Genoa was the first Italian commune in which history was written by persons whom the government appointed for that purpose. As early as 1157, the great Caffaro wrote the annals of his country for that period in which he had been a witness of her acts, and read them to the elders, who ordered that his writings should be deposited in the archives of the city and commissioned the chancellor of the commune to continue the history. This was done down to 1264, and special additions were subsequently made embracing a period of thirty years. The increasing rudeness of the times, civil commotions in the city and frequent changes in the form and personnel of the government, arrested the progress of the annals near the close of the thirteenth century. Paolo Partenopeo revived the work in 1528. The senate appointed him to read rhetoric, especially the works of Aristotle on government, “because,” says Partenopeo, “politics should be publicly taught in a free city.” He wrote the annals of Genoa, and Bonfadio succeeded him in the same office. Bonfadio was born in Gorzano, near Brescia, and led a life of vicissitudes and suffering. He was secretary to Cardinal Bari in Rome and afterwards served Cardinal Ghinucci. Beset with many misfortunes, which are unconnected with our subject, he wandered to Naples, Venice and elsewhere, and finally through Count Martinengo was invited to Genoa as a public reader of Aristotle. In Genoa his fate seemed to change, and he wrote cheerfully of his pleasant sojourn and especially of the gentle dames of our city. “It seems to me,” he says, “that even the Turkish female slaves entitle Genoa to be called the city of love.” He lived long with Stefano Pinelli and was on terms of intimacy with Azzolino Sauli. G. B. Grimaldi, Domenico Grillo, Cipriano Pallavicini and other young men of high birth and studious tastes. His reputation in all branches of learning induced the senate to give him the coveted office of public annalist from the year 1528. He entered on it with pleasure and completed his task in a brief period; and though he laments that the eagerness of the senate to see the work did not give him time to clothe his narration with such a diction as becomes history, yet in beauty of style and skill in arrangement few Italian[51] histories can be compared with it. We must regret that the work only comes down to the year 1550, in which he met his unfortunate death. In that year he was torn from his studies and his friends and condemned to the flames; and though many gentlemen laboured with the greatest earnestness to save him, on the 19th of July he was beheaded in prison (this his friends secured as a favour) and his body was committed to the flames. We find the record in the books of the condemned kept by the _Compagnia della Misericordia_.