o preserve their name and boast a pedigree of which they have no
records.

[1] See Frollieri, p. 437, for a very curious account of
his character.

[2] Fabretti (vol. iii. pp. 193-202. and notes) discusses
this circumstance in detail. Machiavelli's critique runs
thus (_Discorsi_, lib. i. cap. 27): 'Ne si poteva credere
che si fosse astenuto o per bonta, o per coscienza che lo
ritenesse; perche in un petto d'un uomo facinoroso, che si
teneva la sorella, ch' aveva morti i cugini e i nipoti per
regnare, non poteva scendere alcuno pietoso rispetto: ma
si conchiuse che gli uomini non sanno essere onorevolmente
tristi, o perfettamente buoni,' &c.

[3] See Fabretti, vol. iii. p. 230. He is an authority for
the details of Gianpaolo's life. The circumstance alluded
to above justifies the terrible opening scene in Shelley's
tragedy, _The Cenci_.

[4] Fabretti, vol. iii. p. 230, vol. iv. p. 10.

[5] See Varchi, _Storie Florentine_, vol. i. p. 224.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Fabretti, vol. iv. p. 206.

The history of the Baglioni needs no commentary. They were not worse
than other Italian nobles, who by their passions and their parties
destroyed the peace of the city they infested. It is with an odd
mixture of admiration and discontent that the chroniclers of Perugia
allude to their ascendency. Matarazzo, who certainly cannot be
accused of hostility to the great house, describes the miseries of
his country under their bad government in piteous terms:[1] 'As I
wish not to swerve from the pure truth, I say that from the day the
Oddi were expelled, our city went from bad to worse. All the young
men followed the trade of arms. Their lives were disorderly; and
every day divers excesses were divulged, and the city had lost all
reason and justice. Every man administered right unto himself,
_propria autoritate et manu regia_. Meanwhile the Pope sent many
legates, if so be the city could be brought to order: but all who
came returned in dread of being hewn in pieces; for they threatened
to throw some from the windows of the palace, so that no cardinal or
other legate durst approach Perugia, unless he were a friend of the
Baglioni. And the city was brought to such misery, that the most
wrongous men were most prized; and those who had slain two or three
men walked as they listed through the palace, and went with sword or
poignard to speak to the podesta and other mag