S25 



CREMONA. 



C RE USE. 



026 



CREMO'XA, a province of Lombardy, in Austrian Italy, in bounded 

 X. by the Oglio and the province of Brescia, E. by the Chiese and 

 the province of Mantua, S. by the Po, which divides it from the 

 duchy of Parma, and W. by the Adda, which separates it from the 



province of Lodi. 

 breadth about 15 



Its greatest length is about 45 miles, and its 

 miles; it contains 523 square miles, and hod 



according to the returns of 1851 a population of 204,558. The sur- 

 face is level, and the soil very fertile, yielding wheat, rice, maize, 

 wine, oil, and flax. The white mulberry-tree is extensively cultivated 

 for the production of silk. Cheese, wax, and honey are important 

 articles of produce. Horses, horned cattle, and pigs are numerous. 

 Although great facilities exist for irrigating the grounds, in conse- 

 quence of the Po and the Oglio flowing within embanked channels 

 considerably above the level of the adjacent soil, yet the system of 

 irrigation does not prevail nearly to such an extent as in the Milanese. 

 The chief manufactured fabrics are silks, calicoes, and linen ; cream 

 of tartar is prepared. The embankments of the Oglio and the Po 

 require constant vigilance, and are kept in repair at considerable 

 expense, in order to prevent the disasters that would occur from the 

 inundations to which these rivers are subject. The principal towns 

 besides CREMONA are: Ca>al Magijiore, on the left bank of the Po, 

 a place of some commercial importance, with a population of 5000; 

 ne, a strong fortress on the Adda, which has a population 

 of 4000. including the suburb of Gerra, on the right bank of the Po; 

 nnd Ccutdleone, in the north-west of the province, which has 4000 

 inhabitants. Pizzighettone was originally built in 1125 as a defence 

 against the Milanese. Francis I. was detained here after the battle of 

 Pavia. It is defended by a bastioned wall and ditch, and entered by 

 two gates. Elementary education is universally diffused among the 

 inhabitant.'! of the province. 



CREMO'NA, the capital of the province of Cremona, and a 

 bishop's see, is situated 45 miles S.E. from Milan, on the north bank 

 of the Po, and is surrounded by walls flanked with towers and wet 

 ditches. A navigable canal which joins the Oglio to the Po passes 

 through the town. The Po is navigable for large boats from Cremona 

 to the sea. The town, which is well built, with regular and wide 

 streets, is five miles in circumference, and has a population of about 

 37,000. Cremona has many good buildings, such as palaces and 

 churches, all of which are adorned with frescoes and paintings by native 

 artists, the most noted of whom are Boccacino and the two Campi. 

 The facade of the cathedral, which is a gothic building, is ornamented 

 with curious sculptures representing the signs of the zodiac and the 

 rural labours of the various seasons. The interior is rich in paintings 

 and sculptures ; some of the latter are by Sncchi, a Cremonese artist 

 of the 13th century. The other remarkable churches are San 

 Xazario, which contains some master-pieces of the brothers Campi, 

 San Pietro al Po, Sant' Abbondio, San Lorenzo, Santa Pelagia, .Santa 

 Agatha, and Santa Hargherita, which is attached to the episcopal 

 seminary and was built under the direction of Girolamo Vida. The 

 Circumcision in the church of Santa Margherita is by Giulio Campi, 

 and is said to unite the beauties of Rafaelle, Titian, and Correggio. 

 At Santa Pelagia are two inscriptions in honour of Girolamo Vida, 

 a distinguished prelate of the age of Leo X., who was a native of 

 Cremona. The town-house in the great square, the Campo Santo 

 near the Duomo, the new market, the theatre, and some of the gates 

 of the town are worthy of notice. But the famous Torazzo, or belfry- 

 tower, ending in a spire, which is one of the loftiest in Italy, is the 

 wonder of Cremona. It stands close to the Duomo, but detached 

 from it ; there are about 500 steps to ascend up to the bells. The 

 spire is a conspicuous object for many miles around in the plains of 

 Lombardy. About a mile outside of the town is the church of San 

 uondo, rebuilt in the 15th century as it now stands by Francisco 

 Sforza I., duke of Milan, who married here Bianca Visconti : it 

 consists of a nave surrounded by twelve chapels, and is adorned by 

 fine paintings and bas-reliefs. There are in Cremona several 

 private galleries of paintings. Cremona is the residence of the 

 delegate or governor of the province. It has civil, criminal, and 

 commercial courta, a lyceum, a gymnasium, a school of the fine arts, 

 and several infant schools. It is also the first city in Italy where 

 infant schools were established in 1829 through the exertions of a 

 priest named Aporti. There are also holiday schools at Crernona and 

 in various parts of the province, in which boys above twelve years of 

 age who have left the elementary schools receive instruction, especially 

 in the branches of knowledge connected with the mechanical arts, 

 drawing, ftc. These schools are open at certain hours on Sundays 

 and other holidays which are kept in Catholic countries. 



Cremona carries on a considerable trade in agricultural produce by 

 means of the Po and the various canals communicating with 

 that river. It has manufactures of silks, cottons, porcelain, 

 earthenware, and chemical products. It was formerly celebrated for 

 its violins and musical strings, which branch of industry was heredi- 

 tary in families, the most famous of which was the family of the 

 Amati, who flourished from 1704 to 1739, and whose instruments are 

 utill in great repute. The high road from Milan to Mantua and 

 Venice passes through Cremona. A large fair is held in the town at 

 the end of September in each year. 



Cremona was in the territory of tho G;illi Cenomani. It was 



and P. Cornelius, who at the- time when Hannibal was marching 

 against Italy (Tacitus, ' Histor.,' iii. 34) settled 6000 men in Cremona 

 as a place of defence against the Gauls and other enemies from the 

 north. In the following year it afforded shelter and winter quarters 

 to Scipio after the battle of Trebia. It was besieged by the insurgent 

 Gauls led by Hamilcar, but held out till the arrival of L. Furius, 

 who routed the Gauls in a great battle under the walls of Cremona 

 B.C. 200. A colony of 3000 new families were settled in the city 

 B.C. 190, and henceforth relieved from the pressure of wars it soon 

 became a populous and flourishing town. In the civil wars of the 

 triumvirate it took the side of Brutus, and was consequently plun- 

 dered by the soldiers of Octavianus, who divided its fertile fields 

 among his veterans, the former owners being driven away, a calamity 

 pathetically alluded to by Virgil (' Eel.' i. 3 ; ix. 28). Virgil was born at 

 Andes, between Cremona and Mantua, and according to Donatus 

 received his early education in Cremona. In the war between 

 Vitellius and Vespasian the citizens sided with the former, upon 

 which the victorious army of Vespasian under Antouius Primus 

 having entered the town plundered and burnt it. Tacitus (' Hist.,' 

 iii. 15-34) has given a fearful account of that catastrophe. The only 

 building that escaped the conflagration was the temple of the goddess 

 Mefitis, or Mephitis, whose worship shows that the low marsh lands 

 about Cremona were unhealthy in ancient as they are in modern 

 times. Cremona was rebuilt by Vespasian, but it never recovered 

 its former prosperity. After the fall of the empire it was taken and 

 a second time utterly destroyed by the Lombard king Agilulfus 

 A.D. 605. In the middle ages however it had risen again to prosperity 

 and became a large and populous city. It suffered severely at the 

 hands of Frederick Barbarossa, was afterwards distracted by the Guelph 

 and Ghibeline factions, had its petty tyrants, and at last fell under 

 the dominion of the Visconti of Milan. The only remains of anti- 

 quity at Cremona are a few inscriptions, one of which refers to the 

 worship of Mephitis, mentioned by Tacitus. 



CREPT. [AISNE.] 



CRESSY, or CRECY. [SOMME.] 



CREST. [DROME.] 



CRETAN SEA. [AEGEAN SEA.] 



CRETE. [CANDIA.] 



CREUSE, an inlaud department of France, deriving its name from 

 one of the rivers by which it is watered. The department is of a 



1 n.c. 219 by the Romans under the consuls T. Sempronius 



1 24' and 2 36' E. long., and is bounded N. by the departments of 

 Indre and Cher, E. by those of Allier and Puy-de-D6me, S. by 

 Correze, and W. by Haute-Vienne. The area, according to the 

 cadastral returns of 1851, is 2150 square miles, and the population, 

 according to the census taken in that year, was 287,075, or 132'88 to 

 the square mile, being 41-83 below the average population per square 

 mile for the whole of France. 



The department is formed out of the districts of Combrailles and 

 Haute-Marche, and small portions of the Limousin and Berri. The 

 surface is almost entirely covered with hills, and contains no valleys 

 or plains of large extent. A great portion of the eastern bouudary is 

 formed by that offset of the Auvergue Mountains which separates the 

 basin of the Cher from that of the Allier, while the southern bouudary 

 is formed by the crest of another range that forms the watershed 

 between the Loire and the Dordogne. [CoRHfczE.] From the 

 mountain mass in the angle between these two ranges, a chain runs 

 due north into the centre of the department, whence it turns north- 

 east, separating in its whole length the waters of the Cher from 

 those cf the Creuse. Another chain, springing from the mountains 

 on the southern border, runs for a considerable way along the 

 western bank of the Creuse, and then diverges into numerous lines 

 of hills which cover the west and uorth-west of the department. 

 The spaces between these ranges of mountains and hills are in many 

 instances occupied by isolated or irregularly grouped elevations, 

 which are locally called ' puys," and of which the basalt and scoriaj 

 found near them clearly attest the volcanic origin. The mountains 

 generally consist of granite and clay-slate ; none of them rise to any 

 great height, perhaps not more than 660 feet at most above the 

 general level of the department ; but it must be remembered that 

 the department of Creuse is on the watershed between the Gironde 

 and the Loire. Many of their crests are naked and barren, but their 

 sides are clothed with forests of timber-trees and chestnuts. The 

 valleys are narrow, and each of them is watered by a clear stream or 

 river flowing over a gravelly bed. The situation of the department 

 on the northern slopes of the Auvergne Mountains, and the extent of 

 surface covered with mountainous plateaus, rivers, and ponds, render 

 the climate cold, moist, and variable. A great deal of rain falls ; 

 storms are frequent ; the winter is long and rigorous ; autumn is the 

 only fine season. 



The River Creuse, which gives name to the department, springs 

 from the mountains on the southern border, and flows through a 

 narrow valley first northward as far as Aubusson, and thence north- 

 west, dividing the department into two nearly equal portions. 

 Entering the department of Indre, it passes Argenton, a little below 



GEOd. DIV. VOL. If. 



which it turns west as far as Le-iilauc, where, resuming its original 



2 s 



