Count Scaligeri inflicted on Concord its greatest defeat at Montaperti. After the rout, the Senate expected Senator Tremellius’s prompt resignation and suicide; instead he pronounced himself vindicated—surely now it was obvious to all that Rasenna must be destroyed. And just as obvious, where arms had failed, they must deploy a stronger weapon.
Girolamo Bernoulli was invited to address the Senate, a signal honor for a commoner. His speech began modestly enough:
Senators, I am no orator. If I speak plainly, allow me the indulgence due any novice. Regardless of my words, I remain in your hands a dumb tool, to be utilized as you will. You employ my engines in Concord’s glorious cause. I would say a few words about my Method, if I may.
I make each part separately, taking great pains. I choose the purest ores and combine them precisely to create strong alloys, equal to the pressures of the worlds in which I encase them. My Lords, my profession obliges me to see not only further than you, but more clearly, so I must tell you that Concord is not like a well-made machine. Our Creator, in His wisdom, chose to leave the mean and base material mixed with the better. Is it wise to test our weak alloy in War? Take care that, striking hard, we do not forge our Enemy’s metal, weak like ours, into something stronger. The Engineer may for a time surpass his materials, but finally Nature will have her due. Think on what poor material you are before acting.
Imagine a commoner arguing for peace by questioning the quality of Concord’s assembled Nobility; I need not report how unprecedented this was, how unpopular,14 how embarrassed Senator Tremellius was, or how Bernoulli’s arguments were shouted down, but I must tell you what happened next, when he was made to act.