PREFACE.

A square woodcut decorative initial 'C' contains a landscape scene with a prominent leafy tree on a small hill in the foreground and a distant skyline or hills under a cloudy sky.WHEN I was once at Eugubium Gubbio, to which I used to come from the Avellanensis Avellana monastery for the purpose of investigating the ancient monuments of the Avellana monks, which I had heard were numerous in the archives of that city, and which I intended to collect and illustrate as best I could; for that reason I met very kind men, or rather they offered themselves to me of their own accord out of their kindness: Marcellus Franciarinus, an ICtus jurisconsult/lawyer illustrious in his homeland, and Guido Ubaldus Angelinus, the prefect of the public library of that city, both of whom were considered very expert in the antiquities of their fatherland. While we were speaking together at length about the things for which I had traveled there, we happened upon a topic that is often in the mouths of the Eugubini people of Gubbio: that many monks of a holier life and most distinguished by the reputation of their prudence had been called forth from that Avellana monastery of mine to govern the church of Gubbio—a thing that had been most useful to that church and most honorable to the monastery itself. From that conversation, it was easy to slide into the realization that we greatly lamented that the chronotaxis chronological list of the bishops of Gubbio in the Italia Sacra of Ferdinando Ughelli was defective and faulty, and had for a long time been awaiting a helping hand. At this point I said, "Why then do we not undertake the task of healing and restoring it, each of us bringing forward those things we have thought of and meditated upon regarding this matter?" Although they approved the plan, both nevertheless declined this responsibility, so I acted more boldly; and although I did not doubt they would have done it better and more accurately if they had chosen to apply themselves to the writing, I undertook the chronology and history of the bishops of Gubbio—if not to complete it, which is impossible in any way, then at least to reform and amend it for the time being. Others will judge what I have achieved with my labor; I myself will state openly what I owe to my excellent friends Franciarinus and Angelinus, for I owe both of them a great deal. The former very generously communicated many unpublished catalogs of the bishops of Gubbio, which I will examine later, and the latter communicated not a few nor common ancient monuments pertaining to the bishops and the church of Gubbio. I will not fail, when I must present them in their proper places, to ensure that I do not pass him by unacknowledged and unpraised. And I wish he were still among the living, and had not been snatched away by a sudden and premature death from his homeland, his friends, and myself in particular, before I could think of publishing these things; for he would have provided me with many things most suitable for my undertaking, which, as he was indefatigable in studying the ancient monuments of his homeland, he had collected in these past years, and many things he kept gathered in his mind, just as he had often promised by letter. Truly, deprived of this hope and struck by this unexpected event, I lost heart and began to think of abandoning all care and thought for this work, which I saw could not be finished by any means. But, since I had given my word, and since whatever it is that I had been laboring on for a long time seemed to demand the church of Gubbio back from me, almost by its own right, and there was no lack of the zeal of friends who added spurs to me in my hesitation, and suddenly a most diligent and kind man was also found, Raynaldus Reposatus, caretaker of the suburban priesthood of Saint Mary in Padule, who brought me aid and submitted many Gubbio monuments from that city, of which I was in great need, all delay had to be broken, and I could no longer remain at the ford. Here, therefore, benevolent reader, is a chronology of the bishops of Gubbio somewhat better than what had hitherto been produced by Ughelli: do not, however, expect it to be perfect and absolute in every detail from anywhere; for the church of Gubbio does not have chroniclers who have committed the memory of earlier times to writing, nor does it store monuments of exceptional antiquity in its archives, even though they are sufficiently voluminous, all of which the events of past times have snatched away. But whatever it is, it had to be scraped together from wherever it could be found, and as it were begged, so that by this, at least, I might prove my diligence to all. But I will speak abundantly about the resources I used in completing this work in that dissertation which I place before the chronology of the bishops. Now I want to warn you that something has been repeatedly culled by me from the civil history of the people of Gubbio, which will perhaps seem alien to my project, and I even fear much more that someone might judge that I have strayed from the path when I discuss the origins and antiquity of certain towns and castles in the territory of Gubbio. But there will not be a lack of others, I think, who will approve my plan, especially since no history of Gubbio has yet seen the light of day, even though many have thought of publishing it, and some have even left a large part of it diligently written; for the Gubbio chronicle of Berni, made public by Muratori a. Tom. XXI. Rer. Italic. Script. among the writers of Italian history, does not cover a sufficiently long period of events. But if in any matter I have unwittingly strayed from the truth—which I wish had not happened very often—I will be grateful to those who have informed me and called me back from error. If, however, I have passed over any things worthy of being written and brought to light, I would not want anyone to turn that into a fault for me, who, since I began to urge this writing many years ago in that monastery of mine, Avellana...