Page 110 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

110 from Italy to the Canary Islands

type of government when he claims that the parliaments, if not abolished,
were at least impaired. While he recognizes the qualities which Boccane-
gra was able to offer to the State, he also states that “he alienated the souls
of the citizens with his arrogance and presumption”.
We have the impression that Teofilo Ossian De Negri is of the opposite
opinion and therefore in a certain sense in favour of this Captain of the
People novelty.
While he of course feels that the Captaincy of Boccanegra is a yet imper-
fect and early form of the Signoria, at the same time he does not approve of
the interpretation of the Annals of the city with reference to those years, ac-
cording to which the despotic insolence of Boccanegra was an established
fact, “But the Annalist, enslaved to the aristocracy who returned to power,
and… to the board, would do well to remember that the discontent of the
opponents arose and was organized because the Captain, already in the
first two years of government, as difficult as they were, worked extremely
courageously to put right the dreadful finances of the State, repressing the
old abuse of the governing class, i.e. the aristocracy, of making themselves
right with public money and what is more, selling the income of the Com-
mune to themselves with an irreverence that only deep-rooted custom can,
if not justify, realistically explain (…)” (T. Ossian De Negri).
In agreement with the idea of an imperfect Signoria is Gino Benvenuti
(Storia della Repubblica di Genova [History of the Republic of Genoa],
Mursia, 1977, page 75), who, with regard to the Captain of the People,
speaks of a “magistrature of an experimental nature. In fact it was different
from those adopted in other Italian cities, where the Captain of the People,
whether a nobleman or a foreigner, acted in rivalry with the Commune,
which was represented by the podestà. Boccanegra had risen to power with
the crucial support of the aristocracy and of the optimates; he was as such
influenced by them in exercising his functions, even if he attempted to free
himself from their tutelage to achieve personal and dictatorial power. “As
you can see, although he agrees with Benvenuti with the Teofilo Ossian
De Negri’s interpretation regarding the Captaincy as an imperfect magis-
trature, he however appears to see the risk of a dictatorial venture in this
new Institution.
Boccanegra’s venture lasted almost six years. There were negative
events along the way, but he also enjoyed indisputable successes. The de-
feat in Sardinia, in Cagliari and at the castle of Santa Igia in 1257, in the
attempt to replace the Pisans, and the much more serious defeat of Acre,