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Cortona History
 Text
from : "Cortona, guida storico-artistica" by Edoardo
e Paolo Mori - Special thanks to Edizioni Calosci - www.calosci.com
"From a high Tuscan hill,
fifty miles from Florence between Arezzo and Perugia, rises the
equally ancient and nobile city of Cortona. Before the city lies
a vast and beautiful plain, it is flanked on either side by distant
hills and valleys while behind it are towering yet fruitful mountains.
Cortona has a picturesque aspect, quite a bit longer than wide,
turned toward the midday sun. Her district is fertile and is abundant
with all that is necessary to human life. It is Cortona marked by
the Meridian-Antartic star sign, feminine, in motion, pungent, earthy,
frigid and dry and under the noble reign of..."
This is the description of Cortona in one
of the first known guidebooks, compiled by Giacomo Lauro and printed
in Rome in 1639. In order to assist tourists of the times, the guidebook
was illustrated with a map of the city, an aerial plan line drawing
by Pietro Berrettini. Berretini was a Cortonese artist best known
as Pietro da Cortona and his drawing lends prestige to this guidebook.
After nearly four hundred years that
description is still valid. Cortona has changed very little in its
urban make up, it remains there- framed in the center of a triangle
which has for its corners three of the cities of Central Italy which
are most rich in history and art works, Arezzo, Siena and Perugia.
About eighty kilometers from Florence, Cortona remains a satellite
of this city, remaining in its orbit nearly 500 years from 1411
the year of the loss of her independance as a free Comune until
1860.
Before embarking on a visit
of the city (located 600 meters above sea level), it would be opportune
for the tourist to be familiar with the essential threads of history
which run though its culture and artistic treasures.
FROM THE ORIGINS OF THE CITY
TO THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
The foundation of the city is lost in
the fog of numerous legends of which there are traces going back
to the classical era. These legends were elaborated upon and notably
took shape in the late part of the Renaissance period under the
rule of Cosimo the First (1537-1574). Despite opposition, he set
up a plan to achieve the following goals:
- In regards to the Florentine ruling class: to enhance the image
of the Tuscan territory as ancient Etruria not only for the antiquity
of all its most famous cities which dated back to roots of civilization
immediately following the Great Flood, but with the aim of obtaining
for the the territory and for the city the recognition of a Grand
Duchy and the title of Grand Duke for Cosimo. This was granted by
Pope Pius V in 1570-
- In regards to the Cortonese ruling class: to enhance the image
of the city by presenting it as the most noble and ancient among
the cities of Tuscany, which had enjoyed an autonomous social structure
from the time of the Etruscan lucomonia until it was transformed
into the free Comune of Medieval times. Placed in the context of
that time, in which the relationship with the "Signori"
of Florence who had taken over Cortona was bitter, this research
into the myths and legends particularly of those Etruscan gave an
opportunity to the ruling Cortonese to reclaim some of the city's
autonomy.
The guidebook from the sixteen hundreds by Giacomo Lauro, refers
to writings by Annio Viterbese (1432-1502), who touches on many
writers of antiquity. He reports that eight hundred years after
the Flood, Noah while navigating at the mouth of the Tiber River,
crosses il Paglia and enters into the valley of the Chiana. He likes
this place more than any other in Italy as it is very fertile land
and therefore stops and lives there for thirty years. One of his
offspring named Crano arrives at one of the hills and is very pleased
with the altitude, the amenities and the air of tranquility. He
builds the city of Cortona on this spot two hundred-seventythree
years after the Flood. It is affirmed by Stefano, a great Greek
historian, as the third city in Italy to be built after the Flood,
and the metropolis of the ancient Turreni people.
Noah saw that Crano had done a good deed and names him Corito, that
is King and Successor of the Realm. In fact Curim, from which the
word Corito derives means scepter which is called Quirim in Latin
from which the title Quirino is given to Romolo. Crano, after taking
the title of King, constructs a kingdom of towers high on the hill
of which there are still remains in an area called Torremozza. The
kingdom of Crano was called Turrenia because the city that the descendant
of Noah constructed had high towers. This was the first name of
Tuscany and the inhabitants were called Turreni. However, as they
were descendants of Noah who had been spared from the waters "ab
imbribus" some were called Imbri or in vernacular Umbri.
From the descendants of Crano, Dardanus was born. Following internal
turmoil he flees to Samotracia then to Frigia and finally to Lydia,
where he founded the city of Troy. From Troy descendants of Dardanus,
now Greeks, return to live in Turrenia, that is Tuscany, and they
were the Etruscans.
Among these Greeks who came to Turrenia and Cortona were Ulysses
and Pythagoras. In fact, ancient legends which are reported by the
greek writers Aristotle and his conteprorary Teopompo, would have
Ulysses emigrate ater his return to Itaca and the masssacre of the
Proci, to Italy and more precisely in Etruria, to the city which
Teopompo called in Greek Curtonaia, and citing this place, Cortona
proper or its suburbs as his burial place. In Etruria Ulysses was
much respected and referred to as Nanos which meant the Wanderer
and his burial site was identified as being at "monte Pergo"
near the modern day location of Pergo., Pythagoras after his stay
in Cortona, died there, and was buried in a tomb which is called
today "Grotta di Pitagora". According to Virgil (Eneide
III and IV), Enea a descendant of Dardano fled the destroyed city
of Troy to Lazio where his descendants founded Rome. This would
have Cortona giving origin first to Troy and then to Rome.
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