The Story of Perugia

In Short

Lina Duff Gordon and Margaret Symonds trace the long, violent, and artistic arc of Perugia from its ancient Etruscan origins to its nineteenth-century integration into unified Italy. Part chronicle and part travel guide, the book follows the city through Gothic sieges, papal feuds, blood-soaked family tyrannies, and artistic triumphs under Perugino. It endures because it captures a fierce local character that survived centuries of foreign conquest, recording the very stones, frescoes, and monuments that hold those memories today.

The Story

The narrative opens upon the high hilltops of Umbria, where Etruscan settlers first adopted the griffin as their symbol. This spirit of fierce independence defines the city through successive waves of conquest. When the Goths lay siege to Perugia in 549, the city holds out under its saintly Bishop Ercolano until a desperate trick with a corn-fed lamb fails, leading to the town’s fall and the bishop’s martyrdom. Yet, whether ruled by Goths or Lombards, Perugia retains her internal character. When King Ratchis threatens her gates in 749, Pope Zacharias disarms the monarch with sweet persuasion, prompting the king to relinquish his crown for a monastic life.

As the centuries progress, Perugia expands her power over neighboring towns, driven by internal factionalism and an appetite for supremacy. Feuds between nobles and commoners keep the city in constant turmoil. Popular leaders like Biordo Michelotti bring brief periods of stability and glory, only to be cut down by jealous rivals like the "wicked Abbot" of S. Pietro.

By the late fifteenth century, the city falls under the total, picturesque ascendency of the Baglioni family. For fifty years, this beautiful, violent clan dominates Perugia through jousts, subterfuges, and brutal domestic massacres, all obsessively chronicled by the contemporary scholar Matarazzo. Their bloody rule ends in tragedy and betrayal, leaving the city vulnerable to Papal ambition. When Pope Paul III moves to subjugate the city in 1540, the Perugians make a desperate stand, dedicating their city keys to Christ. Their efforts fail; defeat forces twenty-five black-robed envoys with halters around their necks to beg for absolution at St. Peter's in Rome, casting Perugia beneath the long shadow of pontifical rule.

Yet, alongside this history of violence runs an enduring artistic legacy. The town builds ambitious aqueducts to bring running water to Pisano’s great fountain. Painters like Bonfigli, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, and Pietro Vannucci (Perugino) fill the churches with delicate, serene art. Even as Napoleon later plunders her treasures and Papal forces construct a hated citadel to oppress her people, Perugia’s spirit remains unbroken. The narrative closes in the nineteenth century, as citizens gloat over the demolition of the Papal fortress, reclaiming their liberty and their view over the Umbrian plain.

How It Unfolds

The griffin takes root Etruscan settlers establish the hilltop stronghold, endowing the city with an unyielding spirit that survives the collapse of Rome and four successive changes of rulers in three centuries.

The Gothic siege Bishop Ercolano attempts to fool the besieging Goths by throwing a grain-fed lamb from the walls, but an acolyte reveals their starvation, prompting a fatal assault.

A king yields Pope Zacharias confronts the Lombard King Ratchis at the city gates, persuading him to abandon the siege, renounce his crown, and enter a monastery.

The bride's procession Biordo Michelotti brings peace and prestige to Perugia, but his lavish wedding to Bertolda Orsini drives the jealous Abbot of S. Pietro to plot his assassination.

The reign of blood The Baglioni family controls the city through physical beauty, military prowess, and appalling fratricidal slaughter, recorded day by day by the scholar Matarazzo.

Surrender in halters After attempting to resist Pope Paul III by placing their keys at the foot of a crucifix, defeated Perugian envoys travel to Rome in halters to beg for pardon.

Water in the piazza Engineers and friars overcome the hill-city’s severe water shortage, culminating in the joyful arrival of fresh spring water at Pisano's sculpted fountain in 1280.

Demolishing the prison Following the fall of Papal rule in the nineteenth century, citizens gather to watch workmen tear down the hated Papal fortress stone by stone.

The People

• Bishop Ercolano: The saintly protector of Perugia during the Gothic invasion. He seeks to save his starving people through a pious deception, but meets martyrdom when the trick is exposed.
• Biordo Michelotti: A beloved soldier and leader who unifies the town and commands foreign armies. His rising star and splendid marriage provoke the lethal envy of local nobles.
• The Abbot of S. Pietro: A member of the Guidalotti family known as "the wicked Abbot." He harbors deep jealousy toward Michelotti and murders him to restore Church authority and earn a Cardinal’s hat.
• Francesco Matarazzo: A Perugian scholar and chronicler. He records the exploits, physical beauty, and terrifying violence of the Baglioni family with a mixture of horror and fascination.
• Pietro Vannucci (Perugino): The supreme master of Umbrian painting. He fills Italy with images of ineffable sweetness, yet dies of the plague in near-poverty, buried in an unmarked grave.
• Fra Santo: A courageous monk at S. Pietro. During the Papal invasion of 1859, he hides three fleeing Perugian freedom fighters in an organ cupboard and lowers them to safety with bell ropes.

In Its Own Voice

"Thou hast conquered me," he said, very simply, and then he withdrew from the battle, and S. Zacharias passed into the city, and was received with universal joy by her citizens.

— King Ratchis surrenders to Pope Zacharias at the city gates in 749.

'These Perugians have so much grain that they can give it to their beasts to eat, and so much meat that they cast it carelessly away, how can we, therefore, hope to subdue them by famine?'

— The Goths misinterpret S. Ercolano's desperate trick during the siege of 549.

"If Fra Santo has done what you tell me he has, God has willed that he should do so, and we must ever respect the will of God."

— Pope Pius IX forgives the monk who helped anti-papal rebels escape in 1859.

What It's Really About

Beneath the chronicle of battles and artistic achievements lies a meditation on civic identity and communal memory. The book explores how a city maintains a continuous, stubborn personality across thousands of years despite constant foreign domination and internal bloodshed. It contrasts the extreme brutality of Italian factional warfare—embodied by the despotic Baglioni—with the extraordinary sweetness and idealism of the region's art and religious movements. The authors show that a town's true history is built not just by popes and despots, but by the physical stones, pipeways, and painted altar-pieces that survive them.

Why Read It Today

This history appeals to readers who love Italian history, historic travel literature, and deep cultural portraits of place. Reading it feels like walking through an ancient hill-town with an remarkably observant, deeply read companion who points out the hidden stories behind every crumbling arch, window box, and choir stall. It brings a vanished world to life without resorting to romanticized exaggeration, drawing heavily on primary chroniclers to let the medieval actors speak for themselves.

The book does present a few period difficulties. It assumes a general familiarity with Italian geography and historical figures, shifting swiftly between ancient Etruscans, medieval condottieri, and Renaissance painters. Some descriptions of local church art and architectural details are dense, reflecting its origin as an ambitious guidebook. Yet these details are grounded in precise observation. What stays with the reader is the image of a resilient city high above the Tiber—where citizens tend carnations in iron window brackets attached to fortress walls, and where the memory of ancient liberty outlasts every siege.