Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 6 and 7 (of 7): The Catholic ReactionSymonds, John Addington
History
Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 6 and 7 (of 7): The Catholic Reaction
Symonds, John Addington
Catholic Church -- Italy -- History; Renaissance -- Italy
accomplices, who might undertake the capture or the murder of the
proscribed outlaw in concert, and in the event of his being produced
alive, a sum of money down. Osio, apparently, spent some years in
exile, changing place, and name, and dress, living as he could from hand
to mouth, until the rumor spread abroad that he was dead. He then
returned to his country, and begged for sanctuary from an old friend.
That friend betrayed him, had his throat cut in a cellar, and exposed
his head upon the public market place.
Virginia was sentenced to perpetual incarceration in the convent of S.
Valeria at Milan. She was to be 'inclosed within a little dungeon, the
door of which shall be walled up with stones and mortar, so that the
said Virginia Maria shall abide there for the term of her natural life,
immured both day and night, never to issue thence, but shall receive
food and other necessaries through a small hole in the wall of the said
chamber, and light and air through an aperture or other opening.' This
sentence was carried into effect. But at the expiration of many years,
her behavior justified some mitigation of the penalty. She was set at
large, and allowed to occupy a more wholesome apartment, where the
charity of Cardinal Borromeo supplied her with comforts befitting her
station, and the reputation she acquired for sanctity. Her own family
cherished implacable sentiments of resentment against the woman who had
brought disgrace upon them. Ripamonte, the historian of Milan, says that
in his own time she was still alive: 'a bent old woman, tall of stature,
dried and fleshless, but venerable in her aspect, whom no one could
believe to have been once a charming and immodest beauty.' Her
associates in guilt, the nuns of S. Margherita, were consigned to
punishments resembling hers. Sisters Benedetta, Silvia and Candida
suffered the same close incarceration.
_Lucrezia Buonvisi_.
The tale of Lucrezia Buonvisi presents some points of similarity to that
of the Signora di Monza.[191]
[Footnote 191: _Storia di Lucrezia Buonvisi_, by Salvatore Bonghi,
Lucca, 1864. This is an admirably written historical monograph, based on
accurate studies and wide researches, containing a mine of valuable
information for a student of those times.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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