breakers from having distributed distributed bread in a great famine, but in the Middle Ages their name spelt terror rather than benevolence. They were a power not lightly to be reckoned with. Great allies of the papal party they more than once gave sanctuary to fugitive popes in their strong Turris Cartularia, the ruins of which can still be seen near the church of St. Gregory. In the thirteenth century this tower fell into the hands of the Imperialists, and was utterly destroyed with all the archives which had been stored there for safety. It formed an outpost in a chain of fortifications with which the Frangipani, and their allies the Corsi, enclosed a large portion of the city. Their main stronghold was built among the ruins of the Palatine, with flanking towers on the Colos seum and on the arches of Constantine, Titus, and Janus. From this dominating position they could take the field or face their foes in the city at the head of hundreds of armed retainers. Another medieval family the Anguillara, have been merged in the Orsini, leaving a solitary tower in Trastevere to commemorate a once great and powerful race.

But of all the princely families of Rome none played so conspicuous a part as the Orsini and the Colonna, and this not alone in the history of their own city, for their names appear in connection with every great event, and with every compact entered into with the princes of Europe for many centuries. These two great families were hereditary enemies and belonged to rival factions. The Colonna were Ghibellines and Imperialists, the Orsini Guelphs and supporters of the Papacy; and when they were not fighting in support of their political parties, they were engaged in private feuds on their own account. While in other cities of

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Italy feudal tyranny was gradually giving way before the more lightened government of independent republics, Rome was too weak to struggle against her oppressors. Deserted and neglected for nearly a century by her lawful sovereigns the popes, at best ruled by a vacillating and disorderly government, the city lay at the mercy of her great barons who scorned all law and authority, asserting and maintaining their personal independence at the point of the sword, while they swelled the ranks of their retainers with bandits and cut-throats to whom they gave sanctuary in return for military service. Mighty Rome was shrunken to the size of a small town within a desolate waste, surrounded by ancient walls grown far too large for the city they protected. Amphitheatres, mausoleums of Roman emperors, temples, and theatres were converted into strongholds: such of the churches as were not fortified were crumbling into ruin; and everywhere bristled loopholed towers from which the nobles could defy one another, and which commanded the entrances to dark, filthy, and winding streets. At frequent intervals the despondent apathy of the citizens would be rudely disturbed by a call to arms, and to the sound of hoarse battle-cries, the clashing of weapons upon steel corselet and helmet, and the waving of banners with the rival Ghibelline and Guelph devices of eagle and keys, bands of Orsini and Colonna would rush fighting through the narrow streets and across the waste spaces of the city, would fall back and advance to fight again until, with the darkness, they would retire behind their barred gateways, leaving their dead as 80 much carrion in the

streets.

These two families divided the greater part of Rome between them.

The Orsini dominated the Field of Mars and the Vatican district from their fortress in the ruins of the theatre of Pompey and their castle on Monte Giordano, now the Palazzo Gabrielli and still retaining its portcullis and much of its medieval appearance. Tor di Nona and Tor Sanguigna were flanking towers to the Orsini stronghold. The Quirinal Hill was occupied by the Colonna, their great castle standing almost on the same ground as the present Palazzo Colonna, and the Mausoleum of Augustus near the river forming an outlying fortress.

Occasionally a truce was patched up between the two families that they might unite against a common enemy, and for a period they agreed that two senators, one from each family, should be appointed to govern Rome in the pope's absence. But these peaceful intervals were shortlived. On the slightest provocation barricades would be run up, new entrenchments dug, and civil war would break out afresh.

Again and again in their conflict with the Church the Colonna were worsted in the struggle, their estates confiscated, and themselves, root and branch, beggared and exiled; but there was a strength and vitality about the race that no adversity could subdue. Pope Boniface the Eighth, whose displeasure they had incurred by their haughty behaviour, oppressed them for a while. Six brothers Colonna were exiled, and their ancestral town of Palestrina was razed to the ground by the Caetani, Boniface's relatives and adherents, and a plough driven over the site to typify its permanent devastation. But a few years later it was bold Sciarra Colonna who broke into the pope's castle at Anagni, and who made him prisoner with bitter taunts and reproaches. Subsequently Sciarra

played a conspicuous part in the coronation of Lewis the Bavarian, and in gratitude for his services the Emperor allowed the single column of the family coat-of-arms to be surmounted by a golden crown.

Greatest among the six brothers of this period was Stephen, the honoured friend of Petrarch, an able man and a good soldier, who throughout a long troubled life met prosperity and adversity, poverty, banishment, and danger with the same calm resolution and intrepid courage. This Stephen survived the last of his line, his two sons, Stephen and Peter, with two grandsons being massacred without quarter in an unsuccessful skirmish against Rienzi.

After Boniface's death the Colonna came into their own again, and received one hundred thousand gold florins in compensation for their losses. Palestrina was rebuilt, only however to be torn down again a hundred and thirty years or so later, by order of Eugenius the Fourth.

In the reign of Sixtus the Fourth Rome was again distracted by domestic feuds. The Pope, aided by the ever ready Orsini, pursued the Colonna with relentless hatred. Protonotary Lorenzo Colonna fell through treachery into the hands of his enemy, and his friend Savelli was taken and murdered on the spot for refusing to rejoice with his captors. Lorenzo was tortured and beheaded, and the Orsini sacked and burnt all the Colonna property in the city.

Other distinguished members of this family at a later epoch were Vittoria Colonna the friend of Michael Angelo, and Marc Antonio who commanded the Papal fleet at Lepanto and was awarded a triumphal entry into Rome after his victory.

Nothing is known of the origin of this great race, though it is popularly believed to have come from the banks

also owned part of Tusculum and were probably related to the counts of that place. At a later date Palestrina became their principal stronghold, and they also owned Marino, Grotta Ferrata, and Genazzano in the Sabine Hills, and Paliano from which they got their princely title. Colonna were often distinguished churchmen, but only one member of the family was raised to the pontificate, as Martin the Fifth. The cardinals of the house founded and endowed the convent of San Silvestro for the Colonna daughters who took the veil; these numbered twelve in 1318.

In 1490 a Colonna, Vittoria's father, was constable of the Kingdom of Naples, and it was popularly believed in Rome that the Pope excommunicated the King of Naples every vigil of St. Peter (June 28th) because he had failed to proffer the tribute of his investiture. The formula ran: "I curse and bless you," and as the curse was uttered, the Colonna palace was said to tremble. This palace, which stands on the slopes of the Quirinal, was built by Pope Martin for his personal use, and contains a fine picture gallery and a magnificent suite of state rooms; the gardens cover the side of the hill. After nearly eight centuries of life the family is still among the greatest and most distinguished in Rome. One prince of the name is now Syndic of the city; another shares the peaceful office of Prince Assistant at the Pontifical throne with his ancient enemy Filippo Orsini.

The career of the Orsini has been no less eventful, but this family has now died out in many of its branches. In a metrical account of the corona

tion of Boniface the Eighth, written by Cardinal St. George and quoted by Gibbon, the Orsini are said to come from Spoleto. Other writers believe them to be of French origin, but at an early date they became identified with the history of Rome, and in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries two members of the family became popes, Celestin the Second in 1191, and Nicolas the Third in 1277. The last Orsini pope was the Benedictine monk Benedict the Thirteenth (1724). In the sixteenth century the Orsini fell under the pope's displeasure, the head of the family being banished and his estates confiscated. This individual, Giordano Orsini, Duke of Bracciano, became enamoured of Vittoria Accoramboni, wife of Francesco Peretti, Sixtus the Fifth's nephew. Vittoria was beautiful, fascinating, and unscrupulous, and Giordano, no less unscrupulous, did not hesitate to rid himself of the obstacles to his desires. His own wife he strangled in his castle at Bracciano, and Francesco was murdered in the streets of Rome by his orders and with the connivance of Vittoria and her brother.

Orsini and their union

Vittoria were married, but was of short duration. Sixtus had been meanwhile elected to the Papacy, and he lost no time in disgracing and banishing Giordano, whose end in exile is shrouded in mystery. Vittoria was shortly afterwards brutally murdered, for the sake of the Orsini inheritance, by other members of the family.

The Orsini property was at Bracciano, Anguillara, and Galera, but the former, with the title that went with it, now belongs to the Odescalchi. In Rome the family still owns and inhabits the great palace by the theatre of Marcellus, whose gateway is flanked by stone bears, the emblem of the Orsini race.

Another medieval family, the Gaetani or Caetani, dukes of Sermoneta and princes of Caserta and Teano, are of Neapolitan origin. A member of the family became pope as Gela sius the Second in 1118, and the first of the name was military prefect under Manfred, King of Sicily, but their close union with Rome dates from the pontificate of the Gaetani Pope Boniface the Eighth. In the thirteenth century they established their citadel in the tomb of Cecilia Metella which they completely hid with battlements and bastions.

family is still numerous and prosperous.

The princely families of Annibaldi, Massimo, and Cenci can claim, and with reason, a descent even more ancient than these. The first, of the race of the great Hannibal, are no longer extant. The Massimi, who derive their, name from the ancient family of Maximus, are dukes of Rignano, princes of Roviano, and heirs to many other titles, and are still among the greatest in Rome. The present prince lives in the family palace in the Corso Vittorio Emanuele familiar to every tourist by its curved façade and rows of columns, and still keeps up much of the princely state and ceremony of a past age. The Cenci have become extinct in the male line and the name is carried on by a distant branch as Cenci Bolognetti. This family was first heard of in the person of Marcus Cencius, Prefect of Pisa in the year 457 of Rome; and in 914 Johannis Cencius was elected pope as John the Tenth. In 1692 the Cenci were created princes of Vicovaro a little town in the Sabine Hills, and in 1723 they acquired the title and estates of Bolognetti by the marriage of Virginius with an heiress of that house. With her came into the family the dower house, the graceful

No. 539.-VOL. XC.

Palazzo Bolognetti-Cenci, still standing in the Corso Vittorio Emanuele. The Bolognetti Palace in the Piazza di Venezia was sold to Prince Torlonia, and has just been destroyed to open a view of the monument of Victor Emmanuel which is to be raised on the Capitol. The old Cenci Palace,- -a few years ago deserted and windowless, now government property-still stands in what was once the Jews' quarter of Rome, a forbidding pile, typical of the shadow which will always hang over the history of this family. Here is the Cenci chapel, San Tommaso a' Cenci, built by a member of the family who was Bishop of Sabina in 1113.

In the annals of modern Rome the princely families which figure most largely are those which, at a comparatively modern date, were drawn to Rome from other parts of the peninsula when one of their house was elected to the pontificate. Each new pope created a new aristocracy among his own relatives, and gathered round him followers from his own province among which he distributed the great papal offices. Sometimes the period of greatness and prosperity was brief; in other cases, a permanent aristocracy was created, and the papal offices became hereditary in certain families. Thus the Ruspoli from father to son are Masters of the Papal Hospice; the Colonna are Assistant Princes; the Serlupi are Marshals of the Pope's Horse; the Sforza have the hereditary right to appoint the standardbearer of the Roman people; the Chigi are Marshals of Conclave, replacing the Savelli who had held this office for nearly five centuries. Some of these families were noble in their

own province. The Boncompagni were a noble family of Bologna, coming to Rome with Gregory the Thirteenth in 1572, when they were created dukes of Sora and later

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princes of Piombino and of Venosa. The Ludovisi were nobles of Pisa, the Borghese patricians of Siena. This great family came to Rome with Paul the Fifth in the early years of the seventeenth century and was granted princely rank with the title of Sulmona. In the middle of last century Marc Antonio Borghese married a Salviati heiress and at that period was owner of the beautiful Villa Borghese with its museum and a priceless collection of pictures and statues, of the great palace on the Tiber, of the villas Mondragone and Aldobrandini at Frascati, and of thirty-six estates in the Campagna. Most visitors are familiar with the rich Borghese chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore. At a later date Camillo Borghese married Pauline Bonaparte and was appointed governor of Piedmont by the Emperor. Of late years this family has been almost ruined by reckless building speculations, and the greater portion of its magnificent possessions have been sold and alienated.

The Aldobrandini and Salviati are both offshoots from this family.

The Barberini and Corsini are Florentines, and came to Rome with Urban the Eighth and Clement the Twelfth. The Barberini Villa at Castel Gandolfo, and their palace in Rome are familiar to all visitors. The grounds of the Corsini Villa on the Janiculum have been recently converted into a public drive; the Corsini Palace in Trastevere on the river-bank is famous for its library and picture galleries. Opposite to it is the Farnesina Palace built by the great banker Agostino Chigi in the sixteenth century. This was the scene of the well-known story told of the banker who, wishing to impress his guests at a banquet with his enormous wealth, bade his lackeys throw his silver dishes into the river at the end of each course under the eyes of

his astonished guests who did not know that nets had been arranged in the water to catch them as they sank. The Albani, kinsmen of Clement the Eleventh, came from Urbino, the Ros pigliosi from Pistoja with Clement the Ninth, the Odescalchi from Como with Innocent the Eleventh, the Doria Pamphili from Genoa.

This papal aristocracy occupied an absolutely unique position. Relatives of popes, who were also reigning princes, they assumed royal rank, and lived with a magnificence and luxury unsurpassed in Europe. Their names were inscribed in the Golden Book of the Capitol, and many of them were created grandees of Spain. They bought country estates and suburban villas, and built themselves great palaces in the city. These stately Renaissance buildings, some of them larger than many a royal palace, are grouped at the base of the Capitol and along the Corso, the most important, and at one time the only great street in Rome.

On the Piazza di Venezia and Via del Plebiscito are the Palazzo di Venezia, the home of the Venetian Paul the Second, the Altieri, the Grazioli, and the Bonaparte, formerly the property of the Asti. In the Piazza dei SS Apostoli are another group, the Colonna, the Balestra, the Odescalchi, and the Ruffo. Greatest among those in the Corso is the Palazzo Doria-Pamphili. Here also are the Ruspoli, Fiano, Chigi, Sciarra, Salviati, Ferraioli and Theodoli palaces, and, before its demolition to enlarge the Piazza Colonna, the Piombino. At the foot of a further slope of the Capitol is another group, the Costaguti in the Piazza Tartaruga, the Antici-Mattei, the Longhi, and the Gaetani Palace in the Via Delle Botteghe Oscure (the Street of the Dark Shops). More to the west is the great Farnese Palace, the present seat of the French Em