Chapter V: General Disintegration of Belief (6)

[787] Two tournaments must be distinguished, Lorenzo’s in 1468 and Guiliano’s in 1475 (a third in 1481?). See Reumont, _L. M._ i. 264 sqq. 361, 267, note 1; ii. 55, 67, and the works there quoted, which settle the old dispute on these points. The first tournament is treated in the poem of Luca Pulci, ed. _Ciriffo Calvaneo di Luca Pulci Gentilhuomo Fiorentino, con la Giostra del Magnifico Lorenzo de’ Medici_. Florence, 1572, pp. 75, 91; the second in an unfinished poem of Ang. Poliziano, best ed. Carducci, _Le Stanze, l’Orfeo e le Rime di M. A. P._ Florence, 1863. The description of Politian breaks off at the setting out of Guiliano for the tournament. Pulci gives a detailed account of the combatants and the manner of fighting. The description of Lorenzo is particularly good (p. 82).

[788] This so-called ‘Caccia’ is printed in the Commentary to Castiglione’s _Eclogue_ from a Roman MS. _Lettere del conte B. Castiglione_, ed. Pierantonio Lerassi (Padua, 1771), ii. p. 269.

[789] See the _Serventese_ of Giannozzo of Florence, in Trucchi, _Poesie italiane inedite_, ii. p. 99. The words are many of them quite unintelligible, borrowed really or apparently from the languages of the foreign mercenaries. Macchiavelli’s description of Florence during the plague of 1527 belongs, to certain extent, to this class of works. It is a series of living, speaking pictures of a frightful calamity.

[790] According to Boccaccio (_Vita di Dante_, p. 77), Dante was the author of two eclogues, probably written in Latin. They are addressed to Joh. de Virgiliis. Comp. Fraticelli, _Opp. min. di Dante_, i. 417. Petrarch’s bucolic poem in _P. Carmina minora_, ed. Bossetti, i. Comp. L. Geiger, _Petr._ 120-122 and 270, note 6, especially A. Hortis, _Scritti inediti di F. P._ Triest, 1874.

[791] Boccaccio gives in his _Ameto_ (above, p. 344) a kind of mythical Decameron, and sometimes fails ludicrously to keep up the character. One of his nymphs is a good Catholic, and prelates shoot glances of unholy love at her in Rome. Another marries. In the _Ninfale fiesolano_ the nymph Mensola, who finds herself pregnant, takes counsel of an ‘old and wise nymph.’

[792] In general the prosperity of the Italian peasants was greater then than that of the peasantry anywhere else in Europe. Comp. Sacchetti, nov. 88 and 222; L. Pulci in the _Beca da Dicamano_ (Villari, _Macchiavelli_, i. 198, note 2).

[793] ‘Nullum est hominum genus aptius urbi,’ says Battista Mantovano (_Ecl._ viii.) of the inhabitants of the Monte Baldo and the Val. Cassina, who could turn their hands to anything. Some country populations, as is well known, have even now privileges with regard to certain occupations in the great cities.

[794] Perhaps one of the strongest passages, _Orlandino_, cap. v. str. 54-58. The tranquil and unlearned Vesp. Bisticci says (_Comm. sulla vita di Giov. Manetti_, p. 96): ‘Sono due ispezie di uomini difficili a supportare per la loro ignoranza; l’una sono i servi, la seconda i contadini.’

[795] In Lombardy, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the nobles did not shrink from dancing, wrestling, leaping, and racing with the peasants. _Il Cortigiano_, l. ii. fol. 54. A. Pandolfini (L. B. Alberti) in the _Trattato del governo della famiglia_, p. 86, is an instance of a land-owner who consoles himself for the greed and fraud of his peasant tenantry with the reflection that he is thereby taught to bear and deal with his fellow-creatures.

[796] Jovian. Pontan. _De fortitudine_, lib. ii.

[797] The famous peasant-woman of the Valtellina--Bona Lombarda, wife of the Condottiere Pietro Brunoro--is known to us from Jacobus Bergomensis and from Porcellius, in Murat. xxv. col. 43.

[798] On the condition of the Italian peasantry in general, and especially of the details of that condition in several provinces, we are unable to particularise more fully. The proportions between freehold and leasehold property, and the burdens laid on each in comparison with those borne at the present time, must be gathered from special works which we have not had the opportunity of consulting. In stormy times the country people were apt to have appalling relapses into savagery (_Arch. Stor._ xvi. i. pp. 451 sqq., ad. a. 1440; Corio, fol. 259; _Annales Foroliv._ in Murat. xxii. col. 227, though nothing in the shape of a general peasants’ war occurred. The rising near Piacenza in 1462 was of some importance and interest. Comp. Corio, _Storia di Milano_, fol. 409; _Annales Placent._ in Murat. xx. col. 907; Sismondi, x. p. 138. See below, part vi. cap. 1.

[799] _F. Bapt. Mantuani Bucolica seu Adolescentia in decem Eclogas divisa_; often printed, e.g. Strasburg, 1504. The date of composition is indicated by the preface, written in 1498, from which it also appears that the ninth and tenth eclogues were added later. In the heading to the tenth are the words, ‘post religionis ingressum;’ in that of the seventh, ‘cum jam autor ad religionem aspiraret.’ The eclogues by no means deal exclusively with peasant life; in fact, only two of them do so--the sixth, ‘disceptatione rusticorum et civium,’ in which the writer sides with the rustics; and the eighth, ‘de rusticorum religione.’ The others speak of love, of the relations between poets and wealthy men, of conversion to religion, and of the manners of the Roman court.

[800] _Poesie di Lorenzo Magnifico_, i. p. 37 sqq. The remarkable poems belonging to the period of the German ‘Minnesänger,’ which bear the name of Neithard von Reuenthal, only depict peasant life in so far as the knight chooses to mix with it for his amusement. The peasants reply to the ridicule of Reuenthal in songs of their own. Comp. Karl Schroder, _Die höfische Dorfpoesie des deutschen Mittelalters_ in Rich. Gosche, _Jahrb. für Literaturgesch._ 1 vol. Berlin, 1875, pp. 45-98, esp. 75 sqq.

[801] _Poesie di Lor. Magn._ ii. 149.

[802] In the _Deliciae poetar. ital._, and in the works of Politian. First separate ed. Florence, 1493. The didactic poem of Rucellai, _Le Api_, first printed 1519, and _La coltivazione_, Paris, 1546, contain something of the same kind.

[803] _Poesie di Lor. Magnifico_, ii. 75.

[804] The imitation of different dialects and of the manners of different districts spring from the same tendency. Comp. p. 155.

[805] _Jo. Pici oratio de hominis dignitate._ The passage is as follows: ‘Statuit tandem optimus opifex ut cui dari nihil proprium poterat commune esset quidquid privatum singulis fuerat. Igitur hominem accepit indiscretae opus imaginis atque in mundi posito meditullio sic est allocutus; Nec certam sedem, nec propriam faciem, nec munus ullum peculiare tibi dedimus, O Adam, ut quam sedem, quam faciem, quae munera tute optaveris, ea pro voto pro tua sententia habeas et possideas. Definita caeteris natura inter praescriptas a nobis leges coercetur, tu nullis augustiis coercitus pro tuo arbitrio, in cujus manus te posui, tibi illam praefinies. Medium te mundi posui ut circumspiceres inde commodius quidquid est in mundo. Nec te caelestem neque terrenum, neque mortalem neque immortalem fecimus, ut tui ipsius quasi arbitrarius honorariusque plastes et fictor in quam malueris tute formam effingas. Poteris in inferiora quae sunt bruta degenerare, poteris in superiora quae sunt divina ex tui animi sententia regenerari. O summam dei patris liberalitatem, summam et admirandam hominis felicitatem. Cui datum id habere quod optat, id esse quod velit. Bruta simulatque nascuntur id secum afferunt, ut ait Lucilius, e bulga matris quod possessura sunt; supremi spiritus aut ab initio aut paulo mox id fuerunt quod sunt futuri in perpetuas aeternitates. Nascenti homini omnifaria semina et omnigenae vitæ germina indidit pater; quæ quisque excoluerit illa adolescent et fructus suos ferent in illo. Si vegetalia, planta fiet, si sensualia, obbrutescet, si rationalia, coeleste evadet animal, si intellectualia, angelus erit et dei filius, et si nulla creaturarum sorte contentus in unitatis centrum suae se receperit, unus cum deo spiritus factus in solitaria patris caligine qui est super omnia constitutus omnibus antestabit.’

The speech first appears in the _commentationes_ of Jo. Picus without any special title; the heading ‘de hominis dignitate’ was added later. It is not altogether suitable, since a great part of the discourse is devoted to the defence of the peculiar philosophy of Pico, and the praise of, the Jewish Cabbalah. On Pico, see above, p. 202 sqq.; and below; part. vi. chap. 4. More than two hundred years before, Brunetto Latini (_Tesoro_, lib. i. cap. 13, ed. Chabaille, p. 20) had said: ‘Toutes choses dou ciel en aval sont faites pour l’ome; mais li hom at faiz pour lui meisme.’ The words seemed to a contemporary to have too much human pride in them, and he added: ‘e por Dieu amer et servir et por avoir la joie pardurable.’

[806] An allusion to the fall of Lucifer and his followers.

[807] The habit among the Piedmontese nobility of living in their castles in the country struck the other Italians as exceptional. Bandello, parte ii. nov. 7 (?).

[808] This was the case long before printing. A large number of manuscripts, and among them the best, belonged to Florentine artisans. If it had not been for Savonarola’s great bonfire, many more of them would be left.

[809] Dante, _De monarchia_, l. ii. cap. 3.

[810] _Paradiso_, xvi. at the beginning.

[811] Dante, _Convito_, nearly the whole _Trattato_, iv., and elsewhere. Brunetto Latini says (_Il tesoro_, lib. i. p. ii. cap. 50, ed. Chabaille, p. 343): ‘De ce (la vertu) nasqui premierement la nobleté de gentil gent, non pas de ses ancêtres;’ and he warns men (lib. ii. p. ii. cap. 196, p. 440) that they may lose true nobility by bad actions. Similarly Petrarch, _de rem. utr. fort._ lib. i. dial. xvii.: ‘Verus nobilis non nascitur, sed fit.’

[812] _Poggi Opera, Dial. de nobilitate._ Aristotle’s view is expressly combatted by B. Platina, _De vera nobilitate_.

[813] This contempt of noble birth is common among the humanists. See the severe passages in Æn. Sylvius, _Opera_, pp. 84 (_Hist. bohem._ cap. 2) and 640. (_Stories of Lucretia and Euryalus._)

[814] This is the case in the capital itself. See Bandello, parte ii. nov. 7; _Joviani Pontani Antonius_, where the decline of energy in the nobility is dated from the coming of the Aragonese dynasty.

[815] Throughout Italy it was universal that the owner of large landed property stood on an equality with the nobles. It is only flattery when J. A. Campanus adds to the statement of Pius II. (_Commentarii_, p. 1), that as a boy he had helped his poor parents in their rustic labours, the further assertion that he only did so for his amusement, and that this was the custom of the young nobles (Voigt, ii. 339).

[816] For an estimate of the nobility in North Italy, Bandello, with his repeated rebukes of _mésalliances_, is of importance (parte i. nov. 4, 26; parte iii. nov. 60). For the participation of the nobles in the games of the peasants, see above.

[817] The severe judgment of Macchiavelli, _Discorsi_, i. 55, refers only to those of the nobility who still retained feudal rights, and who were thoroughly idle and politically mischievous. Agrippa of Nettesheim, who owes his most remarkable ideas chiefly to his life in Italy, has a chapter on the nobility and princes (_De Incert. et Vanit. Scient._ cap, 80), the bitterness of which exceeds anything to be met with elsewhere, and is due to the social ferment then prevailing in the North. A passage at p. 213 is as follows: ‘Si ... nobilitatis primordia requiramus, comperiemus hanc nefaria perfidia et crudelitate partam, si ingressum spectemus, reperiemus hanc mercenaria militia et latrociniis auctam. Nobilitas revera nihil aliud est quam robusta improbitas atque dignitas non nisi scelere quaesita benedictio et hereditas pessimorom quorumcunque filiorum.’ In giving the history of the nobility he makes a passing reference to Italy (p. 227).

[818] Massuccio, nov. 19 (ed. Settembrini, Nap. 1874, p. 220). The first ed. of the novels appeared in 1476.

[819] Jacopo Pitti to Cosimo I., _Archiv. Stor._ iv. ii. p. 99. In North Italy the Spanish rule brought about the same results. Bandello, parte ii. nov. 40, dates from this period.

[820] When, in the fifteenth century, Vespasiano Fiorentino (pp. 518, 632) implies that the rich should not try to increase their inherited fortune, but should spend their whole annual income, this can only, in the mouth of a Florentine, refer to the great landowners.

[821] Franco Sacchetti, nov. 153. Comp. nov. 82 and 150.

[822] ‘Che la cavalleria è morta.’

[823] Poggius, _De Nobilitate_, fol. 27. See above, p. 19. Ænea Silvio (_Hist. Fried. III._ ed. Kollar, p. 294) finds fault with the readiness with which Frederick conferred knighthood in Italy.

[824] Vasari, iii. 49, and note. _Vita di Dello._ The city of Florence claimed the right of conferring knighthood. On the ceremonies of this kind in 1378 and 1389, see Reumont, _Lorenzo_, ii. 444 sqq.

[825] Senarega, _De Reb. Gen._ in Murat. xxiv. col. 525. At a wedding of Joh. Adurnus with Leonora di Sanseverino, ‘certamina equestria in Sarzano edita sunt ... proposita et data victoribus praemia. Ludi multiformes in palatio celebrati a quibus tanquam a re nova pendebat plebs et integros dies illis spectantibus impendebat.’ Politian writes to Joh. Picus of the cavalry exercise of his pupils (_Aug. Pol. Epist._ lib. xii. ep. 6): ‘Tu tamen a me solos fieri poetas aut oratores putas, at ego non minus facio bellatores.’ Ortensio Landi in the _Commentario_, fol. 180, tells of a duel between two soldiers at Correggio with a fatal result, reminding one of the old gladiatorial combats. The writer, whose imagination is generally active, gives us here the impression of truthfulness. The passages quoted show that knighthood was not absolutely necessary for these public contests.

[826] Petrarch, _Epist. Senil._ xi. 13, to Ugo of Este. Another passage in the _Epist. Famil._ lib. v. ep. 6, Dec. 1st, 1343, describes the disgust he felt at seeing a knight fall at a tournament in Naples. For legal prescriptions as to the tournament at Naples, see Fracassetti’s Italian translation of Petrarch’s letters, Florence, 1864, ii. p. 34. L. B. Alberti also points out the danger, uselessness, and expense of tournaments. _Della Famiglia, Op. Volg._ ii. 229.

[827] Nov. 64. With reference to this practice, it is said expressly in the _Orlandino_ (ii. str. 7), of a tournament under Charlemagne: ‘Here they were no cooks and scullions, but kings, dukes, and marquises, who fought.’

[828] This is one of the oldest parodies of the tournament. Sixty years passed before Jacques Cœur, the burgher-minister of finance under Charles VII., gave a tournament of donkeys in the courtyard of his palace at Bourges (about 1450). The most brilliant of all these parodies--the second canto of the _Orlandino_ just quoted--was not published till 1526.

[829] Comp. the poetry, already quoted, of Politian and Luca Pulci (p. 349, note 3). Further, Paul. Jov., _Vita Leonis X._ l. i.; Macchiavelli, _Storie Fiorent._, l. vii.; Paul. Jov. _Elog._, speaking of Pietro de’ Medici, who neglected his public duties for these amusements, and of Franc. Borbonius, who lost his life in them; Vasari, ix. 219, _Vita di Granacci_. In the _Morgante_ of Pulci, written under the eyes of Lorenzo, the knights are comical in their language and actions, but their blows are sturdy and scientific. Bojardo, too, writes for those who understand the tournament and the art of war. Comp. p. 323. In earlier Florentine history we read of a tournament in honour of the king of France, c. 1380, in Leon. Aret., _Hist. Flor._ lib. xi. ed. Argent, p. 222. The tournaments at Ferrara in 1464 are mentioned in the _Diario Ferrar._ in Murat. xxiv. col. 208; at Venice, see Sansovino, _Venezia_, fol. 153 sqq.; at Bologna in 1470 and after, see Bursellis, _Annal. Bonon._ Muratori xxiii. col. 898, 903, 906, 908, 911, where it is curious to note the odd mixture of sentimentalism attaching to the celebration of Roman triumphs; ‘ut antiquitas Romana renovata videretur,’ we read in one place. Frederick of Urbino (p. 44 sqq.) lost his right eye at a tournament ‘ab ictu lanceae.’ On the tournament as held at that time in northern countries, see Olivier de la Marche, _Mémoires_, _passim_, and especially cap. 8, 9, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, &c.

[830] Bald. Castiglione. _Il Cortigiano_, l. i. fol. 18.

[831] Paul. Jovii, _Elogia_, sub tit. Petrus Gravina, Alex. Achillinus, Balth. Castellio, &c. pp. 138 sqq. 112 sqq. 143 sqq.

[832] Casa, _Il Galateo_, p. 78.

[833] See on this point the Venetian books of fashions, and Sansovino, _Venezia_, fol. 150 sqq. The bridal dress at the betrothal--white, with the hair falling freely on the shoulders--is that of Titian’s Flora. The ‘Proveditori alle pompe’ at Venice established 1514. Extracts from their decisions in Armand Baschet, _Souvenirs d’une Mission_, Paris, 1857. Prohibition of gold-embroidered garments in Venice, 1481, which had formerly been worn even by the bakers’ wives; they were now to be decorated ‘gemmis unionibus,’ so that ‘frugalissimus ornatus’ cost 4,000 gold florins. M. Ant. Sabellici, _Epist._ lib. iii. (to M. Anto. Barbavarus).

[834] Jovian. Pontan. _De Principe_: ‘Utinam autem non eo impudentiae perventum esset, ut inter mercatorem et patricium nullum sit in vestitu ceteroque ornatu discrimen. Sed haec tanta licentia reprehendi potest, coerceri non potest, quanquam mutari vestes sic quotidie videamus, ut quas quarto ante mense in deliciis habebamus, nunc repudiemus et tanquam veteramenta abjiciamus. Quodque tolerari vix potest, nullum fere vestimenti genus probatur, quod e Galliis non fuerit adductum, in quibus levia pleraque in pretio sunt, tametsi nostri persaepe homines modum illis et quasi formulam quandam praescribant.’

[835] See e.g. the _Diario Ferrarese_, in Murat. xxiv. col. 297, 320, 376, sqq., in which the last German fashions are spoken of; the chronicler says, ‘Che pareno buffoni tali portatori.’

[836] This interesting passage from a very rare work may be here quoted. See above, p. 83 note 1. The historical event referred to is the conquest of Milan by Antonio Leiva, the general of Charles V., in 1522. ‘Olim splendidissime vestiebant Mediolanenses. Sed postquam Carolus Cæsar in eam urbem tetram et monstruosam Bestiam immisit, it a consumpti et exhausti sunt, ut vestimentorum splendorem omnium maxime oderint, et quemadmodum ante illa durissima Antoniana tempora nihil aliud fere cogitabant quam de mutandis vestibus, nunc alia cogitant ac in mente versant. Non potuit tamen illa Leviana rabies tantum perdere, neque illa in exhausta depraedandi libidine tantum expilare, quin a re familiari adhuc belle parati fiant atque ita vestiant quemadmodum decere existimant. Et certe nisi illa Antonii Levae studia egregios quosdam imitatores invenisset, meo quidem judicio, nulli cederent. Neapolitani nimium exercent in vestitu sumptus. Genuensium vestitum perelegantem judico neque sagati sunt neque togati. Ferme oblitus eram Venetorum. Ii togati omnes. Decet quidem ille habitus adulta aetate homines, juvenes vero (si quid ego judico) minime utuntur panno quem ipsi vulgo Venetum appellant, ita probe confecto ut perpetuo durare existimes, saepissime vero eas vestes gestant nepotes, quas olim tritavi gestarunt. Noctu autem dum scortantur ac potant, Hispanicis palliolis utuntur. Ferrarienses ac Mantuani nihil tam diligenter curant, quam ut pileos habeant aureis quibusdam frustillis adornatos, atque nutanti capite incedunt seque quovis honore dignos existimant, Lucenses neque superbo, neque abjecto vestitu. Florentinorum habitus mihi quidem ridiculus videtur. Reliquos omitto, ne nimius sim.’ Ugolinus Verinus, ‘de illustratione urbis Florentiae’ says of the simplicity of the good old time:

‘Non externis advecta Britannis
Lana erat in pretio, non concha aut coccus in usu.’

[837] Comp. the passages on the same subject in Falke, _Die deutsche Trachten- und Modenwelt_, Leipzig, 1858.

[838] On the Florentine women, see the chief references in Giov. Villani, x. 10 and 150 (Regulations as to dress and their repeal); Matteo Villani, i. 4 (Extravagant living in consequence of the plague). In the celebrated edict on fashions of the year 1330, embroidered figures only were allowed on the dresses of women, to the exclusion of those which were painted (dipinto). What was the nature of these decorations appears doubtful. There is a list of the arts of the toilette practised by women in Boccaccio, _De Cas. Vir. Ill._ lib. i. cap. 18, ‘in mulieres.’

[839] Those of real hair were called ‘capelli morti.’ Wigs were also worn by men, as by Giannozzo Manetti, _Vesp. Bist. Commentario_, p. 103; so at least we explain this somewhat obscure passage. For an instance of false teeth made of ivory, and worn, though only for the sake of clear articulation, by an Italian prelate, see Anshelm, _Berner Chronik_, iv. p. 30 (1508). Ivory teeth in Boccaccio, l. c.: ‘Dentes casu sublatos reformare ebore fuscatos pigmentis gemmisque in albedinem revocare pristinam.’

[840] Infessura, in Eccard, _Scriptores_, ii. col. 1874: Allegretto, in Murat. xxiii. col. 823. For the writers on Savonarola, see below.

[841] Sansovino, _Venezia_, fol. 152: ‘Capelli biondissimi per forza di sole.’ Comp. p. 89, and the rare works quoted by Yriarte, ‘_Vie d’un Patricien de Venise_’ (1874), p. 56.

[842] As was the case in Germany too. _Poesie satiriche_, p. 119. From the satire of Bern. Giambullari, ‘Per prendere moglie’ (pp. 107-126), we can form a conception of the chemistry of the toilette, which was founded largely on superstition and magic.

[843] The poets spared no pains to show the ugliness, danger, and absurdity of these practices. Comp. Ariosto, _Sat._ iii. 202 sqq.; Aretino, _Il Marescalco_, atto ii. scena 5; and several passages in the _Ragionamenti_; Giambullari, l. c. Phil. Beroald. sen. _Garmina_. Also Filelfo in his Satires (Venice, 1502, iv. 2-5 sqq.).

[844] Cennino Cennini, _Trattato della Pittura_, gives in cap. 161 a recipe for painting the face, evidently for the purpose of mysteries or masquerades, since, in cap. 162, he solemnly warns his readers against the general use of cosmetics and the like, which was peculiarly common, as he tells us (p. 146 sqq.), in Tuscany.

[845] Comp. _La Nencia di Barberino_, str. 20 and 40. The lover promises to bring his beloved cosmetics from the town (see on this poem of Lorenzo dei Medici, above, p. 101).

[846] Agnolo Pandolfini, _Trattato della Governo della Famiglia_, p. 118. He condemns this practice most energetically.

[847] Tristan. Caracciolo, in Murat. xxii. col. 87. Bandello, parte ii. nov. 47.

[848] Cap. i. to Cosimo: “Quei cento scudi nuovi e profumati che l’altro di mi mandaste a donare.” Some objects which date from that period have not yet lost their odour.

[849] Vespasiano Fiorent. p. 453, in the life of Donato Acciajuoli, and p. 625, in the life of Niccoli. See above, vol. i. p. 303 sqq.

[850] Giraldi, _Hecatommithi_, Introduz. nov. 6. A few notices on the Germans in Italy may not here be out of place. On the fear of German invasion, see p. 91, note 2; on Germans as copyists and printers, p. 193 sqq. and the notes; on the ridicule of Hadrian VI. as a German, p. 227 and notes. The Italians were in general ill-disposed to the Germans, and showed their ill-will by ridicule. Boccaccio (_Decam._ viii. 1) says: ‘Un Tedesco in soldo prò della persona è assai leale a coloro ne’ cui servigi si mattea; il che rade volte suole de’ Tedeschi avenire.’ The tale is given as an instance of German cunning. The Italian humanists are full of attacks on the German barbarians, and especially those who, like Poggio, had seen Germany. Comp. Voigt, _Wiederbelebung_, 374 sqq.; Geiger, _Beziehungen zwischen Deutschland und Italien Zeit des Humanismus_ in _Zeitschrift für deutsche Culturgeschichte_, 1875, pp. 104-124; see also Janssen, _Gesch. der deutschen Volkes_, i. 262. One of the chief opponents of the Germans was Joh. Ant. Campanus. See his works, ed. Mencken, who delivered a discourse ‘De Campani odio in Germanos.’ The hatred of the Germans was strengthened by the conduct of Hadrian VI., and still more by the conduct of the troops at the sack of Rome (Gregorovius, viii. 548, note). Bandello III. nov. 30, chooses the German as the type of the dirty and foolish man (see iii. 51, for another German). When an Italian wishes to praise a German he says, as Petrus Alcyonius in the dedication to his dialogue _De Exilio_, to Nicolaus Schomberg, p. 9: ‘Itaque etsi in Misnensi clarissima Germaniæ provincia illustribus natalibus ortus es, tamen in Italiae luce cognosceris.’ Unqualified praise is rare, e.g. of German women at the time of Marius, _Cortigiano_, iii. cap. 33.

It must be added that the Italians of the Renaissance, like the Greeks of antiquity, were filled with aversion for all barbarians. Boccaccio, _De claris Mulieribus_, in the article ‘Carmenta,’ speaks of ‘German barbarism, French savagery, English craft, and Spanish coarseness.’

[851] Paul. Jov. _Elogia_, p. 289, who, however, makes no mention of the German education. Maximilian could not be induced, even by celebrated women, to change his underclothing.

[852] Æneas Sylvius (_Vitae Paparum_, ap. Murat. iii. ii. col. 880) says, in speaking of Baccano: ‘Pauca sunt mapalia, eaque hospitia faciunt Theutonici; hoc hominum genus totam fere Italiam hospitalem facit; ubi non repereris hos, neque diversorium quaeras.’

[853] Franco Sacchetti, Nov. 21. Padua, about the year 1450, boasted of a great inn--the ‘Ox’--like a palace, containing stabling for two hundred horses. Michele Savonarola, in Mur. xxiv. col. 1175. At Florence, outside the Porta San Gallo, there was one of the largest and most splendid inns then known, but which served, it seems, only as a place of amusement for the people of the city. Varchi, _Stor. Fior._ iii. p. 86. At the time of Alexander VI. the best inn at Rome was kept by a German. See the remarkable notices taken from the MS. of Burcardus in Gregorovius, vii. 361, note 2. Comp. _ibid._ p. 93, notes 2 and 3.

[854] Comp. e.g. the passages in Sebastian Brant’s _Narrenschiff_, in the Colloquies of Erasmus, in the Latin poem of Grobianus, &c., and poems on behaviour at table, where, besides descriptions of bad habits, rules are given for good behaviour. For one of these, see C. Weller, _Deutsche Gedichte der Jahrhunderts_, Tübingen, 1875.

[855] The diminution of the ‘burla’ is evident from the instances in the _Cortigiano_, l. ii. fol. 96. The Florence practical jokes kept their ground tenaciously. See, for evidence, the tales of Lasca (Ant. Franc. Grazini, b. 1503, d. 1582), which appeared at Florence in 1750.

[856] For Milan, see Bandello, parte i. nov. 9. There were more than sixty carriages with four, and numberless others with two, horses, many of them carved and richly gilt and with silken tops. Comp. _ibid._ nov. 4. Ariosto, _Sat._ iii. 127.

[857] Bandello, parte i. nov. 3, iii. 42, iv. 25.

[858] _De Vulgari Eloquio_, ed. Corbinelli, Parisiis, 1577. According to Boccaccio, _Vita di Dante_, p. 77, it was written shortly before his death. He mentions in the _Convito_ the rapid and striking changes which took place during his lifetime in the Italian language.

[859] See on this subject the investigations of Lionardo Aretino (_Epist._ ed. Mehus. ii. 62 sqq. lib. vi. 10) and Poggio (_Historiae disceptativae convivales tres_, in the _Opp._ fol. 14 sqq.), whether in earlier times the language of the people and of scholars was the same. Lionardo maintains the negative; Poggio expressly maintains the affirmative against his predecessor. See also the detailed argument of L. B. Alberti in the introduction to _Della Famiglia_, book iii., on the necessity of Italian for social intercourse.

[860] The gradual progress which this dialect made in literature and social intercourse could be tabulated without difficulty by a native scholar. It could be shown to what extent in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the various dialects kept their places, wholly or partly, in correspondence, in official documents, in historical works, and in literature generally. The relations between the dialects and a more or less impure Latin, which served as the official language, would also be discussed. The modes of speech and pronunciation in the different cities of Italy are noticed in Landi, _Forcianae Quaestiones_, fol. 7 _a._ Of the former he says: ‘Hetrusci vero quanquam caeteris excellant, effugere tamen non possunt, quin et ipsi ridiculi sint, aut saltem quin se mutuo lacerent;’ as regards pronunciation, the Sienese, Lucchese, and Florentines are specially praised; but of the Florentines it is said: ‘Plus (jucunditatis) haberet si voces non ingurgitaret aut non ita palato lingua jungeretur.’

[861] It is so felt to be by Dante, _De Vulgari Eloquio_.

[862] Tuscan, it is true, was read and written long before this in Piedmont--but very little reading and writing was done at all.

[863] The place, too, of the dialect in the usage of daily life was clearly understood. Gioviano Pontano ventured especially to warn the prince of Naples against the use of it (Jov. Pontan. _De Principe_). The last Bourbons were notoriously less scrupulous in this respect. For the way in which a Milanese Cardinal, who wished to retain his native dialect in Rome was ridiculed, see Bandello, parte ii. nov. 31.

[864] Bald. Castiglione, _Il Cortigiano_, l. i. fol. 27 sqq. Throughout the dialogue we are able to gather the personal opinion of the writer. The opposition to Petrarch and Boccaccio is very curious (Dante is not once mentioned). We read that Politian, Lorenzo de’ Medici, and others were also Tuscans, and as worthy of imitation as they, ‘e forse di non minor dottrina e guidizio.’

[865] There was a limit, however, to this. The satirists introduce bits of Spanish, and Folengo (under the pseudonym Limerno Pitocco, in his _Orlandino_) of French, but only by way of ridicule. It is an exceptional fact that a street in Milan, which at the time of the French (1500 to 1512, 1515 to 1522) was called Rue Belle, now bears the name Rugabella. The long Spanish rule has left almost no traces on the language, and but rarely the name of some governor in streets and public buildings. It was not till the eighteenth century that, together with French modes of thought, many French words and phrases found their way into Italian. The purism of our century is still busy in removing them.

[866] Firenzuola, _Opera_, i. in the preface to the discourse on female beauty, and ii. in the _Ragionamenti_ which precede the novels.

[867] Bandello, parte i. _Proemio_, and nov. 1 and 2. Another Lombard, the before-mentioned Teofilo Folengo in his _Orlandino_, treats the whole matter with ridicule.

[868] Such a congress appears to have been held at Bologna at the end of 1531 under the presidency of Bembo. See the letter of Claud. Tolomai, in Firenzuola, _Opere_, vol. ii. append. p. 231 sqq. But this was not so much a matter of purism, but rather the old quarrel between Lombards and Tuscans.

[869] Luigi Cornaro complains about 1550 (at the beginning of his _Trattato della Vita Sobria_) that latterly Spanish ceremonies and compliments, Lutheranism and gluttony had been gaining ground in Italy. With moderation in respect to the entertainment offered to guests, the freedom and ease of social intercourse disappeared.

[870] Vasari, xii. p. 9 and 11, _Vita di Rustici_. For the School for Scandal of needy artists, see xi. 216 sqq., _Vita d’Aristotile_. Macchiavelli’s _Capitoli_ for a circle of pleasure-seekers (_Opere minori_, p. 407) are a ludicrous caricature of these social statutes. The well-known description of the evening meeting of artists in Rome in Benvenuto Cellini, i. cap. 30 is incomparable.

[871] Which must have been taken about 10 or 11 o’clock. See Bandello, parte ii. nov. 10.

[872] Prato, _Arch. Stor._ iii. p. 309, calls the ladies ‘alquante ministre di Venere.’

[873] Biographical information and some of her letters in A. v. Reumont’s _Briefe heiliger und gottesfürchtiger Italiener_. Freiburg (1877) p. 22 sqq.

[874] Important passages: parte i. nov. 1, 3, 21, 30, 44; ii. 10, 34, 55; iii. 17, &c.

[875] Comp. _Lorenzo Magn. dei Med., Poesie_, i. 204 (the Symposium); 291 (the Hawking-Party). Roscoe, _Vita di Lorenzo_, iii. p. 140, and append. 17 to 19.

[876] The title ‘Simposio’ is inaccurate; it should be called, ‘The return from the Vintage.’ Lorenzo, in a parody of Dante’s Hell, gives an amusing account of his meeting in the Via Faenza all his good friends coming back from the country more or less tipsy. There is a most comical picture in the eighth chapter of Piovanno Arlotto, who sets out in search of his lost thirst, armed with dry meat, a herring, a piece of cheese, a sausage, and four sardines, ‘e tutte si cocevan nel sudore.’

[877] On Cosimo Ruccellai as centre of this circle at the beginning of the sixteenth century, see Macchiavelli, _Arte della Guerra_, l. i.

[878] _Il Cortigiano_, l. ii. fol. 53. See above pp. 121, 139.

[879] Caelius Calcagninus (_Opere_, p. 514) describes the education of a young Italian of position about the year 1506, in the funeral speech on Antonio Costabili: first, ‘artes liberales et ingenuae disciplinae; tum adolescentia in iis exercitationibus acta, quæ ad rem militarem corpus et animum praemuniunt. Nunc gymnastae (i.e. the teachers of gymnastics) operam dare, luctari, excurrere, natare, equitare, venari, aucupari, ad palum et apud lanistam ictus inferre aut declinare, caesim punctimve hostem ferire, hastam vibrare, sub armis hyemen juxta et aestatem traducere, lanceis occursare, veri ac communis Martis simulacra imitari.’ Cardanus (_De prop. Vita_, c. 7) names among his gymnastic exercises the springing on to a wooden horse. Comp. Rabelais, _Gargantua_, i. 23, 24, for education in general, and 35 for gymnastic art. Even for the philologists, Marsilius Ficinus (_Epist._ iv. 171 Galeotto) requires gymnastics, and Maffeo Vegio (_De Puerorum Educatione_, lib. iii. c. 5) for boys.

[880] Sansovino, _Venezia_, fol. 172 sqq. They are said to have arisen through the rowing out to the Lido, where the practice with the crossbow took place. The great regatta on the feast of St. Paul was prescribed by law from 1315 onwards. In early times there was much riding in Venice, before the streets were paved and the level wooden bridges turned into arched stone ones. Petrarch (_Epist. Seniles_, iv. 4) describes a brilliant tournament held in 1364 on the square of St. Mark, and the Doge Steno, about the year 1400, had as fine a stable as any prince in Italy. But riding in the neighbourhood of the square was prohibited as a rule after the year 1291. At a later time the Venetians naturally had the name of bad riders. See Ariosto, _Sat._ v. 208.

[881] See on this subject: _Ueber den Einfluss der Renaissance auf die Entwickelung der Musik_, by Bernhard Loos, Basel, 1875, which, however, hardly offers for this period more than is given here. On Dante’s position with regard to music, and on the music to Petrarch’s and Boccaccio’s poems, see Trucchi, _Poesie Ital. inedite_, ii. p. 139. See also _Poesie Musicali dei Secoli XIV., XV. e XVI. tratte da vari codici per cura di Antonio Cappelli_, Bologna, 1868. For the theorists of the fourteenth century, Filippo Villani, _Vite_, p. 46, and Scardeonius, _De urb. Pativ. antiq._ in Graev. Thesaur, vi. iii. col. 297. A full account of the music at the court of Frederick of Urbino, is to be found in _Vespes. Fior._ p. 122. For the children’s chapel (ten children 6 to 8 years old whom F. had educated in his house, and who were taught singing), at the court of Hercules I., see _Diario Ferrarese_, in Murat. xxiv. col. 359. Out of Italy it was still hardly allowable for persons of consequence to be musicians; at the Flemish court of the young Charles V. a serious dispute took place on the subject. See Hubert. Leod. _De Vita Frid. II. Palat._ l. iii. Henry VIII. of England is an exception, and also the German Emperor Maximilian, who favoured music as well as all other arts. Joh. Cuspinian, in his life of the Emperor, calls him ‘Musices singularis amator’ and adds, ‘Quod vel hinc maxime patet, quod nostra aetate musicorum principes omnes, in omni genere musices omnibusque instrumentis in ejus curia, veluti in fertilissimo agro succreverant. Scriberem catalogum musicorum quos novi, nisi magnitudinem operis vererer.’ In consequence of this, music was much cultivated at the University of Vienna. The presence of the musical young Duke Francesco Sforza of Milan contributed to this result. See Aschbach, _Gesch. der Wiener Universität_ (1877), vol. ii. 79 sqq.

A remarkable and comprehensive passage on music is to be found, where we should not expect it, in the Maccaroneide, Phant. xx. It is a comic description of a quartette, from which we see that Spanish and French songs were often sung, that music already had its enemies (1520), and that the chapel of Leo X. and the still earlier composer, Josquin des Près, whose principal works are mentioned, were the chief subjects of enthusiasm in the musical world of that time. The same writer (Folengo) displays in his _Orlandino_ (iii. 23 &c.), published under the name Limerno Pitocco, a musical fanaticism of a thoroughly modern sort.

Barth. Facius, _De Vir. Ill._ p. 12, praises Leonardus Justinianus as a composer, who produced love-songs in his youth, and religious pieces in his old age. J. A. Campanus (_Epist._ i. 4, ed. Mencken) extols the musician Zacarus at Teramo and says of him, ‘Inventa pro oraculis habentur.’ Thomas of Forli ‘musicien du pape’ in _Burchardi Diarium_, ed. Leibnitz, pp. 62 sqq.

[882] _Leonis Vita anonyma_, in Roscoe, ed. Bossi, xii. p. 171. May he not be the violinist in the Palazzo Sciarra? A certain Giovan Maria da Corneto is praised in the _Orlandino_ (Milan, 1584, iii. 27).

[883] Lomazzo, _Trattato dell’Arte della Pittura_, &c. p. 347. The text, however, does not bear out the last statement, which perhaps rests on a misunderstanding of the final sentence, ‘Et insieme vi si possono gratiosamente rappresentar convitti et simili abbellimenti, che il pittore leggendo i poeti e gli historici può trovare copiosamente et anco essendo ingenioso et ricco d’invenzione può per se stesso imaginare?’ Speaking of the lyre, he mentions Lionardo da Vinci and Alfonso (Duke?) of Ferrara. The author includes in his work all the celebrities of the age, among them several Jews. The most complete list of the famous musicians of the sixteenth century, divided into an earlier and a later generation, is to be found in Rabelais, in the ‘New Prologue’ to the fourth book. A virtuoso, the blind Francesco of Florence (d. 1390), was crowned at Venice with a wreath of laurel by the King of Cyprus.

[884] Sansovino, _Venezia_, fol. 138. The same people naturally collected books of music. Sansovino’s words are, ‘è vera cosa che la musica ha la sua propria sede in questa città.’

[885] The ‘Academia de’ Filarmonici’ at Verona is mentioned by Vasari, xi. 133, in the life of Sanmichele. Lorenzo Magnifico was in 1480 already the centre of a School of Harmony consisting of fifteen members, among them the famous organist and organ-builder Squarcialupi. See Delecluze, _Florence et ses Vicissitudes_, vol. ii. p. 256, and Reumont, _L. d. M._ i. 177 sqq., ii. 471-473. Marsilio Ficino took part in these exercises and gives in his letters (_Epist._ i. 73, iii. 52, v. 15) remarkable rules as to music. Lorenzo seems to have transmitted his passion for music to his son Leo X. His eldest son Pietro was also musical.

[886] _Il Cortigiano_, fol. 56, comp. fol. 41.

[887] Quatro viole da arco’--a high and, except in Italy, rare achievement for amateurs.

[888] Bandello, parte i. nov. 26. The song of Antonio Bologna in the House of Ippolita Bentivoglio. Comp. iii. 26. In these delicate days, this would be called a profanation of the holiest feelings. (Comp. the last song of Britannicus, Tacit. _Annal._ xiii. 15.) Recitations accompanied by the lute or ‘viola’ are not easy to distinguish, in the accounts left us, from singing properly so-called.

[889] Scardeonius, l. c.

[890] For biographies of women, see above, p. 147 and note 1. Comp. the excellent work of Attilio Hortis: _Le Donne Famose, descritte da Giovanni Boccacci_. Trieste, 1877.

[891] E.g. in Castiglione, _Il Cortigiano_. In the same strain Francesco Barbaro, _De Re Uxoria_; Poggio, _An Seni sit Uxor ducenda_, in which much evil is said of women; the ridicule of Codro Urceo, especially his remarkable discourse, _An Uxor sit ducenda_ (_Opera_, 1506, fol. xviii.-xxi.), and the sarcasms of many of the epigrammatists. Marcellus Palingenius, (vol. i. 304) recommends celibacy in various passages, lib. iv. 275 sqq., v. 466-585; as a means of subduing disobedient wives he recommends to married people,

‘Tu verbera misce
Tergaque nunc duro resonent pulsata bacillo.’

Italian writers on the woman’s side are Benedetto da Cesena, _De Honore Mulierum_, Venice, 1500, Dardano, _La defesa della Donna_, Ven. 1554, _Per Donne Romane_. ed. Manfredi, Bol. 1575. The defence of, or attack on, women, supported by instances of famous or infamous women down to the time of the writer, was also treated by the Jews, partly in Italian and partly in Hebrew; and in connection with an earlier Jewish literature dating from the thirteenth century, we may mention Abr. Sarteano and Eliah Gennazzano, the latter of whom defended the former against the attacks of Abigdor (for their MS. poems about year 1500, comp. Steinschneider, _Hebr. Bibliogr._ vi. 48).

[892] Addressed to Annibale Maleguccio, sometimes numbered as the 5th or the 6th.

[893] When the Hungarian Queen Beatrice, a Neapolitan princess, came to Vienna in 1485, she was addressed in Latin, and ‘arrexit diligentissime aures domina regina saepe, cum placide audierat, subridendo.’ Aschbach, o. c. vol. ii. 10 note.

[894] The share taken by women in the plastic arts was insignificant. The learned Isotta Nogarola deserves a word of mention. On her intercourse with Guarino, see Rosmini, ii. 67 sqq.; with Pius II. see Voigt, iii. 515 sqq.

[895] It is from this point of view that we must judge of the life of Allessandra de’ Bardi in Vespasiano Fiorentino (Mai, _Spicileg._ rom. i. p. 593 sqq.) The author, by the way, is a great ‘laudator temporis acti,’ and it must not be forgotten that nearly a hundred years before what he calls the good old time, Boccaccio wrote the _Decameron_. On the culture and education of the Italian women of that day, comp. the numerous facts quoted in Gregorovius, _Lucrezia Borgia_. There is a catalogue of the books possessed by Lucrezia in 1502 and 3 (Gregorovius, ed. 3, i. 310, ii. 167), which may be considered characteristic of the Italian women of the period. We there find a Breviary; a little book with the seven psalms and some prayers; a parchment book with gold miniature, called _De Coppelle alla Spagnola_; the printed letters of Catherine of Siena; the printed epistles and gospels in Italian; a religious book in Spanish; a MS. collection of Spanish odes, with the proverbs of Domenico Lopez; a printed book, called _Aquila Volante_; the _Mirror of Faith_ printed in Italian; an Italian printed book called _The Supplement of Chronicles_; a printed Dante, with commentary; an Italian book on philosophy; the legends of the saints in Italian; an old book _De Ventura_; a Donatus; a Life of Christ in Spanish; a MS. Petrarch, on duodecimo parchment. A second catalogue of the year 1516 contains no secular books whatever.

[896] Ant. Galateo, _Epist. 3_, to the young Bona Sforza, the future wife of Sigismund of Poland: ‘Incipe aliquid de viro sapere, quoniam ad imperandum viris nata es.... Ita fac, ut sapientibus viris placeas, ut te prudentes et graves viri admirentur, et vulgi et muliercularum studia et judicia despicias,’ &c. A remarkable letter in other respects also (Mai. _Spicileg. Rom._ viii. p. 532).

[897] She is so called in the _Chron. Venetum_, in Muratori, xxiv. col. 121 sqq. (in the account of her heroic defence, _ibid._ col. 121 she is called a virago). Comp. Infessura in Eccard, _Scriptt._ ii. col. 1981, and _Arch. Stor._ append. ii. p. 250, and Gregorovius, vii. 437 note 1.

[898] Contemporary historians speak of her more than womanly intellect and eloquence. Comp. Ranke’s _Filippo Strozzi_, in _Historisch-biographische Studien_, p. 371 note 2.

[899] And rightly so, sometimes. How ladies should behave while such tales are telling, we learn from _Cortigiano_, l. iii. fol. 107. That the ladies who were present at his dialogues must have known how to conduct themselves in case of need, is shown by the strong passage, l. ii. fol. 100. What is said of the ‘Donna di Palazzo’--the counterpart of the Cortigiano--that she should neither avoid frivolous company nor use unbecoming language, is not decisive, since she was far more the servant of the princess than the Cortigiano of the prince. See Bandello, i. nov. 44. Bianca d’Este tells the terrible love-story of her ancestor, Niccolò of Ferrara, and Parisina. The tales put into the mouths of the women in the _Decameron_ may also serve as instances of this indelicacy. For Bandello, see above, p. 145; and Landau, _Beitr. z. Gesch. der Ital. Nov._ Vienna, 1875, p. 102. note 32.

[900] Sansovino, _Venezia_, fol. 152 sqq. How highly the travelled Italians valued the freer intercourse with girls in England and the Netherlands is shown by Bandello, ii. nov. 44, and iv. nov. 27. For the Venetian women and the Italian women generally, see the work of Yriarte, pp. 50 sqq.

[901] Paul. Jov. _De Rom. Piscibus_, cap. 5; Bandello, parte iii. nov. 42. Aretino, in the _Ragionamento del Zoppino_, p. 327, says of a courtesan: ‘She knows by heart all Petrarch and Boccaccio, and many beautiful verses of Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and a thousand other authors.’

[902] Bandello, ii. 51, iv. 16.

[903] Bandello, iv. 8.

[904] For a characteristic instance of this, see Giraldi, _Hecatomithi_, vi nov. 7.

[905] Infessura, in Eccard, _Scriptores_, ii. col. 1997. The public women only, not the kept women, are meant. The number, compared with the population of Rome, is certainly enormous, perhaps owing to some clerical error. According to Giraldi, vi. 7, Venice was exceptionally rich ‘di quella sorte di donne che cortigiane son dette;’ see also the epigram of Pasquinus (Gregor. viii. 279, note 2); but Rome did not stand behind Venice (Giraldi, _Introduz._ nov. 2). Comp. the notice of the ‘meretrices’ in Rome (1480) who met in a church and were robbed of their jewels and ornaments, Murat. xxii. 342 sqq., and the account in _Burchardi, Diarium_, ed. Leibnitz, pp. 75-77, &c. Landi (_Commentario_, fol. 76) mentions Rome, Naples, and Venice as the chief seats of the ‘cortigiane;’ _ibid._ 286, the fame of the women of Chiavenna is to be understood ironically. The _Quaestiones Forcianae_, fol. 9, of the same author give most interesting information on love and love’s delights, and the style and position of women in the different cities of Italy. On the other hand, Egnatius (_De Exemp. III. Vir._ Ven. fol. 212 _b_ sqq.) praises the chastity of the Venetian women, and says that the prostitutes come every year from Germany. Corn. Agr. _de van. Scientiae_, cap. 63 (_Opp._ ed. Lugd. ii. 158) says: ‘Vidi ego nuper atque legi sub titulo “Cortosanæ” Italica lingua editum et Venetiis typis excusum de arte meretricia dialogum, utriusque Veneris omnium flagitiosissimum et dignissimum, qui ipse cum autore suo ardeat.’ Ambr. Traversari (_Epist._ viii. 2 sqq.) calls the beloved of Niccolò Niccoli ‘foemina fidelissima.’ In the _Lettere dei Principi_, i. 108 (report of Negro, Sept. 1, 1522) the ‘donne Greche’ are described as ‘fonte di ogni cortesia et amorevolezza.’ A great authority, esp. for Siena, is the _Hermaphroditus_ of Panormitanus. The enumeration of the ‘lenae lupaeque’ in Florence (ii. 37) is hardly fictitious; the line there occurs:

‘Annaque _Theutonico_ tibi si dabit obvia cantu.’

[906] Were these wandering knights really married?

[907] _Trattato del Governo della Famiglia._ See above, p. 132, note 1. Pandolfini died in 1446, L. B. Alberti, by whom the work was really written, in 1472.

[908] A thorough history of ‘flogging’ among the Germanic and Latin races treated with some psychological power, would be worth volumes of dispatches and negotiations. (A modest beginning has been made by Lichtenberg, _Vermischte Schriften_, v. 276-283.) When, and through what influence, did flogging become a daily practice in the German household? Not till after Walther sang: ‘Nieman kan mit gerten kindes zuht beherten.’

In Italy beating ceased early; Maffeo Vegio (d. 1458) recommends (_De Educ. Liber._ lib. i. c. 19) moderation in flogging, but adds: ‘Caedendos magis esse filios quam pestilentissmis blanditiis laetandos.’ At a later time a child of seven was no longer beaten. The little Roland (_Orlandino_, cap. vii. str. 42) lays down the principle:

‘Sol gli asini si ponno bastonare,
Se una tal bestia fussi, patirei.’

The German humanists of the Renaissance, like Rudolf Agricola and Erasmus, speak decisively against flogging, which the elder schoolmasters regarded as an indispensable means of education. In the biographies of the _Fahrenden Schüler_ at the close of the fifteenth century (_Platter’s Lebensbeschriebung_, ed. Fechter, Basel, 1840; _Butzbach’s Wanderbuch_, ed. Becher, Regensburg, 1869) there are gross examples of the corporal punishment of the time.

[909] But the taste was not universal. J. A. Campanus (_Epist._ iv. 4) writes vigorously against country life. He admits: ‘Ego si rusticus natus non essem, facile tangerer voluptate;’ but since he was born a peasant, ‘quod tibi deliciae, mihi satietas est.’

[910] Giovanni Villani, xi. 93, our principal authority for the building of villas before the middle of the fourteenth century. The villas were more beautiful than the town houses, and great exertions were made by the Florentines to have them so, ‘onde erano tenuti matti.’

[911] _Trattato del Governo della Famiglia_ (Torino, 1829), pp. 84, 88.

[912] See above, part iv. chap. 2. Petrarch was called ‘Silvanus,’ on the ground of his dislike of the town and love of the country. _Epp. Fam._ ed. Fracass. ii. 87 sqq. Guarino’s description of a villa to Gianbattista Candrata, in Rosmini, ii. 13 sqq., 157 sqq. Poggio, in a letter to Facius (_De Vir. Ill._ p. 106): ‘Sum enim deditior senectutis gratia rei rusticæ quam antea.’ See also Poggio, _Opp._ (1513), p 112 sqq.; and Shepherd-Tonelli, i. 255 and 261. Similarly Maffeo Vegio (_De Lib. Educ._ vi. 4), and B. Platina at the beginning of his dialogue, ‘De Vera Nobilitate.’ Politian’s descriptions of the country-houses of the Medici in Reumont, _Lorenzo_, ii. 73, 87. For the Farnesina, see Gregorovius, viii. 114.

[913] Comp. J. Burckhardt, _Geschichte der Renaissance in Italien_ (Stuttg. 1868), pp. 320-332.

[914] Compare pp. 47 sqq., where the magnificence of the festivals is shown to have been a hindrance to the higher development of the drama.

[915] In comparison with the cities of the North.

[916] The procession at the feast of Corpus Christi was not established at Venice until 1407; Cecchetti, _Venezia e la Corte di Roma_, i. 108.

[917] The festivities which took place when Visconti was made Duke of Milan, 1395 (Corio, fol. 274), had, with all their splendour, something of mediæval coarseness about them, and the dramatic element was wholly wanting. Notice, too, the relative insignificance of the processions in Pavia during the fourteenth century (_Anonymus de Laudibus Papiae_, in Murat. xi. col. 34 sqq.).

[918] Gio. Villani, viii. 70.

[919] See e.g. Infessura, in Eccard, _Scrippt._ ii. col. 1896; Corio, fols. 417, 421.

[920] The dialogue in the Mysteries was chiefly in octaves, the monologue in ‘terzine.’ For the Mysteries, see J. L. Klein, _Geschichte der Ital. Dramas_, i. 153 sqq.

[921] We have no need to refer to the realism of the schoolmen for proof of this. About the year 970 Bishop Wibold of Cambray recommended to his clergy, instead of dice, a sort of spiritual bézique, with fifty-six abstract names represented by as many combinations of cards. ‘Gesta Episcopori Cameracens.’ in _Mon. Germ._ SS. vii. p. 433.

[922] E.g. when he found pictures on metaphors. At the gate of Purgatory the central broken step signifies contrition of heart (_Purg._ ix. 97), though the slab through being broken loses its value as a step. And again (_Purg._ xviii. 94), the idle in this world have to show their penitence by running in the other, though running could be a symbol of flight.

[923] _Inferno_, ix. 61; _Purgat._ viii. 19.

[924] _Poesie Satiriche_, ed. Milan, p. 70 sqq. Dating from the end of the fourteenth century.

[925] The latter e.g. in the _Venatio_ of the Cardinal Adriano da Corneto (Strasburg, 1512; often printed). Ascanio Sforza is there supposed to find consolation for the fall of his house in the pleasures of the chase. See above, p. 261.

[926] More properly 1454. See Olivier de la Marche, _Mémoires_, chap. 29.

[927] For other French festivals, see e.g. Juvénal des Ursins (Paris, 1614), ad. a. 1389 (entrance of Queen Isabella); John de Troyes, ad. a. 1461) (often printed) (entrance of Louis XI.). Here, too, we meet with living statues, machines for raising bodies, and so forth; but the whole is confused and disconnected, and the allegories are mostly unintelligible. The festivals at Lisbon in 1452, held at the departure of the Infanta Eleonora, the bride of the Emperor Frederick III., lasted several days and were remarkable for their magnificence. See Freher-Struve, _Rer. German. Script._ ii. fol. 51--the report of Nic. Lauckmann.

[928] A great advantage for those poets and artists who knew how to use it.

[929] Comp. Bartol. Gambia, _Notizie intorno alle Opere di Feo Belcari_, Milano, 1808; and especially the introduction to the work, _Le Rappresentazioni di Feo Belcari ed altre di lui Poesie_, Firenze, 1833. As a parallel, see the introduction of the bibliophile Jacob to his edition of Pathelin (Paris, 1859).

[930] It is true that a Mystery at Siena on the subject of the Massacre of the Innocents closed with a scene in which the disconsolate mothers seized one another by the hair. Della Valle, _Lettere Sanesi_, iii. p. 53. It was one of the chief aims of Feo Belcari (d. 1484), of whom we have spoken, to free the Mysteries from these monstrosities.

[931] Franco Sacchetti, nov. 72.

[932] Vasari, iii. 232 sqq.: _Vita di Brunellesco_; v. 36 sqq.: _Vita del Cecca_. Comp. v. 32, _Vita di Don Bartolommeo_.