1464), was a Florentine banker, statesman and patron of literature and
art. In his father Giovanni’s house of business he cultivated the rare
faculty for finance that he afterwards employed in public administration
and private commerce. He inherited his father’s vast fortune in 1429,
and made it a practice to lend money to needy citizens and at the same
time to involve the affairs of Florence with his own,—thus not only
attaching individuals to his interests, but rendering it difficult to
control state expenditures apart from his own bank. He understood also
how to use his money without exciting jealousy, and while he spent large
sums on public works, he declined the architect Brunelleschi’s plans for
a residence more befitting a prince than a citizen. He was an early
riser, and temperate and simple in his life. While ruling Florence with
despotic power, he seemed intent on the routine of his counting-house,
and put forward other men to execute his political schemes. Despite
occasional checks, he so firmly established the influence of his family
as the real rulers of Florence that they were not permanently expelled
until the nineteenth century. Much of his power was due to sympathy with
the intellectual movement of the age, and although he was not a Greek
scholar, he had a solid education, and collected MSS., gems, coins and
inscriptions, employing his commercial agents in the work. During a year
of exile, he built a library at Venice, and later he built one at
Florence and another at Fiesole. His house was the centre of a literary
and philosophical society, which included all the wits of Florence and
the strangers who flocked to that capital of culture.
Note 247 page 140. CAMILLO PORCARO, or PORZIO, (died 1517), was a
brother of the Antonio Porcaro already mentioned in THE COURTIER (at
page 138; see note 233). He was a professor of rhetoric at Rome, and a
canon of St. Peter’s. Leo X made him Bishop of Teramo, a town near the
Adriatic north-east of Rome. He was a member of the Roman Academy, and
some of his Latin verse has survived.
[Illustration:
COSIMO DE' MEDICI
_PATER PATRIÆ_
1389-1464
]
Enlarged from a coloured cast of a medal (no. 31), in the King’s Library
at the British Museum, attributed to Niccolò Fiorentino.
Note 248 page 140. MARCANTONIO COLONNA, (died 1522), the son of
Pierantonio Colonna and Bernardina Conti, was a second cousin of
Vittoria Colonna. His wife Lucrezia Gara della Rovere was a niece of
Julius II and sister of the Cardinal Galeotto della Rovere already
mentioned (at page 122; see note 189). In 1502 he fled from Rome to
escape the persecution of the Borgias, repaired to the kingdom of
Naples, and took service under the “Great Captain.” He served also in
the armies of Julius II, Maximilian I, and Francis I, and took part in
nearly all the wars of his time. He was cited as a model of physical
beauty and martial prowess.
Note 249 page 141. DIEGO GARZIA is regarded by the Spanish annotator,
Fabié, as identical with the famous warrior Diego Garcia de Paredes,
(born 1466; died 1530), who began the life of a soldier at the age of
twelve, and had a brilliant share, with the “Great Captain,” in the
expulsion of the Moors from Spain and later in the Italian campaigns. He
was a man of great height and strength, and is said on one occasion to
have stopped the wheel of a rapidly moving wind-mill with his single
hand. Charles V made him a Knight of the Golden Spur, and he is often
called the Chevalier Bayard of Spain.
Note 250 page 141. LOUIS XII, (born 1462; died 1515), was the son of
Duke Charles d'Orléans and Anne of Cleves. He accompanied Charles VIII
into Italy in 1494, became king on his cousin’s death in 1498, and the
following year married Charles’s widow Anne of Brittany. In 1500 he
expelled Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan, to whose duchy he laid claim as
the grandson of Valentina Visconti. The following year he conquered
Naples in alliance with Ferdinand the Catholic, but quarrelled with his
ally over the division of the country, with the result that his force
was defeated by the “Great Captain” at Garigliano in 1503, and withdrew
from Naples in 1504. He joined the League of Cambray against Venice in
1508, but in 1511 the Holy League was formed against him, and in 1513
the French were again compelled to leave Italy. On the death of Anne of
Brittany in 1514, he married Mary, the youthful sister of Henry VIII of
England, to whom in dying (1 January 1515) he is reported to have said:
“Dear, I leave thee my death as a New Year’s gift.” He was sincerely
regretted by his subjects, and was known as “The Father of His People.”
Michelet says of him: “He was a good man, honest by nature, sometimes
absurd, indiscreet, talkative, testy; but he had a heart, and the only
way for men to flatter him was to persuade him that they desired the
good of his subjects.” Among his sayings was “Good king, stingy king; I
prefer to be ridiculous to my courtiers, than deaf to my people.”
Note 251 page 141. DJEM or ZIZIM, (born 1459; died 1495), was a son of
Mahomet II, the conqueror of Constantinople. On the death of his father
in 1481, he tried to dispossess his brother as sultan, but being
defeated, he sought refuge at Rhodes, where the Knights of the Order of
St. John received him for a while, and then sent him to France. In 1489
he was surrendered to the custody of Innocent VIII, from whom he passed
into the hands of Alexander VI. Both these pontiffs received a subsidy
for his maintenance from his brother the sultan. In 1495 Charles VIII
took him to Naples, where he was imprisoned and soon died from the
effect (it is supposed) of poison administered at Rome by order of
Alexander VI. Of his life at the papal court, we get the following
glimpse in a letter from Mantegna to the Marquess of Mantua: “The Turk’s
brother is here, strictly guarded in the palace of his Holiness, who
allows him all sorts of diversion, such as hunting, music, and the like.
He often comes to eat in this new palace where I paint [i.e., the
Belvedere], and, for a barbarian, his manners are not amiss. There is a
sort of majestic bearing about him, and he never doffs his cap to the
Pope, having in fact none;... He eats five times a day, and sleeps as
often; before meals he drinks sugared water like a monkey. He has the
gait of an elephant, but his people praise him much, especially for his
horsemanship: it may be so, but I have never seen him take his feet out
of the stirrups, or give any other proof of skill. He is a most savage
man, and has stabbed at least four persons, who are said not to have
survived four hours. A few days ago, he gave such a cuffing to one of
his interpreters that they had to carry him to the river, in order to
bring him round. It is believed that Bacchus pays him many a visit. On
the whole he is dreaded by those about him. He takes little heed of
anything, like one who does not understand or has no reason. His way of
life is quite peculiar; he sleeps without undressing, and gives audience
sitting cross-legged, in the Parthian fashion. He carries on his head
sixty thousand yards of linen, and wears so long a pair of trousers that
he is lost in them, and astonishes all beholders.”
Note 252 page 141. The GRAND TURK in question was Bajazet II, (born
1447; died 1512), who succeeded his father (Mahomet II, the conqueror of
Constantinople) in 1481, was almost uninterruptedly engaged in war with
Hungary, Venice, Egypt and Persia, was deposed by his son Selim, and
died soon afterwards. He was repeatedly invited by Alexander VI to
invade Europe and fight the pope’s Christian enemies. The friendly
relations between the two were closely connected with the captivity of
Bajazet’s brother, just mentioned. As a token of his gratitude, the Turk
sent Innocent VIII the “Lance of Longinus,” the centurion who was
supposed to have pierced the Saviour’s side on Calvary and afterwards to
have been converted to Christianity. As a reward for the death of his
brother, he sent Alexander VI a sum of money equivalent to over £500,000
sterling, and a tunic alleged to have been worn by the Saviour. These,
however, were intercepted by the pope’s enemy, Giuliano della Rovere,
afterwards Julius II.
Note 253 page 142. The Archbishopric of Florence was occupied by Roberto
Folco from 1481 until his death in 1530.
‘The Alexandrian cardinal’ is the name by which Giannantonio di
Sangiorgio, (born 1439; died 1509), was commonly known. At the age of
twenty-seven he became professor of canon law at Pavia. In 1479 he was
made Bishop of Alexandria, and soon afterwards called to Rome and made
an Auditor of the _Ruota_ (see note 292), which office he continued to
hold until he was created a cardinal in 1493. He was regarded as the
most eminent jurist of his day.
[Illustration:
BAJAZET II OF TURKEY
1447-1512
]
Enlarged, with the courteous permission of the Director of the New York
Public Library, from a photographic copy of an engraving in Paolo
Giovio’s “Eulogy.”
Note 254 page 142. Besides the mention of this NICOLETTO in the text,
nothing more seems to be known of him beyond the following anecdote: “Of
messer Nicoletto da Orvieto it is narrated that, being in the service of
that very courteous pontiff Pope Leo, he once won the lasting favour of
his Holiness with only four words; for one day, the talk turning upon a
certain vacant benefice which was sought after by a member of the
Vitelli family to whom it could be given, he said humourously: ‘Holy
Father, fitness requires that it be by all means conferred on Vitello
(calf), the more because it has no nearer or closer kinsman than he
is,’—playing on the word ‘vacant,’ which he seemed to derive from
_vacca_ (cow), the mother of the calf.” Garzoni’s _L’Hospidale de’ Pazzi
Incurabili_, (Piacenza: 1586), page 142.
Note 255 page 142. Antonio Cammelli, (born 1440; died 1502), called
PISTOIA from the name of his birthplace, was a prolific writer of verse,
chiefly sonnets of a humourous and satirical character, which have no
small historical value. He spent the larger part of his life in the
service of the d’Este at Ferrara, and in that of Duke Ludovico Sforza,
of Milan, to whom he remained faithful in adversity. An edition of his
verse was published at Turin by Renier in 1888.
The SERAFINO here mentioned is identified by Cian as a now almost
forgotten lyric poet, Serafino Ciminelli, (born 1466; died 1500), who
was a native of Aquila (fifty-five miles north-east of Rome), and a
welcome guest at the courts of Naples, Rome, Urbino, Mantua and Milan.
His verse was by some preferred to that of Petrarch, and the unbounded
popularity which he enjoyed was doubtless due to the skill with which he
improvised to his own accompaniment on the lute. He was a short ugly man
of elfish appearance.
Note 256 page 142. GIOVANNI GONZAGA, (born 1474; died 1523), was the
third son of the Marquess Federico of Mantua and Margarita of Bavaria.
He married Laura Bentivoglio, fought in his youth against Charles VIII,
and in 1512 was in the service of the Sforza family. He was employed
also by his brother Gianfrancesco, Marquess of Mantua, in political
negotiations. In 1519, on the death of Lucrezia Borgia, he wrote to his
nephew, the new Marquess Federico of Mantua: “Lucrezia’s death
occasioned much grief throughout the city, and his Ducal Highness in
particular displayed extreme distress. Men here tell wonderful things of
her life: for the last ten years she wore a hair shirt; and for two
years she has been in the habit of confessing every day, and of
attending Communion three or four times a month.”
Note 257 page 142. Giovanni’s son ALESSANDRO GONZAGA was born in 1497,
and died in 1527.
Note 258 page 142. GIACOMO D’ATRI (or d’Adria Picena) was made Count of
PIANELLA by Ferdinand II of Naples in 1496, as a reward for faithful
service. He acted as confidential secretary to the Marquess
Gianfrancesco of Mantua in various wars, and especially in the campaigns
against Charles VIII.
Note 259 page 143. PHILIP II of Macedon, the conqueror of Greece, was
born 382 and died 336 B.C.
Note 260 page 143. This retort has by others been ascribed to a
Florentine ambassador at Siena, and his name given as Guido del Pelagio.
Note 261 page 144. MARIO DE’ MAFFEI DA VOLTERRA, (born 1464; died 1537),
occupied successively the offices of Archpriest at Volterra, Sacristan
of the Vatican, Bishop of Aquino, and Bishop of Cavaillon in France.
Note 262 page 144. AGOSTINO BEVAZZANO or Beazzano, (_flor._ 1500-1550),
was born at Treviso, near Venice, of which republic his ancestor
Francesco had been chancellor in the 15th century. His own portrait hung
in the Grand Council Chamber at Venice. He lived some time in Venice,
but in 1514 he was employed as secretary by Bembo and sent to Leo X at
Rome, where he resided chiefly until 1526. Besides being a noted writer
of Italian and Latin verse, he acquired great skill in public affairs
and came to be regarded as an oracle at the papal court. Late in life he
was painfully afflicted with gout, and passed the last years of his life
at Verona and at Treviso, where he died and was buried in the cathedral.
Note 263 page 145. The MARQUESS FEDERICO GONZAGA of Mantua, (born 1440;
died 1484), was the son of the Marquess Ludovico and Barbara of
Brandenburg, and married Margarita, daughter of Duke Albert III of
Bavaria. His family attained sovereign power at Mantua in 1354 and
continued to exercise it for nearly four centuries. Having succeeded to
the marquisate on the death of his father in 1478, he expelled from
Italy the Swiss who were besieging Lugano, joined the Milanese in a
league against the pope in 1479, and in 1482 joined another league
against Venice. He is said to have committed suicide.
Note 264 page 145. NICCOLÒ LEONICO TOMEO, (born 1456; died 1531), was a
native of Venice, and belonged to an Albanian family. He studied Greek
under Chalcondylas at Florence, and for many years taught philosophy at
Padua, being the first Italian to expound Aristotle from the original
text. He wrote philosophical and moral dialogues and also some Italian
verse. His friend Bembo wrote of him: “An illustrious philosopher both
in life and learning, equally versed in Latin and Greek, wherein he
lived and dwelt, leaving ambition and thirst for riches to others.” He
was also a wit.
Note 265 page 145. AGOSTINO FOGLIETTA, (died 1527), was a Genoese
nobleman, who exercised great authority at Rome under Leo X and Clement
VII. He was a warm friend of Castiglione, who received cordial aid from
him in the efforts that were made on behalf of Francesco Maria della
Rovere. He was slain in the sack of Rome by a shot from an arquebuse. In
other MS. versions of THE COURTIER the names of Fedra (Tommaso
Inghirami) and Antonio di Tommaso appear in place of Foglietta’s.
[Illustration:
ALFONSO I OF NAPLES
1385-1458
]
Reduced from Giraudon’s photograph (no. 137) of a drawing, in the
Louvre, by Vittore Pisano, better known as Pisanello, (1380?-1451?).
The drawing is believed to have been used in designing medals.
Note 266 page 146. GIOVANNI DI CARDONA was a Spanish soldier in the
service of the “Great Captain” and of Cesare Borgia. He had a brother
Ugo (mentioned at page 147, see note 271) and another brother Pedro, who
was Count of Gosilano. Giovanni seems to have fallen at the battle of
Ravenna in 1512.
Note 267 page 146. Of ALFONSO SANTACROCE nothing more is known than is
contained in this mention of him in the text.
Note 268 page 146. Francesco Alidosi, CARDINAL OF PAVIA, (died 1511),
was descended from the Lords of Imola, being the second son of the Lord
of Castel del Rio. Having been educated for the Church, he attached
himself to Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, whose lasting gratitude he
won by steadfastly refusing to poison the cardinal at the desire of
Alexander VI. On the accession of Julius II, he was rapidly promoted in
spite of the objections raised in the consistory on the score of his
questionable character. He was made Bishop of Miletus, Bishop of Pavia,
a cardinal (1505), Legate of the Patrimony, Legate of Romagna, and
Archbishop of Bologna. In these offices he proved violently tyrannical
and a ruthless and bloody persecutor, especially of the Bolognese
partisans of the Bentivogli; so that the city rose against him in 1511
and drove him out. His assassination by young Francesco Maria della
Rovere has been already mentioned (see note 3). The odium connected with
his name finds an echo also in another passage in the text, page 151.
Note 269 page 146. ALFONSO I of Naples, (born 1385; died 1458),
succeeded his father Ferdinand the Just as King of Aragon and Sicily in
1416, and in 1435 managed to enforce against René of Provence his double
claim to Naples, based upon his descent from the former Hohenstauffen
rulers of that kingdom, and also upon his adoption as heir by the last
Angevin queen of Naples. Scholarly, enlightened, generous and
benevolent, he was the ideal type of royal Mæcenas and the hero of his
century. He often went afoot and alone about his capital, saying that “a
father, walking amid his children, has naught to fear.” On one occasion
when a galley full of soldiers and sailors was about to sink, and the
men he had ordered to their rescue were hesitating, he leaped into a
skiff, crying, “I prefer to be the companion rather than a spectator of
their death.” When Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turks in
1453, he welcomed learned refugees to his capital; his court was a
meeting-place for the savants of his time; and even when engaged in war,
his captains might be seen gathered near their king, listening to his
exposition of Livy instead of wasting their leisure at games of chance.
He was noted also for his gentle disposition and merry humour and seems
to have deserved his title of “the Magnanimous.”
Note 270 page 147. The battle of Cerignola (a town in Apulia near Cannæ,
the scene of one of Hannibal’s victories) was fought 28 April 1503,
between the Spanish army under the “Great Captain” and the French forces
of Louis XII, and resulted in the defeat of the latter with the loss of
more than half their men.
Note 271 page 147. UGO DI CARDONA, a brother of the Giovanni already
mentioned, was a Spanish soldier who fought under Cesare Borgia and the
“Great Captain,” and was killed by the hand of Francis I at the battle
of Pavia in 1525.
Note 272 page 147. This is a corruption of the name of St. Erasmus, a
Syrian bishop who suffered martyrdom about 304, and became a favourite
saint among the sailors on the Mediterranean. His name is given to
certain electrical phenomena often seen at sea and on land also.
Note 273 page 147. OTTAVIANO UBALDINI, (died 1498), was the son of a
famous condottiere, Bernardino Ubaldini, and Aura di Montefeltro, a
sister of Duke Federico. His father having died in 1437, he was bred at
the court of Urbino and became the trusted counsellor of his uncle
Federico, who left to him the guardianship of the young duke,
Guidobaldo. To personal valour and address in statecraft he united (if
we may trust the rhymed chronicle of Raphael’s father) a knowledge of
classic literature, and a taste for music and the other fine arts. He is
known to have been a zealous cultivator of astrology. By some writers
Duke Federico (the circumstances of whose birth were not free from
mystery) was believed to have been an Ubaldini, and this Ottaviano was
openly regarded as his brother.
Note 274 page 147. ANTONELLO DA FORLI was a soldier of fortune who died
before May 1488, and of whom little seems to be known apart from this
anecdote. It is found also in two other books, where the witty
Florentine is named as Cosimo de’ Medici.
Note 275 page 147. San Leo was a fortress perched on an almost
inaccessible crag eighteen miles north-west of Urbino. It is mentioned
by Dante (_Purgatorio_, iv, 25) and also by Machiavelli (Art of War, iv)
as a place of great natural strength. When in the spring of 1502 Cesare
Borgia disclosed his hostile designs against Duke Guidobaldo, the
latter, knowing that he could not hold out at Urbino, retired to San
Leo, but soon afterwards fled in the garb of a peasant, and the castle
was surrendered. In the same year, however, it was recaptured by
stratagem. In the spring of 1503 it was besieged by the adherents of
Borgia, and bravely defended for six months by Ottaviano Fregoso and the
castellan Lattanzio da Bergamo (referred to in the text), in the hope of
succour from Guidobaldo, who had taken refuge at Venice. Cian says that
the place at last fell and was not again recovered by Guidobaldo until
after the death of Alexander VI. On the other hand Dennistoun (ii, 13)
asserts that by a reinforcement of twenty-five men the castle was
enabled to hold out until Guidobaldo’s restoration; he assigns the
incident in the text to the first capture (1502), gives the name of the
castellan as Scarmiglione da Foglino, and affirms that the surrender was
treacherous.
[Illustration:
CESARE BORGIA
1478-1507
]
Reduced from Alinari’s photograph (no. 13438) of the portrait, in the
Correr Museum at Venice, formerly ascribed to Leonardo da Vinci, but
recently attributed by Berenson to Francesco Beccaruzzi.
Note 276 page 147. DUKE VALENTINO, i.e. Cesare Borgia, Duke of
Valentinois, (born 1478; died 1507), was an openly acknowledged son of
Cardinal Roderigo Borgia (afterwards Alexander VI) by Rosa Vanozza, who
was the mother also of Cesare’s sister Lucrezia. Created a cardinal on
his father’s accession, he procured the murder of his brother Giovanni
in 1497, resigned his cardinalate the same year, was given the French
duchy of Valentinois in 1498, and married Charlotte d’Albret, daughter
of the King of Navarre, in 1499. Having been created Duke of Romagna by
his father in 1501, he proceeded to reduce the various fiefs comprised
within his intended domain, including the duchy of Urbino. After the
death of Alexander VI, Cesare was held in captivity by Julius II and by
Ferdinand the Catholic, escaped to his father-in-law’s court in 1506,
and fell in battle the following year, the very day after the close of
the Courtier dialogues. Handsome, accomplished and subtle, he was a
patron of learning and an adept in the cruel and perfidious politics of
his day. Upon his public career is founded the famous _Principe_ of
Machiavelli, who says: “If all the duke’s achievements are considered,
it will be found that he built up a great superstructure for his future
power; nor do I know what precepts I could furnish to a prince better
than such as are to be derived from his example.”
Note 277 page 148. Literally: “It must be believed to have been in
despair.”
Note 278 page 148. PUBLIUS CORNELIUS SCIPIO NASICA (Scipio with the
pointed nose), was an eminent Roman jurist who was Consul in 191 B.C.,
and own cousin of Scipio Africanus the Elder.
Note 279 page 148. ALONSO CARILLO is said by Cian to have been one of
the many Spaniards who lived at Rome in the service of popes and
cardinals belonging to that nation. The Spanish annotator Fabié
identifies him as a son of Don Luis and Donna Costanza de Rivera.
Note 280 page 148. MY LADY BOADILLA. Cian’s identification of this lady
as Beatriz Fernandez de Bobadilla, Marchioness of Moya, is confirmed by
the fact that Boscan’s translation (1534) gives her name as the
Marchioness of Moya instead of ‘my lady Boadilla.’ She and her husband
are warmly mentioned in a codicil to Isabella the Catholic’s will, as
being among that queen’s most dear and faithful friends.
Note 281 page 149. In this passage, Antonio Ciccarelli’s expurgated
edition (1584) substitutes “a painter of antiquity” for Raphael,
“certain Roman senators” for the two cardinals, and Romulus and Remus
for St. Peter and St. Paul. The picture in question has been identified
as one painted by Raphael in 1513-14 for the church of San Silvestro.
Note 282 page 149. ‘Aught else ... upon thy shoulders,’ i.e., a head.
The Cato referred to was probably MARCUS PORCIUS CATO UTICENSIS, (born
95 B.C., died 46 B.C.), the Roman philosopher and patriot who espoused
the cause of Pompey, and committed suicide on hearing of Cæsar’s victory
at Thapsus.
Note 283 page 150. This queen must have been Isabella the Catholic; see
note 391.
Note 284 page 150. RAFAELLO DE’ PAZZI, (born 1471, died 1512), was a
native of Florence, but was bred away from his home, doubtless owing to
the proscription of his family for participation in the Pazzi conspiracy
against Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici. Having fought for Cesare Borgia
and later for Julius II, he was captured by the French in 1511, and was
slain the following year in the battle of Ravenna.
Note 285 page 150. THE PRIOR OF MESSINA is now identified by Cian as a
Spanish soldier, Don Pedro de Cuña, who was killed at the battle of
Ravenna in 1512.
Note 286 page 151. Of PAOLO TOLOSA nothing more is known than is
contained in the text.
Note 287 page 151. Like purple in Roman times, rose was the aristocratic
colour at this period. Cosimo is reported by Machiavelli (_Storia
Fiorentina_, vii, 6) to have said that “two ells of rose-coloured cloth
make a man of quality.”
Note 288 page 151. GIANOTTO DE’ PAZZI is regarded by Cian as possibly
identical with a certain Florentine, Giovanni de’ Pazzi, who was born in
1476 and died in 1528.
Note 289 page 151. Of ANTONIO RIZZO nothing more is known than is
contained in the text.