The Book of the Courtier
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.
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.
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