Wisdom and Woe

Rienzi (aka Cola di Rienzo, 1313-1354) was a 14th-century Italian politician and leader who styled himself the "tribune of the Roman people." In his lifetime, he advocated for the unification of Italy and the abolition of temporal papal power, serving as a model and inspiration for the Risorgimento in the 19th century. He is the subject of an ode by Petrarch, an opera by Wagner, and the novel Rienzi (1835) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

Today, Lytton is ingloriously remembered for the opening line "It was a dark and stormy night." But he was a literary luminary in his time, credited by Edgar Allan Poe with enkindling "the wildest passions of our nature, the most profound of our thoughts, the brightest visions of our fancy, and the most ennobling and lofty of our aspirations."

Poe's review of Rienzi considered it Lytton's best novel, calling it "a profound and lucid exposition of the morale of Government — of the Philosophies of Rule and Misrule — of the absolute incompatibility of Freedom and Ignorance — Tyranny in the few and Virtue in the many." Its democratic message is "something akin to direct evidence that ... in a nation's self is the only security for a nation — and that it is absolutely necessary to model" government "upon the character of the governed."

Week 1 (July 20): Books I - II
Week 2 (August 3): Books III - X

Rienzi:

The historical event known as the Sicilian Vespers--precipitated by the oppressive rule of Sicily by the French king Charles I of Anjou--began on 30 March 1282 (Easter Monday) during the Vespers (evening prayers) in Palermo, Sicily.

It was incited when a French occupation soldier insulted a woman during the service at the Church of the Holy Spirit. It provoked a disturbance, which escalated into a riot, which--over the next four weeks--escalated into a violent uprising. The soldier and thousands of other French inhabitants (military and civilian alike) were killed as the island was overrun, culminating (albeit temporarily) in the overthrow of the foreign government.

Nearly 500 years later (1855), Verdi premiered an opera based on the event. Although Sicilian Vespers only loosely resembles history, and Austria, instead of France, was then in control of Sicily, its relevance to Italy's present moment was unmistakable.

Rienzi (aka Cola di Rienzo, 1313-1354) was a 14th-century Italian politician and leader who styled himself the "tribune of the Roman people." In his lifetime, he advocated for the unification of Italy and the abolition of temporal papal power, serving as a model and inspiration for the Risorgimento in the 19th century. He is the subject of an ode by Petrarch, an opera by Wagner, and the novel Rienzi (1835) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

Today, Lytton is ingloriously remembered for the opening line "It was a dark and stormy night." But he was a literary luminary in his time, credited by Edgar Allan Poe with enkindling "the wildest passions of our nature, the most profound of our thoughts, the brightest visions of our fancy, and the most ennobling and lofty of our aspirations."

Poe's review of Rienzi considered it Lytton's best novel, calling it "a profound and lucid exposition of the morale of Government — of the Philosophies of Rule and Misrule — of the absolute incompatibility of Freedom and Ignorance — Tyranny in the few and Virtue in the many." Its democratic message is "something akin to direct evidence that ... in a nation's self is the only security for a nation — and that it is absolutely necessary to model" government "upon the character of the governed."

Week 1 (July 20): Books I - II
Week 2 (August 3): Books III - X

Rienzi:

"The Bell-Tower" is a short story by Herman Melville, collected in The Piazza Tales and published in 1856.

In Renaissance Italy, an eccentric architect, Bannadonna, builds a colossal tower summited by a bell and an uncanny mechanical man to ring it. The story reveals the disturbing relationship among a creator, his creation, an obsessive artistic vision, and the Faustian bargain paid by his community for its construction.

One possible inspiration for the story is Giotto (c. 1267-1337), the great Florentine painter, sculptor, and architect who, in 1334, was commissioned to construct a similarly ambitious bell tower. The massive project was beset with difficulties: "Giotto did not live long enough to see it finished" (Vasari), and it suffered further delays by political turmoil and the Black Plague. His successors officially completed it in 1359, but it never fulfilled its original design.

Lorenzo de' Medici, "the Magnificent," memorialized the tower in 1490. A nearby plaque reads: "Do you admire a beautiful tower resounding with sacred sound? By my design this tower also reached for the stars. But I am Giotto, why cite such deeds? My name alone is worth a lengthy ode."

"The Bell-Tower":