boxjghtwith"the~income FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF 1891 ^^^^^ A's^^i'^ ' Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029932823 PALIO AND PONTE Cornell University Library GV85 .H62 of the spor Palio and ponte : an account 3 1924 029 932 823 Overs olin PALIO AND PONTE AN ACCOUNT OF THE SPORTS OF CENTRAL ITALY FROM THE AGE OF DANTE TO THE XX™ CENTURY BY WILLIAM HEYWOOD AUTHOR OF "THE 'ENSAMPLES' OF FRA FILIPPO : A STUDY OF MEDIEVAL SIENA" "A PICTORIAL CHRONICLE OF SIENA" ETC. ETC. WITH TWENTY-SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON r TO R. LANGTON DOUGLAS WHO ALONE AMONG ENGLISH WRITERS HAS PROVED HIMSELF EQUALLY MASTER OF BOTH THE POLITICAL AND ARTISTIC HISTORY OF THE FAIREST OF TUSCAN CITIES THIS WORK IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR ; PREFACE SOME years ago, I wrote a short account of the annual Sienese horse-races under the title of Our Lady of August and the Palio of Siena. That work, which was published and sold almost exclusively in Siena, met with so favourable a reception at the hands of the public and of authoritative Italian reviewers, that I might not unreasonably flatter myself that a second edition is needed. I have, however, preferred to re-write the entire book, and that for two reasons : the first, that there is much to omit the second, that there is more to add. Thus, the publication of Professor Langton Douglas' learned volume has enabled me to dispense with a large amount of matter which was only indirectly connected with my subject, and only necessary because no English History of Siena had, as yet, been written ; while, on the other hand, further study and research have taught me that I took too narrow a view of the Palio when I regarded it merely as a Sienese institution. A Sienese institution it is ; but it is something more. It is the last survivor of those old chivalric games which were played on all the piazze of Tuscany in the Middle Ages ; and it can no more be under- stood, if viewed alone, than the history of any one Italian Commune can be understood, if divorced from the history of its neighbours. In the present work, I have treated of many Palii besides — viii PREFACE the Palio of Siena, as well as of many kindred games notably those of Florence, Pisa and Perugia. I have, in fact, endeavoured to trace the history of athletic sport in Central Italy from the days of Dante to the present year of grace 1904. w. H. Villa Ventena, Siena, July 1904. TABLE OF CONTENTS FAGS Introductory ........ i BOOK I THE PALIO ALLA LUNGA CHAP. I. The Palio of the Medieval Communes .... 6 II. Sena Vetus Civitas Virginis . .24 III. Of the Festival of Our Lady of August . -55 IV. Of the Palii of the Blessed Ambrogio Sansedoni and of San Pietro Alessandrino . .68 V. The End of the Palio alla Lunga . -85 BOOK II THE GIUOCO DEL MAZZASCUDO I. The Giuoco del Ponte of Pisa . .93 II. The Battaglia de' Sassi of Perugia . .138 III. The Giuoco del Calcio. .161 IV. The Elmora and the Pugna . .. .177 BOOK III THE PALIO ALLA TONDA I. Of the Contrade of Siena, and herein of the Evolution of the Palio ........ 197 II. The Modern Palio . .231 Index ......... 261 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Madonna and Child. By Benvenuto di Giovanni. A picture in the Galleria delle Belle Arti of Siena Frontispiece {From a Photograph by Messrs. Lombardi.) 2. Siena. A View from the Tower of the Cathedral . Facingpage i {From a Photograph by Messrs. Lombardi.) 3. Pisa. View of the Baptistery Cathedral and Lean- ing Tower ...... 14 (From a Photograph by Messrs. Alinari.) 4. Perugia. View of the Piazza del Municipio and the Church of San Lorenzo .... (From a Photograph by Messrs. Alinari.) 5. Madonna and Child. From the Ancona of Duccio Buoninsegna ...... 42 [From a Photograph by Messrs. Alinari.) 6. Interior of the Cathedral of Siena . 60 (From a Photograph by Messrs. Lombardi.) 7. The Effects of the Good Government of Siena. From the afifresco of Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena .... 66 (From a Photograph by Messrs, Lombardi.) 8. Frontispiece from the "Vita del Beato Ambrogio Sansedoni da Siena" ..... 73 9. The Ponte di Mezzo. From an engraving of 1634, in the Museo Civico of Pisa ..... 109 (From a Photograph by Mr. H. Burton.) 10. Diagram showing the Position of the Players at THE Commencement of the Giuoco del Pontk . 118 11. Armour worn by the Players in the Giuoco del Ponte. From the "Oplomachia Pisana" 118 12. The Giuoco del Ponte. From an old print in the Museo Civico of Pisa ...... 124 (From a Photograph by Mr. H. Burton.) 13. Perugia. General View ..... rsS (From a Photograph by Messrs. Alinari.) LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS page 146 14. Perugia. The Palazzo Pubblico. Facing (From a Photograph iy Messrs. Alinari.) 15. Perugia. The Palazzo Pubblico and the Fonte Maggiore ....•• 15s (From a Photograph iy Messrs. Alinari.) 16. Diagram showing the Disposition of the Players AT the Commencement of the Giuoco del Calcio ....•• 169 17. View of the Piazza di S. Croce at the Commence- ment of the Giuoco del Calcio. From the " " Memorie del Calcio Fiorentino 170 18. Bull-fight in the Piazza del Campo. From an old picture ...... 206 19. Palio of July 2nd, 1717. From an old print 221 (From a Photograph iy Mr. H. Burton.) 20. Macchine and Carrl August i6th, 1786 . ,, 224 21. Costumes of the Contrade. August 1786 228 22. A Prova ...... 238 (From a Photograph iy Mr. H. Burton.) 23. Page of the Contrada dell' Istrice . 241 (From a Photograph iy Messrs. Lomiardi.) 24. Group of Contadine, showing the Straw Hats worn in the Senese . 244 (From a Photograph by Messrs. Lomiardi.) 25. The Procession ...... 246 (From a Photograph by Mr. H. Burton.) 26. Page of the Contrada del Bruco 255 (From, a Photograph by Messrs. Lomhardi.) 27. Map of Siena, showing the Boundaries of the Seventeen Contrade . 258 PALIO AND PONTE INTRODUCTORY Hie est locus, Campus celeberrimus hie est, Illud grande forum, Romani more theatri. Quo fiunt Ludi varji ; et celebrantur honores Virginis et curru Tauri cervique trahuntur Viscera, et armatus sonipes, pro munere, certat. ViTTORio Campanicense, De ludo pugncB, AT the junction of the three hills whereupon Siena torreggia e siede, in the very centre of the city, stands the many-memoried Piazza del Campo. The same site was probably occupied by the vanished forum of the Roman Colony ; and here, peradventure, it was that the old Senensium plebes, as fierce, intractable and tumultuous as their mediaeval descendants, laid violent hands upon the senator Manlius Patruitus. Here, after the taking of Grosseto, on the day of St Mary of August, in the year of grace 1224, " the Sienese, for joy of that victory, held high festival and lighted bonfires and " closed the shops ; while before one of those same shops, on another gala-day, nearly a century later, Dante Alighieri stood, so absorbed in the study of an ancient codex that he read on undisturbed in spite of a great tournament that was going on and the mighty din of those who were round about. Here, four days after the battle of Montaperti, the men of Montalcino made submission before the victorious carroccio, "and were reconciled and accepted as subjects of the Magnificent Commune of Siena." Here Provenzano Salvani humbly begged alms of his fellow-citizens . per trar Tamico suo di pena. A I PALIO AND PONTE Here, in later times, the barattieri set up their booths, walled with branches and roofed with canvas, wherein the good citizens of Siena might lawfully play ad ludum zardi ; and here the candidates for knighthood erected their pavilions, and feasted all who came, giving and receiving gifts. Moreover, down to 1884—in which year the mercato nuovo was built where of old the criminals of the Republic were mutilated and put to death—the daily market was held in the Piazza, the positions to be occupied by the vendors of the different wares being fixed by statute as early as the 14th century. Nor has the Campo lacked its scenes of carnage and of tumult. Again and again have its, stones been crimsoned with blood and blackened by fire ; and, little more than a century ago, its beautiful old palaces looked down, calm and unmoved,—pray God for the last time, —upon such a scene of ferocity and suffering as can never have been surpassed throughout all the " splendid, stupid, glorious " Middle Ages. For here, on Friday, 28th July 1799, in the name of the Blessed Virgin of Comfort and to the cry of Viva Maria I a howling mob of fanatics, drunk with wine and slaughter, burned in one vast fire nineteen Jews, men and women together, using for the purpose the fragments of the Tree of Liberty, which had been set up before the Fonte Gaia, little more than three months earlier. In a word, the history of its Piazza is the history of Siena. That with which we are at present concerned is, however, the Palio ; and, for us, the Piazza is chiefly interesting in view of that fact, since it is here that the Palio is run twice yearly, on the 2nd July and the i6th August. And what manner of thing is this Palio ? Most of the Guide Books describe it as a horse-race.