Book IV
was probably written at Rome in the earlier part of the interval between September 1513 and March 1516. Castiglione apparently continued to revise his work until 1518, when he sent his MS. to Bembo. See Silvestro Marcello’s pamphlet, “La Cronologia del Cortegiano di Baldesar Castiglione.” Pisa, 1895.
Note 5 page 1. As has been seen, Castiglione resided at the Spanish court from 1524 until his death in 1529.
Note 6 page 1. VITTORIA COLONNA, (born 1490; died 1547), was the daughter of Fabrizio Colonna (grand-nephew of Pope Martin V) and Agnese di Montefeltro, a sister of Duke Guidobaldo. At the age of four she was betrothed to the Marquess of Pescara, whom she married in her nineteenth year at Ischia (the fief and residence of his family), and who afterwards became a famous soldier. During his long absences in the field, she consoled herself with books, and after his death in 1525, her widowhood was spent in retirement and finally in semi-monastic seclusion at Rome. The time spared from pious exercises she devoted to study, the composition of poetry, correspondence with illustrious men of letters, and the society of learned persons. Although she never became a convert to Protestantism, the liberality of some of her friends’ belief exposed her to ecclesiastical censure in her old age. Her celebrated friendship with Michelangelo began when he was past sixty and she had nearly reached fifty years. They frequently exchanged verses, and he is said to have visited her on her death-bed. Her poems are chiefly sonnets to the memory of her husband or verses on sacred and moral subjects.
Note 7 page 7. The following passage is from a letter written by Castiglione to the Marchioness: “I am the more deeply obliged to your Ladyship, because the necessity you have put me under, of sending the book at once to the printer, relieves me from the trouble of adding many things that I had already prepared in my mind,—things (I need hardly say) of little import, like the rest of the book; so that your Ladyship has saved the reader from tedium, and the author from blame.”
Despite the many decrees of popes, emperors and other potentates, literary piracy seems to have been quite as common in Castiglione’s time as in ours. He was obviously none too prompt in his precautions, as an apparently unauthorized edition of THE COURTIER was issued at Florence by the heirs of Filippo di Giunta in the October following its first publication at Venice in April 1528.
Note 8 page 8. ALFONSO ARIOSTO, (died 1526), was a cousin of the poet Ludovico. Little more seems to be known of him than that his father’s name was Bonifazio, that he was a gentle cavalier and brave soldier in the service of the Este family, and that he was a friend of Castiglione and of Bembo. His name appears at the head of each of the four dialogues composing THE COURTIER, and they purport to have been written at his suggestion. Señor A. M. Fabié, in his notes to the 1873 reprint of Boscan’s translation, affirms that Alfonso Ariosto had nothing to do with the poet Ludovico, belonged to a noble Bolognese family, and enjoyed much favour at the court of Francis I of France.
Note 9 page 9. GIULIANO DE' MEDICI, (born 1478; died 1516), was the third son of Lorenzo the Magnificent and Clarice Orsini. His education seems to have been for a time entrusted to the famous scholar-poet Poliziano (see note 105). During his family’s exile from Florence (1494-1512), he resided much at the court of Urbino, where he was known as “the Magnifico Giuliano,” and where one wing of the great palace was reserved to his use and is still called by his name. He became the father of a boy afterwards known as Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici,—the original of Titian’s fine portrait in the Pitti Gallery. On the restoration of the Medici, Giuliano was placed at the head of affairs in his native city and succeeded in winning the good will of the Florentines, but his gentle disposition and love of ease thwarted other ambitious projects formed for his advancement by his brother Leo X, and he was too grateful to the dukes of Urbino for their hospitality to accept the pope’s intended appropriation of their duchy for his benefit. In 1515 he married Filiberta of Savoy and was created Duke of Nemours by her nephew Francis I of France. In the same year he was appointed Captain General of the Church, but failing health prevented his actual service, and he soon died of fever at Florence, not without suspicion of poison at the hands of his nephew Lorenzo.
Several of his sonnets have survived, and are said to show no mean poetic faculty. Apart, however, from his appearance as an interlocutor in THE COURTIER and in Bembo’s _Prose_, his memory is best preserved by Michelangelo’s famous tomb at Florence.
[Illustration:
VITTORIA COLONNA MARCHIONESS OF PESCARA 1490-1547 ]
Much enlarged from a cast, kindly furnished by M. Pierre Valton, of an anonymous medal in his collection at Paris.
Note 10 page 2. “MESSER BERNARDO” (DOVIZI), better known by the name of his birthplace BIBBIENA, (born 1470; died 1520), was of humble parentage. His elder brother Pietro was secretary to Lorenzo de' Medici, and secured his admission to the Magnifico’s household, where he shared the education of the young Giovanni and became a devoted friend of that future pope. Following the Medici into exile, he travelled about Europe with Giovanni and attended Giuliano to Urbino, where he received the warm welcome always accorded there to such as combined learning with courtly manners. By the Duke of Urbino he seems to have been so commended to the favour of Julius II, that he was able to aid Michelangelo in securing part payment for the Sistine Chapel frescoes, of which payment, however, he accepted five per cent. as a gift from the painter. At the death of Julius, he was secretary to his friend Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, and in that capacity had access to the conclave, where his adroitness was largely helpful in effecting his patron’s election as pope. Leo at once made him Cardinal of Santa Maria in Portico and loaded him with lucrative offices. During the Medicean usurpation of the Duchy of Urbino, he showed no gratitude for the kindness enjoyed by him at that court. He became very rich, and was a liberal patron of authors and artists. Raphael devised to him the house of the architect Bramante, which the painter had bought for a sum equivalent to about £6,000, and which was afterwards demolished in extending the piazza in front of St. Peter’s.
Besides a large number of his letters, for the most part unpublished, we have his play, _Calandra_, founded upon the _Menæchmi_ of Plautus and once esteemed as the earliest Italian prose comedy.
Although he was bald, and although his friend Raphael’s portrait hardly justifies the epithet, he was known as the “_Bel Bernardo_.” A contemporary MS. in the Vatican describes him as “a facetious character, with no mean powers of ridicule, and much tact in promoting jocular conversation by his wit and well-timed jests. He was a great favourite with certain cardinals, whose chief pursuit was pleasure and the chase, for he thoroughly knew all their habits and fancies, and was even aware of whatever vicious propensities they had. He likewise possessed a singular pliancy for flattery, and for obsequiously accommodating himself to their whims, stooping patiently to be the butt of insulting and abusive jokes, and shrinking from nothing that could render him acceptable to them. He also had much readiness in council, and was perfectly able seasonably to qualify his wit with wisdom, or to dissemble with singular cunning.” On the other hand, Bembo wrote of him to their friend Federico Fregoso: “The days seem years until I see him, and enjoy the pleasing society, the charming conversation, the wit, the jests, the features and the affection of that man.”
Note 11 page 2. OTTAVIANO FREGOSO, (died 1524), belonged to a noble Genoese family that had long distinguished itself in public service and had furnished several doges to the Republic. His parents were Agostino Fregoso and Gentile di Montefeltro, a half-sister of Duke Guidobaldo. Driven from Genoa as early as 1497, he entered his uncle’s court at Urbino and rendered important military services, especially during the struggle with Cesare Borgia, in which he gallantly defended the fortress of San Leo (see note 275), and was rewarded with the lordship of Santa Agata in the Apennines. In 1506 he commanded the papal forces for the recovery of Bologna, and later in the League of Cambray against Venice. In 1513 he succeeded in putting an end to French domination in Genoa, was elected doge, and ruled so beneficently for two years that when Francis I regained the city, Fregoso was continued as governor. In 1522 Genoa was captured and sacked by Spanish and German troops, and Fregoso given over to the Marquess of Pescara, treated harshly (despite Castiglione’s intercession on his behalf), and carried to Ischia, where he died.
Several stories of his absent-mindedness are narrated by Dennistoun, and one illustrates the freedom of intercourse at the court of Urbino. His uncle Guidobaldo appearing one day in a beautiful violet satin jerkin, Ottaviano exclaimed: “My lord Duke, you really are _the_ handsome Signor!” and then, on being reproved for flattery, he replied: “I did not mean that you are a man of worth, though I pronounced you a fine man and a handsome nobleman.”
Note 12 page 2. “MY LADY DUCHESS,” ELISABETTA GONZAGA, (born 1471; died 1526), was the second daughter of the Marquess Federico Gonzaga of Mantua and Margarita of Bavaria. She married Duke Guidobaldo in 1489. In 1502 she reluctantly attended the festivities for the marriage, at Ferrara, of Lucrezia Borgia to Alfonso d'Este, and some of her costumes are thus described by an eye-witness: On entering Ferrara, she rode a black mule caparisoned in black velvet embroidered with woven gold, and wore a mantle of black velvet strewn with triangles of beaten gold, a string of pearls about her neck, and a cap of gold; another day indoors she wore a mantle of brown velvet slashed, and caught up with chains of massive gold; another day a gown of black velvet striped with gold, with a jewelled necklace and diadem; and still another day, a black velvet robe embroidered with gold ciphers.
During the Borgian usurpation of their duchy in the same year, she shared her husband’s exile at Venice, and on returning to Urbino earlier than Guidobaldo, she amused herself with a scenic representation of the chief events that had occurred during their absence. She cared for her husband tenderly in his illnesses, administered his government wisely when he was called away, and on his death acted as regent and guardian for his nephew and successor, with whom she maintained affectionate relations as long as she lived, and from appropriating whose dominions she strove to the utmost to dissuade Leo X.
Next to her husband’s niece by marriage, Emilia Pia (see note 37), her closest friend seems to have been her brother’s wife, the famous Isabella d'Este (see note 397), with whom she often travelled and continually corresponded by letter. Although still young and accounted beautiful at her husband’s death, she remained faithful to his memory, and the years of her widowhood were cheered by the companionship of her niece, the young duchess Eleanora of Urbino (see note 432). If we may trust universal contemporary opinion of her virtues and beauty, the author of THE COURTIER flattered her as little as did the painter of her portrait in the Uffizi Gallery.
[Illustration:
FEDERICO GONZAGA MARQUESS OF MANTUA FATHER OF “MY LADY DUCHESS” 1440-1484 ]
Enlarged from a part of Alinari’s photograph (no. 18705) of the fresco, “The Return of the Exile,” in the _Sala degli Sposi_ of the Gonzaga Palace at Mantua, painted not later than 1474 by Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506). See Heinrich Thode’s monograph on Mantegna, p. 56. For a notice of the Marquess’s life see note 263.
Note 13 page 3. Vittoria Colonna seems to have had this passage in mind when she wrote, 20 September 1524, to Castiglione in praise of his book: “It would not be fitting for me to tell you what I think of it, for the same reason which you say prevents you from speaking of the beauty of my lady Duchess.”
Note 14 page 3. GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO, (born 1313; died 1375), was the natural son of a Florentine tradesman and a Frenchwoman with whom his father had made acquaintance during a business residence at Paris. In early manhood he engaged in commerce at Naples, and had but little learning in his youth, although he studied law for a time. Erudition and authorship became the serious enthusiasm of his life, owing (it is said) to a chance visit to the supposed tomb of Virgil at Naples. In middle life he began the study of Greek at his friend Petrarch’s suggestion; and although he never acquired more than what would now be deemed a superficial knowledge of that language, as a Hellenist he had no precursor in Italy. An ardent if somewhat unappreciative admirer of Dante (whose _Divina Commedia_ he transcribed with his own hands), he was the first Italian author to write for the common people, instead of composing books suited only to the learned and patrician classes. His style was formed by tireless study of classic models, and became a standard for imitation by his successors.
Note 15 page 3. It is now known that the considerations that led Boccaccio to underrate his poems and tales, were ethical rather than literary.
Note 16 page 5. THEOPHRASTUS, (born 374; died 287 B.C.), was a native of Lesbos, but resided at Athens. He was the chief disciple and successor of Aristotle, and wrote also upon a great variety of subjects other than philosophy. His best known work, the “Characters,” is a collection of sprightly sketches of human types. La Bruyère’s famous book of the same name was originally a mere translation from Theophrastus. The incident mentioned in the text is thus described in Cicero’s _Brutus_: “When he asked a certain old woman for how much she would sell something, and she answered him and added, 'Stranger, it can’t be had for less,'—he was vexed at being taken for a stranger although he had grown old at Athens and spoke to perfection.”
Note 17 page 5. I. e., pages 39-54.
Note 18 page 5. The reference here is to Plato’s “Republic,” Xenophon’s _Cyropædia_, and Cicero’s _De Oratore_.
Note 19 page 6. In the letter quoted in note 13, Vittoria Colonna wrote: “I do not marvel at your portraying a perfect courtier well, for by merely holding a mirrour before you and considering your inward and outward parts, you could describe him as you have; but our greatest difficulty being to know ourselves, I say that it was more difficult for you to portray yourself than another man.”
[Illustration:
FEDERICO DI MONTEFELTRO DUKE OF URBINO 1422-1482 ]
Reduced from Alinari’s photograph (no. 2686) of a marble bas-relief, in the National Museum at Florence, by some attributed to Mino da Fiesole (1431-1484).
Note 20 page 6. More than 140 editions of THE COURTIER have been published. Most of these are mentioned in the list printed before the Index of this volume. A few of the editions there set down differ from one another only in title-page; a few others, perhaps, exist only in some bibliographer’s erroneous mention. Deductions to be made for such reasons, however, are probably offset by other editions that the present translator has failed to bring to light.
In the bibliographical notes appended by the brothers Volpi to their (1733) edition, THE COURTIER is said to have been translated into Flemish; while in his preface to the Sonzogno (1890) edition, Corio speaks of the introduction of the book into Japan in the 17th century, and also of a Russian translation by Archiuzow.
NOTES TO THE FIRST BOOK OF THE COURTIER
Note 21 page 7. “Courtiership” is a sadly awkward rendering of the Italian _cortegiania_, which implies not only courtesy and courtliness, but all the many other qualities and accomplishments essential to the perfect Courtier or (what in Castiglione’s time was the same) the perfect Gentleman.
Note 22 page 8. The extreme dimensions of the Duchy of Urbino were 64 miles from east to west, and 60 miles from north to south. Its population did not much exceed 150,000.
Note 23 page 8. The first of the four dialogues is represented as having been held on the evening of the day after the close of a certain visit paid by Pope Julius II to Urbino on his return from a successful campaign against Bologna. This visit is known to have lasted from 3 March to 7 March 1507. Castiglione returned from England as early as 5 March, on which date he wrote to his mother from Urbino: “We have had his Holiness here for two days.” It seems probable that this fictitious prolongation of his absence in England was simply a graceful excuse for not himself appearing in the dialogues.
Note 24 page 8. There were a fief and Count of Montefeltro as early as 1154, and his son was made Count of Urbino in 1216, from which time their male descendants ruled over a gradually increased territory until 1508, when the duchy passed to the female line. The name Montefeltro is said to have originated in that of a temple to Jupiter Feretrius, which in Roman times occupied the summit of the crag afterwards known as San Leo, in the Duchy of Urbino.
Note 25 page 9. Such a rule as that of the usurping Cesare Borgia (1502-3) can hardly have been welcome to a population accustomed to the mild sway of the Montefeltro family.
Note 26 page 9. “DUKE FEDERICO” DI MONTEFELTRO, (born 1422; died 1482), was a natural son of Count Guidantonio di Montefeltro, as appears from the act of legitimation issued by Pope Martin V and also from his father’s testament, by virtue whereof (as well as by the choice of the people) he succeeded his half-brother Count Oddantonio in 1444. In his boyhood he resided fifteen months as a hostage at Venice. Later he studied the theory and practice of war at the Mantuan court, and was trained in the humanities by the famous Vittorino da Feltre. In 1437 he married Gentile Brancaleone, who died childless in 1457. Nearly the whole of his life was spent in military service, as paid ally, now of one prince, now of another. In this capacity he became not only the most noted commander of his time, but always displayed perfect and exceptional fidelity to the causes that he undertook. In 1450 he lost an eye and suffered a fracture of the nose in a tournament; contemporary portraits represent his features in profile. In 1454 he began the construction of the great palace at Urbino. In 1460, at the suggestion of Francesco Sforza (whom he had aided to become Duke of Milan), he married the latter’s accomplished niece Battista Sforza, who bore him seven daughters and one son, Guidobaldo. In 1474 he was made Duke of Urbino and appointed Captain General of the Church by Pope Sixtus IV, and was unanimously elected a Knight of the Garter. He died of fever contracted during military operations in the malarial country near Ferrara. The vast sums spent by him on public buildings, art objects and books, and upon the maintenance of his splendid household, were not extorted from his subjects, but were received from foreign states in return for war service. Thus at the close of his life he drew a yearly stipend equivalent to about £330,000.
It is not easy to draw a picture of his character that shall seem unflattered. Vespasiano, who by years of labour collected his famous library for him, says that his “establishment was conducted with the regularity of a religious fraternity, rather than like a military household. Gambling and profanity were unknown, and singular decorum of language was observed, whilst many noble youths, sent there to learn good manners and military discipline, were reared under the most exemplary tuition. He regarded his subjects as his children, and was at all times accessible to hear them personally state their petitions, being careful to give answers without unnecessary delay. He walked freely about the streets, entering their shops and workrooms, and enquiring into their circumstances with paternal interest.... In summer he was in the saddle at dawn, and rode three or four miles into the country with half-a-dozen of his court ... reaching home again when others were just up. After mass, he went into an open garden and gave audience to all comers until breakfast-time. When at table, he listened to the Latin historians, chiefly Livy, except in Lent, when some religious book was read, anyone being free to enter the hall and speak with him then. His fare was plain and substantial, denying himself sweet dishes and wine, except drinks of pomegranates, cherries, apples, or other fruits. After dinner and supper, an able judge of appeal stated in Latin the causes brought before him, on which the duke gave judgment in that language;... When his mid-day meal was finished, if no one appeared to ask audience, he retired to his closet and transacted private business, or listened to reading until evening approached, when he generally walked out, giving patient ear to all who accosted him in the streets. He then occasionally visited ... a meadow belonging to the Franciscans, where thirty or forty of the youths brought up in his court stripped their doublets, and played at throwing the bar, or at wrestling, or ball. This was a fine sight, which the duke much enjoyed, encouraging the lads, and listening freely to all until supper-time. When that and the audiences were over, he repaired to a private apartment with his principal courtiers, whom, after some familiar talk, he would dismiss to bed, taxing them with their sluggish indulgence of a morning.”
[Illustration:
ALFONSO II OF NAPLES 1448-1495 ]
Enlarged from a negative, specially made by Alinari through the courtesy of Professor I. B. Supino, of a medal, in the National Museum at Florence, by Andrea Guazzalotti (1435-1495). See Armand’s _Les Médailleurs Italiens_, i, 48, no. 1.
Note 27 page 9. In a Greek epigram written in a book borrowed from Duke Guidobaldo, Poliziano (see note 105) praises the lender as the worthy son of a father who never suffered defeat, ἀνικήτοιο πατρὸς γονόν. History shows that this phrase was a rhetorical exaggeration, but it became almost proverbial.
Note 28 page 9. Although long since despoiled of its treasures, the palace is still one of the architectural monuments of Italy. Many writers have described its magnificence,—some of the fullest accounts being those by Bernardino Baldi (1553-1617); Fr. Arnold (_Der Herzogliche Palast von Urbino_; Leipsic: 1857); J. A. Symonds (“Italian Byways;” London: 1883; pp. 129-155); Charles Blanc (_Histoire de la Renaissance Artistique en Italie_; Paris: 1894; ii, 87-90); and Egidio Calzini (_Urbino e i Suoi Monumenti_; Florence: 1899; pp. 9-46). Baldi’s description will be found reprinted as an appendix to Rigutini’s (1889 and 1892) editions of THE COURTIER.
For more than fourteen years Duke Federico employed from thirty to forty copyists in transcribing Greek and Latin MSS. Not only the classics, but ecclesiastical and mediæval authors, as well as the Italian poets and humanists were represented in his library, which contained 792 MSS. Ultimately the collection was sent to Rome, where it forms part of the Vatican Library.
Note 29 page 9. Born in 1422, Duke Federico was in fact sixty years old when he died.
Note 30 page 9. In his Latin epistle to Henry VII of England, Castiglione says that Duke Guidobaldo began to be afflicted with gout at the age of twenty-one years.
Note 31 page 10. ALFONSO II of Naples, (born 1448; died 1495), was the eldest son of Ferdinand I and Isabelle de Clermont. As Duke of Calabria, commanding the papal forces, he defeated the Florentine league in 1479, and in 1481 drove the Turks out of southern Italy. On his father’s death in 1494, he succeeded to the crown of Naples; but having rendered himself obnoxious to his subjects, he abdicated in favour of his son Ferdinand just before the arrival of Charles VIII of France, and took refuge in a Sicilian convent, where he soon died, tortured by remorse for the hideous cruelties that he had perpetrated. His wife was Ippolita Maria, daughter of the first Sforza duke of Milan; while his daughter Isabella’s marriage to Giangaleazzo Sforza, the rightful duke, and the usurpation of the latter’s uncle Ludovico “il Moro” (see note 302), became the immediate cause of the first French invasion of Italy by Charles VIII.
Note 32 page 10. FERDINAND II of Naples, (born 1469; died childless 1496), made a gallant but vain stand against the French, and retired to Ischia with his youthful wife-aunt Joanna. When Charles VIII evacuated Naples after a stay of only fifty days, Ferdinand was soon able, with the help of his cousin Ferdinand the Catholic’s famous general Consalvo de Cordova, to regain his dominions, but died a few weeks later. He seems to have had no lack of courage; by his mere presence he once overawed a mob at Naples, and he was beloved by the nation in spite of the odious tyranny of his father and grandfather.
Note 33 page 10. Pope ALEXANDER VI, (born 1431; died 1503), was Roderigo, the son of Giuffredo (or Alfonso) Lenzuoli and Juana (or Isabella) Borgia, a sister of Pope Calixtus III, by whom the youth was adopted and whose surname he assumed. He was elected pope in 1492 through bribery, and while striving to increase the temporal power of the Church, directed his chief efforts towards the establishment of a great hereditary dominion for his family. Of his five children, two (Cesare and Lucrezia) played important parts in his plan. In 1495 he joined the league which forced Charles VIII to retire from Italy, although it had been partly at his instigation that the French invaded the peninsula. In 1498 Savonarola was burned at Florence by his orders. In 1501 he instituted the ecclesiastical censorship of books. He is believed to have died from accidentally taking a poison designed by him for a rich cardinal whose possessions he wished to seize. His private life was disgraced by orgies, of which the details are unfit for repetition. His contemporary Machiavelli says: “His entire occupation, his only thought, was deception, and he always found victims. Never was there a man with more effrontery in assertion, more ready to add oaths to his promises, or to break them.” While Sismondi terms him “the most odious, the most publicly scandalous, and the most wicked of all the miscreants who ever misused sacred authority to outrage and degrade mankind.”
[Illustration:
FERDINAND II OF NAPLES 1469?-1496 ]
From Alinari’s photograph (no. 11305) of an anonymous bronze bust in the National Museum at Naples.
Note 34 page 10. Pope JULIUS II, (born 1443; died 1513), was Giuliano, the second son of Raffaele della Rovere (only brother of Pope Sixtus IV) and Teodora Menerola. Made a cardinal soon after his uncle’s election, he was loaded with sees and offices, including the legateship of Picene and Avignon, which latter occasioned his prolonged absence from Italy and afforded him an escape from the wiles of his inveterate enemy Alexander VI. The outrages with which Alexander sought to punish his sturdy opposition to the scandals of the Borgian court, aroused in him a fierceness of spirit that was alien to the seeming mildness of his early character and became the bane of his own pontificate. His younger brother Giovanni married a sister of Duke Guidobaldo, a union that cemented the friendship between the two families and furnished the Duchy of Urbino an heir in the person of Francesco Maria della Rovere. When Julius engaged Michelangelo to design his tomb, the old basilica of St. Peter’s was found too small to contain it, whereupon the pontiff is said to have decreed that a new church be built to receive it, and blessed the laying of the first stone shortly before setting out on his campaign against Bologna in 1506. In 1508 he formed the League of Cambray for the recovery of certain papal fiefs appropriated by Venice at the time of Cesare Borgia’s downfall, and in 1511 the so-called Holy League for the expulsion of the French from Italy. Italian unity was the unavowed but real goal at which his policy aimed.
Although a munificent patron of art and letters, Julius was frugal and severe,—a man of action rather than a scholar or theologian. In giving Michelangelo directions for the huge bronze statue at Bologna, he said: “Put a sword in my hand; of letters I know nothing.” Another of his reported sayings is: “If we are not ourselves pious, why should we prevent others from being so?”
Note 35 page 10. Although unexpressed in the original, the word ‘learned’ seems necessary to complete the obvious meaning of the passage.
From his tutor Odasio of Padua, we learn that in his boyhood Guidobaldo was even for the time exceptionally fond of study. He could repeat whole treatises by heart ten years after reading them, and never forgot what he resolved to retain. Besides his classical attainments, he appreciated the Italian poets, and showed peculiar aptitude for philosophy and history.
Note 36 page 10. The Italian _piacevolezza_ conveys somewhat the same suggestion of humour which the word ‘pleasantness’ carried with it to the English of Elizabeth’s time, and which still survives in our ‘pleasantry.’
Note 37 page 11. EMILIA PIA, (died 1528), was the youngest daughter of Marco Pio, one of the lords of Carpi. Her brother Giberto married a natural daughter of Cardinal Ippolito d'Este (see note 64), while her cousin Alberto Pio (1475-1530) was the pupil and became the patron and financial supporter of the scholar-printer Aldus Manutius. In 1487 she was married very young to the studious Count Antonio di Montefeltro (a natural half-brother of Duke Guidobaldo), who left her a widow in 1500. She resided at Urbino and became the trusted and inseparable companion of the Duchess Elisabetta, whom she accompanied on journeys and in exile, ever faithful in misfortune and sorrow. In the duchess’s testament she was named as legatee and executrix. She seems to have died without the sacraments of the Church, while discussing passages of the newly published COURTIER with Count Ludovico Canossa. The part taken by her in these dialogues evinces the charm of her winning manners as well as her possession of a variety of knowledge and graceful accomplishment rare even in that age of womanly genius. Always ready to lead or second the learned and sportive pastimes by which the court circle of Urbino gave zest to their intercourse and polish to their wit, she was of infinite service to the duchess, whose own acquirements were of a less brilliant kind.
Note 38 page 11. It may be doubted whether the duchess’s influence always availed to secure what we should now regard as decorous behaviour at her court, and in an earlier draft of THE COURTIER Castiglione allowed himself a freedom, not to say licence, of expression singularly in contrast with the general tone of the version published.
Note 39 page 12. The duchess and her husband were expelled from their dominions by Cesare Borgia in 1502, and again in 1516 she was compelled to leave Urbino for a longer time, when Leo X seized the duchy for his nephew Lorenzo de' Medici. Her conduct on these occasions showed rare fortitude and dignity.
Note 40 page 12. These devices, so much in vogue during the 16th century in Italy, were the “inventions” which Giovio (a contemporary writer upon the subject) says “the great lords and noble cavaliers of our time like to wear on their armour, caparisons and banners, to signify a part of their generous thoughts.” They consisted of a figure or picture, and a motto nearly always in Latin. The fashion is said to have been copied from the French at the time of the invasions of Charles VIII and Louis XII.
Note 41 page 12. FEDERICO FREGOSO, (born 1480; died 1541), was a younger brother of Ottaviano (see note 11), and was educated for holy orders under the direction of his uncle Duke Guidobaldo, at whose court he also perfected himself in worldly accomplishments. In 1507 Julius II made him Archbishop of Salerno, in the kingdom of Naples, but, owing to his supposed French sympathies, he was not allowed to enjoy this benefice, and the next year was put in charge of the bishopric of Gubbio. In the same year he was sent by Julius with the latter’s physician to attend Duke Guidobaldo’s death-bed, but arrived too late. During the nine years that followed his brother’s election as Doge of Genoa (1513), he by turns commanded the army of the Republic, led her fleet against the Barbary pirates (whom he routed in their own harbours), and represented her at the papal court. During the Spanish siege of Genoa in 1522, he escaped to France, was warmly received by Francis I, and made Abbot of St. Bénigne at Dijon, where he devoted himself to theological study. In 1528 he returned to Italy and was appointed to the see of Gubbio. His piety and zeal for the welfare of his flock won for him the title of “father to the poor and refuge of the distressed.” In 1539 he was made a cardinal, and two years later died at Gubbio, being succeeded in that see by his friend Bembo. After his death, a discourse of his on prayer happening to be reprinted together with a work by Luther, he was for a time erroneously supposed to have been heretical. He was a profound student of Hebrew, and an appreciative collector of Provençal poetry. His own writings are chiefly doctrinal, and his reputation rests rather upon his friends’ praise of his wit, gentleness, personal accomplishments and learning, than upon the present value of his extant works.
Note 42 page 12. PIETRO BEMBO, (born at Venice 1470; died at Rome 1547), was the son of a noble Venetian, Bernardo Bembo (a man of much cultivation, who paid for the restoration of Dante’s tomb at Ravenna), and Elena Marcella. Having received his early education at Florence, where his father was Venetian ambassador, he studied Greek at Messina under Lascaris (a native of Hellas, whose grammar of that tongue was the first Greek book ever printed, 1476), and philosophy at Padua and Ferrara, where his father was Venetian envoy and introduced him to the Este court. Here he became acquainted with Lucrezia Borgia, who had recently wedded Duke Ercole’s son Alfonso, and to whom he dedicated his dialogues on love, _Gli Asolani_. By some writers indeed he is said to have been her lover, but the report is hardly confirmed by the character of the letters exchanged between the two, 1503-1516. Having been entertained at Urbino in 1505, he spent the larger part of the next six years at that court, where he profited by the fine library, delighted in many congenial spirits, and became the close friend of Giuliano de' Medici, who took him to Rome in 1512 and recommended him to the future pope, Leo X. On attaining the tiara, Leo at once appointed him and his friend Sadoleto (see note 242) papal secretaries, an office for which his learning and courtly accomplishments well fitted him. His laxity of morals and his paganism were no disqualification in the eyes of the pope, whom he served also in several diplomatic missions, and from whom he received benefices and pensions sufficient to enrich him for life. In 1518 his friend Castiglione sent him the MS. of THE COURTIER, requesting him to “take the trouble ... to read it either wholly or in part,” and to give his opinion of it. Ten years later, when the book was printed, it was Bembo to whom the proofs were sent for correction, the author being absent in Spain. Even before the death of Leo X in 1521, Bembo had entered upon a life of literary retirement at Padua, where his library and art collection, as well as the learned society that he drew about him, rendered his house famous. Nor was it less esteemed by reason of the presence, at its head, of an avowed mistress (Morosina), who bore him several children. After her death, he devoted himself to theology, entered holy orders, reluctantly accepted a cardinal’s hat in 1539, and in 1541 succeeded his friend Fregoso in the bishopric of Gubbio, to which was added that of Bergamo. His death was occasioned by a fall from his horse, and he was buried at Rome in the Minerva church, between his patrons Leo X and Clement VII. His works are noteworthy less for their substance than for the refining influence exerted by their form. He is said to have subjected all his writings to sixteen (some say forty) separate revisions, and a legend survives to the effect that he advised a young cleric (Sadoleto) to avoid reading the Epistles of St. Paul, lest they might mar the youth’s style. His numerous private and official letters have preserved many valuable facts and furnish interesting illustration of contemporary manners and character. Humboldt praises him as the first Italian author to write attractive descriptions of natural scenery, and cites especially his dialogue on Mt. Ætna.
[Illustration:
GIACOMO SADOLETO 1477-1547 ]
Head enlarged from a photograph, specially made by Alinari, of a part of the fresco, “Leo X's Entry into Florence,” in the Palazzo Vecchio at Florence, by Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574). See Milanesi’s edition of Vasari’s _Opere_, viii, 142. The chief facts of his life are given in note 242, at page 369 of this volume.
Note 43 page 12. CESARE GONZAGA, (born about 1475; died 1512), was a native of Mantua, being descended from a younger branch of the ruling family of that city, and a cousin of Castiglione, with whom he maintained a close friendship. His father’s name was Giampietro, and he had a brother Luigi. Having received a courtly and martial education at Milan, and after spending some time with his relatives at Mantua, he entered the service of Duke Guidobaldo of Urbino. In 1504 he shared Castiglione’s lodgings after their return from a campaign against Cesare Borgia’s strongholds in Romagna, and in the carnival of 1506 they together recited Castiglione’s eclogue _Tirsi_, in the authorship of which he is by some credited with a part. A graceful canzonet, preserved in Atanagi’s _Rime Scelte_, attests his skill in versification. On Guidobaldo’s death in 1508, the two friends remained in the service of the new duke, Francesco Maria. In 1511 Cesare fought bravely against the French at Mirandola, and the next year took part in the reduction of Bologna, where he soon died of an acute fever. Little more is known of him, beyond the fact that he was a knight of St. John of Jerusalem, that Leo X sent him on a mission to Charles V of Spain, and that he was among the many friends of the famous Isabella d'Este (see note 397).
Note 44 page 12. Count LUDOVICO DA CANOSSA, (born 1476; died 1532), belonged to a noble Veronese family (still honourably extant), and was a close friend of Castiglione and a cousin of the latter’s mother. His boyhood was passed at Mantua, and his happiest years at Urbino, where he was received in 1496. In the pontificate of Julius II he went to Rome, and was made Bishop of Tricarico, in southern Italy, 1511. Under Leo X he was entrusted with several embassies, one of which (1514) was to England to reconcile Henry VIII with Louis XII, and another (1515) was to the new French king, Francis I, at whose court he continued to reside, and through whose influence he was made Bishop of Bayeux in 1516. In 1526 and 1527 he served as French ambassador to Venice. His ability and zeal as a diplomatist are shown not only by the importance of the posts that he held, but by his numerous letters that have been preserved. At the time of his friend Bibbiena’s death in 1520, Canossa remarked that it was a fixed belief among the French that every man of rank who died in Italy was poisoned.
Note 45 page 12. GASPAR PALLAVICINO, (born 1486; died 1511), was a descendant of the marquesses of Cortemaggiore, near Piacenza. He appears in THE COURTIER as the youthful woman-hater of the company, and was a friend of Castiglione and Bembo. For an interesting discussion of his rôle in the dialogues, see Miss Scott’s paper, cited above (page 316).
Note 46 page 12. LUDOVICO PIO belonged to the famous family of the lords of Carpi (a few miles north of Modena), and was a brave captain in the service of the Aragonese princes, of Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan, and of Pope Julius II. His father Leonello and more celebrated uncle Alberto had been pupils of Aldus, and were second cousins of Emilia Pia. His wife was the beautiful Graziosa Maggi of Milan, who is immortalized in the paintings of Francia and the writings of Bembo.
Note 47 page 12. SIGISMONDO MORELLO DA ORTONA is presented in THE COURTIER as the only elderly member of the company, and the object of many youthful jests. He is known to have taken part in the ceremony of the formal adoption of Francesco Maria della Rovere as heir to the duchy in 1504, is referred to in Castiglione’s _Tirsi_, and seems to have been something of a musician.
[Illustration:
LOUIS XII OF FRANCE 1462-1515 ]
Much enlarged from a negative, specially made by Berthaud, of a part of a pen-drawing in the National Library at Paris. The drawing is touched with gold, and forms part of a series illustrating a MS. chronicle (nos. 20360-2) engrossed at Genoa in 1510 by Anthoine Bardin. See note 250.
Note 48 page 12. Of ROBERTO DA BARI little more is known than that his surname was MASSIMO, and that he was taken ill in the campaign of 1510 against the Venetians and retired to Mantua. Thither Castiglione sent a letter to his mother, warmly recommending Roberto to her hospitality, and saying that he loved the man like a brother.
Note 49 page 12. BERNARDO ACCOLTI, (born about 1465; died 1535), was generally known as the UNICO ARETINO, from the name of his birthplace (Arezzo) and in compliment to his ‘unique’ faculty for extemporising verse. His father Benedetto was a jurist, and the author of a dull Latin history of the First Crusade, from which Tasso is believed to have drawn material for the _Gerusalemme Liberata_. His poetical celebrity commended him to the court of Urbino, where (as at Rome and in other places) he was in the habit of reciting his verses to vast audiences of rich and poor alike. When an exhibition by him was announced, guards had to be set to restrain the crowds that rushed to secure places, the shops were closed, and the streets emptied. His life was a kind of lucrative poetic vagabondage: thus we find him flourishing, caressed and applauded, at the courts of Urbino, Mantua, Naples, and especially at that of Leo X, who bestowed many offices upon him, of which, however, his wealth (acquired by his recitations) rendered him independent, enabling him to indulge in a life of literary ease. His elder brother Pietro became a cardinal, bought Raphael’s house, and is said to have had a hand in drafting the papal bull against Luther in 1520. He was an early patron of his notorious fellow-townsman Pietro Aretino. Such of his verse as has survived is so bald and stilted as to excite no little wonderment at the esteem which he enjoyed among his contemporaries. In THE COURTIER he poses as the sentimental and afflicted lover, the “slayer” of duchesses and other noble ladies, who (according to his own account) kept flocking in his train, but who more probably were often making sport of him.
Note 50 page 12. GIANCRISTOFORO ROMANO, (born about 1465; died 1512), was the son of Isaia di Pippo of Pisa and the pupil of Paolo Romano. Perhaps best known as a sculptor, he possessed skill also as a goldsmith, medallist, architect and crystal carver, cultivated music and wrote verse. During the last years of the Sforza power at Milan, he accompanied the duke’s wife, Beatrice d'Este, from place to place, and is now identified as the author of her portrait bust in the Louvre. He executed also at least two portrait medals of her sister Isabella d'Este, acted as adviser and agent of the Gonzagas in the purchase of art objects, worked at Venice, Cremona, Rome and Naples, and is known to have been at Urbino about the time of the Courtier dialogues. In a long letter written by him to Bembo in 1510, he describes the court of Urbino as “a true temple of chastity, decorum and pudicity.” In 1512 he was directing architect at Loreto (see note 311), where he died in May, bequeathing his collection of medals and antiques to a hospital, for the purpose of having three masses said weekly for the repose of his soul.
Note 51 page 12. Of PIETRO MONTE little more is known than that he was a master of military exercises at the Urbino court, and perhaps a captain in the duke’s army. He may have been identical with one Pietro dal Monte, who is mentioned as a soldier in the pay of Venice (1509), and described as “blind in one eye, but of great valour, gentle speech, and not unlearned in letters,” and as “commanding 1500 infantry, and a man of great experience not only in war but in affairs of the world.”
Note 52 page 12. ANTONIO MARIA TERPANDRO, one of the most jovial and welcome visitors at Urbino, is said by Dennistoun to have been a musical ornament of the court. He enjoyed the heartiest friendship of Bembo and Bibbiena.
Note 53 page 12. NICCOLῸ FRISIO or FRIGIO is mentioned in a letter by Bembo as a German, but seems more probably to have been an Italian. Dennistoun speaks of him as a musician. In a letter from Castiglione to his mother (1506), the writer warmly commends to her “one messer Niccolò Frisio, who I hear is there [i.e., in Mantua], and I earnestly hope that you will treat him kindly, for I am under the greatest obligation to him with respect to my Roman illness.... I am sure he loves me well.” In another letter by a friend of Bembo, Frisio is described (1509) as an Italian long resident in courts, sure of heart, gentle, a good linguist, faithful to his employers, and as having been used by Julius II in negotiating the League of Cambray against Venice. He had relations also with the marchioness Isabella of Mantua (see note 397), whom he aided in the collection of antiquities. Growing weary of worldly life, he became a monk in 1510, and retired to the Certosa of Naples.
Note 54 page 12. According to Cian, _omini piacevoli_ (rendered ‘agreeable men’) here means ‘buffoons.’
Note 55 page 13. This passage establishes the date of the first dialogue as 8 March 1507.
Note 56 page 13. My lady Emilia contends that she has already told her choice of a game, in proposing that the rest of the company should tell theirs.
Note 57 page 14. COSTANZA FREGOSA was a sister of the two Fregoso brothers already mentioned, and a faithful companion of the Duchess of Urbino. She married Count Marcantonio Landi of Piacenza, and bore him two worthy children, Agostino and Caterina, to the former of whom Bembo stood sponsor and became a kind of second father. Three letters by the lady have been preserved.
Note 58 page 15. Belief in the efficacy of music as a cure for the bite of the tarantula still survives in Andalusia, Sardinia and parts of southern Italy. In a note on the tarantella dance, Goethe wrote: “It has been remarked that in the case of mental ailments, and of a tarantula bite, which is probably cured by perspiration, the movements of this dance have a very salutary effect on the softer sex.” “Travels in Italy” (Ed. Bohn, 1883), page 564.
Note 59 page 15. The _moresca_ (mime or morris-dance) seems to have been a kind of ballet or story in dance, often very intricate and fanciful. At the courts of this period, it was generally introduced as an interlude between the acts of a comedy. In a letter quoted by Dennistoun (“Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino,” ii, 141), Castiglione describes a _moresca_ on the story of Jason, which was thus performed at the first presentation of Bibbiena’s _Calandra_ before the court of Urbino, 6 February 1513.
Note 60 page 16. FRA MARIANO FETTI, (born 1460; died 1531), was a native of Florence, and beginning life as a barber to Lorenzo de' Medici, always remained faithful to that family. At Rome, during the pontificate of Julius II, he won the reputation and enjoyed the privileges of “the prince of jesters,” and became even more famous under Leo X, upon whom as a child he had bestowed affectionate care, and who as pope did not forget his kindness. Thus in 1514 he was made _Frate piombatore_, or affixer of lead seals to papal bulls, in which office he followed the architect Bramante, was succeeded by the painter Sebastiano Luciani (better known as “del Piombo”), and admitted earning yearly what would now be the equivalent of about £1600, by turning lead into gold. While it remains uncertain whether he was more buffoon or friar, he had a great love for artists, and even composed verse. He seems to have continued in the enjoyment of fame and favour during the reign of the second Medicean pope, Clement VII.
Note 61 page 16. FRA SERAFINO was probably a Mantuan, and had a brother Sebastiano. He lived long at the Gonzaga court, where he was employed in organizing festivals, and at Urbino, where the few of his letters that have survived show him in familiar relations with other interlocutors in THE COURTIER. While at Rome in 1507, with the suite of the Duchess of Urbino, he was seriously wounded in the head by an unknown assailant, probably in return for some lampoon or scandal of his against the papal court.
Note 62 page 17. This letter S was evidently one of the golden ciphers that ladies of the period were fond of wearing on a circlet about their heads. In her portrait the duchess is represented as wearing a narrow band, from which the image of a scorpion hangs upon her forehead. The S may have been used on this occasion as the initial letter of the word scorpion, and seems in any case to have been an instance of the ‘devices’ mentioned in note 40.
A sonnet, purporting to be the work of the Unico Aretino, was inserted in the edition of THE COURTIER published by Rovillio at Lyons in 1562 and in several later editions, as being the sonnet here mentioned. In its place, however, Cian prints another sonnet, preserved in the Marciana Library at Venice and possessing higher claims to authenticity. Some idea of the baldness of both may be gained from the following crude but tolerably literal translation of the second sonnet:
Consent, O Sea of beauty and virtue, That I, thy slave, may of great doubt be freed, Whether the S thou wearest on thy candid brow Signifies my Suffering or my Salvation, Whether it means Succour or Servitude, Suspicion or Security, Secret or Silliness, Whether ’Spectation or Shriek, whether Safe or Sepultured! Whether my bonds be Strait or Severed: For much I fear lest it give Sign Of Stateliness, Sighing, Severity, Scorn, Slash, Sweat, Stress and Spite. But if for naked truth a place there be, This S shows with no little art A Sun single in beauty and in cruelty.
Note 63 page 18. The pains of love were a frequent theme with Bembo, and are elaborately set forth in his _Gli Asolani_. Quite untranslatable into English, his play upon the words _amore_ (love) and _amaro_ (bitter) is at least as old as Plautus’s _Trinummus_.
Note 64 page 22. IPPOLITO D'ESTE, (born 1479; died 1520), was the third son of Duke Ercole I of Ferrara (see note 203) and Eleanora of Aragon (see note 399). At the instance of his maternal aunt Beatrice’s husband, King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (see note 395), he was given the rich archbishopric of Strigonio, to which was attached the primacy of that country, and made the journey thither as a mere boy. In 1493 Alexander VI made him a cardinal. Soon after the death of his sister Beatrice, her husband Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan gave him the vacant archbishopric of that city, and the same year (1497) he exchanged the Hungarian primacy, with its burdensome requirement of foreign residence, for the bishopric of Agria in Crete. In 1502 he was made Archbishop of Capua in the kingdom of Naples, but bestowed the revenues of the see upon his widowed and impoverished aunt, the ex-Queen of Hungary, and a little later was made Bishop of Ferrara,—all before reaching the age of twenty-four years. He was also Bishop of Modena and Abbot of Pomposa. During his brother’s reign at Ferrara, the young cardinal took an active
## part in public affairs, several times governing in the duke’s absence,
and showing brilliant capacities for military command. After the accession of Leo X, he resided chiefly at Rome, where he was always a conspicuous figure and carefully guarded his brother’s interests. He was a friend and protector of Leonardo da Vinci, and maintained Ariosto in his service from 1503 to 1517. A prelate only in name, regarding his many ecclesiastical offices merely as a source of wealth, he united the faults and vices to the grace and culture of his time.
Note 65 page 26. BERTO was probably one of the many buffoons about the papal court in the time of Julius II and Leo X. He is again mentioned in the text (page 128) for his powers of mimicry, etc.
[Illustration:
MATTHIAS CORVINUS OF HUNGARY 1443-1490 ]
Much enlarged from a cast, courteously furnished by the Austrian authorities, of an anonymous medal in the Imperial Museum at Vienna (Armand’s _Les Médailleurs Italiens_, ii, 82, no. 9). See note 395.
Note 66 page 26. This “brave lady” is by some identified as the famous Caterina Sforza, a natural daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan, who by the last of her three husbands became the mother of the even more famous _condottiere_ Giovanni de' Medici delle Bande Nere. She was born in 1462, and died in 1509 after a life of singular vicissitudes. For an extraordinary story of her courage, see Dennistoun’s “Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino,” i, 292.
The “one whom I will not name at present” is supposed to have been a certain brave soldier of fortune, Gaspar Sanseverino, who is often mentioned as “Captain Fracassa,” and was a brother of the Galeazzo Sanseverino who appears a little later in THE COURTIER (see page 34 and note 72).
Note 67 page 28. The philosopher in question has been variously identified as Democritus and Empedocles.
Note 68 page 30. In Charles V's romantic plan for deciding by single combat his rivalry with Francis I, Castiglione was selected as his second, but declined to violate diplomatic proprieties by accepting the offer,—being at the time papal envoy at Charles’s court.
Note 69 page 31. Strictly speaking, the joust was a single contest between man and man, while the tourney was a sham battle between two squadrons. Stick-throwing seems to have been an equestrian game introduced by the Moors into Spain, and by the Spaniards into Italy. In the carnival of 1519 it was played by two companies in the Piazza of St. Peter’s before Leo X.
Note 70 page 31. Vaulting on horse seems to have included some of the feats of agility with which modern circus riders have familiarized us.
Note 71 page 33. “Finds grace,” i.e. favour: literally “is grateful” (_grato_) in the sense of acceptable or pleasing. Compare the familiar phrase _persona grata_.
Note 72 page 34. GALEAZZO SANSEVERINO was one of the twelve stalwart sons of Roberto Sanseverino, a brave _condottiere_ who aided to place Ludovico Sforza in power at Milan, rebelled against that prince, and was slain while fighting for the Venetians in 1486. Galeazzo entered the service of Ludovico, whose favour had been attracted by his personal charm, literary accomplishments and rare skill in knightly exercises. When he married his patron’s natural daughter Bianca, in 1489, Leonardo da Vinci arranged the jousts held in honour of the wedding. Thenceforth he adopted the names Visconti and Sforza, and was treated as a member of the ducal family. In 1496, at the head of the Milanese forces, he besieged the Duke of Orleans (afterwards Louis XII) at Novara, but in 1500 he was captured by the French, and after the final downfall of Ludovico (to whom he seems to have remained creditably loyal) he entered the service of Louis XII, who made him Grand Equerry in 1506. The duties of his office included the superintendence of all the royal stables and of an academy for the martial education of young men of noble family. For a further account of his interesting life, and especially of his friendship with Isabella d'Este, see Mrs. Henry Ady’s recent volume, “Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan.”
Note 73 page 35. The word _sprezzatura_ (rendered “nonchalance”) could hardly have been new to Castiglione’s contemporaries, at least in its primary meaning of disprizement or contempt. He may, however, have been among the first to use it (as here and elsewhere in THE COURTIER) in its modified sense of unconcern or nonchalance. Compare Herrick’s ‘wild civility’ in “Art above Nature” and “Delight in Disorder.”
Note 74 page 37. Naturally Venice could hardly be a place well suited for horsemanship; its citizens’ awkward riding was a favourite subject of ridicule in the 16th century.
Note 75 page 37. The incident is supposed to have occurred on the occasion of a visit paid by Apelles to Rhodes not long after the death (323 B.C.) of Alexander the Great, whom he had accompanied into Asia Minor. Apelles was eager to meet Protogenes, and on landing in Rhodes went at once to the painter’s house. Protogenes was absent, but a large panel stood ready for painting. Apelles took a pencil and drew an exceedingly fine coloured line, by which Protogenes on his return immediately recognized who his visitor had been, and in turn drew a finer line of another colour upon or within the first line. When Apelles saw this line, he added a third line still further subdividing the one drawn by Protogenes. Later the panel was carried to Rome, where it long excited wondering admiration in the Palace of the Cæsars, with which it was finally destroyed by fire. Apelles was the first to stimulate appreciation of the merits of Protogenes by buying several of the latter’s works at enormous prices: he maintained however that he excelled Protogenes in knowing when to cease elaborating his paintings.
Note 76 page 37. The play upon words here is untranslatable into English. The Italian _tavola_ stands equally well for a dining-table and for the tablet or panel upon which pictures were painted.
Note 77 page 40. ‘As those who speak [are present] before those who speak’ is a literal translation of the accepted reading of this passage. It is perhaps worth noting, however, that the earliest translator (Boscan) ventures to deviate from the letter of the Italian text for the sake of rendering what surely must have been the author’s meaning: _como los que hablan á aquellos con quien hablan_, i.e. “as those who speak [are present] before those _with whom_ they speak.”
Note 78 page 41. Although the dialect of Bergamo was (and still is) ridiculed as rude and harsh, it possessed a copious popular literature.
Note 79 page 41. FRANCESCO PETRARCA or PETRARCH, (born 1304; died 1374), belonged to a family that was banished from Florence at the same time with Dante, whom he remembered seeing in his childhood. He was the first Italian of his time to appreciate the value of public libraries, to collect coins and inscriptions as sources of accurate historical information, and to urge the preservation of ancient monuments. Had he never written a line of verse, he would still be venerated as the apostle of scholarship, as the chief originator of humanistic impulses based upon what Symonds describes as “a new and vital perception of the dignity of man considered as a rational being apart from theological determinations, and ... the further perception that classic literature alone displayed human nature in the plenitude of intellectual and moral freedom.”
Note 80 page 41. In an age when grammatical and rhetorical treatises, in the modern sense of the word, hardly existed, it was natural that the study of classic models should take the form of imitation.
Note 81 page 42. It will be remembered that Giuliano de' Medici was a native Tuscan.
Note 82 page 43. This Tuscan triumvirate was called “the three Florentine crowns:” Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio.
Note 83 page 44. EVANDER was a mythical son of Hermes, supposed to have founded a colony on the Tiber before the Trojan War. TURNUS was a legendary king of an Italian tribe, who was slain by Æneas.
Note 84 page 44. The Salian priests were attached to the worship of Mars Gradivus. On the occasion of their annual festival, they went in procession through Rome, carrying the sacred shields of which they were custodians and which they beat in accompaniment to dance and song. The words of their chaunts are said to have become unintelligible even to themselves, and appear to have set forth a kind of theogony in praise of all the celestial deities (excepting Venus), and especially of one Mamurius Veturius, who is by some regarded as identical with Mars.
Note 85 page 44. MARCUS ANTONIUS (143-87 B.C.) and LICINIUS CRASSUS (140-91 B.C.), the two most famous orators of early Rome, were regarded by Cicero as having been the first to rival their Greek predecessors. QUINTUS HORTENSIUS HORTALUS (114-50 B.C.), the great advocate of the aristocratic party at Rome, yielded the palm of oratory only to CICERO (106-43 B.C.). MARCUS PORCIUS CATO (234-149 B.C.), a Roman soldier, author and reforming statesman, sought to restore the ancient purity and simplicity of the earlier republic. QUINTUS ENNIUS (239-169 B.C.), a Roman epic poet and annalist, imparted to the language and literature of his nation much of the impulse that affected their growth for centuries. VIRGIL was born 70 B.C., and died 19 B.C.
Note 86 page 44. HORACE was born 65 B.C., and died 8 B.C. PLAUTUS died 184 B.C.
Note 87 page 44. SERGIUS SULPICIUS GALBA was Roman Consul 144 B.C.; Cicero praised his oratory, but found it more old-fashioned than that of Lælius (_flor._ 200 B.C.) and Scipio Africanus the Younger (died 129 B.C.).
Note 88 page 46. In his _Prose_, Bembo says that courtly Italian, especially during the pontificate of the Spaniard, Alexander VI (1492-1503), was full of Spanish expressions,—an assertion amply confirmed by contemporary letters, which are rich also in Gallicisms.
Note 89 page 46. The Spanish _primor_ has failed to win Italian citizenship. _Aventurare_ has become naturalized in Italy; as also have _acertare_ (in the sense, however, of to assure, to make certain, to verify), _ripassare_ (to repass, to repeat, to rebuff), _rimproccio_ or _rimprovero_, and _attilato_ or _attillato_, which is recognizable in the Spanish _atildado_. _Creato_ (Spanish _criado_) is now replaced by _creatura_ in the sense mentioned in the text; in Sicily _creato_ is used to mean servant.
Note 90 page 47. The reference here is of course to the Attic, Doric, Ionic and Æolic dialects.
Note 91 page 47. TITUS LIVIUS was born at Padua 59 B.C., and died there 17 A.D. Of the one hundred and forty-two books of his History (which covered the period from the founding of Rome in 750 B.C. down to 9 B.C., and upon which he spent forty years of his life), only thirty-five have survived, together with an anonymous summary of the whole.
Note 92 page 48. Of the four forms here condemned by Castiglione as corrupt, three (_Campidoglio_, _Girolamo_, and _padrone_) have become firmly established in Italian. _Campidoglio_ had been used by Petrarch (_Trionfo d'Amore_, i, 14),—an “old” but certainly not an “ignorant” Tuscan.
Note 93 page 49. Oscan was a pre-Roman language spoken by the Opici, an Italian tribe inhabiting the Campanian coast. Much of the mist that shrouded it for centuries has now been dispelled by the epigraphists. Both Dante and Petrarch were great lovers of Provençal, with which in Castiglione’s time his friend Federico Fregoso was familiar.
Note 94 page 50. BIDON was a native of Asti, and one of the most famous choristers in the service of Leo X.
[Illustration:
ANDREA MANTEGNA 1431-1506 ]
Enlarged from a part of Alinari’s photograph (no. 18657) of the bronze relief, surmounting Mantegna’s tomb in the Church of Sant'Andrea at Mantua, variously attributed to Bartolommeo di Virgilio Melioli (1448-1514), to Giovanni Marco Cavalli (born 1450), and, with less reason, to Sperandio di Bartolommeo de' Savelli (1425?-1500?).
Note 95 page 50. MARCHETTO CARA, a native of Verona, entered the service of the Gonzagas in 1495 and lived nearly thirty years at Mantua, where he was made a citizen by the Marquess Federico. He frequented also the court of Urbino, and is known to have been sent by the Marchioness Isabella to relieve the tedium of her friend and sister-in-law the Duchess Elisabetta’s exile at Venice in 1503. In his time he was among the most prolific and successful composers of profane music, especially of ballads and madrigals, and a number of his popular pieces have been preserved.
Note 96 page 50. LEONARDO DA VINCI, (born 1452; died 1519), was the natural son of a notary, Pietro Antonio, of the village of Vinci, situated about fourteen miles east of Florence. He studied some three years with Donatello’s pupil Verocchio at Florence. Meeting small pecuniary success there, he removed to Milan about 1483 and entered the service of Duke Ludovico Sforza, who is said to have paid him the equivalent of £4000 a year while painting the “Last Supper,” and for whom he completed in 1493 the model of a colossal equestrian statue of Duke Francesco Sforza, never executed in permanent form. He was employed by Cesare Borgia as military engineer, and in that capacity visited Urbino in July 1502. His famous portrait known as the “Monna Lisa” or “La Gioconda,” upon which he worked at times for four years, was finished about 1504 and afterwards sold by him to Francis I. In 1507, he had been appointed painter to Louis XII, but did not visit France until 1516. On the election of Leo X in 1513, he journeyed to Rome in the company and service of Giuliano de' Medici, who paid him a monthly stipend of £66. Although he was received with favour by the new pope and lodged in the Vatican, his stay in Rome was artistically unprolific, his interest at the time being chiefly confined to chemistry and physics, and nature attracting him more than antiquities, of which he spoke as “this old rubbish” (_queste anticaglie_). Three years before his death he was visited at Amboise in France by Cardinal Ludovico of Aragon, who is mentioned later in THE COURTIER (p. 159), and whose secretary left an interesting account of an interview with him, describing the painter as then disabled by paralysis of the hand.
Note 97 page 50. ANDREA MANTEGNA, (born 1431; died 1506), was a native of Vicenza and probably of humble origin. When a mere child he became the pupil and adopted son of the noted painter and instructor, Francesco Squarcione of Padua, and was soon enrolled in the painters’ guild of that city. In 1449 he began painting for the d'Este at Ferrara, and between 1453 and 1459 he married Niccolosa, a daughter of Squarcione’s rival Giacopo Bellini, and sister of the more famous brothers Gentile and Giovanni Bellini. He painted also at Verona, and about 1460 entered the service of the Gonzagas at Mantua, where the remainder of his life was chiefly spent, although he worked for Pope Innocent VIII at Rome about the year 1488, before which date he was knighted by the Marquess of Mantua. By one writer he is affirmed to have cast the fine bust which ornaments his tomb at Mantua, and which is said once to have had diamond eyes. He is known to have understood bronze casting, and besides the brush and the engraver’s burin, he handled modelling tools, while a sonnet of his has been preserved. Although praised by Vasari as kindly and in every way estimable, he is shown by contemporary letters to have been rather irritable and litigious in private life. Albert Dürer tells us that one of the keenest disappointments of his life was occasioned by the great painter’s death before he was able to make an intended journey to Mantua for the purpose of visiting Mantegna.
Note 98 page 50. RAFFAELLO SANTI or SANZI,—euphonized by Bembo as SANZIO,—(born 1483; died 1520), was a native of Urbino and the son of Giovanni Santi and Magia Ciarla. The father was himself a painter of no mean skill, and wrote a quaint rhymed chronicle of the Duchy of Urbino, which is preserved in the Vatican and contains much interesting information. Having lost both parents when he had reached the age of eleven years, and probably having first studied at Urbino under Timoteo della Vite, Raphael was sent by a maternal uncle to the studio of Perugino at Perugia. The rest of his short life was an unbroken course of happy labour and brilliant success. In 1499 he seems to have been at Urbino for the purpose of arranging for the welfare of a sister, and again in 1504, when, after executing several works (including, it is believed, portraits of the duke and duchess) for the ducal family, he went to Florence with a letter of commendation from Guidobaldo’s sister. From 1504 to 1508 he resided chiefly at Florence, although he again visited Urbino twice, just before and probably soon after the date of the Courtier dialogues. His friendship with so many members of the Urbino court (Giuliano de' Medici, Bibbiena, Bembo, Canossa, and Castiglione), and even his acquaintance with Julius II, probably began during these later visits to his native city. In 1508 he was called to Rome by Julius, and resided there until his death. On succeeding Bramante as architect of St. Peter’s in 1514, he wrote to Castiglione: “Sir Count: I have made drawings in several manners according to your suggestion, and if everyone does not flatter me, I am satisfying everyone; but I do not satisfy my own judgment, because I dread not satisfying yours. I am sending them to you. Pray choose any of them, if you deem any worthy. Our Lord [i.e. Leo X] in honouring me has put a great burden on my shoulders,—that is, the charge of the fabric of St. Peter’s. I hope, however, not to fall under it; and the more so, because the model I have made for it pleases his Holiness and is praised by many choice spirits; but in thought I soar still higher. I fain would renew the beautiful forms of ancient buildings, but know not whether my flight will be that of Icarus. Vitruvius affords me much light on the subject, but less than I need. As to Galatea, I should hold myself a great master if she possessed half the fine things you write me; but in your words I recognize the love you bear me: and I tell you that to paint one beautiful woman, I should need to see several beautiful women and to have you with me to choose the best. But as there is dearth of good judgments and of beautiful women, I am using a certain idea that has occurred to my mind. Whether this has any artistic excellence in it, I know not,—but I am striving for it. Command me.” Passavant affirms that the ‘drawings’ mentioned at the beginning of this letter were designs for a medal that Castiglione meant to wear. Raphael is said to have painted two portraits of Castiglione, one of which (1516) is in the Louvre and appears as the frontispiece to this volume. His epitaph was written by Bembo, while Castiglione composed a Latin elegy in his honour.
Note 99 page 50. MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, (born 1475; died 1564), was a native of Caprese, a village about forty-seven miles south-east of Florence, and the son of Ludovico Buonarroti Simoni and Francesca, daughter of Neri del Sera. His first schoolmaster seems to have come from Urbino. Apprenticed at the age of thirteen to Ghirlandajo, he soon came under the protection of Lorenzo de' Medici. In 1496 he removed to Rome, and remained there five years. From 1501 to 1504 he was working upon the great statue of David at Florence, and prepared his cartoon for a vast fresco on the Battle of Cascina, which, although never executed, was often copied, and is said to have exerted a greater influence on the art of the Renaissance than any other single work. In 1505 he was called to Rome to design a colossal mausoleum for Julius II. The anxieties and disappointments connected with this project became the continual tragedy of his long life. “Every day,” he wrote, “I am stoned as if I had crucified Christ. My youth has been lost, bound hand and foot to this tomb.” The matter was finally ended by the placing of his statue of Moses in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli at Rome. In the spring of 1506 he was present at the unearthing of the Laocoön, and at the date of the Courtier dialogues he was engaged in casting a great bronze statue of Julius II at Bologna. Duke Guidobaldo’s collection at Urbino seems to have included a Cupid made by Buonarroti in imitation of the antique, originally owned by Cesare Borgia, regained by him when he captured Urbino in 1502, and soon presented by him to Guidobaldo’s sister-in-law, the Marchioness Isabella d'Este of Mantua. The famous tomb statue of Giuliano de' Medici at Florence is hardly to be regarded as a portrait, and was of course executed long after the period of THE COURTIER. In 1519 the Marquess of Mantua wrote to Castiglione, who was his ambassador at Rome, regarding a monument to his father that he hoped to have the master design. In 1523 Castiglione brought to Mantua a sketch made by Buonarroti for a villa which the marquess intended to build at Marmirolo.
Note 100 page 50. GIORGIO BARBARELLI, known as GIORGIONE or “Big George,” (born about 1478; died 1511), was a native of Castelfranco, a town about forty miles north-west of Venice, and was reputed to be a natural son of one Giacopo Barbarelli, a Venetian, and a peasant girl. Lack of data renders a consecutive account of his life and work impossible. He was brought up in Venice, and bred as a painter in the school of the Bellini. Vasari says that he played upon the lute and sang well, and was of a gentle disposition. Although he seems to have been exceptionally independent of great people, he enjoyed the especial favour of the Marchioness Isabella d'Este of Mantua. In a letter written from Venice in the year before that of the Courtier dialogues, Albert Dürer declared Giorgione to be the greatest painter in the city, which could then boast of the Bellini, Palma Vecchio, Carpaccio and Titian. One of the most acute of recent critics, Mr. Bernhard Berenson, ascribes to him only seventeen existing pictures, of which the best known is the _Fête Champêtre_ in the Louvre, while the only one whose authenticity is entirely free from doubt is the “Madonna and Saints” in the Duomo at Castelfranco. The Urbino collection comprised two portraits by Giorgione, one of which is supposed to have represented Duke Guidobaldo, but unfortunately is lost.
Note 101 page 51. ISOCRATES, (born 436; died 338 B.C.), an Athenian orator, was a pupil of Socrates, and became the instructor of many famous orators. His diction was of the purest Attic, and his writings were highly prized by the Alexandrian grammarians. The first printed edition of his works (1493) was edited by Castiglione’s Greek master, Chalcondylas. LYSIAS, (died about 380 B.C.), an Athenian orator, abandoned the stilted monotony of the older speakers, and employed the simple language of every-day life, but with purity and grace. ÆSCHINES, (born 389; died 314 B.C.), was the rival and finally unsuccessful antagonist of Demosthenes.
Note 102 page 51. CAIUS PAPIRIUS CARBO, (Consul in 120 B.C.), was an adherent of the Gracchi, but became a renegade and finally committed suicide. He was generally suspected of murdering Scipio Africanus the Younger. While abominating the man’s character, Cicero praises his oratory. CAIUS LÆLIUS SAPIENS was Consul in 140 B.C. His friendship with Scipio is commemorated in Cicero’s _De Amicitia_. While he was in his own time regarded as the model orator, later grammarians resorted to his works for archaisms. SCIPIO AFRICANUS THE YOUNGER, (died 129 B.C.), captured Carthage in the Third Punic War, and was leader of the aristocratic party at Rome against the popular reforms of the Gracchi. His works, of which only a few fragments survive, are praised by Cicero and were long held in esteem. GALBA, see note 87. PUBLIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS, (born 124; died 88 B.C.), was a tribune of the plebs. Cicero says: “Of all the orators I ever heard, Sulpicius was the most dignified, and, so to speak, the most tragic.” CAIUS AURELIUS COTTA, (Consul 75 B.C.), is characterized by Cicero, who had argued a cause against him, as a most acute and subtle orator, but his style seems to have been dry and unimpassioned. CAIUS SEMPRONIUS GRACCHUS, (died 121 B.C.), a son of the famous Cornelia, and brother-in-law of Scipio Africanus the Younger, is noted chiefly for his vain struggle in behalf of popular rights. Only fragments of his oratory have survived. MARCUS ANTONIUS and CRASSUS, see note 85.
Note 103 page 51. “In a certain place,” i.e., _De Oratore_, II, xxiii, 97.
Note 104 page 51. The Italian _virtù_ has here its Latin meaning of natural vigour. See also note 330.
[Illustration:
LORENZO DE' MEDICI 1448-1492 ]
Enlarged from a negative, specially made by Alinari through the courtesy of Professor I. B. Supino, of a medal, in the National Museum at Florence, by Antonio del Pollaiuolo (1429-1498).
Note 105 page 51. ANGELO POLIZIANO, (born 1454; died 1494), was a native of Montepulciano (about twenty-seven miles south-east of Siena), of which his name is a Latinized form. To English students he is better known as POLITIAN, and as the author of the oft-cited line, “Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.” His father Benedetto Ambrogini died poor, leaving a widow and five young children almost destitute. At the age of ten, Angelo studied at Florence, and composed Latin poems and Greek epigrams while yet a boy. At thirteen, he published Latin epistles; at sixteen, he began his Latin translation of the Iliad; at seventeen, he distributed Greek poems among the learned men of Florence; and at eighteen, he edited Catullus. He was received into Lorenzo de' Medici’s household, and before he was thirty years old, he was professor of Latin and Greek at the University of Florence and was entrusted with the care of Lorenzo’s children. His pupils included the chief students of Europe. A born poet, entitled to the middle place of honour between Petrarch and Ariosto, he was the first Italian to combine perfect mastery of Latin and a correct sense of Greek with genius for his own native literature. Towards the close of his life, he entered holy orders and became a canon of the Cathedral at Florence. He was ill formed, and had squinting eyes and an enormous nose. His morals were lax. He was succeeded by Bembo as dictator of Italian letters.
Note 106 page 51. LORENZO DE' MEDICI, (born 1448; died 1492), was the grandson of Cosimo, _Pater Patriæ_, and father of Giuliano of THE COURTIER. On the death of his father Pietro in 1469, he succeeded jointly with his brother Giuliano to the family wealth and political predominance. Giuliano’s assassination in the Piazzi conspiracy of 1478 (which Poliziano witnessed and narrated in Latin) left Lorenzo sole ruler, but like his predecessors, he governed the republic without any title, by free use of money and great adroitness in securing the elevation of his adherents to the chief offices of state. He was a man of marvellous range of mental power,—an epitome of Renaissance versatility. Never relaxing his hold on public affairs, among philosophers he passed for a sage; among men of letters, for an original and graceful poet; among scholars, for a Hellenist sensitive to every nicety of Attic idiom; among artists, for a connoisseur of consummate taste; among libertines, for a merry and untiring roysterer; among the pious, for an accomplished theologian. “He was no less famous for his jokes and repartees than for his pithy apothegms and maxims, as good a judge of cattle as of statues, as much at home in the bosom of his family as in the riot of an orgy, as ready to discourse on Plato as to plan a campaign or to plot the death of a dangerous citizen.” (Symonds.)
Note 107 page 51. FRANCESCO CATTANI DA DIACCETO, (born 1466; died 1522), was a native of Florence, studied at Pisa, and returning to his native city became intimate with Ficino, of whose philosophy he may be said to have been the heir. For many years he lectured at Florence with such success that the Venetians tried to entice him to the University of Padua, in vain. A partisan of the Medici, he enjoyed the favour of Leo X and of Cardinal Giulio, afterwards Clement VII. All his works (written in Latin) are of a philosophical character. His style is said to be sprightly and correct, and despite the ridicule then cast upon the vulgar tongue, he himself translated several of his books into Italian, notably the _Tre Libri d'Amore_, with which Castiglione shows familiarity in the Fourth Book of THE COURTIER.
Note 108 page 52. CAIUS SILIUS ITALICUS, (died 100 A.D.), was Consul under Nero and a follower of Cicero in the art of oratory. After a prosperous public career, he retired to a life of literary ease. His most important work was a long epic poem on the Second Punic War, and soon sank into oblivion. CORNELIUS TACITUS, (died probably after 117 A.D.), was Consul and orator as well as historian.
Note 109 page 54. MARCUS TERENTIUS VARRO, (born 116; died about 27 B.C.), was somewhat older than Cæsar, Cicero and Sallust, but outlived them all. He was regarded as the most learned of the Romans, and was made director of the public library by Cæsar, although he had been a
## partisan of Pompey. Of his seventy-four works, which embraced nearly all
branches of knowledge, only two survive. They were much esteemed by the Christian Fathers.
Note 110 page 55. CATULLUS was born about 87 B.C. His 39th ode begins: “Because Egnatius has white teeth, he smiles wherever he goes” (_Egnatius, quod candidos habet dentes, renidet usque quaque_). Later in the same ode, he says: “Nothing is more pointless than a pointless laugh” (_Nam risu inepto res ineptior nulla est_).
Note 111 page 57. MONSEIGNEUR D'ANGOULÊME, afterwards FRANCIS I, (born 1494; died 1547), was the son of Count Charles d'Angoulême and Louise of Savoy. His governor, Sieur de Boisy, strove to inspire him with a taste for arms and a love of letters and art, and it was from romances of chivalry that he derived much of his education and many of his ideas of government. He succeeded his cousin Louis XII in January 1515, and one of the earliest functions at his court was the marriage of his aunt Filiberta of Savoy to Giuliano de' Medici, who is here represented by Castiglione (with what truth remains uncertain) as having visited the French court shortly before the date of the Courtier dialogues. Writing in 1515, the Venetian ambassador describes the young king as being really handsome (the evidence of our nearly contemporaneous medal illustration to the contrary), courageous, an excellent musician, and very learned for one of his age and rank. Under his rule, relations between France and Italy became closer and more active, and there began to penetrate beyond the Alps that Italian influence which he later greatly increased by marrying his son to Giuliano de' Medici’s great-niece Caterina. His education had included a study of Italian literature and customs, and besides Federico Fregoso and Ludovico da Canossa he received and honoured many other illustrious Italians, among whom were Leonardo da Vinci and Benvenuto Cellini. He caused search to be made in Italy for rare MSS., and had them copied for his library. His reign, although clouded by defeats and humiliations, began a true literary and artistic Renaissance in France.
Note 112 page 57. The reference here is to the famous Sorbonne (founded by Robert Sorbon in 1253) towards which Francis was for religious reasons hostile during the early years of his reign, and to which he raised up a rival by founding the Collège de France in 1530.
Note 113 page 58. LUCIUS LICINIUS LUCULLUS, a Roman general and Consul (74 B.C.), noted chiefly for his wealth, luxury, and patronage of art and letters. LUCIUS CORNELIUS SULLA, a Roman general, Consul (88 B.C.), and dictator, was the first Roman to lead an army against the city, and the first to publish lists of his enemies, proscribing them and offering a reward for their death. CNEIUS POMPEIUS, or POMPEY, (born 106; died 48 B.C.), a member of the Triumvirate with Cæsar and Crassus, and the finally unsuccessful champion of the conservative party against the power of Cæsar. MARCUS JUNIUS BRUTUS, (born 85; died 42 B.C.), a statesman and scholar, who adhered to Pompey, joined Cassius in the assassination of Cæsar, and was finally defeated by Mark Antony. HANNIBAL, (born 247 B.C.), the famous Carthaginian general who conquered Spain, crossed the Alps, overran Italy, was defeated by Scipio the Elder, became chief magistrate of Carthage, and committed suicide in exile about 183 B.C.
Note 114 page 59. In the last chapter of his “Prince,” Machiavelli (who was Castiglione’s contemporary) says: “Although military excellence seems to be extinct in Italy, this arises from the fact that the old methods were not good and there has been no one who knew how to devise new ones. We have great excellence in the members, if only it were not lacking in the heads. In duels and engagements between small numbers, see how superior the Italians are in strength, in dexterity, in resource. But when it comes to armies, they make no showing; and it all proceeds from the weakness of the heads. Whence it arises that in so much time, in so many battles fought in the last twenty years, when an army has been purely Italian, it has always succeeded ill.” Compare this opinion with Montaigne’s remark (_Essais_, II, c. 24) that the officers of Charles VIII ascribed their easy Italian conquests to the fact that “the princes and nobility of Italy took more pleasure in becoming ingenious and learned than in becoming vigorous and warlike.”
Note 115 page 59. In 1524 Castiglione wrote to his mother at Mantua regarding the education of his son, who had just begun to study the Greek alphabet, as follows: “As to Camillo’s learning Greek, I have had a letter also from Michael, who says so many things that he seems to me a flatterer. It is enough that the boy shows good capacity and inclination, and good pronunciation. As for Latin, I should be glad to have him attend more to Greek at present, for those who know are of opinion that one ought to begin with Greek; because Latin is natural to us, and we almost acquire it even though we spend little labour upon it; but Greek is not so.”
Note 116 page 59. The reader will hardly need to be reminded that the habit of versification was very prevalent in all ranks of Italian society in Castiglione’s day. Varchi (1502-1565) informs us that the vernacular was generally despised in the Florence of that time, and adds: “And I remember, when I was a lad, that the first and most important command which fathers usually gave to their children, and masters to their pupils, was that they must on no account whatever read anything in the vulgar tongue.”
Note 117 page 59. In the _Vita Nuova_ (c. 25), Dante says: “And the first who began to speak like a native poet was moved thereto because he would have his words understood of woman.”
Note 118 page 59. ARISTIPPUS, (_flor._ 400 B.C.), was a Greek philosopher, whose school took its name from his birthplace, Cyrene in Africa. He was for some time a follower of Socrates, and afterwards lived at the court of Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse. Diogenes Laertius relates that when Aristippus was asked what was the greatest thing he had gained from philosophy, he replied: “The power to meet all men with confidence.”
Note 119 page 60. Among Plutarch’s works is a tract entitled “How to Tell Friend from Flatterer.” In 1532 Erasmus published a Latin version of it dedicated to Henry VIII of England.
Note 120 page 61. The first quatrain of a well-known sonnet by Petrarch:
_Giunto Alessandro alla famosa tomba Del fero Achille, sospirando disse: O fortunato, cite sì chiara tromba Trovasti, e chi di te sì alto scrisse!_
of which Mr. John Jay Chapman has kindly furnished the following translation:
When Alexander reached the sacred mound Where dread Achilles sleeps, “O child of Fame,” He sighed. “Thy deeds are happy that they found Old Homer’s tongue to clarion thy name.”
In his oration _Pro Archia_, Cicero describes Alexander as exclaiming: “O fortunate youth, who found Homer as herald of thy valour!” (_O fortunate, inquit, adulescens qui tuæ virtutis Homerum præconem inveneris!_).
Note 121 page 62. In an earlier version, this passage reads: “Grasso de' Medici will in this matter have the same advantage over Messer Pietro Bembo that a hogshead has over a barrel.” Bembo was slender, while _Grasso_ (fat man) was probably the nickname of a corpulent soldier in the service of the Medici, possibly identical with a certain Grasso to whom Bembo desired to be commended in a letter to Bibbiena, 5 February 1506.
Note 122 page 63. The instrument used in Socrates’s time κιθάρα was certainly not the modern cithern, but more probably a kind of large lyre, supported by a ribbon and played with a plectrum of metal, wood or ivory.
Note 123 page 63. In a note to this passage, Cian says: “_Abito_ [rendered ‘habit of mind’] is a special condition or habitual quality of the mind, which manifests itself outwardly in a special _costume_ [rendered ‘habitual tendency’], or equally habitual behaviour, which in turn reacts upon the disposition and moral attitude of the individual.”
Note 124 page 64. LYCURGUS probably lived in the 9th century B.C., and was the reputed author of the Spartan laws and institutions.
Note 125 page 64. EPAMINONDAS, a Theban general, defeated the Spartans at Leuctra in 371 B.C. and at Mantinea in 362 B.C., and lost his life in the latter battle.
Note 126 page 64. THEMISTOCLES, the Athenian statesman and general, persuaded the Greeks to resist the second Persian invasion by naval force at Salamis in 480 B.C.
Note 127 page 64. One of the finest of the Pompeian frescoes represents the centaur Chiron teaching Achilles to play upon the lyre.
Note 128 page 64. The reference here is of course to the familiar story of Orpheus and the beasts.
Note 129 page 64. Castiglione doubtless had in mind the legend of Arion, a Greek poet of Lesbos, who probably flourished about 700 B.C. We have a fragment of his verse addressed to Poseidon and telling of the dolphins, who had wafted the poet safely to land when he had lost his course.
Note 130 page 65. As we shall see, the Magnifico’s request was not complied with until the second evening (page 81).
Note 131 page 65. QUINTUS FABIUS PICTOR was a Roman general who served in the Second Punic War, and wrote a Greek history of Rome, much esteemed by the ancients, but now lost. Pliny affirms that Fabius painted the temple in the 450th year after the founding of Rome (i.e. 300 B.C.), and that the painting was still extant about the beginning of our era.
Note 132 page 66. The Apollo Belvedere was discovered in 1503, the Laocoön group in 1506, and other famous antique statues only a few years earlier.
Note 133 page 66. The comparative merits of painting and sculpture were a frequent subject of discussion during this period. The Renaissance writers had inherited from antiquity a fondness for seeking superiority or inferiority in matters between which there exists such a diversity of character as to render comparison unprofitable. According to Vasari, Giorgione maintained “that in one picture the painter could display various aspects without the necessity of walking round his work, and could even display, at one glance, all the different aspects that could be presented by the figure of a man, even though the latter should assume several attitudes,—a thing which could not be accomplished by sculpture without compelling the observer to change his place, so that the work is not presented at one view, but at different views. He declared, further, that he could execute a single figure in painting, in such a manner as to show the front, back, and profiles of both sides at one and the same time.... He painted a nude figure, with its back turned to the spectator, and at the feet of the figure was a limpid stream, wherein the reflection of the front was painted with the utmost exactitude: on one side was a highly burnished corselet, of which the figure had divested itself, and wherein the left side was reflected perfectly, every part of the figure being clearly apparent: and on the other side was a mirror, in which the right profile of the nude form was also exhibited. By this beautiful and admirable fancy, Giorgione desired to prove that painting is, in effect, the superior art, requiring more talent and demanding higher effort.”
In one of his letters, Michelangelo wrote: “My opinion is that all painting is the better the nearer it approaches to relief, and relief is worse in proportion as it inclines to painting. And so I have been wont to think that sculpture is the lamp of painting, and that the difference between them might be likened to the difference between the sun and moon.... By sculpture I understand an art which operates by taking away superfluous material; by painting, one that attains its result by laying material on. It is enough that both emanate from the same human intelligence, and consequently sculpture and painting ought to live in amity together, without these lengthy disputations. More time is wasted in talking about the problem than would go to the making of figures in both species.”
Note 134 page 68. In his “Treatise on Painting,” Leonardo da Vinci says: “The first marvel we find in painting is the apparent detachment from the wall or other plane, and the cheating of keen perceptions by something that is not separate from the surface.”
Note 135 page 68. “Grottoes,” i.e. the Catacombs. Speaking in his autobiography of the remains of ancient art found in the Catacombs, Benvenuto Cellini says: “These grotesques have received this name from the moderns because they were found by scholars at Rome in certain subterranean caverns, which had anciently been rooms, chambers, studios, halls and the like. Since these scholars found them in these cavernous places (which had been built by the ancients on the surface and had become low), and since such low places are known at Rome by the name Grottoes, for that reason they received the name grotesques.” Cellini here tries to explain the origin of the name applied to ornaments (such as the arabesques of the Renaissance) in which figures, human to the waist, terminate in scrolls, leafage, etc., and are combined with animal forms and impossible flowers. In this sense the word was used as early as 1502 in a contract between the Cardinal of Siena and the painter Pinturicchio. It had of course not yet reached its modern signification, so fully discussed in the appendix to Volume IV of Ruskin’s “Modern Painters.” In Castiglione’s time it was not known that the catacomb decorations were Christian, and in any case they were founded on pagan models.
Note 136 page 69. DEMETRIUS I of Macedon, (died 283 B.C.), was the son of Antigonus, who was one of Alexander’s most illustrious generals and succeeded to the Macedonian throne.
Note 137 page 69. Of METRODORUS, nothing more is known than Pliny’s account of the incident recorded in our text.
Note 138 page 69. LUCIUS ÆMILIUS PAULUS, (died 160 B.C.), was a Roman general, Consul, and statesman of the aristocratic party. The incident mentioned in the text occurred after his victory over King Perseus of Macedon in 168 B.C.
Note 139 page 70. CAMPASPE, according to Pliny, was the name of the beautiful slave given by Alexander to Apelles, as narrated at page 68.
Note 140 page 70. ZEUXIS, (_flor._ 400 B.C.), belonged to the Ionian school of Greek painting, which was characterized by sensuous beauty and accurate imitation of nature. He lived at Athens, and his idealism is said to have been rather of form than of character. The picture referred to in the text represented Helen of Troy, was regarded as his masterpiece, and was probably identical with a picture mentioned as being at Rome. The story of the five maidens is said to have been cited by Tintoretto in support of his maxim, “Art must perfect Nature.”
Note 141 page 71. The Marquesses FEBUS and GERARDINO DI CEVA were sons of the Marquess Giovanni (who was living as late as 1491), and belonged to one of the most illustrious families of Piedmont and indeed of all Italy. They were born towards the close of the 15th century and died about the third decade of the 16th, having obtained the investiture of their fief in 1521. They sided sometimes with the Emperor and sometimes with France, as best suited them, and left rather a bad name. To escape punishment for killing a cousin, Gerardino stabbed himself, and Febus also died “_disperato_,” leaving two daughters in grief and shame.
Note 142 page 71. ETTORE ROMANO GIOVENALE was a cavalier of whom little more is known than that he was in Francesco Maria’s service, fought successfully as one of the thirteen Italian champions at Barletta, was afterwards in the service of the Duke of Ferrara, who dismissed him for an act of treachery.
Note 143 page 71. COLLO VINCENZO CALMETA of Castelnuovo, (died 1508), was a courtly poet and prose writer, who had been secretary to the Duchess Beatrice d'Este of Milan. Later he enjoyed the especial favour of this lady’s sister, the Marchioness Isabella d'Este of Mantua, and also of the Duchess of Urbino, who protected him from the displeasure of her brother the Marquess of Mantua, and at whose court he improvised verse somewhat after the manner of the Unico Aretino. In a letter (1504) from Urbino to Isabella d'Este, Emilia Pia wrote: “Of news here there is none that is not known to you, except that Calmeta is continually composing songs and divers other things, and this carnival has written a new comedy, which he would have sent you if he had thought it would give you pleasure.” Among Calmeta’s works were a verse compendium of Ovid’s _Ars Amandi_, and a biography of his friend and fellow improvisatore, Serafino Ciminelli d'Aquila (see note 255). As known to us, his poetical writings do not rise above mediocrity, and wholly fail to explain the esteem in which they were held.
Note 144 page 71. ORAZIO FLORIDO was a native of Fano, one of the Adriatic coast towns nearest to Urbino. Having been chancellor to Duke Guidobaldo, he became secretary to Duke Francesco Maria. When Francesco was combating the usurper Lorenzo de' Medici in 1517, he sent one of his officers with Florido under protection of a safe-conduct to challenge Lorenzo to personal combat. In spite of the safe-conduct, Florido was detained and sent to Leo X at Rome, where he was basely tortured in the hope of extorting political secrets from him. He remained steadfastly faithful to his master, and afterwards made a tour of the courts of Europe seeking aid for his lord.
Note 145 page 73. MARGARITA GONZAGA was a niece of the Duchess of Urbino, being a natural daughter of the Marquess Gianfrancesco of Mantua. She was for many years one of the ornaments of the Urbino court. Various mentions of her in contemporary letters show her as a woman of unusual beauty, sprightly wit and gay disposition. She had several suitors, apparently including Filippo Beroaldo, who is mentioned later in THE COURTIER (page 139).
Note 146 page 73. Of BARLETTA nothing more is known than what is contained in this and another shorter mention of him in THE COURTIER (page 87).
[Illustration:
BEATRICE D'ESTE DUCHESS OF MILAN 1475-1497 ]
Reduced from Braun’s photograph (no. 42.371) of the portrait, in the Pitti Gallery at Florence, attributed to Piero della Francesca (1420-1492). For an account of this and other portraits, see _l'Archivio Storico dell'Arte_ for 1889, p. 264. Some of the events of her short life are mentioned in note 398 at page 399 of this volume.
Note 147 page 73. The original reads: _havendo prima danzato una bassa, ballarono una Roegarze_. The _danza bassa_ was of Spanish origin and is believed to have consisted of sliding steps and of posturing, in which the feet were not lifted. The verb _ballare_ seems to be derived from the low Latin _balla_, a ball. In the Middle Ages the game of ball was accompanied with dance and song, and we may well believe that a class of dances, thus originating and denominated generally _balli_, were more animated than the _danza bassa_. Although a Greek derivation has been ascribed to the word _roegarze_, Cian affirms that the dance thus named was of French origin. The earliest French translator of THE COURTIER renders the word by _rouergoise_, which is apparently derived from _Rouergue_, the name of an ancient French province to the south-west of Lyons.
[Illustration:
FILIPPO MARIA VISCONTI DUKE OF MILAN 1391-1447 ]
Reduced from Giraudon’s photograph (no. 254) of a drawing, in the Louvre, by Vittore Pisano, better known as Pisanello, (1380?-1451?).
NOTES TO THE SECOND BOOK OF THE COURTIER
Note 148 page 75. This passage reflects the medico-philosophical theories which the Renaissance inherited from antiquity, and which regarded “the vital spirits” as something far more tangible and material than what we call the principle of life or vital spark. Compare the early conception of electricity as a fluid substance. “Complexion” is of course here used to mean temperament or constitution, and not the mere colour and texture of the skin.
Note 149 page 77. Duke FILIPPO MARIA VISCONTI, (born 1391; died 1447), was the son of Giangaleotto and Caterina Visconti, and brother of Giovanni Maria Visconti, whom he succeeded as Duke of Milan in 1412. He married Beatrice di Tenda (widow of Facino Cane), who brought him nearly a half million of florins dowry, besides her husband’s soldiers and cities, and thus enabled him gradually to win back the Lombard part of his father’s duchy, which his brother had lost. He was very ugly in person, and so sensitive that he rarely appeared in public. Wily but unstable, he was continually plotting schemes that seemed to have no object, and he mistrusted his own generals, even Francesco Sforza, who turned against him, forced him to a ruinous peace, and after his death was soon able to seize his duchy. In him the cruel selfishness of the Renaissance tyrant did not degenerate into mad thirst for blood, as in the case of his terrible brother. He read Dante, Petrarch and French romances of chivalry, and even dallied with the Latin classics, but genuine learning was neglected and despised at his court.
Duke BORSO D'ESTE, (born 1413; died 1471), like his brother and predecessor, was a natural son of Duke Niccolò III. Kindly and just, he was idolized by the Ferrarese and especially by the women. He patronized letters and art and was fond of splendid living, yet in spite of the luxury of his court, he left a treasure of about a million pounds sterling. The art of printing was established at Ferrara shortly before his death. He appears to have been himself ignorant of Latin, and encouraged the literary use of Italian and the study of French romance. Histories of Ferrara, as well as the writings of contemporary humanists, are full of his generous deeds. His mild sway passed into a proverb, and the time of “the good Duke Borso” was long remembered as a kind of golden age.
Note 150 page 77. NICCOLῸ PICCININO, (born 1380; died 1444), was so humbly born as to possess no other surname than that conferred on him in ridicule of his small stature. Having served under the famous Braccio da Montone, he married the latter’s niece, and achieved such distinction as a soldier as to share with Francesco Sforza the fame of being the first _condottiere_ of his day. He became the friend and general of Duke Federico of Urbino. His rough wit was highly esteemed.
Note 151 page 77. This consciousness of the corruption then prevailing in Italy is even more frankly expressed by Machiavelli: “It is but too true that we Italians are in a special degree irreligious and corrupt.” (_Discorsi_, I, 12.)
Note 152 page 78. The reference here is to Plato’s _Phædo_, c. 3. Socrates is said to have turned Æsop’s fables into verse.
Note 153 page 83. The Italian noun _fierezza_ (rendered “boldness”) and the adjective _fiero_ (more anciently _fero_, the epithet applied by Petrarch to Achilles, see note 120) are derived from the Latin _ferus_ (wild, untamed, impetuous), the root of which we see in our English word _fer_ocious. While retaining its etymological signification, _fiero_ was used to mean also: haughty, intrepid, strong, sturdy.
Note 154 page 87. “Brawls” (Italian, _brandi_; French, _branles_) were a kind of animated figured dance, said to be of Spanish origin and to have resembled the modern _cotillon_. A letter by Castiglione mentions this dance as having been performed by figures dressed as birds in one of the interludes when Bibbiena’s _Calandra_ was first presented at Urbino. This and other passages suggest that the use of masks was even more common in Italian society of the author’s time, than at the present day.
Note 155 page 88. Castiglione’s letters show that he possessed and played upon a variety of musical instruments, and it is known that in Duke Federico’s time, the palace of Urbino was well supplied with instruments and musicians.
Note 156 page 88. Viol is the generic name for the family of bowed instruments that succeeded the mediæval fiddle and preceded the violin. Invented in the 15th century, it differed from a violin in having deeper ribs, a flat back, and a broad centre-piece on which the sound post rested. Its neck was broad and thin; it had from five to seven strings, and was made in four sizes, of which the lowest pitched (the _violone_ or double bass) is still in use. The tone of the instrument is said to have been penetrating rather than powerful.
Note 157 page 89. Wind instruments, and especially the flute, are here referred to. According to Plutarch, Alcibiades maintained that they were regarded with disfavour by Pallas and Apollo because the face is distorted in playing upon them.
[Illustration:
NICCOLÒ PICCININO 1380-1444 ]
Reduced from Giraudon’s photograph (no. 252) of a drawing, in the Louvre, by Vittore Pisano, better known as Pisanello, (1380?-1451?).
Note 158 page 90. The Pythagoreans supposed the intervals between the heavenly bodies to be determined by the laws of musical harmony. Hence arose the celebrated doctrine of “the music of the spheres” (already referred to by Castiglione in the text, page 63); for in their motion the heavenly bodies must each occasion a certain sound or note depending on their distances and velocities, which notes together formed a musical harmony, inaudible to man because he has been accustomed to it from the first and has never had an opportunity to contrast it with silence, or because it exceeds his powers of hearing. Pythagoras himself (died about 500 B.C.) taught his disciples to sing to the accompaniment of the lyre, and to chaunt hymns to the gods and to virtuous men.
Note 159 page 90. As the Italian commentator, Count Vesme, suggests, the author may have meant to say, “shave twice a day.” A weekly visit to the barber may, however, have been usually regarded as sufficient at this time.
Note 160 page 93. In the beginning of his Encomium on Folly (which was well known in Italy when Castiglione wrote THE COURTIER), Erasmus pretends that, “although there has been no lack of those who, at great cost of oil and sleep, have exalted ... the fourth-day ague, the fly, and baldness, with most tedious praise,” Folly is languishing without a eulogist. Among the works of Lucian (_flor._ 160 A.D.) there is a brief humourous book in praise of the fly; the philosopher Favorinus (_flor._ 120 A.D.) is said to have written a eulogy on the fourth-day ague; and there is another on baldness by the early Christian writer, Synesius (_flor._ 400 A.D.). The men of the Renaissance delighted in similar displays of wit.
Note 161 page 94. The Italian _procella_ (rendered ‘fury’) primarily means a tempest, and is so translated in the earliest French and English versions of THE COURTIER (_estourbillon_, storm). The still earlier Spanish version has _pestilencia_.
Note 162 page 95. The Italian _impedito_ (rendered ‘palsied’) literally means entangled as to the feet.
Note 163 page 96. St. Luke, iv, 8 and 10.
Note 164 page 97. In Æsop’s fable, _Asinus Domino Blandiens_, an ass receives a sound cudgelling for his efforts to win his master’s favour by caresses that he was ill fitted to bestow.
Note 165 page 100. TITUS MANLIUS,—called TORQUATUS from the chain (_torques_) that he took from the body of a gigantic Gaul whom he had slain in single combat,—was a favourite hero of Roman story. The incident referred to here occurred shortly before a Roman victory over the Latins at the foot of Vesuvius. Manlius and his colleague in command had proclaimed that no Roman might engage a Latin singly on pain of death, but a son of Manlius accepted a challenge from one of the enemy, slew his adversary, and bore the bloody spoils in triumph to his father, who thereupon caused the young man to be put to death before the assembled army. Manlius was Consul in 340 B.C.
Note 166 page 101. PUBLIUS LICINIUS CRASSUS MUCIANUS was Roman Consul in 131 B.C. According to Livy, the incident narrated in the text occurred during an unsuccessful campaign against Pergamus, which ended in Crassus’s voluntary death.
Note 167 page 103. Rome was sacked only the year before THE COURTIER was first published. Italy had become the plaything of foreign conquest.
Note 168 page 103. DARIUS III was King of Persia 336-330 B.C. This story about his sword seems to be founded on the following passage in Quintus Curtius Rufus’s History of Alexander the Great: “At the beginning of his reign, Darius ordered his Persian scabbard to be altered to the form which the Greeks used; whereupon the Chaldeans prophesied that the empire of the Persians would pass to those whose arms he had imitated.”
Note 169 page 104. It will be remembered that Bembo was a Venetian.
Note 170 page 104. The coif (_cuffia_) here mentioned seems to have been a kind of turban made of cloth wound about the head, with the two ends hanging at the ears.
Note 171 page 105. These unfortunate creatures still abound near Bergamo.
Note 172 page 106. Pylades and Orestes, like Pirithous and Theseus, are the famous friends of Greek legend. The historical and no less tender love between Scipio and Lælius forms the subject of Cicero’s _De Amicitia_. See note 102.
Note 173 page 109. The fellow’s reward is said to have been a measure of the peas.
Note 174 page 109. The Italian phrase here rendered ‘goes against the grain’ is _non gli avrà sangue_ (more usually _non ci avrà il suo sangue_), and might be more precisely translated ‘will not suit his humour.’ The ‘as we say’ suggests that the idiom was of recent origin in Castiglione’s time.
[Illustration:
MAXIMILIAN I EMPEROR OF GERMANY 1459-1519 ]
Reduced from Braun’s photograph (no. 34.074) of the portrait, in the Imperial Museum at Vienna, by Ambrogio da Predis (_flor._ 1500). In Morelli’s “Italian Painters” (London: 1892), pp. 180-9, the picture is described as injured by restoration. See note 390.
Note 175 page 113. GIACOPO SANNAZARO, (born 1458; died 1530), was a native of Naples, and the son of Giacopo Niccolò and Masella di San Magno. His boyhood was spent with his mother at San Cipriano, near her birthplace Salerno. He soon made such progress in Latin and Greek that he was admitted to the academy of the famous Pontormo, of whom he became the close friend. Their effigies may be seen together in the Neapolitan church of Monte Oliveto. He received a villa and a pension from the scholarly Aragonese dynasty, to which he remained faithful with pen and sword, following Federico III into exile (see note 401) in 1501, and returning to Naples only after his king’s death in 1504. He seems to have had a peaceful and honourable old age, active in works of piety and charity, and employing his leisure in study and in the society of a certain noble lady for whom he had formed a lasting Platonic friendship. His writings include marine eclogues, elegies, etc., in Latin, but his best known work is _L'Arcadia_, an Italian prose romance interspersed with verse, of which sixty editions are said to have appeared before 1600. It is regarded by Mahaffy as having originated the idea that the Greek Arcadia was the especial home of pastoral poetry, and probably served Sidney as a model for his poem of the same name. Hardly less famous were Sannazaro’s anti-Borgian epigrams, to which Symonds ascribes no small part of the gruesome legend of Lucrezia’s crimes. He was buried in a church built by him near the so-called tomb of Virgil, and his monument behind the high altar bears the Latin inscription by Bembo, in which he is described as “near alike to Virgil’s muse and sepulchre.”
Note 176 page 113. Motet is “a term which for the last three hundred years has been almost exclusively applied to certain pieces of church music, of moderate length, adapted to Latin words (selected, for the most part, either from Holy Scripture, or the Roman office-books), and intended to be sung at high mass, either in place of, or immediately after, the Plain Chaunt _Offertorium_ of the Day.“ (Grove.) The motet was sometimes founded on the air of some non-sacred song, as in the case of Josquin’s _Stabat Mater_, which was based upon the ballad _Comme Femme_. (Ambros.)
Note 177 page 113. JOSQUIN (more properly JOSSE) DE PRÈS, (born about 1450; died 1521), seems to have been a native of St. Quentin, Hainault, Belgium, and was one of the celebrated musicians of the Renaissance. Having been the pupil of Ockenheim, the greatest composer of the day, he was at the papal court of Sixtus IV, and successively in the service of Lorenzo de' Medici, Louis XII of France, and the Emperor Maximilian I. He returned to Italy about 1503 and lived at the court of Ferrara. He is the earliest composer whose works are preserved in such quantity as adequately to present his power, and was called “the father of harmony” by Dr. Burney. Music began to be printed (1498) when Josquin was in his prime.
Note 178 page 114. Other contemporary evidence amply confirms this account of the occasional grossness that marked the table manners of the period.
Note 179 page 115. The two princes here referred to are Ferdinand the Catholic of Spain (see note 392) and Louis XII of France (see note 250).
Note 180 page 116. PAOLO NICCOLÒ VERNIA, called NICOLETTO (little Nick) from his shortness of stature, (died 1499), was a native of Chieti, near the Adriatic. He probably studied at Padua, and remained there teaching physics, although in 1444 he took his degree in philosophy, and fourteen years later in medicine. He wrote chiefly on philosophy, but was noted also as a wit.
Note 181 page 116. “When Frederick Barbarossa attempted to govern the rebellious Lombard cities in the common interest of the Empire, he established in their midst a foreign judge, called ‘Podestà,’ _quasi habens potestatem Imperatoris in hac parte_.... The title of ‘Podestà’ was subsequently conferred upon the official summoned to maintain an equal balance between the burghers and the nobles.” Symonds’s “Renaissance in Italy,” ed. 1883, i, 61.
Note 182 page 117. This was the battle of Fornovo (6 July 1495), in which the Italian forces under the Marquess Gianfrancesco Gonzaga of Mantua failed to prevent the retreat of Charles VIII towards France. Both sides claimed a victory, and the marquess even went so far as to have it commemorated by Mantegna in a picture, “The Madonna of Victory” (Louvre), which contains his portrait. Castiglione’s father died from the effect of wounds received in this battle.
Note 183 page 117. The reference here is plainly to Leonardo da Vinci (see note 96). His contemporaries would naturally regard as chimerical such devices as steam cannon, paddle wheels for boats, and flying machines, or such hints as that contained in his _Codex Atlanticus_, where he suggests the possibility of steam navigation. “He was the first to explain correctly the dim illumination seen over the rest of the surface of the moon when the bright part is only a thin crescent. He pointed out that when the moon was nearly new, the half of the earth which was then illuminated by the sun was turned nearly directly towards the moon, and that the moon was in consequence illuminated slightly by this ‘earthshine,’ just as we are by moonshine. This explanation ... tended to break down the supposed barrier between terrestrial and celestial bodies.” Arthur Berry’s “Short History of Astronomy” (London, 1898), p. 91.
Note 184 page 118. Suetonius mentions this characteristic of Cæsar.
Note 185 page 119. This is one of the few passages in The Courtier that are plainly reminiscent of Dante, who says: “To that truth which hath the face of falsehood, man must ever close his lips” (_Sempre a quel ver che ha faccia di menzogna, De' l’uom chiuder la labbra_). _Inferno_, xvi, 124-5.
Note 186 page 121. The translator admits being at a loss to find an adequate equivalent for the Italian _argusie_. Our unfamiliar English adjective ‘argute’ suggests that kind of pungent and witty conceits which Castiglione is describing.
[Illustration:
CHARLES VIII OF FRANCE 1470-1498 ]
Reduced from Alinari’s photograph (no. 2749) of the anonymous bronze bust in the National Museum at Florence. See note 388.
Note 187 page 121. Bibbiena’s reputation as a wit was well established, while Canossa seems also to have deserved the same epithet, if we may judge from a story that has been preserved of him. The count had at Rome a fine collection of silver plate, including a flagon with a lid in the form of a tiger. A friend having borrowed this flagon and kept it for two months, returned it only on demand and with the request that the count lend him a certain salt-cellar, which had a crab for a cover. Ludovico sent word that if the tiger, which is the swiftest of beasts, had been two months coming home, the crab, being slower than all others, would by the same rule be absent for years, and that on this account he was unwilling to let it go.
Note 188 page 122. The allusion is of course to Bibbiena’s early baldness.
Note 189 page 122. Cardinal GALEOTTO DELLA ROVERE, (born about 1477; died 1508), was the favourite nephew of Julius II, being a son of the pope’s sister Luchina by her first husband Gianfrancesco Franciotti, a patrician of Lucca. Like all his mother’s other children, he was adopted as of the della Rovere name. Having been made Bishop of Lucca, he was created a cardinal on his uncle’s election as pope, appointed pontifical vice-chancellor, and soon given a great number of benefices. Generous and amiable, and a patron of artists and authors, he was much beloved at the court of Urbino, as is shown by several documents, among which is a letter by Emilia Pia mentioning two sonnets of his, in one of which (written the day before his last illness) he foretold his early death.
Note 190 page 123. GIACOMO SANSECONDO, a noted musician who flourished between the years 1493 and 1522 at the courts of Milan, Mantua, Ferrara, Urbino and Rome, where he attained a wide celebrity in the pontificate of Leo X. He seems to have ended his days in adversity, in some degree relieved by his friend Castiglione, whose letters contain several affectionate mentions of him.
Note 191 page 124. DEMOCRITUS, (_flor._ 400 B.C.), was the atomistic philosopher of Abdera in Thrace. He possessed an ample fortune, and his cheerful disposition led him to look on the bright and humourous side of things, a fact taken by later writers to mean that he laughed at the follies of mankind.
Note 192 page 125. The phrase ‘served her in love’ and the conventional relation that it denoted, were drawn from mediæval life and literature north of the Alps, and with some changes survived in Italy during the Renaissance, until the _cavalier servente_ became in the 18th century a recognized institution. Attendance upon the lady at church was a characteristic feature of the cavalier’s service.
Note 193 page 126. PIUS III, Francesco Todeschini, (born 1439; died 1503), was a native of Siena and a nephew of the illustrious Æneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pius II). The suddenness of his predecessor Alexander VI's death took the sacred college by surprise, and they unanimously elected their weakest member as pope. His short pontificate of twenty-six days was filled with disturbances, and he was believed to have died from poison.
Note 194 page 126. ANTONIO AGNELLO, (died after 1527), belonged to one of the most noted families of Mantua, and seems to have been the son of Giulio Agnello and Margarita Crema. Besides being an able man of affairs (employed by the Palæologus rulers of Montferrat), he was a graceful poet, and became the friend of Bembo and Castiglione.
Note 195 page 126. The poet CAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS, (born about 87 B.C.), was a native of Verona and a friend of Cæsar and Cicero. His extant works include one hundred and sixteen poems, lyric, epigrammatic, elegiac, etc. His 69th Ode is a dialogue between the author and a door.
Note 196 page 127. Pope NICHOLAS V, Tommaso Parentucelli, (born 1398; died 1455), was a native of Pisa, whence his family were exiled in his infancy. Although his father died when he was nine years old, and in spite of great poverty, he contrived to study at the University of Bologna. Later he served as tutor in the Albizzi and Strozzi families at Florence, thus earning enough money to return and take his theological degree at Bologna. He then entered the service of the archbishop of the latter city, whom he accompanied to Florence, and there became a friend of Cosimo de' Medici and a member of the literary society of the place. In 1443 he was made Bishop of Bologna, and four years later was elected pope, an elevation that he owed solely to his reputation for learning and to the comparatively small esteem in which the office was then held. The humanists were delighted at the election of one of their own number. As pope, he devoted his revenues to maintaining a splendid court, to the rebuilding of the fortifications and palaces of Rome, and to the enrichment of scholars. During his pontificate the city became a work-shop of erudition. He founded the Vatican Library, for which he collected five thousand volumes, and the list prepared by him for Cosimo de' Medici to use in beginning the Library of San Marco, was followed also by Duke Federico of Urbino. He was a small, ugly man.
_Nihil Papa Valet_, ‘the Pope is good for nothing.’
Note 197 page 127. I.e., in the second tale of the Eighth Day.
Note 198 page 127. Calandrino is an unfortunate and very amusing character appearing in the third and sixth tales of the Eighth Day and in the fifth tale of the Ninth Day.
Note 199 page 128. Niccolò Campani, called STRASCINO, (born 1478; died between 1522 and 1533), was an excellent actor of Sienese rustic comedies and farces, and the author of verses and of a Lament that was very popular in the 16th century. He frequented the court of Leo X, and several of Castiglione’s letters (1521) tell of efforts to secure the actor’s services for the Marquess of Mantua, and of furnishing him with twenty-five ducats, a horse, and a papal pass, for the purpose.
Note 200 page 128. ‘This place,’ i.e., Urbino.
[Illustration:
POPE NICHOLAS V TOMMASO PARENTUCELLI 1398-1455 ]
Enlarged from a coloured cast of a medal, in the King’s Library at the British Museum, by Andrea Guazzalotti (1435-1495). See Armand’s _Les Médailleurs Italiens_, i, 49, no. 6.
Note 201 page 129. The reader will hardly need to be reminded that the great Roman orator was often spoken of as Tullius or Tully rather than as Cicero.
Note 202 page 129. When THE COURTIER was expurgated by Antonio Ciccarelli in 1584 (see LIST OF EDITIONS), Dante’s name was here substituted for that of St. Paul. The word _becco_ (rendered ‘he-goat’) has long been used by the Italians as a term of jocose reproach applied to a man whose wife is unfaithful.
Note 203 page 129. Duke ERCOLE I D'ESTE, (born 1431; died 1505), was the legitimate son of Duke Niccolò III and Rizzarda di Saluzzo. Bred at the Neapolitan court, he became Duke of Ferrara on the death of his half-brother Borso (see note 149) in 1471. In 1473 he married Eleanora of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand I of Naples. Among the six children of this union were: Isabella, who became Marchioness of Mantua (see note 397); Beatrice, who became Duchess of Milan (see note 398); Alfonso, who married Lucrezia Borgia and succeeded his father as duke; and the Cardinal Ippolito already mentioned (see note 64). Although his reign was far from peaceful, his court was noted for its luxury and for the brilliancy of art and letters with which it was adorned. He was an especial patron of the theatre, no less than five comedies of Plautus being performed during the wedding festivities of his son Alfonso in 1502. On the other hand, he maintained relations with Savonarola, who was a native of Ferrara.
Note 204 page 130. Castellina was a small walled town in the Chianti hills, which was held as a Florentine outpost against Siena. The siege referred to in the text took place in 1478, when the place capitulated to the Neapolitan and papal troops after holding out for forty days. Duke of Calabria was the title regularly borne by the heir of each Aragonese king of Naples. The personage here meant must have been Alfonso the Younger (see note 31).
Note 205 page 130. While the meaning is not free from doubt, the point of the story seems to lie in the absurdity of the Florentine’s supposing that after being discharged from a cannon, a projectile would retain any poison previously applied to it.
Note 206 page 130. It will be remembered that Bembo was a Venetian, while Bibbiena’s birthplace was a Florentine town.
Note 207 page 130. This war lasted from 1494 to 1509, and proved ruinous to both sides. Castiglione’s use of the past tense in speaking of it here doubtless arose from the fact that he was writing several years after the date that he assigns to the dialogues.
Note 208 page 131. Pistoia and Prato were two small cities which lay to the north-west of Florence and were subject to its rule. Modern issues of “fiat” money are but a slight modification of the method proposed by the worthy Florentine.
Note 209 page 131. Bucentaur was the name of the state galley of the Venetian Republic, used (among other occasions) in the symbolic ceremony of wedding the Adriatic, which was enjoined upon the Venetians by Alexander III (pope 1159-1181) to commemorate their victory over the fleet of Frederick Barbarossa. On each Ascension Day a ring was dropped from the Bucentaur into the Adriatic, with the words, “we espouse thee, sea, in token of true and lasting dominion.” The vessel bore the image of a centaur as figure-head. Of the last of several successive Bucentaurs (demolished in 1824), a few fragments are preserved in the Arsenal at Venice. In the 15th and 16th centuries the name was applied to state vessels of ceremony elsewhere. By some the word is supposed to be derived from the Greek βοῦς (ox) and κένταυρος (centaur); by others it is regarded as a corruption of the Latin _ducentorum_ (of two hundred oars), or of the Italian _buzino d’oro_ (golden bark).
[Illustration:
GIROLAMO DONATO 1457-1511 ]
Enlarged from a photograph, courteously furnished by the Director of the Municipal Art Museum at Milan, of a small anonymous bas-relief belonging to the Taverna collection. See Armand’s _Les Médailleurs Italiens_, ii, 226, no. 11.
Note 210 page 133. This tale, not unworthy of Munchausen, may have been suggested to Castiglione by a passage in one of the minor works of Plutarch, who relates that Antiphanes (a friend of Plato) said that “he visited a certain city where words froze as soon as spoken, by reason of the great cold; and later, sounds uttered in winter melted in the spring and were heard by the inhabitants.” Although Plutarch represents the story as told in illustration of the way in which “those who came as young men to listen to Plato’s talk, understood it only long afterwards, when they had grown old,” it is worth noting that an Antiphanes, of Berga in Thrace, is known as a writer on the marvellous and incredible.
Note 211 page 133. Vasco da Gama rounded the southern extremity of Africa and reached India nine years before the date of the Courtier dialogues.
Note 212 page 133. This must have been Emanuel I, who was King of Portugal from 1495 until his death in 1521, and who promoted the expeditions of da Gama and other Portuguese navigators.
Note 213 page 134. Taffety was a very light soft silk fabric. There is extant a letter of Bembo’s (1541), in which the aged cardinal orders two cushions filled with swan’s down and covered with crimson taffety. The word is said to be derived from the Persian _taftah_ (twisted, woven). Taft is the name of a town in central Persia.
Note 214 page 134. ANNIBAL PALEOTTO, (died 1516), belonged to an ancient and honourable Bolognese family (with which Castiglione is known to have been on friendly terms), and was the son of an eminent jurist, Vincenzo Paleotto, who died in 1498. Leo X made Annibale a senator of Bologna in 1514, the brief being written by Bembo.
Note 215 page 135. Giacopo di Nino was BISHOP OF POTENZA from 1506 until 1521, and seems to have been a butt for the ridicule of Leo X's court.
Note 216 page 136. An earlier version of this passage reads: “And of this kind was what Rinaldo in the _Morgante_ said to the Giant: ‘Where do you hang your spectacles?’” The _Morgante Maggiore_ is a serio-burlesque romantic poem by Luigi Pulci (1431-1487), introducing, among other characters of mediæval romance, Rinaldo, his cousin Orlando, and the giant Morgante.
Note 217 page 136. GALEOTTO MARZI DA NARNI, (born about 1427; died about 1490), a singular example of the adventurer-humanist, studied at the universities of Padua and Bologna, and taught at the latter place. He twice visited the court of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, for whom he wrote a book on jests. He was something of an astrologer and also the author of a work on chiromancy. Being accused of heresy, he was imprisoned at Venice in 1477, and condemned to make public recantation in the Piazzetta with a crown of devils on his head. He is said to have been learned and witty. The story given in the text became almost proverbial.
Note 218 page 136. The present form (_bisticcio_) of _bischisso_ (rendered ‘playing on words’) has a meaning somewhat different from that indicated in the text,—being the term applied to a succession of words the similarity of whose sound renders them difficult to pronounce, e.g., “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”
Note 219 page 136. At this time the general use of family names was comparatively recent, and their form was somewhat variable. Thus, such surnames as Pio and Fregoso were treated as still being, what they doubtless originally were, merely personal epithets, and so were given the feminine form (Pia, Fregosa) when applied to women. The adjective _pia_ means dutiful, pious, kind, while _impia_ or _empia_ of course means the reverse.
Note 220 page 136. “The greatest of the Furies is my bedfellow.” With a change of one syllable in the Latin, this becomes _Furiarum maxima juxta accubat_ (“The greatest of the Furies lies hard by”), Æneid, V, 605-6.
Note 221 page 136. GERONIMO DONATO, (born 1457; died 1511), was a native of Venice, where he held many public offices, besides being sent abroad as ambassador of the Republic, especially to the courts of Alexander VI and Julius II. He also enjoyed no small fame as a cultivator of science, art and letters (particularly Greek and theology). The incident narrated in the text occurred during his embassy to Alexander, to whom on another occasion he made a far wittier retort. Being jestingly asked by the pope where Venice got its right of lordship over the Adriatic, he answered: “Let your Holiness show me the title deed to the Patrimony of St. Peter, and on the back of it will be found inscribed the grant to the Venetians of their dominion over the Adriatic.”
Note 222 page 136. In the Roman Church a “station” (_stasione_) is a church where indulgences are granted at certain seasons. In earlier times such churches were visited in solemn procession, which afterwards came to be regarded as an opportunity for social recreation. The word is used also to designate the indulgences earned by visiting, on appointed days, many churches founded by popes.
Note 223 page 136. “As many stars as heaven, so many girls hath thy Rome,” Ovid’s _Ars Amandi_, I, 59.
Note 224 page 136. “As many kids as the pasture, so many satyrs hath thy Rome,” is as close an English rendering as Donato’s Latin will bear.
Note 225 page 136. MARCANTONIO DELLA TORRE belonged to an ancient noble family of Verona, was a famous anatomist, and is said to have included Leonardo da Vinci among his pupils. He died at the age of thirty, and was highly praised for his learning. His father Geronimo lectured on medicine at Padua.
Pietro Barozzi became ARCHBISHOP OF PADUA in 1487, and died in 1507. Bandello (who had read THE COURTIER in MS.) relates the same story in somewhat wittier form, but gives the name of the prelate as Gerardo Landriano, Bishop of Como.
Note 226 page 137. St. Luke, xvi, 2.
Note 227 page 137. St. Matthew, xxv, 20.
Note 228 page 137. PROTO DA LUCCA was one of the most famous buffoons who enlivened the pontifical court at the beginning of the 16th century. If, as seems probable, the incident in question occurred in January 1506 (when Bernardino Lei died and was succeeded by Antonio da Castriani as Bishop of Cagli, a town near Urbino), the pope in question must have been Julius II, to whom the epithet ‘very grave’ would be entirely appropriate.
Note 229 page 138. The play is upon the word ‘office’ in its two meanings of post or employment, and breviary or prayer-book. In the latter sense, the ‘full office’ contained the psalms, lessons, etc.,—while the ‘Madonna’s office’ was much abbreviated.
Note 230 page 138. GIOVANNI CALFURNIO, (born 1443; died 1503), was a gentle and laborious humanist, born at or near Bergamo, but long resident at Padua, where he held the chair of rhetoric. His chief work consisted in correcting and commenting upon the texts of Latin poets. The ‘another man at Padua’ was probably Raffaele Regio (a fellow professor with Calfurnio), who publicly ridiculed his colleague as the son of a charcoal-burner. Calfurnio seems to have published very little; on his death he bequeathed his library to the church of San Giovanni in Verdara, from which his tomb and portrait relief have recently been removed to a cloister of the monastery of St. Antony at Padua.
[Illustration:
GIOVANNI CALFURNIO Died 1503 ]
From a photograph, specially made by Agostini, of the anonymous tomb relief removed from the Church of San Giovanni di Verdara to a cloister in the Monastery of Sant'Antonio at Padua.
Note 231 page 138. Tommaso Inghirami, “FEDRA,” (born 1470; died 1516), was a native patrician of Volterra (a town about midway between Pisa and Siena), being the son of Paolo Inghirami and Lucrezia Barlettani. Having passed his early boyhood at Florence, he removed to Rome in 1483, where he played the part of _Phædra_ in Seneca’s tragedy _Hippolytus_ (upon which Racine founded his _Phèdre_) with such success that the name clung to him for life. The play being interrupted by an accident to the scenery, he filled the interval by improvising Latin verses for the entertainment of the audience. The performance took place in the mausoleum of the Emperor Hadrian, which was afterwards converted into the fortress known as the Castle of St. Angelo. Tommaso was employed by Alexander VI in diplomatic affairs, crowned poet by the Emperor Maximilian I, and made a canon of the Lateran and of the Vatican. He seems to have been connected with the Vatican Library as early as 1505, and became its prefect. Although Erasmus called him the Cicero of his time, his fame now rests rather on his portrait in the Pitti Gallery at Florence, than on his works.
Note 232 page 138. CAMILLO PALEOTTO was a brother of the Annibal Paleotto already mentioned (see note 214). On his father’s death in 1498, he went to Rome, where he became the friend of Federico Fregoso, Bembo and Castiglione. He taught rhetoric at Bologna and was Chancellor of the Senate there. There also he is said to have died in 1530, although a letter of Bembo’s speaks of him in 1518 as then already dead.
Note 233 page 138. ANTONIO PORCARO, or PORZIO, belonged to a noble Roman family, and was a brother of the Camillo Porcaro mentioned in THE COURTIER (at page 140). He had also a twin brother Valerio, whom he so closely resembled that the two were often mistaken, one for the other, as Bibbiena says in the preface to his _Calandra_,—the plot of which is founded upon a similar resemblance. Little more is known of Antonio than that he suffered some grievous wrong from Alexander VI.
Note 234 page 138. Regarding GIANTOMMASO GALEOTTO, Cian furnishes no information. The Spanish annotator, Fabié, adds Marcio (Marzio) to his name,—thus apparently treating him as identical with the Galeotto da Narni mentioned above at page 136,—and says that he “died, by reason of his great corpulence, from a fall from his horse, being in the train of Charles VIII of France, when the latter entered Milan.” As “My lord Prefect” was only four years old when Charles entered Milan in 1494, this identification seems clearly erroneous.
Note 235 page 139. FILIPPO BEROALDO, (born 1472; died 1518), belonged to a noble Bolognese family. Having been one of his famous uncle Filippo the elder’s most brilliant pupils in the classics, he was at the age of twenty-six made professor of literature at Bologna, and afterwards at Rome. In 1511 he successfully defended Duke Francesco Maria of Urbino against the charge of murdering Cardinal Alidosi. Instead of seeking to extenuate the deed, as done in heat and under strong provocation, he boldly justified it on the ground that his client was the instrument chosen by the Almighty to rid the world of a monster of wickedness, and eloquently appealed to the tribunal to spare a hero whose promise of future usefulness was precious to Italy. Beroaldo was secretary to Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, and on the latter’s election as pope, he was made Provost of the Roman Academy, while at Inghirami’s death he was made Librarian of the Vatican, as a reward for editing the recently discovered first five books of Tacitus’s Annals. He died at Rome, partly (it is said) from vexation at not being paid the stipend of his office. Bembo wrote his epitaph. Although he was celebrated for erudition and eloquence rather than for authorship, he left three books of odes, and one of epigrams,—in Latin.
Note 236 page 139. The pupil obviously used the phrase in its low Latin meaning, “Master, God give you good evening.” Beroaldo jocosely accepted it in its classical meaning, “Master, God give you good, late.”
Note 237 page 139. “Evil to thee, soon.”
Note 238 page 139. DIEGO DE CHIGNONES, (died 1512), was a Spanish cavalier, of whom Branthôme writes as follows: “This Great Captain had for lieutenant, with a company of one hundred men-at-arms, Don Diego de Quignones, who supported him in his combats and victories, and was truly a good and brave lieutenant to him. After the Great Captain’s death, he had sole command of his company of an hundred men-at-arms, as he well deserved to have. He commanded it at the battle of Ravenna, where he died like a brave and valiant captain. And if all had behaved as he did (say the old Spaniards), the victory that the French won there would have cost them dearer than it did, although it cost them dear.”
Note 239 page 139. Don Gonzalvo Hernand y Aguilar, better known as Consalvo de Cordoba, or THE GREAT CAPTAIN, (born 1443; died 1515), was a native of Montilla, near Cordova, and belonged to an ancient family of Spanish grandees. His father’s name was Pietro, and his mother’s was Elvira Errea. Bred to war in early youth and knighted on the field of battle at the age of sixteen, he followed the fortunes of Ferdinand the Catholic, and took an active part in the conquest of Granada. In 1494 he was sent to Italy to aid Ferdinand II of Naples against Charles VIII, won a long succession of victories over the French, and was finally made Constable and Viceroy of Naples. Later, Ferdinand the Catholic, listening to slanderous reports regarding him, deprived him of office, and in 1507 recalled him to Spain, where he died in disgrace. His good qualities were much admired by Castiglione, who had fought against him, but his fame was not unstained by acts of cruelty and bad faith, which (it is fair to say) were common at the time and seem to have been committed only against his master’s foes. Giorgione is said to have painted his portrait at Venice, and a life of him by Paolo Giovio was published at Florence in 1552.
[Illustration:
CONSALVO DE CORDOBA “THE GREAT CAPTAIN” 1443-1515 ]
Enlarged from a negative, specially made by Alinari through the courtesy of Professor I. B. Supino, of Annibal’s medal in the National Museum at Florence. See Armand’s _Les Médailleurs Italiens_, i, 176.
Note 240 page 139. The Spanish word _vino_ means not only “wine” but also “he came.” In pronunciation it would be easily mistaken for _Y-no_. _Y no lo conocistes_ is the Spanish for “And thou knewest Him not.” Compare St. John, i, 11.
Note 241 page 139. The word _marano_ (here rendered “heretic”) meant a renegade Moor, and is said by Symonds to have been generally used in Italy at this time as a term of reproach against Spaniards.
Note 242 page 139. GIACOMO SADOLETO, (born 1477; died 1547), was a native of Modena and the son of a noted jurist, Giovanni Sadoleto. He studied Latin at Ferrara and Greek at Rome, where he settled in the pontificate of Alexander VI and acquired a great reputation for learning. Leo X appointed him a secretary at the same time with Bembo, (who shared with him the name of being the best Latinist of the day), and soon made him Bishop of Carpentras, a town fifteen miles north-east of Avignon. He was secretary also to Clement VII, to whom he boldly declared that the sack of Rome (1527) was inflicted by God as a punishment for human wickedness. Paul III created him a cardinal in 1536. A sincerely pious man, he was conscious of the evils of the Church and did not escape suspicion of heresy. He was a close friend of Vittoria Colonna, and the Roman Academy often met at his house on the Quirinal. Besides Latin poems (one of which, on the newly discovered Laocoön group, made him famous), his works include commentaries on the Psalms and the Epistle to the Romans, and a Latin exhortation to the princes and people of Germany against Lutheran heresies. Although far from rich, he was very charitable, especially in providing young men of his flock with the means of education.
Note 243 page 139. LUDOVICO DA SAN BONIFACIO is identified by Cian as a Paduan, who held the offices of prothonotary and private chamberlain under Leo X, successfully disputed with Bembo the possession of a canonry at Padua in 1514, was sent to different courts by Leo, and died at Padua in 1545.
ERCOLE RANGONE, (died 1572), belonged to an illustrious family of Modena, and achieved some note as a soldier and diplomatist, having commanded the Florentine forces in 1529, and served as Ferrarese ambassador to France, Spain and Germany. He was esteemed by Castiglione, of whose wife Ippolita Torello he seems to have been a kinsman.
The COUNT OF PEPOLI probably belonged to a noble Bolognese family of that name, but has not been identified with certainty.
Note 244 page 140. Of SALLAZA DALLA PEDRADA nothing seems to be known beyond the mention of him in the text.
Note 245 page 140. PALLA DEGLI STROZZI, (born 1372; died 1462), was a wealthy and cultivated Florentine patrician. Having honourably filled high offices of state, he was banished by Cosimo de' Medici in 1434 for ten years to Padua. Himself an enthusiastic scholar and patron of classical studies, he caused many Greek MSS. to be brought into Italy (including works of Plato, Aristotle and Plutarch), and was the first Italian to collect books for the express purpose of founding a public library, in the execution of which design he was prevented by his exile from anticipating Cosimo. He employed learned Greeks to read to him, and was instrumental in inducing Chrysoloras to teach at Florence,—an engagement regarded by Symonds as having secured the future of Hellenic study in Europe. The story narrated of him in the text is elsewhere told of an exile belonging to the Albizzi family.
Note 246 page 140. COSIMO DE' MEDICI, _Pater Patriæ_, (born 1389; died 1464), was a Florentine banker, statesman and patron of literature and art. In his father Giovanni’s house of business he cultivated the rare faculty for finance that he afterwards employed in public administration and private commerce. He inherited his father’s vast fortune in 1429, and made it a practice to lend money to needy citizens and at the same time to involve the affairs of Florence with his own,—thus not only attaching individuals to his interests, but rendering it difficult to control state expenditures apart from his own bank. He understood also how to use his money without exciting jealousy, and while he spent large sums on public works, he declined the architect Brunelleschi’s plans for a residence more befitting a prince than a citizen. He was an early riser, and temperate and simple in his life. While ruling Florence with despotic power, he seemed intent on the routine of his counting-house, and put forward other men to execute his political schemes. Despite occasional checks, he so firmly established the influence of his family as the real rulers of Florence that they were not permanently expelled until the nineteenth century. Much of his power was due to sympathy with the intellectual movement of the age, and although he was not a Greek scholar, he had a solid education, and collected MSS., gems, coins and inscriptions, employing his commercial agents in the work. During a year of exile, he built a library at Venice, and later he built one at Florence and another at Fiesole. His house was the centre of a literary and philosophical society, which included all the wits of Florence and the strangers who flocked to that capital of culture.
Note 247 page 140. CAMILLO PORCARO, or PORZIO, (died 1517), was a brother of the Antonio Porcaro already mentioned in THE COURTIER (at page 138; see note 233). He was a professor of rhetoric at Rome, and a canon of St. Peter’s. Leo X made him Bishop of Teramo, a town near the Adriatic north-east of Rome. He was a member of the Roman Academy, and some of his Latin verse has survived.
[Illustration:
COSIMO DE' MEDICI _PATER PATRIÆ_ 1389-1464 ]
Enlarged from a coloured cast of a medal (no. 31), in the King’s Library at the British Museum, attributed to Niccolò Fiorentino.
Note 248 page 140. MARCANTONIO COLONNA, (died 1522), the son of Pierantonio Colonna and Bernardina Conti, was a second cousin of Vittoria Colonna. His wife Lucrezia Gara della Rovere was a niece of Julius II and sister of the Cardinal Galeotto della Rovere already mentioned (at page 122; see note 189). In 1502 he fled from Rome to escape the persecution of the Borgias, repaired to the kingdom of Naples, and took service under the “Great Captain.” He served also in the armies of Julius II, Maximilian I, and Francis I, and took part in nearly all the wars of his time. He was cited as a model of physical beauty and martial prowess.
Note 249 page 141. DIEGO GARZIA is regarded by the Spanish annotator, Fabié, as identical with the famous warrior Diego Garcia de Paredes, (born 1466; died 1530), who began the life of a soldier at the age of twelve, and had a brilliant share, with the “Great Captain,” in the expulsion of the Moors from Spain and later in the Italian campaigns. He was a man of great height and strength, and is said on one occasion to have stopped the wheel of a rapidly moving wind-mill with his single hand. Charles V made him a Knight of the Golden Spur, and he is often called the Chevalier Bayard of Spain.
Note 250 page 141. LOUIS XII, (born 1462; died 1515), was the son of Duke Charles d'Orléans and Anne of Cleves. He accompanied Charles VIII into Italy in 1494, became king on his cousin’s death in 1498, and the following year married Charles’s widow Anne of Brittany. In 1500 he expelled Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan, to whose duchy he laid claim as the grandson of Valentina Visconti. The following year he conquered Naples in alliance with Ferdinand the Catholic, but quarrelled with his ally over the division of the country, with the result that his force was defeated by the “Great Captain” at Garigliano in 1503, and withdrew from Naples in 1504. He joined the League of Cambray against Venice in 1508, but in 1511 the Holy League was formed against him, and in 1513 the French were again compelled to leave Italy. On the death of Anne of Brittany in 1514, he married Mary, the youthful sister of Henry VIII of England, to whom in dying (1 January 1515) he is reported to have said: “Dear, I leave thee my death as a New Year’s gift.” He was sincerely regretted by his subjects, and was known as “The Father of His People.” Michelet says of him: “He was a good man, honest by nature, sometimes absurd, indiscreet, talkative, testy; but he had a heart, and the only way for men to flatter him was to persuade him that they desired the good of his subjects.” Among his sayings was “Good king, stingy king; I prefer to be ridiculous to my courtiers, than deaf to my people.”
Note 251 page 141. DJEM or ZIZIM, (born 1459; died 1495), was a son of Mahomet II, the conqueror of Constantinople. On the death of his father in 1481, he tried to dispossess his brother as sultan, but being defeated, he sought refuge at Rhodes, where the Knights of the Order of St. John received him for a while, and then sent him to France. In 1489 he was surrendered to the custody of Innocent VIII, from whom he passed into the hands of Alexander VI. Both these pontiffs received a subsidy for his maintenance from his brother the sultan. In 1495 Charles VIII took him to Naples, where he was imprisoned and soon died from the effect (it is supposed) of poison administered at Rome by order of Alexander VI. Of his life at the papal court, we get the following glimpse in a letter from Mantegna to the Marquess of Mantua: “The Turk’s brother is here, strictly guarded in the palace of his Holiness, who allows him all sorts of diversion, such as hunting, music, and the like. He often comes to eat in this new palace where I paint [i.e., the Belvedere], and, for a barbarian, his manners are not amiss. There is a sort of majestic bearing about him, and he never doffs his cap to the Pope, having in fact none;... He eats five times a day, and sleeps as often; before meals he drinks sugared water like a monkey. He has the gait of an elephant, but his people praise him much, especially for his horsemanship: it may be so, but I have never seen him take his feet out of the stirrups, or give any other proof of skill. He is a most savage man, and has stabbed at least four persons, who are said not to have survived four hours. A few days ago, he gave such a cuffing to one of his interpreters that they had to carry him to the river, in order to bring him round. It is believed that Bacchus pays him many a visit. On the whole he is dreaded by those about him. He takes little heed of anything, like one who does not understand or has no reason. His way of life is quite peculiar; he sleeps without undressing, and gives audience sitting cross-legged, in the Parthian fashion. He carries on his head sixty thousand yards of linen, and wears so long a pair of trousers that he is lost in them, and astonishes all beholders.”
Note 252 page 141. The GRAND TURK in question was Bajazet II, (born 1447; died 1512), who succeeded his father (Mahomet II, the conqueror of Constantinople) in 1481, was almost uninterruptedly engaged in war with Hungary, Venice, Egypt and Persia, was deposed by his son Selim, and died soon afterwards. He was repeatedly invited by Alexander VI to invade Europe and fight the pope’s Christian enemies. The friendly relations between the two were closely connected with the captivity of Bajazet’s brother, just mentioned. As a token of his gratitude, the Turk sent Innocent VIII the “Lance of Longinus,” the centurion who was supposed to have pierced the Saviour’s side on Calvary and afterwards to have been converted to Christianity. As a reward for the death of his brother, he sent Alexander VI a sum of money equivalent to over £500,000 sterling, and a tunic alleged to have been worn by the Saviour. These, however, were intercepted by the pope’s enemy, Giuliano della Rovere, afterwards Julius II.
Note 253 page 142. The Archbishopric of Florence was occupied by Roberto Folco from 1481 until his death in 1530.
‘The Alexandrian cardinal’ is the name by which Giannantonio di Sangiorgio, (born 1439; died 1509), was commonly known. At the age of twenty-seven he became professor of canon law at Pavia. In 1479 he was made Bishop of Alexandria, and soon afterwards called to Rome and made an Auditor of the _Ruota_ (see note 292), which office he continued to hold until he was created a cardinal in 1493. He was regarded as the most eminent jurist of his day.
[Illustration:
BAJAZET II OF TURKEY 1447-1512 ]
Enlarged, with the courteous permission of the Director of the New York Public Library, from a photographic copy of an engraving in Paolo Giovio’s “Eulogy.”
Note 254 page 142. Besides the mention of this NICOLETTO in the text, nothing more seems to be known of him beyond the following anecdote: “Of messer Nicoletto da Orvieto it is narrated that, being in the service of that very courteous pontiff Pope Leo, he once won the lasting favour of his Holiness with only four words; for one day, the talk turning upon a certain vacant benefice which was sought after by a member of the Vitelli family to whom it could be given, he said humourously: ‘Holy Father, fitness requires that it be by all means conferred on Vitello (calf), the more because it has no nearer or closer kinsman than he is,’—playing on the word ‘vacant,’ which he seemed to derive from _vacca_ (cow), the mother of the calf.” Garzoni’s _L’Hospidale de’ Pazzi Incurabili_, (Piacenza: 1586), page 142.
Note 255 page 142. Antonio Cammelli, (born 1440; died 1502), called PISTOIA from the name of his birthplace, was a prolific writer of verse, chiefly sonnets of a humourous and satirical character, which have no small historical value. He spent the larger part of his life in the service of the d’Este at Ferrara, and in that of Duke Ludovico Sforza, of Milan, to whom he remained faithful in adversity. An edition of his verse was published at Turin by Renier in 1888.
The SERAFINO here mentioned is identified by Cian as a now almost forgotten lyric poet, Serafino Ciminelli, (born 1466; died 1500), who was a native of Aquila (fifty-five miles north-east of Rome), and a welcome guest at the courts of Naples, Rome, Urbino, Mantua and Milan. His verse was by some preferred to that of Petrarch, and the unbounded popularity which he enjoyed was doubtless due to the skill with which he improvised to his own accompaniment on the lute. He was a short ugly man of elfish appearance.
Note 256 page 142. GIOVANNI GONZAGA, (born 1474; died 1523), was the third son of the Marquess Federico of Mantua and Margarita of Bavaria. He married Laura Bentivoglio, fought in his youth against Charles VIII, and in 1512 was in the service of the Sforza family. He was employed also by his brother Gianfrancesco, Marquess of Mantua, in political negotiations. In 1519, on the death of Lucrezia Borgia, he wrote to his nephew, the new Marquess Federico of Mantua: “Lucrezia’s death occasioned much grief throughout the city, and his Ducal Highness in
## particular displayed extreme distress. Men here tell wonderful things of
her life: for the last ten years she wore a hair shirt; and for two years she has been in the habit of confessing every day, and of attending Communion three or four times a month.”
Note 257 page 142. Giovanni’s son ALESSANDRO GONZAGA was born in 1497, and died in 1527.
Note 258 page 142. GIACOMO D’ATRI (or d’Adria Picena) was made Count of PIANELLA by Ferdinand II of Naples in 1496, as a reward for faithful service. He acted as confidential secretary to the Marquess Gianfrancesco of Mantua in various wars, and especially in the campaigns against Charles VIII.
Note 259 page 143. PHILIP II of Macedon, the conqueror of Greece, was born 382 and died 336 B.C.
Note 260 page 143. This retort has by others been ascribed to a Florentine ambassador at Siena, and his name given as Guido del Pelagio.
Note 261 page 144. MARIO DE’ MAFFEI DA VOLTERRA, (born 1464; died 1537), occupied successively the offices of Archpriest at Volterra, Sacristan of the Vatican, Bishop of Aquino, and Bishop of Cavaillon in France.
Note 262 page 144. AGOSTINO BEVAZZANO or Beazzano, (_flor._ 1500-1550), was born at Treviso, near Venice, of which republic his ancestor Francesco had been chancellor in the 15th century. His own portrait hung in the Grand Council Chamber at Venice. He lived some time in Venice, but in 1514 he was employed as secretary by Bembo and sent to Leo X at Rome, where he resided chiefly until 1526. Besides being a noted writer of Italian and Latin verse, he acquired great skill in public affairs and came to be regarded as an oracle at the papal court. Late in life he was painfully afflicted with gout, and passed the last years of his life at Verona and at Treviso, where he died and was buried in the cathedral.
Note 263 page 145. The MARQUESS FEDERICO GONZAGA of Mantua, (born 1440; died 1484), was the son of the Marquess Ludovico and Barbara of Brandenburg, and married Margarita, daughter of Duke Albert III of Bavaria. His family attained sovereign power at Mantua in 1354 and continued to exercise it for nearly four centuries. Having succeeded to the marquisate on the death of his father in 1478, he expelled from Italy the Swiss who were besieging Lugano, joined the Milanese in a league against the pope in 1479, and in 1482 joined another league against Venice. He is said to have committed suicide.
Note 264 page 145. NICCOLÒ LEONICO TOMEO, (born 1456; died 1531), was a native of Venice, and belonged to an Albanian family. He studied Greek under Chalcondylas at Florence, and for many years taught philosophy at Padua, being the first Italian to expound Aristotle from the original text. He wrote philosophical and moral dialogues and also some Italian verse. His friend Bembo wrote of him: “An illustrious philosopher both in life and learning, equally versed in Latin and Greek, wherein he lived and dwelt, leaving ambition and thirst for riches to others.” He was also a wit.
Note 265 page 145. AGOSTINO FOGLIETTA, (died 1527), was a Genoese nobleman, who exercised great authority at Rome under Leo X and Clement VII. He was a warm friend of Castiglione, who received cordial aid from him in the efforts that were made on behalf of Francesco Maria della Rovere. He was slain in the sack of Rome by a shot from an arquebuse. In other MS. versions of THE COURTIER the names of Fedra (Tommaso Inghirami) and Antonio di Tommaso appear in place of Foglietta’s.
[Illustration:
ALFONSO I OF NAPLES 1385-1458 ]
Reduced from Giraudon’s photograph (no. 137) of a drawing, in the Louvre, by Vittore Pisano, better known as Pisanello, (1380?-1451?). The drawing is believed to have been used in designing medals.
Note 266 page 146. GIOVANNI DI CARDONA was a Spanish soldier in the service of the “Great Captain” and of Cesare Borgia. He had a brother Ugo (mentioned at page 147, see note 271) and another brother Pedro, who was Count of Gosilano. Giovanni seems to have fallen at the battle of Ravenna in 1512.
Note 267 page 146. Of ALFONSO SANTACROCE nothing more is known than is contained in this mention of him in the text.
Note 268 page 146. Francesco Alidosi, CARDINAL OF PAVIA, (died 1511), was descended from the Lords of Imola, being the second son of the Lord of Castel del Rio. Having been educated for the Church, he attached himself to Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, whose lasting gratitude he won by steadfastly refusing to poison the cardinal at the desire of Alexander VI. On the accession of Julius II, he was rapidly promoted in spite of the objections raised in the consistory on the score of his questionable character. He was made Bishop of Miletus, Bishop of Pavia, a cardinal (1505), Legate of the Patrimony, Legate of Romagna, and Archbishop of Bologna. In these offices he proved violently tyrannical and a ruthless and bloody persecutor, especially of the Bolognese
## partisans of the Bentivogli; so that the city rose against him in 1511
and drove him out. His assassination by young Francesco Maria della Rovere has been already mentioned (see note 3). The odium connected with his name finds an echo also in another passage in the text, page 151.
Note 269 page 146. ALFONSO I of Naples, (born 1385; died 1458), succeeded his father Ferdinand the Just as King of Aragon and Sicily in 1416, and in 1435 managed to enforce against René of Provence his double claim to Naples, based upon his descent from the former Hohenstauffen rulers of that kingdom, and also upon his adoption as heir by the last Angevin queen of Naples. Scholarly, enlightened, generous and benevolent, he was the ideal type of royal Mæcenas and the hero of his century. He often went afoot and alone about his capital, saying that “a father, walking amid his children, has naught to fear.” On one occasion when a galley full of soldiers and sailors was about to sink, and the men he had ordered to their rescue were hesitating, he leaped into a skiff, crying, “I prefer to be the companion rather than a spectator of their death.” When Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turks in 1453, he welcomed learned refugees to his capital; his court was a meeting-place for the savants of his time; and even when engaged in war, his captains might be seen gathered near their king, listening to his exposition of Livy instead of wasting their leisure at games of chance. He was noted also for his gentle disposition and merry humour and seems to have deserved his title of “the Magnanimous.”
Note 270 page 147. The battle of Cerignola (a town in Apulia near Cannæ, the scene of one of Hannibal’s victories) was fought 28 April 1503, between the Spanish army under the “Great Captain” and the French forces of Louis XII, and resulted in the defeat of the latter with the loss of more than half their men.
Note 271 page 147. UGO DI CARDONA, a brother of the Giovanni already mentioned, was a Spanish soldier who fought under Cesare Borgia and the “Great Captain,” and was killed by the hand of Francis I at the battle of Pavia in 1525.
Note 272 page 147. This is a corruption of the name of St. Erasmus, a Syrian bishop who suffered martyrdom about 304, and became a favourite saint among the sailors on the Mediterranean. His name is given to certain electrical phenomena often seen at sea and on land also.
Note 273 page 147. OTTAVIANO UBALDINI, (died 1498), was the son of a famous condottiere, Bernardino Ubaldini, and Aura di Montefeltro, a sister of Duke Federico. His father having died in 1437, he was bred at the court of Urbino and became the trusted counsellor of his uncle Federico, who left to him the guardianship of the young duke, Guidobaldo. To personal valour and address in statecraft he united (if we may trust the rhymed chronicle of Raphael’s father) a knowledge of classic literature, and a taste for music and the other fine arts. He is known to have been a zealous cultivator of astrology. By some writers Duke Federico (the circumstances of whose birth were not free from mystery) was believed to have been an Ubaldini, and this Ottaviano was openly regarded as his brother.
Note 274 page 147. ANTONELLO DA FORLI was a soldier of fortune who died before May 1488, and of whom little seems to be known apart from this anecdote. It is found also in two other books, where the witty Florentine is named as Cosimo de’ Medici.
Note 275 page 147. San Leo was a fortress perched on an almost inaccessible crag eighteen miles north-west of Urbino. It is mentioned by Dante (_Purgatorio_, iv, 25) and also by Machiavelli (Art of War, iv) as a place of great natural strength. When in the spring of 1502 Cesare Borgia disclosed his hostile designs against Duke Guidobaldo, the latter, knowing that he could not hold out at Urbino, retired to San Leo, but soon afterwards fled in the garb of a peasant, and the castle was surrendered. In the same year, however, it was recaptured by stratagem. In the spring of 1503 it was besieged by the adherents of Borgia, and bravely defended for six months by Ottaviano Fregoso and the castellan Lattanzio da Bergamo (referred to in the text), in the hope of succour from Guidobaldo, who had taken refuge at Venice. Cian says that the place at last fell and was not again recovered by Guidobaldo until after the death of Alexander VI. On the other hand Dennistoun (ii, 13) asserts that by a reinforcement of twenty-five men the castle was enabled to hold out until Guidobaldo’s restoration; he assigns the incident in the text to the first capture (1502), gives the name of the castellan as Scarmiglione da Foglino, and affirms that the surrender was treacherous.
[Illustration:
CESARE BORGIA 1478-1507 ]
Reduced from Alinari’s photograph (no. 13438) of the portrait, in the Correr Museum at Venice, formerly ascribed to Leonardo da Vinci, but recently attributed by Berenson to Francesco Beccaruzzi.
Note 276 page 147. DUKE VALENTINO, i.e. Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valentinois, (born 1478; died 1507), was an openly acknowledged son of Cardinal Roderigo Borgia (afterwards Alexander VI) by Rosa Vanozza, who was the mother also of Cesare’s sister Lucrezia. Created a cardinal on his father’s accession, he procured the murder of his brother Giovanni in 1497, resigned his cardinalate the same year, was given the French duchy of Valentinois in 1498, and married Charlotte d’Albret, daughter of the King of Navarre, in 1499. Having been created Duke of Romagna by his father in 1501, he proceeded to reduce the various fiefs comprised within his intended domain, including the duchy of Urbino. After the death of Alexander VI, Cesare was held in captivity by Julius II and by Ferdinand the Catholic, escaped to his father-in-law’s court in 1506, and fell in battle the following year, the very day after the close of the Courtier dialogues. Handsome, accomplished and subtle, he was a patron of learning and an adept in the cruel and perfidious politics of his day. Upon his public career is founded the famous _Principe_ of Machiavelli, who says: “If all the duke’s achievements are considered, it will be found that he built up a great superstructure for his future power; nor do I know what precepts I could furnish to a prince better than such as are to be derived from his example.”
Note 277 page 148. Literally: “It must be believed to have been in despair.”
Note 278 page 148. PUBLIUS CORNELIUS SCIPIO NASICA (Scipio with the pointed nose), was an eminent Roman jurist who was Consul in 191 B.C., and own cousin of Scipio Africanus the Elder.
Note 279 page 148. ALONSO CARILLO is said by Cian to have been one of the many Spaniards who lived at Rome in the service of popes and cardinals belonging to that nation. The Spanish annotator Fabié identifies him as a son of Don Luis and Donna Costanza de Rivera.
Note 280 page 148. MY LADY BOADILLA. Cian’s identification of this lady as Beatriz Fernandez de Bobadilla, Marchioness of Moya, is confirmed by the fact that Boscan’s translation (1534) gives her name as the Marchioness of Moya instead of ‘my lady Boadilla.’ She and her husband are warmly mentioned in a codicil to Isabella the Catholic’s will, as being among that queen’s most dear and faithful friends.
Note 281 page 149. In this passage, Antonio Ciccarelli’s expurgated edition (1584) substitutes “a painter of antiquity” for Raphael, “certain Roman senators” for the two cardinals, and Romulus and Remus for St. Peter and St. Paul. The picture in question has been identified as one painted by Raphael in 1513-14 for the church of San Silvestro.
Note 282 page 149. ‘Aught else ... upon thy shoulders,’ i.e., a head. The Cato referred to was probably MARCUS PORCIUS CATO UTICENSIS, (born 95 B.C., died 46 B.C.), the Roman philosopher and patriot who espoused the cause of Pompey, and committed suicide on hearing of Cæsar’s victory at Thapsus.
Note 283 page 150. This queen must have been Isabella the Catholic; see note 391.
Note 284 page 150. RAFAELLO DE’ PAZZI, (born 1471, died 1512), was a native of Florence, but was bred away from his home, doubtless owing to the proscription of his family for participation in the Pazzi conspiracy against Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici. Having fought for Cesare Borgia and later for Julius II, he was captured by the French in 1511, and was slain the following year in the battle of Ravenna.
Note 285 page 150. THE PRIOR OF MESSINA is now identified by Cian as a Spanish soldier, Don Pedro de Cuña, who was killed at the battle of Ravenna in 1512.
Note 286 page 151. Of PAOLO TOLOSA nothing more is known than is contained in the text.
Note 287 page 151. Like purple in Roman times, rose was the aristocratic colour at this period. Cosimo is reported by Machiavelli (_Storia Fiorentina_, vii, 6) to have said that “two ells of rose-coloured cloth make a man of quality.”
Note 288 page 151. GIANOTTO DE’ PAZZI is regarded by Cian as possibly identical with a certain Florentine, Giovanni de’ Pazzi, who was born in 1476 and died in 1528.
Note 289 page 151. Of ANTONIO RIZZO nothing more is known than is contained in the text.
Note 290 page 151. ‘The renunciation of a benefice,’ i.e. the notarial deed or testament by which a priest resigned his benefice or prebend in favour of someone else.
Note 291 page 151. ANTONIO TORELLO, (died 1536), was private chamberlain to Julius II and Leo X, who conferred a canonry and several prebends upon him in 1514. In the briefs he is designated as a priest of the diocese of Foglino, and is given certain benefices there, which had fallen vacant on the death of another priest. We thus infer that Torello must have been familiar with the subject referred to in the text. He was made a Roman citizen in 1530.
Note 292 page 151. These two hunchbacks have not been identified. “The Wheel” (_la Ruota_ or _Rota della Giustizia_, or simply _la Rota_) was the highest civil and criminal court of Rome prior to 1870. Its name may have originated in the circular arrangement of the judges’ (auditors’) seats (compare the _hemicyclium_ of Cicero’s time), or possibly in a wheel-shaped porphyry figure set in the pavement of the hall where they sat. The play is of course on the double meaning of the word _torto_, crooked, wrong.
Note 293 page 151. LATINO GIOVENALE DE’ MANETTI, (born 1486; died 1553), was a native of Rome, and a canon of St. Peter’s, but being of minor rank he had a wife and children. He held various offices, including that of Commissary General of Roman Antiquities, and was employed in several papal embassies. A writer of Latin and Italian verse, he was a friend of Castiglione, Bembo and Bibbiena, and is mentioned in the autobiography of Cellini, who says that he “had a pretty big dash of the fool in him,”—apparently because he presumed to improve one of the sculptor’s designs for a crucifix.
Note 294 page 152. PERALTA is regarded by Cian as probably identical with a certain Captain Luijse Galliego de Peralta, who bore a letter (1521) from Castiglione at Rome to the Marquess Federico of Mantua, then fighting against the French. In this letter Castiglione speaks of having known Peralta for years as “a man of character and a valiant.” Cian regards him as identical also with a certain Colonel Peralta, whose death at the battle of Frosinone is mentioned (in a letter of 1526) among those of other Spaniards.
MOLART is identified by Cian as the French soldier of fortune, “Molard,” who commanded a battalion of Gascons at the battle of Ravenna (11 April 1512), and who fell there bravely fighting by the side of Gaston de Foix.
ALDANA afterwards served under the Marquess of Mantua at Pavia in 1522, having been summoned (as was Castiglione also) from Rome at the head of his company.
Note 295 page 152. The duel in question is thus described by Branthôme in his Discourse on Duels: “The Grand Master de Chaumont, the King’s Lieutenant in the State of Milan, also allowed a duel to two Spaniards who had asked it of him. The name of one was Signor Peralta, who had formerly been in the King of France’s service, ... and the other Spaniard was called Captain Aldana. Their combat was on horse, _à la genette_ (jennet), with rapier and dagger and three darts to each man. Peralta’s second was another Spaniard, and Aldana’s was the gentle Captain Molart. It had snowed so much that their encounter took place in the Piazza at Parma, from which the snow had been cleared, and there being no other barriers than the snow, each of the two combatants did his duty right well. And at last my lord de Chaumont, who had appointed the ground and was umpire, caused them to retire with equal honour.”
Note 296 page 152. Cian inclines to regard this Master MARCANTONIO as identical with a certain eccentric physician of the same name, who lived at Urbino and was the author of a fantastic law book and a long comedy. Of BOTTONE DA CESENA nothing more is known than is contained in the text.
Note 297 page 152. ‘Three sticks,’ i.e., the gallows.
Note 298 page 152. Of the three persons bearing the name ANDREA COSCIA and known to have lived at this time, it is uncertain which one is here referred to.
Note 299 page 152. A MS. copy of THE COURTIER contains the following passage: “Again a Venetian (forgive me, messer Pietro), coming to visit my lady Maddalena, sister to my lady Duchess,—as soon as he was near he offered her his hand, but without removing his cap. My lady Maddalena drew back a step, and drew back her hand too, saying: ‘Gentle Sir, put on your cap; cover your head.’ He still advanced and offered his hand; whereupon she replied: ‘I will never do it, unless you cover.’ Thus the poor man was so put to shame that he at last removed his cap.” Under similar circumstances Madame Bernhardt is said to have reproved Edward VII (then Prince of Wales) by feigning not to recognize him with his hat on.
Note 300 page 152. MY LORD CARDINAL, i.e., Giovanni de’ Medici, afterwards Leo X, (born 1475; died 1521). He was the second son of Lorenzo de’ Medici and Clarice Orsini, and an elder brother of the Magnifico of THE COURTIER. Made a cardinal at the age of thirteen, and exiled from Florence with the rest of his family in 1494, he was present at the election of Alexander VI, of whose character he is said to have shown true appreciation at the time by remarking: “We are in the wolf’s jaws; he will gulp us down, unless we make good our flight.” During the reign of Julius II, he seems to have been subservient to that pontiff, and in 1511 was a member of the court of six cardinals which acquitted the young Duke of Urbino of the charge of murdering Cardinal Alidosi. The pontificates of Alexander and Julius had exhausted Italy with wars, and the Christian world, weary of their scandalous violence, hailed with relief the accession of the cultivated and seemingly gentle young prelate, Giovanni de’ Medici. Of his reign,—so brilliant in art and letters, so disastrous to the Church,—it is enough to say that the key is found in the famous phrase with which, on his elevation to the Chair of St. Peter, he greeted his brother Giuliano: “Let us enjoy the Papacy, since God hath given it us.” To him the immortality of the soul was an open topic for debate, while he regarded sound Latinity and a ready tongue as more important than true doctrine and pure living. Sincerely zealous for the diffusion of liberal knowledge, he was extravagantly munificent to artists, scholars and authors. Like all his family, after the first Cosimo, he was a poor financier, and on his sudden death he was found to have pawned the very jewels of his tiara. His reckless expenditure led to the sale of indulgences, and thus in no small degree to the progress of the Reformation.
[Illustration:
LUDOVICO SFORZA DUKE OF MILAN 1451-1508 ]
Enlarged from a part of Alinari’s photograph (no. 14351) of the marble tomb sculptures, now in the Certosa di Pavia near Milan, by Cristoforo Solari, known as _il Gobbo_, (died 1540).
Note 301 page 153. BIAGINO CRIVELLO was one of Duke Ludovico Sforza’s captains, and is mentioned (July 1500) in a list of Sforza adherents who had rebelled against Louis XII, and whose possessions were declared forfeit. The list speaks of him as keeping himself at Mantua and in Venetian territory, and as owning no attachable property in the Milanese. In April of the same year an ineffectual demand had been made upon the Marquess of Mantua for the surrender of Crivello and other chiefs of the Sforza party.
Note 302 page 153. THE DUKE, i.e., Ludovico Sforza, “Il Moro,” (born 1451; died 1508), was the fourth son of the Francesco Sforza whom Duke Federico of Urbino had helped to become Duke of Milan (and whose father, a peasant condottiere, Muzio Attendolo, became known as Sforza by reason of great personal strength),—and of Bianca Maria, a daughter of the last Visconti duke of Milan. Early noted for his physical and mental qualities, Ludovico read and wrote Latin fluently, had a tenacious memory, and was a ready speaker. He was tall and of strongly marked features. Unlike his horrible brother Galeazzo Maria, he shunned bloodshed. Banished from Milan after his brother’s assassination in 1476, he returned in triumph in 1479, and assumed the guardianship of his nephew Giangaleazzo, for whom he chose as bride his sister’s child, Isabella (see note 396), daughter of Alfonso II of Naples. Having first sought the hand of Isabella d’Este (see note 397),—who was already betrothed to the Marquess of Mantua,—in 1491 he married her younger sister Beatrice (see note 398), whose influence is by some said to have led him to aggravate the humiliation of his young nephew and niece, the rightful duke and duchess. Being threatened by the latter’s father, the King of Naples, Ludovico invited Charles VIII to enter Italy (1494) and assert the Angevine claim to Naples. His unhappy nephew died the same year, not without suspicion of having been poisoned by the uncle’s order, who thereupon assumed the title as well as the despotic power of duke. Becoming alarmed at the rapid success of the French in Italy, he joined the league formed against them, and was afterwards punished for his treachery by being expelled from Milan by Louis XII and carried to France. It is said that at the time of his capture, the only favour he asked was to be allowed the use of a volume of Dante. He died a prisoner in the Castle of Loches, where, after a vain effort to escape, he was confined in an underground dungeon. At the height of his prosperity his revenues exceeded those of any Italian state except Venice. Policy and also his natural taste for intellectual pleasures led him to copy the Medici in their patronage of art and letters. He aspired to make his capital a modern Athens, and sought to attract men of fame and talent from far and wide. Both Leonardo da Vinci and the architect Bramante were in his pay.
Note 303 page 153. Cervia is a little town on the Adriatic (between Ravenna and Rimini). A Dominican, Tommaso Cattanei, was bishop of the diocese from 1486 to 1509. The pope referred to in the text was Julius II.
Note 304 page 155. ‘Montefiore Inn’ was a proverbial expression for a bad hostelry. The rustic inns of Italy at this period were usually wretched and for the most part kept by Germans.
Note 305 page 156. One ANDREA CASTILLO was secretary to Leo X, and died in 1545.
Note 306 page 156. Cian identifies this CARDINAL BORGIA as the Francesco (born 1441; died 1511) who was raised to the purple by Alexander VI, and s’ known as a schismatic.
Note 307 page 156. The modern form of _ballatore_ is _ballerino_. Although the distinction is not free from doubt, there seems to be reason for believing that _danzare_ was the term applied to the more stately forms of dance, while _ballare_ was reserved for more animated movements. See note 147.
Note 308 page 157. The Bergamasque was and still is regarded as the rudest and most rustic of the Italian dialects.
Note 309 page 157. Except as applied to a small Tuscan stream or torrent (flowing near Acquapendente and Orvieto, and finally tributary to the Tiber), the name Paglia does not occur in modern Italian geography. In his autobiography, Cellini mentions crossing the little stream on his first journey from Siena to Rome. Later in the 16th century, Montaigne records (in his diary of a trip into Italy) having spent the night at “_La Paille_” (Italian, _Paglia_), and describes it as “a small village of five or six houses at the foot of several barren and ill-favoured mountains.”
Note 310 page 157. They seem to have been playing _primero_ (the modern _primiera_), a game much in vogue at this time.
Note 311 page 158. Loreto is a small hill town near Ancona, and is celebrated for its pilgrimage shrine of the Sacred House (_Santa Casa_), which was reputed to have been the veritable dwelling of the Virgin, miraculously transported by angels from Nazareth, and set down in Italy in 1294. In 1511 and again in 1524 Castiglione wrote to his mother that he was preparing to go to Our Lady of Loreto in fulfilment of a vow. The name was said to be derived from that of the widow upon whose land the house was deposited by the angels.
Note 312 page 158. Acquapendente is the name of a small town sixty-seven miles north-west of Rome.
Note 313 page 159. MONSIGNOR OF SAN PIETRO AD VINCULA was the title of Cardinal Galeatto della Rovere; see note 189.
Note 314 page 159. MONSIGNOR OF ARAGON was the title of Cardinal Ludovico of Aragon, (born 1474), a natural son of Ferdinand I of Naples, and a half-brother of Alfonso II (see note 31) and Federico III of Naples (see note 401). He was not elevated to the purple until 1519; Castiglione’s mention of him as a cardinal in dialogues supposed to take place twelve years earlier, doubtless arose from a natural confusion between the time when and the time of which they were written.
Note 315 page 159. ‘The _Banchi_’ (Banks) was the name of a street in Rome well known in the 15th and 16th centuries. Containing the offices of the papal Curia and magistrates, it became a preferred neighbourhood, and was enriched with fine buildings, among which was the counting-house of Julius II’s finance minister, Agostino Chigi, the greatest banker of his day.
Note 316 page 159. ‘The Chancery’ (_Cancelleria_) was a palace designed about 1500 by Bramante for Cardinal Riario, but at this time used for public offices and as the residence of Cardinal Galeotto della Rovere, who had enlarged and embellished the building. It was not far from the Banks.
Note 317 page 159. San Celso was the name of a street and church near the Banks. The saint (Celsus) whose memory is thus perpetuated was born at what is now Cimiez, near Nice, suffered martyrdom at Rome under Nero, and was finally put to death (together with his master, St. Nazarius) at Milan in the year 69.
Note 318 page 160. CESARE BECCADELLO is regarded by Cian as possibly identical with a certain Bolognese, who was the son of Domenico Maria Beccadello, married Landomia Fasanini, and was living at the papal court as late as 1559. The Spanish annotator Fabié suggests that he was the father (1502) of the author Ludovico Beccadello, who was a follower of Bembo and wrote biographies of Petrarch and others.
Note 319 page 161. These are characters occurring in the third, sixth and ninth tales of the Eighth Day, and in the fifth tale of the Ninth Day.
Note 320 page 161. This knavish student seems to be identical with a certain CAIO CALORIA PONZIO, who was born at Messina. Of his life little more is known than that he studied law at Padua between 1479 and 1488, and, after residing two years at Venice, returned to Sicily. For an account of a short poem by him in praise of Venice, and of his dialect comedy dedicated to the Marquess of Mantua, see Vittorio Rossi’s _Caio Caloria Ponzio, e la poesia volgare letteraria di Sicilia nel Secolo XV_, reprinted (Palermo, 1893) from the _Archivio Storico Siciliano_, N. S., A., xviii.
Note 321 page 161. The only belfry at Padua answering to this description is said to be that of San Giacomo.
Note 322 page 162. GONNELLA. This name was borne by two famous jesters employed by the d’Este family. The one here referred to was probably the later of the two, who lived at the courts of Dukes Niccolò III and Borso, was the son of a Florentine glover Bernardo Gonnella, and married one Checca Lapi. The next buffoon referred to was probably LUDOVICO MELIOLO, who acted as steward to the court of Mantua about 1500, and was a brother of the goldsmith and sculptor Bartolommeo Meliolo (1448-1514). He was called “the father of jests.”
Note 323 page 163. This is an instance of the use of the word _calunnia_ (rendered ‘imputation’) in its primitive sense of malicious accusation without reference to truth or falsity.
Note 324 page 164. These characters occur in the sixth tale of the Third Day, and in the seventh and eighth tales of the Seventh Day of Boccaccio’s “Decameron.”
Note 325 page 164. The queen here mentioned is of course Isabella the Catholic; see note 391.
Note 326 page 164. Fabié says that this COUNTESS OF CASTAGNETA was Brazaida de Almada, daughter of a Portuguese cavalier Juan Baez de Almada and Violante de Castro (of the same nation). She was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Isabella, and her husband Don Garci Fernandez Manrique (third Count of Castagneta and first Marquess of Aguilar) took
## part in the conquest of Granada.
Note 327 page 167. If unconvinced by the “Decameron,” readers of the _Corbaccio_ will surely be persuaded of the justice of this opinion.
Note 328 page 167. According to one form of the legend of Orpheus, his grief at the final loss of his wife Eurydice, when his lyre had all but enabled him to recover her from Hades, led him to treat contemptuously the Thracian women, who avenged the insult by tearing him in pieces under the excitement of their Bacchanalian orgies.
Note 329 page 167. ‘Braccesque leave’ (_una licentia bracciesca_ in the Aldine folio of 1528, and _una licentia Bracciesca_ in the more correctly printed Aldine folio of 1545) is a phrase derived from the name of Braccio Fortebracci, a captain who was famous for his violence to friend and foe, and whose followers were called Bracceschi. To give a man Braccesque leave meant to dismiss him with blows.
Note 330 page 169. Although in this and a few other passages, Castiglione uses _virtù_ in the sense of our “virtue,” he more often gives it its etymological meaning of “manliness,” which the present translator has generally rendered by “worth.” In considering a word like this, we must take into account the character of him who uses it. To Machiavelli, as no doubt to most of his contemporaries in Italy, _virtù_ meant simply that combination of strength, courage, tenacity and cunning that enables a man to achieve his ends,—whether good or bad.
NOTES TO THE THIRD BOOK OF THE COURTIER
Note 331 page 171. Achaia, here used as synonymous with Greece, was the name given to that country when conquered by the Romans and made a province. Olympia was not in Achaia proper, but in the adjoining district of Elis, some forty miles south of the modern Patras. The site has been thoroughly excavated by German archæologists, the most noted discovery being that of the “Hermes” of Praxiteles and the “Victory” of Pæonius.
Note 332 page 172. That is to say, nude. According to the familiar Greek myth, Eris (goddess of discord), to avenge her exclusion from the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis, threw among the wedding guests a golden apple inscribed “To the Fairest.” A dispute arising between Aphrodite, Hera and Athena concerning the apple, Zeus appointed the shepherd Paris to decide their claims. The prize having been awarded to Aphrodite, she aided Paris to carry off the beautiful Helen of Sparta, and thus gave rise to the Trojan War.
Note 333 page 173. The Order of St. Michael was instituted in August 1469, by Louis XI of France, and was highly esteemed down to Castiglione’s time, but later suffered in estimation, owing to the freedom with which membership was bestowed. Francis I wore the insignia of the order at the battle of Pavia, 1525.
Note 334 page 173. The Order of the Garter was instituted by Edward III of England in 1344. He assigned to its use the chapel (at Windsor) of St. George, who was its patron saint. Duke Guidobaldo of Urbino having, like his father, been made a knight of the order, Castiglione went to England in 1506 to receive the insignia on the duke’s behalf.
Note 335 page 173. The Order of the Golden Fleece was instituted by Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy (paternal grandfather of Charles V’s paternal grandmother) in 1429 in honour of his third marriage, to Elizabeth of Portugal. Its badge, a golden ram, is shown in our portraits of Charles V and his grandfather Maximilian I.
Note 336 page 173. The king of Persia at this time was Ismail Sufi I, (born 1480; died 1524). He was descended from a family of noted piety, whose peculiar beliefs became the origin of the national Persian faith. Having been proclaimed shah in 1499, after nearly a century of disorderly government by the successors of Timur the Tartar, he spent most of his reign in enlarging and assuring his dominions, and founded the dynasty that was to rule Persia until 1736. He waged an unsuccessful war with Selim I of Turkey, the son and successor of Bajazet II, and died while on a pilgrimage to his own father’s tomb. His subjects revered him as a saint.
Note 337 page 174. The ‘Lady whom I know’ is of course the Duchess.
Note 338 page 175. PYGMALION will be remembered as the legendary sculptor-king of Cyprus, who fell in love with an ivory statue that he had made of a beautiful girl, and prayed to Aphrodite to breathe life into it. His prayer being granted, he married the girl, who was called Galatea.
Note 339 page 181. The opinions here ascribed to Plato, are found in the Fifth Book of his “Republic,” but seem to have undergone serious change when he wrote his “Laws.”
Note 340 page 182. The comparative merits of man and woman were much discussed in Greek antiquity and during the Renaissance, and form the subject of a copious literature in which Castiglione’s contribution occupies no unimportant place.
Note 341 page 184. The reference here is to a fragment of the so-called Orphic Hymns, beginning: “Jove the End, Jove the Beginning, Jove the Middle, all things are of Jove: Jove Male, Immortal Virgin Jove.” In this and other respects the theogony to which the name of Orpheus is attached, is closely related to the most ancient religious systems of India.
Note 342 page 185. The author probably refers to Aristotle’s Tenth Problem.
Note 343 page 188. The reference here is doubtless to Jerome’s 54th Epistle (on Widowhood), and to his first tract against Jovinianus, both written about 394 A.D. He was born in what is now the Hungarian town of Stridon about 340, and died in a monastery at Bethlehem 420 A.D. Perhaps his best remembered work is the Vulgate or Latin translation of the Bible.
Note 344 page 189. “If not chastely, then discreetly.”
Note 345 page 190. OCTAVIA, (born 70; died 11 B.C.), was a great-niece of Julius Cæsar, and became the second wife of the triumvir Mark Antony for the purpose (ultimately vain) of cementing the alliance between him and her brother Augustus. Her beauty, accomplishments and virtues proved unavailing against the wiles of Cleopatra, who induced Antony to divorce her. After Antony’s death, she remained true to the interests of his children, including those by his first wife and by Cleopatra. Through the two daughters that she bore to Antony, she became the grandmother of the Emperor Claudius, and great-grandmother of his predecessor Caligula and of his successor Nero.
Note 346 page 190. PORCIA’S first husband was Marcus Bibulus, who was Consul with Cæsar in 59 B.C. She inherited her father’s republican principles, courage and firm will, and was her second husband Brutus’s confidante in the conspiracy against Cæsar. On his death at Philippi in 42 B.C., she put an end to her life.
Note 347 page 190. CAIA CÆCILIA TANAQUIL appears in Roman legend as the second wife of King Tarquinius Priscus, endowed with prophetic powers, closely connected with the worship of the hearth-deity, expert in healing, and a model of domestic virtues. The traditional date of her husband’s reign is 616-578 B.C.
Note 348 page 190. CORNELIA, the mother of the Gracchi (born about 189 B.C.; died about 110 B.C.), wrote letters that had survived in Cicero’s day and were prized for their style. Even in her own lifetime the Romans erected a statue in honour of her virtues. Left a widow with twelve young children, she devoted herself wholly to their training, and rejected all offers of marriage, including that of Ptolemy.
Note 349 page 191. Plutarch (from whose history the narrative in the text is a paraphrase) describes ALEXANDRA as being actuated in her regency solely by ambitious motives. Her husband, Alexander Jannæus, was the son of Johannes Hyrcanus and brother of Aristobulus I, whom he succeeded as second King of the Jews after the Babylonish Captivity. His reign (104-78 B.C.) was marked by atrocities.
Note 350 page 191. The reference here is to MITHRIDATES VI, Eupator, King (120-63 B.C.) of Pontus on the southern shore of the Black Sea. In the Life of Lucullus, Plutarch relates that having been utterly defeated by the Romans in 72 B.C., Mithridates gave order to have his wives Bernice and Monima put to death together with his sisters Statira and Roxana, in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy,—while he himself took refuge with his son-in-law. Statira is described by Plutarch as grateful to her brother for not forgetting her amid his own anxieties, and for providing her the means of an honourable death.
Note 351 page 191. This HASDRUBAL was the general of the Carthaginians in their last struggle with Rome. When Scipio captured Carthage in 146 B.C., Hasdrubal surrendered, while it is said that his wife, after upbraiding him for his weakness, flung herself and her children into the flames of the burning temple in which they had sought shelter.
Note 352 page 191. In fact, HARMONIA was Hiero’s granddaughter, and the wife of a Syracusan named Themistus, who (after the death of Hiero in 215 B.C.) was chosen one of the leaders of the commonwealth and afterwards perished in a fresh revolution. Death was then decreed against all surviving members of Hiero’s family, and Harmonia was slain together with her aunts, Demarata and Heraclea.
Note 353 page 192. The reference is of course to the familiar story of the obstinate dame who persisted in declaring that a certain rent had been made with scissors, and whose husband vainly tried to change her mind by plunging her in a pond. Each time she came to the surface, she cried “Scissors,” until, unable to speak from strangulation, she stretched forth her hand and made the sign of the instrument with two fingers. In a coarser form, the story was current in Italy even before Castiglione’s time.
Note 354 page 192. The conspiracy in question was discovered in 65 A.D. Tacitus relates that EPICHARIS strangled herself with her girdle while on the way to be tortured a second time.
Note 355 page 192. LEÆNA was an Athenian _hetaira_ beloved by Aristogeiton. When he and Harmodius had slain the tyrant Hipparchus in 514 B.C., she was supposed to be privy to their plan, and died under torture. The statue in question is mentioned by Pausanias and said by Plutarch (in his essay on Garrulity) to have been placed “upon the gates of the Acropolis.” Recent archæologists identify its site as being on the level of the Acropolis, near the southern inner corner of the Propylæa.
Note 356 page 192. Massilia became the modern Marseilles.
Note 357 page 192. This story is taken from the “Memorable Doings and Sayings” of Valerius Maximus (_flor._ 25 A.D.), in which Castiglione mistranslates the Latin word _publicè_ (at the public charge) as _publicamente_ (publicly).
Note 358 page 192. Of several persons of this name, the one here referred to was probably the Roman Consul (14 A.D.),—a patron of literature and a friend of Ovid. Had the Magnifico been allowed to finish his sentence, he would (following the narrative of Valerius Maximus) have doubtless added the name of a town in Asia Minor, Julida.
Note 359 page 195. This story (which was used by Tennyson for his play of “The Cup”) is found in Plutarch’s tract “Concerning Women’s Virtue,” where the scene is placed in Galatia, in Asia Minor.
Note 360 page 197. The number of the Sibyls is usually reckoned as ten: Persian (or Babylonian), Libyan, Phrygian, Delphian, Cimmerian, Erythræan, Samian, Trojan, Tiburtine, and Cumæan,—of which the last was the most famous.
Note 361 page 197. ASPASIA, (_flor._ 440 B.C.), was born at Miletus in Asia Minor, but in her youth removed to Athens, where she was celebrated for her talents and beauty, and became the mistress of Pericles, one of whose orations she is said by Plato to have composed. Her house was the centre of intellectual society, and was even frequented by Athenian matrons and their husbands.
Note 362 page 197. DIOTIMA was a probably fictitious priestess of Mantinea in the Peloponnesus, reputed to have been the instructress of Socrates. Her supposed opinions as to the origin, nature and objects of life, form the subject of Plato’s “Symposium.”
Note 363 page 197. NICOSTRATE or Carmenta was a prophetic and healing divinity, supposed to be of Greek origin. Having tried to persuade her son Evander to kill his father Hermes, she fled with the boy to Italy, where she was said to have given the Roman form to the fifteen characters of the Greek alphabet that Evander introduced into Latium.
Note 364 page 197. This ‘preceptress ... to Pindar’ was MYRTIS, a lyric poetess of the 6th century B.C. She is mentioned in a fragment by Corinna as having competed with Pindar. Statues were erected to her in various parts of Greece, and she was counted among the nine lyric muses.
Note 365 page 197. Of PINDAR’S life little more is known than that he resided chiefly at Thebes, and that the dates of his birth and death were about 522 and 443 B.C. respectively. Practically all his extant poems are odes in commemoration of victories in the public games.
Note 366 page 197. The Greek poetess CORINNA (5th century B.C.) was a native of Tanagra in Bœotia. She is said to have won prizes five times in competition with Pindar. Only a few fragments of her verse remain.
Note 367 page 197. SAPPHO flourished about 600 B.C., and seems to have been born and to have lived chiefly at Mitylene. She enjoyed unique renown among the ancients: on hearing one of her poems, Solon prayed that he might not see death before he had learned it; Plato called her the Tenth Muse; and Aristotle placed her on a par with Homer. For a recently discovered and interesting fragment of her verse, see the Egypt Exploration Fund’s “Oxyrhynchus Papyri,”