Note 1166 — Chapter XIV · THE FEAST OF FOOLS (continued)

Dulaure, Hist. des Environs de Paris, iii. 509, quotes a legend to the effect that the very ass ridden by Christ came ultimately to Verona, died there, was buried in a wooden effigy at Sta-Maria in Organo, and honoured by a yearly procession. He guesses at this as the origin of the Beauvais and other fêtes. Didron, Annales arch. xv. 377, xvi. 33, found that nothing was known of this legend at Verona, though such a statue group as is described above apparently existed in the church named. Dulaure gives as his authorities F. M. Misson, Nouveau Voyage d’ Italie (1731), i. 164; Dict. de l’ Italie, i. 56. Misson’s visit to Verona was in 1687, although the passage was not printed in the first edition (1691) of his book. It is in the English translation of 1714 (i. 198). His authority was a French merchant (M. Montel) living in Verona, who had often seen the procession. In Cenni intorno all’ origine e descrizione della Festa che annualmente si celebra in Verona l’ ultimo Venerdì del Carnovale, comunamente denominata Gnoccolare (1818), 75, is a mention of the ‘asinello del vecchio padre Sileno’ which served as a mount for the ‘Capo de’ Maccheroni.’ This is probably Misson’s procession, but there is no mention of the legend in any of the eighteenth-century accounts quoted in the pamphlet. Rienzi was likened to an ‘Abbate Asinino’ (Gibbon, vii. 269).