so, temporary and precarious alliances were formed, such as that with the Carraresi, to achieve this dominance. By the end of 1388 the Visconti's flag flew in all the Veneto cities as far as Padua, while from the Brenta to the Piave rivers (including Treviso) the flag of St. Mark returned.    
In the midst of such stormy events Treviso "also thought", as put by Tessari, and invited people to ponder and philosophise. For more than a century, the University taught civil and religious canons, grammar and medicine. The City's "statutes" were constantly updated as thoughts on rights and institutions developed. The Law was being created, reflecting a society's growth into a free City over a period of two hundred years (the 12th and 13th centuries). The society rose to a high level of civilisation and organisation of services, with   defined hierarchies and magistrature and a harmony of law and order. During this resumption of culture, expansion and civic responsibility, Treviso also discovered its entertainment: Palio races, horse hunts, and mock battles amongst the City's youth were held in celebration of political events or the arrival of an eminent personage. The statutes of the time - Michieli tells us - gave acrobats and jesters special permission to entertain the people on formal civic and religious occasions. Crowds of peasants flocked to see the spectacles, while the Lords and Ladies were entertained by trouveres and troubadours who, in songs and rhymes, told stories of war and love. Markets and fairs also flourished, the oldest still remaining being that of St. Luca ("ad portum Silis") which takes place in October.
Many works of faith and charity were undertaken (begun as early as the eighth century): the erection of churches, convents, nursing homes, and shelters for the aged, poor, and sick. At this time, the Trevisans also began to substitute their timber houses for brick ones. The Palazzo dei 300 (1217) and the Loggia dei Cavalieri (1276-77) were built, bringing artists to Treviso to paint frescos on the facades of houses and the churches' chapels. Tomaso da Modena is an admirable example, painter of rare intelligence, whose major works can still be admired in St. Nicholo' and St. Caterina where his "Storie di Sant'Orsola" can now be found.
Treviso was also visited by illustrious personages. Dante, if he did not visit personally, has shown he knew it well. His son, Pietro, arrived as a jurist and died there in 1364: his tomb has been reconstructed in the church of St. Francesco. Petrarca too often came to Treviso, travelling to different embassies and visiting his friend the Bishop Francesco da Baone, or his daughter Francesca, who died in 1384 giving birth to her second son: her tomb is also found in the church of St. Francesco.
And so, during this happy time, Treviso discovered its vocation as provincial centre of the "Marca gioiosa et amorosa" (the joyful and love-filled Marca). Amongst Treviso's respected guests in the early 1400's were (according to Netto) the celebrated Count of Carmagnola; Giovanni VIII; Ostario V da Polenta, last Lord of Ravenna; St. Bernardino da Siena; the emperor Federico III and others. Also celebrated at this time were the "giostre" (jousts) in which the Knights of Treviso and Venice distinguished themselves in valour. Schools, run by the Brothers of the "Battuti" and of "St. Liberale" (patron saint of Treviso), were also increasing in number. Illustrious lecturers, men of letters, philosophers, Agostinian and Dominican monks held teaching posts there. Paper mills and printing houses prospered along with wool and crop commerce. The population, registered in the census of April 3, 1397, was of 7,258 family units. Many foreign merchants, (especially from Tuscany) settled there, enjoying the benefits of the fiscal deductions available. 1496 saw the creation of the Monte di Pietà and in 1489 Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus, arrived in Asolo.

LEAGUE OF THE CAMBRAI

And so the City's best years passed and on December 12, 1508, the ill-fated Cambrai League descended on Venice. This had the support of Pope Julius II who wished to revindicate the Cities of the Romagna region (Faenza, Rimini, Ravenna); the King of France who claimed dynastic rights on eastern Lombardy; the Austrian Emperor Maximillian I of Haspsburg who wished to regain the Istria and Friuli regions; the King of Naples annoyed by Venice's occupation of several ports in the Puglie regions on secured credit; and by the Dukes of Mantova and Ferrara who wanted Polesine back. Never, as at this time, had Treviso showed such loyalty to Venice which it rightly believed was its most important bastion in its own salvation. New defence works began in July, 1509: the old crenellated walls were knocked down and in their place a large, low rampart was built, made higher on the exterior by the addition of a wide moat. The Botteniga and Sile rivers, which had already encroached onto the surrounding countryside where villages had been levelled, were directed into this moat.
Sadly, the city of Treviso was fortified (as writes the eye-witness Bartolomeo Zuccato in his "Cronica Trevisana"), men and women, monks and priests, working night and day. "The villages of St. Zeno and the Madonna were levelled without mercy, the village of SS. Quaranta, burnt so as not to offer shelter or refuge to the enemy. Monasteries, churches, hospitals, palaces, and all houses within the defence circle were demolished, beautiful gardens dotting the City's environs were ruined. It was a cyclopean work of military engineering" (as Tessari writes), with tunnels, barracks, depots and loop-holes (narrow gun slits) for 280 pieces of artillery, positioned to allow cross-fire. The City's fourteen gates were reduced to three. Within three months the first stage of this fortification was complete, continuing then in a more co-ordinated fashion, under the direction of Fra' Giocondo, famous for his military and hydraulic projects. Sensitive to the protestations by the Trevisans, Venice sent two soldiers of fortune and talented army commanders, Lauro di Ceri and Bartolomeo D'Alviano. Against this impressive system of defence the troops of the Cambrai League were shattered. Unfortunately, the large scale destruction of the City for defence purposes was followed by the plague in 1510; a disastrous earthquake in 1511 (March 26); and an apocalyptic flood in 1512 of the Piave river which broke its banks at Nervesa, enlarging the various water ways and partially flooding Treviso, water reaching first floor level. Fortunately, the drainage system of Fra' Giocondo worked well and the excess water found its way to the Sile river.
The Cambrai League was beaten and Treviso was at peace but still tied to Venice, whose destiny, civilisation, and decline Treviso shared. Tradesmen, artists, and noble land owners reacted against this situation, moving elsewhere. Others stayed on, bored with inactivity and throwing their money away. A slow and unheeded process of social decay continued until the 1700s. Even so, in the 16th and 17th centuries, "Accademie" (Academies of the Solicitous and the Persistent) flourished, where men competed with each other to say and write the most foolish things. "Marinism" raged in these Academies (writes Michieli) and as a reaction to this, from 1690 onwards, the ideals of Arcadia triumphed. Other, equally reprehensible, excesses and bad habits grew: all those pastorals of milk and honey, based on idylls; eclogues and madrigals, which were the natural and fertile products of dandies and powdered ladies; minuets; and the decayed society that Baretti, Parini, Alfieri scrounged without pity and which marked the beginning of the irreversible decay and end of the Serene Republic.