The Book of the Courtier
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,” Part I, p. 11.
Note 368 page 198. Castiglione here follows Plutarch. Pliny, on the
other hand, affirms that Roman women were obliged to kiss their male
relatives, in order that it might be known whether they had transgressed
the law forbidding them to drink wine.
Note 369 page 199. This paragraph is taken almost literally from Livy,
excepting the incident of the babies borne in arms, which Castiglione
seems to have invented.
Note 370 page 199. TITUS TATIUS was the legendary king of the Sabines.
His forces were so strong that Romulus was driven back to the Saturnian
Hill, which had previously been fortified and which became the site of
the Capitol. The familiar story is to the effect that Tarpeia (daughter
to the captain of the fortress), being dazzled by the Sabines’ golden
bracelets, promised to betray the hill to them if they would give her
the ornaments on their left arms. Accordingly she admitted the enemy at
night, but when she claimed her reward, they threw down upon her the
shields that they wore on the left arm, and thus crushed her to death.
Her infamy is preserved in the name of the neighbouring Tarpeian Rock,
from which traitors were flung down.
Note 371 page 199. There is said to be no historical mention of any
Roman temple to _Venus Armata_. Castiglione may have had in mind a
passage in the “Christian Cicero” (Lactantius Firmianus, who wrote about
300 A.D.), recording the dedication by the Spartans of a temple and
statue to the Armed Venus in memory of their women’s brave repulse of a
sudden attack by the Messenians during the absence of the Spartan army.
Note 372 page 199. _Calva_ (bald) was one of the Roman Venus’s most
ancient epithets, under which she had two temples near the Capitol. Of
the several explanations of this appellation, Castiglione seems to refer
to the one which interprets it as the memorial of the Roman women’s
heroism in cutting off their hair to make bow-strings for the men during
a siege by the Gauls.
Note 373 page 200. In his life of Camillus (died 365 B.C.), Plutarch
gives a legendary account of the origin of the Handmaidens’ Festival. At
a time when the Romans were ill prepared for war, the Latins sent to
demand of them a number of free-born maidens in marriage. This was
suspected as a trick to obtain hostages, but no method of foiling it was
devised until Tutula, a slave girl, advised the magistrates to send her
to the Latin camp along with some of the most beautiful handmaidens in
rich attire. This was done, and at night, when her companions had stolen
away the enemies’ weapons, Tutula displayed a signal torch agreed on
with the Romans, who at once sallied forth, easily captured the Latin
camp, and put most of the enemy to the sword.
Note 374 page 200. The Romans are said to have wearied of Cicero’s
self-praise for his suppression of the Cataline conspiracy (63 B.C.).
The woman in question was a Roman patrician, Fulvia by name, who was the
mistress of one of the conspirators and divulged the plot to Cicero.
Note 375 page 200. This DEMETRIUS (II) was grandson to the Demetrius I
already mentioned (see note 136), and ruled over Macedonia from about
239 to about 229 B.C. His son, PHILIP V (237-179 B.C.), joined Hannibal
in a war against Rome, which finally ended in the downfall of the
Macedonian monarchy and the captivity of his son and successor Perseus
(167 B.C.). The incident mentioned in the text is narrated by Plutarch
in his work on “Women’s Virtue,” as also is the instance next cited by
Castiglione, who however reverses the order of events.
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 Jean Perreal (1460?-1528?). See note 387.
Note 376 page 200. Erythræ was an important city on the west coast of
Asia Minor opposite Chios. The nearest approach to ‘Leuconia’ in ancient
geography is the distant town Leuconum in what is now Slavonia, between
the Danube and the Save.
Note 377 page 201. Plutarch’s version of this story adds that in honour
of the Persian women’s bravery on this occasion, Cyrus (559-529 B.C.)
decreed that whenever the king returned from a long journey, each woman
should receive a ring of gold.
Note 378 page 201. One of Plutarch’s minor works is entitled “Apothegms
and Famous Sayings of Spartan Women,” and Castiglione’s contemporary
Marcantonio Casanova wrote two Latin distiches on “The Spartan Mother
Slaying Her Son.”
Note 379 page 201. Saguntum, the modern Murviedro, was a city of Greek
origin on the eastern coast of Spain. After a desperate siege of nearly
eight months, it was captured by Hannibal in 219 B.C.
Note 380 page 201. The reference here is to the victory, at Vercelli
near Milan, by which the Roman general CAIUS MARIUS repelled the advance
of the Cimbri into Italy, 101 B.C. The sacred fire (supposed to have
been brought from Troy by Æneas as the symbol of Vesta, the hearth
deity) was kept alive at Rome by six virgins.
Note 381 page 202. AMALASONTHA, (498-535 A.D.), was the daughter of
Theodoric the Great, and regent of the East Gothic kingdom from his
death in 526 until her own. After a prosperous reign she is said to have
been strangled by her cousin and second husband Theodatus, at the
instigation of the Empress Theodora, the wife of Justinian.
Note 382 page 202. THEODOLINDA, daughter of Duke Garibald of Bavaria,
married (589 A.D.) Autharis, King of the Lombards, and on his death in
the following year, she married Duke Agilulph of Turin, who was
proclaimed king in 591. She died in 625, after exercising the regency in
the name of her son. Her virtue, wisdom and beauty were extolled; she
was active in her labours on behalf of Christianity; and she carried on
a correspondence with St. Gregory, who was pope from 590 to 604.
Note 383 page 202. The THEODORA here referred to is doubtless the wife,
not of Justinian, but of Theophilus, Emperor of Constantinople 829-842.
She died in 867, and was canonized by the Greek Church.
Note 384 page 202. COUNTESS MATILDA, (1046-1115), one of the most famous
heroines of the Middle Ages, was the daughter of Duke Boniface of
Tuscany and Beatrice of Lorraine. She ruled over Tuscany and a large
part of northern Italy, espoused the papal cause against the Emperor,
and exercised an important influence upon the politics of her time. She
was noted also for her religious zeal, energy, and austere yet gentle
and cultivated life. Count Ludovico’s supposed descent from her paternal
uncle Conrad is now regarded as doubtful.
Note 385 page 202. Among the eminent women here referred to, we may
note: Duke Guidobaldo’s grandfather’s wife, Caterina Colonna, (died
1438), who was a great-aunt of Vittoria Colonna, and was praised as
“noble, beautiful, discreet, charming, gentle and generous”; his
great-aunt Battista di Montefeltro, (died 1450), who, having been
deserted by her worthless Malatesta husband, wrote moral essays and
poetry, and was celebrated for her piety and mental gifts, as well as
for her learning and literary accomplishments; his aunt, Brigida Sueva
di Montefeltro, (born 1428), who, after enduring for twelve years the
brutalities of her Sforza husband, became an abbess and ultimately
received the honour of beatification,—her remains being revered as a
sacred relic; another aunt of his, Violante di Montefeltro, (born 1430),
who was famous for her talents and beauty; his maternal grandmother,
Costanza da Varano, (born 1428), was a granddaughter of the Battista
above mentioned, inherited much of that lady’s taste for learning,
became the associate of scholars and philosophers, wrote Latin orations,
epistles and poems, and (by her marriage to a brother of the first
Sforza duke of Milan) became the mother of Duke Guidobaldo’s own mother,
Battista Sforza, (born 1446), who rivalled her ancestresses’
attainments, administered her husband’s government judiciously during
his frequent absences, and was regarded as beautiful, although tiny in
person.
Note 386 page 202. Perhaps the most famous woman of the Gonzaga family
was “my lady Duchess’s” great-aunt, Cecilia Gonzaga, (born 1425), who
shared with her four brothers the tuition of the celebrated Vittorino da
Feltre, wrote Greek with remarkable purity at the age of ten, became a
nun at nineteen, devoted her life to religious and literary exercises,
and was regarded as one of the most learned women of her time. Her niece
(?), Barbara Gonzaga, (born about 1455), was educated with especial
care, became Duchess of Würtemberg, induced her husband to found the
University of Tübingen, and ruled the duchy as regent after his death.
Of the Este family, two aunts (Ginevra, born 1419, and Bianca Maria,
born 1440) of Isabella and Beatrice d’Este (see notes 397 and 398), were
famous for their knowledge of Latin and Greek, in which languages the
younger wrote both prose and verse, besides being an accomplished
musician, dancer and needlewoman.
Of the Pio family, Castiglione doubtless had in mind the celebrated Alda
Pia da Carpi, who was a sister of Aldus’s pupil and patron Alberto Pio,
aunt of Count Ludovico Pio of THE COURTIER (see note 46), and mother of
the still more celebrated poetess Veronica Gambara, (born 1485).
Head enlarged from Braun’s photograph (no. 13.796) of an anonymous
portrait group, in the Palace at Versailles, representing the
Emperor Maximilian I and his family.
Note 387 page 202. ANNE DE BRETAGNE, (born 1476; died 1514), was the
daughter and heiress of Duke Francis II of Brittany, which became
permanently united to the crown of France through her marriages to
Charles VIII (1492) and Louis XII (1499). Castiglione’s praise of her
seems to have been in the main justified. Although sometimes vindictive,
she was generous, virtuous beyond the standard of her time, and carried
cultivation to the verge of pedantry. She surrounded herself with
artists, historians, minstrels and poets, and formed a collection of
MSS. and other precious objects, largely the spoils of her husbands’
Italian campaigns. Branthôme called her “the worthiest and most
honourable queen that has been since Queen Blanche, mother of the king
St. Louis, and so wise and virtuous.”
Note 388 page 202. CHARLES VIII, (born 1470; died 1498), was the son of
Louis XI and Charlotte of Savoy. Having succeeded his father in 1483,
and assumed royal power in 1491, he married Anne of Brittany and soon
set about enforcing his pretensions to the crown of Naples, transmitted
to him through his father and cousin from René of Provence, to whom the
last Angevine ruler had devised the kingdom in 1435. As we have seen,
the immediate cause of the invasion of Italy (1494) was a request from