and the study of the antiquities and galleries of the Eternal City, was followed by a visit to Naples and Sicily, and by the publication, at Palermo, of his first work, a poem of no merit. The island explored, he betook himself to Florence, Milan, Bologna and Venice, acquiring a complete archaeological knowledge of these and other cities. In 1795 he took up his abode at Modena, and was for twelve years engaged in politics, becoming a member of the legislative body, a councillor of state, and minister plenipotentiary of the Cisalpine Republic at Turin. Napoleon decorated him with the Iron Crown; and in 1808 he was made president of the Academy of the Fine Arts at Venice, a post in which he did good work for a number of years. In 1808 appeared his treatise Del bello ragionamenti, dedicated in glowing terms to Napoleon. This was followed (1813–1818) by his magnum opus, the Storia delta scultura dal suo risorgimento in Italia al secolo di Napoleone, in the composition of which he had been encouraged and advised by Giordano and Wilhelm Schlegel (1767–1845). The book was designed to complete the works of Winckelmann and D’Agincourt, and is illustrated with 180 plates in outline. In 1814, on the fall of Napoleon, Cicognara was patronized by Francis I. of Austria, and published (1815–1820), under the auspices of that sovereign, his Fabbriche più cospicue di Venezia, two superb folios, containing some 150 plates. Charged by the Venetians with the presentation of their gifts to the empress Caroline at Vienna, Cicognara added to the offering an illustrated catalogue of the objects it comprised; this book, Omaggio delle Provincie Venete alla maestà di Carolina Augusta, has since become of great value to the bibliophilist. Reduced to poverty by these splendid editorial speculations, Cicognara contrived to alienate the imperial favour by his political opinions. He left Venice for Rome; his library was offered for sale; and in 1821 he published at Pisa a catalogue raisonné, rich in bibliographical lore, of this fine collection, the result of thirty years of loving labour, which in 1824 was purchased en bloc by Pope Leo XII., and added to the Vatican library. The other works of Cicognara are—the Memorie storiche de’ litterati ed artisti Ferraresi (1811); the Vite de’ più insigni pittori e sculiori Ferraresi, MS.; the Memorie spettanti alla storia della calcografia (1831); and a large number of dissertations on painting, sculpture, engraving and other kindred subjects. (See Papoli, in No. II of the Exile, a print written and published by Italian refugees.) Cicognara’s work in the academy at Venice, of which he became president in 1808, had important results in the increase in number of the professors, the improvement in the courses of study, the institution of prizes, and the foundation of a gallery for the reception of Venetian pictures. He died on the 5th of March 1834.
See Zanetti, Cenni biografici di Leopoldo Cicognara (Venice, 1834); Malmani, Memorie del conte Leopoldo Cicognara (Venice, 1888).
CID, THE, the favourite hero of Spain, and the most prominent
figure in her literature. The name, however, is so obscured by
myth and fable as scarcely to belong to history. So extravagant
are the deeds ascribed to him, and so marvellous the attributes
with which he has been clothed by the fond idolatry of his countrymen,
that by some he has been classed with the Amadises and
the Orlandos whose exploits he emulated. The Jesuit Masdeu
stoutly denies that he had any real existence, and this heresy
has not wanted followers even in Spain. The truth of the matter,
however, has been expressed by Cervantes, through the mouth
of the Canon in Don Quixote : “There is no doubt there was
such a man as the Cid, but much doubt whether he achieved
what is attributed to him.” The researches of Professor Dozy,
of Leiden, have amply confirmed this opinion. There is a Cid
of history and a Cid of romance, differing very materially in
character, but each filling a large space in the annals of his
country, and exerting a singular influence in the development
of the national genius.
The Cid of history, though falling short of the poetical ideal which the patriotism of his countrymen has so long cherished, is still the foremost man of the heroical period of Spain—the greatest warrior produced out of the long struggle between Christian and Moslem, and the perfect type of the Castilian of the 12th century. Rodrigo Diaz, called de Bivar, from the place of his birth, better known by the title given him by the Arabs as the Cid (El Seid, the lord), and El Campeador, the champion par excellence, was of a noble family, one of whose members in a former generation had been elected judge of Castile. The date of his birth cannot be fixed with any certainty, but it was probably between 1030 and 1040. As Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar he is first mentioned in a charter of Ferdinand I. of the year 1064. The legends which speak of the Cid as accompanying this monarch in his expeditions to France and Italy must be rejected as purely apocryphal. Ferdinand, a great and wise prince, under whom the tide of Moslem conquest was first effectually stemmed, on his deathbed, in 1065, divided his territories among his five children. Castile was left to his eldest son Sancho, Leon to Alphonso, Galicia to Garcia, Zamora and Toro to his two daughters Urraca and Elvira. The extinction of the western caliphate and the dispersion of the once noble heritage of the Ommayads into numerous petty independent states, had taken place some thirty years previously, so that Castilian and Moslem were once again upon equal terms, the country being almost equally divided between them. On both sides was civil war, urged as fiercely as that against the common enemy, in which the parties sought allies indiscriminately among Christians and Mahommedans.
No condition of affairs could be more favourable to the genius of the Cid. He rose to great distinction in the war between Sancho of Castile and Sancho of Navarre, in which he won his name of Campeador, by slaying the enemy’s champion in single combat. In the quarrel between Sancho and his brother Alphonso, Rodrigo Diaz espoused the cause of the former, and it was he who suggested the perfidious stratagem by which Sancho eventually obtained the victory and possession of Leon. Sancho having been slain in 1072, while engaged in the siege of Zamora, Alphonso returned from exile and occupied the vacant throne. One of the most striking of the passages in the Cid’s legendary history is that wherein he is represented as forcing the new king to swear that he had no part in his brother’s death; but there was cause enough without this for Alphonso’s animosity against the man who had helped to despoil him of his patrimony. For a time the Cid, already renowned throughout Spain for his prowess in war, was even advanced by the king’s favour and entrusted with high commissions of state. In 1074 the Cid was wedded to Ximena, daughter of the count of Oviedo, and granddaughter, by the mother’s side, of Alphonso V. The original deed of the marriage-contract is extant. Some time afterwards the Cid was sent on an embassy to collect tribute from Motamid, the king of Seville, whom he found engaged in a war with Abdallah, the king of Granada. On Abdallah’s side were many Castilian knights, among them Count Garcia Ordoñez, a prince of the blood, whom the Cid endeavoured vainly to persuade of the disloyalty of opposing their master’s ally. In the battle which ensued under the walls of Seville, Abdallah and his auxiliaries were routed with great slaughter, the Cid returning to Burgos with many prisoners and a rich booty. There fresh proofs of his prowess only served to kindle against him the rancour of his enemies and the jealousy of the king. Garcia Ordoñez accused him to Alphonso of keeping back part of the tribute received from Seville, and the king took advantage of the Cid’s absence on a raid against the Moors to banish him from Castile.
Henceforth Rodrigo Diaz began to live that life of a soldier of fortune which has made him famous, sometimes fighting under the Christian banner, sometimes under Moorish, but always for his own hand. At the head of a band of 300 free lances he offered his services first to the count of Barcelona; then, failing him, to Moktadir, the Arab king of Saragossa, of the race of the Beni Houd. Under Moktadir, and his successors Moutamin and Mostain, the Cid remained for nearly eight years, fighting their battles against Mahommedan and Christian, when not engaged upon his own, and being admitted almost to a share of their royal authority. He made more than one attempt to be reconciled with Alphonso, but, his overtures being rejected, he turned his arms against the enemies of the Beni Houd, extending their dominions at the expense of the Christian states
