Perugia ( ,"Perugia" (US) and ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria and the province of Perugia in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. With a population of 162,384, it is the 23rd-largest city in Italy.
The history of Perugia dates back to the Etruscan period, with Perugia serving as one of the main Etruscan cities.
The city is also known as a university town, with the University of Perugia founded in 1308, the University for Foreigners, and some smaller colleges such as the Academy of Fine Arts "Pietro Vannucci" () public athenaeum founded in 1573, the Perugia University Institute of Linguistic Mediation for translators and interpreters, and the Music Conservatory of Perugia founded in 1788.
Perugia is also a well-known cultural and artistic centre of Italy. The city hosts multiple annual festivals and events, such as the Umbria Jazz Festival in July, and the International Journalism Festival in April, and is associated with multiple notable people in the arts.
Painter Pietro Vannucci, nicknamed Perugino, was a native of Città della Pieve, near Perugia. He decorated the local Sala del Cambio with a series of frescoes, and eight of his pictures may be seen in the National Gallery of Umbria.cf. Perugia, Raffaele Rossi, Pietro Scarpellini, 1993 (Vol. 1, pg. 337, 344)
Perugino may have been the teacher of Raphael,"...it appears most probable that he did not enter Perugino's studio till the end of 1499, as during the four or five years before that Perugino was mostly absent from his native city. The so-called Sketch Book of Raphael in the academy of Venice contains studies apparently from the cartoons of some of Perugino's Sistine frescoes, possibly done as practice in drawing." (Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition). See also "Perugia". The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press., 2003 the great Renaissance artist who produced five paintings in Perugia (today no longer in the city)The precise role of Raphael in Perugino's works, executed during his apprenticeship, is disputed by scholars. The independent works depicted in Perugia are: the Ansidei Madonna (taken by the French under the terms of the Treaty of Tolentino in 1798), the Deposition by Raphael (Pala Baglioni, this masterpiece was expropriated by Scipione Borghese in 1608, cf. The Guardian, October 19, 2004), the Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints, by Raphael (formerly located in the convent of St Anthony of Padua cf.The Colonna Altarpiece review at Art History ), the Connestabile Madonna (this picture left Perugia in 1871, when Count Connestabile sold it to the emperor of Russia for £13,200, cf. Encyclopædia Britannica), the Oddi altar by Raphael (requisitioned by the French in 1798) and one fresco. Another painter, Pinturicchio, lived in Perugia. Galeazzo Alessi is the most famous architect from Perugia.
The city's symbol is the griffin, which can be seen in the form of plaques and statues on buildings around the city. It is also the symbol of the local football club A.C. Perugia, who have previously played in the Serie A. Having never been Italian champions, the club went unbeaten in the 1978–79 season despite finishing second in the championship.
History
Umbrians and Etruscans Perugia was an Umbrian settlementPerugia (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved May 21, 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online but first appears in written history as Perusia, one of the 12 confederate cities of Etruria; it was first mentioned in Q. Fabius Pictor's account, used by Livy, of the expedition carried out against the Etruscan League by Fabius Maximus Rullianus"How much of his glory is due to his kinsman, Fabius Pictor, the first historian of Rome, or to the family legends, which found in Etruria the most fitting scene for the exploits of the great Fabian house, we cannot tell" (Walter W. How and Henry Devenish Leigh, A History of Rome to the Death of Caesar London: Longmans, Green 1898:112). in 310 or 309 BC. At that time a thirty-year indutiae (truce) was agreed upon;Livy ix.37.12). however, in 295 Perusia took part in the Third Samnite War and was forced, with Volsinii and Arretium (Arezzo), to sue for peace in the following year.Livy ix.30.1–2, 31.1–3; indutiae with Volsinii, Perusia and Arretium, ix.37.4–5.
Roman period In 216 and 205 BC, Perugia assisted Rome in the Second Punic War, but afterward it is not mentioned until 41–40 BC, when Lucius Antonius took refuge there, and was defeated by Octavian after a long siege, and its senators sent to their deaths. A number of lead bullets used by slingers have been found in and around the city.cf. Corpus Inscr. Lat. xi. 1212 The city was burnt, we are told, with the exception of the temples of Vulcan and Juno—the massive Etruscan terrace-walls,Etruscan town walls. naturally, can hardly have suffered at all—and the town, with the territory for a mile round, was allowed to be occupied by whoever chose. It must have been rebuilt almost at once, for several bases for statues exist, inscribed Augusto sacr(um) Perusia restituta; but it did not become a colonia, until 251–253 AD, when it was resettled as Colonia Vibia Augusta Perusia, under the emperor Trebonianus Gallus.Latin inscriptions at two of the preserved Etruscan gates.
Early Middle Ages It is hardly mentioned except by the geographers until it was the only city in Umbria to resist Totila and the Ostrogoths, who captured it and laid the city waste in 547, after a long siege, apparently after the city's Byzantine garrison evacuated. Negotiations with the besieging forces fell to the city's bishop, Herculanus, as representative of the townspeople.Patrick Amory, People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554 pp185-86, referring to Perugia in passing, notes the increasingly localized role assumed since the mid-fifth century by the bishops. Totila is said to have ordered the bishop to be flayed and beheaded. St. Herculanus (Sant'Ercolano) later became the city's patron saint.Procopius, Bellum Gothicum, 3 (7).2.35.2, characteristically does not mention the incident, reported in Gregory the Great, Dialogues, 13 , who imagines a seven-year siege (i.e. since 540, before the accession of Baduila) and dramatically reports Herculanus' grotesque murder.
Middle Ages In the Lombard period, Perugia is spoken of as one of the principal cities of Tuscia.Procopius of Caesarea, Gothic Wars I,16 and III,35. In the 9th century, with the consent of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, it passed under the popes; but by the 11th century, its commune was asserting itself, and for many centuries the city continued to maintain an independent life, warring against many of the neighbouring lands and cities—Foligno, Assisi, Spoleto, Todi, Siena, Arezzo, etc. In 1186, Henry VI, rex romanorum and future emperor, granted diplomatic recognition to the consular government of the city; afterward, Pope Innocent III, whose major aim was to give state dignity to the dominions having been constituting the patrimony of St. Peter, acknowledged the validity of the imperial statement and recognised the established civic practices as having the force of law.cf. Perugia, Raffaele Rossi, Attilio Bartoli Angeli, Roberta Sottani 1993 (Vol. 1, pp. 120–140)On various occasions, the popes found asylum from the tumults of Rome within its walls, and it was the meetingplace of five conclaves (Perugia Papacy), including those that elected Honorius III (1216), Clement IV (1265), Celestine V (1294), and Clement V (1305); the papal presence was characterised by a pacificatory rule between the internal rivalries. But Perugia had no mind simply to subserve the papal interests and never accepted papal sovereignty; the city used to exercise a jurisdiction over the members of the clergy, moreover in 1282, Perugia was excommunicated due to a new military offensive against the Ghibellines regardless of a papal prohibition. On the other hand, side by side with the 13th-century bronze griffin of Perugia above the door of the Palazzo dei Priori stands, as a Guelphic emblem, the lion, and Perugia remained loyal for the most part to the Guelph party in the struggles of Guelphs and Ghibellines, but this dominant tendency was rather an anti-Germanic and Italian political strategy. The Angevin presence in Italy appeared to offer a counterpoise to papal powers; in 1319, Perugia declared the Angevin Saint Louis of Toulouse "Protector of the city's sovereignty and of the Palazzo of its Priors""Avvocato della Signoria cittadina e del Palazzo dei suoi Priori" and set his figure among the other patron saints above the rich doorway of the Palazzo dei Priori. Midway through the 14th century Bartholus of Sassoferrato, who was a renowned jurist, asserted that Perugia was dependent upon neither imperial nor papal support. In 1347, at the time of Rienzi's unfortunate enterprise in reviving the Roman republic, Perugia sent 10 ambassadors to pay him honour, and when papal legates sought to coerce it by foreign soldiers, or to exact contributions, they met with vigorous resistance, which broke into open warfare with Pope Urban V in 1369; in 1370, the noble party reached an agreement signing the treaty of Bologna, and Perugia was forced to accept a papal legate; however. the vicar-general of the Papal States, Gérard du Puy, Abbot of Marmoutier and nephew of Gregory IX,Made a cardinal by his uncle, 20 December 1375 (Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church: 14th century) was expelled by a popular uprising in 1375, and his fortification of Porta Sole was razed to the ground.
The lordships of Perugia
Biordo Michelotti (1393–1398) On August 5, 1393, the condottiero (mercenary captain) Biordo Michelotti, a member of the popular faction known as the Raspanti, made his triumphant entry into Perugia, and the general council appointed him as the "knight of the people" of Perugia and the "general captain" of the militias. A special commission of twenty-five citizens was tasked with banishing one hundred and fifty noblemen, while Biordo decided the return of noble individuals who were not considered guilty of sedition. Among the exiled noblemen was Braccio da Montone, one of the most skilled military leaders of the time, who vowed not to seek "any pact or agreement with the Raspanti of Perugia."
It was precisely against the exiled nobles, especially Braccio da Montone, the soul and leader of the noble movement in exile, that the government of the Raspanti directed its efforts after the turmoil of 1393. Holding virtually all power, Biordo was recognized as the first "lord of Perugia," even though during his short rule (1393–1398), he left intact the priory and all existing communal institutions, focusing solely on extending his dominion beyond Perugia. After the splendid marriage with Giovanna Orsini, Biordo and his bride took residence in the Porta Sole palace, but on March 10, 1398, Biordo fell victim to a conspiracy orchestrated by Francesco Guidalotti, abbot of San Pietro. In their new residence, Michelotti was stabbed by Giovanni and Annibaldo, brothers of the abbot of San Pietro.
Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1400–1402)