DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61893#0285
Ch. VII. 'THROUGH ITALY. 257
From Modena to Bologna, the distance is three
stages, about twenty-four miles : about six miles
from the former town is Fort Urbano, erected by
Urban VIII. to mark and defend the entrance
into the Ecclesiastical State. Bologna (Bononia
Felsinia) was a Roman colony, though it retains
few or no traces of its antiquity, and is a rich,
populous, extensive, and most flourishing city.
Its history, like that of the preceding towns, is
contained in a few words. First, great and
prosperous under its founders, then in the suc-
ceeding revolutions of the empire, pillaged, de-
stroyed, and rebuilt; sometimes enslaved, and
sometimes free, it underwent and survived all
the vicissitudes of the barbarous ages. At last,
after various contests with the neighboring states,
and with their own tyrants, the inhabitants of
Bologna made a voluntary submission to Pope
Nicolas III. in 1278, and afterwards to John
XXII. in 1327, which they have frequently re-
newed since, at different periods.
But, in this, voluntary submission, the Bo-
lognese did not mean so much to acknowledge
the Pope as their direct sovereign, as to put
their city under his protection as liege lord:
hence, they cautiously retained the management
of their finances, the election of their magis-
VOL. I. S
From Modena to Bologna, the distance is three
stages, about twenty-four miles : about six miles
from the former town is Fort Urbano, erected by
Urban VIII. to mark and defend the entrance
into the Ecclesiastical State. Bologna (Bononia
Felsinia) was a Roman colony, though it retains
few or no traces of its antiquity, and is a rich,
populous, extensive, and most flourishing city.
Its history, like that of the preceding towns, is
contained in a few words. First, great and
prosperous under its founders, then in the suc-
ceeding revolutions of the empire, pillaged, de-
stroyed, and rebuilt; sometimes enslaved, and
sometimes free, it underwent and survived all
the vicissitudes of the barbarous ages. At last,
after various contests with the neighboring states,
and with their own tyrants, the inhabitants of
Bologna made a voluntary submission to Pope
Nicolas III. in 1278, and afterwards to John
XXII. in 1327, which they have frequently re-
newed since, at different periods.
But, in this, voluntary submission, the Bo-
lognese did not mean so much to acknowledge
the Pope as their direct sovereign, as to put
their city under his protection as liege lord:
hence, they cautiously retained the management
of their finances, the election of their magis-
VOL. I. S