Chapter V: General Disintegration of Belief (2)

[87] Born 1466, betrothed to Isabella, herself six years of age, in 1480, suc. 1484; m. 1490, d. 1519. Isabella’s death, 1539. Her sons, Federigo (1519-1540), made Duke in 1530, and the famous Ferrante Gonzaga. What follows is taken from the correspondence of Isabella, with Appendices, _Archiv. Stor._, append., tom. ii. communicated by d’Arco. See the same writer, _Delle Arti e degli Artifici di Mantova_, Mant. 1857-59, 2 vols. The catalogue of the collection has been repeatedly printed. Portrait and biography of Isabella in Didot, _Alde Manuce_, Paris, 1875, pp. lxi-lxviii. See also below, part ii. chapter 2.

[88] Franc. Vettori, in the _Arch. Stor._ Append., tom. vi. p. 321. For Federigo, see _Vespas. Fiorent._ pp. 132 sqq. and Prendilacqua, _Vita di Vittorino da Feltre_, pp. 48-52. V. endeavoured to calm the ambitious youth Federigo, then his scholar, with the words: ‘Tu quoque Cæsar eris.’ There is much literary information respecting him in, e.g., Favre, _Mélanges d’Hist. Lit._ i. p. 125, note 1.

[89] See below, part iii. chapter 3.

[90] Castiglione, _Cortigiano_, l. i.

[91] Petr. Bembus, _De Guido Ubaldo Feretrio deque Elizabetha Gonzaga Urbini ducibus_, Venetis, 1530. Also in Bembo’s Works, Basel, 1566, i. pp. 529-624. In the form of a dialogue; contains among other things, the letter of Frid. Fregosus and the speech of Odaxius on Guido’s life and death.

[92] What follows is chiefly taken from the _Annales Estenses_, in Murat. xx. and the _Diario Ferrarese_, Murat. xxiv

[93] See Bandello, i. nov. 32.

[94] _Diario Ferrar._ l. c. col. 347.

[95] Paul. Jov. _Vita Alfonsi ducis_, ed. Flor. 1550, also an Italian by Giovanbattista Gelli, Flor. 1553.

[96] Paulus Jovius, l. c.

[97] The journey of Leo X. when Cardinal, may be also mentioned here. Comp. Paul. Jov. _Vita Leonis X._ lib. i. His purpose was less serious, and directed rather to amusement and knowledge of the world; but the spirit is wholly modern. No Northerner then travelled with such objects.

[98] _Diar. Ferr._ in Murat. xxiv. col. 232 and 240.

[99] Jovian. Pontan. _De Liberalitate_, cap. 28.

[100] Giraldi, _Hecatomithi_, vi. nov. 1 (ed. 1565, fol. 223 _a_).

[101] Vasari, xii. 166, _Vita di Michelangelo_.

[102] As early as 1446 the members of the House of Gonzaga followed the corpse of Vittorino da Feltre.

[103] Capitolo 19, and in the _Opere Minore_, ed. Lemonnier, vol. i. p. 425, entitled Elegia 17. Doubtless the cause of this death (above, p. 46) was unknown to the young poet, then 19 years old.

[104] The novels in the _Hecatomithi_ of Giraldi relating to the House of Este are to be found, with one exception (i. nov. 8), in the 6th book, dedicated to Francesco of Este, Marchese della Massa, at the beginning of the second part of the whole work, which is inscribed to Alfonso II. ‘the fifth Duke of Ferrara.’ The 10th book, too, is specially dedicated to him, but none of the novels refer to him personally, and only one to his predecessor Hercules I.; the rest to Hercules I. ‘the second Duke,’ and Alfonso I. ‘the third Duke of Ferrara.’ But the stories told of these princes are for the most part not love tales. One of them (i. nov. 8) tells of the failure of an attempt made by the King of Naples to induce Hercules of Este to deprive Borso of the government of Ferrara; another (vi. nov. 10) describes Ercole’s high-spirited treatment of conspirators. The two novels that treat of Alfonso I. (vi. nov. 2, 4), in the latter of which he only plays a subordinate part, are also, as the title of the book shows and as the dedication to the above-named Francesco explains more fully, accounts of ‘atti di cortesía’ towards knights and prisoners, but not towards women, and only the two remaining tales are love-stories. They are of such a kind as can be told during the lifetime of the prince; they set forth his nobleness and generosity, his virtue and self-restraint. Only one of them (vi. nov. 1) refers to Hercules I., who was dead long before the novels were compiled, and only one to the Hercules II. then alive (b. 1508, d. 1568) son of Lucrezia Borgia, husband of Renata, of whom the poet says: ‘Il giovane, che non meno ha benigno l’animo, che cortese l’aspetto, come già il vedemmo in Roma, nel tempo, ch’egli, in vece del padre, venne à Papa Hadriano.’ The tale about him is briefly as follows:--Lucilla, the beautiful daughter of a poor but noble widow, loves Nicandro, but cannot marry him, as the lover’s father forbids him to wed a portionless maiden. Hercules, who sees the girl and is captivated by her beauty, finds his way, through the connivance of her mother, into her bedchamber, but is so touched by her beseeching appeal that he respects her innocence, and, giving her a dowry, enables her to marry Nicandro.

In Bandello, ii. nov. 8 and 9 refer to Alessandro Medici, 26 to Mary of Aragon, iii. 26, iv. 13 to Galeazzo Sforza, iii. 36, 37 to Henry VIII. of England, ii. 27 to the German Emperor Maximilian. The emperor, ‘whose natural goodness and more than imperial generosity are praised by all writers,’ while chasing a stag is separated from his followers, loses his way, and at last emerging from the wood, enquires the way from a countryman. The latter, busied with lading wood, begs the emperor, whom he does not know, to help him, and receives willing assistance. While still at work, Maximilian is rejoined, and, in spite of his signs to the contrary, respectfully saluted by his followers, and thus recognised by the peasant, who implores forgiveness for the freedom he has unwittingly taken. The emperor raises the kneeling suppliant, gives him presents, appoints him as his attendant, and confers upon him distinguished privileges. The narrator concludes: ‘Dimostrò Cesare nello smontar da cavallo e con allegra ciera aiutar il bisognoso contadino, una indicibile e degna d’ogni lode humanità, e in sollevarlo con danari e privilegii dalla sua faticosa vita, aperse il suo veramente animo Cesareo’ (ii. 415). A story in the _Hecatomithi_ (viii. nov. 5) also treats of Maximilian. It is the same tale which has acquired a world-wide celebrity through Shakespeare’s _Measure for Measure_ (for its diffusion see Kirchhof’s _Wendunmuth_, ed. Oesterley, bd. v. s. 152 sqq.), and the scene of which is transferred by Giraldi to Innsbruck. Maximilian is the hero, and here too receives the highest eulogies. After being first called ‘Massimiliano il Grande,’ he is designated as one ‘che fu raro esempio di cortesia, di magnanimità, e di singolare giustizia.’

[105] In the _Deliciæ Poet. Italorum_ (1608), ii. pp. 455 sqq.: ad Alfonsum ducem Calabriæ. (Yet I do not believe that the above remark fairly applies to this poem, which clearly expresses the joys which Alfonso has with Drusula, and describes the sensations of the happy lover, who in his transports thinks that the gods themselves must envy him.--L.G.).

[106] Mentioned as early as 1367, in the _Polistore_, in Murat. xxiv. col. 848, in reference to Niccolò the Elder, who makes twelve persons knights in honour of the twelve Apostles.

[107] Burigozzo, in the _Archiv. Stor._ iii. p. 432.

[108] _Discorsi_, i. 17, on Milan after the death of Filippo Visconti.

[109] _De Incert. et Vanitate Scientiar._ cap. 55.

[110] Prato, _Archiv. Stor._ iii. p. 241.

[111] _De Casibus Virorum Illustrium_, l. ii. cap. 15.

[112] _Discorsi_, iii. 6; comp. _Storie Fiorent._ l. viii. The description of conspiracies has been a favourite theme of Italian writers from a very remote period. Luitprand (of Cremona, _Mon. Germ._, ss. iii. 264-363) gives us a few, which are more circumstantial than those of any other contemporary writer of the tenth century; in the eleventh the deliverance of Messina from the Saracens, accomplished by calling in Norman Roger (Baluz. _Miscell._ i. p. 184), gives occasion to a characteristic narrative of this kind (1060); we need hardly speak of the dramatic colouring given to the stories of the Sicilian Vespers (1282). The same tendency is well known in the Greek writers.

[113] Corio, fol. 333. For what follows, ibid. fol. 305, 422 sqq. 440.

[114] So in the quotations from Gallus, in Sismondi, xi. 93. For the whole subject see Reumont, _Lorenzo dei Medici_, pp. 387-97, especially 396.

[115] Corio, fol. 422. Allegretto, _Diari Sanesi_, in Murat. xxiii. col. 777. See above, p. 41.

[116] The enthusiasm with which the Florentine Alamanno Rinuccini (b. 1419) speaks in his _Ricordi_ (ed. by G. Aiazzi, Florence, 1840) of murderers and their deeds is very remarkable. For a contemporary, though not Italian, apology for tyrannicide, see Kervyn de Lettenhove, _Jean sans Peur et l’Apologie du Tyrannicide_, in the _Bulletin de l’Académie de Bruxelles_, xi. (1861), pp. 558-71. A century later opinion in Italy had changed altogether. See the condemnation of Lampugnani’s deed in Egnatius, _De Exemplis Ill. Vir._, Ven. fol. 99 _b_; comp. also 318 _b_.

Petr. Crinitus, also (_De honestâ disciplinâ_, Paris, 1510, fol. 134 _b_), writes a poem _De virtute Jo. Andr. Lamponiani tyrannicidæ_, in which Lampugnani’s deed is highly praised, and he himself is represented as a worthy companion of Brutus.

Comp. also the Latin poem: _Bonini Mombritii poetæ Mediol. trenodiæ in funere illustrissimi D. Gal. Marie Sfor_ (2 Books--Milan, 1504), edited by Ascalon Vallis (_sic_), who in his dedication to the jurist Jac. Balsamus praises the poet and names other poems equally worthy to be printed. In this work, in which Megæra and Mars, Calliope and the poet, appear as interlocutors, the assassin--not Lampugnano, but a man from a humble family of artisans--is severely blamed, and he with his fellow conspirators are treated as ordinary criminals; they are charged with high treason on account of a projected alliance with Charles of Burgundy. No less than ten prognostics of the death of Duke Galeazzo are enumerated. The murder of the Prince, and the punishment of the assassin are vividly described; the close consists of pious consolations addressed to the widowed Princess, and of religious meditations.

[117] ‘Con studiare el Catalinario,’ says Allegretto. Comp. (in Corio) a sentence like the following in the desposition of Olgiati: ‘Quisque nostrum magis socios potissime et infinitos alios sollicitare, infestare, alter alteri benevolos se facere cœpit. Aliquid aliquibus parum donare: simul magis noctu edere, bibere, vigilare, nostra omnia bona polliceri,’ etc.

[118] Vasari, iii. 251, note to _V. di Donatello_.

[119] It now has been removed to a newly constructed building.

[120] _Inferno_, xxxiv. 64.

[121] Related by a hearer, Luca della Robbia, _Archiv. Stor._ i. 273. Comp. Paul. Jovius, _Vita Leonis X._ iii. in the _Viri Illustres_.

[122] First printed in 1723, as appendix to Varchi’s History, then in Roscoe, _Vita di Lorenzo de’ Medici_, vol. iv. app. 12, and often besides. Comp. Reumont, _Gesch. Toscana’s seit dem Ende des Florent. Freistaates_, Gotha, 1876, i. p. 67, note. See also the report in the _Lettere de’ Principi_ (ed. Venez. 1577), iii. fol. 162 sqq.

[123] On the latter point see Jac. Nardi, _Vita di Ant. Giacomini_, Lucca (1818), p. 18.

[124] ‘Genethliacum Venetæ urbis,’ in the _Carmina_ of Ant. Sabellicus. The 25th of March was chosen ‘essendo il cielo in singolar disposizione, si come da gli astronomi è stato calcolato più volte.’ Comp. Sansovino, _Venezia città nobilissima e singolare, descritta in 14 libri_, Venezia, 1581, fol. 203. For the whole chapter see _Johannis Baptistæ Egnatii viri doctissimi de exemplis Illustrium Virorum Venetæ civitatis atque aliarum gentium_, Paris, 1554. The eldest Venetian chronicler, Joh. Diaconi, _Chron. Venetum_ in Pertz, _Monum._ S.S. vii. pp. 5, 6, places the occupation of the islands in the time of the Lombards and the foundation of the Rialto later.

[125] ‘De Venetæ urbis apparatu panagiricum carmen quod oraculum inscribitur.’

[126] The whole quarter was altered in the reconstructions of the sixteenth century.

[127] Benedictus _Carol. VIII._ in Eccard, _Scriptores_, ii. col. 1597, 1601, 1621. In the _Chron. Venetum_, Murat. xxiv. col. 26, the political virtues of the Venetians are enumerated: ‘bontà, innocenza, zelo di carità, pietà, misericordia.’

[128] Many of the nobles cropped their hair. See _Erasmi Colloquia_, ed. Tiguri, a. 1553: miles et carthusianus.

[129] _Epistolæ_, lib. v. fol. 28.

[130] Malipiero, _Ann. Veneti, Archiv. Stor._ vii. i. pp. 377, 431, 481, 493, 530; ii. pp. 661, 668, 679. _Chron. Venetum_, in Muratori, xxiv. col. 57. _Diario Ferrarese_, ib. col. 240. See also _Dispacci di Antonio Giustiniani_ (Flor. 1876), i. p. 392.

[131] Malipiero, in the _Archiv. Stor._ vii. ii. p. 691. Comp. 694, 713, and i. 535.

[132] Marin Sanudo, _Vite dei Duchi_, Murat. xxii. col. 1194.

[133] _Chron. Venetum_, Murat. xxiv. col. 105.

[134] _Chron. Venetum_, Murat. xxiv. col. 123 sqq. and Malipiero, l. c. vii. i. pp. 175, 187 sqq. relate the significant fall of the Admiral Antonio Grimani, who, when accused on account of his refusal to surrender the command in chief to another, himself put irons on his feet before his arrival at Venice, and presented himself in this condition to the Senate. For him and his future lot, see Egnatius, fol. 183 _a_ sqq., 198 _b_ sqq.

[135] _Chron. Ven._ l. c. col. 166.

[136] Malipiero, l. c. vii. i. 349. For other lists of the same kind see Marin Sanudo, _Vite dei Duchi_, Murat. xxii. col. 990 (year 1426), col. 1088 (year 1440), in Corio, fol. 435-438 (1483), in Guazzo _Historie_, fol. 151 sqq.

[137] Guicciardini (_Ricordi_, n. 150) is one of the first to remark that the passion for vengeance can drown the clearest voice of self-interest.

[138] Malipiero, l. c. vii. i., p. 328.

[139] The statistical view of Milan, in the ‘Manipulus Florum’ (in Murat. xi. 711 sqq.) for the year 1288, is important, though not extensive. It includes house-doors, population, men of military age, ‘loggie’ of the nobles, wells, bakeries, wine-shops, butchers’-shops, fishmongers, the consumption of corn, dogs, birds of chase, the price of salt, wood, hay, and wines; also the judges, notaries, doctors, schoolmasters, copying clerks, armourers, smiths, hospitals, monasteries, endowments, and religious corporations. A list perhaps still older is found in the ‘Liber de magnalibus Mediolani,’ in _Heinr. de Hervordia_, ed. Potthast, p. 165. See also the statistical account of Asti about the year 1250 in Ogerius Alpherius (Alfieri), _De Gestis Astensium, Histor. patr. Monumenta, Scriptorum_, tom. iii. col. 684. sqq.

[140] Especially Marin Sanudo, in the _Vite dei Duchi di Venezia_, Murat. xxii. _passim_.

[141] See for the marked difference between Venice and Florence, an important pamphlet addressed 1472 to Lorenzo de’ Medici by certain Venetians, and the answer to it by Benedetto Dei, in Paganini, _Della Decima_, Florence, 1763, iii. pp. 135 sqq.

[142] In Sanudo, l. c. col. 958. What relates to trade is extracted in Scherer, _Allgem. Gesch. des Welthandels_, i. 326, note.

[143] Here all the houses, not merely those owned by the state, are meant. The latter, however, sometimes yielded enormous rents. See Vasari, xiii. 83. V. d. Jac. Sansovino.

[144] See Sanudo, col. 963. In the same place a list of the incomes of the other Italian and European powers is given. An estimate for 1490 is to be found, col. 1245 sqq.

[145] This dislike seems to have amounted to positive hatred in Paul II. who called the humanists one and all heretics. Platina, _Vita Pauli_, ii. p. 323. See also for the subject in general, Voigt, _Wiederbelebung des classischen Alterthums_, Berlin, 1859, pp. 207-213. The neglect of the sciences is given as a reason for the flourishing condition of Venice by Lil. Greg. Giraldus, _Opera_, ii. p. 439.

[146] Sanudo, l. c. col. 1167.

[147] Sansovina, _Venezia_, lib. xiii. It contains the biographies of the Doges in chronological order, and, following these lives one by one (regularly from the year 1312, under the heading _Scrittori Veneti_), short notices of contemporary writers.

[148] Venice was then one of the chief seats of the Petrarchists. See G. Crespan, _Del Petrarchismo_, in _Petrarca e Venezia_, 1874, pp. 187-253.

[149] See Heinric. de Hervordia ad a. 1293, p. 213, ed. Potthast, who says: ‘The Venetians wished to obtain the body of Jacob of Forli from the inhabitants of that place, as many miracles were wrought by it. They promised many things in return, among others to bear all the expense of canonising the defunct, but without obtaining their request.’

[150] Sanudo, l. c. col. 1158, 1171, 1177. When the body of St. Luke was brought from Bosnia, a dispute arose with the Benedictines of S. Giustina at Padua, who claimed to possess it already, and the Pope had to decide between the two parties. Comp. Guicciardini, _Ricordi_, n. 401.

[151] Sansovino, _Venezia_, lib. xii. ‘dell’andate publiche del principe.’ Egnatius, fol. 50_a_. For the dread felt at the papal interdict see Egnatius, fol. 12 _a_ sqq.

[152] G. Villani, viii. 36. The year 1300 is also a fixed date in the _Divine Comedy_.

[153] Stated about 1470 in _Vespas. Fiorent._ p. 554.

[154] The passage which followed in former editions referring to the _Chronicle of Dino Compagni_ is here omitted, since the genuineness of the _Chronicle_ has been disproved by Paul Scheffer-Boichhorst (_Florentiner Studien_, Leipzig, 1874, pp. 45-210), and the disproof maintained (_Die Chronik des D. C._, Leipzig, 1875) against a distinguished authority (C. Hegel, _Die Chronik des D. C., Versuch einer Rettung_, Leipzig, 1875). Scheffer’s view is generally received in Germany (see W. Bernhardi, _Der Stand der Dino-Frage, Hist. Zeitschr. N.F._, 1877, bd. i.), and even Hegel assumes that the text as we have it is a later manipulation of an unfinished work of Dino. Even in Italy, though the majority of scholars have wished to ignore this critical onslaught, as they have done other earlier ones of the same kind, some voices have been raised to recognise the spuriousness of the document. (See especially P. Fanfani in his periodical _Il Borghini_, and in the book _Dino Campagni Vendicato_, Milano, 1875). On the earliest Florentine histories in general see Hartwig, _Forschungen_, Marburg, 1876, and C. Hegel in H. von Sybel’s _Historischer Zeitschrift_, b. xxxv. Since then Isidore del Lungo, who with remarkable decision asserts its genuineness, has completed his great edition of Dino, and furnished it with a detailed introduction: _Dino Campagni e la sua cronaca_, 2 vols. Firenze, 1879-80. A manuscript of the history, dating back to the beginning of the fifteenth century, and consequently earlier than all the hitherto known references and editions, has been lately found. In consequence of the discovery of this MS. and of the researches undertaken by C. Hegel, and especially of the evidence that the style of the work does not differ from that of the fourteenth century, the prevailing view of the subject is essentially this, that the Chronicle contains an important kernel, which is genuine, which, however, perhaps even in the fourteenth century, was remodelled on the ground-plan of Villani’s Chronicle. Comp. Gaspary, _Geschichte der italienischen Literatur_. Berlin, 1885, i. pp. 361-9, 531 sqq.

[155] _Purgatorio_, vi. at the end.

[156] _De Monarchia_, i. 1. (New critical edition by Witte, Halle, 1863, 71; German translation by O. Hubatsch, Berlin, 1872).

[157] _Dantis Alligherii Epistolæ_, cum notis C. Witte, Padua, 1827. He wished to keep the Pope as well as the Emperor always in Italy. See his letter, p. 35, during the conclave of Carpentras, 1314. On the first letter see _Vitæ Nuova_, cap. 31, and _Epist._ p. 9.

[158] Giov. Villani, xi. 20. Comp. Matt. Villani, ix. 93, who says that John XXII. ‘astuto in tutte sue cose e massime in fare il danaio,’ left behind him 18 million florins in cash and 6 millions in jewels.

[159] See for this and similar facts Giov. Villani, xi. 87, xii. 54. He lost his own money in the crash and was imprisoned for debt. See also Kervyn de Lettenhove, _L’Europe au Siècle de Philippe le Bel, Les Argentiers Florentins_ in _Bulletin de l’Académie de Bruxelles_ (1861), vol. xii. pp. 123 sqq.

[160] Giov. Villani, xi. 92, 93. In Macchiavelli, _Stor. Fiorent._ lib. ii. cap. 42, we read that 96,000 persons died of the plague in 1348.

[161] The priest put aside a black bean for every boy and a white one for every girl. This was the only means of registration.

[162] There was already a permanent fire brigade in Florence.

[163] Matteo Villani, iii. 106.

[164] Matteo Villani, i. 2-7, comp. 58. The best authority for the plague itself is the famous description by Boccaccio at the beginning of the _Decameron_.

[165] Giov. Villani, x. 164.

[166] _Ex Annalibus Ceretani_, in Fabroni, _Magni Cormi Vita_, Adnot. 34. vol. ii. p. 63.

[167] _Ricordi_ of Lorenzo, in Fabroni. _Laur. Med. Magnifici Vita_, Adnot. 2 and 25. Paul. Jovius, _Elogia_, pp. 131 sqq. Cosmus.

[168] Given by Benedetto Dei, in the passage quoted above (p. 70, note 1). It must be remembered that the account was intended to serve as a warning to assailants. For the whole subject see Reumont, _Lor. dei Medici_, ii. p. 419. The financial project of a certain Ludovico Ghetti, with important facts, is given in Roscoe, _Vita di Lor. Med._ ii. Append, i.

[169] E. g. in the _Arch. Stor._ iv.(?) See as a contrast the very simple ledger of Ott. Nuland, 1455-1462 (Stuttg. 1843), and for a rather later period the day-book of Lukas Rem, 1494-1541, ed. by B. Greiff, Augsb., 1861.

[170] Libri, _Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques_, ii. 163 sqq.

[171] Varchi, _Stor. Fiorent._ iii. p. 56 and sqq. up to the end of the 9th book. Some obviously erroneous figures are probably no more than clerical or typographical blunders.

[172] In respect of prices and of wealth in Italy, I am only able, in default of further means of investigation, to bring together some scattered facts, which I have picked up here and there. Obvious exaggerations must be put aside. The gold coins which are worth referring to are the ducat, the sequin, the ‘fiorino d’oro,’ and the ‘scudo d’oro.’ The value of all is nearly the same, 11 to 12 francs of our money.

In Venice, for example, the Doge Andrea Vendramin (1476) with 170,000 ducats passed for an exceedingly rich man (Malipiero, l. c. vii. ii. p. 666. The confiscated fortune of Colleoni amounted to 216,000 florins, l. c. p. 244.

About 1460 the Patriarch of Aquileia, Ludovico Patavino, with 200,000 ducats, was called ‘perhaps the richest of all Italians.’ (Gasp. Veroneus _Vita Pauli II._, in Murat. iii. ii. col. 1027.) Elsewhere fabulous statements.

Antonio Grimani paid 30,000 ducats for his son’s election as Cardinal. His ready money alone was put at 100,000 ducats. (_Chron. Venetum_, Murat. xxiv. col. 125.)

For notices as to the grain in commerce and on the market at Venice, see in particular Malipiero, l. c. vii. ii. p. 709 sqq. Date 1498.

In 1522 it is no longer Venice, but Genoa, next to Rome, which ranks as the richest city in Italy (only credible on the authority of Francesco. Vettori. See his history in the _Archiv. Stor._ Append. tom. vi. p. 343). Bandello, _parte_ ii. _novello_ 34 and 42, names as the richest Genoese merchant of his time Ansaldo Grimaldi.

Between 1400 and 1580 Franc. Sansovino assumes a depreciation of 50 per cent. in the value of money. (_Venezia_, fol. 151 bis.)

In Lombardy it is believed that the relation between the price of corn about the middle of the fifteenth and that at the middle of the present century is as 3 to 8. (Sacco di Piacenza, in _Archiv. Stor._ Append. tom. v. Note of editor Scarabelli.)

At Ferrara there were people at the time of Duke Borso with 50,000 to 60,000 ducats (_Diario Ferrarese_, Murat. xxiv. col. 207, 214, 218; an extravagant statement, col. 187). In Florence the data are exceptional and do not justify a conclusion as to averages. Of this kind are the loans to foreign princes, in which the names of one or two houses only appear, but which were in fact the work of great companies. So too the enormous fines levied on defeated parties; we read, e.g. that from 1430 to 1453 seventy-seven families paid 4,875,000 gold florins (Varchi, iii. p. 115 sqq.), and that Giannozzo Mannetti alone, of whom we shall have occasion to speak hereafter, was forced to pay a sum of 135,000 gold florins, and was reduced thereby to beggary (Reumont, i. 157).

The fortune of Giovanni Medici amounted at his death (1428) to 179,221 gold florins, but the latter alone of his two sons Cosimo and Lorenzo left at his death (1440) as much as 235,137 (Fabroni, _Laur. Med._ Adnot. 2). Cosimo’s son Piero left (1469) 237,982 scudi (Reumont, _Lorenzo de’ Medici_, i. 286).

It is a proof of the general activity of trade that the forty-four goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio paid in the fourteenth century a rent of 800 florins to the Government (Vasari, ii. 114, _Vita di Taddeo Gaddi_). The diary of Buonaccorso Pitti (in Delécluze, _Florence et ses Vicissitudes_, vol. ii.) is full of figures, which, however, only prove in general the high price of commodities and the low value of money.

For Rome, the income of the Curia, which was derived from all Europe, gives us no criterion; nor are statements about papal treasures and the fortunes of cardinals very trustworthy. The well-known banker Agostino Chigi left (1520) a fortune of in all 800,000 ducats (_Lettere Pittoriche_, i. Append. 48).

During the high prices of the year 1505 the value of the _staro ferrarrese del grano_, which commonly weighed from 68 to 70 pounds (German), rose to 1⅓ ducats. The _semola_ or _remolo_ was sold at _venti soldi lo staro_; in the following fruitful years the _staro_ fetched six _soldi_. Bonaventura Pistofilo, p. 494. At Ferrara the rent of a house yearly in 1455 was 25 _Lire_; comp. _Atti e memorie_, Parma, vi. 250; see 265 sqq. for a documentary statement of the prices which were paid to artists and amanuenses.

From the inventory of the Medici (extracts in Muntz, _Prècurseurs_, 158 sqq.) it appears that the jewels were valued at 12,205 ducats; the rings at 1,792; the pearls (apparently distinguished from other jewels, S.G.C.M.) at 3,512; the medallions, cameos and mosaics at 2,579; the vases at 4,850; the reliquaries and the like at 3,600; the library at 2,700; the silver at 7,000. Giov. Rucellai reckons that in 1473(?) he has paid 60,000 gold florins in taxes, 10,000 for the dowries of his five daughters, 2,000 for the improvement of the church of Santa Maria Novella. In 1474 he lost 20,000 gold florins through the intrigues of an enemy. (_Autografo dallo Tibaldone di G.R._, Florence, 1872). The marriage of Barnardo Rucellai with Nannina, the sister of Lorenzo de’ Medici, cost 3,686 florins (Muntz, _Précurseurs_, 244, i).

[173] So far as Cosimo (1433-1465) and his grandson Lorenzo Magnifico (d. 1492) are concerned, the author refrains from any criticism on their internal policy. The exaltation of both, particularly of Lorenzo, by William Roscoe (_Life of Lorenzo de’ Medici, called the Magnificent_, 1st ed. Liverpool, 1795; 10th ed. London, 1851), seems to have been a principal cause of the reaction of feeling against them. This reaction appeared first in Sismondi (_Hist. des Rép. Italiennes_, xi.), in reply to whose strictures, sometimes unreasonably severe, Roscoe again came forward (_Illustrations, Historical and Critical, of the Life of Lor. d. Med._, London, 1822); later in Gino Capponi (_Archiv. Stor. Ital._ i. (1842), pp. 315 sqq.), who afterwards (_Storia della Rep. di Firenze_, 2 vols. Florence, 1875) gave further proofs and explanations of his judgment. See also the work of Von Reumont (_Lor. d. Med. il Magn._), 2 vols. Leipzig, 1874, distinguished no less by the judicial calmness of its views than by the mastery it displays of the extensive materials used. See also A. Castelman: _Les Medicis_, 2 vols. Paris, 1879. The subject here is only casually touched upon. Comp. two works of B. Buser (Leipzig, 1879) devoted to the home and foreign policy of the Medici. (1) _Die Beziehungen der Medicus zu Frankreich._ 1434-1494, &c. (2) _Lorenzo de’ Medici als italienischen Staatsman_, &c., 2nd ed., 1883.

[174] Franc. Burlamacchi, father of the head of the Lucchese Protestants, Michele B. See _Arch. Stor. Ital._ ser. i. tom. x., pp. 435-599; Documenti, pp. 146 sqq.; further Carlo Minutoli, _Storia di Fr. B._, Lucca, 1844, and the important additions of Leone del Prete in the _Giornale Storico degli Archiv. Toscani_, iv. (1860), pp. 309 sqq. It is well known how Milan, by its hard treatment of the neighbouring cities from the eleventh to the thirteenth century, prepared the way for the foundation of a great despotic state. Even at the time of the extinction of the Visconti in 1447, Milan frustrated the deliverance of Upper Italy, principally through not accepting the plan of a confederation of equal cities. Comp. Corio, fol. 358 sqq.

[175] On the third Sunday in Advent, 1494, Savonarola preached as follows on the method of bringing about a new constitution: The sixteen companies of the city were each to work out a plan, the Gonfalonieri to choose the four best of these, and the Signory to name the best of all on the reduced list. Things, however, took a different turn, under the influence indeed of the preacher himself. See P. Villari, _Savonarola_. Besides this sermon, S. had written a remarkable _Trattato circa il regimento di Ferenze_ (reprinted at Lucca, 1817).

[176] The latter first in 1527, after the expulsion of the Medici. See Varchi, i. 121, &c.

[177] Macchiavelli, _Storie Fior._ l. iii. cap. 1: ‘Un Savio dator di leggi,’ could save Florence.

[178] Varchi, _Stor. Fior._ i. p. 210.

[179] ‘Discorso sopra il riformar lo Stato di Firenze,’ in the _Opere Minori_, p. 207.

[180] The same view, doubtless borrowed from here, occurs in Montesquieu.

[181] Belonging to a rather later period (1532?). Compare the opinion of Guicciardini, terrible in its frankness, on the condition and inevitable organisation of the Medicean party. _Lettere di Principi_, iii. fol. 124, (ediz. Venez. 1577).

[182] Æn. Sylvii, _Apologia ad Martinum Mayer_, p. 701. To the same effect Macchiavelli, _Discorsi_, i. 55, and elsewhere.

[183] How strangely modern half-culture affected political life is shown by the party struggles of 1535. Della Valle, _Lettere Sanesi_, iii. p. 317. A number of small shopkeepers, excited by the study of Livy and of Macchiavelli’s _Discorsi_, call in all seriousness for tribunes of the people and other Roman magistrates against the misgovernment of the nobles and the official classes.

[184] Piero Valeriano, _De Infelicitate Literator._, speaking of Bartolommeo della Rovere. (The work of P. V. written 1527 is quoted according to the edition by Menken, _Analecta de Calamitate Literatorum_, Leipz. 1707.) The passage here meant can only be that at p. 384, from which we cannot infer what is stated in the text, but in which we read that B. d. R. wished to make his son abandon a taste for study which he had conceived and put him into business.

[185] Senarega, _De reb. Genuens_, in Murat. xxiv. col. 548. For the insecurity of the time see esp. col. 519, 525, 528, &c. For the frank language of the envoy on the occasion of the surrender of the state to Francesco Sforza (1464), when the envoy told him that Genoa surrendered in the hope of now living safely and comfortably, see Cagnola, _Archiv. Stor._ iii. p. 165 sqq. The figures of the Archbishop, Doge, Corsair, and (later) Cardinal Paolo Fregoso form a notable contrast to the general picture of the condition of Italy.

[186] So Varchi, at a much later time. _Stor. Fiorent._ i. 57.

[187] Galeazzo Maria Sforza, indeed, declared the contrary (1467) to the Venetian agent, namely, that Venetian subjects had offered to join him in making war on Venice; but this is only vapouring. Comp. Malipiero, _Annali Veneti, Archiv. Stor._ vii. i. p. 216 sqq. On every occasion cities and villages voluntarily surrendered to Venice, chiefly, it is true, those that escaped from the hands of some despot, while Florence had to keep down the neighbouring republics, which were used to independence, by force of arms, as Guicciardini (_Ricordi_, n. 29) observes.

[188] Most strongly, perhaps, in an instruction to the ambassadors going to Charles VII. in the year 1452. (See Fabroni, _Cosmus_, Adnot. 107, fol. ii. pp. 200 sqq.) The Florentine envoys were instructed to remind the king of the centuries of friendly relations which had subsisted between France and their native city, and to recall to him that Charles the Great had delivered Florence and Italy from the barbarians (Lombards), and that Charles I. and the Romish Church were ‘fondatori della parte Guelfa. Il qual fundamento fa cagione della ruina della contraria parte e introdusse lo stato di felicità, in che noi siamo.’ When the young Lorenzo visited the Duke of Anjou, then staying at Florence, he put on a French dress. Fabroni, ii. p. 9.

[189] Comines, _Charles VIII._ chap. x. The French were considered ‘comme saints.’ Comp. chap. 17; _Chron. Venetum_, in Murat. xxiv. col. 5, 10, 14, 15; Matarazzo, _Cron. di Perugia, Arch. Stor._ xvi. ii. p. 23, not to speak of countless other proofs. See especially the documents in Desjardins, op. cit. p. 127, note 1.

[190] _Pii II. Commentarii_, x. p. 492.

[191] Gingins, _Dépêches des Ambassadeurs Milanais_, _etc._ i. pp. 26, 153, 279, 283, 285, 327, 331, 345, 359; ii. pp. 29, 37, 101, 217, 306. Charles once spoke of giving Milan to the young Duke of Orleans.

[192] Niccolò Valori, _Vita di Lorenzo_, Flor. 1568. Italian translation of the Latin original, first printed in 1749 (later in Galletti, _Phil. Villani, Liber de Civit. Flor. famosis Civibus_, Florence, 1847, pp. 161-183; passage here referred to p. 171). It must not, however, be forgotten that this earliest biography, written soon after the death of Lorenzo, is a flattering rather than a faithful portrait, and that the words here attributed to Lorenzo are not mentioned by the French reporter, and can, in fact, hardly have been uttered. Comines, who was commissioned by Louis XI. to go to Rome and Florence, says (_Mémoires_, l. vi. chap. 5): ‘I could not offer him an army, and had nothing with me but my suite.’ (Comp. Reumont, _Lorenzo_, i. p. 197, 429; ii. 598). In a letter from Florence to Louis XI. we read (Aug. 23, 1478: ‘Omnis spes nostra reposita est in favoribus suæ majestatis.’ A. Desjardins, _Négociations Diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane_ (Paris, 1859), i. p. 173. Similarly Lorenzo himself in Kervyn de Lettenhove, _Lettres et Négotiations de Philippe de Comines_, i. p. 190. Lorenzo, we see, is in fact the one who humbly begs for help, not who proudly declines it.

Dr. Geiger in his appendix maintains that Dr. Burchhardt’s view as to Lorenzo’s national Italian policy is not borne out by evidence. Into this discussion the translator cannot enter. It would need strong proof to convince him that the masterly historical perception of Dr. Burchhardt was in error as to a subject which he has studied with minute care. In an age when diplomatic lying and political treachery were matters of course, documentary evidence loses much of its weight, and cannot be taken without qualification as representing the real feelings of the persons concerned, who fenced, turned about, and lied, first on one side and then on another, with an agility surprising to those accustomed to live among truth-telling people (S.G.C.M.)

Authorities quoted by Dr. Geiger are: Reumont, _Lorenzo_, 2nd ed., i. 310; ii. 450. Desjardins: _Négociations Diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane_ (Paris, 1859), i. 173. Kervyn de Lettenhove, _Lettres et Négociations de Philippe de Comines_, i. 180.

[193] Fabroni, _Laurentius Magnificus_, Adnot. 205 sqq. In one of his Briefs it was said literally, ‘Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo;’ but it is to be hoped that he did not allude to the Turks. (Villari, _Storia di Savonarola_, ii. p. 48 of the ‘Documenti.’)

[194] E.g. Jovian. Pontan. in his _Charon_. In the dialogue between Æcus, Minos, and Mercurius (_Op._ ed. Bas. ii. p. 1167) the first says: ‘Vel quod haud multis post sæculis futurum auguror, ut Italia, cujus intestina te odia male habent Minos, in unius redacta ditionem resumat imperii majestatem.’ And in reply to Mercury’s warning against the Turks, Æcus answers: ‘Quamquam timenda hæc sunt, tamen si vetera respicimus, non ab Asia aut Græcia, verum a Gallis Germanisque timendum Italiæ semper fuit.’

[195] Comines, _Charles VIII._, chap. 7. How Alfonso once tried in time of war to seize his opponents at a conference, is told by Nantiporto, in Murat. iii. ii. col. 1073. He was a genuine predecessor of Cæsar Borgia.

[196] _Pii II. Commentarii_, x. p. 492. See a letter of Malatesta in which he recommends to Mohammed II. a portrait-painter, Matteo Passo of Verona, and announces the despatch of a book on the art of war, probably in the year 1463, in Baluz. _Miscell._ iii. 113. What Galeazzo Maria of Milan told in 1467 to a Venetian envoy, namely, that he and his allies would join with the Turks to destroy Venice, was said merely by way of threat. Comp. Malipiero, _Ann. Veneti, Archiv. Stor._ vii. i. p. 222. For Boccalino, see page 36.

[197] Porzio, _Congiura dei Baroni_, l. i. p. 5. That Lorenzo, as Porzio hints, really had a hand in it, is not credible. On the other hand, it seems only too certain that Venice prompted the Sultan to the deed. See Romanin, _Storia Documentata di Venezia_, lib. xi. cap. 3. After Otranto was taken, Vespasiano Bisticci uttered his ‘Lamento d’Italia, _Archiv. Stor. Ital._ iv. pp. 452 sqq.

[198] _Chron. Venet._ in Murat. xxiv. col. 14 and 76.

[199] Malipiero, l. c. p. 565, 568.

[200] Trithem. _Annales Hirsaug_, ad. a. 1490, tom. ii. pp. 535 sqq.

[201] Malipiero, l. c. 161; comp. p. 152. For the surrender of Djem to Charles VIII. see p. 145, from which it is clear that a connection of the most shameful kind existed between Alexander and Bajazet, even if the documents in Burcardus be spurious. See on the subject Ranke, _Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtschreiber_, 2 Auflage, Leipzig, 1874, p. 99, and Gregorovius, bd. vii. 353, note 1. _Ibid._ p. 353, note 2, a declaration of the Pope that he was not allied with the Turks.

[202] Bapt. Mantuanus, _De Calamitatibus Temporum_, at the end of the second book, in the song of the Nereid Doris to the Turkish fleet.

[203] Tommaso Gar, _Relaz. della Corte di Roma_, i. p. 55.

[204] Ranke, _Geschichte der romanischen und germanischen Völker_. The opinion of Michelet (_Reforme_, p. 467), that the Turks would have adopted Western civilisation in Italy, does not satisfy me. This mission of Spain is hinted at, perhaps for the first time, in the speech delivered by Fedra Inghirami in 1510 before Julius II., at the celebration of the capture of Bugia by the fleet of Ferdinand the Catholic. See _Anecdota Litteraria_, ii. p. 419.

[205] Among others Corio, fol. 333. Jov. Pontanus, in his treatise, _De Liberalitate_, cap. 28, considers the free dismissal of Alfonso as a proof of the ‘liberalitas’ of Filippo Maria. (See above, p. 38, note 1.) Compare the line of conduct adopted with regard to Sforza, fol. 329.

[206] Nic. Valori, _Vita di Lorenzo_; Paul Jovius, _Vita Leonis X._ l. i. The latter certainly upon good authority, though not without rhetorical embellishment. Comp. Reumont, i. 487, and the passage there quoted.

[207] If Comines on this and many other occasions observes and judges as objectively as any Italian, his intercourse with Italians, particularly with Angelo Catto, must be taken into account.

[208] Comp. e.g. Malipiero, pp. 216, 221, 236, 237, 468, &c., and above pp. 88, note 2, and 93, note 1. Comp. Egnatius, fol. 321 _a_. The Pope curses an ambassador; a Venetian envoy insults the Pope; another, to win over his hearers, tells a fable.

[209] In Villari, _Storia di Savonarola_, vol. ii. p. xliii. of the ‘Documenti,’ among which are to be found other important political letters. Other documents, particularly of the end of the fifteenth century in Baluzius, _Miscellanea_, ed. Mansi, vol. i. See especially the collected despatches of Florentine and Venetian ambassadors at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of sixteenth centuries in Desjardins, _Négotiations diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane_. vols. i. ii. Paris. 1859, 1861.

[210] The subject has been lately treated more fully by Max Jähns, _Die Kriegskunst als Kunst_, Leipzig, 1874.

[211] _Pii II. Comment._ iv. p. 190, ad. a. 1459.

[212] The Cremonese prided themselves on their skill in this department. See _Cronaca di Cremona_ in the _Bibliotheca Historica Italica_, vol. i. Milan, 1876, p. 214, and note. The Venetians did the same, Egnatius, fol. 300 sqq.

[213] To this effect Paul Jovius (_Elogia_, p. 184) who adds: ‘Nondum enim invecto externarum gentium cruento more, Italia milites sanguinarii et multæ cædis avidi esse didicerant.’ We are reminded of Frederick of Urbino, who would have been ‘ashamed’ to tolerate a printed book in his library. See _Vespas. Fiorent._

[214] _Porcellii Commentaria Jac. Picinini_, in Murat. xx. A continuation for the war of 1453, _ibid._ xxv. Paul Cortesius (_De Hominibus Doctis_, p. 33, Florence, 1734) criticises the book severely on account of the wretched hexameters.

[215] Porcello calls Scipio Æmilianus by mistake, meaning Africanus Major.

[216] Simonetta, _Hist. Fr. Sfortiæ_, in Murat. xxi. col. 630.

[217] So he was considered. Comp. Bandello, parte i. nov. 40.

[218] Comp. e.g. _De Obsidione Tiphernatium_, in vol. 2, of the _Rer. Italic. Scriptores excodd. Florent._ col. 690. The duel of Marshal Boucicault with Galeazzo Gonzaga (1406) in Cagnola, _Arch. Stor._ iii. p. 25. Infessura tells us of the honour paid by Sixtus IV. to the duellists among his guards. His successors issued bulls against duelling.

[219] We may here notice parenthetically (see Jähns, pp. 26, sqq.) the less favourable side of the tactics of the Condottieri. The combat was often a mere sham-fight, in which the enemy was forced to withdraw by harmless manœuvres. The object of the combatants was to avoid bloodshed, at the worst to make prisoners with a view to the ransom. According to Macchiavelli, the Florentines lost in a great battle in the year 1440 one man only.

[220] For details, see _Arch. Stor._ Append. tom. v.

[221] Here once for all we refer our readers to Ranke’s _Popes_, vol. i., and to Sugenheim, _Geschichte der Entstehung und Ausbildung des Kirchenstaates_. The still later works of Gregorovius and Reumont have also been made use of, and when they offer new facts or views, are quoted. See also _Geschichte der römischen Papstthums_, W. Wattenbach, Berlin, 1876.

[222] For the impression made by the blessing of Eugenius IV. in Florence, see _Vespasiano Fiorent_, p. 18. See also the passage quoted in Reumont, _Lorenzo_, i. 171. For the impressive offices of Nicholas V., see Infessura (Eccard, ii. col. 1883 sqq.) and J. Manetti, _Vita Nicolai V._ (Murat. iii. ii. col. 923). For the homage given to Pius II., see _Diario Ferrarese_ (Murat. xxiv. col. 205), and _Pii II. Commentarii_, _passim_, esp. iv. 201, 204, and xi. 562. For Florence, see _Delizie degli Eruditi_, xx. 368. Even professional murderers respect the person of the Pope.

The great offices in church were treated as matters of much importance by the pomp-loving Paul II. (Platina, l. c. 321) and by Sixtus IV., who, in spite of the gout, conducted mass at Easter in a sitting posture. (_Jac. Volaterran. Diarium_, Murat. xxiii. col. 131.) It is curious to notice how the people distinguished between the magical efficacy of the blessing and the unworthiness of the man who gave it; when he was unable to give the benediction on Ascension Day, 1481, the populace murmured and cursed him. (_Ibid._ col. 133.)

[223] Macchiavelli, _Scritti Minori_, p. 142, in the well-known essay on the catastrophe of Sinigaglia. It is true that the French and Spanish soldiers were still more zealous than the Italians. Comp. in Paul. Jov. _Vita Leonis X._ (l. ii.) the scene before the battle of Ravenna, in which the Legate, weeping for joy, was surrounded by the Spanish troops, and besought for absolution. See further (_ibid._) the statements respecting the French in Milan.

[224] In the case of the heretics of Poli, in the Campagna, who held the doctrine that a genuine Pope must show the poverty of Christ as the mark of his calling, we have simply a kind of Waldensian doctrine. Their imprisonment under Paul II. is related by Infessura (Eccard, ii. col. 1893), Platina, p. 317, &c.

[225] As an illustration of this feeling see the poem addressed to the Pope, quoted in Gregorovius, vii. 136.

[226] _Dialogus de Conjuratione Stephani de Porcariis_, by his contemporary Petrus Godes de Vicenza, quoted and used by Gregorovius, viii. 130. L. B. Alberti, _De Porcaria Conjuratione_, in Murat. xxv. col. 309. Porcari was desirous ‘omnem pontificiam turbam funditus exstinguere.’ The author concludes: ‘Video sane, quo stent loco res Italiæ; intelligo qui sint, quibus hic perturbata esse omnia conducat....’ He names them ‘Extrinsecus impulsores,’ and is of opinion that Porcari will find successors in his misdeeds. The dreams of Porcari certainly bore some resemblance to those of Cola Rienzi. He also referred to himself the poem ‘Spirto Gentil,’ addressed by Petrarch to Rienzi.

[227] ‘Ut Papa tantum vicarius Christi sit et non etiam Cæsaris.... Tunc Papa et dicetur et erit pater sanctus, pater omnium, pater ecclesiæ,’ &c. Valla’s work was written rather earlier, and was aimed at Eugenius IV. See Vahlen, _Lor. Valla_ (Berlin, 1870), pp. 25 sqq., esp. 32. Nicholas V., on the other hand, is praised by Valla, Gregorovius, vii. 136.

[228] _Pii II. Comment._ iv. pp. 208 sqq. Voigt, _Enea Silvio_, iii. pp. 151 sqq.

[229] Platina, _Vita Pauli II._

[230] Battista Mantovano, _De Calamitatibus Temporum_, l. iii. The Arabian sells incense, the Tyrian purple, the Indian ivory: ‘Venalia nobis templa, sacerdotes, altaria sacra, coronæ, ignes, thura, preces, cælum est venale Deusque.’ _Opera_, ed. Paris, 1507, fol. 302 _b_. Then follows an exhortation to Pope Sixtus, whose previous efforts are praised, to put an end to these evils.

[231] See e.g. the _Annales Placentini_, in Murat. xx. col. 943.

[232] Corio, _Storia di Milano_, fol. 416-420. Pietro had already helped at the election of Sixtus. See Infessura, in Eccard, _Scriptores_, ii. col. 1895. It is curious that in 1469 it had been prophesied that deliverance would come from Savona (home of Sixtus, elected in 1471) within three years. See the letter and date in Baluz. _Miscell._ iii. p. 181. According to Macchiavelli, _Storie Fiorent._ l. vii. the Venetians poisoned the cardinal. Certainly they were not without motives to do so.

[233] Honorius II. wished, after the death of William I. (1127), to annex Apulia, as a feof reverted to St. Peter.

[234] Fabroni, _Laurentius Mag._ Adnot. 130. An informer, Vespucci, sends word of both, ‘Hanno in ogni elezione a mettere a sacco questa corte, e sono i maggior ribaldi del mondo.’

[235] Corio, fol. 450. Details, partly from unpublished documents, of these acts of bribery in Gregorovius, vii. 310 sqq.

[236] A most characteristic letter of exhortation by Lorenzo in Fabroni, _Laurentius Magn._ Adnot. 217, and extracts in Ranke, _Popes_, i. p. 45, and in Reumont, _Lorenzo_, ii. pp. 482 sqq.

[237] And perhaps of certain Neapolitan feofs, for the sake of which Innocent called in the Angevins afresh against the immovable Ferrante. The conduct of the Pope in this affair and his participation in the second conspiracy of the barons, were equally foolish and dishonest. For his method of treating with foreign powers, see above p. 127, note 2.

[238] Comp. in particular Infessura, in Eccard. _Scriptores_, ii. _passim_.

[239] According to the _Dispacci di Antonio Giustiniani_, i. p. 60, and iii. p. 309, Seb. Pinzon was a native of Cremona.

[240] Recently by Gregorovius, _Lucrezia Borgia_, 2 Bände 3 Aufl., Stuttgart, 1875.

[241] Except the Bentivoglio at Bologna, and the House of Este at Ferrara. The latter was compelled to form a family relationship, Lucrezia marrying Prince Alfonso.

[242] According to Corio (fol. 479) Charles had thoughts of a Council, of deposing the Pope, and even of carrying him away to France, this upon his return from Naples. According to Benedictus, _Carolus VIII._ (in Eccard, _Scriptores_, ii. col. 1584), Charles, while in Naples, when Pope and cardinals refused to recognise his new crown, had certainly entertained the thought ‘de Italiæ imperio deque pontificis statu mutando,’ but soon after made up his mind to be satisfied with the personal humiliation of Alexander. The Pope, nevertheless, escaped him. Particulars in Pilorgerie, _Campagne et Bulletins de la Grande Armée d’Italie_, 1494, 1495 (Paris, 1866, 8vo.), where the degree of Alexander’s danger at different moments is discussed (pp. 111, 117, &c.). In a letter, there printed, of the Archbishop of St. Malo to Queen Anne, it is expressly stated: ‘Si nostre roy eust voulu obtemperer à la plupart des Messeigneurs les Cardinaulx, ilz eussent fait ung autre pappe en intention de refformer l’église ainsi qu’ilz disaient. Le roy désire bien la reformacion, mais il ne veult point entreprandre de sa depposicion.’

[243] Corio, fol. 450. Malipiero, _Ann. Veneti, Arch. Stor._ vii. i. p. 318. The rapacity of the whole family can be seen in Malipiero, among other authorities, l. c. p. 565. A ‘nipote’ was splendidly entertained in Venice as papal legate, and made an enormous sum of money by selling dispensations; his servants, when they went away, stole whatever they could lay their hands on, including a piece of embroidered cloth from the high altar of a church at Murano.

[244] This in Panvinio alone among contemporary historians (Contin. Platinæ, p. 339), ‘insidiis Cæsaris fratris interfectus ... connivente ... ad scelus patre,’ and to the same effect Jovius, _Elog. Vir. Ill._ p. 302. The profound emotion of Alexander looks like a sign of complicity. After the corpse was drawn out of the Tiber, Sannazaro wrote (_Opera Omnia Latine Scripta_ 1535, fol. 41 _a_):

‘Piscatorem hominum ne te non, Sixte, putemus
Piscaris natum retibus, ecce, tuum.’

Besides the epigram quoted there are others (fol. 36 _b_, 42 _b_, 47 _b_, 51 _a_, _b_--in the last passage 5) in Sannazaro on, i.e. against, Alexander. Among them is a famous one, referred to in Gregorovius i. 314, on Lucrezia Borgia:

Ergo te semper cupiet Lucretia Sextus?
O fatum diri nominis: hic pater est?

Others execrate his cruelty and celebrate his death as the beginning of an era of peace. On the Jubilee (see below, p. 108, note 1), there is another epigram, fol. 43 _b_. There are others no less severe (fol. 34 _b_, 35 _a_, _b_, 42 _b_, 43 _a_) against Cæsar Borgia, among which we find in one of the strongest:

Aut nihil aut Cæsar vult dici Borgia; quidni?
Cum simul et Cæsar possit, et esse nihil.

(made use of by Bandello, iv. nov. 11). On the murder of the Duke of Gandia, see especially the admirable collection of the most original sources of evidence in Gregorovius, vii. 399-407, according to which Cæsar’s guilt is clear, but it seems very doubtful whether Alexander knew, or approved, of the intended assassination.

[245] Macchiavelli, _Opere_, ed. Milan, vol. v. pp. 387, 393, 395, in the _Legazione al Duca Valentino_.

[246] Tommaso Gar, _Relazioni della Corte di Roma_, i. p. 12, in the _Rel. of P. Capello_. Literally: ‘The Pope has more respect for Venice than for any other power in the world.’ ‘E però desidera, che ella (Signoria di Venezia) protegga il figliuolo, e dice voler fare tale ordine, che il papato o sia suo, ovvero della signoria nostra.’ The word ‘suo’ can only refer to Cæsar. An instance of the uncertainty caused by this usage is found in the still lively controversy respecting the words used by Vasari in the _Vita di Raffaello_: ‘A Bindo Altoviti fece il ritratto suo, &c.’

[247] _Strozzii Poetae_, p. 19, in the ‘Venatio’ of Ercole Strozza: ’ ... cui triplicem fata invidere coronam.’ And in the Elegy on Cæsar’s death, p. 31 sqq.: ‘Speraretque olim solii decora alta paterni.’

[248] _Ibid._ Jupiter had once promised

‘Affore Alexandri sobolem, quæ poneret olim
Italiæ leges, atque aurea sæcla referret,’ etc.

[249] _Ibid._

‘Sacrumque decus majora parantem deposuisse.’

[250] He was married, as is well known, to a French princess of the family of Albret, and had a daughter by her; in some way or other he would have attempted to found a dynasty. It is not known that he took steps to regain the cardinal’s hat, although (acc. to Macchiavelli, l. c. p. 285) he must have counted on the speedy death of his father.

[251] Macchiavelli, l. c. p. 334. Designs on Siena and eventually on all Tuscany certainly existed, but were not yet ripe; the consent of France was indispensable.

[252] Macchiavelli, l. c. pp. 326, 351, 414; Matarazzo, _Cronaca di Perugia, Arch. Stor._ xvi. ii. pp. 157 and 221. He wished his soldiers to quarter themselves where they pleased, so that they gained more in time of peace than of war. Petrus Alcyonius, _De Exilio_ (1522), ed. Mencken, p. 19, says of the style of conducting war: ‘Ea scelera et flagitia a nostris militibus patrata sunt quæ ne Scythæ quidem aut Turcæ, aut Pœni in Italia commisissent.’ The same writer (p. 65) blames Alexander as a Spaniard: ‘Hispani generis hominem, cujus proprium est, rationibus et commodis Hispanorum consultum velle, non Italorum.’ See above, p. 109.

[253] To this effect Pierio Valeriano, _De Infelicitate Literat._ ed. Mencken, p. 282, in speaking of Giovanni Regio: ‘In arcano proscriptorum albo positus.’

[254] Tommaso Gar, l. c. p. 11. From May 22, 1502, onwards the _Despatches of Giustiniani_, 3 vols. Florence, 1876, edited by Pasquale Villari, offer valuable information.

[255] Paulus Jovius, _Elogia_, Cæsar Borgia. In the _Commentarii Urbani_ of Ralph. Volaterianus, lib. xxii. there is a description of Alexander VI., composed under Julius II., and still written very guardedly. We here read: ‘Roma ... nobilis jam carneficina facta erat.’