cappelle, who read the future from the face
of the rising sun, who wandered through the
world, and, returning, passed seven years in
the cemetery of his native village in the
company of skeletons, wearing a hair-shirt
and scourging himself night and day. He
too drew tears and groans from all who heard
him, and at last, going on pilgrimage, visited
all the shrines in Italy, remaining for thirty
days on Monte di Ancona, for twelve days on
Monte di S. Bernardo, and climbed the highest
summits, bareheaded, in the snow. He too
fled 'away, going to Corsica, and there God
revealed to him his Apostolate, so that on
returning he went again through all Italy, and
wrote with his blood the name of the Virgin on
the gates of every city. And at last by the
inspiration ofthe Eternal Father he assumed the
name of the New Messiah. So he went through
the fields in a blue robe, bareheaded in the

THE NEW MESSIAH 187
sun, and in his hand he bore a great staff of
chestnut wood, and there followed after him
Pantaleone Donaddio who was S. Matthew,
Antonio Secamiglio who was S. Peter, while
in Maria Clara was revived the spirit of
S. Elizabeth, in Vincenzio di Giambattista
was found S. Michael the Archangel. Thus
he went over the hills, followed by the apostles
and the three Maries. And it seems to me
David Lazzaretti was his brother ; only while
Oreste was an Abbruzzese David was a
Tuscan — a Tuscan from the province of
Grosseto, on the verge of Maremma, on the
confines of Umbria and the Patrimony. And
even as Oreste had heard a voice and seen a
vision at a turning of the way amid the shining
flax, so David in the woods or in the byways
of the mountains was transfigured, invested
with a new and pure spirit, so that his
friends (who believed in him), his family
(who followed him), found in him another that
they knew not, and ever after remained among
his most devoted disciples.
For it was not always so. When David
Lazzaretti came to manhood he followed the
trade of a barrocciaio, well known through all
the Mountain for his physical strength and his

1 88 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
blasphemy. He himself speaks of his evil life,
not, I think, with regret, but as some strange
ness, some disease that had passed from him.
He was a poet ; from day to day he dreamed
dreams, he came under the influence even in
that far place of the political dreams of Young
Italy. He fell in love ; at twenty years of age
he married Carolina Minuccia of Arcidosso, by
whom he had a son and a daughter, witnesses
of his pitiful end.
He was thirteen when he first heard those
voices which later became so insistent ; but
then he did not heed them. The continual
need to work, the physical toil imposed on him
by his trade, the journeys he made round about
the Mountain, for long saved him from a
tendency to mystic raptures that he seems to
have been born with, that was certainly in his
family ; for though his biographers speak little
of his mother, I have seen her and spoken with
her, and she too, it seemed to me, might well
have been aware if she would of the voices of
Earth. However that may be, David exercised
his trade till he was thirty-five years old, and
then suddenly in 1869 his voices, insistent for
once, bade him go to Rome, which he did,
taking with him the terra gialla of the

THE NEW MESSIAH 189
Mountain, from a trade in which so many of
the inhabitants get their living.
He had always been eager to talk of his
"vocation," and in the account which he
published concerning it he speaks very
definitely of "an unknown and mysterious
person " who it seems had appeared to him as
early as 1848, telling, as he says, what later
came to pass, but enjoining him not to speak
of it at all. It was the same " mysterious
person," appearing to him in a vision, that in
1869 bade him go to Rome and tell to the
Pope only what had been revealed to him.
"Awaking," he says, "I was a new man. A
mysterious power had taken hold of all my
senses and intellect, and yet my will and reason
were free and had all their normal power."
In Rome he seems to have obtained a brief
interview with Pius ix., sending him, through
Cardinal Panebianco, a " Memoir " of all that
had befallen him. But almost in the same
night a new vision came to him, in obedience
to which, instead of returning home, he retired
to the Sabine mountains, to " a barren, dry,
obscure place under a lofty rock, where was
hidden the cave of Beato Amadeo." Here he
lived for a long time with a certain Ignazio

*9o IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
Micus, a Prussian, who had dwelt for fifteen
years in the Hermitage of Santa Barbara hard
by. It was with this hermit he returned to
Arcidosso. For so " extraordinary " were the
things which befell him in that lonely place,
that he could no longer delay the beginning of
his "mission." What these "extraordinary"
things were we know from his followers, who
have left more than one written account of what
he told them, " full," as Signor Barzellotti says,
"of the ingenuous spirit of the fourteenth
century." It seems that after he had been for
some days doing penance in the cave of Beato
Amadeo, there appeared to him in a vision a
warrior fully armed, who begged of him, per
amor di Dio, to dig in that place where he
knelt, for there, the Shade told him, he would
find his bones, which he implored him to bury
in holy ground. That David said he did. A
report of this affair seems to have got abroad,
for the Arciprete of Montorio Romano — a
peasant too, one may suppose — said he helped
him, so that people soon began to hasten to see
the " Man of God."
Then another vision came to David, in
which he saw and spoke not only with the
Warrior, but with Madonna Herself, S. Peter

THE NEW MESSIAH 191
too, and S. Michael Archangel, and the Friar,
that "mysterious person" who had already
appeared to him more than once, and whom
one may suspect to have been S. Francis,
since later David expressed so great a love for
the Poverello of Assisi. In the " conferenza," as
he himself calls it, which followed, the Warrior
confessed that he was an ancestor of his, a
certain Lazzaro Pallavisimo, a Milanese who
had been a penitent for forty-five years in that
place, where at last he had been buried. At
Rome, he said, at the Court of Leo x., he had
fallen in love with the daughter of the Count of
Pitigliano, had, by her suggestion, killed her
father, and had had by her a son. Then while
fighting for the Church against a king of
France, having been taken prisoner, the king
himself had granted him his life on finding in
him his own illegitimate son. This strange
story came to an end with " prophecies " and
"strange revelations," and the "miraculous
mission " of David had been sealed by S.
Peter himself with the sign 0 + C, which from
that time remained ever in his forehead.
Whatever we may make of such a tale as
that, David himself was found stretched on the
earth, suffering from a kind of fit and, as it

1 92 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
seemed, at the point of death. He recovered,
however, and returned with Ignazio into
Tuscany. At Passo Corese, a lonely place
enough, the " Friar " appeared to him, bidding
him return to the cave in the Monte Sabina.
More swiftly than any thought he found
himself there in the very cave which he had
walled up before departing, and indeed he
knew not how he came there. Next day
Ignazio came to the place and called David
many times by name ; and at last he was able
to answer from within where he lay, and tell
him as well as he could what had befallen.
Then Ignazio made a small opening in the wall
to let a little light into the cavern, but David,
according to one of his followers, quoted by
Signor Barzellotti, "remained for forty-seven
days in that cavern to fulfil the will of God."
One night a great storm rose, and seven times
the thunder rolled among the hills, the light
ning illuminating the whole place. At the
seventh thunder-clap David saw near to him
a great furnace suddenly ablaze, and a voice
thrice bade him cast himself into the midst of
it. For a time he hesitated, but at last,
plucking up heart, he flung himself into the
flames, which wrapped him round, and in a

ON MONTE LABBRO

THE NEW MESSIAH 193
flash of light he saw "everything in God."
From that time David had the gift of prophecy.
When he returned with Ignazio to Mont'
Amiata the fame of these visions had already
gone before him. He returned home a changed
man ; his very countenance seems to have
gathered and retained a certain light from
those flames into which he had plunged, and he
astonished all who came to him with the story
of his visions. And it is said that many left
him at last, their hearts changed by the Spirit
of God which shone in him. He read their
hearts, and before they opened their lips told
them what they would say. And they called
him the Man of Mystery. It was, however,
the marks set in his forehead that astonished
the people most. Signor Barzellotti, a native
of the Mountain, alludes to the report that
David was born with two tongues, and tells us
that Dr. Terni of Santa Fiora examined his
body after death, and found in many places
circles and signs burnt in with an iron, while
the sign 0 + C on the forehead was, he
assures us, "evidently tattooed." However
that may be, it was this mark which most
profoundly influenced those who became his
first followers, a great number of whom
J3

194 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
followed him to the lonely, bare height of Monte
Labbro, which rises some five miles to the
south-east of Arcidosso ; and there, under his
direction, they began to build a tower on the
summit of the Mountain.
It was in making the foundations for that
stronghold, it seems, that David found the
Grotto which to-day opens out of it under the
ruins. Did he know of that secret cave already,
or was it just a fortunate circumstance such as
often befalls such men as David? Certainly
he put that strange and almost terrible place,
the work of prehistoric man, to good use. For
it was there he gathered the peasants together
to pray day and night. And it was over this
cave, where of old man, just roused from the
brute, hid himself to worship God, that David
built his Tower, of great stones without mortar
or cement. All, without distinction of age or
sex, helped him ; men and women, boys and
girls, abandoning their labour, went to build this
Tower, which, rude as it was and exposed to
the winds, soon in part fell down. But far
from losing courage, his ideas grew within him,
till one day he determined to build near the
Tower a convent and a church, which together
he thought would cost some forty thousand lire.

THE NEW MESSIAH 195
How he got together such a sum remains a
mystery. Perhaps some rich man helped him,
for David ever seems to have had in the back
ground friends both powerful and wealthy,
ready to assist him as far as they might.
Those were the days of the great political
movement which brought United Italy into
being, and on both sides in that struggle there
were those who disdained no means of influenc
ing the minds of men on behalf of the cause
they had at heart. Yet it might seem that it
was rather those peasants who had believed in
him and had followed him to Monte Labbro who
helped him most. For at this time he founded
the Santa Lega or Fratellanza Cristiana, and,
more important still, the Societa delle Famiglie
Cristiane. The latter was a lay community
which possessed everything in common, the
products of the common work, the means of
life and livelihood. They began by putting
together their fields, their oxen and their crops,
for a great number of them were small contadini
possidenti, and like all their class, the most
conservative force in Italy, profoundly hostile
to any novelty, social or political. But David
had come at a time when the ground was ready
for him. He was not without a sort of culture,

196 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
and he knew how to treat the people simply ;
his great strength lay, perhaps, in the fact that
his culture, such as it was, was not beyond,
was not out of touch with, the minds of the
peasants round him. He was able to under
stand and to enter into their thoughts and
desires, and by his genius to give them life
and reality. Certainly his visions and raptures,
the voices he heard, the gift of prophecy, were
no new things. The Maremmese knew them
well, for they are still, even to-day, full of
occult notions, ideas tinged with the far-away,
dim thoughts of the Etruscans ; they can receive
and appreciate hints, as it were, from Nature,
of the past, of the future, and find in their
dim communings, in the shapes of rocks or of
trees, in the flight of a bird, the aspect of the
sky, marvellous revelations through which they
often touch reality, finding perhaps in an
appearance the image of that other which we
have chosen, how arbitrarily, to regard as the
only matter of fact. Even the clericals helped
and liked him ; some strange, profound charm
lay in the awakened soul of the sometime
barrocciaio, who had, as it were, by means of
the poetry of his nature, found salvation.
And since his great strength seems thus to

THE NEW MESSIAH 197
have lain in his temperament and in the
limitations of his intelligence, it does not
surprise us to find that that Society of Chris
tian families which had built the convent and
church was a failure, that before long it was
grievously in debt, and that many were
angered and disgusted. David's love knew
not reason. He received every one into that
fold, and left the practical management of
affairs in the hands of others less honest, it
may be, than himself ; he was absorbed in his
thoughts about God. At a certain hour in the
evening, Barzellotti tells us, after the Rosary
had been said, the women, of whom there were
many at the Tower, went to bed, the men,
however, remained with David, who either
read or spoke to them. At midnight they
went into the church or into the cave under
the Tower, and said Matins and other prayers,
then followed a reading and a meditation, till
five o'clock, when, having heard Mass, they
went to work. " Often," says one who was
present, — "often the day broke and it seemed
as though not an hour had passed, though
we had stood all night to hear him, hardly
breathing ; and in the morning we went down
the hillside by different ways to work again,

198 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
as fresh as though we had slept all night
long." David himself seems to have worked with
his people till they protested, and his friends
begged that they might do his share of the
field work. He consented at last, but for one
day's work only, and one hundred and eighty
men and women crowded to help him. And
on that occasion, it was the 12th April 1869,
David made one of his best published speeches.
He called himself a "mysterious being," and
said that one day the mystery that was in him,
and also in themselves, would be revealed clearly
to all, but that meanwhile it was necessary that
each should feel in the depths of his own heart
a new birth, a "mysterious renewing." "With
all my heart," he continued, " I long to hear
every Italian tongue cry, Ewiva Iddio, Evviva
Cristo, Evviva Maria, Evviva la Chiesa
Romana. There are those who hear me and
will take me for a partisan of the priests. Ah,
it is not so. If you should think so, you are
mistaken. In truth I am a partisan of none,
but of God only. I speak only what He
whispers, I am the mouthpiece of God." He
goes on to tell of his submission to God's Will,
of his love for Mont' Amiata and for his friends.

THE NEW MESSIAH 199
Later he breaks out suddenly with fierce in
vectives against the Protestants, and enters into
theological subtleties in which he loses himself.
And for this Barzellotti thinks him the mouth
piece of some over-zealous priest.
Yet while the Society lasted it was not
without a certain usefulness. Its high aspira
tions were not altogether wasted. It aimed
not only at the improvement of agriculture, but
at the instruction of the members and their
children ; it maintained a schoolmaster and a
schoolmistress on Monte Labbro for several
years, and, indeed, as Signor Barzellotti tells
us, both were in the procession on the day of
David's death. It failed, and an action at law
followed. David was sentenced to two years
imprisonment, being accused, and convicted, of
dishonesty ; and though he appealed to the
Court of Perugia and was acquitted, he seems
to have thought it better to leave the Mountain
for a time.
From 1869 to 1873 David had remained,
save for a few days' absence, in the Hermitage
of Monte Labbro. He had long declared to
his disciples that he would be called by God
to go to distant lands, for there, said he, the
accomplishment of his " mission " would be

200 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
prepared. Indeed the constant expectation
of his departure strengthened his authority.
A short absence in 1870, which he spent in
the island of Monte Cristo, where again he
suffered many visions, had certainly encouraged
him in the belief that an occasional absence
was not unfriendly to his power. On the
night of January 5, 1870, he had gathered
his most trusted followers together in the
Hermitage on Monte Labbro and had there
eaten with them. He sat in their midst, clad
in a purple robe, and to each he gave a portion
of bread, of a lamb, of wine. It was a
strange supper ; even the prophecy touching
the treachery of some of his disciples was not
wanting, and he told of the great things that
would befall in Arcidosso. " Return to the
bosom of your families bearing with you peace
and salvation ; set example of virtue not only
to those of your own home, but to all who seek
you in order to hear of me. Consider your
selves fortunate and happy if you are despised
by those who do not love virtue. Be content
and tranquil if you are in trouble or in poverty.
Think not of the world, but of the purity of the
soul. Prize suffering ; keep aloof from idleness ;
at the day's end offer up your labour to God, and

THE NEW MESSIAH 201
He in Heaven will bless you." His absence
was short. At the news of his return thousands
hastened to await him from all parts of the
Mountain. Anxious crowds thronged the bare
sides of Monte Labbro. And as he was seen
at last on horseback climbing through the low
scrub of the forest, a great murmur of joy, that
at last became a cry, rose from the people.
And he came into their midst, greeting them
all by name, and was lifted from his horse by
a hundred arms gently on to the ground. He
knelt down and gave thanks to God. Then
turning to the people he began to speak.
" God sees us, God judges us, God condemns
us," he announced. He spoke slowly, syllable
by syllable, almost chanting his words. He
breaks almost into song —
"Chi son i Re del Mondo? Non son caduca
polvere? O regi inorridite, presta e la man che
fulmina a subissare al suoi le vostre inique cattedre
di falsi adulator . . . un sol sark il Re." 1
That was the year of the taking of Rome.
Who knows what echoes of tremendous events
about to befall Europe from the cunning power
1 "Who are the kings of the world ? Are they not falling to
dust? O horror-stricken kings, swift is the hand that descends
as the lightning to smite to the earth your iniquitous seats of
false flatterers. . . . There shall be one only king."

202 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
of Bismarck may be found in David's speeches.
His love for France was not less than his love
for Italy. But it was of the latter he was
thinking when he prophesied that the future
liberator of the world would be an Italian who
would unite himself to the Church, yielding
kingly authority and dignity to the Pope and
governing with him. Just there we seem to
have the dream of a Catholic and a patriot,
his vision, alas ! so unreal, of Victor Emmanuel
the Switzer king. But it is a greater and
more splendid thing he sees when he tells us
of the future unity of all the Latin peoples
with Greece. And may there not have been
some profound Latin instinct expressed in the
vision in which the " Friar " says to him : " Let
us go to Latium, the land of the great men " ?
Ah, even the peasants in this soil cannot
forget the greatness of Rome.
But it was in 1873, after the close of the
Prussian War, after the grotesque taking of
Rome amid the howling of the populace, the
greed and destruction of the barbarians of Cis-
Alpine Gaul that David set out for France.
Not for long, for in a few months he was back
again; only to return again in 1875 to Lyons,
where he seems to have remained with his

THE NEW MESSIAH 203
family till 1876. What caused him to leave
Italy so often ? Was he truly called of God,
as he said ; or were those accusations brought
against him by those who thought him personally
responsible for their losses, in the failure of the
Societa, the real cause of his continued journey
ing to and fro ? In France, it is true, he found
friends and benefactors both among the clergy
and the laity who encouraged him in his
" Apostoato," among others a certain Leon du
Vachat, who is said by Barzellotti to have lent
him eight thousand francs, and kept both him
and his family in his house, paying their
expenses at Lyons and elsewhere. And it is
to him we owe, perhaps, the publication of
David's writings.
At the end of 1876, when he returned to
Monte Labbro, which from this time he called
Monte Labaro, the Holy Ensign, where was
to be built that new Sion which would be one
of the Seven Eternal Cities to rise in Mont'
Amiata, a certain change may be discerned in
his doctrine. At first some of the clergy of
Arcidosso, as I have said, supported him, partly
perhaps on account'of his miraculous conversion,
which, as they thought, was bound to edify true
believers. It was the Bishop of Montalcino

204 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
who had consecrated the church in Monte
Labbro, served by two ex-frati of the Order of
S. Philip Neri, who had become his disciples.
It was the publication of his book My Striving
with God, "La Mia Lotta con Dio," that first
seems to have roused ecclesiastical suspicion
against him. Perceiving this, and altogether
distressed by it, in November 1877 he went to
Rome and, as many have done before and
since, got no hearing. Indeed, the one thing
that really seems to frighten and paralyse the
government of the Church is a book. It was
the same in the sixteenth century as to-day ;
the invention of printing is the one real blow
the world has been able to deal at Catholicism.
While David was in Rome, the Bishops of
Montalcino and Montefiascone suspended the
two ex-frati, Padre Polverini and Padre Im-
peruzzi, a divinis, and the chapel of Monte
Labbro was laid under an interdict. It was
the eve of the death of Pius ix. and of Victor
Emmanuel, and with these events, apparently of
so much importance for Italy, David announced
the Era of the Law of Right, the Reign of the
Holy Spirit. He made submission to Leo xiii.,
and persuaded Padre Imperuzzi to do the same ;
Padre Polverini, however, refused to give in.

THE NEW MESSIAH 205
Again he went to France, and even to London,
and on his return we may again perceive an
advance in his teaching. It is no longer Evviva
la Chiesa Romana he cries, but Viva la Re-
pubblica, ch'e il regno di Dio ; writing indeed
those hymns for that state established certainly
in his heart, in all noble hearts perhaps, to
which he had won so hardly. Was there some
thing not quite sane in his dreams ? It is
difficult to say. Yet in his last work, the Simbolo
della Nuova Riforma dello Spirito Santo in
24 Articoli, something exaggerated, something
like a cry of despair, as though he already saw
himself forced to give in or to fulfil the dreams
of the peasantry, is heard ; and the last article
declares : " We conclude firmly that our Master,
David Lazzaretti, the anointed of the Lord,
judged and condemned by the Roman Curia, is
actually Christ, the Leader and Judge, in the
true and lively figure of the second coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ into the world. ..."
Thus began, as he himself said, the fifth Act of
his Tragedy.
David returned to Italy for the last time in
June 1878. On August 14, the Vigil of the
Assumption — Our Lady of the Harvest — an
enormous crowd of his followers gathered on

206 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
Monte Labbro to descend with him, as he had
promised them, on the next day to Arcidosso,
into that new kingdom where, so he had seemed
to say, they would have a larger share of their
crops and harvests than their masters them
selves. That night there were no bonfires on
the Mountain or in Maremma ; Madonna was
forgotten, the Kingdom was at hand. The
authorities, realising too late that there might
well be danger in the excitement and greed of
such a multitude, hastily sent for carabinieri,
increasing the force in Arcidosso from the usual
two or three to eight or nine. Yet it was
chiefly the priests who were his enemies. The
Prefect of Grosseto was his friend, forced at last
to betray him.
On the night of the Vigil David watched
alone on Monte Labbro, and coming at length
to the crowd, so great that all the side of the
Mountain seemed to be alive with men, women,
and children, he bade them to say the Rosary
with him. Then he invited them into the
church. There, in a profound silence, every
eye fixed upon him, he spoke at last of his
descent of the Mountain. Then he told them
to return to their homes, and going himself into
the Hermitage, followed by his disciples, he made

THE NEW MESSIAH 207
them put on the symbolic dresses of his
Company, which he had brought from Turin.
Then he saw before him the mysterious people
of his dreams, the personages of his visions,
the Legions he had awaited in his heart. And
with them he returned to the church.
It was again in procession, a few days later,
in the dawn of August 18, after a night spent
in prayer and fasting that he set out for
Arcidosso. In that strange company were
seven " legionary Princes," chosen to command
the Milizie crocifere dello Spirito Santo. They
were clothed like the " seven great personages "
that David had seen in his vision in the Sabine
hills. They wore over a fantastic, close-fitting
dress of grey and red a blue mantle lined with
scarlet. And David himself was dressed as
they were, save that instead of a scarlet hat
with hanging point and a yellow stripe he wore
a blue head-dress with three tall, drooping
feathers, one of green, one of yellow, one of
blue, and before a silver dove with an olive
branch in its beak. There followed the twelve
Apostles and the Disciples, and the former wore
blue mantles but the latter red. Then came
the Hermit Priests, who represented a new
religious Congregation ; they too wore a blue

208 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
mantle, and carried in their hands a yellow
crozier. The women were not less numerous,
not less fantastically clothed. First came the
Matrons and Sisters of Charity, the former in
red mantles, the latter in blue ; then followed
the Maidens, and after them the Daughters of
the Canticles, all robed in white with wreaths of
roses on their heads, and among them was
Bianchina, David's little daughter. High
above the heads of this procession, which, after
the band, was headed by the children, numerous
flags were seen, the white and blue banners of
Our Lady of Victory borne by the Maidens,
the white banners of Christ, the yellow ensign
of the Levites, the red of the Soldiers of the
Holy Militia, the three flags of the Italian,
French, and Spanish legions. Then they set
out in the dawn singing David's hymns.
Thrice, Barzellotti tells us, they wound
round the Mountain while the sun rose slowly
over that strange, barren world, glistening on
the shouting waters of the little Fiora, shining
at last on the far-away sea. Some doubtless on
the way turned over and over in their minds
those words in the Book of the Heavenly
Flowers where the Prophet describes the
descent of the New Moses from the Mountain.

THE NEW MESSIAH 209
" This," he had said, pointing to his red mantle,
— " this is a token of blood, the blood of the
new Abel, which before long will be shed and
mingled with That Which is in the Chalice."
The first part of the procession had already
begun to move when a messenger came in,
panting, from Arcidosso. It was David's
brother Pasquale, he bade him " for Heaven's
sake not to come down, for in the village were
those who were waiting to shoot him and his
flock." Was it too late to return ? Did he
even wish to return ? Who knows ? At
least he answered in a clear and ringing voice,
so that all might hear, that he wished harm to
no one, that he feared nothing. Then in
God's name he bade them follow him, doubting
nothing, for not a hair of their heads would be
touched. "The victim," said he "will be
myself alone." And he went on his way.
The day was calm, and full of the still heat
of summer. David moved hither and thither,
giving his orders with vigorous gestures as he
was used to do. Twice when others joined
the procession on the way he addressed them,
asking them if they desired the Republic, and
when from thousands of throats came the
eager and passionate "Si," he continued:
14

210 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
" The Republic begins to-day in the world.
It will not be the Republic of 1848 ; it will be
the Kingdom of God, the Law of Right which
has succeeded to the Law of Favour, La legge
del Diritto succeduta a quella di Grazia."
Then the women and the maidens began to
sing one of David's hymns. Barzellotti has
given us some of the lines —
" E quando arrivato
Sard alP agonia,
Ti prego, O Maria,
Soccorrimi Tu.
Raccogli quest' alma
Nel santo tuo velo,
Scortandola in cielo
Unita con Te."
It was half-past nine when they approached
Arcidosso. There a great crowd awaited
them ; but the murmur of the voices died
away as they approached. Out of the crowd,
which indeed blocked the road, the Delegato
di Pubblica Sicurrezza, De Luca, and the
Syndic, followed by nine or ten carabinieri,
advanced a little on the road to meet them.
David left his place in the procession, passed
the children who headed it, and went alone to
meet the Delegato, who had stopped in the
middle of the road and had begun to read the

THE NEW MESSIAH 211
three intimations ordered by the law, calling
on David to return. When he had done
there was a great silence, then David was
heard to reply, " I go forward in the name of
the Law of Right and of Christ the Judge."
And. he pointed to an image of Christ Crucified
on a banner floating above his head. The
Delegato answered nothing. Presently David
spoke again. "If it is Peace that you desire,
I bring it you ; if Pity, here it is ; if Blood, lo !
I am here," and he opened his arms and waited
in silence.
A thrill of excitement, expectation, and
desire ran through the multitude. The Delegato,
it is said, would have spoken with him, and
indeed did so ; David replied with a wave of his
arm, as was his way. De Luca brandished his
gun : they stood alone in the midst of the way
between the two crowds, who looked on in
silence. Suddenly David was seen to turn
and eagerly wave to his followers, uttering a
few words drowned in the enormous cry that
rose on all sides : " Viva, Evviva la Repubblica!"
Already stones began to fall on the Delegato
and the carabinieri. Then a man's voice rose
suddenly above the shouting. " Fire ! " he
cried, and in a moment the rifles answered,

212 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
not once nor twice, but many times, and David
and the Delegato and the carabinieri were lost
in the clouds of smoke.
As the smoke drifted away in the hot air
David was seen to be lying in the road motion
less, one or two of his disciples bending over
him. The multitude apparently watched what
had happened without much disquietude. Had
not the Prophet himself said that no shot
could kill him? But when his wife and
children had come up weeping, to find him
wounded and bleeding, he was carried away on
a ladder along the road leading to Santa Fiora,
the procession following in order, singing his
hymns. They had no thought of revenge ;
their faith in God and His Prophet was such
that they thought all had befallen to try their
faith ; and even at the worst if David were
dead would he not rise again on the third day ?
The people of Arcidosso saw them depart with
relief, they had feared an attack on their
trumpery shops and wretched homes, which
even to a beggar might seem indeed to offer
but little as loot.
So the procession passed along the hot, white
road toward Bagnore. One of the spiritual
Princes, Barzellotti tells us, a tall, strong man,

THE NEW MESSIAH 213
with long white hair and beard, explained
matters as they went. The Prophet had said,
" I shall be the victim." What could that
mean but that he would be wounded even to
death, that he would rise again ? So he com
forted them. But David gave no sign of life,
only now and then in his agony a groan
escaped him.
It was past midday when they reached the
village. The dying man was laid on a bed
in a little house half-hidden in the chestnuts
near the road. Around him knelt his disciples,
waiting for him to revive ; but he had only a
few hours to live, for the three bullets that had
struck him had entered the brain.
" I found him," said one of the witnesses at
the trial, " lying on a bed, while near by knelt
his young daughter and his son Turpino. The
girl was still dressed in white, with a long veil
and a chaplet of roses on her head. Turpino,
too, Was in the dress of the Lazzarettisti.
They were weeping. Near the dying man was
Dr. Terni of Santa Fiora, who told me that he
had only a few minutes to live. On one side
was David's wife, sobbing. I said something
to her to try to comfort her, but she answered,
weeping, ' He is dying for the Glory of God.' "

214 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
It was dawn when he breathed his last,
surrounded by his followers, who did not
believe that he was dead till they had seen him
with their own eyes. Nor then were they
overcome by grief. They waited, praying and
singing hymns, thinking, indeed, of his
resurrection, and no one would have touched
his body but that an order came from the
authorities that obliged them to bury him in
the cemetery of Santa Fiora.
There he indeed awaits the resurrection ;
nor is there need of any stone or word to mark
his grave, for each year at springtime flowers,
red as blood newly shed, blossom in that place,
springing, as they say, from the heart of the
Prophet : there the Lazzarettisti, kneeling
together and binding them in bunches, place
them beside their beds under the blessed image
of Madonna, as who would say —
"He saved others, himself he could not save. '

CONCLUSION
T T was one morning not long after that climb
-*• at dawn to David's ruined Tower, that
I left Arcidosso for the railway on my way
into the valleys, for indeed autumn was come,
and the green of the forest was turned to gold,
and all the fountains were filled with rain.
Again in the dawn I set out, passing through
Castel del Piano, that Castelletto of the Aldo
brandeschi of Maremma which Guido Riccio,
Podesta of Siena, took from Guido and Stefano
of the Counts of Santa Fiora ; and which Pio ii.
praised so well for its beauty, calling it the
first among the villages of the Mountain. And
indeed to-day its walls are still washed by
those streams that, as he found, come singing
through the shadow under the trees about the
Castello. Like the other strong places in the
Mountain, Castel del Piano came to Cosimo
de' Medici after the fall of Montalcino, when
the Republic of Siena died in 1557.

216 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
There is but little to see there beyond the
Madonna of the place, the Pretorio, the Loggia
del Mercato, the Casa della Comunita, two
fountains and several churches, one called
S. Maria delle Grazie and another S. Maria
dell' Opera or Madonna Nuova, and that is the
biggest church in the Mountain ; a building of
the seventeenth century. While in the Spedale
della Misericordia without the Castello, the
Compagnia di S. Giovanni Decollato has for
centuries been established, and there Francesco
Vanni has painted the death of the Forerunner.
But the call of the road was in my heart.
I stayed but a brief two hours before I set
out for Seggiano, which I reached at midday.
Divided very long ago into two parts, Seggi
ano Vecchio and Seggiano Nuovo, the place
possesses to-day almost nothing of any interest.
It is the last village on Mont' Amiata, and there
indeed I seemed to leave the Mountain for the
valley, since Seggiano may well be said to be
in Vai d'Orcia. So I went on my way by the
long road to Mont' Amiata Station, which I
reached at sunset.
And, strangely enough, eager as I had been
at last to leave the Mountain, now that I was
there in the valley waiting for the train, a

ON THE WAY TO THE VALLEYS-NOON ON THE ROAD

CONCLUSION 217
real sadness fell upon me, a sort of regret for
all that simple and beautiful world I was leav
ing, — yes, I could not but admit it — certainly
for the last time. There I had been happy, I
had forgotten — ah ! what had I not forgotten,
in the silence of the woods, with the sun and
the wind and the streams ? And for what was
I forsaking that quiet world which had been
my friend ?
Just then the whistle of the engine reached
me as the train came round a bend of the line.
It was too late to turn back now, the porter
had already seized my bag and was standing
waiting to send me on my way. No, there was
no escape. Yet truly I would have given then
all I possessed in the world to return by the
road I had come, to look once more on those
mountains towards Rome, to await one more
sunset looking over the Patrimony. And I
was going back to Umbria. . . .
Such, I thought, as the train lumbered up
the valley, such is the original curse of all
travellers, that even our pleasures and best
adventures only bring us regret. It is a tragi
comedy — a spiritual farce.
So I reasoned with myself all the way to
Chiusi. There I stayed on my way. The

21 8 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
inn was good, the bed soft and clean, the sky
a miracle of stars ; moreover, the wind came
from the mountains ; yet sleep would not come
into my heart, but stood and stared at me all
night long with pitiless eyes of iron. So I
rose up after midnight and went on my way.
Truly for what had I forsaken the Mountain
that had been my friend !
When the sun rose I found myself lying by
the side of the most beautiful lake in Italy, on
the verge of Umbria — Umbria, which I had
not dared to approach since one day in the
sunshine I seemed to hold in my very hands
all that was worth having in the world, — that
vanished at sunset. And so as the sun rose I
sat by the side of Lago Trasimeno, considering
in my heart of all those things which had
befallen and of the silence between now and
then. And suddenly as I frowned into the
lake, where the rushes whispered together by
Passignano, I looked up, and there, like some
fragile and exquisite ghost, Mont' Amiata stood
before me, her peak shaped like some marvel
lous horn, blue and silver in the delicate light
And with this in my heart I set out on my
way to Assisi.

NOTES
Page 4, line 1 7. — The Abbey of S. Antimo was, in the
Middle Ages, one of the most conspicuous among the
Benedictine monasteries of the Peninsula, and also, with
the exception of the Badia S. Salvatore in M. Amiata and
S. Galgano in the Vai di Merse, the most powerful
ecclesiastical feud in the Sienese State. For the modern
reader, however, its greatest interest is probably to be
found in the fact that it presents one of the most notable
examples in Italy of that peculiar style of architecture which
had its origin in the eleventh century, when, the fatal year
iooo having passed, that universal dread of the end of the
World, which had so long paralysed the minds of men,
began to fade away. The first three years of the century
being over, the World awoke to new youth, and casting off
its torpor of fear (as Rudolf the Bald, the chronicler of
Cluny, tells us), " clothed itself on with a white garment
of churches — passim candidam ecclesiarum vestem indueret."
Nowhere was the activity greater or more febrile than in
France and Italy; and "it is precisely in these new
ecclesiastical structures that we see the earliest examples of
that transitional style of architecture which continued to
develop itself throughout the eleventh, twelfth, and part
of the thirteenth centuries, and to which the name of
Romanesque was justly given, because, in the world of Art,
its development was coeval and corresponded with that of
the Romance tongues in the world of Literature."

220 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
One of the most notable features of this new style was
the substitution of vaulted stone roofs for the ancient
wooden ones ; but, in its application, the architects of the
period proceeded slowly and tentatively, commencing, in
the early part of the eleventh century, by covering with
cross-vaulting the lesser naves alone, the great central
nave being still often roofed with beams. This mixed
style was long preserved in Italy, and continued to be
adopted as late as the twelfth century, to which period,
judging from the above described method of roofing the
naves, from some special ichnographic peculiarities and
from its general architectural characteristics and ornaments,
we may probably assign the erection of the Church of S.
Antimo. Especially interesting is the construction of its
apse, annular in form with radiating chapels, a method of
building which, though common enough in France, is
extremely rare in Italy, where, exclusive of S. Antimo, there
are said to be only three other examples attributable to the
Romanesque period. Of these the most ancient, which
we may almost call embryonic, is to be found in the
Church of S. Stefano in Verona, and dates from the tenth
century; while the other two exist in the Abazia della
SS. Trinita in Venosa and in the Cathedral of Acerenza,
both of them founded in the eleventh century, during the
Norman domination.
Of the original Abbey, which was of much earlier date,
the only remains are to be seen in the crypt below the
present sacristy.
For full particulars, both architectural and historical, the
reader should consult the learned monograph of Cav.
Antonio Canestrelli, Ricerche storiche ed artistiche
intorno all' Abbazia di S. Antimo, which appeared in the
Bullettino Senese di Storia Patria, vol. iv (1897) pp.
57-82. Page 12, line 4. — According to the legend the six steps

NOTES 221
which lead from the first cloister of the convent to the
Church of S. Francesco mark the burial place of eighteen
knights of the house of Tolomei, who were invited by the
Salimbeni to a repast (merenda) at the village of Colle,
outside the Porta Romana, some four miles from Siena,
and there treacherously slain. Thenceforward the place
where they were murdered was known as Colle Mala
merenda. Probably, however, the story is nothing but a
fable. See the article of E. Grotanelli de' Santi, La
favolosa strage di Colle Malamerenda, in the Miscellanea
storica Senese, vol. i. (1893) pp. 209-215.
Page 12, line 7. — The reader who desires to illuminate the
dull details of topography by the associations of the sites
described may like to be reminded that the scene of one
of Boccaccio's Novelle is laid in Buonconvento. See //
Decamerone, ix. 4.
Page 15, line 3. — The Bagni di Vignone are well worthy
to be visited, if only for their connection with St. Catherine
of Siena. See E. G. Gardner, S. Catherine of Siena
(Dent, 1907), p. 13. The earliest record which we have
of them is, probably, referable to the year 11 70, when
they were given in feud to Cardinal Unifredo by the
Emperor Frederic Barbarossa; but there is reason to
believe that they were not unknown to the Romans. —
See Repetti, Dizionario geografico fisico storico della
Toscana (Firenze, 1833), vol. i. p. 232.
Page 16, line 27. — See G. Rondoni, Sena Vetus o il
Comune di Siena dalle origini alia Battaglia di Montaperti
(Torino, Fratelli Bocca, 1892), cap. vii.
Page 26, line 1. — In addition to the Dizionario of Repetti,
referred to in the text, the reader may consult Rondoni,

222 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
op. cit. pp. 34-37, and for the imperial diplomas, Bohmer,
Acta Imperii Selecta. Many imperial privileges and papal
bulls are also to be found in the Carte diplomatiche della
Badia di S. Salvatore in Montamiata, preserved among the
Sienese archives, while the instrumentarii of the Commune,
known as the Caleffi, lay before us all the policy of
Siena with regard to the Abbey and the Castello. In
consulting these the Inventario generale del R. Archivio di
Stato in Siena, published by A. Lisini (Siena, Tip. Luzzeri,
1899), will be found extremely useful. Another most
important contribution to the literature of the subject is the
article of L. Zdekauer, Sugli Statuti del Monte Amiata, in
" Studii Giuridici dedicati e offerti a Francesco Schupfer
nella ricorrenza del xxxv. anno del suo insegnamento "
(Torino, Fratelli Bocca, 1898), pp. 239-253. This work
contains a synopsis of over a hundred documents, for the
most part still unpublished. In studying the relations of
the monastery with Orvieto the Codice Diplomatico della
Citta d' 'Orvieto, by L. Fumi (Firenze, Vieusseux, 1884), will
prove invaluable; while, for its relations with Viterbo,
Calisse, Documenti del Monastero di S. Salvatore sui Monte
Amiata, riguardanti il territorio romano (Secoli viii.— xii.),
Estr. dalF Arch, della R. Societa Romana di Storia Patria,
vol. xvi. -xvii. should be consulted.

Pages 26-27. — F°r tne legend of the foundation of
the Abbey, see Gigli, Diario Sanese (2a edizione),
ii. 462-465, and Rondoni, Tradizioni popolari e leggende di
un Comune Medioevale e del suo contado (Firenze, Uffizio
della Rassegna Nazionale, 1886), pp. 105-106.
Pages 30-32. — See D. Winspeare, Storia degli abusi
feodali (Napoli, Gabriele Regina, 1883), p. 319, nota
587; C. Cantix, Storia degli Italiani (Torino, 1854), cap.
lxxv. n. 25 ; and, for the various feudal services owed

NOTES 223
by the inhabitants of the Castello to the Abbey, L. Fumi,
op. cit. p. 211.
Paie 33> Hne 3- — The document referred to was pub
lished by L. Zdekauer, as an appendix to his La
" Carta Libertatis " e gli Statuti della Rocca di Tintinnano,
(1 207-1 297), in the Bullettino Senese di Storia Patria,
vol. iii. (1896) pp. 374-376-
Page 42, line 20. — The quotation is from the Commen
taries of Pius n. The " Bishop and six Cardinals " formed
part of the papal entourage. The Pope was lodged in the
Abbey, while the Bishop and Cardinals found quarters in
the Castello.
Page 45, line 7. — These inscriptions are as follows: —
(To the right) avd. cavs. ord. n. abali
S. IVRISD.
which may be interpreted Audientia causarum Ordims
nostra Abatialis iurisdictionis.
(To the left) avdientia cavsarvm
vidvarvm et pvpillorvm.
Above the former is a fresco entitled Recta lustitia, repre
senting the Archangel Michael with a balance; while
above the latter is an Angel leading a child by the hand,
with the legend Pia Protectio.
Page 45, line 10. — Bibl. Com. in Siena, Cod. A. x. 74.
Only the first ten books of the Historie of Giugurta
Tommasi have been printed. His widow, Livia Cinuzzi,
died in 1628, before she had completed the task of
editing the later and more valuable portion of his vol
uminous work.

224 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
Page 48, line 2. — Besides the relics alluded to in the
text, the Abbey possesses a curious memento of one of
those strange mediaeval spectacles so many of which have
passed away during the memory of men yet living. For,
just as Empoli celebrated her Volo dell' asino, so, until
quite recently, did Abbadia continue to celebrate her Volo
della capra; and the rope on which the unfortunate animal
" flew " from the summit of the church-tower to the outer
gate of the Abbey is still preserved in a cupboard of the
sacristy. None of the Abbadinghi were able to give me
any information concerning the origin and significance of
the spectacle, though many of them remembered it well.
Indeed, I believe that my first visit to Abbadia, some
thirteen years ago, was made almost immediately after its
abandonment. Equally without result were my inquiries
touching the Corso de' maccheroni of S. Fiora, which takes
place annually, in the month of August. It consists of a
race along the piazza to where great bowls of macaroni
stand a-row. Into these the competitors, whose hands are
tied behind them, plunge their faces and eat like swine, he
who first consumes his portion being acclaimed the winner.
Page 70, line 26. — In Monte Amiata, as elsewhere in
Tuscany and Umbria, and, I believe, also in the March,
bells are rung to avert lightnings, winds and hail, which
are attributed by the peasantry to diabolic influences. For
the contadino of to-day, as for his ancestors for imme
morial ages, Satan is the " prince of the power of the air,"
and it is believed that bells, and especially church bells,
may prevail against him. Is it not written in the ancient
Hymn ofthe Belli — " Laudo Deum verum
Plebem voco
Congrego denim
Defunctos ploro
Pestem fugo
Festa decoro

NOTES 225
Funera plango
Fulgura frango
Sabbato pango
Excito lentos
Dissipo ventos
Paco cruentos."
and, finally, the terrible verse :
"Est mea cunctorum terror vox dsemoniorum."
On this subject something has been written in Heywood's
The " Ensamples" of Fra Filippo (Siena, Torrini, 1901),
pages 290 et seq. ; while, in addition to the authorities there
cited, the reader may consult G. Bellucci, La grandine nelF
Umbria (Perugia, Unione Tip. Coop. Editrice, 1903), and
the forthcoming volume 77 fulmine nelle tradizione popolari
antiche e moderne by the same author.
Page 85, line 4. — For a full account of the Palio of
Siena see W. Heywood, Palio and Ponte, London, Methuen,
1904. Page 95, line 14. — The Voyage of Italy, or A Compleat
Journey through Italy. In Two Parts. With the Char
acters of the People, and the Description of the Chief
Towns, Churches, Monasteries, Tombs, Libraries, Pallaces,
Villas, Gardens, Pictures, Statues and Antiquities. As
also of the Interest, Government, Riches, Force, etc., of all the
Princes. With Instructions concerning Travel. By Richard
Lassels, Gent, who Travelled through Italy Five Times
as Tutor to several of the English Nobility and Gentry.
Never before Extant. Newly Printed at Paris, and are
to be sold in London, by John Starkey, at the Mitre in
Fleet Street near Temple Barr, 1670.
Such is the modest title of the work. The passage
quoted in the text will be found on page 241 ofthe First
Part.

226 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
Page 98, line 4. — The story "of the Judgment which
befel a very great and cruel Usurer of the Town of
Radicofani " may be read in the original in Gli Assempri di
Fra Filippo da Siena, Leggende del Secolo xiv. Pubbl.
per cura del D. C. F. Carpellini, Siena, Gati, 1864. In
his " Ensamples'' of Fra Filippo (Siena, Torini, 1901)
W. Heywood has used this work as a basis for the dis
cussion of the social conditions and beliefs of the Italians,
and especially of the Sienese, during the later Middle Ages
and early Renaissance. Several of the Assempri have been
there translated in full.
Page 102, line 21. — The work here referred to is, of
course, Dante in Siena ovvero accenni nella Divina
Commedia a cose Sanesi, by Bartolomeo Aquarone (Citta
di Castello, Lapi, 1889). The sixth chapter is devoted
to Ghino di Tacco.
Page 102, line 24. — A notable example of a once proud
Seignior reduced to absolute beggary by the new order of
things is to be found in the case of Niccolo, Count of
Tintinnano, who, in 1296 and again in 1298, was relieved
by the Commune of Siena as a pauper.
R. Arch, di Stato in Siena. Libri di Biccherna,
1296, a c. 233 (use): Item iij lib. in una tunicka, quam
habuit Nicholaus, comes de Roccha ad Tetenanum,
causa paupertatis ; et est habita inde appodissa a dominis
Novem. Ibid. 1298 ac. 202': Item. iij. lib. xj. sol. vj. den. In
quadam tunicha et in uno caputio et uno pario chaligarum
datis pro amore Dei Niccholaio de Tintinnano.
Page 121, line 4. — Anno Domini, 1234. Postquam
Pepus Alius Tancredi Vicecomitis de Campilia, qui tum
temporis arcem ipsam tenebat, juravit in manus D.

NOTES 227
Transmundi Anibaldi Potestatis Senensis cum omnibus
hominibus de Campilia facere pacem et guerram ad
mandatum dicta? Potestatis et Comitatus Senensis et
Comunitatis Senensis, dictus Pepus spreta religione jus-
jurandi cum illis de Castilione et cum Comitibus de
Tin tinano jura vit in manus Florentinorum et Urbevetanorum
facere guerram Senensibus ad mandatum eorum, et juvare
Montalcinenses tota virtute sua. Transmundus Potestas
Senensis cum duabus partibus Civitatis ad Arcem ipsam
accessit, et pars Burgi capta et combusta fuit, et sequenti
die capta fuit reliqua pars Burgi cum sala et arce super-
iori — Cronica Sanese in Muratori, R. I. S. xv. 25, n. 16.
Compare also Repetti, Dizionario cited, vol. i. pp. 424-
425, and for a picturesque incident which followed the
storming of the place see Heywood, Palio and Ponte,
P- 39-
It is, of course, equally possible that the Visconti of
Campiglia may have been the viscounts of the Contea
Aldobrandesca (compare Berlinghieri, op. cit. p. 24).
The important point is that their name of Visconti was in
its origin a title. Like all the rest of their class they
were magnificent robbers, and, among the entries in the
Memoriale delle Offese, it is recorded of one of these seigniors
that he " abstulerat pecudes et oves Guidoni civi Senensi."
— See L. Banchi, II Memoriale delle Offese fatte al Comune
ed ai Cittadini di Siena, etc., in the Arch. Stor. Ital, Serie
iii. tom. xxii. pp. 197-234.
Page 122, line 6. — As to the war with the Salimbeni in
1374, see the Cronica Sanese in Muratori, Rer. Italic.
Script, xv. col. 242, 243. The Sienese were routed in the
Piano di Boccheggiano, on the 23rd of October ; and
Benvoglienti states (col. 243, n. 70) that, in his opinion,
it is to this reverse that the old translator of the Fables of
/Esop (himself a Sienese) refers in his version of the Battle
between the Beasts and the Birds, Johanni Credi de'

228 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
Visconti da Campiglia being there represented by the Bat.
I quote the favola at length : —
"Della battaglia delle bestie cogli uccelli.
" Avendo mandato il lione la lepre per suo grande bisogno
con lettere, trovossi col falcone, ed hagli tolto le lettere,
e portolle dinanzi all' aquila, e in queste lettere si
conteneva cose di grande vergogna dell' aquila ; cive ch'era
trovata in avolterio col nibbio. E vedendo I'aquila che
il lione cercava sua vergogna, mando al lione imbasceria,
dicendo che lo voleva per nemico, e che mai non port-
erebbe corona, se no '1 facesse conoscente di tanta follia.
E udito il lione la sconvenevole imbasciata dell' aquila,
rispose gabbando : io ho intendimento di tenere consiglio
e parlamento in questo mese, ea essembrare tutta la mia
gente in maremma nel piano di Boccheggiano, e se '1 aquila
ha intendimento di vendicare sua inguiria, ivi mi potra trovare.
Ed acciocche a questo dia fede, voglio che gli portiate
questa lancia e il guanto. Ora e stabilita la battaglia tra
gli uccelli e le bestie ; ed ogni parte s'apparecchia e fornisce
di tutti i fondamenti da battaglia ; e sono guinti in sui campo.
E vedendo il pipistrello essere fatte le schiere ed essere piu
le bestie che gli uccelli, prese una lancia lunga, ed enne
andato dalla parte delle bestie, ed accostossi coUa masnada
de' topi. Ed allora I'aquila, siccome savia e provveduta
ammaestra le schiere, e cosi fa il lione ; ed ordinato gli
scorridori cominciossi la battaglia, e durb grande parte del
dl j nella quale battaglia gli uccelli hanno vinto e messe le
bestie in isconfitta. E vedendo il pipistrello avere gli uccelli
vittoria, tornassi fra gli uccelli, e stava quasi mezzo svergog-
nato. Allora I'aquila lo fece pigliare ed impiccare per li
piedi, e tutto quanto lo fece percussare. E quando fu
spiccato, in presenzia di tutti gli altri uccelli fecegli questo
comandamento (e questo si e scritto per le mani del nibbio) :
che mai di di non si lasci trovare in luogo d' onore ; e fu
tormentato con grandissimi bastoni, e tutto fu fracassato.

NOTES 229
(Le Favole d'Esopo volgarizzate per uno da Siena (Parma,
P. Fiaccadori, i860), Favola xiv. pp. 76-77.)
Page 131, line 6. — "Pietro, pievano of Proceno." The
¦word, pievano is here left untranslated because we possess
no English equivalent. In all the Italian- English diction
aries with which I am acquainted Pievano is said to mean
"a parish priest" or "country parson," and, even so
excellent and well informed a writer as Professor W. F.
Butler, in his Lombard Communes, p. 88, falls into the
error of translating Pieve as "Parish." A Pieve is, in fact,
something more than a parish, being defined as Chiesa
parrocchiale, che ha sotto di se priorie e rettorie e per lo piu
ville e castella (Manuzzi, Vocabolario s.v.). In his Cronica
(vii. 36) G. Villani classes pievi with " rich Abbeys." A
Pievano is, of course, the Rector of a pieve. The Italian
for Parish Priest is Parroco or Curato. It would, on the
face of it, be absurd to suppose that a mere parish priest
would have been chosen to arbitrate between the Bishop of
Sovana and the Abbot of S. Salvatore.
Pages 131-133. — For the facts here stated see an article
in the Miscellanea Storica Senese, vol. ii. (1894) pp. 172-
173- Page J3S) tine 21. — For a picturesque description ofthe
Mugnello see G. Barzellotti, David Lazzaretti di Arci
dosso detto il Santo, i suoi Seguaci e la sua Leggenda (Bologna,
Zanichelli, 1885), pp. 78-86. "The great rough-hewn
fountain," mentioned in the text, is known among the
common people as "il piatto delle streghe."
Chapter X. — With regard to the Aldobrandeschi
the reader should consult Berlinghieri, Notizie degli
Aldobrandeschi, Siena, O. Porri, 1842 ; Repetti, Dizionario,

230 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
cited, Appendice, cap. xii. pp. 55_63 > Aquarone, Dante
in Siena, op. cit. vii. pp. 95 et seq. ; Rondoni, Sena Vetus,
viii. pp. 28 et seq., and an article in the Archivio Storico
Italiana, tom. xviii. (1886), "Orvieto nel Medio Evo," by
the same author. See also L. Fumi, Codice Dipl. di
Orvieto, op cit. Doc. lxxvi., xa, xcvi., cv., cvi., cxx., cxxii.,
cxlix., clii., clxi., clxviii.
The origin of the Aldobrandeschi is a question which
has been much debated. Repetti (ubi cit.) and Gigli
(Diario, edition cited, ii. 733) assert that they were of
Salic stock ; and this view seems to be supported by the
Pergamene Bichi-Borghesi (G. x.) in the R. Arch, di
Stato in Siena (cited by Rondoni, ubi cit. p. 29, n. 1) :
"ex natione nostra lege vivere salica professi diximus."
On the other hand, G. Villani (Cronica, ii. 21) and
Berlinghieri (p. 16) maintain that they were of Longobard
extraction. Aquarone (p. 96) argues that this opinion
is probably the correct one, because, among the Aldo
brandeschi, the succession was not limited to the male
members of the house, a thing altogether opposed to the
well-known maxim of the Salic law that " De Terra autem
Salica nulla portio haereditatis mulieri veniat sed ad virilem
sexum tota haereditas perveniat." This contention would,
however, have more weight were it not for the well-known
fact that, in course of time, women were admitted, generally,
to succeed to all fiefs ; and the Salic law lost all its force,
except as to the succession to the crown. " Many instances
are on record of women personally presiding over their
own Courts, even over judicial combats; of their being
summoned to and sitting in the Court of Peers, and, what
is considered the highest of all honours, of their assisting
at the consecration of the King" (Co. Lit. 325^. Butler's
note 280).
As to the Aldobrandeschi themselves we have no very
definite information before the end of the eleventh century,
though the genealogical tables, published by Repetti and

NOTES 231
Berlinghieri respectively, trace the family back to the
eighth and ninth centuries. According to Rondoni (ubi
cit.) the first record of their being invested with the dignity
of Counts Palatine is to be found in a document of 1163.
Originally, their jurisdiction would seem to have extended
over the whole of the Contado of Roselle, in which case,
both the Ardengheschi and the Pannochieschi must have
been their vassals; while it is possible also that the
seigniors of Campiglia d'Orcia may have gained their title
of Visconti, as being the Viscounts (vice-comites) of the
Contea Aldobrandesca (compare the note to chapter viii.,
p. 227 supra).
The statement that the Aldobrandeschi possessed more
fortified places than there are days in the year is to be
found in Gli Assempri di Fra Filippo da Siena, op cit.
xxxiv. p. 116: "Si diceva che solevano avere piu castella
che non sono dl nelP anno." There is a further reference
to the Aldobrandeschi in Assempro xxxv.
Page 140, line 24. — "The Maremma is supposed to have
been originally both fertile and healthy. It certainly formed
part of that Etruria which was called from its harvests the
annonaria. Old Roman cisterns may still be traced, and
the ruins of Populonium are still visible in the worst part
of this tract" (Forsyth, Italy, p. 156). According to
Aquarone (p. 48) it only began to become insanitary
in the tenth century when, after having devastated Genoa,
the Saracens, as Malavolti (i. 22') informs us, "presero
e spogliarono similmente tutte le terre marittime con tanto
rovina e tanta occisione, che quel paese non e mai piu
stato ne populoso, ne domestico." Nevertheless, its
deterioration was gradual. Even in the fourteenth century,
Fazio degli Uberti still speaks of the Maremma as
tutta
Diletevole molto {Dittamondo, iii. 9)

232 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
and, albeit he admits that it was poca sana, the greater part
of it seems to have been still fairly habitable.
Pages 142-143. — For these conventions between Siena
and Orvieto see Fumi, Codice Dipl., op. cit. Doc. lxxiii.,
lxxiv. As to the division of the Communal Army (hostis) into
milites and pedites, see II constituto del Comune di Siena
dell' anno 1262 (edition Zdekauer), p. xxxxiv. Compare
also W. Heywood, Palio and Ponte, p. 35 note.
Page 143, line 17 et seq. — Not only did the Aldobrandeschi
themselves promise obedience to the Commune, but the
inhabitants of the Contea also were sworn to observe the
covenants and agreements already entered into by their
seigniors ; and it is worthy of note that, by the terms of
the oath taken, the debt of reverence and honour due to
the Communes of Pisa and Siena were expressly re
cognised— Salvo honorem domini Imperatoris et reverentiam
domini Pape et egregie Civitatis Pisane et Senensis in
omnibus. Two of the Sienese consuls were present at the
ceremony — Fumi, op. cit. Doc. lxxvi.
Page 145, line 19. — The document which records the
division of the Contea Aldobrandesca recites how, discord
having arisen between the most noble and illustrious
Counts Palatine, the Lord Aldobrandino, and his brethren,
Bonifazio, Guglielmo and Aldobrandino, "et diabolico
instinctu, minime non fraterno amore, set inimicabiliter
hodibiles inimicitias pretractassent, multorum hominum
corda bella et captivitates intervenissent, unde videbatur,
honorabilis eorum domus et spetiosissimus Comitatus fore
destructus, placuit ergo quinque nobilibus memoratis ad
Urbemveterem, tamquam ad propriam matrem, reddire
Civitatem " (Fumi, op. cit. Doc. cvii.).

NOTES 233
Page 148, line 3. — It was further stipulated that the
subjects of each of the contracting parties should be at
liberty to enter and dwell freely in the territories of the
other ; and that neither should the Commune possess itself
of any towns or villages in the dominions of the Counts,
nor the Counts in those of the Commune without express
permission first had and received. The Castaldi, consuls
and governors of the towns and fortresses, as well as many
of the common folk of the Contea Aldobrandesca swore
to observe the terms of the treaty ; and we note that for
the ancient Sovana, where to-day are nought but ruins and
a church "populated by great memories," a consul and
120 men took the oath, a consul and 168 men for Pitigliano,
about 500 for Grosseto, and the Chancellor ofthe Commune,
and 250 for Belforte. — R. Arch, di Stato in Siena, Caleffo
Vecchio, etc. 41-43 ; Malavolti, i. 49 ; Tommasi, i. 209 ;
Berlinghieri, op. cit. p. 31 ; Rondoni, Sena Vetus, p. 30.
Page 148, lines 23-26. — The Count Guglielmo promised
to take up his residence in Grosseto, ipsum et turrim
muniendo et ex inde preliando cum dictis Grossetanis, seu
aliomodo taliter faciendo, quod redibunt et stabunt ad
mandatum nostrum et Comunis Senensis.
With regard to the taking of Grosseto, see Malavolti,
op. cit. i. ete. 50-51; Rondoni, Sena Vetus, 30-31; L.
Banchi, II Memoriale delle Offese, etc., in the Arch. Star.
Ital., Serie iii. tom. xxii. (1875) pp. 226-228; Tommasi,
i. 213. Page 149, line 25. — Among the other reasons which the
Count Guglielmo had for hating the Sienese was the fact
that (if we may believe the chronicles) he had been
imprisoned by them for six months. "In questo anno
(1227) stette il Conte Guglielmo di Santa Fiore sei mesi
in prigione in Siena — Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script.,
xv. 23.

234 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
Page 152, line 9. — As to the events which led the
Florentines to abandon their designs on Talamone see
R. Langton Douglas, A History of Siena (London,
Murray, 1902), p. 71. The convention of the Counts
with Florence will be found in the Arch. Stor. Ital., Serie
iii. tom. xxiii. p. 220. Compare Fumi, Cod. Dipl., op cit.
Doc. ccxcviii.
Page 153, lines 1-15. — The proceedings of the Consiglio
della Campana with regard to the Seigniors of Torniella
were published by Professor L. Zdekauer as an appendix
to his La Vita pubblica dei Senesi nel Dugento, Siena,
Lazzeri, 1897.
Pages 154-155. — As to the hostility of Count Omberto
to the Sienese, and the events which led to his death, see
Bandini Piccolomini, Del Conte Umberto di Guglielmo
Aldobrandeschi in Atte e memorie della R. Academia de'
Rozzi, vol. iii. (1876-79), Adunanza del di 10 Agosto,
1878. Page 157, lines 1-21. — The chronicle here quoted is that
attributed to Niccolo di Giovanni di Francesco Ventura.
It is published by G. Porri, Miscellanea Storica Sanese
(Siena, 1844), p. 67. It gives a stirring account of the
Battle of Monteaperto and should be read by every visitor
to Siena. "As a battle-piece, painted in glorious words,
it stands without a rival. There you may read of gallant
deeds, of armed knights crashing together, of hard mail
hewn, of shattered helms. There you shall find blood,
blood in torrents, blood everywhere — the blood of 'those
dogs of Florentines,' whom the valorous people of Siena,
slew like swine in a slaughter-house. They seemed, cries
the chronicler, porci feriti. And to all this you will pass
from a scene of prayer and reconciliation in the Holy
Sienese Church, where the Bishop and his clergy sing

NOTES 235
' the old Latin hymns of peace and love,' and where the
injured is seeking out the injurer to kiss him on the
mouth and to pardon him ; while over all, battle-field and
Cathedral alike, broods the sacred form of God's most
Holy Mother, Siena's Protector and Advocate."
Page 159, line 12. — Of the war with Ghinozzo da Sasso-
forte, the following details have been preserved for us. I
translate from the Cronica Sanese in Muratori, Rer.
Ital. Script., xv. 87 n.
" The Counts of S, Fiora made war on the Seigniors of
Sassoforte of whom was the lord Ghinozzo. Wherefore
the said Ghinozzo with his folk made an incursion into the
lands of the Counts of S. Fiora and wasted them even
unto the Patrimony; for he was a man of puissance
and bold; and he had a horse of great worth and of
marvellous courage. Nevertheless, on this raid, neither
his horse nor his folk availed him aught, for he was taken
by the Captain of the Patrimony and shut up in the
fortress of . . .
" Now the Captain of the Patrimony would fain ride the
horse of the said Ghinozzo and he knew not how to guide
him, nor how to make him go. Ghinozzo, being shut up
and guarded in the said fortress, spake unto him and
said: 'Wouldst thou that I should ride him and show
thee the manner of his going ? ' Said the Captain : ' Take
him and mount him.' And Ghinozzo did so ; and he
made him go along the ravelin of the fortress, first at a walk,
then at a trot, and, at the last, at a gallop. Then did the
said Ghinozzo bethink him to essay a great venture, and,
as he rode the said horse, he cried, ' Let him who wants me
come to Sassoforte,' and he leapt the said horse down
from the ravelin of the fortress on to the barbacan thereof
and thence to earth. And he struck spurs to his horse and
got him away to Sassoforte. Wherefore the Captain and
the others who saw that deed marvelled much, both at the

236 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
prowess of the horse and the courage of Ghinozzo, for the
height of that leap was twenty cubits.
"Ghinozzo, lord of Sassoforte, bemg at war with the
Counts of S. Fiora, raided the lands of the Counts even
unto Magliano and Monteano ; and he joined battle with
the folk of the said Counts, and Ghinozzo and his folk
were discomfited. Yet, through the excellence of his horse,
he escaped, albeit his followers were taken. The Counts
and their folk pursued hard after him ; wherefore he fled
into the territory of Siena and entered into Accesa, thinking
to be safe therein. Now the fortress of Accesa belonged
to the Bishop of Massa. Nevertheless, the Counts ceased
not from pursuing him ; and they laid siege to Accesa and
guarded all the ways which led thereto; and divers days
they abode there and besieged it. Therefore, Ghinozzo,
when he perceived that he might not escape and that there
was none to succour him, surrendered to the said Counts,
and they led him away prisoner to S. Fiora. . . . There
after, Ghinozzo died in prison by reason of his little
eating." Page 159, line 13. — Cronica Sanese in Muratori, Rer.
Ital. Script., xv. 114. — This was the same Count Jacomo,
one of whose raids is thus described by an anonymous
chronicler, in the year 1316 : "Cavalcho el chonte Jachomo
de' chonti da Sancta Fiore infino al bagnio a Maciareto e in
Fileta infino a la Seghalaia, arsero e tenero grande danno
e ucisero ; ebero pregioni e grande di brede di bieste, e
fuoro ciento cinquanta chavalieri" — Frammento da una
cronachetta Senese oVAnonimo del Secolo, xiv. edito da
Mengozzi e Lisini, per le nozze Sarrocchi-Partini (Siena,
Tip. Lazzeri, 1893), p. 21.
Page 164. — Those who desire to form some idea of the
condition of the villagers in the Contea Aldobrandesca
from the middle of the fourteenth century may profitably

NOTES 237
study the recently published work of Paolo Piccolomini,
Lo Statuto del Castello della Triana (Per le nozze Pic
colomini della Triana-Menotti), Siena, Lazzeri, 1905. This
Statute was enacted in 135 1, "to the honourland reverence
of Almighty God and of the glorious Virgin Mary, His
Mother, and of Messer St. John and of Messer St. Anthony,
the special Advocates of the Commune and of the men of
the Castello della Triana and of all the Court of Heaven ;
and to the honour and exultation of the magnificent men
and illustrious lords Andrea and Giovanni, Aldobrandino
and Francesco, by the grace of God true and natural
lords of the said Castello." It was compiled by three
massari "at the commandment of the said Messer the
Count Andrea," and, albeit the Aldobrandeschi sold this
part of their domains to the Piccolomini in 1388, the
Statuto continued to be observed as law up to the time of
the Leopoldine reforms.
Yet interesting and instructive as is the Statute of the
Castello della Triana, it is obvious that he who would
attain to a proper understanding of the condition of the
rural districts in the Middle Ages must extend his studies
far beyond the walls of any single village, however typical.
It is much to be desired that some German or Italian scholar
— I fear none other would have the necessary patience —
might undertake to elucidate the history of the Sienese
contado as a whole. In this connection the following
works, among others, might be consulted with profit : R.
Caggese, La Rep. di Siena e il suo contado nel secolo
decimoterzo in the Bullettino Senese di Storia Patria, vol.
xiii. pp. 3-120; Polidori, Statuto del Comune di Montagu-
tola dell' Ardinghesca 12 80-1 297, in the Statu ti Senesi scritti
in volgare ne' Secoli xiii. e xiv. (Bologna, Romagnoli, 1863),
vol. i. pp. 1 et seq. ; Banchi, Statuto della Pieve a Molli del
Contado di Siena, volgarizzato circa I'anno 1338, Siena,
1866, per nozze Ricci-Busatti ; Mieli, Statuto di Chiaren-
tana, Firenze, 1892 ; Zdekauer, Sugli Statuti della terra

238 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
di Casole (1385-1561) in Miscellanea Storica della Vai
d'Elsa, vol. iv. pp. 120 et seq. ; Zdekauer, La "Carta
Libertatis" e gli statuti della Rocca di Tintinnano (1207-
1297) in Bullettino cited, iii. pp. 327 et seq. ; Zdekauer,
Sugli Statuti del Monte Amiata (12 12-145 1) con & tesio
delle franchigii diMontecello del 131 1 in Studii guiridici, etc.,
op. cit. ; Rossi, Documenti e Statuti del Castello di Montisi
(1197-1552)^ Bullettino cited, vii. pp. 353 etseq. ; Ferrari,
Monografia storica-statuaria del Castello di Farnetella in
Valdichiana, Rocca S. Casciano, 1901.
Page 176, line 4. — According to Rondoni (Tradizioni
popolari e Leggende, op. cit. p. 106) there was formerly an
ancient bas-relief above the outer gate of the monastery,
representing a warrior fighting a dragon, with the
inscription : " // Sig. Conte di S. Fiora a caccia per il bosco
di questo convento, nel 11255' incontrd in un orrendo serpente,
e, raccomandatosi alia SS. Trinita, F uccise." For many
years the skull of the monster was shown to the people on
Trinity Sunday and devoutly kissed by them.
Chapter XII. — In addition to the Dizionario of Repetti
consult G. Contri, Storia di Arcidosso, Arcidosso, Tip.
Gori, 1890.
Chapter XIII. — As to David Lazzaretti, the reader should
consult G. Barzellotti, David Lazzaretti di Arcidosso
detto il Santo, i suoi Seguaci e la sua Leggenda, Bologna,
Zanichelle, 1885; R. Calamandrei, Monte Amiata,
Montepulciano, Fumi, 1891, and Arcidosso e il suo Profeta
nel 1878. Grosseto Tip. di Guiseppe Barbarulli 1878. It
is an anonymous pamphlet of 31 pages.

USEFUL INFORMATION
The best centre from which to explore M. Amiata is
unquestionably Abbadia S. Salvatore. The place possesses
an inn which, while modest, should satisfy the traveller for a
day or two ; but it will not, we think, be likely to suit the
English visitor who desires to make a lengthy stay. For
such an one there are two alternatives; either to rent a
house or to obtain board and lodging with a private family.
In the former case he should apply to Signora Angela
Focacci, Abbadia San Salvatore. Her villa, outside the
Castello, will be found scrupulously clean and extremely
comfortable; and should this be already taken for the
season she can find others. In the latter case, he should
write to Dott. Alfredo Viti, Abbadia S. Salvatore, who
occasionally takes paying guests during the summer months.
His house is newly built, and situated outside the Castello.
It is furnished with all modern conveniences (electric light,
etc.) ; the table is liberal and the wine excellent.
The accommodation in Abbadia is, however, strictly
limited ; and the intending visitor should make his arrange
ments betimes. Otherwise he may find himself obliged
to take up his quarters at the inn, or even to put up
with lodgings within the walls of the squalid Castello.
With regard to the other villages, it may be mentioned
that S. Quirico, Arcidosso, S. Fiora, and Pian Castagnajo
all possess passable inns.
The nearest station to Abbadia S. Salvatore is Monte
Amiata, on the line from Asciano to Grosseto ; but it can
also be reached from Chiusi; though that will entail a

240 IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY
drive of from five to six hours through Sarteano and
Radicofani. For the motorist and bicyclist coming from Siena, the
road to be recommended is that which passes through
Buonconvento to Montalcino, and thence, by way of S.
Antimo, to Monte Amiata Station. From Monte Amiata
the circuit of the Mountain may be made through
Arcidosso and S. .Fiora, Pian Castagnajo and Abbadia
S. Salvatore, to Vignone and S. Quirico. There are a
few hills to be walked by a bicyclist, but the trip is by
no means a fatiguing one if it be spread over three or
four days. It may be further extended by going from S.
Quirico to Pienza and Montepulciano, on the line between
Siena and Chiusi.

INDEX

Abbadia S. Salvatore, 4, 8, 15,
21-60
Badia, the, 41-50
Benedictines in, 21
Expulsion of, 30
Cistercians in, 30
Crucifix at, 46
Description of, 45-50
Foundation of, 26-27
Frescoes in, 46-47
History of, 41-50
Imperial grants to, 28
Lower church of, 47-50
Miracle picture in, 47
Monks feudal lords of, 25-
26
Oldest monastery in Tus
cany, 26
Relics of, 48
Spoliation of, 43
Castello di, 21, 25, 33, 51-60
Companies in, 55
Condition of people in to
day, 39
History and description of,
51-60
Origin of, 30
S. Croce, 54
View of, best, 52
Ermeta, the, 57
History of, 21-40
Madonna a Capo di Ponte di
S. Andrea, 58
Madonna del Castagno, 57
Madonna della Remedie, 57
Madonna delle Grazie, 52, 58
16

Oratory of S. Roch, 57
Relations with Siena and
Orvieto, 35, 37, 38
S. Maria Maddalena, 58
SS. Jacomo e Cristoforo, 58
Abbadinghi, piety of, 44
Abbot Rolland, 33
Aldobrandeschi, 16, 20, 29, 128,
130, 139-64, 215
Advent into Italy of, 139
Aldobrandino dei, 13, 14, 120
Aldobrandino di Bonifazio,
158
Aldobrandino il Rosso, 158
Aldobrandino of S. Fiora,
154
At Monteaperto, 156-57
Aldobrandino the younger,
I4I-53
Anastasia, 158
Bonifazio, 20, 141
Cecilia, 167
Dominion of, 140
Guglielmo, 20, 141, 154
Guido, 164
Ildeprando, 141
Jacomo, 159
Margherita, 158
Umberto, 20, 154-56
Arbia, the, 3
Arcidosso, 20
Churches of, 180-81
History of, 179-81
Road to, 178-80
Asciano, 8, 10
Assisi, 22

242

IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY

Bagni di S. Filippo, 8, 15, 1 13-17
Baths in Middle Ages, 114-
15
Baldassare and his crosses, 73-
76,79-80
Boccaccio on Ghino di Tacco,
105-12
Bolsena, Lago di, 23
Bonfigli Benedetto, 4
Botticelli, 9
Bourbon, Gen. Gio-Battista, 133
Brandano, 186
Buonconvento, 3, 8, 12
Inn of, 4
SS. Pietro e Paolo, 12
Callimala, Borgo di, 1 1, 36, 93
Campigliaccia, 120
Campiglia d'Orcia, 1 17-124
Casentino, the, 22
Castel del Piano, 215-216
Castellazzara, 67
Castiglione d'Orcia, 15
Celle, 22
Cervini, Conti di Vivo, 123
Cesarini Sforza, 165, 168
Cetona, 18, 22
Charlemagne, 26, 89
Cicale, I, 64-66
Colle di Accona, 13
Da Imola quoted, 112
Dante cited or quoted, 3, 20,
101, 155, 158, 159, 166
Della Robbia, the, 10, 96-97,
169-71
Andrea, 170
Giovanni, 171
Ermeta, the, 28
Eternal City, Lazzaretti's, 178
Feudalism in Italy, 16-17
Fiora, the, 172
Florence, contado of, 9
Franks, their way into Italy.
See Via Francigena

Frederic 11., Emperor, 29, 129
Gherardini cited, 44
Ghino di Tacco, 101-11
Gigli, quoted, 103
Giovagnolo, 20, 166
Death of, 160-63
Grand Duke Ferdinando I., 133
Ferdinando 11., 8, 117
Pietro Leopoldo, 30, 42-43
Gubbio, mountains of, 22
Henry il, Emperor, 29
Henry VI., Emperor, 29
Henry vii., Emperor, 3
Heywood, Mr., quoted, 98, 1 14-
15, 160-63
II Santo. See Lazzaretti
Indovina, the, 133
Jacopone da Todi, 1
Lazzaretti, David, called the New
Messiah, 4, 76-79, 17S-
81, 182-214
Barzellotti, Signor, on, 193
Companies of, 208
Death of, 213-14
Grotto of, 194
Interview of, with Pio IX., 189
Last procession of, 205-11
Preaching of, 197
Predecessors of, 185-86
Proclaims that he is;Christ,
205
Santa Lega of, 195
Sincerity of, 185
Socialism of, 201
Terni, Dr., on, 193
Visions of, 190-93
Young Italy and, 201
Youth of, 187-89
Malameranda, 12
Maremma, 6, 18 '
Matteo di Giovanni, 12

INDEX

243

Messiah of Mont' Amiata. See
Lazzaretti
Monaldeschi, 131
Montalcino, 4
Mont' Amiata —
After rain, 71
Cima of, 87-91
View from, 90-91
Coming of rain on, 70
Corn of, 125
Dawn on, 69
Feast of Assumption on, 80-87
Feudalism in, 16
Forest of, 21, 61-91
History of, 1 5-20
Regret at leaving, 216-18
Station of, 8, 10
View of, from Siena, 2-7
Way to, 8-15
Monte Calvo, 172
Monte Cimino, 22
Montefiascone, 23
Monte Labbro, 5, 178, 179, 181.
See Lazzaretti
Monte Laterone, 29
Monte La Verna, 22
Monte Oliveto Maggiore, 12
Montepulciano, 15
Monte Subasio, 22
Monte Venere, 22
New Messiah. See Lazzaretti
Norcia, mountains of, 22
Nova Sion, 179
Olivetan Congregation, 13
Oreste di Cappelle, 186
Orsini, 132
Orvieto, 37
Otho in., Emperor, 29
Pandolfo da Fasianella, 129
Patrimony of S. Peter, 22
Philip Augustus, Emperor, 1 1
Pian Castagnajo, 29, 127-38
Bourbon Palace at, 135
History of, 128-33

II Mugnello, 135-38
Madonna di S. Pietro, 127-28
Mediaeval road to, 127
Orvieto and, 130
S. Bartolommeo, 128, 134
View from, 137-38
Pienza, 15
Piero della Francesca, 2
Podere Zaccaria, 15
Pope Alexander VI., 167, 168
Clement v., 3
Eugenius in., 37
Marcus, 48
Pio 11., 6, 41-42, 44
Popolonia, 18
Rachis, Duke of Friuli, 26
Radicofani, 4, 8, 11, 12, 15, 29,
35
Churches of, 95-101
Cruel usurer of, 98
History of, 94-97
Rocca of, 101-112
Way from Abbadia S. Salva
tore to, 92-94
Robert, King of Naples, 3
Rondoni, Prof., quoted, 16-17,
33> 52
Roselle, 18
S. Antimo, 4
S. Casciano, 22
S. Fiora, 19, 20, 165-77
Entrance to, 165
History and description of,
165-77
Pescheria, 167
S. Agostino, 166
S. Chiara, 166, 171
SS. Flora e Lucilla, 166, 168,
169-71
S. Trinita della Selva, 172-77
S. Quirico d'Orcia, 8, 13-14
CoUegiata, 14
Inn at, 13
Misericordia, 14
Palazzo Chigi, 14

244

IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY

Salimbeni, 12, 131-32
Sano di Pietro, 12
Seggiano, 216
Sforza Bosio, 167, 174
Francesco di Bosio, 167
Guido, 176
Sforza-Cesarini, 174
Siena —
Bells of, 5
Contado of, 2, 8-10, 17-18
Duomo, 1, 5
Empire and, 16
Mangia Tower, 1
Palazzo Pubblico, 1
Porta Romana, 12
Servi di Maria, 1
Sunset in, 1-7
Valleys about, 1
Signorelli, Luca, 13
Simplicio of Sulmona, 186
Sodoma, 13, 14
Spello, 22
Spoleto, 22

Tolomei Bernardo, 12
Tommasi quoted, 57
Torrenieri, 8
Travelling in Italy, 10
Ughelli quoted, 48
Umbria, loveliness of, 9
Vai di Merse, 18
Vai di Ombrone, 18
Vai d'Orcia, 4, 8, 15
Vai di Paglia, 1 1
Via Francigena, 3, 10-12
Vignone, 15
Visconti of Campiglia d'Orcia,
16, 19, 29, 56, 113, 120,
129
Viterbo, 12, 23
Vivo, 122-24
Waters of, 124
Way to Abbadia from, 124
Zdekauer, Prof., quoted, 33

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