Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/291

BOLOGNA. 255 BOLOGNA. donnii (li San Liua (lOTfi-lTSO), with 035 arelies; tlie distame is aliimt a mile and a half. The city is also remarkable for its churches, of •which there are about 130. datin'; in unbroken succession from the Kleventh Century to the ])res- ent. The earliest are the jfroup of seven churches called San Stefano. unique in Italy, and datinj; from the Eleventh and the Twelfth centuries, and examples of simple I.ond)ard brick architecture. This {,'roup includes a small basilica of Saints I'ietro and Paolo, with early groin vaulting, originally the cathedral : the circular, vaulted Church (if San Sepolcro. built in imitation of the Holy Sepulchre (Twelfth Century) ; a well-pre- served cloister, remarkable for its second-story arcades, usually destroyed in m€>di;eval cloisters; an interesting subterranean chuich. and several other small churches and eha|>els. with monastic buildings, the whole lieing connected by numerous passages. Remains of contemporary fortified feu- dal palaces are numerous, the most imposing being the leaning tower of the Asinelli familv, built in 1109, and 320 feet high, and that of tlie Garisendi family, of 1110, 1G3 feet high. The latter is 10 feet out of the perpendicular and is mentioned by Dante {Infcnio, xxxi. 136), who compared it to the giant Antieus. Bologna had 180 such towers in the Jliddle Ages. There are also many quaint houses of the Thir- teenth Century, combining wood and brick, and from this period date the two great palaces of the ancient republic, the Palazzo del Podestfl, famous as the place where King Enzio, son of Emperor Frederick II., was imprisoned, and the Palazzo Pubblico, for the general popular assem- blies : as well as such large private houses as the Palazzo Pepoli. with its great court; ^he Palazzo JIalvasia, and the Loggia dei Mercanti, all of Gothic architecture. Bologna was then one of the foremost of the free communes. It was at the same time one of the important cen- tres of the great religious revival emjihasized by the two mendicant and preaching Orders of Saint Francis and Saint Dominic. The churches of San Domenico and San Francesco were among the first erected by these Orders i c. 1220-30) . and among the earliest examples of Gothic architec- ture in Italy — earlier than their rivals in Ven- ice and Florence. Other Gothic churches are the Madonna dei Servi. and, above all, the colossal church of the national patron, San Petronio, designed in 1390 to be the largest cathedral in Italy. It was never completed as planned, only the nave and aisles being built (337 X 171 feet), without the transept with its central dome, or the apse, which would have made a structure surpassing the Cathedral of Florence in size. The proportions of the details are on so large a scale, with only twelve piers to support the arches and vaulting, that the real size is not apparent. The Gothic tracery of the large win- dows is the finest in Italy, and the sculptures on the facade doorways, by Jacopo della Querela, are among the most interesting works of the earliest Renaissance. The finest work of Gothic sculp- ture in the city is the shrine of San Domenico (12C7), by Giovanni Agnelli, from the designs of Xiceola Pisano. The churches are full of interesting Gothic sepulchral monuments of the old university professors, with reliefs represent- ing them teaching their classes, while other monuments stand in the streets under stone canopies, and represent men of political note, in the same style as that which prevailed in Padua, 'erona, etc. It is probable that most of the best mediaeval works of art in Bologna were by artists from other cities; for Bologna was not creative artis- tically until the late Renaissance, but was given over to the pursuit of wealth. It was original, however, in its arcades and in its use of terra- cotta decorations of brick constructions. It was late in adopting the Renaissance, and then (c.1500) it used terra-eotta work most ef- fectively in the new stjde. It is one of the most remarkable cities in Italj- for its fine Renaissance palaces. Such arc the Palazzi Fava, Bolognini, JIalvczzi, Bevilacqua. and Bentivoglio, and the later part of the Palazzo del PodeslA. llore classic and later Renaissance buildings are the JIalvezzi Jledici Palace, and the old University (now library), by Terribiglia. San Giacomo Alaggiore and San Jlichele in Bosco are exam- ples of the Renaissance, and San Pietro of the Baroceo style of church. In civil Barocco archi- tecture, Tibaldi distinguished himself in the ila- gnani Palace and the present University building (1577). History. According to legend, Bologna was founded about the Eighth Century B.C. by a col- ony of Etruscans. It was then called Felsina. Several necropoli.ses, especially that called Villa- nova, have yielded testimony to this early occu- pation. Jlany of the objects found in the' tombs are of archfeologieal interest. They are exhibited at the iluseo Civico. Felsina was long the most important Etruscan city north of the Apennines, and the earliest stage of Italian culture is called the Villanova Age. It was conquered by the Gallic tribe of the Boii'and called by them Bononia. the name it has since retained. Having espou.sed the cause of Hannibal, it was conquered by the Ro- mans, who made it a colony in B.C. 189. It re- mained a city of great importance under the Empire. After the fall of the Western Empire, Bologna was anne.ved. with its territory, to the E.xarchate of Ravenna. It passed to the Lom- bards on the fall of the Byzantine Exarchate, but was soon made a free city by Charlemagne. The Imperial charter of 1112 recognized its right to elect its own magistrates, and from that time the city became noted for its strongly organized guilds and its thorough democratic spirit, which went so far as to exclude the nobility from office, as in Tnscany. Bologna acquired world-wide fame during the Middle Ages through its uni- versity, one of the oldest in the world. Under Imperial protection it became the greatest cen- tre of learning in Italy, and the expounder of Roman law. It reestablished the text of the Cor- pus Juris Cirilis. During the Twelfth and Tliir- tecnth centuries, when it was especially flourish- ing, there were in attendance ordinarily anrwhere from 3000 to 10,000 students from all parts of Europe. The faculties of medicine and theology were added later to that of law. There have been a numl)er of women among its professors. Of the earliest the most famous was Novella d'An- drea. in the Fourteenth Century, and of the lat- est. Clotilda Tambroni. It was the pioneer in the study of anatomy (Fourteenth Century), and (ialvani here discovered galvanism. The cele- brated linguist Jlezzofanti also taught here, and such men as Aldrovandi, Marsili, Lanza, Alessan- drini, Basse. Its library now contains over 2.50,- 000 volumes and many important manuscripts.