The Book of the Courtier
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.
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.
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