Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/59

 SIENA 43 Contest between empire aud France for Siena. Cosimo de' Medici, duke of Florence, the Spaniards were sent away on the 5th August 1552 and the Sienese took possession of their fortress. The Government was now reconstituted under the pro- tection of the French agents ; the balla was abolished, its very name having been rendered odious by the tyranny of Spain, and was replaced by a similar magistracy styled capitani del popolo e reggimento. Siena exulted in her recovered freedom ; but her sunshine was soon clouded. First, the emperor's wrath was stirred by the influence of France in the counsels of the republic ; then Cosimo, who was no less jealous of the French, conceived the design of annexing Siena to his own dominions. The first hostilities of the imperial forces in Val di Chiana (1552-53) did little damage ; but when Cosimo took the field with an army commanded by the marquis of Marignano the ruin of Siena was at hand. On 26th January Marignano cap- tured the forts of Porta Camellia (which the whole popu- lation of Siena, including the women, had helped to con- struct) and invested the city. On 2d August of the same year, at Marciano in Val di Chiana, he won a complete victory over the Sienese and French troops under Piero Strozzi, the Florentine exile and marshal of France. Meanwhile Siena was vigorously besieged, and its inhabit- ants, sacrificing everything for their beloved city, main- tained a most heroic defence. A glorious record of their sufferings is to' be found in the Diary of Sozzini, the Sienese historian, and in the Commentaries of Blaise de Monluc, the French representative in Siena. But in April 1555 the town was reduced to extremity and was forced to capitulate to the emperor and the duke. On 21st April the Spanish troops entered the gates ; thereupon many patriots abandoned the city and, taking refuge at Montalcino, maintained there a shadowy form of republic until 1559. Cosimo I. de' Medici being granted the investiture of the Sienese state by the patent of Philip II. of Spain, dated 3d July 1557, took formal possession of the city on the 19th of the same month. A lieutenant-general was appointed as representative of his authority ; the council of the balla was reconstituted with twenty members chosen by the duke ; the consistory and the general council were left in existence but deprived of their political autonomy. Thus Siena was annexed to the Florentine .state under the same ruler and became an integral part of the grand-duchy of Tuscany. Nevertheless it retained a separate administration for more than two centuries, until the general reforms of the grand-duke Pietro Leo- poldo, the French domination, and finally the restoration swept away all differences between the Sienese and Floren- tine systems of government. In 1859 Siena was the first Tuscan city that voted for annexation to Piedmont and the monarchy of Victor Emmanuel II., this decision (voted 26th June) being the initial step towards the unity of Italy. Literary History. -The literary history of Siena, while recording no gifts to the world equal to those bequeathed by Florence, and without the power and originality by which the latter became the centre of Italian culture, can nevertheless boast of some illustrious names. Of these a brief summary, beginning with the department of general literature and passing on to history aud science, is sub- joined. Many of them are also dealt with in separate articles, to which the reader is referred. Literary As early as the 13th century the vulgar tongue was already well history, established at Siena, being used in public documents, commercial records, and private correspondence. The poets flourishing at that period were Folcacchiero, Cecco Angiolieri a humorist of a very high order and Bindo Bonichi, who belonged also to the fol- lowing century. The chief glory of the 14th century was St Catherine Benincasa. The year of her death (1380) was that of the birth of St Bernardino Albizzeschi, a popular preacher whose sermons in the vulgar tongue are models of style and diction. To the 15th century belongs ^Eneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pius II.), humanist, historian, and political writer. In the 16th century we Incor- poration of Siena with Tuscany. find another Piccolomini (Alexander), bishop of Patras, author of a curious dialogue, Delia bella Creanza delle Donne ; another bishop, Claudio Tolomei, diplomatist, poet, and philologist, who revived the use of ancient Latin metres ; and Luca Contile, a writer of nar- ratives, plays, and poems. Prose fiction had two representatives in this century, Scipione Bargagli, a writer of some merit, and Pietro Fortini, whose productions were trivial and indecent. In the 17th century we find Ludovico Sergardi (Quinto Settano), a Latinist and satirical writer of much talent and culture ; but the most original and brilliant figure in Sieuese literature is that of^ Girolamo Gigli (1660-1722), author of the Gazzettino, La Sorellina di Don Pilone, II Vocabolario Cater in-iano, and the Diario Ecclesi- custico. As humorist, scholar, and philologist Gigli would take a high place in the literature of any land. His resolute opposition to all hypocrisy whether religious or literary exposed him to merciless persecution from the Jesuits and the Delia Cruscan Academy. In the domain of history we have first the old Sienese chronicles, His- which down to the 14th century are so confused that it is almost toriaus. impossible to disentangle truth from fiction or even to decide the personality of the various authors. Three 14th-century chronicles, attributed to Andrea Dei, Agnolo di Tura, called II Grasso, and Xeri di Donati, are published in Muratori, vol. xv. To the 15th century belongs the chronicle of Allegretto Allegretti, also in Muratori (vol. xxiii.) ; and during the same period flourished Sigis- mondo Ti/io (a priest of Siena, though born at Castiglione Aretino), whose voluminous history written in Latin and never printed (now among the MSS. of the Chigi Library in Rome), though de- void of literary merit, contains much valuable material. The best Sienese historians belong to the 16th century. They are Orlando Malavolti (1515-1596), a man of noble birth, the most trustworthy of all ; Antonio Bellarmati ; Alessandro Sozzini di Girolamo, the sympathetic author of the Diario dell' ultima Guerra Senese ; and Giugurta Tommasi, of whose tedious history ten books, down to 1354, have been published, the rest being still in manuscript. Together with these historians we must mention the learned scholars Celso Cittadini (d. 1627), Ulberto Benvoglienti (d. 1733), one of Muratori's correspondents, and Gio. Antonio Pied (d. 1768), author of histories of Pandolfo Petrucci and the bishopric of Siena. In the same category may be classed the librarian C. F. Carpellini (d. 1872), author of several monographs on the origin of Siena and the constitiition of the republic, and Scipione Borghesi (d. 1877), who has left a precious store of historical, biographical, and biblio- graphical studies and documents. In theology and philosophy the most distinguished names are Scientific Bernardino Ochino and Lelio and Fausto Soccini (16th century); writers, in jurisprudence, three Soccini Mariano senior, Bartolommeo, and Mariano junior (15th and 16th centuries) ; and in political economy, Sallustio Bandini (1677-1760), author of the Discorso sulla, Maremma. In physical science the names most worthy of mention are those of the botanist Pier Antonio Mattioli (1501-1572), of Pirro Maria Gabrielli (1643-1705), founder of the academy of the Physiocritics, and of the anatomist Paolo Mascagni (d. 1825). Art. The history of Sienese art is a fair and luminous record. Painters. Lanzi happily designates Sienese painting as "Lieta scuola fra lieto popolo" ("the blithe school of a blithe people"). The special characteristics of its masters are freshness of colour, vivacity of ex- pression, and distinct originality. The Sienese school of painting owes its origin to the influence of Byzantine art ; but it improved that art, impressed it with a special stamp, and was for long inde- pendent of all other influences. Consequently Sienese art seemed almost stationary amid the general progress and development of the other Italian schools, and preserved its medieval character down to the end of the 15th century. When the Florentine Giot- tesques and their few followers were on the wane, this mystic Sienese school still showed continued fertility and improvement. At the close of the 15th century the influence of the Umbrian and to a slighter degree of the Florentine schools began to pene- trate into Siena, followed a little later by that of the Lombard, and these grafts gave fresh vigour to the old stock without destroying its special characteristics. Of this new phase of Sienese art it has been well said that Sodoma was its Leonardo, Baldassare Peruzzi its Raphael, and Beccafumi its Michelangelo. In every age Siena has produced many painters of different degrees of merit. It is impossible to mention all, so we will only cite the names of the more celebrated. In the 13th century we find Guido (da Siena), painter of the well-known Madonna in the church of S. Domenico in Siena. The 14th century gives us Ugolino, who painted the Madonna del Tabernacolo in Or San Michele, Florence ; Duccio di Buouinsegna, whose chief work is the great panel of the high altar of the cathedral at Siena; Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Simone di Martino (or Memmi), Lippo Memmi, Andrea di Vanni (painter and statesman), and Taddeo di Bartolo. In the 15th century we have Sano di Pietro, Giovanni di Paolo, Stefano di Giovanni (II Sassetta), and Matteo di Giovanni Bartoli, whose several paintings of the Massacre of the Innocents show a fine sentiment and much observation of reality. The 16th century boasts the names of Guidoccio Cossarelli, Giacomo Pacchiarotto, Girolamo del Pacchia,