“Seeing Foreign Parts” 1638–1639canals and the Po.^79 Though Milton passed quickly through those two cities, they
would have had rich associations for him: Bologna the seat of the oldest university
in Italy (and already famous for sausages); Ferrara the former principality of the
d’Este family, home of Ariosto and (for a time) Tasso.
In Venice Milton spent about a month (probably May, 1639) “exploring that
city” and shipping off, Phillips reports, all the “curious and rare Books which he
had pick’d up in his Travels” (EL 59) and probably adding some Venetian pur-
chases.^80 His explorations surely included the obvious attractions: San Marco with
its mosaics, the Square, the Doge’s Palace, the Grand Canal and the Rialto, the new
Church of Santa Maria della Salute constructed in thanksgiving for the ending of
the terrible plague of 1630 which had killed some 700,000 people throughout the
province, 50,000 in the city itself.^81 As he explored, Milton would have observed
the fascinating, exuberant, cosmopolitan life of the city: gondolas ferrying passen-
gers up and down the network of canals, flamboyant courtesans decked out in red
and yellow, mountebanks attracting crowds in the Square, prostitutes plying their
trade, men and women of rank resplendent in silks, satins, and velvets, fine ladies
teetering on extremely high-heeled shoes (choppines), artisans displaying their fa-
mous lace and Murano glass. Contemporary travelers reported that one could “heare
all the languages of Christendom” in this pleasure center of Europe, and also take in
the sights and sounds of the exotic East. Thomas Coryat describes such a scene:
The strange variety of the severall Nations... we every day met with in the Streets &
Piazza of Jewes, Turks, Armenians, Persians, Moores, Greekes, Sclavonians, some
with their Targets and boucklers, & all in their native fashions, negotiating in this
famous Emporium, which is allways crouded with strangers.^82There was also music, especially opera and organ concerts. Monteverdi was Maes-
tro di Capella of San Marco when Milton was in Venice; his opera L’Arianna was
produced there in 1639 and he was publishing much new music. Edward Phillips
states that books Milton shipped home from Venice included “a Chest or two of
choice Musick-books of the best Masters flourishing about that time in Italy” (EL
59). He specifies Luca Marenzio, Claudio Monteverdi, Orazio Vecchi, Antonio
Cifra, Don Carlo Gesualdo the Prince of Venosa, and “several others” – some of
the most distinguished music of the time. They were known for madrigals, motets,
theater music, sacred songs and instrumental music; and in the case of Monteverdi,
operas that combine monody with madrigal choruses.^83 From Venice Milton may
have taken a side trip to Padua and even, like Evelyn, attended an anatomy lecture
and demonstration at that famous university.^84
In the Venetian state Milton could observe at first hand a long-lived aristocratic
republic, the form of government he came to regard as best suited to promote
human dignity and freedom. It was the only truly independent and powerful re-
public in Italy, and the only Italian state that consistently opposed the presence of