Chapter V: General Disintegration of Belief (1)

With these superstitions, as with ancient modes of thought generally, the decline in the belief of immortality stands in the closest connection.[1269] This question has the widest and deepest relations with the whole development of the modern spirit.

One great source of doubt in immortality was the inward wish to be under no obligations to the hated Church. We have seen that the Church branded those who thus felt as Epicureans (p. 496 sqq.). In the hour of death many doubtless called for the sacraments, but multitudes during their whole lives, and especially during their most vigorous years, lived and acted on the negative supposition. That unbelief on this particular point must often have led to a general scepticism, is evident of itself, and is attested by abundant historical proof. These are the men of whom Ariosto says: ‘Their faith goes no higher than the roof.’[1270] In Italy, and especially in Florence, it was possible to live as an open and notorious unbeliever, if a man only refrained from direct acts of hostility against the Church.[1271] The confessor, for instance, who was sent to prepare a political offender for death, began by inquiring whether the prisoner was a believer, ‘for there was a false report that he had no belief at all.’[1272]

The unhappy transgressor here referred to--the same Pierpaolo Boscoli who has been already mentioned (p. 59)--who in 1513 took part in an attempt against the newly restored family of the Medici, is a faithful mirror of the religious confusion then prevalent. Beginning as a partisan of Savonarola, he became afterwards possessed with an enthusiasm for the ancient ideals of liberty, and for paganism in general; but when he was in prison his early friends regained the control of his mind, and secured for him what they considered a pious ending. The tender witness and narrator of his last hours is one of the artistic family of the Delia Robbia, the learned philologist Luca. ‘Ah,’ sighs Boscoli, ‘get Brutus out of my head for me, that I may go my way as a Christian.’ ‘If you will,’ answers Luca, ‘the thing is not difficult; for you know that these deeds of the Romans are not handed down to us as they were, but idealised (con arte accresciute).’ The penitent now forces his understanding to believe, and bewails his inability to believe voluntarily. If he could only live for a month with pious monks, he would truly become spiritually minded. It comes out that these partisans of Savonarola knew their Bible very imperfectly; Boscoli can only say the Paternoster and Avemaria, and earnestly begs Luca to exhort his friends to study the sacred writings, for only what a man has learned in life does he possess in death. Luca then reads and explains to him the story of the Passion according to the Gospel of St. Matthew; the poor listener, strange to say, can perceive clearly the Godhead of Christ, but is perplexed at his manhood; he wishes to get as firm a hold of it ‘as if Christ came to meet him out of a wood.’ His friend thereupon exhorts him to be humble, since this was only a doubt sent him by the Devil. Soon after it occurs to the penitent that he has not fulfilled a vow made in his youth to go on pilgrimage to the Impruneta; his friend promises to do it in his stead. Meantime the confessor--a monk, as was desired, from Savonarola’s monastery--arrives, and after giving him the explanation quoted above of the opinion of St. Thomas Aquinas on tyrannicide, exhorts him to bear death manfully. Boscoli makes answer: ‘Father, waste no time on this; the philosophers have taught it me already; help me to bear death out of love to Christ.’ What follows--the communion, the leave-taking and the execution--is very touchingly described, one point deserves special mention. When Boscoli laid his head on the block, he begged the executioner to delay the stroke for a moment: ‘During the whole time since the announcement of the sentence he had been striving after a close union with God, without attaining it as he wished, and now in this supreme moment he thought that by a strong effort he could give himself wholly to God.’ It is clearly some half-understood expression of Savonarola which was troubling him.

If we had more confessions of this character the spiritual picture of the time would be the richer by many important features which no poem or treatise has preserved for us. We should see more clearly how strong the inborn religious instinct was, how subjective and how variable the relation of the individual to religion, and what powerful enemies and competitors religion had. That men whose inward condition is of this nature, are not the men to found a new church, is evident; but the history of the Western spirit would be imperfect without a view of that fermenting period among the Italians, while other nations, who have had no share in the evolution of thought, may be passed over without loss. But we must return to the question of immortality.

If unbelief in this respect made such progress among the more highly cultivated natures, the reason lay partly in the fact that the great earthly task of discovering the world and representing it in word and form, absorbed most of the higher spiritual faculties. We have already spoken (p. 490) of the inevitable worldliness of the Renaissance. But this investigation and this art were necessarily accompanied by a general spirit of doubt and inquiry. If this spirit shows itself but little in literature, if we find, for example, only isolated instances of the beginnings of biblical criticism (p. 465), we are not therefore to infer that it had no existence. The sound of it was only over-powered by the need of representation and creation in all departments--that is, by the artistic instinct; and it was further checked, whenever it tried to express itself theoretically, by the already existing despotism of the Church. This spirit of doubt must, for reasons too obvious to need discussion, have inevitably and chiefly busied itself with the question of the state of man after death.

And here came in the influence of antiquity, and worked in a twofold fashion on the argument. In the first place men set themselves to master the psychology of the ancients, and tortured the letter of Aristotle for a decisive answer. In one of the Lucianic dialogues of the time[1273] Charon tells Mercury how he questioned Aristotle on his belief in immortality, when the philosopher crossed in the Stygian boat; but the prudent sage, although dead in the body and nevertheless living on, declined to compromise himself by a definite answer--and centuries later how was it likely to fare with the interpretation of his writings? All the more eagerly did men dispute about his opinion and that of others on the true nature of the soul, its origin, its pre-existence, its unity in all men, its absolute eternity, even its transformations; and there were men who treated of these things in the pulpit.[1274] The dispute was warmly carried on even in the fifteenth century; some proved that Aristotle taught the doctrine of an immortal soul;[1275] others complained of the hardness of men’s hearts, who would not believe that there was a soul at all, till they saw it sitting down on a chair before them;[1276] Filelfo in his funeral oration on Francesco Sforza brings forward a long list of opinions of ancient and even of Arabian philosophers in favour of immortality, and closes the mixture, which covers a folio page and a half of print,[1277] with the words, ‘Besides all this we have the Old and New Testaments, which are above all truth.’ Then came the Florentine Platonists with their master’s doctrine of the soul, supplemented at times, as in the case of Pico, by Christian teaching. But the opposite opinion prevailed in the instructed world. At the beginning of the sixteenth century the stumbling-block which it put in the way of the Church was so serious that Leo X. set forth a Constitution[1278] at the Lateran Council in 1513, in defence of the immortality and individuality of the soul, the latter against those who asserted that there was but one soul in all men. A few years later appeared the work of Pomponazzo, in which the impossibility of a philosophical proof of immortality is maintained; and the contest was now waged incessantly with replies and apologies, till it was silenced by the Catholic reaction. The pre-existence of the soul in God, conceived more or less in accordance with Plato’s theory of ideas, long remained a common belief, and proved of service even to the poets.[1279] The consequences which followed from it as to the mode of the soul’s continued existence after death, were not more closely considered.

There was a second way in which the influence of antiquity made itself felt, chiefly by means of that remarkable fragment of the sixth book of Cicero’s ‘Republic’ known by the name of Scipio’s Dream. Without the commentary of Macrobius it would probably have perished like the rest of the second part of the work; it was now diffused in countless manuscript copies,[1280] and, after the discovery of typography, in a printed form, and edited afresh by various commentators. It is the description of a transfigured hereafter for great men, pervaded by the harmony of the spheres. This pagan heaven, for which many other testimonies were gradually extracted from the writings of the ancients, came step by step to supplant the Christian heaven in proportion as the ideal of fame and historical greatness threw into the shade the ideal of the Christian life, without, nevertheless, the public feeling being thereby offended as it was by the doctrine of personal annihilation after death. Even Petrarch founds his hope chiefly on this Dream of Scipio, on the declarations found in other Ciceronian works, and on Plato’s ‘Phædo,’ without making any mention of the Bible.[1281] ‘Why,’ he asks elsewhere, ‘should not I as a Catholic share a hope which was demonstrably cherished by the heathen?’ Soon afterwards Coluccio Salutati wrote his ‘Labours of Hercules’ (still existing in manuscript), in which it is proved at the end that the valorous man, who has well endured the great labours of earthly life, is justly entitled to a dwelling among the stars.[1282] If Dante still firmly maintained that the great pagans, whom he would have gladly welcomed in Paradise, nevertheless must not come beyond the Limbo at the entrance to Hell,[1283] the poetry of a later time accepted joyfully the new liberal ideas of a future life. Cosimo the Elder, according to Bernardo Pulci’s poem on his death, was received in heaven by Cicero, who had also been called the ‘Father of his country,’ by the Fabii, by Curius, Fabricius and many others; with them he would adorn the choir where only blameless spirits sing.[1284]

But in the old writers there was another and less pleasing picture of the world to come--the shadowy realms of Homer and of those poets who had not sweetened and humanised the conception. This made an impression on certain temperaments. Gioviano Pontano somewhere attributes to Sannazaro the story of a vision, which he beheld one morning early while half awake.[1285] He seemed to see a departed friend, Ferrandus Januarius, with whom he had often discoursed on the immortality of the soul, and whom he now asked whether it was true that the pains of Hell were really dreadful and eternal. The shadow gave an answer like that of Achilles when Odysseus questioned him. ‘So much I tell and aver to thee, that we who are parted from earthly life have the strongest desire to return to it again.’ He then saluted his friend and disappeared.

It cannot but be recognised that such views of the state of man after death partly presuppose and partly promote the dissolution of the most essential dogmas of Christianity. The notion of sin and of salvation must have almost entirely evaporated. We must not be misled by the effects of the great preachers of repentance or by the epidemic revivals which have been described above (part vi. cap. 2). For even granting that the individually developed classes had shared in them like the rest, the cause of their participation was rather the need of emotional excitement, the rebound of passionate natures, the horror felt at great national calamities, the cry to heaven for help. The awakening of the conscience had by no means necessarily the sense of sin and the felt need of salvation as its consequence, and even a very severe outward penance did not perforce involve any repentance in the Christian meaning of the word. When the powerful natures of the Renaissance tell us that their principle is to repent of nothing,[1286] they may have in their minds only matters that are morally indifferent, faults of unreason or imprudence; but in the nature of the case this contempt for repentance must extend to the sphere of morals, because its origin, namely the consciousness of individual force, is common to both sides of human nature. The passive and contemplative form of Christianity, with its constant reference to a higher world beyond the grave, could no longer control these men. Macchiavelli ventured still farther, and maintained that it could not be serviceable to the state and to the maintenance of public freedom.[1287]

The form assumed by the strong religious instinct which, notwithstanding all, survived in many natures, was Theism or Deism, as we may please to call it. The latter name may be applied to that mode of thought which simply wiped away the Christian element out of religion, without either seeking or finding any other substitute for the feelings to rest upon. Theism may be considered that definite heightened devotion to the one Supreme Being which the Middle Ages were not acquainted with. This mode of faith does not exclude Christianity, and can either ally itself with the Christian doctrines of sin, redemption, and immortality, or else exist and flourish without them.

Sometimes this belief presents itself with childish naïveté and even with a half-pagan air, God appearing as the almighty fulfiller of human wishes. Agnolo Pandolfini[1288] tells us how, after his wedding, he shut himself in with his wife, and knelt down before the family altar with the picture of the Madonna, and prayed, not to her, but to God that he would vouchsafe to them the right use of their property, a long life in joy and unity with one another, and many male descendants: ‘for myself I prayed for wealth, honour, and friends, for her blamelessness, honesty, and that she might be a good housekeeper.’ When the language used has a strong antique flavour, it is not always easy to keep apart the pagan style and the theistic belief.[1289]

This temper sometimes manifests itself in times of misfortune with a striking sincerity. Some addresses to God are left us from the latter period of Firenzuola, when for years he lay ill of fever, in which, though he expressly declares himself a believing Christian, he shows that his religious consciousness is essentially theistic.[1290] His sufferings seem to him neither as the punishment of sin, nor as preparation for a higher world; they are an affair between him and God only, who has put the strong love of life between man and his despair. ‘I curse, but only curse Nature, since thy greatness forbids me to utter thy name.... Give me death, Lord, I beseech thee, give it me now!’

In these utterances and the like, it would be vain to look for a conscious and consistent Theism; the speakers partly believed themselves to be still Christians, and for various other reasons respected the existing doctrines of the Church. But at the time of the Reformation, when men were driven to come to a distinct conclusion on such points, this mode of thought was accepted with a fuller consciousness; a number of the Italian Protestants came forward as Anti-Trinitarians and Socinians, and even as exiles in distant countries made the memorable attempt to found a church on these principles. From the foregoing exposition it will be clear that, apart from humanistic rationalism, other spirits were at work in this field.

One chief centre of theistic modes of thought lay in the Platonic Academy at Florence, and especially in Lorenzo Magnifico himself. The theoretical works and even the letters of these men show us only half their nature. It is true that Lorenzo, from his youth till he died, expressed himself dogmatically as a Christian,[1291] and that Pico was drawn by Savonarola’s influence to accept the point of view of a monkish ascetic.[1292] But in the hymns of Lorenzo,[1293] which we are tempted to regard as the highest product of the spirit of this school, an unreserved Theism is set forth--a Theism which strives to treat the world as a great moral and physical Cosmos. While the men of the Middle Ages look on the world as a vale of tears, which Pope and Emperor are set to guard against the coming of Antichrist; while the fatalists of the Renaissance oscillate between seasons of overflowing energy and seasons of superstition or of stupid resignation, here, in this circle of chosen spirits,[1294] the doctrine is upheld that the visible world was created by God in love, that it is the copy of a pattern pre-existing in Him, and that He will ever remain its eternal mover and restorer. The soul of man can by recognising God draw Him into its narrow boundaries, but also by love to Him itself expand into the Infinite--and this is blessedness on earth.

Echoes of mediæval mysticism here flow into one current with Platonic doctrines, and with a characteristically modern spirit. One of the most precious fruits of the knowledge of the world and of man here comes to maturity, on whose account alone the Italian Renaissance must be called the leader of modern ages.

THE END.

INDEX.

A.

Academies, educational, 281.

Adrian VI., Pope, 121;
satires against, 162-164.

‘_Africa_,’ the, of Petrarch, 258.

Aguello of Pisa, 11.

Alberto da Sarteano, 467.

Alberti, Leon Battista, 136-138.

Albertinus, Musattus, fame of, 140-141.

Alboronoz, 102.

Alchemy, 539, 540.

Alexander VI., Pope, 109-117;
death of, 117.

Alfonso I., 49.

Alfonso of Ferrara, 99.

Alfonso the Great of Naples, 35, 95, 459-461;
contempt for astrology, 513;
enthusiasm for antiquity, 225-227, 228.

Alighieri Dante.--_See Dante._

Allegorical representations, 415.

Allegory, age of, 408-410;
superiority of Italian, 410-411.

Amiens, treaty of, 123.

‘_Amorosá Visione_,’ the, of Boccaccio, 324.

Antiquity, importance of, Dante on, 204-205;
reproduction of, 230-242.

Anti-Trinitarians, 549.

Apollo Belvedere, discovery of the, 184.

Aquinas, St. Thomas, 6, 7, 60.

Arabic, study of, 200-202.

Aragonese Dynasty, 16, 35.

Aretino, Pietro, the railer, 164-168;
father of modern journalism, 165.

Ariosto, 134;
and the Humanists, 273;
his artistic aim in epic, 326;
his picture of Roman society, 185;
‘_Orlando Furioso_,’ the, of, 325, 326, 327;
position as a Dramatist, 320;
style, 306;
satire on sorcery, 535-536.

Arlotto (jester), 156.

Army list, Venetian, 67.

‘_Asolani_,’ the, of Bembo, 243.

Assassination, paid, 450, 457.

Assassins in Rome, 109.

Astrology, belief in, 507-518;
protest against, 515.

Auguries, belief in, 520, 521.

Authors, the old, 187-202.

Autobiography in Italy, 332, 333.

B.

Bacchus and Ariadne, song of, by Lorenzo de Medici, 427-428.

Baglioni of Perugia, the, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32;
and the Oddi, disputes between, 29.

Bandello, as novelist, 306;
on infidelity, 443-444;
style of writing, 382.

Baraballe, comic procession of, 158.

Bassano, Jacopo, rustic paintings of, 354.

Belief, general disintegration of, 541-550.

Bembo, Pietro, 231;
epigrams of, 267;
his ‘_Historia rerum Venetarum_,’ 248;
letters of, 233;
the ‘_Sacra_’ of, 259.

Benedictines, the, 463.

Bernabö, boar hounds of, 13.

Bernadino da Siena, 235, 467, 469.

Bessarion, Cardinal, his collection of Greek MSS., 189.

Biblical criticism, 501.

Biographies, Collective, 330 sqq.

Biography, 328-337;
comparative, art of, 329.

Blondus of Forli, historical writings of, 245, 246.

Boar-hounds of Bernabö, 13.

Boccaccio, 151;
life of Dante, 329;
master of personal description, 344;
on ‘tyranny,’ 56;
representative of antiquity, 205;
sonnets of, 314.

Bojardo, as epic poet, 325;
inventiveness of, 324;
style of, 306.

Borgias, the crimes of the, 109-117.

Borgia, Cæsar, 109-117;
death of, 117.

Borso of Este, 49, 50, 51;
created duke of Modena and Reggio, 19;
welcome of, to Reggio, 417, 418.

Boscoli, Pierpaolo, death of, 542-543.

Botanical Gardens, 292.

Brigandage, 449-450.

Burchiello as Comedian, 320.

C.

Calumny at Papal Court, 161.

Calvi Fabio, of Ravenna, 278-279.

Cambray, League of, 68, 89.

Can Grande della Scala, Court of, 9.

Canzone, the, 310.

‘_Canzone Zingaresca_,’ of Politian, 354.

Capistrano, Giovanni, 467.

‘_Capitolo_,’ the, 162-163.

Cardano, Girolamo, of Milan, autobiography of, 334.

Caricaturists, 159.

‘_Carmina Burana_,’ the, 173.

Carnival, the, 407, 425-427.

Castiglione, 388.

Catalogues of Libraries, 190, 191.

Cathedral, Milan, founding of, 14.

Catilinarians, the, 105.

Catullus, as model, 264-265.

Cellini, Benvenuto, autobiography of, 333-334.

Celso, Caterina di San, 400.

Certosa, Convent of, founding of, 13.

Charles V., Emperor, action of, 123, 124.

Charles IV., Emperor, 17, 18.

Charles VIII. in Italy, 89, 90;
entry into Italy, 413.

Children, naming of, 250-251.

Chroniclers, Italian, 245;
Florentine, condemn astrology, 515.

Church dignities, not bestowed according to pedigree, 360;
the corruption of, 456;
held in contempt, 457-458;
regeneration of, 125;
secularization of, proposed by Emperor Charles V., 123;
spirit of reform in, 123.

Cicero, taken as model for style, 253-54.

Ciceronianism and revival of Vitruvius, analogy between, 256.

Ciriaco of Ancona, an antiquarian, 181.

Class distinction ignored, 359-368.

Clement VII., Pope, detested, 122;
flight of, 123;
temperament of, 309.

Cleopatra, the discovery of, 184.

Clubs, political, 387.

Colonna, Giovanne, 177-178;
Giulia Gonzaga, 385;
Vittoria, 386, 446.

‘_Commedia dell’Arte_,’ 320, 321.

_Commentaries_, the, of Pius II., 333.

Composition, Latin, history of, 252-253.

Condottieri, the, despotisms founded by, 22, 23, 24.

Convent of Certosa of Pavia, founding of, 13.

Cornaro, Luigi, Autobiography of, 335-337;
_Vita Sobria_ of, 244.

Corpse of girl, discovery of, 183.

Corpus Christi, feast of, celebration of, 414.

Corruption in Papacy, 106, 107.

‘_Cortigiano_,’ the, by Castiglione, 381, 388, 446.

Cosmetics, use of, 373-374.

Council of Ten, 66.

Country life, descriptions of, 306;
love of, 404-405.

Crime, for its own sake, 453-454;
prevalence of, among priests, 448-449.

Criticism, Biblical, 501.

Crusades, the, 485-486;
influence of, 285.

Culture, general Latinization of, 249-256.

‘_Curiale_,’ the, 378.

Cybò, Franceschetto, 108-109;
as gambler, 436.

D.

Daemons, belief in, 521-524, 531.

Dagger, use of the, 452.

Dante, Alighieri, 75, 76, 83, 130, 133, 135;
as advocate of antiquity, 204-205;
satirist, 155;
belief in freedom of the will, 498;
burial place of, 143;
desire for fame, his, 139;
influence of, 324;
influence of nature shown in works, 299;
life of, by Boccaccio, 329;
on Epicureanism, 496-497;
the Italian language, 378-379;
nobility, 360-361;
view of the sonnet, 312;
‘_Vita Nuova_’ of, 333.

Decadence of oratory, 241, 242.

‘_Decades_,’ the, of Sabellico, 248.

‘_Decameron_,’ the, 459.

‘_De Genealogia Deorum_,’ 205-207.

Demeanour of individuals, 369.

Descriptions of life in movement, 348-355.

Description of nations and cities, 338-342;
outward man, 343-347.

Difference of birth, loss of significance of, 354.

Dignities, Church, not bestowed according to pedigree, 360.

‘_Discorsi_,’ the, of Macchiavelli, 458.

Domestic comfort, 376-377;
economy, 132, 402-405.

Dress, importance attached to, 369-370;
regulations relating to, 370-371.

E.

Ecloques of Battista Mantovano, 352, 479.

Economy, domestic, 132, 402-405.

Education, equal, of sexes, 396;
private, 135.

Emperor Charles IV., 17;
submission to the Pope, 18;
Frederick II., 5-7, 69;
III., 19;
Sigismund, 18, 19.

Epicureanism, 496.

Epigram, 264, 267, 268, 269, 270.

Epigraph, the, 268, 269.

Equalization of classes, 359-368.

Erasmus, 254.

Ercole I., Duke of Ferrara, 487-489.

Este, House of, government of the, 46, 48;
Isabella of, 43, 44;
novels relating to, 51, 52, 53;
popular feeling towards, 49, 50.

Van Eyck, Hubert, 302, 303;
Johann, 302, 303.

Ezzelino da Romano, 6, 7.

F.

Fame, modern idea of, 139-153;
thirst for, evils of, 152-153.

Federigo of Urbino, 99.

Feltre, Vittorino da, 213-214.

Female beauty, Firenzuola on, 345-347.

Ferrante of Naples, 36, 37, 459-461.

Ferrara, flourishing state of, 47;
sale of public offices at, 47, 48.

Festivals, 406-428;
full development of, 407;
higher phase in life of people, 406.

Fire-arms, adoption of, 98-99.

Firenzuola on female beauty, 345-347.

Flagellants, the, 485-486.

Flogging, 403.

Florence, 61-87;
general statistics of, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80;
home of scandal-mongers, 161;
life more secure in, 440-451;
and Venice, birthplaces of science of statistics, 69-72.

Florentines, the, as perfectors of festivals, 408.

Foscari, Francesco, torture of, 66.

France, changed attitude of, 91, 92.

Frederick II., Emperor, 5-7, 69;
III., 19.

Frederick of Urbino, learning of, 227;
oratory of, 237.

Freedom of will, belief in, 497.

Friars, mendicant, 462.

G.

Gallerana, Cecilia, 386.

Gamblers, professional, 436.

Gambling on large scale, 436.

Gaston de Foix, 309.

Genoa, 86-87.

Germano-Spanish army, advance of, 122.

Ghibellines and Guelphs, political sonnets of, 312.

Ghosts, 521-523.

Giangaleazzo, 13-14.

Girls, in society, absence of, 399.

Girolamo Savonarola (see Savonarola).

Godfrey of Strasburg, 309.

Golden Spur, order of the, 53.

Gonnella (jester), 157.

Gonzaga, House of, of Mantua, 43;
Francesco, 43, 44;
Giovan Francesco, 213-214;
Isabella, 385.

Government, divine, belief in, destroyed, 507.

‘_Gran Consilio_,’ the, 66.

Gratitude as an Italian virtue, 440.

Greater dynasties, 35-54.

Greek, the study of, 195-197.

Guarino of Verono, 215.

Guelphs and Ghibellines, political sonnets of, 312.

Guicciardini, his opinion of the priesthood, 464.

Gymnastics first taught as an art, 389.

Gyraldus, historian of the humanists, 276.

H.

Hair, false, 372.

Hermits, 471.

Hierarchy, hostility to the, 458.

Hieronymus of Siena, 471-472.

‘_Historia rerum Venetarum_,’ the, of Bembo, 248.

History, treated of in poetry, 261.

Honour, the sentiment of, 433-435.

Horses, breeding of, 295-296.

Humanism in the Fourteenth Century, 203;
furtherers of, 217-229.

Humanists, fall of, in 16th century, 272-281;
faults of, 276;
historian of, 276;
temptations of, 275-276.

Human Nature, study of intellectual side of, 308-309.

Husband, rights of, 442.

Hypocrisy, freedom of Italians from, 439.

I.

‘_Il Galateo_’ of G. della Casa, 375-376.

Illegitimacy, indifference to, 21, 22.

Immorality, prevalent at beginning of 16th century, 432.

Immortality, decline of belief in, 541.

Individual, the, assertion of, 129, 130, 131;
the, and the Italian State, 129-138;
the perfecting of, 134-138.

Individuality, keen perception of Italians for, 329.

Infidelity in marriage, 440-441, 456.

Inn-keepers, German, 375.

Innocent VIII., Pope, election of, 107.

Inquisitors and Science, 291;
detrimental to development of drama, 317.

Instruments, musical, collections of 393.

Intolerance, religious, 6.

Isabella of Este, 43, 44.

Italians, cleanliness of, 374;
discoverers of the Middle Ages, 286;
journeys of, 285-288;
judges as to personal beauty, 342;
supremacy of, in literary world, 151;
writing of, 193.

Italy, a school for scandal, 160;
subject to Spain, 94.

J.

Jacopo della Marca, 467.

‘_Jerusalem delivered_’ of Tasso, delineation of character in, 327.

Jesting, a profession, 156.

Jews, literary activity of the, 199-201.

Journeys of the Italians, 285-288.

Julius II., Pope, character of, 118;
election of, 117.

K.

Knighthood, passion for, 364.

L.

Laetus Pomponus, life of, 279-281.

‘_L’amor, diveno_,’ 445, 446.

Language as basis of social intercourse, 378-383.

Laöcoon, the, discovery of, 148.

Latin composition, history of, 252-253;
treatises, and History, 243-248.

Latini, Brunetto, originator of new epoch in poetry, 310.

Laurel wreath, the, coronation of poets with, 207-209.

Law, absence of belief in, 447.

League of Cambray, 68, 89.

Leo X., Pope, buffoonery of, 157-158;
influence on humanism, 224-225;
love of jesters, 157;
policy of, 119, 120, 121.

Letter-writing, object of, 232.

Library Catalogues, 190, 191.

Life, outward refinement of, 369-377.

Lionardo da Vinci, 114.

Lorenzo the Magnificent, 90, 95, 108;
as describer of country life, 350, 353;
parody of ‘_Inferno_’ by, 159;
song of Bacchus and Ariadne, 427-428;
tact of, 386-387;
theistic belief of, 549-550.

Ludovico Casella, death of, 57.

Ludovico il Moro, 41, 42, 64, 93.

Lutherans, danger from the, 121.

Luther, Martin, 121.

M.

Macchiavelli, 81, 82, 84-86, 96;
as comedian, 320;
‘_Discorsi il_’ of, 458;
metrical history by, 263;
on Italian immorality, 432.

Madonna, the worship of, 483-485.

Magicians, 530-533;
burning of, 524.

Magic, decline of, 537;
official, 533-535, 538;
practice of, 453.

Malatesta, Pandolfo, 27;
Robert, 23, 26;
Sigismondo, 33, 228-229.

Man, the discovery of, 308-327.

Manetti, Giannozzo, 197, 225;
high character of, 218-220;
eloquence of, 240.

Mantovano, Battista, eclogues of, 352, 479.

Manucci, Aldo, 197.

Mayia, Galeazzo, of Milan, 40, 41, 106;
Filippo, of Milan, 38-39.

Mariolatry, 484-485.

Massuccio, novels of, 459-460.

Maximilian I., commencement of new Imperial policy under, 20.

Medici, House of, charm over Florence, 220-221;
passion for tournaments, 366-367.

Medici Giovanni, 119-121;
Lorenzo, on ‘nobility,’ 361, 362;
the younger, 85.

Menageries, 296;
human, 293-295.

‘_Meneghino_,’ the, Mask of Milan, 321.

Mercenary troops, introduction of, 98.

Middle Ages, works on, by humanists, 246, 247.

Milano-Venetian War, 99.

Mirandola, Pico della, 198-199, 202;
death of, 465;
on dignity of man, 354-355;
free will, 516;
refutation of astrology, 516.

Mohammedanism, opposition to, 493.

Monks, abuse of, in ‘_Decameron_,’ 459;
as satirists, 465;
scandalous lives of, 460-461;
unpopularity of, 459.

Montefeltro, House of, of Urbino, 43;
Federigo, 44-46;
Guido, in relation to astrology, 512.

Montepulciano, Fra Francesco di, 473.

Morality, 431-455.

‘_Morgante Maggiore_,’ the, of Luigi Pulci, 323-324, 494-495.

Murder, public sympathy on side of, 447.

Music, 390-394.

Mystery plays, 406-407, 411-413, 416.

Mythological representations, 415, 416.

Myths, new, 259.

N.

Naming of children, 250-251.

Natural Science in Italy, 289-297.

Nature, beauty in, discovery of, 298-307.

Navagero, style of, 265.

‘_Nencia_,’ the, of Politian, 354.

‘_Nipoti_,’ the, 106, 107.

Niccoli, Niccolo, 188-189, 217;
on ‘nobility,’ 361-362.

Nicholas V., Pope, faith in higher learning of, 223.

Novels of Bandello, 306;
of Massuccio, 459, 460.

O.

Oddi, the, and the Baglioni of Perugia, disputes between, 29.

Old writers, influence of, on Italian mind, 187.

Omens, belief in, 518-521.

‘_On the infelicity of the Scholar_,’ by Piero Valeriano, 276-277.

Orator, the, important position of, 233, 234-238.

Oratory, Pulpit, 238.

Oriental Studies, revival of, 197.

‘_Orlando Furioso_,’ the, of Ariosto, 325, 326, 327.

Outward refinement of life, 369-377.

P.

Palingenius, Marcellus, ‘_Zodiac of Life_,’ of, 264.

Painting, rustic, of Jacopo Bassano, 354.

Pandolfini, Agnolo, 132;
on home management, 402-404.

Pantomime, the, 407, 416, 417.

Papacy, the, and its dangers, 102-125;
corruption in, 106, 107, 109.

Papal Court, calumny rife at, 161;
State, spirit of reform in, 123;
subjection of, 110.

Pardons, sale of, 108.

Parody, beginnings of, 263.

Peasant life, poetical treatment of, 351-352.

Perfect man of society, the, 388-394.

Personal faith, 491-492.

Petrarch and Laura, 151;
ascent of Mount Ventoux by, 301-302;
as geographer, 300;
contempt of astrologers, his, 515;
fixer of form of sonnet, 310;
ideal prince of, 9-10;
influence of nature on, 300, 301;
in Rome, 177-178;
life of, 313-314;
objection to fame, his, 141-142;
on tournaments, 365;
representative of antiquity, the, 205.

Petty tyrannies, 28-34.

Piacenza, devastation of, 101.

Piccinino, Giacomo, 25, 26;
Jacopo, 99.

Plautus, plays of, representations of, 255, 317-319.

Poems, didactic, 264.

Poetry, elegiac, 264, 266, 267;
epic, 321-323, 325;
Italian, second great age of, 305-306;
Latin modern, 257-271;
lyric, 306;
Maccaronic, 270, 271;
precursor of plastic arts, the, 312.

Poggio, on ‘_Knighthood_,’ 365;
on ‘_Nobility_,’ 361-362.

Policy, Foreign, of Italian states, 88-97.

Politeness, Manual of, by G. della Casa, 375-376.

Politics, Florentine, 73-74.

Politian, as letter writer, 233;
‘_Canzone Zingaresca_’ of, 354.

Pope Adrian VI., satires against, 162-164.

Pope Alexander VI., 109-117;
death of, 117.

Pope Clement VII., deliverance of, 123.

Pope Innocent VIII., election of, 107.

Pope Nicholas V., 188.

Pope Paul II., 105;
attempts as peacemaker, 438;
personal head of republic of letters, 223;
priestly narrowness of, 505.

Pope Paul III., 123.

Pope Pius II., 105;
as antiquarian, 180-181;
as descriptive writer, 349;
believer in witches, 526-527;
celebration of feast of Corpus Christi by, 414;
contempt for astrology and magic, 508;
eloquence of, 235, 240;
love of nature, 303-305;
views on miracles, 501.

Pope Sixtus IV., 105, 106, 107.

Porcaro, Stefano, conspiracy of, 104.

Porcello, Gian, Antonio dei Pandori, 99, 100.

Poggio, walks through Rome of, 176.

Preachers of repentance, 466-479;
personal influence of, 458.

Printing, discovery of, reception of, 194.

Processions, 406-407, 418-425.

Prodigies, belief in, 520-521.

Prophets, honour accorded to genuine, 467.

Public worship, neglect of, 485.

Pulci, epic poet, 323-325.

‘_Pulcinell_,’ the mask of Naples, 321.

R.

Rambaldoni, Vittore dai, 213-214.

Rangona, Bianca, 336.

Raphael, 30;
appeal of, for restoration of ancient Rome, 184;
original subject of his picture, ‘_Deposition_,’ 32.

Rationalism, 500, 501.

Reformation, German, 122;
effects on Papacy, 124.

Regattas, Venetian, 390.

Relics, pride taken in, 142-145.

Religion in daily life, 456-489;
spirit of the Renaissance, and, 491-506.

Religious tolerance, 490, 492, 493;
revivals, epidemics of, 485.

Renaissance, the, a new birth, 175;
and the spirit of religion, 491-506.

Repentance, preachers of, 466-479.

Reproduction of antiquity: Latin correspondence and orations, 230-242.

Republics, the, 61-87.

Revivals, epidemics of religious, 485.

Riario, Girolamo, 107;
Pietro, Cardinal, 106.

Rienzi, Cola di, 15, 176.

Rimini, House of, the, 29;
fall of, 33.

Rites, Church, sense of dependence on, 465.

Roberto da Lecce, 467, 470.

Rome, assassins in, 109;
city of ruins, 177-186;
first topographical study of, 179;
Poggio’s walks through, 176.

Ruins in landscape gardening result of Christian legend, 186.

S.

‘_Sacra_,’ the, of Pietro Bembo, 259.

Sadoleto, Jacopo, 231.

Saints, reverence for relics of, 481-482;
worship of, 485.

Salò, Gabriella da, belief of, 502.

Sannazaro, 151, 260, 265-267;
fame of, 261, 268.

Sanctuaries of Italy, 486.

Sansecondo, Giovan Maria, 392;
Jacopo, 392.

Satires, Monks the authors of, 465.

Savonarola, Girolamo, 467, 473-479;
belief in dæmons, 531;
eloquence of, 474;
funeral oration on, 475;
reform of Dominican monasteries due to, 474.

Scaliger, 254.

Scarampa, Camilla, 386.

Science, national sympathy with, 289-292;
natural, in Italy, 289-297.

‘_Scrittori_’ (copyists), 192-193.

Secretaries, papal, important position of, 231.

Sforza, house of, 24;
Alessandro, 28;
Francesco, 24, 25, 26, 39, 40, 99;
Galeazzo Maria, assassination of, 57-58.

Sforza, Ippolita, 385;
Jacopo, 24, 25.

Shakespeare, William, 316.

Siena, 86.

Sigismund, Emperor, 18, 19.

Sixtus IV., Pope, 105, 106, 107.

Slavery in Italy, 296.

Society, higher forms of, 384-387;
ideal man of, 388-394;
in, Italian models to other countries, 389.

Sociniaris, 549.

Sonnet, the, 310-311, 312.

Sonnets of Boccaccio, 314;
of Dante, 312.

Spain, changed attitude of, 91, 92.

Spaniards, detrimental to development of drama, 317.

Spanish-Germano Army, advance of, 122.

Spanish influence, jealousy under, 445.

Speeches, subject of public, 239-241.

Spur, golden, order of, 53.

Spiritual description in poetry, 308-327.

Statistics, science of, birthplace of, 69-72.

St. Peter’s at Rome, reconstruction of., 119.

Stentorello, the mask of Florence, 321.

Superstition, mixture of ancient and modern, 507-540.

Sylvius Æneas, see Pope Pius II.

T.

Taxation, 5, 8, 13, 35, 36, 47.

Teano, Cardinal, 255.

‘_Telesma_,’ the, 533-535.

‘_Telestae_,’ the, 533-535.

Terence, plays of, representation of, 255.

‘_Teseide_,’ the, of Boccaccio, 259.

Tiburzio, 105.

Tolerance, religious, 490, 492, 493.

Torso, the, discovery of, 184.

Tragedy in time of Renaissance, 315-316, 317.

Treatise, the, 243.

‘_Trionfo_,’ the, 407, 419, 420, 423;
of Beatrice, 419-420.

‘_Trionfi_,’ the, of Petrarch, 324.

‘_Trovatori_,’ the, 310.

_Trovatori della transizione_, the, 311.

Turks, conspiracies with the, 92, 93.

Tuscan dialect basis of new national speech, 379.

Tyranny, opponents of, 55-60.

Tyrannies, petty, 28-34.

U.

Uberti, Fazio degli, vision of, 178.

Universities and Schools, 210-216.

V.

Valeriano, P., on the infelicity of the scholar, 276-277.

Vatican, Library of, founding of, 188.

‘_Vendetta_,’ the, 437-440.

Vengeance, Italian, 436-400.

Venetian-Milano war, 99.

Venice, 61-87;
and Florence, birthplace of science of statistics, 69-72.

Venice, processions in, 73;
public institutions in, 63;
relation of, to literature, 70;
stability of, cause of, 65-66;
statistics, general of, 69, 70, 71, 78.

Villani, Giovanni, 73;
Matteo, 76.

Vinci, Lionardo da, 138.

Violin, the, 392.

Visconti, the, 10, 15, 18, 22, 38, 40;
Giangaleazzo, 513;
Giovan Maria, assassination of, 57, 58.

‘_Vita Nuova_,’ the, of Dante, 333.

‘_Vita Sobria_,’ the, of Luigi Cornaro, 244.

Vitelli, Paolo, 99.

Vitruvius, revival of, and Ciceronianism, analogy between, 156.

Venus of the Vatican, discovery of, 184.

‘_Versi Sciolti_,’ the, origin of, 310.

W.

War as a work of art, 98-101.

Wit, analysis of, 159-160;
first appearance of, in literature, 154;
modern, and satire, 154-168.

Witch of Gaeta, the, 525.

Witchcraft, 524-530.

Witches, 524, 525, 526;
burning of, 524, 526, 528.

Women, Ariosto on, 395;
equality of, with men, 395;
function of, 398;
heroism of, 398;
ideal for, 398;
position of, 395-401.

Worship, public, neglect of, 485.

Z.

Zampante of Lucca, director of police, 50.

‘_Zodiac of Life_,’ of Marcellus Palingenius, 264.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] _History of Architecture_, by Franz Kugler. (The first half of the fourth volume, containing the ‘Architecture and Decoration of the Italian Renaissance,’ is by the Author.)

[2] Macchiavelli, _Discorsi_, 1. i. c. 12. ‘E la cagione, che la Italia non sia in quel medesimo termine, ne habbia anch’ ella ò una republica ò un prencipe che la governi, è solamente la Chiesa; perchè havendovi habitato e tenuto imperio temporale non è stata si potente ne di tal virtè, che l’habbia potuto occupare il restante d’Italia e farsene prencipe.’

[3] The rulers and their dependents were together called ‘lo stato,’ and this name afterwards acquired the meaning of the collective existence of a territory.

[4] C. Winckelmann, _De Regni Siculi Administratione qualis fuerit regnante Friderico II._, Berlin. 1859. A. del Vecchio, _La legislazione di Federico II. imperatore_. Turin, 1874. Frederick II. has been fully and thoroughly discussed by Winckelmann and Schirrmacher.

[5] Baumann, _Staatslehre des Thomas von Aquino_. Leipzig, 1873, esp. pp. 136 sqq.

[6] _Cento Novelle Antiche_, ed. 1525. For Frederick, Nov. 2, 21, 22, 23, 24, 30, 53, 59, 90, 100; for Ezzelino, Nov. 31, and esp. 84.

[7] Scardeonius, _De Urbis Patav. Antiqu. in Grævius_, Thesaurus, vi. iii. p. 259.

[8] Sismondi, _Hist. de Rép. Italiennes_, iv. p. 420; viii. pp. 1 sqq.

[9] Franco Sacchetti, _Novelle_ (61, 62).

[10] Dante, it is true, is said to have lost the favour of this prince, which impostors knew how to keep. See the important account in Petrarch, _De Rerum Memorandarum_, lib. ii. 3, 46.

[11] Petrarca, _Epistolæ Seniles_, lib. xiv. 1, to Francesco di Carrara (Nov. 28, 1373). The letter is sometimes printed separately with the title, ‘De Republica optime administranda,’ e.g. Bern, 1602.

[12] It is not till a hundred years later that the princess is spoken of as the mother of the people. Comp. Hieron. Crivelli’s funeral oration on Bianca Maria Visconti, in Muratori, _Scriptores Rerum Italicarum_, xxv. col. 429. It was by way of parody of this phrase that a sister of Sixtus IV. is called in Jac Volateranus (Murat., xxiii. col. 109) ‘mater ecclesiæ.’

[13] With the parenthetical request, in reference to a previous conversation, that the prince would again forbid the keeping of pigs in the streets of Padua, as the sight of them was unpleasing, especially for strangers, and apt to frighten the horses.

[14] Petrarca, _Rerum Memorandar._, lib. iii. 2, 66.--Matteo I. Visconti and Guido della Torre, then ruling in Milan, are the persons referred to.

[15] Matteo Villani, v. 81: the secret murder of Matteo II. (Maffiolo) Visconti by his brother.

[16] Filippo Villani, _Istorie_, xi. 101. Petrarch speaks in the same tone of the tyrants dressed out ‘like altars at a festival.’--The triumphal procession of Castracane at Lucca is described minutely in his life by Tegrimo, in Murat., xi., col, 1340.

[17] _De Vulgari Eloqui_, i. c. 12: ... ‘qui non heroico more, sed plebeo sequuntur superbiam.’

[18] This we find first in the fifteenth century, but their representations are certainly based on the beliefs of earlier times: L. B. Alberti, _De re ædif._, v. 3.--Franc. di Giorgio, ‘Trattato,’ in Della Valle, Lettere Sanesi, iii. 121.

[19] Franco Sacchetti, Nov. 61.

[20] Matteo Villani, vi. 1.

[21] The Paduan passport office about the middle of the fourteenth century is referred to by Franco Sacchetti, Nov. 117, in the words, ‘quelli delle bullete.’ In the last ten years of the reign of Frederick II., when the strictest control was exercised on the personal conduct of his subjects, this system must have been very highly developed.

[22] Corio, _Storia di Milano_, fol. 247 sqq. Recent Italian writers have observed that the Visconti have still to find a historian who, keeping the just mean between the exaggerated praises of contemporaries (_e.g._ Petrarch) and the violent denunciations of later political (Guelph) opponents, will pronounce a final judgment upon them.

[23] E.g. of Paolo Giovio: _Elogia Virorum bellicâ virtute illustrium_, Basel, 1575, p. 85, in the life of Bernabò. Giangal. (_Vita_, pp. 86 sqq.) is for Giovio ‘post Theodoricum omnium præstantissimus.’ Comp. also Jovius, _Vitæ xii. Vicecomitum Mediolani principum_, Paris, 1549. pp. 165 sqq.

[24] Corio, fol. 272, 285.

[25] Cagnola, in the _Archiv. Stor._, iii. p. 23.

[26] So Corio, fol. 286, and Poggio, _Hist. Florent._ iv. in Murat. xx. col 290.--Cagnola (loc. cit.) speaks of his designs on the imperial crown. See too the sonnet in Trucchi, _Poesie Ital. ined._, ii. p. 118:

“Stan le città lombarde con le chiave
In man per darle a voi ... etc.
Roma vi chiamo: Cesar mio novello
Io sono ignuda, e l’anima pur vive:
Or mi coprite col vostro mantello,” etc.

[27] Corio, fol. 301 and sqq. Comp. Ammian. Marcellin., xxix. 3.

[28] So Paul. Jovius, _Elogia_, pp. 88-92, Jo. Maria Philippus.

[29] De Gingins, _Dépêches des Ambassadeurs Milanais_, Paris and Geneva 1858, ii. pp. 200 sqq. (N. 213). Comp. ii. 3 (N. 144) and ii. 212 sqq. (N. 218).

[30] Paul. Jovius, _Elogia_, pp. 156 sqq. Carolus, Burg. dux.

[31] This compound of force and intellect is called by Macchiavelli _Virtù_, and is quite compatible with _scelleratezza_. E.g. _Discorsi_, i. 10. in speaking of Sep. Severus.

[32] On this point Franc. Vettori, _Arch. Stor._ vi. p. 29. 3 sqq.: ‘The investiture at the hands of a man who lives in Germany, and has nothing of the Roman Emperor about him but the empty name, cannot turn a scoundrel into the real lord of a city.’

[33] M. Villani, iv. 38, 39, 44, 56, 74, 76, 92; v. 1, 2, 14-16, 21, 22, 36, 51, 54. It is only fair to consider that dislike of the Visconti may have led to worse representations than the facts justified. Charles IV. is once (iv. 74) highly praised by Villani.

[34] It was an Italian, Fazio degli Uberti (_Dittamondo_, l. vi. cap. 5--about 1360) who recommended to Charles IV. a crusade to the Holy Land. The passage is one of the best in this poem, and in other respects characteristic. The poet is dismissed from the Holy Sepulchre by an insolent Turk:

‘Con passi lunghi e con la testa bassa
Oltre passai e dissi: ecco vergogna
Del cristian che’l saracin qui lassa!
Poscia al Pastor (the Pope) mi volsi far rampogna
E tu ti stai, che sei vicar di Cristo,
Co’ frati tuoi a ingrassar la carogna?

Similimente dissi a quel sofisto (Charles IV.)
Che sta in Buemme (Bohemia) a piantar vigne e fichi
E che non cura di si caro acquisto:
Che fai? Perchè non segui i primi antichi
Cesari de’ Romani, e che non segui,
Dico, gli Otti, i Corradi, i Federichi?
E che pur tieni questo imperio in tregui?
E se non hai lo cuor d’esser Augusto,
Che non rifiuti? o che non ti dilegui?’ etc.

Some eight years earlier, about 1352, Petrarch had written (to Charles IV., _Epist. Fam._, lib. xii. ep. 1, ed. Fracassetti, vol. ii. p. 160): ‘Simpliciter igitur et aperte ... pro maturando negotio terræ sanctæ ... oro tuo egentem auxilio quam primum invisere velis Ausoniam.’

[35] See for details Vespasiano Fiorent. ed. Mai, _Specilegium Romanum_, vol. i. p. 54. Comp. 150 and Panormita, _De Dictis et Factis Alfonsi_, lib. iv. nro. 4.

[36] _Diario Ferrarese_, in Murat. xxiv. col. 217 sqq.

[37] ‘Haveria voluto scortigare la brigata.’ Giov. Maria Filelfo, then staying at Bergamo, wrote a violent satire ‘in vulgus equitum auro notatorum.’ See his biography in Favre, _Mélanges d’Histoire littéraire_, 1856, i. p. 10.

[38] _Annales Estenses_, in Murat. xx. col. 41.

[39] Poggii, _Hist. Florent. pop._ l. vii. in Murat. col. 381. This view is in accordance with the anti-monarchical sentiments of many of the humanists of that day. Comp. the evidence given by Bezold, ‘Lehre von der Volkssouverainität während des Mittelalters,’ _Hist. Ztschr._ bd. 36, s. 365.

[40] Some years later the Venetian Lionardo Giustiniani blames the word ‘imperator’ as unclassical and therefore unbecoming the German emperor, and calls the Germans barbarians, on account of their ignorance of the language and manners of antiquity. The cause of the Germans was defended by the humanist H. Bebel. See L. Geiger, in the _Allgem. Deutsche Biogr._ ii. 196.

[41] Senarega, _De reb. Genuens_, in Murat. xxiv. col. 575.

[42] Enumerated in the _Diario Ferrarese_, in Murat. xxiv. col. 203. Comp. Pic. ii. _Comment._ ii. p. 102, ed. Rome, 1584.

[43] Marin Sanudo, _Vita de’ Duchi di Venezia_, in Murat. xxii. col. 1113.

[44] Varchi, _Stor. Fiorent._ i. p. 8.

[45] Soriano, _Relazione di Roma_, 1533, in Tommaso Gar. _Relaz. della Corte di Roma_, (in Alberi, _Relaz. degli ambasc. Veneti_, ii. ser. iii.).

[46] For what follows, see Canestrini, in the Introduction to vol. xv. of the _Archiv. Stor._

[47] For him, see Shepherd-Tonelli, _Vita di Piggio_, App. pp. viii.-xvi.

[48] Cagnola, _Archiv. Stor._ iii. p. 28: ‘Et (Filippo Maria) da lei (Beatr.) ebbe molto tesoro e dinari, e tutte le giente d’arme del dicto Facino, che obedivano a lei.’

[49] Inpressura, in Eccard, _Scriptores_, ii. col. 1911. For the alternatives which Macchiavelli puts before the victorious Condottiere, see _Discorsi_, i. 30. After the victory he is either to hand over the army to his employer and wait quietly for his reward, or else to win the soldiers to his own side to occupy the fortresses and to punish the prince ‘di quella ingratitudine che esso gli userebbe.’

[50] Comp. Barth. Facius, _De Viv. Ill._ p. 64, who tells us that C. commanded an army of 60,000 men. It is uncertain whether the Venetians did not poison Alviano in 1516, because he, as Prato says in _Arch. Stor._ iii. p. 348, aided the French too zealously in the battle of S. Donato. The Republic made itself Colleoni’s heir, and after his death in 1475 formally confiscated his property. Comp. Malipiero, _Annali Veneti_, in _Arch. Stor._ vii. i. 244. It was liked when the Condottieri invested their money in Venice, ibid. p. 351.

[51] Cagnola, in _Arch. Stor._ iii. pp. 121 sqq.

[52] At all events in Paul Jovius, _Vita Magni Sfortiæ_, Rom. 1539, (dedicated to the Cardinal Ascanio Sforza), one of the most attractive of his biographies.

[53] Æn. Sylv. _Comment. de Dictis et Factis Alfonsi_, Opera, ed. 1538, p. 251: Novitate gaudens Italia nihil habet stabile, nullum in eâ vetus regnum, facile hic ex servis reges videmus.’

[54] Pii, ii. _Comment._ i. 46; comp. 69.

[55] Sismondi, x. 258; Corio. fol. 412, where Sforza is accused of complicity, as he feared danger to his own son from P.’s popularity. _Storia Bresciana_, in Murat. xxi. col. 209. How the Venetian Condottiere Colleoni was tempted in 1466, is told by Malipiero _Annali Veneti, Arch. Stor._ vii. i. p. 210. The Florentine exiles offered to make him Duke of Milan if he would expel from Florence their enemy, Piero de’ Medici.

[56] Allegretti, _Diari Sanesi_, in Murat. xxiii. p. 811.

[57] _Orationes Philelphi_, ed. Venet. 1492, fol. 9, in the funeral oration on Francesco.

[58] Marin Sanudo, _Vita del Duchi di Venezia_, in Murat. xxii. col. 1241. See Reumont, _Lorenzo von Medici_ (Lpz. 1874), ii. pp. 324-7, and the authorities there quoted.

[59] Malipiero, _Ann. Venet., Arch. Stor._ vii. i. p. 407.

[60] _Chron. Eugubinum_, in Murat. xxi. col. 972.

[61] _Vespas. Fiorent._ p. 148.

[62] _Archiv. Stor._ xvi., parte i. et ii., ed. Bonaini, Fabretti, Polidori.

[63] Julius II. conquered Perugia with ease in 1506, and compelled Gianpaolo Baglione to submit. The latter, as Macchiavelli (_Discorsi_, i. c. 27) tells us, missed the chance of immortality by not murdering the Pope.

[64] Varelin _Stor. Fiorent._ i. pp. 242 sqq.

[65] Comp. (inter. al.) Jovian. Pontan. _De Immanitate_, cap. 17.

[66] Malipiero, _Ann. Venet., Archiv. Stor._ vii. i. pp. 498 sqq. After vainly searching for his beloved, whose father had shut her up in a monastery he threatened the father, burnt the monastery and other buildings, and committed many acts of violence.

[67] Lil. Greg. Giraldus, _De Sepulchris ac vario Sepeliendi Ritu_. _Opera_ ed. Bas. 1580, i. pp. 640 sqq. Later edition by J. Faes, Helmstädt, 1676 Dedication and postscript of Gir. ‘ad Carolum Miltz Germanum,’ in these editions without date; neither contains the passage given in the text.--In 1470 a catastrophe in miniature had already occurred in the same family (Galeotto had had his brother Antonio Maria thrown into prison). Comp. _Diario Ferrarese_, in Murat. xxiv. col. 225.

[68] Jovian. Pontan. Opp. ed. Basileæ, 1538, t. i. _De Liberalitate_, cap. 19, 29, and _De Obedientia_, l. 4. Comp. Sismondi, x. p. 78, and Panormita, _De Dictis et Factis Alphonsi_, lib. i. nro. 61, iv. nro. 42.

[69] Tristano Caracciolo. ‘De Fernando qui postea rex Aragonum fuit, ejusque posteris,’ in Muratori XXII.; Jovian Pontanus, _De Prudentia_, l. iv.; _De Magnanimitate_, l. i.; _De Liberalitate_, cap. 29, 36; _De Immanitate_, cap. 8. Cam. Porzio, _Congiura dei Baroni del Regno de Napoli contro il re Ferdinando I._, Pisa, 1818, cap. 29, 36, new edition, Naples, 1859, _passim_; Comines, Charles VIII., with the general characteristics of the Arragonese. See for further information as to Ferrante’s works for his people, the _Regis Ferdinandi primi Instructionum liber_, 1486-87, edited by Scipione Vopicella, which would dispose us to moderate to some extent the harsh judgment which has been passed upon him.

[70] Paul. Jovius. _Histor._ i. p. 14. in the speech of a Milanese ambassador; _Diario Ferrarese_, in Muratori, xxiv. col. 294.

[71] He lived in the closest intimacy with Jews, e.g. Isaac Abranavel, who fled with him to Messina. Comp. Zunz, _Zur. Gesch. und Lit._ (Berlin, 1845) s. 529.

[72] Petri Candidi Decembrii Vita Phil. Mariæ Vicecomitis, in Murat. xx., of which however Jovius (_Vitæ xii. Vicecomitum_ p. 186) says not without reason: ‘Quum omissis laudibus quæ in Philippo celebrandæ fuerant, vitia, notaret.’ Guarino praises this prince highly. Rosmino Guarini, ii. p. 75. Jovius, in the above-mentioned work (p. 186), and Jov. Pontanus, _De Liberalitate_, ii. cap. 28 and 31, take special notice of his generous conduct to the captive Alfonso.

[73] Were the fourteen marble statues of the saints in the Citadel of Milan executed by him? See _History of the Frundsbergs_, fol. 27.

[74] It troubled him: _quod aliquando ‘non esse’ necesse esset_.

[75] Corio, fol. 400; Cagnola, in _Archiv. Stor._ iii. p. 125.

[76] _Pii II. Comment._ iii. p. 130. Comp. ii. 87. 106. Another and rather darker estimate of Sforza’s fortune is given by Caracciolo, _De Varietate Fortunæ_, in Murat. xxii. col. 74. See for the opposite view the praises of Sforza’s luck in the _Oratio parentalis de divi Francesci Sphortiæ felicitate_, by Filelfo (the ready eulogist of any master who paid him), who sung, without publishing, the exploits of Francesco in the Sforziad. Even Decembrio, the moral and literary opponent of Filelfo, celebrates Sforza’s fortune in his biography (_Vita Franc. Sphortiæ_, in Murat. xx.). The astrologers said: ‘Francesco Sforza’s star brings good luck to a man, but ruin to his descendants.’ Arluni, _De Bello Veneto_, libri vi. in Grævius, _Thes. Antiqu. et Hist. Italicæ_, v. pars iii. Comp. also Barth. Facius, _De Vir. III._ p. 67.

[77] Malipiero, _Ann. Veneti, Archiv. Stor._ vii. i. pp. 216 sqq. 221-4.

[78] Important documents as to the murder of Galeazzo Maria Sforza are published by G. D’Adda in the _Archivio Storico Lombardo Giornale della Società Lombarda_, vol. ii. (1875), pp. 284-94. 1. A Latin epitaph on the murderer Lampugnano, who lost his life in the attempt, and whom the writer represents as saying: ‘Hic lubens quiesco, æternum inquam facinus monumentumque ducibus, principibus, regibus, qui modo sunt quique mox futura trahantur ne quid adversus justitiam faciant dicantve; 2. A Latin letter of Domenico de’ Belli, who, when eleven years old, was present at the murder; 3. The ‘lamento’ of Galeazzo Maria, in which, after calling upon the Virgin Mary and relating the outrage committed upon him, he summons his wife and children, his servants and the Italian cities which obeyed him, to bewail his fate, and sends forth his entreaty to all the nations of the earth, to the nine muses and the gods of antiquity, to set up a universal cry of grief.

[79] _Chron. Venetum_, in Murat. xxiv. col. 65.

[80] Malipiero, _Ann. Veneti, Archiv. Stor._ vii. i. p. 492. Comp. 482, 562.

[81] His last words to the same man, Bernardino da Corte, are to be found, certainty with oratorical decorations, but perhaps agreeing in the main with the thoughts of the Moor, in Senarega, Murat. xxiv. col. 567.

[82] _Diario Ferrarese_, in Murat. xxiv. col. 336, 367, 369. The people believed he was forming a treasure.

[83] Corio, fol. 448. The after effects of this state of things are clearly recognisable in those of the novels and introductions of Bandello which relate to Milan.

[84] Amoretti, _Memorie Storiche sulla Vita Ecc. di Lionardo da Vinci_, pp. 35 sqq., pp. 83 sqq. Here we may also mention the Moor’s efforts for the improvement of the university of Pavia.

[85] See his sonnets in Trucchi, _Poesie inedite_.

[86] Prato, in the _Arch. Stor._ iii. 298. Comp. 302.