Chapter XVI: Part 16

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

ANDREA MANTEGNA
1431-1506
]