Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Vol III | Page 5

togli e dalle mani Degli altri, lurchi moderni Germani
Che d' aquila un allocco n' hanno fatto?
From a passage in a Sienese chronicle we learn what ceremonies of
bravery were usual in that city when the new knights understood their
duty. It was the year 1326. Messer Francesco Bandinelli was about to
be knighted on the morning of Christmas Day. The friends of his house
sent peacocks and pheasants by the dozen, and huge pies of marchpane,
and game in quantities. Wine, meat, and bread were distributed to the
Franciscan and other convents, and a fair and noble court was opened
to all comers. Messer Sozzo, father of the novice, went, attended by his
guests, to hear high mass in the cathedral; and there upon the marble
pulpit, which the Pisans carved, the ceremony was completed.
Tommaso di Nello bore his sword and cap and spurs before him upon
horseback. Messer Sozzo girded the sword upon the loins of Messer
Francesco, his son aforesaid. Messer Pietro Ridolfi, of Rome, who was
the first vicar that came to Siena, and the Duke of Calabria buckled on
his right spur. The Captain of the People buckled on his left. The Count
Simone da Battifolle then undid his sword and placed it in the hands of
Messer Giovanni di Messer Bartolo de' Fibenzi da Rodi, who handed it
to Messer Sozzo, the which sword had previously been girded by the
father on his son. After this follows a list of the illustrious guests, and
an inventory of the presents made to them by Messer Francesco. We
find among these 'a robe of silken cloth and gold, skirt, and fur, and cap
lined with vair, with a silken cord.' The description of the many costly

dresses is minute; but I find no mention of armour. The singers
received golden florins, and the players upon instruments 'good store of
money.' A certain Salamone was presented with the clothes which the
novice doffed before he took the ceremonial bath. The whole catalogue
concludes with Messer Francesco's furniture and outfit. This, besides a
large wardrobe of rich clothes and furs, contains armour and the
trappings for charger and palfrey. The Corte Bandita, or open house
held upon this occasion, lasted for eight days, and the charges on the
Bandinelli estates must have been considerable.
Knights so made were called in Italy Cavalieri Addobbati, or di
Corredo, probably because the expense of costly furniture was borne
by them--addobbo having become a name for decorative trappings, and
Corredo for equipment. The latter is still in use for a bride's trousseau.
The former has the same Teutonic root as our verb 'to dub.' But the
Italians recognised three other kinds of knights, the Cavalieri Bagnati,
Cavalieri di Scudo, and Cavalieri d'Arme. Of the four sorts Sacchetti
writes in one of his novels:--'Knights of the Bath are made with the
greatest ceremonies, and it behoves them to be bathed and washed of
all impurity. Knights of Equipment are those who take the order with a
mantle of dark green and the gilded garland. Knights of the Shield are
such as are made knights by commonwealths or princes, or go to
investiture armed, and with the casque upon their head. Knights of
Arms are those who in the opening of a battle, or upon a foughten field,
are dubbed knights.' These distinctions, however, though concordant
with feudal chivalry, were not scrupulously maintained in Italy. Messer
Francesco Bandinelli, for example, was certainly a Cavaliere di
Corredo. Yet he took the bath, as we have seen. Of a truth, the Italians
selected those picturesque elements of chivalry which lent themselves
to pageant and parade. The sterner intention of the institution, and the
symbolic meaning of its various ceremonies, were neglected by them.
In the foregoing passages, which serve as a lengthy preamble to
Folgore's five sonnets, I have endeavoured to draw illustrations from
the history of Siena, because Folgore represents Sienese society at the
height of mediæval culture. In the first of the series he describes the
preparation made by the aspirant after knighthood. The noble youth is

so bent on doing honour to the order of chivalry, that he raises money
by mortgage to furnish forth the banquets and the presents due upon the
occasion of his institution. He has made provision also of equipment
for himself and all his train. It will be noticed that Folgore dwells only
on the fair and joyous aspect of the ceremony. The religious enthusiasm
of knighthood has disappeared, and already, in the first decade of the
fourteenth century, we find the spirit of Jehan de Saintrè prevalent in
Italy. The word donzello, derived from the Latin domicellus, I have
translated squire, because the donzel was a youth of gentle birth
awaiting knighthood.
This morn a young squire