8 Febraio" and nothing more. The mistake of the day,
therefore, if it was a mistake, was made twice, and was corrected
inside the church but not upon the fresco outside - perhaps because
a ladder would have had to be fetched to reach it. Possibly the
day had been originally fixed for Thursday the 8th, and a heavy
snow-storm prevented people from coming till next day.
I could not find that any one in Mesocco, not even my excellent
friend Signor a Marca, the curato himself, knew anything about
either the inscriptions or the cause of their being written. No
one was aware even of their existence; on borrowing, however, the
history of the Valle Mesolcina by Signor Giovanni Antonio a Marca,
{31} I found what I think will throw light upon the matter. The
family of De Sax had held the valley of Mesocco for over four
hundred years, and sold it in 1480 to John Jacob Triulci, who it
seems tried to cheat him out of a large part of the purchase money
later on; probably this John Jacob Triulci had the frescoes painted
to conciliate the clergy and inaugurate his entry into possession.
Early in 1481 he made the inhabitants of the valley do fealty to
him. I may say that as soon as he had entered upon possession, he
began to oppress the people by demanding tolls on all produce that
passed the castle. This the people resisted. They were also
harassed by Peter De Sax, who made incursions into the valley and
seized property, being unable to get his money out of John Jacob
Triulci.
Other reasons that make me think the frescoes were painted in 1480
are as follows. The spurs worn by the young men in the April and
May frescoes (pp. 211, 212) are about the date 1460. Their
facsimiles can be seen in the Tower of London with this date
assigned to them. The frescoes, therefore, can hardly have been
painted before this time; but they were probably painted later, for
in the St. Christopher there is a distinct hint at anatomy; enough
to show that the study of anatomy introduced by Leonardo da Vinci
was beginning to be talked about as more or less the correct thing.
This would hardly be the case before 1480, as Leonardo was not born
till 1452. By February 1481 the frescoes were already painted;
this is plain because the inscription - which, I think, may be taken
as a record made at the time that fealty was done - is scratched
over them. Peter De Sax, if he was selling his property, is not
likely to have had the frescoes painted just before he was going
away; I think it most likely, therefore, that they were painted in
1480, when the valley of Mesocco passed from the hands of the De
Sax family to those of the Triulci.
Underneath the inscription about the doing fealty there is
scratched in another hand, and very likely years after the event it
commemorates - "1548 fu liberata la Vallata." This date is
contradicted (and, I believe, corrected) by another inscription
hard by, also in another hand, which says -
"1549. La valle di Misocho compro la liberti da casa Triulcia per
2400 scuti."
This inscription is signed thus:-
[In the book there is a picture of four symbols]
Carlo a Marca had written his name along with three others in 1606
on another part of the frescoes. Here are the signatures:-
[Again, some symbols]
Two of these signatures belong to members of the Triulci family, as
appears by the trident, which translates the name. The T in each
case is doubtless for "Triulci." Four years earlier still, Carlo a
Marca had written his name, with that of his wife or fiancee, on
the fresco of St. Christopher on the facciata of the church, for we
found there -
1602 { Carlo a Marca.
{ Margherita dei Paglioni.
There is one other place where his name appears, or rather a part
of it, for the inscription is half hidden by a gallery, erected
probably in the last century.
The a Marca family still flourish in Mesocco. The curato is an a
Marca, so is the postmaster. On the walls of a house near the
convent there is an inscription to the effect that it was given by
his fellow-townsmen to a member of the a Marca family, and the best
work on the history of the valley is the work of Giovanni Antonio
Marca from which I have already quoted.
Returning to the frescoes, we found that the men of Soazza and
Mesocco did fealty again to John Jacob Triulci on the feast of St.
Bartholomew, the 24th day of August 1503; this I believe to have
been the son of the original purchaser, but am not certain; if so,
he is the Triulci who had Gaspare Boelini thrown down from the
castle walls. The people seem by another inscription to have done
fealty again upon the same day of the following year.
On the St. Christopher we found one date, 1530, scratched on the
right ankle, and several of 1607, apparently done at one time. One
date was scratched in the left-hand corner -
1498 . . .
il Conte di (Misocho?)
There are also other dates - 1627, 1633, 1635, 1626; and right
across the fresco there is written in red chalk, in a bold
sixteenth or seventeenth century handwriting -
"Il parlar di li homini da bene deve valer piu che quello degli
altri."
- "The word of a man of substance ought to carry more weight than
that of other people;" and again -
"Non ha la fede ognun come tu chredi;
Non chreder almen [quello?] che non vedi"
