"This place," says Crescimbeni, "is the finest and most conveni ent for spectacles that can be imagined. To the west there is the Monte Testaccio ; to the east a little eminence on which the monas tery of St Saba once stood ; on the north that part of the Aventine which Paul III. has fortified, and a few vine-dressers cottages ; to the south are the walls of Rome, with a tower at every hundred feet. All these positions were crowded with people, and all could see con veniently. Besides these commanding positions there were a great number of stands and scaffoldings. In the midst is the large open meadow, on the northern side of which was the dais raised for Madama (the beautiful Julia, sister of Paul 111., whose recumbent statue may be seen on that Pontiff s tomb in St Peter s), which was entirely surrounded by infantry and cavalry." Then came a procession like that described in the work referred to above, and then "commenced the great hunting match, in which thirteen bulls were slain, and six cars were sent down from Monte Testaccio, on each of which was a red standard and a live pig, in scrambling for which no less efforts were made than in slaying the bulls. Among the many livened companies seen that day was one of thirty-six mounte banks clad in red, with iron-shod poles in their hands ; and these were the first to assail the bulls. But the most splendid thing seen was a company of six cavaliers, consisting of the Cardinal Farnese, the Cardinal Santa Fiora, the duke of Camerino, the duke of Melfi, the count of Santa Fiora, and the prince of Macedonia. These were dressed as knights of old, and their garments were of gold, and silver, and silk with embroidery and lace, and needlework upon needlework, such an elegance that I (says the worthy canon) have neither the patience nor the courage to describe it ! Their horses, too, were adorned with the same splendour, and they performed such feats of horsemanship (these cardinals !) that the people thought it a miracle ! Then three races were run, the first for rider less horses, with a banner of gold brocade for the prize ; the second for ridden horses, with a banner of crimson velvet for the prize ; and the third, for mares, the prize being a banner of purple velvet. On the last day of carnival there was a race of asses and buffaloes, and as usual there was revelling and tumult in abundance. At night there was a comedy in the Caffarelli palace. On the first day of Lent there was a procession to Santa Sabina, which was so grand that many disputed whether the Carnival or Lent was the finest at Piome ! " Many other descriptions, some of them extending to great length, may be found in print among the vast quantity of volumes concerning the Eternal City ; there is one especially relating to the doings of 1372. But there is evidence that these games were prac tised from a much greater antiquity. They were somewhat modified from generation to generation ; but ostentation, magnificence in dress, and blood-thirsty cruelty to animals were the unchanging characteristics of them.
Church writers may represent the excesses of carnival as abhorrent to the church, and may point to the various ordinances of mortification and repentance which she has appointed as a means for atoning for the guilt then con tracted by the city. But nothing is more certain than that many of the popes were great patrons and promoters of carnival keeping. Paul II., the Venetian Barbo, was one of the most notable in this respect. In his time the Jews of Rome were compelled to pay yearly a sum of 1 130 golden florins (the thirty being added as a special memorial of Judas and the thirty pieces of silver), which was expended on the carnival. And we have a decree of Paul II. minutely providing for, and arranging the diversions which were to take place in it. Among other things his Holiness orders that four rings of silver gilt should be provided, two in the Piazza Navona, and two at the Monte Testaccio, one at each place for the burghers and the other for the retainers of the nobles to practise riding at the ring. The Pope also orders a great variety of races, the expense of which are to be paid from the Papal exchequer, one to be run by the Jews, another for Christian children, another for Christian young men, another for sexagenarians, a fifth for asses, and a sixth for buffaloes. Under Julius III. we have long accounts of bull-hunts bull-baits we should rather say in the Forum, with gorgeous descriptions of the magnificence of the dresses, and enormous suppers in the palace of the Conservator! in the Capitol, where seven cardinals, together with the Duke Orazio Farnese, supped at one table, and all the ladies by themselves at another. After the supper the whole party went into the court-yard of the palace, which was turned into the semblance of a theatre, "to see a most charming comedy which was admirably played, and lasted so long that it was not over till ten o clock ! " Even the austere and rigid Caraffa, Paul IV. (ob. 1559), used to keep carnival by inviting all the Sacred College to dine with him. The vigorous and terrible Sixtus V., who was elected in 1585, set himself to the keeping of carnival after a different fashion. Finding that the licence then customary and permitted gave rise to much abuse and no few crimes, he prepared for carnival, to the no small dismay and terror of the Romans, by setting up sundry gibbets in several conspicuous places of the town, as well as whipping posts, the former as a hint to robbers and cut-throats, the latter in store for minor offenders. We find, further, from the provisions made at the time, that Sixtus reformed the evil custom of throwing dirt and dust and flour at passengers, permitting only flowers or sweetmeats to be thrown. The barberi (riderless horses) had by this time begun to run regularly every carnival in the Corso; and Sixtus caused a lane to be enclosed with palisades in the centre of the street, along which the horses might run without the danger of causing the accidents which, it seems then, as now, were frequently the result of this sport. He also compelled the people to desist from the old practice of using every kind of violence and trick to impede the barberi in their course, for the purpose of favouring this or the other among the competi tors.
It was formerly the custom, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries, to suspend all carnival observances during the Anno Santo or jubilee year. Gregory XIII., when he celebrated the eleventh jubilee in 1575, forbade any of the usual carnival celebrations, and ordered that all the money usually expended for the purpose by the Apostolic Chamber should be used for the assistance of poor pilgrims. Clement X., just a hundred years later, on the occasion of the jubilee of 1C75, prohibited all carnival celebration, and granted to the Archconfraternity of Pilgrims of the Holy Trinity the GOOO crowns which the Apostolic Chamber was at that period in the habit of spending on the carnival rejoicings, at the same time compelling the Jews to pay over to the same purpose the sums they annually furnished for the barberi and the prizes of the races. The carnival celebra tions have also been frequently suspended on account of the appointed day or days for them having fallen on the date of some church festival. When in the pontificate of Innocent XII. the Wednesday in the last week of carnival chanced to fall on the festival of the Purification of the Virgin, the race of the barberi which ought to have taken place on the vigil of that festival, was changed to the previous Sunday. On many subsequent occasions the days of the sports have from similar causes been sometimes postponed, sometimes anticipated, and sometimes sup pressed. In 1808 Pius VII. forbade all carnival manifesta tions on account of the French invasion, nor would he permit any to take place in 1809, notwithstanding that the French in the occupation of the city had proclaimed the celebration of the carnival. Of course the Pope had no power to enforce his wish that no sort of carnival rejoicing should take place. But it is remarkable, as indicating the feeling of the population at the time, that the Corso remained entirely deserted and all the shops shut.
The later Popes for the most part restricted the public festivities of the carnival to the last six or seven days immediately preced ing Ash Wednesday. The municipal authorities of the city, on whom the regulation of such matters now depend, allow ten days. The public are not, however, permitted to do all the things which are understood to constitute the celebration of carnival on all these days indifferently. Some days are appointed for a "gala corso," i.e., a processional driving up and down the Corso of all those who choose to take part in it, with the handsomest carriages and the finest liveries and horses, &c., they can compass ; and on these days con secrated to finery and ostentation nothing save flowers is permitted
