He was at a disadvantage because, being a layman, he could not directly take part in the discussions of the council. But on his return to Greece his views changed, and he violently and obstinately opposed the union he had previously urged. In 1448 he became a monk at Pantokrator and took the name Gennadius. In 1453, after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, Mahommed II., finding that the patriarchal chair had been vacant for some time, resolved to elect some one to the office, and the choice fell on Gennadius. While holding the episcopal office Gennadius drew up, apparently for the use of Mahommed, a lucid confession or exposition of the Christian faith, which was translated into Turkish by Ahmed, judge of Beroea, and first printed by A. Brassicanus at Vienna in 1530. After a couple of years Gennadius found the position of patriarch under a Turkish sultan so irksome that he retired to the monastery of John the Baptist near Serrae in Macedonia, where he died about 1468. About one hundred of his alleged writings exist, the majority in manuscript and of doubtful authenticity.
The fullest account of his writings is given in Gass, Gennadius and Pletho (Berlin, 1844), the second part of which contains Pletho’s Contra Gennadium. See also F. Schultze, Gesch. der Phil. d. Renaissance, i. (1874). A list of the known writings of Gennadius is given in Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, ed. Harles, vol. xi., and what has been printed is to be found in Migne, Patrol. Gr. vol. clx.
GENOA (anc. Genua, Ital. Genova, Fr. Gênes), the chief port of Liguria, Italy, and capital of the province of Genoa, 119 m. N.W. of Leghorn by rail. Pop. (1906) 255,294 (town); 267,248 (commune). The town is situated on the Gulf of Genoa, and is the chief port and commercial town of Italy, the seat of an archbishop and a university, the headquarters of the IV. Italian army corps, and a strong fortress. The city, as seen from the sea, is “built nobly,” and deserves the title it has acquired or assumed of the Superb. Finding only a small space of level ground along the shore, it has been obliged to climb the lower hills of the Ligurian Alps, which afford many a coign of vantage for the effective display of its architectural magnificence. The original nucleus of the city is that portion which lies to the east of the port in the neighbourhood of the old pier (Molo Vecchio).
In the 10th century it began to feel a lack of room within the limits of its fortifications; and accordingly, in the middle of the 12th century, it was found necessary to extend the line of circumvallation. Even this second circuit, however, was of small compass, and it was not till 1320–1330 that a third line took in the greater part of the modern site of the city proper.
This presented about 3 m. of rampart towards the land side, and can still be easily traced from point to point through the city, though large portions, especially towards the east, have been dismantled. The present line of circumvallation dates from 1626–1632, the period when the independence of Genoa was threatened by the dukes of Savoy. From the mouth of the Bisagno in the east, and from the lighthouse point in the west, it stretches inland over hill and dale to the great fort of Sperone, i.e. the Spur, on the summits of Monte Peraldo at a height of 1650 ft.,—the circuit being little less than 12 m., and all the important points along the line being defended by forts or batteries.
A portion of the enclosed area is open country, dotted only here and there with houses and gardens. There are eight gates, the more important being Porta Pila and Porta Romana towards the east, and the Porta Lanterna or Lighthouse Gate to the west. The main architectural features of Genoa are its medieval churches, with striped façades of black and white marble, and its magnificent 16th-century palaces. The earlier churches of Genoa show a mixture of French Romanesque and the Pisan style—they are mostly basilicas with transepts, and as a rule a small dome; the pillars are sometimes ancient columns, and sometimes formed of alternate layers of black and white marble. The façades are simple, without galleries, having only pilasters projecting from the wall, and are also alternately black and white. This style continued in Gothic times also. The oldest is S. Maria di Castello (11th century), the columns and capitals of which are almost all antique. S. Cosma, S. Donato (with remains of the 10th-century building) and others belong to the 12th century, and S. Giovanni di Prè, S. Agostino (with a fine campanile), S. Stefano, S. Matteo and others to the 13th. The famous painting of the martyrdom of S. Stephen, by Giulio Romano, carried off by Napoleon in 1811, was restored to S. Stefano in 1815. S. Matteo, the church of the D’Oria or Doria family, was founded in 1126 by Martino Doria. The façade dates from 1278, and the interior of the edifice dates in the main from 1543. In the crypt is the tomb of Andrea Doria by Montorsoli, and above the main altar hangs the dagger presented to the doge by Pope Paul III. To the left of the church is an exquisite cloister of 1308 with double columns, in which a number of inscriptions relating to the Doria family and also the statue of Andrea Doria by Montorsoli are preserved. The little square in front of the church is surrounded by Gothic palaces of the Doria family. Of the churches the principal is the comparatively small cathedral of S. Lorenzo. Tradition makes its first foundation contemporary with St Lawrence himself; and a document of 987 implies that it was even then the metropolitan church. Reconstructed about the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th century, it was formally consecrated by Pope Gelasius II. on the 18th of October 1118; and since then it has undergone a large number of extensive though partial renovations. The façade, with its three elaborate doorways, belongs to the 14th century and is a copy of French models of the 13th. The two side portals with Romanesque sculptures belong to the 12th-14th centuries. Some pagan reliefs are built into the tower. The interior was rebuilt in 1307, the old columns being used. The belfry, which rises above the right-hand doorway, was erected about 1520 by the doge, Ottaviano da Campofragoso, and the cupola was erected after the designs of the architect Galeazzo Alessi in 1567. The fine Early Renaissance (1448) sculptural decorations of the chapel of S. John the Baptist were due to Domenico Gagini of Bissone on the Lake of Lugano, who later transferred his activities to Naples and Palermo, and other Lombard masters. An edict of Innocent VIII. forbids women to enter the chapel except on one day in the year. In the treasury of the cathedral is a magnificent silver monstrance dating from 1553, and an octagonal bowl, the Sacro Catino, brought from Caesarea in 1101, which corresponds to the descriptions given of the Holy Grail, and was long regarded as an emerald of matchless value, but was found when broken at Paris, whither it had been carried by Napoleon I., to be only a remarkable piece of ancient glass. The choir-stalls are a very fine work of the 15th century and later, with intarsias. Near the cathedral is a small 12th-century (?) cloister.
Of older date than the cathedral is the church of S. Ambrose and S. Andrew, if its first foundation be correctly assigned to the Milanese bishop Honoratus of the 6th century; but the present edifice is due to the Society of Jesus, who obtained possession of the church in 1587. The interior is richly decorated and contains the “Circumcision” and “St Ignatius” by Rubens, and the “Assumption” of Guido Reni. The Annunziata del Guastato is one of the largest churches in the city, erected in 1587. It is a cruciform structure, with a dome, and the central nave is supported by fourteen Corinthian columns of white marble. To the otherwise unfinished brick façade a portal borne by marble columns was added in 1843. The interior is covered with gilding and frescoes of the 17th century, and is somewhat overloaded with rich decoration, while a range of white marble columns supports the nave. Santa Maria delle Vigne probably dates from the 9th century, but the present structure was erected in 1586. The campanile, however, is a remarkable work of the 13th century. Adjoining the church is a ruined cloister of the 11th century. San Siro, originally the “Church of the Apostles” and the cathedral of Genoa, was rebuilt by the Benedictines in the 11th century, and restored and enlarged by the Theatines in 1576, the façade being added in 1830; in this church in 1339 Simone Boccanera was elected first doge of Genoa. Santa Maria di Carignano, or more correctly Santa Maria Assunta e SS. Fabiano e Sebastiano, belongs mainly to the 16th century, and was designed by Galeazzo Alessi, in imitation of Bramante’s plan for S. Peter’s at Rome, as it was then being executed by
